I flipped the pages in the small, spiral bound notebook, reading the notes written within.
“Is it just me,” I asked out loud. “Or does half of this book consist of Star Swirl’s rambling? It’s like reading one of Pinkie’s recipes after she’s copied it down for someone.”
Twilight fiddled for a second. “He was a little absent-minded,” she said. “But his published works are quite concise.”
“It’s called editors, Twilight,” I said, stretching my neck and feeling the wings behind me rustle in response. “Do these ever not get annoying?” I asked as one refused to return to rest.
Twilight smiled. “Eventually,” she said with a glance back at her own lilac wings. “But everything relevant to the Gates is in that notebook.”
I sighed. “Half of the last page wondered if penguins would enjoy living on icebergs and if he could fit any more bells on his hat.” I closed the book as the train slid to a stop in Ponyville. “How exactly is he the foremost expert on anything with a mind that wanders that much?”
We trotted off, heading for the castle. Twilight tilted her head up slightly.
“I may have a condensed version in my library,” she said. “If you don’t mind waiting while we look for it.”
I shook my head. “I’ll just muddle through this notebook,” I said with a smile. “Condensed copies may cut out something important. With things this dangerous, you don’t want to miss a step.”
“That makes sense,” Twilight said, opening the doors to the castle. I missed whatever she was going to say next when I was bowled over by a sky-blue blur.
“This is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash cried. “A new flying buddy! How fast can you go? Have you managed any tricks yet?”
“Ow…" was all I could manage.
“Rainbow, let her up,” Twilight said with a giggle. “She can’t stick around just to fly with you.”
“Aw, harsh, Twi,” she said, climbing off me and offering a hoof. “We know how tough she is!”
“I think I broke something,” I wheezed as I took the hoof and stood, running a mental checklist. Everything seemed to be ok, but I still moved gingerly for the first few steps.
“As soon as this is through,” Rainbow said, draping a wing over my back. “You and me, race you out at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Deal,” I said. Regardless of which universe you referred to, Rainbow’s confidence was uplifting.
We turned to walk back into the castle, and on a hunch I stepped to the side just in time to see a pink blur fly by, tumbling into Dash and sending them both into a sprawling pile just past the steps.
Twilight blinked. “How did you know she was coming?”
“I showed up with wings, Twilight,” I said, trotting into the halls. “Can you really expect Pinkie to not throw a party?”
“How’d you know?” Pinkie said, hopping up between us and bouncing. “I tried really hard to keep it a secret.”
“It’s what you do, Pinks,” I said, patting her on the shoulder as we walked. “It’s what you do.”
“If I’m reading this right, these Grey Gates are the lynchpins of the interdimensional transitway,” I said later. “The very thing that hooks the two ends of the portal together.”
“What does that have to do with the Harpies?” Twilight asked, finishing off the piece of cake in front of her.
“Remember, I’m translating out the magical theory from his rambling,” I reminded her. “It seems he tied them into the fabric of the portal. That’s why it ages us down, I think. Their existence as beings of pure chaos tampers with the relatively simple planar transportation magic. If you can call plane hopping magic simple.”
“Why did he tie them into the portal? I don’t think that would be the best option to deal with something that dangerous.”
“I don’t think he meant for the portal to be used for a regular commute like we have been doing it,” I said, re-reading a section. “Sometime between the Fall Formal and last winter, something happened and loosened the pathway and Acerak slipped free.” I glanced up. “He’s behind the increase of magic pouring from the portal. He’s feeding on it, using it to slide between corporeal and non. That’s what has caused the problems with the books and the issues with the portal, not any celestial event.”
“Then how is he going to free the rest?”
“That I don’t know,” I said, closing the book. “And that’s the last relevant page. He finished this notebook out with a comment about quesadillas and wondering if he could fit any more cheese in."
Twilight's eye twitched.
A thumping sound drew our attention. I stood and moved towards the sound and found the communication book on the ground, flashing and vibrating sporadically.
Twilight levitated it over to us, opening it to the last page. “That’s odd,” she said before her eyes widened.
“What?” I asked, moving to read over her shoulder.
She slammed the book shut, a nervous grin on her face. “Oh, nothing,” she said with a forced giggle. “It’s just a spell glitch, some interference from the portal!”
“Twilight, you are my friend,” I said. “And as such, I feel it is my duty to tell you that you suck at lying.” I reached out with my magic and started to open the book. “How bad can it be?”
The book vanished in a flash similar to a teleportation effect. I turned to stare at the younger Alicorn. “Twilight, this isn’t funny,” I said when I saw it levitating behind her.
“I’m not laughing,” she said. “And you don’t want to read this,” She said.
I grabbed the book in my grip again, only to have Twilight and the book vanish in a flash. I followed her, her teleportation easily tracked in her haste. I appeared in the orchard at Sweet Apple Acres, a startled Applejack staring.
“You too, Sunset?” she said, glancing off towards a fast vanishing purple blur.
I took off, taking advantage of the air as Twilight galloped beneath the canopy of the trees. I dove down, grabbing the book and teleporting back to the castle, dimly hearing her shocked exclamation before the orchard was traded for the castle interior. I opened the book just as Twilight appeared.
“Sunset, no!”
The words inside were jumbled, sentences incomplete or filled with nonsense. But I easily picked out the message, panic gripping my heart as I flung the book back towards the mirror.
Acerak had attacked Twilight when she slipped out to get food. She was hurt and drained.
Twilight appeared between me and the mirror, her wings spread wide.
“Get out of my way, Twilight,” I said through gritted teeth. Anger and fear fought for control in my heart.
“It could be a trap,” She said. “He knows that you’re part of the only way he can be beaten, and he’s luring you out!”
I charged up my horn. “Move!”
“No, I won’t,” she said. “We don’t even know how to defeat him yet!”
My horn blazed with power as I took a threatening step forward. “Damn it,Twilight! Move!”
She stared at me in shock as I clamped my hooves over my mouth, the echoes of my shout reverberating through the room and hallway.
“What was that?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.
“The Royal Canterlot Voice,” she breathed. “But how?”
“Magic and intent, mixed with speech,” a voice said from behind us. We turned to see Cadence strolling in slowly.
“It’s the only way to make sure you’re heard when addressing an entire plaza’s worth of subjects,” she said. She looked at me intently. “Sunset, going back before we know the entire situation would be dangerous.”
“Twilight is hurt,” I said. “I have to get to her.” My heart was hammering in my chest, and I was afraid it would punch a hole out with its ferocity.
Cadence smiled sadly. “I know you care for her,” she said softly. “Believe me, no one knows better, and if Shining Armour or Flurry Heart where in the same situation I'd be just as worried. But you don’t have any sort of plan or idea of how to proceed.”
“I know,” I said. “But there isn’t any more of the notes about the Gates, and he didn’t have any sort of mention of how to reseal Acerak.”
"But Sunburst and Starlight are still working on the translation!" Twilight said. "They might find something!"
"Might, not will," I spat. "I can't sit around while my friends are in danger!"
The Princess of Love met my eyes, reading my intent and sighed. “Twilight,” Cadence said gently. “Move aside for her. We can’t stop her from returning, and I’d rather you two not fight it out.”
The Alicorn moved away reluctantly and I stepped forward. I was about to pass through when a loud popping sound echoed through the room, ruffling everyone's mane. I turned to see an exhausted Starlight appear, her coat lathered, eyes unfocused and the pack she carried was beginning to become soaked with her sweat.
"Princess," she whispered laboriously. "We finished..."
She collapsed. Twilight was the first to her, and I hesitated for a second out of concern.
"Did she teleport all the way from the Crystal Empire?" I asked.
"Impossible," Cadence said. "I can't even do that."
"She is a strong Unicorn, though," I took a step towards her. "Whatever caused her to do it must have been important."
Starlight stirred weakly. "My head," she groaned. "My horn feels like it's in a vice."
"Well, you did just teleport the equivalent of two day's train ride," Twilight said. "That's bound to cause some burnout and exhaustion. It'll take a day for your strength to recover."
"Sunset!" she said suddenly, sitting up, then wincing. "Did I get back in time to stop her?"
I stepped around into view. "Just barely," I said. The concern for my love warred with the curiosity of what had caused such a rapid trip.
"The translation," she said. "In the back plate of the book was a note scratched out in regular Equestrian, just above this." Her horn threw sparks as she tried to cast something. She stopped, gasping. "It's in my pack, a ruby."
Twilight dug out the gem, it's multifaceted sides reflecting the light of her aura. "What is it?" she asked. "It almost looks like..."
"It's a spell matrix amplifier," Starlight whispered. "It is designed to match the matrix of whatever magic it's being used with." She paused to catch her breath. "It's the only way I managed to teleport so far. But it exacts a heavy toll, it would seem."
She locked eyes on me. "The note referred to it as a key, or the key," she said. "For whatever reason, Star Swirl wrote it very quickly and very abstractly. It may have been one of his final acts prior to him sealing away the book and his passing."
I took the gem from Twilight, momentarily surprised by how heavy it felt. "Did he say how to use it?"
The pink unicorn shook her head, wincing again from the movement. "No, sadly," she said. "Everything that we uncovered just indicated that the Grey Gates were imperfect and that the cycle of thirty moons was meant to recharge the barrier between worlds."
Twilight paled. "This is my fault?" she whispered.
"No," I said quickly. "You did not cause this."
"But I'm the one that overrode the natural cycle! I'm the one that kept opening the portal, I figured out how to keep it open..."
"And I'm the one that asked you for help, and I have come through it more times than you have just because I wanted to," I countered, squaring off to her. "It's no one's fault, Twilight. But to be safe, close off the portal once I've gone through. It's not a wise idea to have it open more than it needs to be right now."
"How?" Starlight asked.
I rapped a rear hoof against one of the contraptions attached to the mirror. "Disconnect it from the apparatus she made," I said. "Buck it apart if you have to."
I was about to hop through the mirror again when a lilac wing snapped out to bar my way.
I looked at her and saw the same concern that I saw on my Twilight’s face just before I left the other day.
“Be careful,” she said.
I smiled and nodded.
“Of course,” I returned as she pulled her wing back. “If you don’t hear from me in a few days, come pick up the pieces.” I swallowed. "And if necessary, destroy the mirror."
I stepped through the portal, feeling my anger and worry return and increase as I rushed towards my apartment.
At the time, I didn’t notice the gem that I shoved into my jacket pocket had started to glow in time with my heartbeat.