Sprout slowly made his way down the stairs into the basement of the house he and Misty Brightdawn were continuing to explore. According to Sunset, it was the residence of one Flash Sentry and his descendants; nearly all of whom had been royal guards for the Crystal Empire. Apparently she had known a 'mirror' version of this Flash Sentry in the dimension she had come from.
Even after Sunset had showed him pictures from the other world and her bipedal friends, he still couldn't quite wrap his mind around other forms of ponies he knew, or even himself. Was there another Sprout Cloverleaf out there in the multiverse somewhere?
Who could say, really? He knew Sunset had come back to Equestria because she had encountered, well, herself, and the both of them in one place for long wouldn't be good for the stability of the whole fabric-of-existence stuff, so it was probably best that the dimension-hopping was over, at least for now.
He finished coming down the steps onto a tiled crystal floor, and to his surprise, it wasn't as cold as he was expecting. He was able to remove his hood and mask, leaving his radio in his ear as he made his way over to the storage shelves.
"Alright, I'm down in the basement, Misty. Everything going good up there?" He asked through his headset.
"So far, a pretty normal looking bedroom," Misty replied. "Keeping an eye out for things that look good in a museum, and Headmare Sunset wants spellbooks."
"Even if it doesn't look good right now," Sprout began. "The restorers in Zephyr Heights do amazing work, so just remember that. Even if it might look like junk right now, keep it in mind."
Sprout knew that the vast majority of the space in their new trailer would be for books from the immense library across the street, but once that was cleared out, they were going to have much more freedom to look around these houses for things to keep and restore.
He had to admit, once there was no more room in the museums across Equestria, he wouldn't mind a set of antique pony armor on display in the corner of his bedroom.
Sunset was slowly making her way down the shelves of the Crystal Castle library. While it was considerably smaller than the main library out on the main road, it was still sizeable. While Sunny wanted to keep an eye out for history books, Sunset was still adamant on tracking down spellbooks, and keeping the more dangerous ones out of reach for now. Luckily, of the two dozen spellbooks she had found on the shelves so far, they had all been Class III and below, which meant that the librarians of the Empire had been wisely keeping them out of public spaces. Or at least, that was her hope.
She heard the library doors open and shut, before galloping hooves came down the main concourse.
"Sunset!" She heard Sunny say as the galloping got closer. The unicorn stopped where she was in her current aisle, turned, and went out to the table in the center where she had been stacking spellbooks, where the earth pony could easily see her.
"Hey there, Sunny. What's up, find something?" Sunset asked.
The earth mare nodded.
"You could say that," she said, opening the left flap of her saddlebags and pulling out a book.
"It's the personal journal of Princess Flurry Heart," Sunny said, opening the bound book to where a bookmark had been placed, which looked brand new.
"Reading journals now, are we?" Sunset asked, not sure how she felt about invading the privacy of princesses, even those who were long gone.
"I figured this entry would be of interest, because she mentions you," Sunny answered.
Yep, that would be enough to get the unicorn's attention as Sunny offered the open journal to her, and she turned it and read the hoofwriting silently:
For years, Twilight didn't stop fretting over what could have possibly happened to Sunset Shimmer, and once again, I should be incredibly careful on what I wish for. It's been quite a few years since Luster Dawn left her tutelage, and a while ago Twilight told me about another talented unicorn she's encountered trying out for the school. According to her, she is the most gifted pyromancer she has ever encountered.
Twilight told me there is no such thing as bad students, just bad teachers, but I have an incredibly hard time accepting that. I remember the stories I was told about Sunset Shimmer, and luckily for us, her problems became apparent before being offered an alicorn form. Princess Twilight told me that she had turned over a new leaf in her new home, but she vanished with absolutely no trace once she was supposed to come back to Equestria. It worried Twilight sick for years, it took all of her friends to keep her focused enough to run the country. It took her so long to begin to consider selecting another gifted pony from the school as a protege. When Luster Dawn accepted the position, I figured that Twilight was finally beginning to move on. But then Luster did something quite unexpected; she turned down the offer of an alicorn form. Twilight of course respected her decision, and so the student and teacher went their separate ways.
Then a short time later, came the pyromancer, Opaline Arcana. She was everything Twilight could have wanted when it came to a protege; raw ability, ambitious, and driven to succeed. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Luster turned her offer down that Twilight seemed to put Opaline on the fast track to Alicornhood. The problem is, once that happened... Things changed. Opaline changed, and revealed a side of herself she had kept hidden quite convincingly.
Aunt Twilight is wrong. There are bad students. Sometimes those students find redemption like Sunset had. But there are good students that go bad at the drop of a bit. There are bad students that become so skilled at creating a facade of innocence that they even fool princesses. Perhaps Opaline is all of these and more.
If she gets her way, I fear for Equestria's future. I hope Twilight knows what she's doing.