Never in my life have I ever been glad to have been so completely wrong.
While I was expecting Twilight to be hot on my tail the following weeks, it turned out she was too busy dealing with other issues to even try anything of the sort. Soon after they made progress on renovating the Castle of the Two Sisters, a vampire fruit bat infestation had hit Sweet Apple Acres and they had to go solve that issue. It seemed to me like everything turned out fine in the end, though apparently something had happened with Fluttershy that I wasn't told of. I'm sure it wasn't anything important.
Right after that, Rarity had to go to Manehattan for some kind of fashion show. Twilight and all her friends were going with her, and for a second I had thought it would be a perfect time to meet up with Spike again to discuss the book more... until I realized he was leaving as well. That did mean I had a bunch of time to spend for myself, but at the same time, I couldn't do anything with the new writing that had shown up.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. Less than a day after that whole pact thing with Spike was made, a new message appeared in the book. Ever since then, I had tried to get Spike alone again to translate and write back, but no dice. And while I wasn't exactly on a time limit here, I didn't want to keep the pony on the other end waiting.
Fortunately for me, the perfect opportunity was presenting itself for me today. Rainbow Dash and the Ponyville team were going to Rainbow Falls to compete for the chance to participate in some competition called the "Equestria Games" or something. Twilight and the rest of her friends were also going to cheer her on.
All of her friends, except for Spike.
That was why both of us were standing at the station, waving at the train as it slowly left Ponyville station. As soon as it was out of sight, and more importantly out of earshot, I turned to the dragon standing next to me. "So, did you not get invited, or..." I asked, a bit hesitantly.
Spike just looked at me strangely. "Really? All I did was tell Twilight that I had plans to do stuff with you today, dude. She asked me if I had wanted to go."
I held my hooves up defensively. "Alright, jeez, I get it. Sorry for asking."
We stood there for a few moments. I stared at him, he stared back. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, and he did the same. "Well, this is awkward," I said.
"Yeah," Spike replied back.
"You want to head back to Twilight's place so you can take a look at the newest entry?"
"Sure."
"Cool." And that was that. We walked as a pair out of the train station, back across Ponyville to the Golden Oaks Library. The odd looks from before had already dissipated, probably from all the crazy stuff that this place seemed to attract. My shenanigans were old news at this point for the average Ponyvillian.
So, once we got to the library and I had shut the door behind us, I pulled out the good old journal and laid it out on the table, quickly flipping through the pages. "Honestly, with how long we've taken to get together again, I'm surprised I haven't gotten another message asking where I've been," I half-joked, trying to put a light mood in the air. Spike didn't take it, instead turning his attention straight to the passage.
"Ahem. 'Dear Jungle Trek, I don't know how you got your hands on this book, but I guess that doesn't matter anymore. With everything going on recently here, it's nice to have someone to talk to, even if it is just a pony from another world. My name is Sunset Shimmer, by the way...'" Spike trailed off.
"What?" I questioned, curious. "Also, what are hands?"
"Hands are- you know what, that's not important. Twilight and I know Sunset! Me and her went through this big magical portal in the Crystal Empire a while ago to get her crown back from her!" The dragon lifted a page of the book, looking at it from all angles. "But the portal closed a long time ago! I have no idea how Sunset is managing to get messages to us here."
"Wait wait wait," I said, holding a hoof up. "Let me get this straight. This 'Sunset Shimmer' is on the other side of a magical portal that doesn't work anymore, in an alternate world full of ponies, and you and Twilight met her in that alternate world to get her crown back." I lowered my eyebrows. "Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?"
Spike shrugged. "Hey, you get used to it. Also, it's a world full of humans, not ponies. They walk on two legs and have these weird 'hand' things, and we spent the entire time there at a high school called Canterlot High. There were even versions of Twilight's friends too!"
...Yep. The universe officially did not make sense anymore.
After running mental gymnastics in my head for a few moments, I brought myself back to reality and lightly rubbed my hoof against one of the pages. "I don't know much about magical artifacts," I admitted, "or really magic in general. But if she expected Celestia to be on the other end-"
"Oh right, Sunset was Celestia's former student before Twilight!"
I turned to look exasperatedly at Spike. "Is there anything else I should know before I continue?"
He thought to himself for a second. "Nope, I think that's it."
"Okay. So, if Sunset was Celestia's former student, then I'm guessing these books were so that they could keep in touch. And whatever... magical connection the copies have must be breaking the... the fourth dimension or something, and allowing us to still write to each other."
"Twilight would have put it a lot smarter and more complicated, but yeah, that sounds like it."
Considering that Twilight put everything in a really smart and complicated way that not many other ponies did, I chose to take that as a compliment. Well, it was either that or admitting that I probably had really low bars for compliments, which I definitely did not want to do. Not that my self-esteem needed any reinforcing, or anything, since I was of course the greatest henchpony to ever walk Equestria.
...
...Anyway. I pointed a hoof at the open page, motioning towards it with my head. "Well, while that solves a lot of questions I have, it sounded like you didn't finish what was written on it. Do you mind if you, uh..."
"Oh, right. Sorry." Spike rubbed the back of his head with a claw before turning back to read the rest of the text. "'...My name is Sunset Shimmer, by the way. I wish we could meet in person, but with how things are over here, I don't think we can do that any time soon. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'll always be here, even if I'm kind of new to this whole "friendship" thing. Anyway, I need to go, so I'll talk to you later! Your new friend, Sunset Shimmer."
I put my hoof to my chin in a thinking gesture. "Is the second time saying her name redundant, or..."
Spike rolled his eyes. "It's how you write a letter, Jungle. You did it too when you responded to her."
"Yeah, but I didn't introduce myself before that point, so it made sense. She already said her name this time, so I don't know why she'd need to again."
Clearly unable to find a flaw in my unbreakable argument, Spike shook his head and turned back to the book, flipping through to early pages to read the letters on them. I knew I probably should have stopped him, considering it was neither his nor my book, and it might have had things Sunset or Celestia didn't want anyone else to read, but I was too busy thinking about what my newfound friend from another dimension had said.
The whole 'can't meet' thing made sense, since Spike had mentioned some kind of portal closing after he and Twilight had apparently gone to the other world. But there were two pieces that fit together in a weird way. The phrases 'new to friendship' and 'nice to have someone to talk to' insinuated that she either got a few new friends who were "humans", or whatever Spike had called them, or that she was trying and failing. I really hoped it was the former, because the latter... would be kind of depressing.
But how could Sunset be new to friendship? Even I wasn't new to friendship, I mean I had friends before coming to Ponyville. Well, kind of. I mean they were more "colleagues" than anything, and Doctor Caballeron was our employer first and anything else second, and everypony else in Tenochtitlan were basically all enemies...
Okay, maybe Sunset had a fair point on saying that. She had stolen Twilight's crown, which effectively guaranteed she was both on the wrong side of Equestria and that she had no respect for property rights, not that I had much respect for that either until I gave up the henchpony life. But still, something didn't add up.
And to give up something like being Celestia's student, you either had to have a major grudge or be a massive prick. Or both. Both were possible too. There was clearly a piece I didn't know about that was missing, but I didn't know what. And I sure as Celestia wasn't about to go asking about it.
"Wow, Sunset sure went to a lot of places when she was Princess Celestia's student." Spike's comment snapped me out of my introspection, causing me to look up to him offering me the journal again. I took it as he started talking again. "Manehattan, Hollow Shades, Tenochtitlan... from this it sounds like she went all over Equestria!"
"Tenochtitlan?" I rubbed my chin with a hoof. "Huh. Maybe I saw her while I was there? What does she look like?"
Spike thought for a moment before beginning to list things off with a claw. "Well, she's yellow-orange, a unicorn, has a yellow and red mane and tail, and red magic. She has this sort of, uh sun kind of thing for a cutie mark? I dunno how to describe it." I raised an eyebrow at him, causing the dragon to just fold his arms and stare at me.
"Meh, doesn't matter. I've never met any kind of pony like that in my life. I guess she probably stopped by while I was somewhere else off adventuring or something. The basin is a big place, after all."
"Yeah..." Spike trailed off, probably not sure how to continue. And neither did I, to be fair. The atmosphere getting uncomfortable, I took a seat in the chair closest to me, Spike doing the same across from me. We sat looking at each other, just sort of staring into each other eyes.
I blinked first.
"So, about earlier..." I said, rubbing my neck with a hoof anxiously. "I'm sorry for assuming that you weren't invited and all, I just... I'm not really used to things around here, you know? It used to be that it was every pony for themself unless you had a group job or something."
He took a few seconds to respond. "Yeah, it's fine," Spike finally answered. "I don't blame you for assuming that."
"What do you mean?"
The dragon sighed, holding his head up with his claws as he slouched over. "It just kind of feels like I'm left out, you know? Like I'm the sidekick. The adventure in my Power Ponies comic helped show me that I'm still important to everypony, but still..."
"...You still have a feeling like you don't belong, or that they leave you behind?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Oh boy. The situation had escalated from awkward to kind of sad now. And trust me, I was not the pony you wanted when it came to being mushy about feelings or talking things out. At the very least, I had some experience in this type of thing, so I got off my chair and sat down on the floor next to Spike.
"Look, Spike," I said, making sure to choose all my words very carefully for once. "I'm not going to try and pretend to understand what you're going through. I mean, you're a dragon and I'm a pony; you're Twilight's assistant and I was Doctor Caballeron's henchpony. We don't exactly have that much in common. But I can give you some advice, at least."
"Yeah?"
I nodded sagely like I was one of the ancient wizards of old. I may know when to be serious, but I wasn't going to be too serious. "Don't worry about what others are doing. There's always going to be somepony better than you, and that's okay. I mean, unless you're Princess Celestia I guess; everyone seems to think she's perfect or something. But you just gotta keep moving, and do the best that you can, you know? Everyone's time comes eventually."
Spike looked at me. "Has yours come yet?"
Thinking for a moment, I shook my head. "I don't think so. I mean, maybe moving here was my big moment, but I gotta hold out hope that there's something more to me than just stealing some artifacts or making a few new friends. Maybe I'll be the hero sometime." I gave a small chuckle, smiling to myself. "Those mares certainly have their hero quotas filled and then some."
"Oh yeah, those girls save Equestria all the tim-" I interrupted him with a yawn, causing the dragon to look at me strangely. "Dude, how are you tired already? The sun's not even close to setting!"
"Well I, uh..." I rubbed an eye with my hoof. "I stayed up late last night looking at the stars and all that, so I'm a little tired. It's so much easier here than it is in Tenochtitlan, you know, since there's no jungle."
"You should probably get some sleep. It doesn't look like Sunset's going to be responding anytime soon."
I looked at the book. "Yeah, you're probably right," I conceded, getting up. "Hey, do you want to stargaze with me sometime? Living out as a henchpony means you sleep outside a lot, and the sky at night is really nice if you get a good view-"
"No thanks," he responded quickly. "Trust me, Twilight's already done a ton of that. I don't think I need any more time looking at stars."
It was only at that point that I remembered that Twilight owned a telescope. "Oh, right," I said, giving an awkward smile. "Well, uh, it was nice talking to you again, Spike. I'll, uh, let you know if another message pops up, alright?"
He gave a mock salute. "Yes, sir! And, uh, Jungle?" I turned from the doorway to see Spike standing there, looking at me. "Thanks for the talk, and everything."
I hesitated. "Yeah, sure," I finally said. "No problem." I gave one last wave before closing the door behind me, taking a deep breath and starting to walk down the street. I pulled out the journal I had about halfway down it, looking at the image of Celestia's sun on the cover.
"Sunset Shimmer, huh?"