In the Absence of Twilight Sparkle

by MyHobby


Reflection and Regret

Scootaloo tried the phone again and let it ring a good long while. Sunset wasn’t picking up. She rolled her eyes and dangled her feet in the air.

Granny Smith swatted her socks with a rolled up newspaper. “Y’all’re gonna pop a blood vessel in your brain sittin’ upside down like that.”

“Yes, Granny.” Scootaloo rolled upright and lidded her eyes. She stared across the Apple Family living room at her friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “She ain’t pickin’ up. You sure she said noon?”

“Noon our time, yeah.” Apple Bloom kept half an eye on Sunny as he played with Walter. Wilbur was content with having his ears scratched by Sweetie. “It’s only six her time, so I doubt we got much chance of her already bein’ asleep. Keep tryin’.”

Scootaloo pressed the call button once more, this time not even bothering to hold the phone to her ear. “She’s usually a little more available than this.”

“She’s in a whole other country,” Sweetie Belle said, “with a whole new school of magic to explore. If I know anything about Sunset, you just gotta give her time. I’m sure there’re a thousand distractions every day.”

Scootaloo sighed as the phone call ended unanswered. “Distractions from her one chance a day to spend time with her son?”

“We all have moments.” Sweetie shrugged one shoulder. “Enough so that we can forgive others when they have their occasional moments.”

Sunny peered over the coffee table at Scootaloo. “Is mommy calling yet?”

“We’ll get her, kid. Don’t worry about a thing.” Scootaloo’s eyes lit up when the call finally connected. “Sunset! It’s about time! I’ve been calling you for—”

“Hi, Scoot—” The voice on the other end clearly belonged to Sunset, even if it was mired with an undercurrent of stress. “Scoot… aloo. I’m sorry. I’m in the middle of something really important, so I can’t talk long.”

“No kidding?” Scootaloo leaned on her knees and tugged Sunny to the couch. She put Sunset Shimmer on speaker and spoke loud enough for her voice to reach. “You’re on speaker with Sunny and the Crusaders. Granny Smith’s around, too.”

“Oh, um, hi guys!” Sunset Shimmer muttered something unintelligible to somebody she was with, but returned to the conversation within the instant. “Sunny, I just want to tell you that mom is very proud of you and she loves you very much.”

“Love you, too, Mommy!” Sunny reached for the phone, but Scootaloo picked him up and set him on her lap. “I wanna see Mommy on the phone!”

“Maybe another time, Sunny!” Sunset Shimmer laughed, but Scootaloo could tell it wasn’t real. Whatever Sunset was up to, it was dead serious. “Mommy doesn’t look her best right now.”

“Oh.” Sunny reached for the phone again but failed, restrained as he was by Scootaloo’s arms. “Sweetie Belle has a new boyfriend!”

Sweetie Belle blushed as she shared a glance with Apple Bloom. “Little pitchers, huh?”

“Uh…” Sunset Shimmer was quiet for a moment before her brain caught up with Sunny’s News of the Day. “Listen, honey, I have to go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

Scootaloo snatched the phone off the table. “Just one second, Sunset. There’s a lot going on over here that you need to know about.”

“Can it wait until later, Scoot-scootaloo?”

Scootaloo scrunched her nose up as she held the phone out of Sunny’s reach. “What did you just call me?”

“Isn’t that—?” Sunset Shimmer huffed into the mic. “Whatever. I have to go, so—”

Scootaloo gritted her teeth. “Sunset! Shining, Twilight, and Mac all went to the doctor’s world. They wanted me to tell you. They’ll be back as soon as possible. They took Princess… what’s-her-face with them. And the tall lady who looks like Principal Celestia.”

For once, Sunset was dead silent. Scootaloo cleared her throat. “They said they were researching the doctor. So we’re just hanging at the Apple’s right now. They’ve been gone since last night. And…” Scootaloo gently pushed Sunny over to Apple Bloom, who covered his ears. “I’m worried, Sunset. About them, about you… You’re alright, right? You’re rushed, but is there something we should—”

“I’m fine, sis.” Sunset’s voice had grown a little more strained, but was otherwise just as much in a hurry as before. “Don’t worry about me. But—yes, I know—but if you can, tell Shining and Twilight to come home as fast as possible. The world they’re in isn’t safe.”

“Well, no duh.” Scootaloo leaned against the armrest. She felt like she was weighed down with a lead vest. “That’s why they brought the two wizard ladies. But… but you’re safe, right?”

“Yes, Scoo—Yes, I’m safe. And I have to go now.” Sunset took in a deep breath. “I love you, Sunny! Be good and have a good day.”

Apple Bloom lifted her hands just in time for Sunny to hear his mother. “I love you, Mommy!”

Sunset hung up without another word.

“Well.” Sweetie Belle folded her hands on her lap. “Those were not the words of an unburdened woman.”

“She knows I hate that nickname.” Scootaloo tossed the phone onto the coffee table. Sunny scooped it up, but was disappointed to find it locked. “She hasn’t called me that in five years.”

Apple Bloom ruffled Wilber’s ears. “Called you what?”

“‘Scoot-scootaloo.’” Scootaloo rubbed her mop of a hairdo, running her fingers through and grabbing a handful. “She used to tease me with it when I was a kid. She promised she’d never use it again. At least, not to my face.”

Apple Bloom twiddled her thumbs. “Definitely not to your face, but… I saw her text you once, and that’s how she has you listed in her phone.”

“Cool.” Scootaloo took the phone from Sunny to unlock the touch screen so he could play a game. She switched off the internet access so he couldn’t accidently empty her bank account. Not that there was much to empty. Even then, she watched his activity closely. “So it’s always on her mind, and when she got stressed she let it slip out?”

“Near as I can guess.”

“Man.” Scootaloo stood up to stretch. She headed for the kitchen. “Anybody want anything?”

Apple Bloom raised a hand. “I’ll have a soda.”

“Got it.”

As Scootaloo rummaged through the fridge, she felt a cloud of anxiety descend on her shoulders. One half of the family was a half-world away. Another half was cosmically distant. And even when she was worrying about everybody, she still felt the sting of a hurtful name. Try as she might, she couldn’t let it go. “Keep it together, Scoot. It was a slip-up. We’ve both said worse to each other.”

Even with that said, for some reason, it kept playing over again in her mind. It just hadn’t felt like she was talking to Sunset. When she mentioned Shining and Twilight, Sunset had immediately brushed off. It was weird. It was wrong.

Something didn’t click. But there was nobody to tell.

She fired off an email to Shining Armor. With luck, it would register in his phone the instant he got back from the strange alternate world. “Call me when you get back to reality. Sunset’s in trouble.”

***

Sunset awoke to a dull ache in her arms. She opened her eyes slowly, the bright light of Dr. Twilight’s laboratory stabbing her skull in the wake of the sleeping spell. How long had she been out? She could see deep orange light poring from the front door… it was either sunrise or sunset. Either way, it had been long enough that she was scared.

She fought the pain to open her eyes fully. She was indeed still in the lab, with her arms tied up over her head. The rope appeared to be flame-resistant, but could still be melted with a hot enough spell. Hopefully it didn’t come to that, because her skin was much less tolerant of heat. On the far wall, the three fairy-string cylinders stood unconcealed, only one of them containing any strings. Raven’s fairy strings. To her left, Celestia and Sombra were also restrained by rope. Just beyond them, Starlight Glimmer sat in a rickety office chair, staring dumbfounded at the ground.

To her right stood the magic detector, the doctor, and Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset’s eyes widened as the words she tried to utter choked her. Her duplicate held a phone loosely in her hand, speaking quickly and sternly. She hung up and stuffed the phone in her pocket.

Green flames coated the duplicate from the tip of her head to the bottoms of her feet. In a matter of seconds, she had reformed her body into that of Chrysalis. Sunset nearly rolled her eyes at the obviousness of it all. Of course her talent was disguise.

“Who were you talking to?” Sunset yelped. “Give me back my phone!”

The doctor turned away from Chrysalis with a flash of annoyance. She crossed her arms over her chest. She had rolled up her sleeves and untucked her shirt since she’d knocked Sunset out. She seemed to have been doing heavy manual labor, judging by her sheen of sweat. Probably moving the cylinders into their new locations. “Don’t treat me like an idiot, Sunset.”

“Don’t treat me like a—” Sunset seethed as she strained against her bonds. “You make me sick.”

“Can’t be helped.” Dr. Twilight checked her own phone, muttered a curse, then turned back to Chrysalis. “Keep her cell close to you. Celestia’s and Sombra’s, too. If anybody calls, let it go to voicemail. If they continue calling, give them some line about having no time to talk.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Do I tell you how to manipulate the forces of nature?” She held up her hands in surrender before Dr. Twilight could snap at her. “Easy, Doc. Sarcasm’s just my way of coping, right? Gimme a break. Nobody’s gonna know.”

“They’d better not.” Dr. Twilight held a printout from the detector up to her face. “Let me know when you spot Neighsay approaching the island. He just texted me to say he arrived in the Highborn Isles.”

“By your leave, fearless leader.” Chrysalis moved at a quick trot towards the door, but was stopped by the white-hot glare Sunset fired her way. She swallowed hard, gave Sunset a halfway-friendly smile, and slid out the door before she could singe.

Dr. Twilight leaned her back against a Fairy String Cylinder. “You’ve been out for fifteen hours. Feel rested?”

“Fifteen—” Sunset Shimmer leaned her head forward and moaned. It was sunset outside, then. She’d missed a whole day. No wonder her throat felt like sandpaper. “Gimme some water before I dehydrate.”

“Your needs were taken care of.” Dr. Twilight flicked her fingers and a water bottle floated towards Sunset. Rather than untie her hands, the doctor let the bottle hover beneath her chin. “Drink up.” While she sipped, the doctor gestured to the magic detector. “We haven’t quite found the portal yet.”

Sunset nearly spit out her precious water. She forced it down with a growl. “What are you really planning, Twilight?”

“To send Starlight’s students to your world to keep them safe.” The doctor glanced at Starlight, who hadn’t moved since Sunset woke up. “I’ve been disingenuous about many things, but all I’ve ever wanted to do was help the school.”

“That’s bull!” Sunset Shimmer tried to get to her feet, but the way she was tied prevented her from sitting up, let alone stand. “If that’s all you wanted, you wouldn’t have murdered Raven.”

“I’ve taken three lives in this world in order to achieve my goals.” Dr. Twilight raised a hand to cast an illusion spell. A pair of wings, a heart, and a horn materialized out of glistening purple magic. “How many teenagers were you planning to mind-wipe when you stole the Element of Magic from your Princess twelve years ago?”

“Spit out all the whataboutisms you want.” Sunset Shimmer set her jaw and sent magic to her fingertips. “The severity of my crimes doesn’t erase yours.”

“But it does make you just a little bit of a hypocrite.” Dr. Twilight extinguished her illusion spell and called her homemade magic tome from across the room. She showed the cover to Sunset, which was written in a carefully-composed handwriting style that reeked of Twilight Sparkle. “Does this title ring a bell?”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “The Grimoire Alicorn… what’s—” It hit Sunset like a bullet-train to the cerebrum. She’d only seen the tome once, but she’d heard about it. It was a magic research tome from the beginning of Equestria’s history, containing secrets that were otherwise lost to time and hidden by the royalty. It held research conducted by the wicked King Sombra himself, who had detailed his efforts to create an immortal pony. “Oh, God…”

“So you have heard of it.” Dr. Twilight flipped through the pages idly, stopping when she reached a diagram of the Fairy String Cylinders behind her. “I’m going to hazard a guess that you know exactly what the Grimoire Alicorn contains within its pages. Perhaps…” Her glowing eyes bored into Sunset’s as she pursed her lips. “Perhaps this is even the reason you and your teacher parted ways. You said you discovered a way to transform a normal pony into an alicorn, and she refused to help you.”

Sunset Shimmer felt her hands turn icy as the magic died down. “Please, Twilight—”

“So when you could not steal this book, you fled through the mirror, and the rest is history.” Dr. Twilight snapped the book shut and tucked it beneath her arm. “Did you ever find out the method for creating an alicorn?”

“Y-yes… of course,” Sunset whispered. She glanced at Principal Celestia and Dr. Sombra. Both had begun to stir, though were still heavily drowsy, as if they’d been drugged by the doctor’s magic. “I would have never—”

“—Never attempted it? Is that what you were going to say?” Dr. Twilight paced back and forth in front of Sunset, occasionally pointing the tome at her. “Can you honestly tell me that if you ever had a possibility of becoming an alicorn, that you wouldn’t have taken it? You, who stole an artifact of unspeakable power and corrupted it. You, who sought to rule through an army of mind-controlled children. You, who has manipulated and maneuvered your whole life to acquire power.”

“I’m not like that anymore!” Sunset struggled to right herself, and succeeded in raising herself high enough to bend her elbows. Her muscles ached as they were given a slight amount of relief. “I haven’t been for a decade at least. I’ve changed. I’m a better person now.”

“If you had lived my life,” Dr. Twilight hissed, “you would have made the same rutting decisions I have!”

Sunset pressed her lips together. She couldn’t believe that. Not if she wanted to keep her courage.

The doctor took step back from Sunset and pointed at the cylinders, specifically at the floating fairy strings of a dead woman. “This, Sunset, is the cure to any disease! To any disorder! The cure to death itself! This is the power to move the sun and moon! This is the power to destroy monsters, to protect what’s yours! This is the secret to mastering an uncaring universe, rather than lying at its mercy.” She slapped a palm across the tome’s cover. “And you’re trying to tell me you wouldn’t jump at the chance?”

Sunset Shimmer jerked her head to the side to get her hair out of her face. “The cost is too high.”

“Save your platitudes, Sunset.” Dr. Twilight Sparkle’s head twitched at ding from the magical scanner. She walked towards the machine with a slight spring in her step. “This is everything you dreamed and more. Everything you’ve wanted since you were an orphan in Princess Celestia’s care.”

“I grew out of that phase.” Sunset lit her left hand while the doctor’s back was turned. “I have more important things to care about. I have friends to bring me back from the brink. I have a son who I love more than life itself. I have a husband who…” Sunset shut her eyes tight as she heated the coiled rope. “I really don’t deserve.”

A heavy chill descended on her arm. A thin layer of frost coated her hand, quenching her spell and tightening her bonds. She yanked her arms away, but they had nowhere to go to escape the magic.

Dr. Twilight’s cold spell flickered on her fingertips. “The alicorn who lives inside you yet remains. The one who knows that with so much power at your disposal, nobody you love would ever have to fear again. The Sonata’s of this world would be unable to touch you without getting burned.” She tore a page from the printouts coming from her machine. “It’s simple mathematics.”

She walked over to Starlight Glimmer and laid a hand on her shoulder. Starlight flinched, but eventually, slowly, brought her eyes upward.

“Give this to Dulcimer,” Dr. Twilight said. “Have him locate the coordinates on a map. Then, as soon as Neighsay arrives, we’ll have two boats to transport our students to safety.”

Starlight gingerly took the readout. She spared Sunset a single glance before vanishing through the door.

Sunset rubbed her arms together as best she could, just to get her limbs warm enough to not hurt. “Where did you even get that book? There’s only one of them.”

“There’s three of them, actually.” Dr. Twilight drummed her fingers against the cover. “Your old mentor has the original copy in Equestria. She once shared the information with my Sombra, and his copy resides in what remains of my laboratory in the Reflection. Then—” She tapped the title of the tome. “—I created a personal copy to modify as I wished.”

Celestia, still drowsy, hung limp from her bonds. Sombra had fully awakened, and was doing his part to struggle free. It was a loosing battle for the middle-aged man.

Sunset leaned her back against the wall. It was all she could do to gain respite from hanging by a thread. “Why are you telling me all this?”

Dr. Twilight narrowed her eyes, regarding Sunset coldly. A small smirk found its way to her face. “Because after I ascend and become an alicorn, you are next.”

Sunset’s heart skipped a beat as her stomach twisted. “You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly serious.” Dr. Twilight knelt in front of Sunset, balancing on her toes. “You’ve spent too long cowing beneath the expectations and moralization of others. You deserve to rise to become what you were meant to be all along. A brilliant, all-magical alicorn. Nobody appreciates you, and nobody would ever stick their neck out to help you achieve your dreams. They say you need to give up your dreams, that you should temper your expectations. That you should slide yourself into the niche they’ve etched out for you. I reject that notion. I reject the world that murdered my parents, that enslaved my brother, and that left my mentor a crazed animal. The world doesn’t deserve us.

Dr. Twilight shook her head slowly. “Has your whole life lead to you to being a high school math teacher? Were your years of hard work and dedication just training to be the housewife of a man who can barely hold a job? Did you really give up on being Queen of Equestria to become a mother?

Sunset shut her eyes under the doctor’s assault. She turned her head away and whispered a hoarse “Go to Hell.”

“Thank you for that well-reasoned rebuttal.” Dr. Twilight stood up and strode towards the doorway. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. By the way, those ropes are enchanted to sound the alarm if the knot is broken.”

Once she had left, Sombra found his voice. “God help us all. She is nothing more than a raving lunatic.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Dr. Sombra,” Sunset croaked. “She’s not raving. She’s in complete control.”

Celestia winced as she bent at the waist, moaning at a pain in her midsection. Sombra tried to shift closer to her, but was held back by his restraints. “Celestia! Where does it hurt?”

“M—my chest.” Tears poured down Celestia’s cheeks as she looked between Sombra and Sunset. “I think… she broke a rib when she hit me.”

“Curse that woman. Don’t move around; we’ll get you free. ” Sombra looked to Sunset with a furrowed brow. “Do you see any way out of this?”

“God, I’m not even sure how we got into this.” Sunset glanced at her ropes and noticed for the first time the telltale glitter of magic intertwined with its coils. “I don’t think I can break this enchantment, and none of us can take her in a fight.” She chewed on her lower lip as she scanned the depths of her brain for potentially helpful spells. None came to mind. “And we don’t know how many of the students are on her side. Chrysalis at the least.”

Sombra’s expression was a hard grimace, but he looked on the pained Celestia with soft eyes. “What of Starlight Glimmer? I don’t recall much after she entered the room.”

“Marching to the beat of the doctor’s drum.” Sunset scowled at the magic scanner as it chittered away. “She’s not going to help us fight back.”

“Then…” Celestia tried to cough, but stopped herself when the shockwaves jolted her injuries more than she could bare. “Then we’re alone?”

Sunset Shimmer’s heart sank, a painful plummet that left her ears red and her eyes bleary. “I don’t think there’s anybody left to come to the rescue.”

***

Starlight Glimmer stumbled her way through the haphazardly milling crowd. She zeroed in on Double Diamond and bumped a student out of the way. Double Diamond was in the middle of a heated discussion with Dulcimer.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Double said, his hands gesturing towards the unseen mainland. “Why would Fancy Pants send you and not give you a solid timetable?”

“He was leaving it up to me. I think he changed his mind when he found out foreigners were at the school.” Dulcimer brushed Double off and held out a hand towards Starlight. “Aha! It seems we have our destination.”

Double Diamond grabbed the other man’s upper arm. “Maybe you should let me look through the videos—”

“If I were you,” Dulcimer said, his voice low, “I would not touch me.”

Double released him, but only so that he could take the sheet of paper from Starlight. He looked her in the eye, and Starlight felt shame wash over her, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. “Starlight… What’s going on? You look sick.”

Dulcimer snatched the page out of Double Diamond’s grip. “Probably the stress of the last day’s activities. Once we’re in Equestria, you’ll both find time to relax.” He took out his phone and began to plug in the coordinates.

Double grasped her shoulders and led her away from Dulcimer. He faced her with a frown and a healthy dose of stress seated in his neck. “Stars… What’s going on?”

Starlight Glimmer shook her head, unable to do anything else. “Twilight killed Raven.”

Double Diamond’s eyes grew wide. He opened his mouth to shout. Starlight reached up and clasped a hand over his lips.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Starlight said, her voice scratchy and spent. “She’s too powerful. Even if we capture her, what can we do? Hand her over to the authorities? There’s nothing…” She leaned forward and rested her head in the center of his chest. “I’m a fool.”

Double Diamond hugged her, saying nothing.

Starlight’s lips trembled. “I think she already killed Night Glider and Party Favor, too. It’s for that machine she’s been building.” She sighed deep within her chest. “I just wanted to make thing better.”

“We will. We have to.” Double tapped his teeth together. He held her away from his body to make eye-contact again. “First, we gotta get these people to safety. Then we can worry about Twilight. Do you think she’s going to go after anybody else?”

“No. I think she only needed three bodies for the design.” Starlight clasped her fingers around a fold of his shirt and dragged his ear close to her mouth. “When we get out of here, make sure Dr. Sombra, Celestia, and Sunset Shimmer get to come along. Twilight took them prisoner.”

“Leave it to me.” Double Diamond glanced up as Dr. Twilight Sparkle loomed into view on the walkway, on her way to the computer lab. He took a step back from Starlight. “We’ll get through this. All of us.”

Starlight Glimmer curled her lips at him. “Don’t lie.”

“All of us.” He headed for the men’s dorm, casting a bitter glance Dulcimer’s way as he went.

Starlight Glimmer made her way to the mess hall and crumpled onto a bench. With nothing better to do than wait out the night, she rested her head in her hands and tried to hold back tears.

***

Twilight Sparkle stood at the entrance to Canterlot Castle. The air was cold. The wind bit into her skin and flecked sand across her face. A pressure built up at the base of her horn, rumbling and callous. It hailed from the clouds of bitter black smoke that swallowed the castle whole and threatened to blot out what little light remained in the reflected Equestria.

“Whatever you do,” Edgy Spike muttered, “don’t look back.”

She didn’t need to look to know Big Mac and Shining waited on the far side of the castle’s ghost town. They and the others awaited the arrival of Princess Trixie and her army. They, in turn, awaited Twilight’s return with the spell.

Twilight reached up to adjust her glasses, but her hoof met empty air. She had already forgotten that she’d replaced them with the seeing spell. Her eyes glinted in the low light, allowing her to see even into the shadows. And shadows there were, across the entire castle. The entire place reeked of sorrow and regret.

“J-just follow me,” Edgy Spike said at last. He walked through the collapsed doorway and gestured for her to follow. “We’ll be in and out in no time.”

Each step disturbed dust. Each echoed footstep seemed as loud as a brass band. Tapestries had disintegrated into rags that hung from the ceiling alongside cobwebs and rotted paintings. Stained glass windows, once portraying great feats accomplished throughout Equestrian history, had been blown inward, leaving their crystalline remnants scattered across the molding carpet.

The pressure at the base of her horn built, coming to a crescendo each time the monstrous entity that called the castle its home roared.

“There’s so much magic in the castle,” she whispered, barely daring to talk. “I think it’s giving me a headache.”

Edgy Spike lifted aside a heavy oak door that lay across their path. “It saturates this place. Spells bound and broken, malfunctioning wards, and King Sombra himself…” He looked at her with tired eyes. “Once upon a time… this would be a fascinating study project.”

They came to a large, open room that drew they eye to a massive chair on the far wall. The chair itself had seen better days, where the cushion wasn’t torn apart and the legs hadn’t been gnawed through by a frenzied monster. Twilight scuffed her hoof against the once-red carpet. “The throne room?”

“Fits the bill, don’t it?” Edgy Spike walked across the room towards the throne itself. Behind the decayed chair, he opened a small door, just big enough to admit one pony at a time. He squeezed through with a little bit of effort. Twilight found it far easier.

The small passageway eventually met a main hallway going north and south through the castle. When Twilight looked southward, she saw that the ceiling had collapsed into impassable rubble. She followed close behind Edgy Spike, part of her just wanting to rest a hoof on his scales to remind herself she wasn’t alone.

They came to a simple wooden door. When Twilight drew near, she felt magic radiating off of the entrance. These spells of protection had not been broken. Whatever lay behind them had remained pristine in the years since the castle had been abandoned. Edgy Spike grasped the handle and tugged the door open.

It was a cozy study, filled with warm-glowing lamps and a steadily-burning fireplace. Shelves of books covered every wall, stacked up to the limit. Two armchairs sat near the fire, while a work desk had been set against the wall to the right. Ink sat ready and preserved in a small vial, and an array of differently-sized quill pens lay across the desktop.

Twilight took a moment to glance out of the door at the crumpled castle, then back into the inviting study. She shivered and closed the door behind them.

She walked around the coffee table in the center of the room. “Okay. Where do we even begin?”

“Hopefully we’ll just find the spell book in here.” Edgy Spike pulled a book off a shelf and pulled a lever. The shelf slid aside and revealed a much darker, much more decrepit room. “I don’t want to spend too much time in her lab.”

Twilight glanced into the laboratory proper and saw three half-complete cylinders surrounded by scorch marks. Their glass sides had been shattered outward. The control panel was reduced to soot. “The Alicorn Device?”

“Among other things.” Edgy Spike pointed at a scroll sitting on a pedestal at the far side of the lab. “That’s the spell she used to transport between my world and yours. And that—” he pointed to a stain of dry, matted blood on the ground. “—is where she shot out one of Care’s eyes.”

Twilight read the spines of the books lining the walls. She found a section focusing on sealing spells and looked for any books that might be homemade. “Sooo… you know what the spell book looks like?”

“It’s actually a really nice bound volume.” Edgy Spike danced his fingers as he looked over his shoulder. “You know, one with the title in lovely gold leaf—”

“I don’t mean to interrupt.”

Twilight’s ears stood straight up. Her hackles, too. She turned with slow, stiff movements. The voice had been deep, rumbling, yet inquisitive. It felt like a nice voice, one which held a great deal of kindness.

But she knew that had to be a lie. Nobody who lived in this castle knew kindness.

In one of the armchairs, facing the fire and holding a cup of tea in a telekinetic bubble, was a grey-coated unicorn. His long, black mane was adorned with a silver crown. His blue eyes glinted in the light. He turned to Twilight with an easy smile on his lips. “Welcome back, Dr. Twilight Sparkle. It’s been far too long, my most faithful student.”