"What's the world you come from like?" the mare asked.
"A lot like this one, actually," Twilight said. "Right down to this castle being there too. Though it's a little different there. Well, it was a little different, now it's mostly ruins. It's been abandoned for over a thousand years at this point."
"That's how long the story goes Nightmare Moon has been ruling for," noted the stallion. "I guess your timeline diverged from ours back then, and she was defeated."
"More or less," said Twilight. "There are some other details too, but it would take a while to explain it all."
"So who rules Equestria?" the mare asked. "You? You look a little young for that."
"Nowadays it's me, yes," Twilight said. "I've only taken over recently though. Princess Celestia ruled before me, and Luna too for a while." She was met with confused stares. "I suppose you wouldn't know about that part. You mentioned the Crystal Empire, do you know anything about King Sombra?"
"Nightmare Moon's lieutenant there, not much else," the stallion said. "How... How are things in your Equestria? How different from life here is it there?"
Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. "I wouldn't know that exactly, I don't know what daily life is like for someone here. We don't have any wars though. No murderous experiments on innocent ponies either. Nor on the guilty ones for that matter." She looked at the wall opposite of her for a moment, lost in memories for a bit. "It's gotten a little rough recently though. But we're working on trying to fix it. It might actually-" She cut herself off. There would be time to warn the unicorns of the potential threat to their world, hopefully, and bringing up the Behemoth would raise too many questions right then.
"Sounds like a nice place to live," the stallion said. He looked at the other unicorn, and she looked back at him.
"Sounds like a world worth defending," said Sunlight, looking at Twilight. "Probably more than our own."
"I could be tricking you," Twilight said. "Are you sure you want to trust me that much just off my word?"
"That you've got wings and a horn is proof enough I should take you seriously for me," said the mare. "That you made it here unnoticed and alive just reinforces that conviction. And besides, I've been looking for a way to actually fight back against this life that wasn't just making a futile stand and being replaced with someone more compliant. I'd have taken an insane rebel leader up on the offer if one ever made it to me, I won't turn down an alicorn. If you're tricking me, at least I'll go down doing what I want to do for once."
Starburst chuckled. "What she said. Always gotta hog the cool monologues for yourself, eh?" After throwing a glance at his colleague, he focused on Twilight again. "Anything else you need, we'll try to help you with." He hesitated for a moment, then finally pushed himself to say what else was on his mind. "When this is over, if it is, if it goes well, or while it's happening, or... Do you think we could see your world?"
Twilight looked at him, deep in his eyes. She knew it was a stupid thing to do, and incredibly complicated too. Harmony wasn't about doing the smart thing, or the easy one. "I'm here to protect my world. I'm here to defend my citizens, and not to lead a war we don't have the means to. But I promise I will do anything I can manage to help your ponies, and you specifically. And if you want to escape from here, I'll find a way to get you to safety." Leaving her words to hang in the air for a bit, she turned towards Sunlight. "You said they were probably planning something related to this up in the Empire, right? I need to know everything you can tell me about the place. I might need to go there myself."