Now that the festival had reached its conclusion, almost everypony had gone back to their homes, and at the present time, Spike was informing the Storm Creatures - who had all given apologies for their actioms - as to what areas needed to be cleaned up, while Twilight stood on top of the stage, proud of the fact that her first Friendship festival had been a success despite on what it took to get there.
I wonder if I should have the second one next year,thought the young alicorn, unaware of Casey walking towards her.Maybe in a few months? Oh, what if I-
Suddenly, her ears caught the sound of slow music playing from out of the speakers, and she turned around to find Casey standing up on his hind legs.
"Can I have this dance?" Twilight looked at him curiously. "It'll be fun, I promise."
His girlfriend gave him a smile, and nodded her head as she also brought herself up to her hind legs, with Casey placing one hoof on Twilight's back while she did the same to his, their other hooves holding onto each other outward. "And now, we just kinda sway back and forth like this…"
"I am familiar with the routine," replied a smirking Twilight, with a sheepish Casey thinkingOf course she does, and the two of them began having their slow dance together. "Did Stardust teach you this, too?"
Casey laughed at the possibility, and shook his head. "I don't even think he would, had I asked him. This was actually something that my father would do with my mother in the house whenever he thought the moment arrived… guess I must've paid more attention than I thought."
He smiled while remembering past memories of his parents, and then, he added, "Guess there are some things you don't know about me yet."
The young stallion took a moment to twirl his special somepony around, and chuckled after bringing her back to him, while an amused Twilight said, "Well, I can't wait to find out what they are."
Casey continued to smile, but before he could say anything, they were interrupted by an approaching Princess Skystar, who'd been watching from afar. "Oh mygosh, that was soromantic! I justloveseeing princesses dance with their handsome prince!"
A slight-blushing Twilight started to giggle while a sheepish Casey said, "I'mnota prince. How many times do I have to keep saying that?"
As the hippogriff princess gave a shrug, Queen Novo suddenly landed beside her daughter, and said, "Skystar, leave these two alone, please."
"What? I was only having some fun," replied Skystar, while Twilight quickly began to feel guilty after remembering what she'd tried to do with their pearl.
"Queen Novo, your Highness, I amso sorryfor everything that I did back in your undersea home," apologized the young princess. "My friends were completely innocent; it was all my idea-"
To her surprise (and relief), Queen Novo shook her head, a small smile appearing on her face. "I understand why you did that, honey. I should've been more helpful in assisting all of you considering the lengths that were taken to meet with us… also, perhaps it's better for ustoknow what we'd be missing out on."
Twilight was perfectly fine with getting that exacr response from the queen of the hippogriffs. "Still, if there's anything I can ever do to show how sorry I am, I don't have any problem with-"
"Well…" Novo brought one of her hands to her chin, an idea forming in the queen's mind. "I think there is actuallyone small thingthat you could do. Princess Celestia told me that you have a fondness for literature?"
The next day
For the moment, Twilight couldn't remember the last time that a sight had left her speechless. "Oh… my…goodness…"
She was currently back inside of Queen Novo's undersea castle, in seapony form, and standing in front of the doorway that led to a grand library, which contained many shelves that were completely filled with books Twilight had never seen before.
I could learnsomuchvaluable knowledge in here,thought a thrilled Twilight, and she began to make her way into the room, but all of a sudden, a pair of royal seapony guards blocked her from entering, leaving a confused Twilight to turn her head towards Novo.
"Oh, this is what therewardwill be, Twilight, after you finish completing theone small thingthat I want you to do."
Twilight nodded her head once she understood what Novo had meant, and the purple seapony replied, "Well, what is it, your Highness?"
#############
You have got to be kidding me,thought the Princess of Friendship, whose eyelids were half-closed, looking very unamused as she started washing the large stack of dirty dishes.
"Aw, don't be so glum, Twilight," said Pinkie, who had just finished hanging out with Skystar, and was currently placing the now-clean plates onto a table placed beside her. "Think of all those books you'll get to read once you're finished with this."
Twilight let out a sigh while scrubbing hard at one of the dishes. "Yeah, I know, but… what if Novo decides to have me do something else that's worse than this once Iamfinished?"
"Relax, Twilight, you know that's not gonna happen," assured Pinkie. "Besides, it'll go much faster and be more fun since I'm staying here to help."
As an example, the pink seapony took a nearby soap-covered sponge, and Twilight watched one of her closest friends create a beard-moustache combo, as well as what appeared to be a pointy triangular hat.
"See?" said Pinkie, and it only took a few seconds for the two of them to erupt into kind-hearted laughter.
After taking a deep breath, Casey nodded his head, with a look of determination. "I just hope not too much time has passed."
He entered the powered-up Crystal Mirror, which would take him into the library in Stardust's dimension, but instead of walking out, Casey found himself crashing right into one of the bookshelves, and was now lying on the floor, with several open books all around him.
"I've never come into this worldthat waybefore," muttered the young pony, eyes spinning around in a circular motion, and he slowly began to stand up.
"Are you okay, Casey?"
Casey shook his head a few times until the feeling of dizziness went away, and then, he immediately began to smile widely after seeing who was now standing in front of him. "Twilight!"
Squee!
"Oh, how I've missed seeing you,"said the young stallion, giving Twilight's counterpart a warm hug, but a few seconds later, he quickly backed away with a sheepish smile. "Oops,heh, heh, sorry…. I, uh, just haven't seen you and Stardust since my, er, my party a few weeks ago… well, for me, I mean, since I'm not sure how much time has passed for you guys."
Twilight's counterpart couldn't help but chuckle as she replied, "It's only been about a month, more or less… glad to see that you're not in a wheelchair anymore!"
"Y-yeah, great, thanks," agreed Casey, rubbing the back of his neck with a forehoof. "A month, huh?" The girlfriend of Stardust nodded her head. "Well, glad that you still look the same… no, wait! Sorry, I… meant to say that you haven't aged a bi -gah,no, that wasn't it, either… okay, I'm glad that you're still just as beautiful as my Twilight is - wait, that wasn't right, I meant to-"
"Casey, just relax," said Twilight's amused and flattered other self, placing a hoof on his shoulder that made Casey close his mouth. "It's great to see you, too."
Casey let out a sheepish chuckle, and he was about to apologize again when a certain thought appeared in his mind. "Oh, hey, is Stardust here, by any chance?"
Unfortunately, the young alicorn shook her head, and she said, "Jack is out with Spike and Starlight right now over in the Crystal Empire. But I'm sure I could convince him to-"
To her surprise, Casey shook his head, and he replied, "No, er, you don't got to do that, Twilight. I just came for a quick visit. Could you let him know that I stopped by, though?"
"Of course," said Twilight, as the light-orange pony began stacking up the books that had been knocked down into a neat pile on the desk. "So, what's been new in your world?"
"Quite a lot, actually," answered Casey, and once he was done with the books, the young pony added, "I'll just, eh, be goin' back there myself now. It was great to see you aga -oof!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Twilight's counterpart placed an object into Casey's hooves, and the purple alicorn said, "Happyreallylate birthday, from the two of us… we've been pretty busy ourselves over here."
It was a journal that looked similar to the one used by Sunset Shimmer, except the cover symbol was different, and to Twilight's amusement, Casey gave his best friend's girlfriend athank youhug before asking, "How many of these things do you own?"
"Just a few," answered Stardust's special somepony, and Casey let out a chuckle before thanking her again. "You're welcome… and tell me that I said hello."
"Yup, sure will," said Casey, choosing to politely shake her hoof, and after they said their goodbyes, the young Earth Pony made his return back home, where he found himself doing the same thing from earlier, so there were now several fallen books laid out around him. "Well, it'ssomewhatof an improvement from earlier."
As a row of stars spinned around his head, Starlight entered the room after having heard a crashing sound, and she looked at him in amusement. "You okay?"
Casey gave her a nod, and brought a hoof to his head. "I'm going to be needing a helmet one of these days."
################
Later that evening, with some help from her magic, Twilight carried down a dinner tray of food to the dungeon, where Beck was quietly humming a tune to himself until his nose caught the delicious and warm smell coming from the prepared meal.
"Just make sure you don't eat it all so fast," cautioned the young alicorn. "Wouldn't want you to have any bad dreams or something."
Beck scoffed at Twilight, and pointed one of the plastic utensils at her. "You have no reason to worry, princess, I've already had my own share of nightmares… so, um, what's going on for you tomorrow - same stuff as always?"
"Guess you'll have to wait and see after I come by in the morning," replied Twilight, and Beck rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Trust me, it'll be worth the wait."
Beck just gave a small annoyed shrug before returning his attention to the meal while Twilight went back upstairs to find Casey reading the thick notebook that contained an abridged informative version of Stardust's history.
"So, how is he doing?" wondered Twilight.
Closing the book, Casey shook his head, and he replied, "He wasn't there when I went. But now, I'm able to talk to him the same way you and Sunset keep in touch with each other… so I think I'll be good for now."
Then, after letting out a yawn, the young pony bid his girlfriend good-night, sharing a quick kiss with her before walking to his bedroom while Twilight started to find her own book to read, but just as she had been able to locate one, there was a knock at the front door.
"Coming!"Teleporting herself downstairs to the main entrance, Twilight opened up the door, and became surprised after seeing who it'd been. "Good evening, Tempest! Come in, I was just about to-"
"Oh, no thank you, princess," replied Tempest, shaking her head. "I just, um, came by to say thanks again for helping me learn a valuable lesson… and to give you a farewell, for now."
"Huh?" Twilight took a closer look outside, and saw that Tempest's skiff was currently parked a few feet away. "Oh, where are you going?"
The dark purple unicorn sighed, and gestured behind her, saying, "I have a lot of, um, apologies to make now that the Storm King's gone. Also, I kind of owe the pirates and Capper a ride back to where they came from since Ididblow up Celeano's ship, so…"
Twilight chuckled, and smiled as she replied, "Well, then I hope everything turns out just fine for you, and you're always welcome to stop by anytime for a longer visit whenever you feel like it."
"Thank you, pri - I mean, Twilight," said Tempest, offering the alicorn a hoofshake since she wasn't yet used to giving out hugs, and that was just fine with the Princess of Friendship, but before she could say anything else, a loud voice was suddenly heard throughout the castle.
"Ow, ow, ow, my tongue! Celestia damn it!"
A smirk appeared on Tempest's face, and she said, "Your special somepony, I presume?"
"No, that's my pri - uh, guest," replied Twilight, who also realized that her castle apparantly had thin walls now.Why do I feel like Discord had something to do with it?"Good luck again on your journey, Tempest. Safe travels!"
Then, she teleported away to the dungeon so that she could check on Beck while a chuckling Tempest closed the door on her way back to the ship, which made its depature a few moments later.
The End… ?
"Ha-ha-ha-ha!"giggled Flurry Heart as the baby alicorn flew around the hallways of the Crystal Castle. "Wheeeee… eh?"
Suddenly, she brought herself to an immediate stop, and tilted her head when she noticed that there was an unfamiliar cloaked pony standing in front of a certain door.
However, just as the infant pony was about to catch his attention, a familiar voice caused her to turn around. "Flurry Heart, slow… down, please."
A tired Sunburst made his way over to Flurry, and after taking a few more breaths, the orange unicorn said, "It's time for you to go to sleep, too, so -oh,I see… you were thinking of your aunt Twilight?"
He was referring to the fact that Flurry was nearby the door that led to the room where celebratory statues of the Mane 6 were placed, and the baby alicorn quickly forgot to take notice of the unknown pony no longer being there after hearing the Princess of Friendship's name.
"Well, the next time she's here, I'm sure she would love to let you see what it's inside," added Sunburst. "The door can only be opened by her magic, after all - Flurry, wait!"
Having grown tired of waiting around, Flurry took off flying in the direction that she had come from, so Sunburst quickly went after her, and once they were gone, the shadow-like pony floated back down to the ground from his spot on the ceiling.
"Only her magic, huh?" A sinister grin appeared on his face, and eventually, he disappeared in a swirl of black, magical smoke. "Interesting…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha… ha-ha-ha-ha!"