“So. You managed to return.”
Twilight bit her lip and tried not to fidget. The room hadn’t gotten colder… at least not as much as she would have expected. And when she got the nerve up to actually look at Sunsparkle, she could see why. Though she hadn’t pulled away from Luna’s embrace, gone was the affectionate aunt, and in her place sat the Regent of Equestria, expression absolutely blank.
Both princesses seemed to recognize the difference without needing to look, as both sat up straighter and Luna let go.
For his part, Starswirl started to take a step back, then scowled and held his ground. “And you are not as gone as one would expect.”
Hoping to keep the tension… well, maybe not contained, but at least keep it from exploding, Twilight raised a hoof and cleared her throat. “Ah- Princess Luna, since you’re wanting some quality time, why not take Sunsparkle on a tour of the castle? And everypony else can get some sleep while Starswirl and I take a look at the magic in the pendant. Sound good?”
Sunsparkle gave an acrid glance in Starswirl’s direction, then drew herself up and let out a long breath, a move Twilight had seen many times when her parents were having a disagreement. Then she nodded and delicately lifted the chain up around her head. “Very well. I ask that you treat it gently,” she said, allowing Twilight to take hold of it with her magic, then turned to Luna. “Shall we?”
Luna brightened and eagerly took the offered foreleg. “Yes! You will enjoy how improved my current observatory is over my old one,” she said as she guided her aunt past Starswirl, the latter giving him a wide berth, and out the door.
“Rarity, Fluttershy, if you will please follow me, we’ll have guest rooms made ready,” Celestia said as she rose from her seat, poorly hiding another yawn in the process. The mares in question quickly got up to obey.
And that just left the two.
After having witnessed the clear dislike between her guest and her hero for herself, Twilight suddenly found it very uncomfortable to look Starswirl in the eye. It was much easier to keep her gaze on the pendant, which didn’t have any sort of judgment to lay on her. “Um. How about we move to the Archives? Maybe start with the scrying tools?”
There was a long pause, which only ratcheted her anxiety higher. Then hoofsteps turned towards the door. “A sound idea. Let’s go.”
Intensely relieved, Twilight trotted after.
---
Her relief was short-lived.
Once they had reached the archives and begun searching the shelves and cabinets for information and tools, she found herself with a cold pit in her stomach every time she so much as glanced in Starswirl’s general direction. She wanted so badly to ask- there were two sides to every story, right?
And yet…
And yet the thought that he might confirm Sunsparkle’s reasons for her dislike made her tongue tie itself in knots every time she opened her mouth.
It was stupid, she told herself with a little stamp of her hoof as she glared at a shelf of astrolabes. He was a pony like any other, wasn’t he? They had even argued over spellwork when he’d returned! But that reminder didn’t stop her brain from repetitively hopscotching over all her memories of adulation and adoration. She couldn't... She couldn't...
Ugh!
Before her thought spiral could continue to… spiral, its subject came around the furthest shelf to her left. Her ears twitching with frustration, Twilight turned to meet him, then saw the small mirror floating in his magic. “Star Hopper’s Looking Glass?” she asked, her foul mood vanishing like smoke.
“Indeed. After a few cursory examinations, I believe this will give us the most comprehensive result,” Starswirl replied as she followed him to a table. He laid the mirror on one of the books she had retrieved, then looked at her expectantly.
Twilight touched the pendant with a hoof, then floated it from around her neck to rest on the glass and silver surface. “Remember, we promised not to damage it.”
“Hm.”
The dismissive response wasn’t exactly reassuring, but Twilight stepped back and held her breath as he leveled his horn and sent a pulse of magic into the mirror.
The pulse became a net, an intricate weaving of patterns that gently darkened from Starswirl’s white to a soft lavender as it wound itself around the pendant. Twilight watched with more than a little awe, having never actually gotten to see the Looking Glass’ spellwork before, as the net poofed into a soft pale green cloud that swirled above it.
“Hrm,” Starswirl muttered, rubbing his hoof under his chin as he eyed it. “Never seen it turn that color before.”
Twilight tilted her head slightly, her ears pricking forward. There was something… something that reminded her of the contentment she’d felt when she’d first put the pendant on; that reminded her of… “Oh!”
“What?”
“It’s emotion magic! Like what’s in the Crystal Empire!”
---
Flopping onto the bed and not caring how ungainly her sprawl looked, Twilight stretched her wings to pop the kinks out while she re-read the letters floating in front of her.
Cadance had been the logical choice to contact first, but after giving it some more thought, she’d opted for a second letter to Thorax. Crystal Ponies weren’t the only ones attracted to emotion magic, after all.
Satisfied, she sent them off to their recipients, then folded her wings and rolled onto her side to open the heavy curtains. The guest room she’d been given had a clear line of sight to the balcony of Luna’s observatory, and… oh, it wasn’t like she was spying! She was just a little curious, that was all!
Twilight lifted her head to peer out the window, and was greeted with the sight of Luna and Sunsparkle at the telescope. Luna had a wide grin and a hoof wrapped around the focuser as she animatedly pointed to several objects in the sky. Sunsparkle had her back to Twilight, but whatever she said must have been encouraging, because Luna clapped her hooves in delight as her smile practically sparkled.
Smiling, Twilight closed the curtains. Though Luna had gradually become much more lively and comfortable as she reintegrated to society, seeing her so... joyful was sweet.
It was…
Twilight rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling as a sinking settled into the pit of her stomach. For some reason, it hadn’t hit her til that moment that if they took Sunsparkle and Silver Swirl back to their resting place, the Princesses were going to lose them again.
She bit her lip and scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hoof, then snuffed out the candle by her bed with a spell.
Finding Silver. That was what they needed to focus on for now.
After that… Well, they’d sort it out when they got to it.
---
It was during breakfast, with Luna and Rarity greatly enjoying showing off as many new foods to Sunsparkle as they possibly could while Fluttershy tried to hide her giggles in her tea, that Celestia approached her.
“I’m sorry to distract you from your food, Twilight, but may I have a word in private?” she asked, one ear flicking in the direction of the gleeful tableau.
Twilight froze, caught in the middle of a huge bite of pancakes, and quickly wiped the strawberry syrup from her muzzle. “O- of course!” she said, trying to hide her embarrassment, then hopped off her chair to follow her mentor out into the hall.
Once the door was closed behind them, Celestia gave a soft sigh that seemed dredged from the very core of her being. “I wish I could go with you. We both do,” she said, staring at the wood panel between them and the others.
A lump of sympathy settled in Twilight’s throat. “But you have to wait for the Grim.”
“Indeed. If we do not hear the Cu Sith’s prophecy, we run that much larger risk of accidentally fulfilling it.” A small scroll, barely the size of an envelope, appeared in Celestia’s magic with a gentle puff. “That is why I ask you to take this with you.”
Twilight accepted it and slowly unrolled it, floating it before her eyes curiously. The entire scroll, inside and out, was covered in complicated sigils drawn in silver ink, and it seemed to have a gentle hum of power. “I don’t remember ever seeing one of these,” she murmured before looking up. “What is it?”
“One of Silver Swirl’s own spells, an instant summons that will allow a single teleport to a point no matter the distance.”
Twilight’s mouth fell open. “It what?! Why isn’t this common study?!”
Celestia’s smile held a tinge of sadness. “This was one of many Auntie Silver was forced to hide because of the tribal conflicts. And when we did try to release it after her passing as a measure of good faith, it proved too dangerous to cast for a great many of our ponies.”
Sitting back on her haunches, Twilight gently dropped the scroll into her hooves and gave it a more thorough examination. True… the sigils alone were complicated enough that a single mistake or careless smudge would cause blowback. A frightening level of blowback. “So… why are you giving it to me?” she asked, cradling it carefully.
“Because I have attuned it to signal myself and Luna. I would like you to use it when you find our Aunts’ resting place.”
“You… you don’t know where they are?” Twilight asked incredulously, then instantly regretted it when Celestia flinched. “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”
Celestia held up a hoof, and it was only then that Twilight realized she wasn’t yet wearing her normal regalia. “We knew when our time was growing shorter. Aunt Sunsparkle and Auntie Silver… they did not visibly age, but they were visibly fading. Constantly exhausted, dozing off at odd hours, unable to be woken without considerable effort… When they retired and said they were going to take a holiday… some part of us knew they were never coming back.”
“But you couldn’t go with them, just like now. You had to keep the tribes in line.” Imagining it made her heart hurt. If her mom or dad were dying and she couldn’t be there...
A nod and another wistful look to the dining room door. “Luna and I told ourselves that eventually there would be time. That at some point we could simply take a month or so and go out to locate them. But it never happened before the rise of Nightmare Moon. And I couldn’t possibly have gone without her, it would have been too cruel.”
Twilight bit her lip, her eyes stinging. Still cradling the scroll in one foreleg, she stood and nuzzled the taller princess. “I’ll protect it with my life.”
Celestia gave her a stronger smile and nuzzled back. “Hopefully it won’t come to that, but thank you. Now go finish your breakfast and get ready.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Trotting back into the dining room, she found Starswirl had finally joined them. He and Sunsparkle seemed perfectly content to ignore each other; she occupied with Luna and he with his muzzle deep in a mug of coffee that was larger than Twilight’s head.
Twilight couldn’t help the tiniest snort of amusement as she slipped the scroll into her saddlebag and reclaimed her half-eaten pile of pancakes.
To think one of the most legendary ponies in history was even less of a morning pony than she was. It... made her nervousness ease a little.
He had refilled the mug twice and the food was long gone when she supposed the task at hoof couldn’t be put off any longer. “Everypony ready?” she asked as she pushed her plate away and magically picked up her saddlebag.
Rarity and Fluttershy both cast uncertain looks to Sunsparkle, and Twilight couldn’t blame them. At some point, they must have come to the same realization she had.
Sunsparkle herself closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled and got out of her chair, one hoof still clasped in both of Luna’s. “May I have just a few more moments?” she asked, nodding to Celestia as the older princess came around the table to join them.
“Not a problem!” Rarity chirped before Twilight had the chance. “It will let us check our saddlebags one more time, yes?”
“Right,” Twilight said, heading for the door with her two friends and a grumpy wizard following behind.
She did her best not to start pacing in the hallway, managing to restrain herself to a quiet tapping of one hoof as she watched Rarity and Fluttershy muddle with the contents of their saddlebags.
They were clearly just trying to dispel the discomfort, as she was.
In the corner of her eye, she noticed Starswirl had brought the mug, and turned her head just as it finished refilling itself for the third time. “How do you do that?”
All she got in response was a wordless grumble before Starswirl began to chug the steaming brew.
Snorts and giggles came from her other side as she barely managed to keep from rolling her eyes. Obviously that was a question for after a few more rounds of caffeine, she decided, and turned her attention back to the door just in time for Sunsparkle to exit the dining room.
The ghost mare wiped her eyes with the back of her hoof, then stood tall. “I suppose I am ready. Let us continue onwards.”
---
It was still early enough -or late enough, considering some of the hungover ponies stumbling towards home- that nopony much paid attention to the fact that there was a spirit walking the streets.
Which was just fine with her, since she didn’t want to have to confine Sunsparkle to her pendant when there were things for her to see.
“Does this not hurt your hooves?” Sunsparkle asked, stomping a little on the cobblestones.
There was a dismissive mutter behind her, but Twilight ignored it. Let the old pony focus on his coffee; this was more interesting. “A little at first, but you get used to it when you live here. I guess dirt roads were more common in your time?”
“Oh, indeed. The faster cleared and the more simple, the better, to aid in expansion.” Sunsparkle’s ears pricked forward at the sound of complaining, and she turned her head to watch sleepy protesting foals being herded into school by their parents. “Hm. Is that an integrated school?”
“Sort of,” Fluttershy said softly from the ghost mare’s other side. “A lot of pegasi still live in cities like Cloudsdale, but there’ve been… um, programs would be the right word, I think?”
“Initiatives,” Twilight said.
“Oh, yes. Initiatives for making some subjects cross-tribe. Is that okay?”
“Quite wonderful, in fact! Ancients know we had an absolutely frightful time trying to do so for years. Does that mean pegasus foals are no longer required to learn combat drills?”
Fluttershy went ashen. “C- combat drills?”
“Oh, hey, here’s the train station!” Twilight yelped with a crack in her voice, waving at the building. At the look Sunsparkle gave her, she gave a less-than-convincing bright smile and picked up her pace to a quick trot. “Let’s get our tickets!”
The mare at the window had her cheek resting on her hoof as she sipped at her coffee, looking half awake. At Twilight’s sudden appearance, however, she shot up with a surprised gasp before recovering. “Oh-! Oh, your highness! Uh, good morning?” she asked with some hesitation, adjusting her glasses.
“Very good!” Twilight said in her still-too-chipper tone, the others falling in behind her.
The ticket mare’s eyes widened, then she took off her glasses and cleaned them. When that didn’t change the view in front of her, she leaned forward to Twilight, holding her hoof up to muffle her whisper. “Is- Is that a-?”
“Five tickets to the Crystal Empire!” Twilight cut her off, then remembered her manners. “Please.”
“Um.” The ticket mare blinked, then caved and sat back in her seat to pick up the most recent schedule. “I apologize, Princess, but right now there aren't any trains to the Crystal Empire.”