A Friend Not Met

by Legioner8

First published 27th of November, 2018

Sometimes even the failed experiment can yield an interesting result.

The multiverse is a strange place, with stranger worlds. What would happen if our favorite purple princess from Equestria tries to recreate the Magic Mirror, and finds another world, one, were there was a seventh pony at the defeat of Nightmare Moon?

Diary

Twilight Sparkle was excited. No, Twilight Sparkle was positively thrilled! For the time has come to put the results of the last three months of a hard work to a test!

She stood in one of her castle's chambers, the one she decided to turn into a brand new lab. Thankfully most of her precious equipment that was stored in the basement laboratory survived the explosion of the Golden Oak Library, so it didn't took to many effort and expenses.

Before her stood a tall mirror hooked up to the machine, she once used to open the portal to the human world. Though the mirror was different, it was plain rectangle with no frame, nothing like the elegant Magic Mirror created by Star Swirl The Bearded but it would suffice, after all this was just a prototype. Besides, the mirror itself, despite its unoriginal look, was a piece of a magical art. The sheer number of intricate enchantments waved into its glass was astonishing.

Yes, she was going to create a new portal. The portal that leads to a new world! Ever since she had gone through the Magic Mirror the concept of the multiverses became her newest obsession. Thanks to that obsession she was able to construct the machine on such a short notice, when Sunset asked for her help with the Sirens. And now it took only some minor tweaks to repurpose the device.

She cleared her throat. "Spike, take the parchment."

"Can do," The baby dragon saluted, hopped to the nearby table with a big book and stack of parchment on it and grabbed the quill. "Ok, ready when you are."

"Excellent!" Twilight levitated a big tome and some writing essentials from the table to herself and began to write. "Project "Mirror" research log number one-three-eight-dash-one. The prototype is finally ready. I was able to repurpose the machine I used to power the original mirror into, what I call, a Portal Control Terminal. All information on the additions and upgrades to the machine can be found in the attached documents."

"Today I am going to activate the Terminal and attempt to open a stable connection with another universe. As always Spike will observe the experiment and provide a written transcription," At this she waved to her number one assistant.

He smiled and waved back.

"Alright, I'm activating the Terminal," Twilight pulled one of the levers on a control panel, and the machine began to hum.

"Beginning data input," She began to tap on a keyboard with her hooves. "I'm using the coordinates that were calculated with the help of my friend and a colleague Sunset Shimmer and my personal student Starlight Glimmer. According to our calculations, the world on the other side will be very similar to ours, with only some minor differences in a probability that wouldn't be relevant on the grand scale. That's done in order of safety, we don't want to open the portal and find Tirek or hostile environment on the other side."

"In case of emergency I've added a self-destruction enchantment to the mirror that can be activated remotely by Spike via the enchanted rune I gave him."

Spike stopped writing for a moment and glanced at the runestone that was hanging on his neck as a medallion. He really hoped that he wouldn't have to use it.

Twilight had finished putting in the coordinates and was adjusting the settings with some handles and tumblers on the control panel. "If everything will go according to plan the portal would lead to the exact same chamber, and hopefully it will be unused, just like this one was only a week ago. I really don't want to go through the portal and walk face first into something. In any case I would be able to visit the other world for a brief time and, hopefully, establish contact with my counterpart."

Twilight smiled to herself, imagining the look on the other Twilight's face when they will meet. And hopefully this won't be like the time traveling spell all over again, neither of us need that. She thought.

"Alright, the moment of truth," She took a deep breath and pulled the last lever.

The machine started to hum louder, a few electric arks started to dance between the coils on its top. The surface of the mirror began to ripple and shimmer.

"It's working! Spike! It's working!"

Twilight couldn't wait to see the world on the other side. She quickly cast a shield spell around herself and moved closer to better see the mirror.

It's surface already begun to glow bright white and the ripples have turned into the waves. The humming began to get quieter, which could only mean that the hardest part of a spell was finished and the Terminal began process of stabilizing the connection.

Any moment now, Twilight thought looking eagerly at the portal. She levitated her journal closer to herself, ready to write about the success of the experimental launch.

But something was not right. The mirror continued to glow brighter and brighter.

Twilight took a step back. "Spike, I think something..."

She wasn't able to finish the sentence.

Suddenly the surface of the mirror exploded with light, forcing Twilight to jump backwards and use her wings to shield her eyes. The coils on top of the machine began to spit electric bolts all over the room. All monitors on the control panel started to glow before exploding in a shower of glass.

"Spike! Turn it off!" Twilight shouted.

The baby dragon didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed the runestone and inhaled ready to activate the self-destruction enchantment with his dragon fire. But before he could release his breath, the arcane-electric bolt from one of the coils hit the table he was sitting at and send him flying across the room.

"By Celestia, Spike!" Twilight screamed. She wanted to run towards her assistant and make sure that he would be alright, to protect him and activate the self-destruction rune. But what she saw at the corner of her eye stopped her dead in her tracks.

The tendrils of arcane energy started to shoot out of the mirror like whips, leaving the scorched marks everywhere they touched.

And some of them were heading right towards her.

The first one collided with her shield before she could even react. Normally her shields were able to sustain a substantial amount of damage even before she became an alicorn, now they were practically impenetrable by any normal unicorn magic. But this was not normal magic.

Raw arcane energy that collided with her shield vanished almost immediately but, it managed to disrupt the spell on its base level. The shield cracked. The second tendril collided a moment later completely destroying Twilight's protection spell.

This all happened so fast, she didn't even have time to move. The third tendril flew right above her head, singeing her mane. With a frightened squick Twilight fell to the floor and looked at the mirror, only to see more arcane whips flying towards her, leaving the scorched marks on the floor. The moment purple alicorn saw them, she knew that she wouldn't be able to move out of their way in time.

With nothing else to use as a protection Twilight grabbed the journal, that fell from her magical grasp a moment ago and shoved it between her face and the upcoming danger.

When magic collided with the book, the time seemed to slow down. Twilight looked with horror how her makeshift shield was engulfed in flames, how its cover started to glow bright and how it started to disintegrate sending the burning pain in her front hooves.

The Princess instinctively closed her eyes and waited for pain to come...

And waited...

And waited...

By Celestia, I know that this suppose to feel like in a slow motion and all, but this is ridiculous! She thought.

Cautiously Twilight opened one eye and was greeted with a singed cover of her old journal. She just stared at it for a moment. She was sure that the old book was destroyed by magic, she even felt it disappearing from her grasp.

Twilight carefully lifted her head and looked.

The room was dark and quiet, only lit by the occasional sparks flying out of the broken machine. The magic was gone, they were safe, they were...

"Oh Celestia, Spike!" She shouted and jumped back on her hooves. In one big leap Twilight got to the corner where Spike has been thrown by the electric charge, casted the elimination spell and started to dig through the pile of broken wooden planks that ones was a cabinet. "Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay..."

"Urgh..." A clawed hand slowly moved one of the planks aside and the panicked princess saw the small, slightly singed, dragon. "I'm alright, Twilight." He raised his other hand above his head, the cracked runestone in it. "Everything is under control!"

"Oh Spike!" Twilight grabbed her assistant and hugged him. "You saved me! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" If not for him, her face would've been melted by the uncontrollable magic energy, and that is just one of best possible outcomes. "Oh, what would I do without you?"

"Keep hugging like this and you'll have to find out..." The little dragon wheezed. "I can't breathe."

"Sorry." She released him and smiled apologetically. "I keep forgetting about this whole earth pony strength. Are you sure that you're alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, thick scales, remember?" Spike took one more deep breath and looked around the room. "So... What happened?"

Twilight looked over the wrecked room once more. What did happen?

Everything was perfectly calculated, the machine was fully functional, the theory was solid.

And yet, it exploded in her face.

"I don't know Spike. But we can worry about it later. Let's just get out of here." She levitated her assistant onto her back and headed to the door. "How about we go and grab something to eat at the Sugarcube Corner?"

However, before Spike could voice his approval, the door flew off its hinges.

Twilight gasped as something big flew into the room.

"Don't worry everypony!" the familiar, yet rather unwelcomed voice announced. "Discord is here to save the day!"

"Discord! What are you doing here?" Twilight asked and then squinted at him. "You don't happen to be responsible for that little light show, do you?"

The draconequus was making some significant progress with his reformation, however there were some regressions and occasional slips, some more severe then the others.

"Moi?" Discord put his paw on his chest and managed to look rather offended. "Twilight, my dear, the resonance cascade is not a joke! Not even for yours truly!"

"The what?"

"I was minding my own business, creating chaos, choosing gifts for Fluttershy, putting laxatives into Tia's cake, all at once mind you, when I felt the disturbance in the force and rushed to your aid-" Discord started to pace around the room "- only to find the crisis averted, the nerve, and accusations been thrown my way!" he stopped and pointed an accusatorial finger at Twilight. "Well, next time you and that assistant of yours will bring about the world's end don't count on my help! Ta-ta!"

And with that he disappeared leaving behind very confused alicorn princess.

"I'm... sorry?" was all she managed to say after the few moments of silence.

"You are forgiven!" the cheerful voice from behind caused Twilight to jump once again and turn around to find the Lord of Chaos floating there. "But seriously, next time at least wear the proper protection gear."

And with another snap of his fingers he disappeared once again.

"Whaf waf faf afouf?" sounded a muffled voice.

Twilight turned her head and saw Spike wearing some sort of a green body armor and a gray helmet that covered his face. After some fumbling he managed to pull it off.

"I said, what was that all about?" he repeated. "Nice suit by the way." He pointed at Twilight.

"Huh?" Twilight looked over herself, she was wearing a strange orange and black outfit that was made of what seemed to be a metal as well as some rubber-like material for the joints. The armor was surprisingly light and did not hinder her movement at all. Also a pair of simple rectangular glasses was perched neatly on her snout.

"Well, it does look like it can protect me, I'll give him that. I'll have to test it later." She took a few more moments to admire her new outfit before realizing something. "How do I take it off?"

It took some time and Spike's help to free Twilight from Discord's gift and, after putting it away, they continued with their original plan.

***

Despite the bad start the day turned out to be great. When Twilight and Spike arrived at Sugarcube Corner Pinkie Pie already had the complementary "Don't get worked up about the failed experiment" cupcakes ready, because of course she had, and they were simply magnificent. Some time later Rarity came in and, after some casual conversation, offered them to join her at the spa. When they returned home the sun already started to move below the horizon.

"I'm telling you Twilight, they are definitely using some kind of unknown earth pony magic." Spike stretched, while riding on Twilight's back. "You definitely should hire them for our royal spa."

Twilight giggled at that. Yes, the spa sisters were as eager as always to give their princess a royal treatment and as always their hooves were simple divine... Maybe Spike was on to something there.

"We don't have a royal spa, and no, I'm not going to hire anypony."

"Ehh, it was worth a shot." Spike stretched one more time and yawned. "Don't know about you but I am getting sleepy. I'll go hit the hay earlier today."

The Dragon hopped off her back and headed towards the bedroom.

"Are you coming?"

Twilight thought for a moment. "Yes, I'll just go to the lab quickly and get a few things for tomorrows review of the experiment."

That got Spike to stop in his tracks and turn around to face her.

"Okay, I know where this is going," He squinted and pointed an accusatory claw at Twilight. "You are going to get all worked up again as soon as you enter the lab and will spend the whole night trying to figure things out, aren't you?"

"What? No!" Twilight answered with a nervous chuckle. "Of course not. I'll just grab our notes and be right back. Honest."

Spike kept his stare for a bit longer but then he just sighed and shook his head. "Okay, but don't take long."

"Don't worry. And good night Spike."

"Good night Twilight."

***

The lab was dark.

Twilight tried the switch once more but no light came. Apparently the magical surge completely destroyed the power lines in the room.

"Good thing I isolated it from the rest of my castle," Twilight murmured as she entered the room with her illumination spell on.

She made her way towards the table Spike was sitting at during the experiment to see if any of his notes can still be salvaged, only to see a scorched pile of wood and burned pieces of paper scattered around it.

"That lightning did a number on it..." Twilight bit her lower lip and looked back at the rubble that once was a cabinet. The memory of lightning bolt hitting the table and sending Spike flying made her shiver. "Oh Spike, if anything ever happens to you I will never forgive myself. I must be more careful next time."

She shook her head and walked away from the wreckage.

With all transcripts destroyed she lost the benefit of the side observation, however her own notes should be enough to review the experiment and find out what she did wrong. With that thought Twilight made her way to the center of the room where her journal still laid on the floor.

She levitated the book towards herself. Even in the purple glow of her magic she could see the burned marks all over its cover and some of the pages. A pang of guilt shot through Twilight's heart. That book was with her for so long. It served as her diary, a research journal and it contained a copy of every single letter she and her friends wrote to Princess Celestia. It has even survived the destruction of the Golden Oak Library. She could probably think of it as another loyal friend. Especially after she used it as a makeshift shield.

"At least you're still in one piece," Twilight said tucking the book under her wing. "Come on, lets go before Spike decides to drag me out of here by the tail."

***

"I probably would have to drag her out of there by the tail, again." Spike sighed to himself and looked at the clock. "Five more minutes and I'll..."

He was cut off when with a bright flash of light the purple alicorn appeared in the middle of a room.

"Huh. I didn't expect that."

"I told you that it would take just a few minutes." Twilight smirked.

"Good, now I can sleep in peace. Good night Twi!" He dove into his basket and was out even before Twilight could reply.

"How does he do that?" Twilight shook her head.

She levitated the book onto a nightstand near her bed and went to the bathroom to get ready for the sleep. After all tomorrow would be a long day of reviewing all spells and enchantments, and she'd need a clear head for it.

***

"No, seriously, how does he do that?" Twilight thought to herself once again.

She was laying in bed for an hour already and couldn't fall asleep. The thoughts on the experiment were buzzing in her head. Could it be that she was wrong about the sigils they used to enchant the mirror? Or the coordinates were wrong? It was a possibility, after all it is quite hard to work with so many additional dimensions. But no, she quadruple checked everything. Maybe it all boiled down to a simple input error?

With a grunt of frustration Twilight put hooves on the sides of her head. She would never fall asleep at this rate.Twilight set in her bed and grabbed the journal from the nightstand, if she couldn't sleep, she might as well check some things out. With this thought Twilight opened the last page of the journal.

...

"Huh?" Twilight stared at the page for a moment, then she closed her eyes and shook her head. But when she opened them and looked at the page again, nothing changed. She was still staring at an incomprehensible jumbled mess of letters and symbols instead of her own writings.

Twilight started to turn pages, one after the other, but all of them contained the same jiberrish as the last one.

"What kind of magic could have done this?" She questioned out loud. "All of my research, all our letters, everything is gone..." She continued to look through the mess on the page, however the more she looked the more familiar it seemed. She just couldn't put her hoof onto it.

Twilight turned some more pages when suddenly she saw a pice of paper with the normal words on it. One glance was enough for her to recognize it. It was Applejack's letter to Celestia. The one about the importance of being honest to yourself not just the others. Aj accidentally spilled some ink on it and decided to write another one. The ink blot was not big and the letter remained perfectly readable, so Twilight decided to attach it to her journal instead of copying it. And now it was the only readable thing in the whole book.

The proverbial gears in Twilight's head started to spin.

"The letters was in the book when it was hit by the magic, and yet it is intact. That means that this mess was the result of something other than wild magic," Twilight muttered. "That magic could not possibly target only my book nor my hornwrighting for it was anything but sophisticated, on the contrary it was incredibly disruptive. In other words..."

And that's when it hit her. Twilight looked at the writings as if she saw them for the first time. There were patterns, and the more she looked at them the more familiar they became.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Twilight whispered in disbelief. "Is that really my encryption!?"

Now that she realized what it was, she could clearly see it. Her whole journal was encrypted when the wild magic disrupted the enchantment she made.

"But... Didn't I dispel it?"- Twilight whispered, rubbing her chin - "I was sure I did."

Twilight tried hard to remember the last time she made any alterations to the enchantments on the journal. That day she checked its fireproof enchantment, waterproof enchantment, renovated its oxidation resistance and added a new enchantment to make sure the pages wouldn't stick to each other. However she couldn't remember anything regarding the encryptions.

"Huh, I guess I completely forgot about it," Twilight scratched the back of her head. "Hey, that means that everything is still here!"

She grabbed the journal and smiled at it.

"I simply need to decipher everything," her ears fell a little. "I just hope that the enchantment is still working..."

Twilight laid her trusted journal back on the bed and ignited her horn, ready to cast the key sequence spell, that should've activated the deciphering process. A few moments later she opened it on the first page, hoping to see how this jumbled mess transforms into normal words which then slide into their rightful places.

However the text remained motionless with the only one readable word "Hello" written in the upper left corner of the first page.

She tried to cast it again, only to see how the word "dear" gathered itself and slid next to "Hello".

Twilight tried it on more time, making sure that she cast the spell correctly, and was rewarded with a phrase "Hello dear Diary".

"Oh, great..." Twilight facehoofed.

Author's Notes:

So, here it is. My first story in the seven years I've been here.
Please comment and tell me what you think, also please point out any spelling or grammar errors, English is not my native language.
A huge thanks to Marcbot2004 for his proofreading of this character.

Good old days

"That pony sure does love books!" That's what everypony familiar with Twilight Sparkle would tell you. And that's true. Twilight Sparkle loves books and she loves to read them even more.

Reading always was an important part of her life. It was what made her into a pony she was. It allowed her to learn magic, it helped her to save Equestria multiple times, it even showed her how to throw some great slumber parties.

It was normal for Twilight to go through the huge tomes, that would normally take others several days to read, in just one night.

So, yes. Twilight Sparkle always loved reading.

So how ironic it was, that her most beloved activity has turned into an excruciating torment?

The deciphering spell took at least one second to cast, and under the normal circumstances that would not be a problem, however since the cipher enchantment was damaged in such a way that made an automatic deciphering impossible, Twilight had to cast her spell for Every... Single... Word...

And that effectively dropped her reading speed to about sixty words per minute!

This is ridiculous, Twilight thought. I'm sure that I could read faster than that even when I was just learning how to read! At this pace it's going to take weeks to undo everything!

She sighed and deciphered yet another word.

However, despite the terrible inconvenience of this whole situation, there actually was something positive about the process. Diaries and journals exist to store the memories of their owners and to allow them to relive some of their most important days. But Twilight was mostly interested in her notes on the experiments she run, or the letters she sent to the princess, so she could not, for the life of her, remember the last time she simply set down an actually read through the events surrounding those experiments and letters. But now Twilight was practically diving into her own past, all be it one word at the time.

And so, despite her frustration, the smile slowly crept onto her face.

Slowly, word-by-word, Twilight got to the point where Moondancer invented her to her birthday party. The way she wrote about the event made Twilight's ears droop. I can hardly believe that I used to be like this, she thought. I only mentioned Moondancer's party as some annoyance that would distract me from the "important stuff". Twilight sighed and shook her head, feeling ashamed of her past self.

But then she realized something, that made her perk up again. Wait, that happened two days before The Summer Sun Celebration! Twilight eyes sparked with anticipation as she continued to decipher and read, ready to relive the night that changed her life.

~~~

I could not believe it! How could Princess Celestia dismiss my warnings so nonchalantly? We are talking about the biggest crisis Equestria has faced in centuries! And she sends me to some backwater village to "make some friends"!?

I sighed and hanged my head over the chariot's edge. I didn't know what the Princess was thinking, doesn't she trust me? Did I somehow failed her recently? I hoped not. At least I didn't think so...

Plus Spike, who was rereading Princess's letter out loud for the fourth time, did not exactly boost my confidence.

"Look on the bright side, Twilight," he continued, trying to cheer me up. "The Princess arranged for you to stay at the library! Doesn't that makes you happy?"

Maybe Princess Celestia was right and I really was overreacting? After all, when was the last time some ancient dark prophecy came to pass?

No! If there was at least a fracture of chance that the prophecy was true, it was my duty to prevent the disaster! Or at very least to prepare for it. So my stay at the library was indeed a fortunate opportunity to do so!

"Yes, yes it does," I turned to face Spike. "And you know why? Because I'm right! I'll check up on the preparations as best as I can, then I'll get to the library to find the proof of Nightmare Moon's return!"

Spike gave me one of his disapproving looks, apparently all of my reasoning flew right over his head.

"Then when will you make friends, like princess said?" He asked.

Ugh, not that again! Princess made one little remark about my social life at the end of her letter, and Spike decided that this is, apparently, our main objective for today. However, I guess it's not fair of me to be so annoyed at him. After all he is still a baby dragon, it is quite logical that he would be more interested in this friend-making nonsense, rather than the official royal business or ancient history.
"She said to check on the preparations," I reminded him. "I am her student and I'll do my royal duty." As I was talking, our chariot started to descend faster as we were nearing the town square. That was good, the sooner we start the more time I'll have later.
"But the fate of Equestria does not depend on me making friends!" I concluded, hopping out of the chariot.

~~~

~But the fate of Equestria does not depend on me making friends!~

Twilight smiled and closed her eyes. "Oh, silly little pony, if only you knew how wrong you were," she quietly whispered to herself.

~~~

I thanked the royal guards who brought as here, I might be a bit irritated but that is no excuse for being impolite.

"Maybe ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about?" Spike continued to push on as he followed me. He turned around looking for somepony and, as if right on cue, a bright pink mare came to us and... just stood there? She was smiling and all but that was somewhat creepy, I mean, I wasn't even sure if she was looking at me, or past me, or right through me. Spike however was completely unperturbed by the mare's strange behavior and gestured at her. "Come on Twilight, just try!" He said, giving me a reassuring smile.

I looked back at the mare, and yup, she was still standing there, as if waiting for something. I didn't want to start up the conversation, let alone to befriend this strange pony, but that silence was beginning to unnerve me.

"Um... Hello?" I started.

The mare's eyes shifted a little, truly focusing on me for the first time, and a moment later she lipped up into the air with a loud gasp. Before I could even comprehend what just happened, she was gone, kicking up a cloud of dust.

...

"Well that was interesting all right..." I concluded and started to walk. Did I startled her? I sometimes get lost in thoughts myself but this was just ridiculous. How did she leap two meters into the air like that? I could have sworn that she was an earth pony, but to fly away like that would surely require a pair of wings.

"With that mission failed, what is next on the list?" I asked still confused Spike.

"Oh! Um," he looked at the letter again. "It's the food for the celebration. Ponies at the Sweet Apple Acres are in charge of it."

"I think I saw an apple orchard when we were flying," I said. "Come on, it's this way."

***

Thankfully our trip to the orchard was uneventful. We didn't run into any more crazy ponies, and more importantly Spike dropped his attempts to force me into befriending total strangers.

I've only spared the orchard a passing glance when we were up in the sky, and I must admit, it didn't give this place a justice it deserved. Rows upon rows of tall apple trees were stretching as far as eye could see and the fruits looked crisp and appetizing, fit for the royal table.

"Wow, this place is huge!" Spike said, looking around.

"The Apple Family is Equestria's largest supplier of apples and apple related products, it's logical that their fields will reflect that," I said, looking around myself. "I only hope that we won't spend the rest of the day looking for somepony who can give us the report. Let's go."

Turned out it was much easier than I expected. Almost immediately after we walked through the gate we heard a loud "Yeehaw" and an orange mare ran past us to the nearest apple tree. Just before reaching the tree she quickly stopped and turned, letting the momentum to carry her hind legs forward, and gave the tree a powerful buck. As the result all of the apples fell neatly into the baskets at the base of the tree.

Impressed, I briefly wondered if that move was calculated or achieved by the many trials and errors. Regardless the mare looked proud of her work.

At the corner of my eye I saw Spike looking at me, and when I turned to him I was greeted with the same encouraging smile he gave me not so long ago.

"Heh... Let's get this over with," I sighed, not wanting to get into another pointless argument.

Not wanting to startle this mare as well, I decided to put on my best smile and properly introduce myself.

"Good afternoon, my name is Twilight Sparkle." I started, but before I could say anything else my right forehoof was yanked from the ground and vigorously shaken.

"Whel howdy do miss Twilight, a pleasure making your acquaintance. Ah'm Applejack!" She said with a noticeable southern accent, all the while shaking my hoof as if trying to dislodge my whole leg from its joint. "We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like making new friends!"

"F-f-f-friends? A-a-actually I-I-I..." I could not speak like that!

"So, what can Ah do you for?" Applejack asked, finally releasing my forehoof. Not that it changed anything. I still couldn't stop it!

Thankfully Spike grabbed onto my leg, finally stopping it. He barely managed to stifle a giggle.

I shot him an annoyed glare and, after getting back my composure, turned back to Applejack.

"Well, I am, in fact, here to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. And you are in charge of the food?"

"We sure as sugar are!" She answered proudly. "Would y'all care to..."

Before she could finish she was interrupted by the pare of coughs, that were clearly demanding our attention.

I looked past Applejack and saw a pony, wearing a strange clothing, walking from behind the big apple tree.

"Sorry for the interruption, but I was told to find someone named Applejack." She said. "I gather that's you?"

~~~

~I was about to gather her report regarding the food, when we were interrupted by the mare in the strange clothing.~

Twilight stared at the last sentence. Then she reread it again. And again.

I don't remember anything like this... She thought.

Then she closed the journal, opened it again and read the last deciphered sentence again. It was still the same.

And then, like a ton of bricks, it hit her.

She jumped up on all four and shouted.

"That is not my journal!"

Newcomer

Spike was waiting for the opportunity to tell Rarity about his fillings for such a long time that he was beginning to wonder if he will ever have guts to do something like that. But he could not just come up to her and blur things out. No! She is the most beautiful pony in the world and she deserved only the best. But Spike always was a resourceful and clever dragon, so of course he had a plan.

For months he was saving up bits to book a table at the most fabulous and prestigious restaurant in Canterlot. He had to pull some strings to invite Octavia and royal orchestra to preform on that special day. But the most difficult thing was to get Twilight to cast the mustache spell on him again and not being suspicious about it. The final part of his perfect plan was to send Rarity an anonymous letter from the Sicret Admirer inviting her on a date. And so he did.

Everything was just perfect.

When a chariot arrived and its door opened, Spike was left wondering how was it possible that he didn't lose his sight then and there, for he had his eyes on the Divine Beauty itself!

Rarity stepped out of the chariot and the dull bleak street of Canterlot was graced by her presence.

Her coat was sparkling white, her mane expertly curled, her spectacular dress, no doubt created by herself for this exact moment, was floating on a light breeze.

Rarity looked around and noticed Spike and, when their eyes met, he saw in them confusion that was swiftly replaced by happiness.

"M'lady," Spike bowed and extended his claw to her. "Would you do me the honor and accompany me to this lovely restaurant?"

"Oh Spike..." She took his claw, a small blush slowly spreading to her face. "When I got the letter I thought... I hoped..."

"Hush my dear, there is no need for words," He started to lead her towards the doors. "Come."

The music started to play immediately as they entered. The staff was already waiting for them by their table. When they approached Spike waved one of the waiters off as he attempted to move a chair for the beautiful mare in front of him, and did it on his own.

"This place is lovely," Said Rarity as she took a sit.

"The most beautiful mare in the world deserves only the best," Spike answered, taking his sit. "Please choose what ever you like. Today is Your day," He added.

She took the menu and looked through it with a small smile on her face.

"That is not my journal!" She shouted all of a sudden... In Twilight's voice no less...

***

Twilight stood on her bed and stared at the book. This must be it, She thought. There is simply no other explanation!

"Wha..?"

Twilight heard Spike's mumble. Oh, shoot! I must've woke him up. She envelope the journal in her magic and quickly teleported out of the room.

Spike opened his sleepy eyes and looked around the dark bedroom. Oh, just a dream... He thought. Maybe if I'll fall back asleep I'll still be able to enjoy it? Or I'll just bribe Luna later...

And with that Spike was out once again.

***

With a purple flash Twilight appeared in the middle of castle's library. Without a moment hesitation she levitated the journal to the nearest table and practically dove into one of the drawers.

"Okay, I need some parchment! Check! And some ink. Check! And a quill... Oh, come on! Where did I put all my quills?" Twilight shouted while frantically looking around. After a minute of fruitless search she finally noticed one quill lain on the table, right next to the journal. "Check." She sighed.

"Alright!" Twilight announced to the empty library, and started writing. "Unfortunately today's experiment failed, witch lead to the destruction of almost all relevant documentation regarding the portal. However I am certain that most of the information can be retrieved from the notes made by Sunset and Starlight, even if some crucial data is missing, it's going to be but a minor setback. For I have a proof that our calculations were correct! It seems that during the experiment my journal swapped places with its counterpart from the other side. Unfortunately it seems that my own counterpart used the same enchantments that I did, and it resulted in some complications. Regardless, I will use this opportunity to document any differences between our worlds I'll be able to find."

***

..."I gather that's you?"

I watched as a new pony approached us. She was an earth pony, or at least I assumed so. Her long bluish-grey coat with a faded golden outlines, that covered her flanks and hind legs, had no slits for the wings. Long sleeves covered her front legs almost to the hooves. Underneath the coat she was wearing some kind of jacket of the same color with several belts crossing her chest. I wasn't sure, but it looked like she was wearing pants as well. The whole getup looked rather archaic, as if she walked right off the pages of a history book.

Why in Celestia's name would anypony wear all this clothes on a warm summer day was beyond me. It must've been boiling hot under the sun!

I looked at her again expecting to see a sweat drenched pony, but was surprised to see no traces of discomfort upon her face. Her tan coat and short brown mane were completely dry.

As she got closer I saw three thin parallel scars on the left side of her face that crossed her eyebrow and cheek.

I also noticed that Applejack was looking at the newcomer with the same curiosity I was.

"Right you are, Sugar Cube," she answered. "And you are?"

But before the strange mare could introduce herself, Applejack exclaimed. "Oh! Ah know! You're that filly mah brother was talking about! Said Ah'll know you when Ah see you."

"Eeyup," she answered. For some reason that made Applejack chuckle. "To be honest I never thought that you can hire a merc and give them the instructions on what to do using only two words."

She was speaking with an accent, it wasn't as apparent as Applejack's southern one, but it was there. The way she was dragging on her "o" and "u" and rolling "r" was reminiscent of some of the foreigner diplomats I met at Princess's court. What's with this farm and the accents anyway?

"That's mah brother ta you, he doesn't like ta run his mouth," The farmer grinned. "So, what can Ah do you for?"

"Right, regarding your timberwolves problem..."

Now that got my attention!

"Excuse me?" I interrupted her and looked at Applejack. "You have timberwolves running around the place?!"

As if Nightmare Moon was not enough! We're also threatened by the carnivorous plants! I really didn't want to deal with this.

Applejack stiffened and quickly turned to looked at me. A little too quickly.

"Oh! Ehh, you see..." her eyes were darting from side to side, looking at anything but me. "He-he, there might be a little... infestation going on..." She muttered.

I simply facehoofed at that. If that's was the case, there is no way I could allow for Princess Celestia to visit this town! Not that the timberwolves could pose any threat to the alicorn, but still...

"Not anymore." The mare stated and reached into her coat. She pulled out a cloth bundle and tossed it to the ground in front of us.

Applejack and I shared a look.

I carefully reached with my magic and tried to unwrap the bundle, when the cloth was removed we saw a hoof sized wooden... something. It was oval in shape with a roundish protrusion on the side, the streaks of green glow were visible on its surface.

And that thing stunk!

"By Celestia! What is that thing?" I shouted and threw the bundle back to the mare.

"Alpha's heart-root," She scrunched her nose as she reached to cover it with the cloth once again. As she did so I noticed a hilt of a sword sticking from behind her back. "Without it the timberwolf can't pull itself back together."

I simply stood there, looking at the strange mare and the bundle at her hooves. I've read about this, almost all elemental creatures have cores similar to that root, they act a central magical node and a power source. Also, if the body is damaged or destroyed, it will attempt to recreate the elemental using the available materials of the same nature.

And she brought it with her...

"And you brought it to the apple grove!?" I snapped.

That mad mare looked at me and... smirked?

"Not my first time dealing with the elementals," she said, reaching to the bundle. She turned it over and removed a piece of cloth, revealing a rusted nail that was sticking out that thing, a green vapor coming out from around it.

Apparently that damage was enough to render the core inert.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"With their alpha gone the pack will return back to its grove and hibernate until the new one grows up. So your little infestation is dealt with, for the time being, at least." She concluded.

I heard Applejack whistle. "Well Ah'll be. When Mac told me that he hired somepony ta help us out, Ah thought you would help Mah uncle to patrol the farm border or something. Ah didn't expect that you would go on the hunt!"

The mare shrugged. "It's easier that way."

Easier? To go and hunt down monsters? I had no idea how that could be easier for her, but that certainly made things easier for me.

"Alright, I see that the crisis is averted." I said. "Can we please get back to business? I am on a strict schedule."

"Hmm? Oh right, the food!" Applejack stood proudly once again. "Don't you worry none, Sugar Cube! We Apples pride ourselves on our cooking! Would y'all care to try some?"

"Well, as long as it doesn't take to long."
"Can't say no to the free food."

We said that in unison, but apparently Applejack didn't even intended to listen. She bolted to the nearby house and rang a triangle.

"Soups on everypony!" She shouted.

The ground shook. I looked back and saw a whole herd of ponies running towards us. That was a real stampede!

"Where did they come from!?" The mare shouted.

That might have been an interesting thing to ponder, but my mind was preoccupied with trying to find a way to escape. A shield spell? Telekinesis? Kinetic burst? Oh why didn't I practice my teleportation!?

Before I could think of something, the stampede rolled over us. Spike and I were lifted upon their backs and carried somewhere.

The world was still spinning when I found myself back on the ground in and by the table, Spike beside me, thankfully unharmed. With a grown the mare in the coat popped up from underneath the table.

"Ugh, that was unexpected..." she muttered, rubbing her flank.

"Heh, sorry bout that Sugar Cubes,"Applejack hugged us by the shoulders. "Here, let me introduce you to the family!"

What followed was a real avalanche of names, faces and food.

Seriously, how big is this family!? And are they expecting me to actually eat all of this? She even unceremoniously shoved an apple down my throat.

Applejack ended the introductions with an old mare, Granny Smith I think, and nudged me on the shoulder.

"Why, Ah'd say you're already a part of the family!"

Ok! Red flag! There is being friendly, and there's being too friendly. I need to get out of here before they'll try and actually Make me a part of the family or something!

I spat the apple out and laughed nervously. "He, he, I see that the food situation is handled, so we'll be on our way!"

"Aren't you gonna stay for a brunch?" A little filly, Applebloom I think, asked. She looked as though she was about to cry. She was so cute, I almost changed my mind.

"Sorry," I said, trying to look as disappointed as I could. "But we have an awful lot to do."

A collective "Oww..." sounded from all around, and everypony hang their heads.

Oh, come on! Did I accidentally broke some sort of a tradition or social norm?

"Tsk , tsk, tsk, Miss. That's cold." Said the clothed mare. She was already munching on the slice of pie and had smirk on her face. No doubt she was having fun at my expense.

I looked at everypony once more, and, with a defeated sigh, muttered "Fine..."

Ponies around us erupted in the cheers

***

The food was good. Surprisingly so. Originally I was planning on taking just a quick bite and calling it quits, I even tried to thank everypony and leave, but after the first slice of pie came the second, then some apple fritters and juice. Then the second pie...

I knew that all of this tasty delights were going straight to my flanks, but in all honesty I didn't care one bit. I even wondered if that's how the Princess feels about her cake obsession.

After some time ponies started to break up into smaller groups and chat with each other, Applejack and her mercenary decided to discuss the payment, and the adorable little filly was nowhere to be seen. All in all the perfect time to make my escape.

So I grabbed Spike, who was still stuffing himself with various apple treats, and, despite his protests, levitated him away from the table.

Some ponies saw us going and tried to start up conversations, to which I politely declined, others simply waved us goodbye. Good, I didn't want to loose any more time.

So the moment we got sufficiently far from the table I bolted.

***

For the future reference - running with the full stomach is a very bad idea.

For the last five minutes I was fighting off the waves of nausea. And I think I was loosing the battle. Thankfully Spike saw the state I was in and decided to walk on his own.

"I had to much pie..."

I had to stop as I felt a new wave of nausea approaching and covered my mouth with the hooves. This one was bad, I wasn't sure if I could hold it. That's when I noticed a bucket was shoved in front of me. Without thinking I grabbed it and stuck my muzzle inside.

What followed was a few moments of a desperate struggle against my own body, but thankfully I managed to preserve both my pride and my brunch.

I felt better.

I took a long breath and mumbled, "Thanks Spike."

"Uhh, wasn't me Twi." Came the reply.

I looked up and saw the mercenary mare from the farm. She was giving my an amused look.

"Did I miss them also giving a free booze or something?" She smirked.

An annoyed glare was my only answer.

"Hey, are you okay Twilight?" Spike asked getting near me, to which I simply nodded. He took the bucket from me and gave it to the mare. She took it and, without looking, simply tossed it over the nearest fence.

"Uhh, it was empty, right?" She asked after a moment hesitation.

"Yes, yes it was," I answered. "But thank you anyway miss..." I stopped. "Huh, I guess we were never properly introduced to each other."

I stood up straight and cleared my throat. "My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my assistant, Spike." I said and extended my hoof

"Hi!" He waved.

"Hey, kiddo," she answered him with a nod and bumped my hoof with her own. "Name's Tzana."

"That's a weird name." Spike stated.

"Spike!" I shot him a glare. "That's rude!" I scolded him, even though I thought the same.

Thankfully Tzana didn't seem to be offended.

"So I've been told," she shrugged. "So, you're some important pony from the capital, right? Some kind of inspector?"

"No, not really." I answered as we started to walk. "But Princess Celestia did send me here to supervise the preparations for the celebration."

"Sent by the Princess herself." Tzana whistled. "So you are Very important pony from the capital." She said, putting a big emphasis on the word "very".

"I'm not that important." I mumbled. Maybe if I was, Celestia would've actually listened to me. "I am just a student."

"Still impressive though. So, how are the preparations going?" She asked.

"We've only started the inspection. The food was first on the list, and I can definitely say that Apples are doing a good job at preparing it." I answered, holding a hoof to my still heavy stomach. "Oh, and thank you for your contribution miss Tzana."

"Just doing my part." She shrugged again. "And just Tzana is fine."

I nodded to her and turned to Spike. "What's next on the list?"

"It's the weather!" Spike announced after looking through the letter. "A pegasus named Rainbow Dash should be keeping the sky clear."

"Clear huh?" Tzana raised an eyebrow.

I looked at the sky. A lot of fluffy white clouds were slowly carried around by the wind, and no pegasus in sight to clear all that mess.

"Well, she is not doing a good job is she?" I stated me, admittedly obvious, conclusion.

"Watch out!" Tzana shouted suddenly and shoved me to the side. Not a moment later I saw something colorful collide with Tzana with a loud "Oomph", sending them both flying. Then my vision was covered with dirt as I myself hit the ground.

"Twilight, are you okay?" I felt Spike's claws on my side he as tried to help me to get up.

"Yes Spike, I'm fine." I answered as I stood up and dusted myself off. "What just happened?" I looked around and saw Tzana standing on top of a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, who was currently lying in the middle of huge puddle. It seems that we have found our weather pony.

"He-he-he. Oops." The pegasus, presumably Rainbow Dash, said. "Excuse me? Hey could you, maybe, get off me?" She squirmed uncomfortably under the earth pony hooves.

Tzana, however, payed her no mind, as she looked at the right sleeve of her coat. It was torn near the shoulder, and I could see a glint of small metal rings underneath it. Was that a chain mail?

"Now look what you've done." She said that calmly, however something in her voice made me feel uneasy. Apparently the pegasus felt the same way as she doubled her efforts to get free.

"Hey, I said that I'm sorry, okay?" She sounded irritated. "I didn't mean to crash into you or your friend out there." She pointed her hoof at me. "I was practicing one of my cool stunts when you two showed up."

"Well you managed to pull quite a stunt out there." The pegasus smiled when she heard that, however that smile was short lived, as Tzana lowered her head and looked her in the eye. "You messed up my stuff."

That was when I decided to intervene. I didn't want anypony to get hurt, especially the weather pony designated by the Princess herself.

"You are Rainbow Dash I suppose?" I said loudly as I moved to stand next to them. Tzana spared me a glance and, with a sigh, released hers would be victim. Angry or not she must've understood that it never a good idea to get in a way of the Crown. As for myself, I silently thanked Celestia, that she turned out to be a reasonable mare. I didn't want to see what a pony capable of taking on a timberwolf pack could do to the poor pegasus.

Said pegasus didn't waste any time lying on the ground. The moment Tzana moved her hooves she bolted into the air with a powerful flap of her wings. She made a small loop and landed on all four in front of me, wearing a smug look on her face.

"The one and only!" She announced as she started to hover right in front of my face. "Why? You heard of me?"

Well that one certainly had an ego.

"I heard suppose to be keeping the sky clear." Rainbow's expression fell almost instantly and she started to drift upward. When she reached the nearest cloud she just... lay on it. As if she didn't have any bother in the world.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. This town and its inhabitants didn't want to go easy me, did they? First overly friendly farmers, now this lazy weather manager. Well, maybe a reminder that this task was given by the Princess could motivate her?

"I am Twilight Sparkle and the Princess sent me to check on the weather." I said, hoping to get a reaction. I certainly didn't expect that she would wave me off, because that's exactly what she did.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." She said dismissively. "I'll do that in a jiffy. As soon as I'm done practicing."

"Practicing what?" Tzana asked. "Bomb-diving into unsuspecting ponies? Cause it seems like you got that covered."

That ruffled her feathers.

"No!" She got up and pointed at a big poster that was glued to a wall of the nearby building. "The Wonderbolts! They are going to preform at the celebration tomorrow and I am going to show them my stuff!" She announced proudly and did a double loop in the air.

Well, it seemed that her ego was even bigger than I thought. And that was a good thing.

I felt how a mischievous smile appeared on my face as I came up with a simple plan.

"The Wonderbolts?" I asked. "The most talented fliers in all of Equestria?"

"That's them!" Rainbow answered proudly.

"Pff, please! They would never expect a pegasus who can't even keep the sky clear for a one mizzly day!" I said as dismissively as I could. If my assessment was correct, Rainbow would never let that kind of hit to her pride slide.

"Hey!" She shouted. "I could clear that sky in ten seconds flat!"

Gotcha!

I heard Tzana snicker beside me.

"Wanna bet?" She asked. "If you can't clear all of this -" she waved her hoof around "- in ten seconds, you'll pay for my armor fixing... tenfold."

That didn't sound particularly fair to me. I admit, I just used her own ego to try and trick her into doing her job, but Tzana was baiting Rainbow into unwinnable bet. Surely she was not that gullible.

Rainbow glided down to us and hovered almost snout to snout with Tzana.

"Oh yeah? And what if I win?" She challenged.

Then again, I've been wrong before.

"Then you are free to go." Tzana shrugged.

"In that case, I hope that you like some extra ventilation in that coat of yours." Rainbow Dash raised her head proudly as she took a few steps away from us. "Because I am the fastest flier in all of Equestria!" She looked at us triumphantly.

Rainbow walked right into Tzana's trap and did so willingly. Besides she did ruin Tzana's coat. And to be absolutely honest a small lesson in humility won't hurt her either.

So I had no second thoughts when I looked her straight in the eye and simply said "Prove it."

Rainbow Dash bolted into the air with such speed I felt a tug on my mane. When the dust cloud she kicked up settled and I could see her flying from one cloud to the next, destroying them effortlessly, my jaw literally hit floor.

The speed was incredible! I could barely follow her movement and mostly had to just track the rainbow colored blur that was left in her way. She zoomed through the sky so fast, she didn't even need to touch the cloud, the wind she created simply tore them apart, causing them to dissolve. I could have sworn that Rainbow could break the sound barrier with just a few more flaps of her wings!

The sky was clear in no time.

With her job done, Rainbow Dash flew back, did yet another loop in the air and landed on the bridge in front of us.

"What did I tell you?" She asked, beaming with pride. "Ten. Seconds. Flat."

We just stared.

Tzana was the first one to regain her composure.

"You're pretty good." She said.

"Pretty good..." Rainbow repeated, as if contemplating something. "Ha! That's not how you say awesome!"

She flapped her wings once again and started to fly around us.

"You guys are pretty cool." She said with a giggle. "Can't wait to hang out some more. See you later!"

And she was off.

"She is amazing!" Spike shouted.

Yes, there was no denying that. And her claims of being the fastest flyer might as well be true.

"Yeah, she's something." Tzana agreed.

"Were you going to start a fight with her?" Spike asked crossing his arms. He never liked it when the ponies fought over small things, Shining Armor taught him that.

"Nah, I'm not that petty, kiddo." The mercenary waved him off. "That sort of thing-" she poked the ripped sleeve "- happens all the time. I simply wanted to make her to deal with it for me, and make some extra bits." She let out a sigh. "Greed will be my undoing after all. Any way, I gotta get that fixed. See you around."

She turned around and started to walk in the direction of the town market.

"Goodbye." I said after her, and turned back to Spike. "What's next on the list?"

"The decorations." He said after checking the letter. "The celebration will be held at the Town Hall, so we should check it out."

I nodded and started to walk. This day was filled with the distractions so far, and I really hoped that there won't be any more problems with the preparations. I still haven't had a chance to read up on the Elements Of Harmony or Nightmare Moon. The sooner we finish the better.

***

"There you are, Twilight!"

Twilight flinched and looked around, blinking owlishly.

"Huh? Why is it so bright all of the sudden?" She thought out loud.

The library was lit by the warm morning sun light coming in through the windows.

"That's because you did exactly what I thought you would!" Came the reply.

Twilight turned around and saw Spike standing in a doorway. He had his arms crossed and was giving her a disapproving glare.

"You didn't sleep at all, did you?" He asked.

"No, I didn't." Twilight admitted.

There was no point denying it, even if she would try to convince him otherwise, her disheveled looks and bloodshot eyes were a dead giveaway.

"I couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to check something. And you know what? It worked! Not exactly how we intended, but it worked!" Twilight grabbed the journal and practically shoved it in Spike's face. "See? We were right in our calculations! They swapped!"

"Twi, you don't make any sense." He moved the book aside and walked closer to Twilight. There was no point in trying to understand her when she entered the 'Mad Scientist' mode, but thankfully Spike knew what to do in almost any situation regarding Twilight's slightly less than stable psyche "Listen, I know that this is very important to you, but if you won't have some rest, you'll be a shambling mess again." He talked calmly, letting it to sink in, all the while preparing his trump card. "And how would you work on your project in such a state?"

Spike watch with satisfaction as a comprehension dawned on Twilight's face. Even if she wanted to protest before, she would never do it now. Playing on the efficiency of her studies never failed him.

Twilight nodded.

"Yes, Spike. Of course you're right. I'll go-" she yawned, only now realizing how exhausted she really was "-I'll go to sleep. Clear head and all that." She smiled at him. "Thank you for looking after me."

"That's what I'm here for." The dragon answered proudly. "I'll wake you up in a few hours."

This time Twilight fell into Luna's realm even before her own head hit the pillow.

Author's Notes:

Well, I finally found some inspiration to write this.
This time I have no proofreader, so I probably butchered at least some English rules regarding tenses and articles...
So fill free to point out my mistakes.

Correlations

Twilight awoke to a sound of a soft buzzing.

She raised her head and looked out the window. The sun was high in the sky, so it was almost noon. She had about four hours of sleep, which was a lot less than she was comfortable with but definitely better than nothing. It looked like Spike intended to let her sleep in even more. Twilight smiled to herself, sometimes it looked like he was her caretaker and not the other way around.

She heard the buzzing again and was reminded of the reason she awoke.

Twilight yawned, got out of her bed and made her way to the big desk she kept in her room. It was cluttered with the stacks of books on the various magical subjects mostly centered around the teleportation and the additional dimensions. A good reminder of how much work was put into her latest project. But there was one book that was special and held a paramount place on the desk. The journal she used to communicate with Sunset was placed on a small stand that she surrounded with various runes and enchanted gems capable of reading and recording the thaumic energies given off by the artifact. It was just as important for her studies as the original mirror for its ability to effectively transmit the information from one universe to another. And right now it was vibrating.

"Oh, right..." Twilight facehoofed. "I was supposed to write to Sunset about the experiment. Yesterday. She must be worried by now." She muttered.

Twilight levitated the book off its stand and opened it on the marked page. The buzzing stopped and she saw new lines, written in Sunset's meticulous penmanship.

Hello, Twilight.
You didn't write yesterday. I'd like to think that everything went smoothly and you were preoccupied with making the first contact, however I can't help but worry. Is everything alright?
Please write me as soon as you can.

Twilight sight with relief. It seemed that Sunset was simply concerned about her and nothing more. If something like that happened with their roles reversed, Twilight would have entered a full 'Panic Mode' by now. Good thing her pony-turned-human friend was so level headed.

Twilight levitated a quill to herself and started to write.

Hello Sunset.
I am so sorry for not writing sooner. After everything that happened yesterday, Spike and I decided to unwind for a bit and got carried away. And after that I spent the whole night trying to undo the damage done to my journal by the wild magic. So I just passed out afterwards.

Twilight stopped writing to dip the quill in the ink. When she was about to start writing again, the book buzzed as the new message appeared on its page.

OH THANKS CELESTIA!
I was so worried! Are you okay? What damage!? What happened?

Okay, now Twilight felt bad again.

Yes, I'm fine and so is Spike. You don't need to worry.
As for what happened... I'm not entirely sure. Everything was going well until the final step of the process. The portal couldn't stabilize itself. It went into magic surge and exploded.

Geez, are you sure you are okay? And do you know what caused the explosion? It was something with my calculations, wasn't it? I got rusty on the magic theory during my time in this world.

No, no! Don't worry about that! I don't know the reason just yet, but I know for sure that you were right in your calculations. I managed to establish the connection to another world! I even got a proof that there is another world on the other side! You see, my journal was hit by the uncontrollable magic during the incident and, somehow, was swapped with its counterpart from the other side!

I'm glad to hear that I still got it! Human computers are amazing when it comes to difficult math. And what about the journal? Have you reviewed it? How different is that world?

I started to review it. But there is a complication with that, you see. Another Twilight used an enchantment to cypher her journal, thankfully it is the same one I use so it's quite simple to crack it.

You cyphered your journal? Seriously?

Hey, I use it as diary as well! I got a little paranoid that Shiny or Spike may read it! Besides, I haven't used that enchantment in years!

Okay, okay! I'm sorry! So what did you find out?

Well, that world is indeed very similar to ours! I didn't even notice any differences until I got to the Summer Sun Celebration...

And so Twilight told Sunset about what she managed to uncover so far.

So, for now this Tzana is the only noticeable difference?

Yes, everything else was pretty much the same. I can't rightfully say if this journal follows mine word to word before that point, there might be some minor details that slipped my attention, but I am certain that all significant events happened just like I remember them.

Interesting. And what about that pony? Have you ever seen her around Ponyville? Does she even exist in our universe?

No, never saw her. The way my counterpart described her, I'd say she is quite noticeable. What about you? Ever saw somehuman fitting the description?

No, but I'll keep my eyes open from now on. Maybe there is something on the internet.

Ah, I remember the internet. I wish we had it here in Equestria.

No. Just trust me on this one. Ponies are not ready for... that.

They continued to write to each other for several minutes, Twilight trying to figure out what was so bad about the internet and Sunset doing her best to dance around the issue.

***

After finishing her conversation with Sunset and asking her to write more often Twilight returned the journal back to its stand.

Twilight looked out the window once more. The sun was at its full zenith. She slept through half of the day and all her plans were completely derailed, meaning that today's schedule could be thrown out. She really hated to do that. With a heavy sigh Twilight levitated the parchment that read 'Schedule' from her nightstand, crumpled it and tossed it into the bin. Looked like she would have to improvise once again.

Twilight looked around the room, wondering what to do. Her gaze fell on a toll mirror that hanged on the wall near her and she cringed.

Thanks Celestia that Rarity can't see me right now... she'd have a stroke. she thought.

Her mane was a mess, bags were visible under her still somewhat red eyes and to top it all off there was a trail of a dried up saliva on her cheek. All in all she definitely did not look like a graceful and majestic alicorn princess she was supposed to be.

"Well, at least now I know what to do." She muttered and head on to the bathroom to prepare for the rest of the day.

After about ten minutes Twilight was able to leave her room without fear of mentally scarring any local fashionistas. However now her stomach was growling loud enough to give Fluttershy a fright, so her next destination was obviously the castle's kitchen.

When she was near the door she heard Spike's lighthearted whistling. Twilight looked inside the room and saw her dragon assistant. He was standing on a stool in front of the table with a bread knife in his claws and a big plate of sandwiches beside him. Some of the sandwiches were sparkling. Spike cut a slice of bread, reached into a small bowl in front of him, took a fistful of shattered gems from it and proceeded to generously sprinkle them onto the slice of bread.

"Don't you think that it is a bit too much?" Twilight asked coming into the kitchen.

Spike yelped and almost fell off the stool.

"Gee Twilight, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" He asked holding a claw to his chest. "And no, it's not. I didn't get any gems yesterday, so I can indulge myself."

"Of course you can, I'm just joking." Twilight smiled. "Say, does any of those have anything other then gems? I'm starving."

"Of course, actually half of these are for you." He took the plate and moved it closer to her. "Actually I was about to wake you up."

Twilight looked at the plate. It was full of square and triangle shaped slices of bread.

"Um, you made them on the same plate again..." She cringed. The last time Spike did that, she accidentally took on one of his sandwiches and bit on a piece of crashed emerald... Hard...

"Don't worry Twi, this time I made sure to make them different, the square ones are for me and the triangles are for you." He said, taking one of the sandwiches and biting it. The room was instantly filled with the sound of grinding gems. "Besides, I was going to put them on a different plate before bringing them to you."

That sounded reasonable. Twilight thanked Spike and took a careful bite out of one of the square sandwiches. It was good. Although she still chewed carefully.

"You know-" Spike said while grabbing another sandwich, "-I wanted to make us some sort of a salad but it turns out we're almost out of groceries. Now that you up I can go and buy some."

Twilight thought for a bit. She overworked herself and Spike had to look after the castle on his own again. It wasn't fair to the little guy.

"I'll do it myself Spike." She said after she finished chewing. "You deserve a break, just make a list of things we need and I'll get everything. Besides, it would be nice to get outside. I need to get my head clear if I want to start working on figuring out what went wrong with the mirror."

It was never a hard task to convince Spike to take a break and after they finished with their food, Spike quickly wrote a short list of things they needed and handed it to Twilight.

***

The weather outside was great! The weather team has outdone themselves once again.

It's a shame that I had to sleep through such a nice morning. Twilight thought. Then again I am going to spend the rest of the day locked up in my study. Maybe I should take a scenic route?

Even though Twilight decided not to rush, her shopping trip was over in almost no time. The list wasn't to long to begin with, plus the fact that the ponies always stepped aside to let their princess through meant that she never had to stand in a line. Twilight was very uncomfortable with that special treatment, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Alright, almost done." Twilight put a loaf of fresh bread into her saddlebag and levitated the list. "Lets see what's next."

The list read "apples".

Twilight's eyes quickly scanned the market and almost immediately managed to pinpoint her friend's signature hat. One strong flap of her wings and she was in front of the apple stand.

"Hello Applejack!"

"Well howdy sugarcube!" AJ answered with a smile. "What can ah do you for?"

"Ten apples please." Twilight levitated her saddlebag to her friend.

"Coming right up!" Applejack turned back to her stand and started to look for the ripest apples she could find.

"By the way, Ah haven't seen you for almost a week. How are yer doing?" She asked as she started to put the apples into Twilight's saddlebag.

"I'm fine." Twilight waved her hoof absent mindedly. "I've been wrapped up with my experiments for the most part. So much so, in fact, that we almost ran out of food." Twilight chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.

"The same ones yer and Starlight were going on and on about? Oh and how is Starlight? Ah heard she went to the Cristal Empire. Is she still there?" AJ finished with the apples and hoofed the saddlebag back to Twilight.

"Yes, she still is. She said that she just wanted to see Sunburst regarding something related to our work. I was surprised when she did not return to see the prototype lunch." Twilight said, rubbing her chin. "I should probably write to her."

"You do that, Sugarcube. And don't get stuck at that castle of yours, ya hear?"

Twilight waived her hoof dismissively.

"I don't "get stuck" there Applejack. I got out yesterday."

AJ just shook her head at that.

"Going outside only once a week isn't good for yer health, Twi."

"But the project we are working on can change the world! And the results of the recent experiment are..." Twilight trailed off as an idea popped up in her head.

"Say, AJ." Twilight started slowly. "Do you remember the day we met? Were you having any problems with the timberwolfs back then? "

"Huh?" The farmer tilted her head, confused by the sudden turn in the conversation. "Well... Eeyap. Them critters got mighty bold back then. Had to ask some of mah folks to help patrolling the orchard. Why?"

So the events are similar, Twilight thought, as she recounted her findings for the second time this day.

"Well, Ah'll be!" AJ whistled, "Ah wish Mac could find that filly in this here world as well, would've saved us lots of trouble."

"Why? What happened?" Asked Twilight, filling her curiosity rising.

"Them damn logs got too brave!" AJ spat on the ground, "When the sun didn't showed up, a bunch of them snuck into the orchard. Mah uncle and his boys decide to resume their patrols even with Nightmare Moon around and stumbled upon them. They managed to drive those vermin away, but mah uncle got his hind leg mangled something fierce! Ah only learned about it after we returned from our little adventure."

Twilight gasped.

"Now, before you start worrying." Applejack raised a hoof to silence her, "Mah uncle is a true Apple, it takes more than some little injury to bring us down! Plus it was high time for his boys to take over all of the hard work around the farm. The old stallion now mostly runs them fancy mathematics and fineness." She finished and then added, "Still, Ah'd prefer if that didn't happen."

***

After paying for her apples and some more chatting Twilight and Applejack finally waved each other goodbye.

On her way back to the castle Twilight couldn't help but start wondering. If the events are so similar, then where this Tzana might be? Truth be told Twilight was a bit worried while telling AJ about that mare, afraid that the farmer would recognize her and tell Twilight that there indeed was a pony fitting that description, except she never returned from her hunt. Obviously that wasn’t the case.

Maybe if I’ll keep deciphering the journal I will find out more about her? Twilight thought, As soon as I get back home I’ll go straight back to...

“No, no, no!” - She shook her head - “Keep it together, Twilight. I have a project and that should be my number one priority right now! The journal is just an unexpected side project, nothing else.”

With that thought in mind Twilight made her way back to the castle. After she gave Spike everything she bought and asked him to make her favorite salad for dinner, she was ready to begin her work. Twilight entered her destroyed portal laboratory and cast a few light orbs to eliminate the machine.

“Note to self, replace the power lines in the room.” She muttered as she walked around the broken terminal, assessing the damage.

Twilight levitated a pair of safety goggles to herself and put them on.

“Well, let’s get started!”

The Last Day - Part 1

"Arrgh!" Twilight slammed her head into the metallic side of the machine.

It was a disaster! Every bit of electronic burned, every circuit fried, every wire melted, every thaum of the arcane energy dispelled. The machine was completely and absolutely unsalvageable, unless she needed a ton of scrap metal.

"There's no way I can determine if the malfunction was caused by the hardware!"

She looked at the base of the machine. The hatch that led to the power core was bent outward and melted.
Twilight didn't need to pry it open to know that the arcane cores were shattered into pieces.

She let out yet another heavy sigh. Everything else was not that bad, actually. The machine can be rebuild rather quickly, even its circuitry, though custom made, was rather cheap and could be easily replaced. But the cores... this failure would leave a sizable hole in her budget.

Not to mention that it would take up to a month to charge and calibrate the new cores.

"I should write to Sunset and tell her that if something pops up in the human world they are on their own." Twilight thought out loud.

With a sigh she removed her goggles and looked at a clock on the wall. She has been fiddling with the machine for only two hours and that was much, MUCH less than she had anticipated. Of course, she could spend some more time here, dismantling that pile of junk, but truth be told, Twilight saw no reason to do that. She’d probably just teleport it out of her castle and file a request for recycling or something.

Spike was surprised to see her out of the lab so quickly and told her that he didn’t start working on their dinner yet, but Twilight simply waved him off, telling him that it was not a big deal.

“Hmm, let’s see.” Twilight thought out loud as she made her way through her castle. “I’ll have to make some orders for the new parts. Also, there’s always a queue for the cores, the sooner I request the new ones the better.”

All the paperwork didn’t take much time either, and soon Twilight was left with nothing to do. She sat at her desk for a minute, thinking what to do, when her thoughts drifted back to the journal that she left in her library.

“Heh. It seems that I will look into this whole situation after all.” Twilight smiled to herself and teleported into the castle’s library.

***

It was easy enough to find the Town Hall, I saw it on our way down, not to mention that it is quite hard to miss a tall tower in the middle of the town.

As we approached the building something dawned on me - if I don’t know the first thing about decor, how am I supposed to evaluate if the Town Hall is appropriately decorated or not? Should I just wing it? It didn’t feel right, I would never do anything, that the Princess entrusts to me, haphazardly. But the pony responsible for the decorations was hoofpicked by the Princess, so I supposed that her skills were sufficient for the job.

When I opened the door we were greeted by a strong but very pleasant flowery smell. The first floor of the tower was a large round room with a big balcony on the opposite side of the main entrance and the tall windows all around. The walls were decorated with many bouquets of beautiful flowers and banners depicting the sun and the moon, big sky blue ribbons were hanging between the different pieces of the decor.

“Beautiful...” Spike breathed out.

“Yes, the decor is coming along nicely.” I agreed.

“This gotta be quick. I'll be at the library in no time.” I looked around the hall once again. Whoever was in charge of this preparations definitely knew her job. “Beautiful indeed.”

“Not the decor,” Spike shook his head and pointed his claw, “her!”

On the far side of the room, right underneath the balcony, stood a perl-white unicorn mare with a dark purple mane that was expertly curled. She was looking at the multitude of small ribbons that were floating in front of her, surrounded by the pale blue glow of her magic.

“How are my spines? Are they straight?” Spike asked as he ran his claws over his head.

I just rolled my eyes at him. However, I couldn’t help but smile at his antics, Cadance would’ve loved seeing him at that moment.

Well, I only need a report so I walked closer to the unicorn.

“Good afternoon...” I started, but was immediately interrupted.

“Just a moment, please! I'm 'in the zone', as it were.” She levitated a big red ribbon that was covered in glitter in tied around the support column of the balcony. “Oh, yes! Sparkle always does the trick, does it not? Why, Rarity, you are a talent.”

Rarity closed her eyes and nodded to herself.

“Now, how can I help yo-“ Rarity turned to me and started to speak, but as soon as she opened her eyes she let out a loud gasp. “Oh my stars, darling! Whatever happened to you?”

“Huh?” I stared at her for a moment. I turned my head around and looked myself over. My whole right side was covered in dust, with a big splotch of mud right over my cutie mark. I could only assume that my face and mane didn’t look much better, considering that I fell face first on the ground when Tzana pushed me. How didn’t I feel it was beyond me.

“Spike! Why didn’t you tell me anything?” I snapped. But apparently Spike didn’t even hear me. He stood staring at Rarity with an absolutely lovestruck expression on his face.

“It’s a long story.” I let out a sigh. “It actually could’ve been worse.”

If Rainbow would’ve crashed into me, I would’ve ended up in that big puddle of mud. I didn’t even want to imagine how I would’ve looked in that case.

“Anyway, I'm just here to check on the decorations, and then I'll be out of your hair!” I said. I could think of a way to clean myself after I get to the library.

“Out of my hair? What about your hair?!” She trotted behind me and started pushing me in the direction of the back door.

“Wait, where are we going!?” I tried to jump aside, but immediately felt Rarity’s magic around my body, as she lifted me off the ground. “Help!”

Am I being kidnapped!? That was as all I could think of while being levitated across the town. All initial cries for help fell on deaf ears, ponies around us just shared knowing glances or outright laughed. Either this happens all the time and nopony was surprised to see a crazy unicorn dragging a pony to unknown location, or everypony in this crazy town were involved in the pony trafficking!

“Oh, don’t be so overdramatic, darling!” Rarity chuckled as I made my observations known. “I merely want to offer you a bath.”

“A... bath?” I raised my eyebrow at that. “You kidnapped me to offer me a bath?”

“Would you accept my offer otherwise?” She turned to look at me with a serious expression of her face.

“I... well... no.” I admitted. “I am on a strict schedule, so I’d just...”

“And that I simply can not allow!” Rarity turned away from me making an irritated ‘hum!’ sound. “Darling, you have such a lovely coat color, it is an actual crime to let you go around all muddy like that! Not to mention how good your mane goes with the color of your cutie mark, simply divine!”

I was taken aback by her comments. Of course I receive some occasional compliments from time to time, but never before anything about me was described as ‘divine’. Was that... was she flirting with me?

“Ah! Here we are!” Rarity said happily as we approached an unusual looking building that had a distinct carousel theme to it. Rarity opened a door and levitated me inside.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique." She announced with pride in her voice.

To my surprise, this place looked bigger on the inside, I even briefly considered a possibility of the dimensional magic, but quickly dismissed that thought. There was no way a small store in the middle of nowhere could afford that kind of magic. The effect was achieved by the layout of the floor and a bunch of tall mirrors along the walls. There were some ponyquins that displayed various dresses and garments, and I must admit some of them were really eye catching.

Rarity brought me to the second floor, that apparently was a living area of the building, and into a bathroom. She opened a faucet and the bathtub began to feel up with the warm water. As Rarity’s magic started flying around the room, adding all sorts of bath salts and oils to the water, she finally lowered me to the floor.

“There, darling. A nice warm bath to wash off all this dreadful grime!” Rarity said as she turned around and began to walk out of the room. “Just relax and enjoy yourself. Take as much time as you need.”

As she closed the door, I half expected to hear a click of a lock, but thankfully there was none. I turned around and looked at the water. It was steaming lightly and had a nice smell to it. After a brief consideration I decided that it would be okay to quickly wash myself, besides Rarity probably wouldn’t allow me to leave otherwise.

***

The bath was great! I didn’t know what kind of bath salts she added, but they were on par with the best salts you can find in Canterlot, actually they probably were from Canterlot. I couldn’t help but take some extra time to relax in the warm water, but this day was so stressful that I felt justified to have a moment of peace.

After a few minutes I got out of the bath and dried myself off with a quick spell. My coat was clean and my mane felt really silky to the touch. I was somewhat surprised to realize that I was grateful to Rarity, despite her rather rude way of making me take a bath. She was a good mare, if a bit eccentric, after all.

When I found my way back to the first floor of the boutique I saw Rarity levitating a bunch of folded clothes around a small podium that was surrounded by mirrors, with Spike, still in his lovestruck trance-like state, carrying around the huge rolls of fabric. As I got down the stairs Rarity turned around and gave me a beaming smile.

“There, darling. Now you look much better!” She paused for a moment as if trying to remember something and let out an exacerbated gasp, “My stars! Where are my manners? I completely forgot to ask your name!”

“That’s quite alright.” I assured her. “I am Twilight Sparkle. And I’ve been sent here from...”

“Twilight Sparkle! What a lovely name!” She interrupted me, looked at the stacks of folded clothes and levitated several dresses in front of me. “I have just a thing that would perfectly highlight your natural beauty!”

I felt my cheeks start to redden. Again with the compliments! Was that flirting? Where’s Cadance when you need her? She’s is an expert in that sort of thing, not I! But after a moment of rationalizing I calmed down a bit. That was a boutique after all, she was probably just trying to sell me something.

“I-i appreciate the compliment, b-but I really don’t have the time.” I protested.

“This will only take a minute. I was dead serious when I said that your coat is beautiful, Miss Sparkle. There are no ponies of this lovely color here, in Ponyville, and I simply can not let this opportunity slip away!” She moved closer and fluttered her eyelashes. “Please? As a ‘Thank you’ for the bath?”

Was there even any point in trying to reason with the locals in this town? They never listen to me! But the bath was nice... I guess I did owe her one.

“Fine...” I let out a defeated sigh. “And call me Twilight.”

“Thank you, Twilight!” Rarity beamed and levitated even more dresses. “You won’t regret it!”

I regretted it.

Immediately.

That Mad Seamstress used me as one of her ponyquins, dressing me into numerous dresses, each more ridiculous the next. Was that a joke? Where did all the nice dresses go, the ones that I saw earlier? What did I get myself into?

“Now go on, my dear. You were telling me where you're from.” Rarity casually reminded me as if she wasn’t trying to smother me with a corset.

“... I...” I tried to speak but could only whizz one word at a time. Why did she tug on that damn corset so hard? Did she imply that I’m fat? “I've... been... sent... from... Canterlot... to...”

As I said that, Rarity released her grip on the corset, letting me fall on the floor in a heap. A moment later she pulled me up and stood almost face to face with me. I could practically see the stars in her eyes.

“Canterlot?!” She exclaimed, and swung her head to the side in a dramatic fashion, holding a hoof to her forehead. “Oh, I am so envious! The glamour, the sophistication! I have always dreamed of living there! I can't wait to hear all about it! We are gonna be the best of friends, you and I...”

She was pulled out of her fantasies by a ringing of a bell that indicated that somepony had entered the boutique.

“Oh, do excuse me for a moment, my dear.” Rarity told me and turned around to greet a new customer.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magni...” She stopped mid word and let out a loud gasp. “Darling! What are you wearing!?”

I looked up from my position on the floor and saw Tzana standing in the middle of the room. She had her left eyebrow raised and slowly looked between Rarity, me and something next to me.

“Am I interrupting something?” She asked, looking Rarity in the eyes.

Perplexed, I looked to the side, where Tzana was looking a moment ago, and saw... Were those the fishnet stockings? And I already was wearing a corset...

Whatwassheplanning!?!?

“What? No... I... you... darling...” Rarity stumbled on her own words staring at the clothes that the earth pony wore.

“Look, ponies at the market told me that this is the place to get a sawing kit.” Tzana said, taking a step back from the strange unicorn. “I need it to repair my jacket.”

“That is a trench coat darling.” Rarity mumbled in a monotone voice. “Yes. I have one. Let me get it for you.”

As she stumbled her way out of the room, I finally managed to undo the strings on the corset and tore it off as fast as I could, gasping for air. When I looked up I saw Tzana giving me a hoof, I took it and she helped me to get up.

“So this is a trench coat? Huh, who knew? I’ve been calling it a jacket for years.” She said, probably to herself, as she released my hoof. Then she looked at me with a smirk. “As for you. You better get going, before your kinky friend returns.”

She nodded at the corset and the stockings.

My face burned red.

“T-that’s not what it was!” I stammered.

“Yeah, tell me about it.” She grinned.

“W-whatever.” I muttered, not wanting to argue. “But you’re right. I must run. I wasted too much time as is.”

I grabbed Spike with my magic and run from the boutique as fast as I could.

The Last Day - part 2

“Wasn't she wonderful?” Spike mumbled with a wishful sigh.

It took him a couple of minutes to snap out of his trance after we left the boutique. I’d ask him if he even noticed anything that happened after we entered the Town Hall, but I thought that I already knew the answer.

“Focus, Casanova.” I nudged him. “What's next on the list?”

“Music.” He said after looking through the list. “Hey! It’s the last one!”

Oh, thanks Celestia! I didn’t know how much more of this town I could bear. Now I only needed to find out where the rehearsal was taking place, but with my luck I’d probably have to snoop all around the town to find it.

However, after only a few steps we heard the birds singing in a distant, and the way they were singing was really reminiscent of the official royal fanfare that I heard so many times back in Canterlot! That could be it! So, not loosing any more time, I bolted in the direction of the sound.

We were near the town park and apparently the townsfolk of Ponyville really liked their bushes. I couldn’t find any way around the plant wall that was several meters thick, so I simply resorted to the shortest one - the way through the bushes. As I crawled through the branches and leaves I once again reminded myself that I need to practice my teleportation spell, especially the blind teleportation. It would’ve been really useful back then.

About halfway through the bushes I poked my head over the leaves and saw a yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane, she was hovering in front of a tree and all its branches were covered by the birds. And they were singing.

The birdsong was beautiful, but as I finally made my way out of the living wall, I noticed that one bird was singing out of sync with the rest. It almost sounded like it was doing that on purpose.

“Oh my. Um, stop please, everyone.” The pegasus, who apparently conducted the fanfare, flew over to the blue jay. “Umm. Excuse me, sir? I mean no offense, but your rhythm is just a teeny-tiny bit off.”

I couldn’t really be sure, but it looked like the bird listened to her and actually nodded in response.

“Now, follow me, please.” The pegasus returned back to her previous position in front of the tree and raised her hoof. “And one, and two, and one two three...”

It was obvious that she knew what she was doing. I didn’t really want to interrupt the rehearsal, but I already heard the birdsong and was sure that there would be no problems with it during the event. I only needed for her to confirm that, and I could be on my way.

“Hello!” I started.

The yellow pegasus yelp in surprise and the birds scattered around.

“Oh my, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to frighten your birds.” I began to apologize as the mare slowly landed in front of me. “I'm just here to check up on the music and it's sounding beautiful.”

I gave her my best smile but she just stood there. She turned her head in a way that allowed her mane to cover most of her face, so I could see only one third of it. Plus she was looking at anything but me. As the silence dragged on, I was sure that my smile became visibly strained.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle.” I introduced myself, in an attempt to ease the tension.

She looked away and started to slowly paw the ground with one hoof. That was getting more and more awkward by the second.

“What’s your name?” I asked, hoping to get at least a single word from her.

She glanced at me and said something, but she spoke so quietly that I heard only, “Um...”

“I'm sorry, what was that?” I leaned a bit closer to her.

She leaned back, away from me, and mumbled something unintelligible.

“Didn't quite catch that.” I admitted and took a step towards her. She didn’t have any speech impediment, did she? I could hear her just fine, when she was talking to the birds.

The mare lowered herself a bit and completely averted her gaze. The sounds she made resembled a frightened squeaking more than anything else. It sounded like she was on a verge of crying.

Yes, I know that my social skills are rather lacking, but never before I managed to frighten somepony by my sheer presence. I needed to find a way to get out of this awkward situation.

“Hey.” Sounded a familiar voice to my right.

The yellow mare jumped a little with an audible “Eep!” sound and, lowering herself even further, looked to the direction of the voice. The poor thing looked like a cornered animal.

I too turned and saw Tzana.

She walked to us and looked at the pegasus on the ground with a mixture of surprise and amusement on her face. Mostly amusement.

“Are you following me?” I asked her, squinting and looking her in the eyes. Because it really looked like she was. If something happens just once it’s a random chance, twice is a coincidence, but three times and more is clearly a pattern!

Tzana raised her eyes and looked at me. “No. But I do find it exceedingly suspicious that I keep running into you wherever I go.” She said matter-of-factly without missing a bit.

“Excuse me?“ I did a double take. Now I am the suspicious one!? “Why would I ever want to ambush you or something? I am just trying to get over with the assignment I’ve been given!” I was beginning to get angry! Not only everypony in this town went out of their way to get in the way of my schedule, now a clearly suspicious and out of place mare tells me that I am acting suspiciously!

“Whow there.” Tzana raised one hoof in a defensive manner. “It was a joke. And no, I don’t follow you. It’s merely a coincidence.”

“Too much of a coincidence.” I muttered. I know that I was being stubborn but it felt somewhat good to vent out some of my frustration.

“Then call it fate.” She shrugged. “Or maybe a Devine Providence, or whatever. Or simply believe that I do follow you around. Whatever rocks your boat. I don’t care either way.”

“Then why you are here?” I kept pushing and stomped my hoof.

“Because of her.” She pointed at the frightened pegasus mare, who was trying to slowly and quietly back away from us. As soon as we looked at her she flinched and stopped moving. I felt a pang of guilt when I saw her, my outburst probably frightened her even more.

“I think. I am not sure yet.” Added Tzana and turned towards the mare. “Hey, what’s your name?”

She wasn’t even looking at us at that point! She lowered her head, letting her mane fall and almost completely obscure her face and squeaked something.

“Fluttershy? Good. I’ve been looking for you.” Tzana nodded and reached into her trench coat.

How? How did she hear her? I’m sure that I stood closer to her and I didn’t hear anything even remotely resembling a name!

“I saw your note on a note board near the town hall. The one about the healing herbs.” Tzana said, rummaging in her inner pocket, and pulled out a small cloth bag.

“O-oh!” The pegasus, apparently Fluttershy, immediately perked up and looked at the small bundle on the earth pony’s hoof. “I-I didn’t think anypony ever saw my note. I left it there so long ago.” She said in a quiet but actually audible voice.

So she can talk normally. Good, I was beginning to think that I imagined her talking to those birds.

“Yeah, it was rather weathered down.” Tzana nodded. “And since I was going to the Everfree anyway, I decided to gather those herbs you wanted. I figured that not many locals go to the forest.”

“W-wait, you went to the... the E-everfree Forest?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “But it’s so dangerous! And scary!”

She was right. The Everfree Forest is a huge anomaly that is still poorly understood by ponies due to the very dangerous nature of its flora and fauna. However the unique magic of that anomaly has produced many powerful and extremely useful magical and medicinal herbs among the myriad other interesting things.

“I needed to go there.” Tzana shrugged. “Why are you so surprised though? You wanted herbs that grow there.”

“Some ponies grow them.” Fluttershy looked to the side and pawed the ground with her hoof. “I hoped that... that somepony in Ponyville has them. Mr Badger got sick and really needed a healing decoction. But I had to make do without it.”

It’s probably really hard to grow those herbs at home in a small town. Even in the Royal Greenhouse, it is quite troublesome to create suitable conditions for the growth of magical plants that are usually found in any anomalous areas. Not to mention that the homegrown herbs are most definitely not as potent as their wild counterparts.

Wait, did she say Mr Badger?

“B-but I am grateful for your help! I’ll definitely need them for some other poor sick animal.” Fluttershy said with a smile and reached for the bag, but Tzana pulled her hoof back.

“Not so fast, cutie. What about the payment?” She looked at Fluttershy expectingly, raising an eyebrow.

“O-oh.” Fluttershy jerked her hoof back and looked down. “You went to the Everfree to get them, of course you want bits, sorry.” She lowered her head and looked to the side. “B-but I don’t have any with me right now...”

Tzana sized her up with and thought for a moment. “You don’t look like a girl who would try to weasel her way out of paying.” She said and when Fluttershy looked up Tzana tossed her the bag, which the pegasus managed to catch with a bit of fumbling. “I’ll be staying in the town for the celebration, I am sure will run into each other again. Be sure to have some bits on you then.” That last part sounded a bit like a threat.

During this time Spike finally managed to find his way through the bushes and walked to stand beside me. “Oh, hey, it’s that mare again” He whispered. “She isn’t trying to pick another fight, is she?”

“Nah, don’t think so.” I shook my head. The very idea that Fluttershy could be involved in a fight with anypony, let alone with a mare like Tzana, seemed preposterous to me. “Actually, regarding the celebration.” I said, remembering the reason I was there in the first place. “Fluttershy, do you think that your birds are ready to perform next morning?”

“Oh, yes! They’ve been practicing really hard ever since I got the...” She began answering as she turned to me, but as soon as Fluttershy saw Spike, her eyes widened. “A baby dragon!” With a loud gasp she bolted towards us and just shoved me aside and into Tzana. “Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before. He's sooo cute!”

The mercenary caught me and we exchanged a surprised glance. None of us expected this kind of a sudden change in the behavior of this shy and quiet mare.

Spike, for his part, had a smug smile on his face. “Well, well, well.” He said, crossing his arms, and gave me a smirk.

“Oh my, he talks! I didn't know that dragons could talk!” Fluttershy said, practically prancing in place, and hovered in the air.

“Seriously?” Tzana muttered.

But the yellow pegasus didn’t hear her. “That's just so incredibly wonderful! I-I just don't even know what to say!”

I rolled my eyes at her over enthusiastic babbling. “Well, in that case we'd better be going.” I said and levitated Spike on my back. She confirmed that the fanfares are ready for the celebration and that’s all I needed from her. Now I finally could go to the library and find information on the Elements Of Harmony.

I began to walk but Fluttershy followed me. “Wait, wait! What's his name?” She landed behind me and stared at Spike, who was simply delighted to be the center of attention.

“I’m Spike!” He introduced himself.

“Hi Spike, I'm Fluttershy. Wow, a talking dragon!”

Oh, now she had no problem introducing herself. And seriously, how can somepony not know that the dragons are sentient beings?

“And what do dragons talk about?” Fluttershy continued to question Spike.

“Well, what do you want to know?” I felt how he leaned closer to the pegasus.

“Absolutely everything!” She answered not knowing what she was getting herself into.

But I did! If there was one topic Spike could talk about literally forever, it was himself. Couldn’t suppress a groan as I realized that I’d have to listen to them talk all the way to the library. The path to which I didn’t know.

When Spike began talking about his time as an egg, Tzana walked past me, heading towards the park exit. What happened next was a spontaneous decision born of my desperate desire to preserve my sanity and not be subjected to Spike’s entire life story, so I called out to her. “Ahh, Tzana...” When she turned to look at me, I blurred the first thing that came to mind. “Nice weather, huh?”

She looked up at the bright clear sky, it looked like Rainbow actually took her work seriously, then she looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. “Yes?” She said with a shrug.

I just laughed like an idiot not knowing what to say next, idle talk has never been my forte. I gave her what was probably the fakest smile in the history of smiling, as I desperately tried to think of something I could talk about with a mercenary, but my brain refused to cooperate. So after a few more moments of awkward silence I let out a sigh and hung my head. “Sorry.” I mumbled. “I just wanted... nevermind. Do you know how to get to the library?”

I wasn’t looking at her but I could practically feel how her gaze shifted from me to happily babbling Spike, then to Fluttershy, who was following me just one step behind, then back to me. “As a matter of fact I do.” Tzana said after a brief consideration. “C’mon, I’ll show you the way, I need to return a book anyway.” She said and started walking again.

My ears immediately perked up. I looked up at her with a renewed interest. “Oh, what book that might be?” I asked with a genuine interest.

Instead of answering Tzana once again reached into her coat and pulled out a rather sizable hardcover book. Seriously, how did she keep it there? Her coat didn’t bulge at all.

“The Everfree Bestiary by Daring Quill.” I read on the cover. “Oh, I know this one! Quite an interesting read and a good insight into the chaotic nature of the Forest. Did you take it to prepare for your incursion into the Everfree?”

“Yeah.” She answered and put the book back behind the bosom of her coat. “I needed to know what to expect.”

“Well, it’s good to see the you are doing your homework!” I joked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“In my line of work, that ‘homework’ well done might be the difference between life and death.” Tzana said with a serious tone. “So yeah, I do my homework.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded. She was right, of course. And not to mention I had my own ‘homework’ that I really needed to attend to, and the consequences of not being prepared might also be a difference between life and death, but for Equestria as a whole. And instead of preparing and researching I’ve been running around the town doing some menial, although royal ordained, tasks!

“What’s wrong?” Tzana asked, noticing the somber expression on my face. “Did I struck a nerve or something?”

“In a way, yes. Sorry, I have a lot on my mind right now. I was hoping to get over with everything by now and do some very important studies, but... ” I hanged my head as we walked, I really didn’t want to think of what could happen if I was correct in my assumptions about Nightmare Moon’s return. But soon I’ll be at the library and will finally be able to get to my research. However, I needed to distract myself from the dark thoughts, otherwise I’d get all worked up and would not be able to focus as much later. “So, was there anything else interesting in the library?” I asked.

“The place itself is rather interesting.” Tzana said after a brief consideration.

Turned out that the library was carved inside of a living oak tree, and she was absolutely sure that it was bigger on the inside! Of course I was skeptical about the dimensional magic being used in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but if somepony got through the troubles of enchanting the tree in the first place, they might have had a required skills to go all out with their magic. Besides, Tzana said that she actually did some measuring and the tree should have been at least one-and-a-half meters wider on the outside. In all honesty it sounded really intriguing, I even thought that it was a shame that I would only stay there for one night. Maybe when this is over, I’ll return here for a bit and study the tree’s enchantments more closely.

As we walked side by side, I noticed something about the mercenary that had eluded me before. Only when I realized that I was craning my neck to look her in the face, I finally noticed it. She was tall! Probably as tall as Cadance or maybe just a little bit shorter. How didn’t I notice that sooner? Well, in my defense, I spent so much time around Princess Celestia and Cadance, or even my brother, that simply got used to some ponies being taller than me so it just didn’t registered at first.

“Also, I don’t think that there’s any staff there.” She concluded.

“What!?” I did a double take. A library without a librarian? Preposterous! What kind of sacrilege was that!? “Are you sure about that?”

“Positive.” Tzana nodded, observing my reaction with a mild amusement. “At first I thought that maybe the librarian was on a break or something, but... Remember those measurements I did? I did it while waiting for someone to show up cause I got that bored while waiting, and, well, to make sure that I didn’t go crazy and simply imagined it. Eventually I just had to rummage through the shelves myself.”

“But... But...” I opened and closed my mouth several times. “But who manages the contents of the library? Who catalogs and organizes the books?” That was a disaster! How was I supposed to find the reference materials if there was no pony to make sure that the books are all in their rightful places and not just thrown around haphazardly!

“I don’t know.” She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “Maybe it’s a community thing? I did manage to find what I was looking for, so it works.” Then she stopped and nodded her head to the side. "You can see for yourself."

We stood in front of a huge oak tree, that had several round windows and a door in its trunk. The sign in front of the door read “The Golden Oak Library”. Up above a small balcony was attached to the side of a tree and its canopy created a natural and cozy looking roof over it. I could easily imagine myself sitting there with a book on a warm summer day, or maybe even stargazing with my telescope! Ponyville is a small town and the light pollution should be minimal here, unlike in Canterlot, so...

I shook my head. I needed to focus at the task at hoof!

“And that’s the story of my whole entire life!” Spike concluded his life story. It seemed like he decided to go with the abridged version this time. “Well, up until today. Do you wanna hear about today?” He asked eagerly.

Fluttershy already opened her mouth to say something, probably agree for more stories, but thankfully Tzana chimed in. “I think that this was enough of info for now. Besides, Twi here said that she’ll return this book for me.” She said and held the bestiary in front of me.

“I did?” I asked dumbfounded, but a moment later I understood what she was doing, so I immediately grabbed the book. “Oh right! Of course I did! Silly me, got lost in thoughts and almost forgot about it.” I said, slapping myself on the forehead. “And of course I can’t do it without my number one assistant!” I levitated Spike to the door I just opened and shoved him inside with the book, then I turned around and started to back into the library. “That was delightful meeting you and the story was just great, but you know how it is! The librarian’s work is never done. Bye!” I said to Fluttershy and gave a quick nod to Tzana before shutting the door.

“Sheesh. Rude much?” Spike deadpanned, clearly not amused by what just happened.

“Sorry, Spike, but I have to convince the Princess that Nightmare Moon is coming, and we're running out of time!” I said looking around. Why was it so dark in this place? “I just need to be alone so I can study without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends all the time. Now, where's the light?”

I was about to spread my magic across the wall to try and find the light switch, but the moment I stopped talking, the lights turned on and my ears were assaulted by the sounds of party blowers, popping confetti and dozens of ponies shouting “SURPRISE!” at the top of their lungs!

I was surprised alright. But apparently not as surprised as Tzana, who somehow ended up right beside me, despite clearly not entering the library a moment ago.

“W-what the!?” She sprung to stand on her hind legs, effectively doubling her already impressive height and literally towered over everypony present. Her right front hoof darted under her coat and she grasped the handle of a big dagger that was attached to her belt. My eyes widened when I saw the glint of steel as she drew her weapon halfway out of its sheath, but thankfully she stopped as she finally managed to take in her surroundings. When Tzana pushed the dagger back, I let out a sigh of relief I didn’t know I was holding. And judging by the reaction of everypony in the room, or rather by the lack of it, I was the only one who noticed the weapon in the first place, the ponies were just looking at us with smiles on their faces, some even laughed at Tzana’s reaction.

Suddenly a pink mare, whom I saw when I just arrived in Ponyville, hopped in front of us. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this ‘Welcome To Ponyville’ party for the two of you! Were you surprised? Were you? Huh? Huh? Huh!?” She blurred out hopping up and down to look at our faces.

Tzana, still standing on her hind legs, reached out and grabbed Pinkie mid jump, causing her to hang above ground like a rag doll. “How did I get here?” She demanded, looking the pink mare right in the eyes.

“Oh! I simply pulled you in through the window!” She answered nonchalantly and waved her hoof. “You see, I wanted to throw you ‘Welcome To Ponyville’ party yesterday, but you spent a lot of time in here all alone and brooding, so I thought if you are all alone that means that you don’t have any friends here, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, so I was preparing the party when you just up and left to the Everfree Forest, and I thought about throwing a party in the Everfree, but it wouldn’t be fun, and trust me I tried doing that before, and I was so sad that I couldn’t make you feel happy, but today I saw another pony and I've never saw her before and if I've never saw her before that means she’s also new, cause I know everypony, and I mean everypony in Ponyville, and if she’s new, that meant she too hasn’t met anypony yet and does not have any friends, and then you came back to town I got simply THE BEST idea to throw a double party, so you two can meet everypony and make a many friends as possible, cause I invited everypony in Ponyville, but then Twilight came inside the library and you didn’t, and I was like, nope, she’s not getting away this time, so I grabbed you a brought you here, and now the two you have lots and lots of friends!” Pinkie blurred this out so fast that my head began to spin, I wasn’t even sure if she ever paused for a quick breath!

“Huh?” Tzana just blinked a few times with a dumbfounded look on her face but released her grip on the pink pony, who proceeded to bounce in place as if nothing happened, and stood back on all fours.

“Alright everypony!” Pinkie shouted. “Let’s get this party started!”

And like that the music started playing and everypony began to talk and dance.

Tzana and I sheared a glance and she shrugged. “Dibs on booze.” She said and went to one of the tables.

As for me, I went to search for any relevant information about the Elements Of Harmony or the legend about Nightmare Moon, however it was next to impossible to concentrate as ponies were constantly getting in my way, trying to strike a conversation or pull me into a dance or a game I didn’t want to participate in. It seemed that Pinkie wasn’t exaggerating, when she said that everypony in town came to this place, I even met all the mares from earlier, and for some reason they were particularly insistent on hanging out with me, especially Rarity.

After a few minutes of fruitless search I only managed to find one book about an ancient history and some sort of an artifact compendium guide, that looked more like a shopping advertisement than anything else. Hanging my head I decided to try my luck on the second floor of the library.

I circled the crowd of ponies, keeping close to a wall, and was on my way to the stairs when I saw Tzana. She sat alone and was glaring at the bookcase. Somewhat intrigued I came closer to her and looked it over, trying to figure out what was so interesting about this bookcase in particular. I could see nothing out of place, nor any books I needed, so I turned to the mercenary and asked, “What are you looking at?”

“That’s where I was.” She said, pointing forward. “When I left, I walked around the tree, then I blinked and I was here. I don’t remember being pulled anywhere, and I definitely don’t see any windows on this side of the library.”

I looked around and she was right, the closest window was the one near the entrance. And I admit, I too was really surprised when the lights turned on and she was near me. My mind raced trying to find an explanation. Logically there could be just one way Pinkie could pull this off. I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts.

“And there are no hidden passages or holes behind this bookcase, I already checked.” Tzana interrupted me, anticipating my theory.

Well, I had nothing.

“Yer better not think about it too hard, sugarcube.” Said Applejack as she and Rainbow Dash came to us. “Pinkie does... stuff. We’re all kinda used to it, but the newcomers are always baffled by her antics.”

“Yeah, it’s just Pinkie.” Rainbow nodded and gave us two cups. “Here, on the house.” She said with a grin.

We took the cups and began drinking all the while thinking about that nonexplanation that we were given. How can I ‘not think’ about something like that? Or how can‘it’s just Pinkie’ be a suitable explanation for anything?

“Ha, ha, Rainbow, really funny.” Said Tzana in a dry tone as she put her cup on the table and pushed it away.

Applejack leaned forward and sniffed its contents and gave Rainbow, who continued to grin at us, an unamused look. Then all three of them turned to look at me.

I already made two gulps when I finally noticed what I was drinking.

It was a hot souse.

And now my mouth was burning! I let out a scream of pain and it felt like I was breathing fire!

I bolted out of the main hall of the library and to the second floor in search of water. Thankfully the second floor was used as the living area so I managed to find a bathroom really easily. After a few gulps of cold water the burning sensation finally subsided and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The second floor was surprisingly cozy. It had a big study complete with writing table, a sofa and a couple of chairs. The stairs led to a small area that was still connected with the main room and it had a double bed next to a big window. And, most importantly, the walls were lined with lots and lots of bookshelves filled with all sorts of books.

Hoping for the best I went to the nearest bookshelf and looked over its contents.

***

Several hours passed by and I had little to no progress in my research. All I managed to find was the same old book of legends that I found in back in Canterlot and it touched the topic of the Elements Of Harmony only briefly, not detailing anything important about them.

Further inspection of the bookshelves led to discovery of many interesting books many of which, on any other day, I would’ve been delighted to read, but at that time they were completely useless to me.

Feeling completely and utterly defeated I crawled into the bed and tried to organize my thoughts and weight my options, but that infernal disco music from the first floor made it almost impossible to concentrate, so I grabbed the pillow and put it over my head to muffle that noise.

The door slammed open and Spike entered the room. “Hey Twilight! Pinkie Pie's starting pin the tail on the pony game!” He announced enthusiastically. “Wanna play?”

“No!” I shouted. “All the ponies in this town are crazy! Do you know what time it is?!”

“It's the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration.” He answered. “Everypony has to stay up, or they'll miss the Princess raise the sun!” He then turned back to the door. “You really should lighten up, Twilight. It's a party.” Spike added in a disapproving voice before leaving.

I gritted my teeth in frustration and fell back onto the bed. “Ugh, here I thought I'd have time to learn about the Elements of Harmony but, silly me, all this ridiculous friend-making has kept me from it!” I looked at the Moon in the sky and levitated the book of legends towards me. "Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about everlasting night." I read out loud and looked at the stars surrounding the Moon. “I hope the Princess was right... I hope it really is just an old pony tale...” I whispered, hanging my ears.

Suddenly the door opened again and Spike called to me. “Come on, Twilight, it's time to watch the sunrise!”

I looked at the clock on the wall. Already? Oh, Celestia, I had a bad feeling about this.

***

I shuffled along with the crowd of ponies, going to the Town Hall. Everypony was smiling and chatting among themselves, completely oblivious to the looming threat. At that moment I really regretted even finding that stupid old prophecy in the first place.

“Heh, you look cheerful.” Sounded the already familiar voice of the mercenary as she caught up with me. “Your studying didn’t go as planned?”

“No.” I admitted. “It was nothing but a waste of time. I couldn’t find anything useful and I couldn’t concentrate because of all the noise.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, at least you didn’t have to suffer through this ‘party’.” Tzana said with indignation. “Seriously, it felt like it was aimed at the five-year-olds. The overabundance of sweets, stupid games and not a single drop of alcohol in sight to make it bearable.” She shook her head with a sigh. “And with one guest of honor already gone, the pink one and the others wouldn’t let me leave as well. And I think that seamstress was stalking me. Seriously, the ponies in this town are crazy.”

“By Celestia, I met at least somepony sane today!” I said, feeling a small smile creeping onto my face. At least somepony saw it my way!

“Heh, you must’ve seen some really fucked up stuff in this place if it makes me look sane by comparison.” Tzana said with a smirk.

During our talk, we entered the Town Hall and the celebration was about to begin. The place was filled to the brim with ponies both locals and the tourists coming from all over Equestria to look at the Princess.

Noticing our arrival, Pinkie Pie hopped over to us and nudged my side. “Isn't this exciting? Are you excited, cause I'm excited, I've never been so excited, well, except for the time that I saw the two of you walking into town and I went *gasp!* but I mean really, who can top that?” She blubbered, causing both Tzana and I to roll our eyes.

The sound of birds singing the royal fanfare swept over the crowd shushing everypony. I looked up and saw Fluttershy conducting the song in the same manner she did yesterday. Well, at least some things went according to plan.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!” Said the mare in the collar and the ponies all around us cheered. “In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year!”

I looked up at the sky through one of the windows and saw the stars moving! They flew towards the Moon and with a flash the image of the Mare In The Moon vanished!

The shock on my face must’ve been obvious, because Tzana followed my gaze and also looked at the Moon. “What in the...” She whispered in disbelief.

Meanwhile the mayor continued her speech, oblivious to what has transpired in the night sky. “And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria! Princess Celestia!” She announced happily.

Rarity, who stood on a small balcony that doubled as a stage, pulled the rope and opened the curtains, only to reveal the empty space behind them. With a loud gasp she ran behind the stage to look for the Princess.

“This can’t be good.” I muttered, filling the pit forming in my stomach.

The ponies all around us began to whisper to earth other as the mayor tried to keep everypony calm.

“Ooh, ooh, I love guessing games! Is she hiding?” Ask Pinkie, showing the self awareness of a foal.

Meanwhile Rarity returned to the stage. “She’s gone!” She said visibly shocked.

Everypony gasped.

“Ooh, she’s good!” Said Pinkie.

A moment later a strange blue mist, that looked like a piece of the night sky, began to gather on the stage. It coalesced into a tight ball and erupted outwards revealing a pitch black Alicorn. She stood on the stage clad in the blue armor plates with the mist acting as her mane and tail.

Nightmare Moon was real, and she stood right in front of us!

“Oh, my beloved subjects.” She looked around with a smirk on her face. “It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces.”

“What did you do with our Princess?!” Shouted Rainbow Dash and tried to rush at the dark Alicorn, but Applejack managed to bite onto her tail at the last moment, stopping her.

Nightmare Moon chuckled in response. “Why, am I not royal enough for you?” She asked in a mocking tone. “Don't you know who I am?”

“Ooh, ooh, more guessing games!” Pinkie Pie chimed in, hopping at place. “Um, Hokey Smokes! How about... Queen Meanie! No! Black Snooty, Black Snooty...” She began but thankfully somepony shut her up.

“Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?” Nightmare Moon looked at Fluttershy, causing her to flinch away in fear, she then turned towards Rarity, who still stood on the stage right next to her. “Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”

“I did!” I said. I don’t know what I was thinking, catching the attention of the ancient evil Alicorn, but at least she wouldn't threaten the two mares beside her any longer. “And I know who you are. You're the Mare in the Moon. You’re...”

“Luna?” Asked Tzana, stepping in front of me.

What? Luna? Who’s Luna?

“Well, well, well.” Nightmare cooed, sizing up the mercenary. “That name is still remembered? No matter, that pathetic weakling, Luna, is gone! Now there’s only I - Nightmare Moon!” Her voice boomed over the crowd as she spread her wings and began to hover over the stage with her misty mane and tail growing in size. “Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!” She let out an uproarious laughter as lightnings thundered behind her.

The Longest Night - Part 1

The Longest Night - Part 1

Nightmare Moon hovered in the air and cackled maniacally as everypony stared at her in shock, trying to comprehend what she told them.

The eternal night... The prophecy was correct after all. That was horrible! Endless darkness would no doubt spell doom to Equestria! No, to the entire World!

For her credit Mayor Mare was among the first one to regain her composure. “Seize her!” She shouted. “Only she knows where the Princess is!”

Hearing the order four present pegasi Royal Guards snapped out of their shock and jumped to the center of the hall, preparing to assault the alicorn on the stage. Tzana too stood on her hind legs and drew the dagger I saw earlier out of its sheath. However, as the guards leaped into the air and flew to Nightmare Moon, Tzana stood still, merely observing what was about to happen.

Nightmare saw the guards flying towards her, clearly intending to attack her, but didn’t even tried to move. “Stand back, you foals!” She commanded as her eyes began to glow with a bright white light. A moment later one of the lightnings, that were dancing inside her ethereal mane, flashed bright and struck her assailants. As the fell to the floor Nightmare let out another uproarious laugh, making her body dissolved into the night-sky-like mist once again, and flew out of the Town Hall, scaring the ponies near the door.

At that moment Rainbow finally managed to free her tail from Applejack’s jaw and she gave chase after Nightmare shouting, “Get back here!”

As everypony were screaming and panicking Tzana approached on of the fallen guards and looked him over. Her brows furrowed and she placed her hoof onto his neck, checking for pulse. “He is alive, simply knocked out.” Tzana said with a note of surprise in her voice. “So are the rest of them it seems.” She added, looking at the other guards.

It was a small relief, knowing that these ponies weren’t t gravely injured, but I had more pressing matters to attend to. Namely - actually doing what I was intending to do the whole previous day and finding the information on the Elements Of Harmony!

I levitated Spike, who blacked out during this whole commotion, onto my back and bolted back to the library.

After arriving at the Golden Oak I put Spike to bed despite him insisting on helping me, and as soon as his head touched the pillow he drifted into sleep. I tucked him in with a smile on my face. He was still a baby dragon and was up all night, but I knew that in any other situation he would be at my side, helping me. “Don’t worry, Spike. I’ll find a way out of this mess.” I said, leaving the bedroom and going to the main area of the library.

For the next ten minutes I frantically looked through one book after the other, trying to find anything that could help me with this predicament. “Elements, Elements, Elements.” I muttered flipping through the pages in hopes that my eyes will latch on that word. That technique helped me to quickly find information before, but this time it was to no avail. These books had nothing! “Ugh!” I tossed yet another book on the floor. Maybe I should’ve talked to Tzana? It looked like she knew something I didn’t. I even briefly considered going to find her. No, that could also be a waste of time, there’s no guarantees that she knew anything about the Elements. “How can I stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?” I said out loud in frustration.

“And just what are the Elements of Harmony?” A sudden angry voice almost made me jump out of my skin! I turned around and found myself face to face with really pissed off looking Rainbow Dash. “And how did you know about Nightmare Moon, huh?” She pressed on, hovering in front of me and causing me to back away. “Are you a spy?!” She shouted in my face.

Before I could even think of a way to defend myself Rainbow was yanked back and I saw the mares I met yesterday walking towards me. What were they doing here?

“Simmer down, Sally. She ain't no spy.” Said Applejack, releasing Dash’s tail. “But she sure knows what's going on.” She said and looked me in the eyes. “Don't you, Twilight?”

There was a plea in her voice. Like me, these ponies were grasping at a straw, hoping that there was something that could help them. And in their eyes I was that straw, but I could offer hardly any help.

“I read all about the prediction of Nightmare Moon.” I began. “Some mysterious objects called the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can stop her, but I don't know what they are, where to find them.” I said, lowering my ears in shame. “I don't even know what they do!”

Now that I admitted my lack of knowledge, I felt how the light of hope in my started to fade. It was pointless. How could I stop Nightmare Moon if even Celestia couldn’t? How could...

“The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide." Read Pinkie Pie, looking at one of the shelves.

“How did you find that?!” I was near that shelf even before she finished speaking. I also might have shoved Pinkie away.

But it looked like it didn’t bother her at all. “It was under ‘E’!” She said in a sing-song voice, hopping around.

“Oh...” I muttered, fighting the desire to give myself a concussion by the means of facehoof.

I levitated the red hardcover book from the shelf and flipped through its pages. That was It! The information I’ve been looking for! “There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery.” I summarized for everypony present. “It is said, the last known location of the five Elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now known as... The Everfree Forest.” I concluded, feeling a shiver running down my spine at the mention of the Forest.

“Of course. Where else would they be?” Came a voice from behind. “Wouldn’t be interesting otherwise, would it?”

We all turned around and saw Tzana in the door. She stepped inside the library and closed the door behind herself.

“You!” Exclaimed Rainbow Dash and rushed forward. “You knew Nightmare under some different name! What else do you know? Are you a spy!?” Dash questioned her in the same aggressive manner she did with me.

“Oh, fer lands sake...” Applejack facehoofed.

“I can be, if payment is good, but usually I am more of a reconnaissance and open combat kind of mare.” Answered the mercenary with an absolutely straight face and pushed the cyan pegasus away from her.

“What did Ah just tell you, Rainbow?” Applejack held Dash by the waist and forced her to land on the floor. “Stop accusing ponies out of the blue!” She then glanced at Tzana. “Please excuse her, Sugarcube. We’re all a bit on edge. Right, Rainbow?” She asked, nudging the pegasus with her elbow.

“Yeah, yeah... It’s not my fault that you look kinda suspicious. Err... no offense.” Pouted Rainbow, crossing her forelegs.

“None taken.” Tzana shrugged.

I agreed that she really looked out of place, but that did not mean that she was a spy for Nightmare Moon, besides, the surprise in her voice sounded very sincere to me. However, there was that name...

“Actually, Tzana, I was wondering why did you call her Luna?” I asked, feeling my curiosity rising.

“That was her name in the version of the legend that I’ve heard.” Tzana looked up and rubbed her chin. “‘The Lonely Princess’ it was called, if memory serves. And judging by Nightmare’s reaction it was correct.”

Another version? The version that went into more details? That could be helpful.

“Does this version tell anything else about the Elements Of Harmony?” I asked, hoping to learn something new about the Artifacts, the sixth Element maybe?

"No, nothing." Tzana shook her head. "Only that Celestia used them."

“Oh...” I hung my ears in disappointment. But then my brain finally processed what she just said. “Wait, WHAT!? Princess Celestia used the Elements against Nightmare Moon!?” I exclaimed, hearing the surprised gasps from the other ponies.

“Umm, yes?” Tzana raised an eyebrow at our reaction. “Or is there another immortal alicorn princess, governing over the Sun and the Moon for the last thousand years, that I am not aware of?”

We all just started at her.

It sounded so obvious when she put it that way, and yet the possibility that Princess Celestia is one of the sisters in the legend didn’t even occurred to me...

“Wait. But that means...” I began, not knowing how to put in words the thought that was bouncing in my head.

“That they are sisters, yes.” Concluded Tzana.

I facehoofed.

Well that’s official! Twilight Sparkle, the number one student of Princess Celestia and the star pupil of her school, can’t put two and two together!

“Well Ah’ll be...” Applejack was the first who managed to regain her composure. “Oh, Ah see you got yer stuff from the Acres.” She pointed at the hilt of a sword that was once again sticking out from behind the mercenary’s back. “How’s Mah folks doing?”

“Fortifying the farm by the looks of it.” She answered and cocked her head, looking at the farmer. “But why aren’t you with them?”

“Well... Ah know that mah farm is in good hooves, they know how to keep each other safe. And Ah just... Well...” Applejack scratched the back of her head. “Ah don’t know. It felt right. To come here Ah mean.”

“I see. And what about you?” Tzana looked at the rest of the mares in the library, lingering particularly long on Rarity and Fluttershy, especially Fluttershy. “Why are you all here?”

That was a good question actually, but to be honest, it didn’t bother me much by that point. We were in the middle of a crisis and the more minds we could put to solving it the better. Besides, Pinkie already proved herself useful.

Rainbow flapped her wings and proudly hovered in the air. She puffed out her chest and opened her mouth to speak.

Only to be interrupted by Tzana. “Don’t bother.” She said, walking past her, much to pegasus’ dismay. “It’s rather obvious in your case.”

Looking for somepony to blame, it seemed.

“Applejack is right, darling. It did feel right.” Nodded Rarity. “And what kind of a lady would I be, if I let some dreadful alicorn threaten our Princess?”

“I-I... um... w-well...” Fluttershy pawed the floor. “I just followed everypony. I was scared to be alone.” She admitted, lowering her head.

Rainbow landed beside her and threw her hoof over Fluttershy’s shoulders. “That’s okay, Flutters. We are here with you.” She said to the approving nods from other mare.

“Thanks.” Fluttershy raised her head to look at us. “A-and I too want to help too! Only I don’t know how...” she trailed off quietly.

“And I follow the script!” Pinkie Pie announced happily earning confused looks from everypony present.

I shook my head at her antics. It seemed like I began to understand why “It’s just Pinkie” is a suitable answer in this town. I looked at the mercenary mare, who was still given the pink smiling pony a suspicious eye, and asked her, “What about you, Tzana? Why are you here?”

“For the same reason as everyone else, I guess. I wanted to know what’s going on.” She shrugged. “Besides, I am a merc and getting involved in all sorts of coups is literally a part of my job.” She added looking me in the eyes. “If you know what I mean.”

“Wait. What are you saying?” I shook my head in disbelief. She couldn’t be serious, could she? “Are you expecting me to hire you?”

“I heard what you read about those Elements and where they are.” She stepped closer, looking down at me. “So you clearly need someone, who has experience with that Forest and has her way with the blade. Plus, I even come with a recommendation. Isn’t that right AJ?” She looked back at the farmer.

“Well, yup, but...” Applejack nodded. She clearly wanted to say something else, but Tzana interrupted her.

“Thank you, AJ.”

She was right, I couldn’t argue with that. I barely ever come out of my study or library, and know next to nothing about hiking through the deadly environments, so I did need all the help I could get. But there was one problem however. “I don’t have any bits.” I admitted. “I was supposed to stay here for a day, so I only took some change with me.” Maybe if I could convince these mares to loan me some, I would be able to pay for Tzana’s service?

I looked at the other ponies in the room. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were frowning, but kept quiet. Fluttershy once again hid behind her mane and was observing everything with just one eye. Pinkie... was humming a happy tune and looked completely oblivious to the goings-on around her. And Rarity was practically fuming.

“Darling, I can’t believe my ears!” She said with a dramatic toss of her hair. “The fate of Equestria might be at stake here, but instead of offering your help, you are trying to bargain for it?” The indignation in her voice was rather evident.

“Hey, this mare’s gotta eat you know.” Tzana shrugged. “But you are right. The stakes are high here and all the gold in the world will be useless if everything will become a frozen wasteland. That’s why I don’t ask for anything upfront.” She raised her hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. “That and I don’t know a price for something of this scale. But I am sure that we’ll be able to figure something out. Besides, with you being Celestia’s personal protégé and her current representative, you are practically hiring me on her behalf.” The mercenary raised her hoof and offered it to me for a shake.

However, before I could make a decision, my vision was assaulted by the white and purple colors as Rarity appeared right in front of my face. “You personally know the Princess? You are her protégé? Why didn’t you tell me that!?” She questioned me.

“Exactly because of the reactions like this.” I said, backing away from the seamstress. “And how do you know about that?” I asked, looking at Tzana. “I never told that to anypony in this town.” Maybe Rainbow was onto something after all?

“You maybe didn’t, but Spike sure did. Or do you think I wasn’t listening to what he was saying?”

“He ... um ... did mentioned that, yes.” Fluttershy chimed in.

“Oh.” I nodded at that. I wonder what else Spike told them? Anyway, now that the payment problem has been dealt with, or rather conveniently postponed, I raised my hoof and gave the mercenary a firm hoofshake. “Alright, Tzana, I accept your service.”

As we shook hooves, Rainbow made a somersault around us. “One more to the team! Awesome!” She cheered and landed in front of me with a smile on her face. “So, when are we heading out?” She asked with enthusiasm.

Dash either already forgot where we were supposed to go, or she was the only pony in existence, who was seemingly eager to go to the Everfree Forest.

“None of you are going anywhere.” Tzana said in a stern voice.

“WHAT!?” Was everypony’s reaction, except Fluttershy, she actually looked relieved for a moment.

“The Everfree is dangerous even on the better days, but now, with this endless night, who knows what kinds of nocturnal beasts will crawl out of their nests? It’s just too dangerous for a bunch of civies.”

She raised a good point, and I was sure that none of us truly wanted to go to the Forest, but what choices did we have? We needed those Elements if we wanted to stand a chance against Nightmare Moon and rescue the Princess. “In that case, what do you suggest?” I asked the mercenary.

“Ideally, I’d just go there by myself and retrieve the Elements for you, but...” Tzana put a hoof to her chin, “Those are some powerful artifacts, so they probably have some magical means of protection.” Then her gaze shifted towards me and she sized me up and down. “That falls under your expertise, right?”

“Well, I am a generalist when it comes to the magical studies...” I said, rubbing the back of my head. The possibility of an enchanted security system did occur to me, and although I knew a few alarm and trigger spells, I wouldn’t call my knowledge extensive. But what I did know was spellcraft. “I might not know the correct spells to dispel some advanced enchantments, but if I’ll be able to study their thaumic matrices, I might be able to find a workaround.”

“Good.” Tzana nodded to me. “Then get ready, we should go as soon as possible.”

I was about to say that I am ready to go as is, but Rainbow Dash beat me to. She flew to be almost snout to snout with Tzana and glared at her. “If Twilight is going then we’re all going too!” She said and both Applejack and Rarity nodded at that.

Tzana glared back at her for a moment before shifting her gaze to the rest of the girls. “Does anyone of you know how to fight?” She asked.

“Ha! I am no stranger to brawls!” Rainbow announced, puffing out her chest.

“The beasts are not going to try and punch your face in, they will try to bite your head off.” Tzana pulled down the collar of her coat, revealing an old ragged scar on the right side of her neck.

The sight made Rainbow gulp quietly, but she did her best not to loose the self confident expression on her face.

“Well, Ah had to protect mah farm from them monsters before.” Applejack lifted her hat and pulled out some sort of a rope. “It ain’t easy, Ah tell you.”

“That’s why you should be with your folks. I don’t suppose they have that kind of experience.” Tzana pointed out, causing Applejack to rub the back of her head in thought, and looked at Rarity.

“Well, darling, I would have you know that I am quiet proficient in fencing.” The white unicorn said with the a dramatic toss of her mane and pride evident in her voice. “Plus I know Hoof Fu.”

“Fencing? You mean a sport, right?” Clarified Tzana, sizing the seamstress up and down.

“Of course!” Exclaimed Rarity with enthusiasm. “A noble and sophisticated sport of fencing was all the rage a few years back!”

“And you just happened to have an actual combat worthy rapier?” Tzana asked, squinting at her.

“Well, no...” Rarity admitted and lowered her head.

Tzana just nodded and looked at the next girl.

“Eep!” Was all Fluttershy could say as she hid behind her mane.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” The mercenary rolled her eyes and turned to Pinkie Pie. “What about you?”

“Well, I never fought anypony before. I mean, why would I? I’m friends with everypony!” Said Pinkie, rubbing her chin in contemplation. “But I have this cannon!” She announced and produced the said cannon seemingly out of nowhere.

Both Tzana and I stared at her in stunned silence. I think I heard Rainbow snicker, but that was irrelevant at the moment. The important question was...

Where did it come from!? How did she get it here without me noticing!?

“I... I don’t think we’ll need an artillery support for this...” Tzana muttered, staring at the cannon in front of her. “Where did you even get that!?”

“Oh, I have a few these beauties stashed around the town just in case.” Pinkie waived her hoof dismissively.

More silence.

“What in the blazes happens in this town, if you need a whole damn artillery regiment stashed around just in case!?” Tzana asked dumbfounded.

“Oh! I can demonstrate!” Pinkie Pie announced happily and...

Yanked the cord.

While her cannon was facing us!

“Shit!” Tzana swore and leaped to the side almost instantly, I didn’t even notice when she grabbed me during her dive to safety. I only heard a loud booming noise and the next thing I knew I was pinned down underneath the earth pony mare, as she covered my head with her hooves.

That crazy pink pony shot at us! With a cannon no less!

As I picked out from underneath Tzana’s hooves I was fully expecting to see the library completely wrecked, but to my absolute shock it was... decorated? Streamers, confetti and glitter were all over the place, and there was no any visible damage whatsoever, only Rainbow Dash was rolling around on the floor, clutching her stomach for some reason. At first I was afraid that she was injured but as my ears stopped ringing I could hear her uproarious laughter.

“Wut?” Muttered Tzana and got off of me.

“You can’t even imagine how many parties I have to organize in Ponyville!” Said Pinkie, bouncing in place as if nothing happened. “And it is incredibly tedious to decorate everything by hoof, so that where my party cannons come in! One BOOM and place is ready for a party!” She announced beaming with a smile.

Tzana silently glared at the pink pony for a few moments, causing her smile to wilt a little. “You are not coming.” The mercenary said and headed towards the door, “Let’s go, Twilight.”

The Longest Night - Part 2

Our way through the town was an eerie one. Just an hour ago, Ponyville was full of happy, if a bit crazy, ponies going on with their lives, waiting eagerly to see the Princess. Now it looked like a ghost town. The streets were empty and unnaturally quiet. Most of the lights were out; ponies inside were probably hiding, too afraid to draw Nightmare Moon’s attention. Some of the decorations and banners were knocked to the ground; somepony probably ran into them in a panic. A scene like this would fit nicely in some sort of a horror novel. At that moment, I even regretted not having others with us.

As Tzana left the library, they wanted to follow, undoubtedly leading to more arguing. Still, I didn’t want to delay our departure any longer and convinced them that they should stay with their friends and families and told them that a smaller group of two is much harder to detect than a whole party of seven. They agreed with me, although begrudgingly.

So it was just the two of us, walking through the town that did everything in its power to look abandoned. And its dreary atmosphere was getting to me. I kept looking around nervously, and a couple of times, I could’ve sworn that I saw shadows following us and couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

I glanced at Tzana, wondering if she saw anything. The mercenary looked calm and collected; she glanced here and there on occasion, but other than that, there were no signs that she was at all worried. She’d almost looked like a royal guard on a dull routine patrol, if not for a little smirk on her face.

“Well, aren’t you in a good mood?” I said and was surprised by my voice; it sounded so loud in this ominous silence.

“Hm? Oh, that?” Tzana glanced at me, and her smirk turned into a bitter smile, “I just realized that usually, when I get to some new place, it takes me at least four days to get in any sort of serious trouble, but this time it only took two. So, that’s my personal record, I guess. Yay?” She pumped her right hoof in the air a little. “It’s kinda funny, really. I left The Guild and came to the most peaceful place in the world to taste that peaceful life, and this happens.” She nodded at the full moon looming in the night sky, “Oh, the irony.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of my head, “that’s some bad luck.”

"Luck has nothing to do with it; that’s just my life in general." She let out a light laugh. "It's like the saying goes: Life’s a bitch, and then you die."

I grimaced at her morbid humor. “Please, don’t joke like that; I am on edge as is,” I muttered. “Say, you look so calm, aren’t you at all worried about this whole situation?” I asked, hoping to keep the conversation going; it actually helped to quell my anxiety a bit.

“Worried? Why would I be worried?” Tzana turned to look at me, and, I think, I saw a glint in her eyes. “We simply need to go to the local Death Forest, find a bunch of mystical artifacts that we don’t know how to use, hope that they will help us combat the ancient and clearly insane dark alicorn, who most likely already defeated Princess Celestia, and should we fail this will most likely doom the entire world to a slow and agonizing death via the endless night. So yeah, nothing to worry about, right?”

My eye twitched as I stared at her. She wasn’t wrong; that was basically the extent of our plan, but did she really have to put it so bluntly? Or that might’ve been sarcasm, so maybe she isn’t as calm as she looks? A coping mechanism, perhaps? But she was rather eager to get involved with this whole mess, so I could’ve been overanalyzing. In any case, I decided to keep my thoughts to myself.

***

"Strange," Tzana muttered as we reached the edge of the town.
"What is it?" I asked, looking around for any signs of trouble, but given the situation, literally everything looked and felt strange and suspicious.

"Canterlot." She pointed at the city on the mountainside. "It looks like nothing happened. I can see no signals, no signs of mobilization, no battle going on."

I glanced at Canterlot. And indeed, it looked like it would on any other night. Shouldn't it be surrounded by Shining's shield by now? I felt a chill run down my spine. What if something happened to him? What if Nightmare... I didn't even want to think about it. "Do you think we'd be able to see the fight from here? Aren't we too far away?" I asked hopefully.

"If a damn Goddess would assault a kingdom's capital, you'd think that that would be one heck of a battle." Tzana shrugged. "We'd at least see something. That lack of action may mean one of two things. One - they have already given up. Or two - Nightmare isn't there."

"No," I shook my head. "The royal guards would never give up without a fight!"

"And that’s what bothers me. If Nightmare Moon is not trying to consolidate her power by taking the throne, then what is she doing?" Tzana asked and started to walk a bit faster. "We'd better hurry."

What could be more important for Nightmare Moon than the throne? Obviously, she already did something to the Princess, but what if she decided to go after the Elements next? If they indeed were the only thing capable of stopping her, it would be a logical choice for her to go after them and ensure her own safety.

Tzana was right; we needed to get to the elements as fast as possible. I nodded at her, and we started to trot towards the Everfree Forest.

***

As we approached the tall, dark trees, I couldn’t help but slow down my pace to almost a complete standstill. I didn’t want to stop, but my hooves just refused to carry me any further.
Tzana’s right ear swiveled back as she heard my hoofsteps stop. “Twilight?” She glanced back at me, “Is something wrong?”

“Sorry.” My ears drooped, “It’s just... The Everfree Forest has a very, and I mean VERY bad reputation. I’ve read stories... a lot of stories, and most of them described various things that can harm or even k-kill ponies with absolutely no remorse.”

Tzana walked over to me and put her hoof on my shoulder, “Don’t sweat it. That’s why you hired me. Just follow my lead, and I swear by my blade, no harm will befall you.” She released my shoulder and hit her chest with her hoof in some sort of a salute that I didn’t recognize.

“Thanks.” I managed to smile at her. “And I really appreciate your support; it’s just...” I waived my hoof in the air, trying to find the right words, “I am a student and a scholar, I’ve never been to any dangerous places in my entire life, so I am a bit jittery.”

“I understand.” Tzana nodded. She was about to turn but noticed something in the distance, “Hey, Twilight, wanna hear something funny?” She asked, glancing back at me with a smirk.

“Umm... sure?” I was surprised by the sudden question, and I had already decided that Tzana has a rather dark sense of humor, so I didn’t know what to expect.

“That place over there,” she pointed at a large hill beyond a small stream, “apparently that’s where Fluttershy lives. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”

Taken aback by this revelation, I looked at the hill once more, but this time I saw a door and a window in its side, a chimney rising from its top, and a short fence going around it. It wasn’t a hill but a cozy cottage meant to look like a natural hill. And, apparently, Fluttershy lived there.

“That close to the Forest?” I muttered incredulously. That couldn’t be true, could it? That mare was frightened of me, of all ponies!

“Shocking, I know.” Tzana chuckled. “If she can handle it, I’m sure you can too. Besides, I’ve been there myself, and I can say that its deadliness is overexaggerated.”

“Weren’t you the one who told everypony how dangerous it is to go there?” I raised my eyebrow at her.

“I’m not saying that it’s safe.” She shrugged. “Only that it isn’t as deadly as your stories make it out to be. So, come on, time’s a-waistn’.” Tzana turned around and started walking towards the dark forest.

I watched her go for a moment. She’s right, I thought, if Fluttershy can do it, I can do it! My brain did try to remind me that Fluttershy merely lives next to the forest and does not actually go there, but I suppressed these thoughts before they could rob me of my newfound resolve and followed after Tzana.

Now that Tzana was walking in front of me, I was able to get a good look at her sword. Of course, I already saw it sticking from behind her right shoulder. Still, I didn’t pay it much attention, too preoccupied with my duties at first and with finding information about the Elements later, so it never registered how huge it was. Its hilt, topped with a pointy pommel, was long and ended with a wide cross-guard. Its long narrow blade was almost as long as the entire length of her body. The sword did not have a scabbard. Instead, it was fixed on a simple yet unusual contraption that looked like a rather short wooden plank with two hooks near the top. In the center of the plank was a recess in which the blade of the sword was placed, preventing it from swinging when walking and directing it from her right shoulder and diagonally down almost to the ground. Hooks held the sword by the cross-guard and prevented it from falling down. Her sword holder had four belts attached to it, and Tzana simply wore it on top of her coat.

At first, I couldn’t even imagine how she was meant to draw her sword, not to mention swing it. Too used to seeing the earth pony guards using their mouths to wield their weapons, but then I realized that both times she felt threatened, Tzana sprung to her hind legs and held her dagger with a hoof, so she’d probably do the same with the sword. I just hoped she wouldn’t have to.

We walked through the Everfree in silence for some time, and if Ponyville was eerily quiet, the Forest was full of all sorts of sounds, most of which made me flick my ears around like crazy! A hoot of an owl, singing of the nocturnal crickets, skittering of some unseen critters... a twig snap!

“Who goes there!?” I swirled around and strained my eyes to see beyond the light of my horn.

“He-he-he...” Tzana chuckled behind me, “Twi, look down.” She said in a calm voice.

Confused by her chill reaction, I did what she said and saw a broken twig. Exactly where my right hind leg was a moment ago... “Oh...” I felt a blush spreading on my face.

“Relax, Twilight. We barely entered the Forest. Nothing dangerous lives this close to the edge.” Tzana pointed out. “Well, other than timberwolves, that is. But they won’t be a problem for quite a while now.”

“Yeah...” I let out a sigh and rubbed my face. Talk about being jumpy. “I almost jumped out of my skin,” I shook my head as we continued on our way, “this is so embarrassing.”

“Well, no one’s here to judge, so no big deal.” The mercenary waved her hoof off.

“Hey, Tzana, may I ask you something?” I asked carefully. Ever since we entered the Everfree, I wanted to strike up a conversation to ease myself but was too afraid to distract her if she was on the lookout for any danger. But seeing that Tzana just confirmed that we were in the clear, I decided to give it a go.

“Shoot.” She nodded.

“There is something I’ve noticed about the way you talk,” I began carefully, “you always say ‘someone’ or ‘no one’ instead of the usual ‘somepony’, why?”

“Oh, I could give you a lengthy lecture about how this is disrespectful towards other beings and how even in Ponyville, ponies are far from the only beings around,” Tzana said, giving me a stern look, which made me fold my ears and take an involuntary step backward.

“I could tell you all that,” suddenly her stern look was replaced by carefree one, “if I’d give a flying fuck about that sort of thing.” She laughed, causing me to cringe a bit at her vulgarity. “Truth be told, I simply think it’s a mouthful and just sounds stupid. Besides, ponies aren’t exactly common where I'm from, so that word never rubbed off on me.”

“I see,” I muttered. Was it really disrespectful? I never thought of it that way... “Oh, by the way, where are you from?” I asked, eager to keep the conversation going.

“From everywhere.” She shrugged. “I’ve been all over, never stuck for long.”

“I mean, where do you live?” I specified.

“In AJ’s barn at the moment.” Tzana waved her hoof dismissively.

Okay, she’s messing with me! I thought, rolling my eyes. “And where do you usually live?” I asked more specifically, giving her an unamused look.

“Taverns, inns, camps, you name it. I’m not capricious; if it’s dry - that’s good enough. If there’s booze - it’s nearly perfect.” She shrugged again. She did it a lot, actually. A compulsive movement, maybe? “Although...” Tzana rubbed her chin in thought, “I'm most used to the Guild barracks, I guess.”

So she had no place to call her own, a drifter and a mercenary. I guess some ponies could find this romantic, but I felt a little sad for her. I couldn't imagine what it would be like not to have a place to go back to, a place where ponies are waiting for you.

“You mentioned the Guild before,” I decided not to dwell on the sad thoughts, “what is this Guild exactly?”

“Oh, you know, The Guild,” Tzana said it like it was self-explanatory, but I only tilted my head in confusion. “The Mercenary Guild? Sometimes called the Adventurers Guild?” Tzana tried to be a bit more specific, but it didn’t ring any bells. “The world’s oldest and biggest handler for all sorts of mercs and bounty hunters?” I definitely never even heard of it, so I just shook my head. “Damn...” Tzana muttered, “well, I guess Equestria doesn’t really need us all that much, huh?”

“I guess?” I rubbed the back of my head, hoping that I didn’t upset her. “By the way, didn’t you say that you left the Guild?”

“Yeah, I did.” She said and went quiet.

“Why?” I probed after a few moments of silence.

This time Tzana didn’t say anything; she just shrugged.

Just as our conversation died down, the trees in front of us parted, and we found ourselves near the edge of a high cliff.

I looked left and right, and it seemed that the cliff went far in both directions until the trees once again swallowed their edges.

“Okay, where to now?” I asked.

“According to your book, the castle is in the very heart of the Forest, so there.” Said Tzana and pointed forward. “We need to get down.”

We peered over the cliff’s edge. At a glance, I’d say it was about fifteen meters high, and the cliff itself was really steep, with only a few small outcroppings here and there. There was no way we could safely climb down; we’d have to find another way.

“That’s not too high,” said Tzana. “we can climb down.”

“What? No, we can’t!” I looked at her, hoping that she was joking, and saw that Tzana’s eyes traced the path down from one outcropping to another. Nope, she was serious. “Or at least I can’t,” I added, looking down once again. Just a simple thought of climbing down the cliff gave me a feeling of vertigo.

“Okay. Can you magic us down there?” She asked, looking at me expectingly.

“I know how to teleport, but I have little to no experience with the spell, so it won’t be safe to use on that distance, especially to teleport both of us. The elevation difference doesn’t help either. Sorry.” I said, hanging my ears. “Maybe...” I rubbed my chin in thought, “I can levitate you down, but I’ll be stuck up here all the same. It's not that hard to levitate a living creature, even though its natural magic field can disrupt the spell, making it a bit hard to maintain a stable grip, but it’s usually not a problem for a quick lift. But levitating myself is a different story; caster’s magic will be reabsorbed back into their body way too quickly, making it really hard to hold oneself in the air. This requires a strong and constant flow of magic. One mistake can throw the caster off balance and make their concentration waver, however—” I cut myself off, realizing that I accidentally started an impromptu lecture, and gave Tzana a sheepish smile. “Anyway, usually, it’s not a bad thing… unless you are fifteen meters above the ground, that is,” I concluded.

“Okay then,” Tzana let out a sigh, “let’s find another way down.” She turned around and was about to walk back the way we came.

“Wait.” I said, looking back down. “This cliff is big. Who knows how long we’ll be searching for an easier way down? We’ve lost enough time as is. Let’s try magic.” I nodded to myself.

“You sure about that?” Tzana raised her eyebrow. “You didn’t sound too keen on this a moment ago.”

“I know, but I’ll manage,” I said, trying to sound confident. “After all, I am Celestia’s student! Magic is my life!”

“If you say so.” Tzana shrugged. She then smirked and tapped me on a shoulder, “And hey, if the worst comes to pass, I’ll try to catch you.”

“Yeah... thanks,” I muttered, not sure if her promise made me feel more or less worried. “Okay! Let’s get—“

There was a sound of crumbling rocks, and I felt the ground go out from under my hooves! The cliff edge we were standing at began to crumble!

It’s hard to describe that sinking feeling when you realize that you are falling. My heart skipped a beat, and I guess that would’ve been the moment I started screaming, but my breath caught in my throat. It felt like I was in slow motion. I could only stare in shock as the world began tipping forward, desperately trying to think what I could do, but a pair of strong hooves grabbed me and threw me backward.

As I flew through the air, I saw Tzana standing on the crumbling cliff, her forelegs still outstretched after she threw me. She bent her hind legs to jump, but the piece of rock she was standing on gave way and fell off, bringing Tzana down with it. Her eyes widened as she fell. With lightning speed, her right forehoof dove under her coat, drew out the dagger I saw earlier, and slammed it into the edge as she fell, wedging the dagger’s blade between the stones.

That was when I hit the ground. The landing was rough, but I didn’t have time to wallow in pain. I immediately rolled back to my hooves and looked at where Tzana was.

She was hanging from the edge, holding on to the hilt of her dagger. The ground next to the dagger was riddled with cracks and was still crumbling away.

I wasn’t sure for how long she’d be able to hold on, but it couldn’t be too long. Either her grip would slip, or the ground would crumble enough to dislodge the dagger, so I did the first thing that came to my mind and dove forward.

“Hang on!” I shouted as I slid on my belly towards the edge and grabbed her hoof.

“What are you doing!?” Tzana shouted, looking up at me. She was trying to find a foothold, but her hind legs kept slipping.

“I’m trying to help you, obviously!” I shouted back, trying to pull her up, but it felt like I was trying to lift a mountain. “How are you so heavy!?”

“Twilight, back off before—“ She began, but, with a loud rumble, a big chunk of rock we were on partly broke off from the rest of the cliff and tilted, causing me to slide a bit forward and Tzana to lose her footing completely.

“Oh-oh...” I draw a shuddering breath, realizing that it happened because I added more weight to the edge of the cliff.

“Hey, gals! Ah found em!” Sounded a shout from behind.

“Applejack!?” I shouted in surprise; it sure sounded like her. I turned my head around and saw a familiar orange earth pony running towards us.

“What is she doing here!?” Tzana questioned, lifting herself a bit and trying to look behind me.

“Hang on, ah’m coming!” Applejack shouted, getting nearer. She probably got the same idea I did and was about to step on the cliff edge that could barely hold the two of us.

“No!” Shouted both Tzana and me in unison. At that moment, the piece of rock we were on shook and tilted even more.

Seeing this, Applejack slid to a halt. “Twilight, listen ta me carefully!” She shouted, maintaining the safe distance, “You’ll have ta let her go, or y’all both fall!”

“What!?” I looked at her incredulously; how could she suggest something like that!? “Are you insane!? I won’t let her go!”

“Ya have ta!” The earth pony pleaded desperately, “Let her go, and ah promise, y’all be fine!”

“No! I’ll—“ I was about to protest again, but Tzana interrupted me.

“She’s right, Twilight.” She said in a calm voice, that was really out of place in that situation. “This rock is about to fall. Let go of my hoof and carefully crawl backward. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine.” She looked me straight in the eyes while saying that, and in her eyes, I saw confidence.

As if urging me on, the noise of shifting stones was heard again, and the rock shook once more, and if it tilted further, I would not be able to crawl away from the edge. “I’m sorry!” I shouted and let go of Tzana’s hoof.

“Attagirl,” Tzana said with a smile. With a quick yank, she dislodged the dagger and disappeared over the edge; all I could hear was the sound of metal scraping against rock.

“I got you!” Suddenly a cyan blur rushed from somewhere up above and dove down after the mercenary.

I was struggling to push myself away from the edge when a pair of yellow hooves wrapped around my chest and lifted me off the rock. “Hi, Twilight.” sounded a soft voice next to my ear.

“Fluttershy?” I tilted my head and indeed saw the yellow pegasus from before. She smiled at me, but her smile was visibly strained as she quickly flapped her wings, trying to maintain a steady flight.

“You, um, don’t mind me carrying you?” Fluttershy asked, averting her eyes.

“Not at all. Thanks.” I said as we began our descent. When I looked down, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Tzana standing on the ground safe and sound. Rainbow was hovering in front of her face, gesturing enthusiastically. Also, Pinkie Pie was with them already. Somehow. She saw us flying and gave us a friendly wave.

“... and, mare, aren’t you glad that I swooped in and saved you right at the last moment?” I heard Dash’s voice when we were within earshot.

“You do realize that I was already standing on an outcropping when you “saved” me, right?” Tzana gave her an unamused look.

“You were only halfway down; bad things could still happen!” Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and pouted.

“Riiight.” Tzana grinned, probably amused by how easy it was to get under her skin.

“Pff, whatever.” Rainbow flapped her wings and flew up the cliff. A few moments later, she was back, holding an extremely unhappy-looking Rarity in her hooves who, upon reaching the ground, immediately began fixing her mane.

Just as Fluttershy lowered me to the ground, Applejack came down the cliff, hopping from one outcropping to another. Honestly, she made it look way too easy.

“Girls, what are you doing here?” I asked, looking at the five mares in front of me.

“Well, it didn’t sit square with us when we let ya go by yer selfs,” Applejack began explaining. “so, after checking on our families, we got together again and decided ta follow ya.” Everypony smiled and nodded at that.

Tzana let out a sigh. “Listen—“

“Tzana, no.” I interrupted her, remembering how adamant she was about them not coming with us. It wasn’t hard to figure out what she was going to say. “They came all the way here to help us, and we should be grateful for that,” I said and gave them the warmest smile I could muster. “Besides, it is too late to tell them to go back, isn’t it?”

“Fine,” Tzana shrugged, “you’re the boss.” She then turned to look at the orange earth pony. “Hey, AJ, what was with this ‘you have to let her go’? Couldn’t you phrase it any other way? It sounded like you were making her choose whether she would let me die or die with me.”

“Did it really sound like that?” Applejack looked at me, and I gave her a silent nod because that was exactly how it sounded to me. “Aw, shucks, it sounded better in mah head,” AJ said with a nervous smile and rubbed the back of her head.

“Well, I don’t think there was any better way to put it.” I tried to reassure her that it was alright. “We were all panicking and—“

“Oh, by the way, Twi.” Tzana tilted her head a little and looked at me, raising her eyebrow, “Why didn’t you just levitate me? I mean, you almost gave me a lecture there, so I assume you can do that.”

“...”

I opened and closed my mouth several times. How could I forget about the most natural and effective solution? Why did I just jump forward and try to pull her with my hooves? I am a unicorn, for Celestia’s sake!

“Girls, excuse me for a moment.” I walked away from the group, trying to maintain my dignity, got to the nearest tree, and slammed my forehead on its trunk several times, muttering: “Stupid... Stupid… Stupid…”

Author's Notes:

A huge thanks to Pomp-neigh for proofreading this chapter!