What a unique here it was.

As we started to move for the exit, I looked outside to see the types of buildings that were going to be my temporary home. The surprise came when I saw what comprised most of the buildings that I saw. They all looked roughly the same, at least from what I saw. There were a lot of stone buildings, a lot of which looked as though the roof wasn’t exactly the sturdiest material. The thing that came to mind was that I had to wonder about the safety of this place. Then again, the buildings likely reflected the types of things that happened around this place.

There was probably very little in the way of danger.

As soon as he got off of the train, and a majority of the ponies had moved away, we were greeted by the sound of a pony trying to get our attention. The fact that she yelled out the name Twilight was the big giveaway, as well as the “hey there” vein the key that told me she was trying to get her attention. I didn’t know if she expected me with her, though she didn’t look shocked.

I recognized who she had to be, or at least I thought I did, but I knew it was a better idea to let her say who she was. After all, assuming made a donkey out of me.

“Hey Rarity, it’s nice that you shoed up to greet us at the train station.” I knew it! That hair, or mane, had given it away. It also helped that there were very few plain white people on the other side of the mirror that I was aware of. There could have been more, obviously, but I had no way of knowing. “I just wished some of the others had shown up.”

“Oh, you know the others.” I heard the accent, the somewhat snooty sounding accent that was just like the other one. “Pinkie Pie’s always busy with the twins, Fluttershy is dealing with her animals.” I had no reason to be curious about either of these two, yet I was listening. “Applejack had to deal with something apple related. Then we have Rainbow, always trying her latest stunts.” All of those names fit with ones that I knew from the other side, but that made perfect sense.

I had taken over for Sunset Shimmer from the other side, after all.

“What about Spike?” That was a name that I couldn’t quite place. It was right there, though, at the tip of my memory. Obviously he was an important pony, though, given the fact that Princess Twilight sounded disappointed. I knew I had to figure out who this was.

“He’s off helping Rainbow with her stunts. Those two are almost inseparable these days, you know that.”

That’s when the silence kicked in for a few minutes.

Normally, silence was one of my favorite things. It allowed me to get my plans together, and it was just plain good for dealing with headaches that were normally brought about by Snips and Snails. For the life of me, though, Princess Twilight’s silence seemed more sad than contemplative, and Rarity’s seemed to be more along the lines of being nervous and disliking a topic.

“So…” That wasn't my best attempt at getting somepony to talk, but it was the only thing that came to mind. It wasn’t like I could say anything about a single pony that was mentioned. Rarity seemed to look the same, and the others likely did as well, but that said little. I was going to try to assume that these weren't the same ones as my friends on the other side, only with different appearances.

It was better to just figure it out as I went.

Then again, I had come here as a short visit and was extending it slightly. I was going to be back with my real friends at some point soon.

Rarity glanced over to me, then back to Princess Twilight. “Darling, I was thinking that I might fix the two of you an amazing meal.” That seemed to come out of nowhere, though there was the chance that she said something while I had been zoned out. “After all, a good first date is essential. And while I doubt that this is your first date, it most certainly will be your first one in Ponyville.”

Wait, what?

Before I had any opportunity to talk,  Princess Twilight tried. “It isn’t , I mean there’s nothing wrong with her, but I … that is to say …” I had to admit, a flustered Princess Twilight was kind of adorable. It was more in a kitten playing with a ball of yarn adorable, though. It was also interesting to see that her blush came out as more of a pink than I thought was possible. Or was magenta a better way to describe it?

Better question was if it mattered.

“I was only kidding darling.” I hoped she was, though the half disappointed look didn’t help me believe that she had been. “The offer to make you two a meal, though, was completely real.” I had to wonder if there was a catch to this, as there generally was in these situations. After all, she didn’t know me. Then again, the people on the other side of the mirror hadn't known me and they had eventually become my best friends.

I needed to be more positive.

Right now, I was only positive that the idea of a meal sounded good.

“That would be great, Rarity.” I decided to answer, since Princess Twilight seemed to be off in her own little world. I wondered what it was about, but knew better than to ask. If she wanted to tell me later, she would. If she didn't want to tell me, there was likely a good reason. “It might be nice to see whatever Her Highness calls her home. I didn't see anything that looked like a place a Princess would stay when we got into town…” For the life of me, I couldn’t remember if she had told me anything about where she was staying.

“Oh, I know exactly what you mean darling.” She did? I started to worry a little. “I’ve been telling Twilight that a Princess should live in a place that fits her station, but she doesn’t seem to agree at all.” My curiosity started to rise. If she wasn’t staying anywhere that ‘fit her station’ as Rarity had put it, where was she staying?

I was going to find out soon enough, hopefully.

Both of us looked at Twilight as she snapped back to the real world. “I’ve lived there for years, Rarity. I couldn't possibly move.” With that, she started to walk. “Besides, the library is more than big enough. And it has all of my books.”

I really had to wonder if I had heard that correctly.

If I had heard that correctly, that meant that she lived in a library. It didn’t seem completely impossible, I remembered hearing that it was where she had stayed when she had been on the other side of the mirror. Of course, the difference was that she had been homeless then. The idea that a pony would have chosen to live in a library seemed weird enough, but the idea that a princess chose to was something that just felt weird to me.

“I’m sorry, library?”

Twilight looked at me confused. “I was sure that I had told you at some point.” She looked away from me, and it was obvious that she was trying to figure out if she had. “Regardless, you’re going to see when we head back there. You’ll find it’s a really nice place when you give it a chance.” I still didn’t know what to think of the idea that a princess lived in a library. Part of my mind pushed for the idea that it was just full of books, a large building that acted like a library because of all of the books.

But I was starting to think that this was simply something of a wish.

“You’re going to have to tell me all about your trip to the Crystal Empire on our way back. Things have been slightly less interesting while you’ve been away.” It was probably better if I didn’t listen in. These two had a lot to talk about, and frankly I didn’t really care all that much. I had a lot of things I needed to think through, and a lot of plans that I needed to make. Some of these involved Twilight, most of them did actually. Not a single one of them involved Twilight’s friends, who happened to be a lot like my friends on the other side.

I had to focus on what this was, a somewhat lengthen trip to go visit my parents.

Part of me was still back in the Crystal Empire. I had to figure out what everypony’s angle in this was. Cadance seemed nice enough, but she didn’t know me. There wasn’t much reason for her to do what she had done. Even Twilight had more of a reason to do what she did, she had been the one that had opened my eyes to the idea of having friends in the first place. Even that didn’t account for the fact that she had lied to her brother. I knew I would have lied to family, friends, or anyone else … well, not so much anymore, but I would have at one point. The point was that my more rational side knew there had to be an angle.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the only one who was acting rationally was Prince Shining Armor.

Or maybe I was just not thinking right. Sometimes, the old ways of thinking seemed to come back to me so easily. It was just as easily thrown out, but it always came back eventually.

Maybe eventually that would stop.

“And here we are.” I heard Twilight say, with a somewhat annoyed tone of voice.

The place that we were at was a giant tree. Well, it wasn’t giant. It was rather big for a tree, that much was true. I couldn’t stop myself, though, as I fell over laughing. There was no way that she lived in a tree. This had to be some sort of prank, some sort of joke. Or maybe this was some sort of thing that led to a portal that led to the real place where she actually lived.

And … now they were both staring at me.

“Oh, so this is really where you live.” I said.

I noticed Rarity shake her head and go to open the door, where we were all suddenly greeted with a large group of ponies.

Had they really thrown her a party?

Huh?

New friends? I supposed that was me, but the least they could have done was actually put my name on there. It wasn’t that long of a name. Maybe if I figured out which one of them did it, or one of the ponies that had helped, that mistake could be remedied. I looked around at the gather ponies, trying to discover any of them that could have possibly reminded me of someone I knew from the other side.

Well, I saw all of my friends. I saw ponies that looked like them, at least. They all seemed to be close together, which made this easier. I assumed that if Princess Twilight was friends with them, one of them might have done it.

I decided on the one that looked like my friend Pinkie Pie. I just had this feeling that she had some idea who might have thrown the party, or maybe it was just me wishing that they were like the friends that I had across the dimensions.

“Hey Pinkie, I think there may have been a problem with the banner. My name isn’t ‘New Friend’, it’s ‘Sunset Shimmer’.” It was a small thing, but at least this was a way to get my name out there. After all, it was going to be incredibly awkward if ponies around here just called me “Princess Twilight’s friend” or even just “Twilight’s friend”.

Short after I said this, I heard a low sound. I wasn’t sure what it was. All I knew was that I turned, and soon saw yellow hooves smack against my face. I wasn’t a wimp or anything, whoever it was that hit me must have been quite the fighter, but everything quickly faded.