Ruby paced back and forth on the bottom step leading up to the pedestal where Link had vanished before her eyes. A couple minutes had passed since he disappeared with the Sword of Masters.

"It's fine... It's fine!" she tried convincing herself. "He just... turned invisible! Yeah. Invisible. That's a thing he can do, right?" Ruby forced a fake smile. She whipped her head around, looking about her surroundings. "There's no body parts, so he can't have exploded. What if... " Her eyes widened and she stopped her pacing. "What if that light vaporized him?!"

She started to imagine Link's final scream as his body was claimed by the pillar of light.

"I have to go tell Twilight..."

"One second he was there, and the next, he was gone... I'm sorry Twilight..." Ruby practiced her lines in front of the library door, and even then it was under her breath. "Yeah. That easy." She opened the door and saw Emmy snap her head to attention at the new sound.

"Wait... You're not Link..."

"Yeah... about that..." Ruby started her explanation took about five minutes. Emmy concluded that Link indeed vaporized and resolved to wake up Twilight.

The two went up the stairs to just outside Twilight's room. Both Emmy and Ruby hesitated to even knock, knowing the news they had to break to her. They began quietly arguing about who should do it. After a minute of that, Twilight opened the door and confronted them. "It's almost sunrise. What can't wait until decent hours?"

Emmy shared a look with Ruby, then both looked at Twilight. Both of them started describing their understanding of events leading up to Link's disappearance. They even talked over each other to do so. Twilight could barely follow along, growing more annoyed than anything, glancing back and forth between her two visitors. At the same time, upon completion of the retellings, they said somberly, "and now he's gone..."

Epona woke up and looked at the open doorway, which let in enough light to disturb her peaceful sleep. "What's going on?"

"Is this going to be a regular thing with you two?" Twilight asked. They looked at each other, then back to Twilight. "Downstairs. Now."

Ruby and Emerald sat beside each other on the wide couch. Epona took Twilight's seat and decided to listen carefully. Twilight and Spike stood on the left and right respectively of a whiteboard taken from the side room. "Now, Ruby," Twilight began, "you were actually there, so let's hear it from you first. No hyperbole, no omittance." Ruby tilted her head. "Really? You refurbish books, I thought you had a higher vocabulary."

"I'm sorry, I've never used or even heard of either of those words. Maybe that second one, but definitely not the first."

"Fine. No exaggerating on events and don't leave anything out. Better?" She nodded. "Good."

"Okay, so the first thing I hear is stone grinding against stone coming from below the castle. I get out of bed, go down and when I got there, I saw Link and Navi stepping into a pillar of blue light. When it disappeared, the two of them were gone. That sword was gone, too." Ruby finished her retelling and looked at Emmy.

Twilight had been making a flow chart near the middle of the board. She moved her chalk to the left side and asked, "Emmy, I think I recall you saying that he was here this morning and that you saw him leave. Is that right?"

"That's right. I- is it my turn?" Twilight nodded. "Okay. Link was training up his swordsmanship when I woke up and saw him. We talked about his hesitation for killing the guy in the woods. After, he told me he just wanted to go for a walk alone. That's pretty much it from me."

Again, Twilight scribbled down the little information Emmy had given. "So..." She tapped the first fact. "Link practices swordsmanship in the library this morning." Twilight tapped each of the following facts as they got to them. "He confesses his reservation for violence, admits he needs to walk alone so he does. He goes to the castle, draws the-..." She stopped and looked at Ruby. "Did he walk in or was he already inside the pillar as he disappeared?"

"Does it matter?" Ruby asked.

"Of course it matters! It's the difference between walking into a bar and walking into a tavern. One hurts immediately and the other hurts the next day," Epona explained.

"Hmm... I guess he was just standing inside it when I saw him."

"Okay, because if the sword was drawn and then he walked into the light, then the light appeared some time after he drew the sword. Now it looks like the pillar was caused by the sword's removal. And finally, Link, Navi and the sword all disappeared with the blue light. Sound right?"

The others nodded. "So what do you think happened?" Emmy asked.

"Let's bat around some ideas about that. First?" Twilight invited.

"He got vaporized and died," Ruby said flatly.

"Unlikely, since Princess Celestia had this be his mission. Hard to believe she did this on purpose. Next?"

"Uhh... Aliens?" Emmy offered.

To which, Twilight shook her head. "Tractor beams require a line of sight to work. Since the room he was in was underground, we can safely rule that out. Next?"

"He teleported?" Spike asked.

"Last I checked, he doesn't know how to do that," Epona countered. "What if the sword cast the spell for him?"

"Hmm..." Twilight thought aloud. "That would make some sense; the Sword of Masters is technically an artifact, and artifacts have magic..."

"Alright, you smarty. What do you think happened?" Emmy asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Any guess I could have can't be proven. We just simply don't know enough about the Sword of Masters. But, given what we've ruled out, there can't be many solutions left. Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth." The others were quiet. "We may not know enough... But I bet I can tell you who does."

The 5 library occupants appeared before the doors leading into the throne room of Canterlot Castle. The group had agreed to wait until after sunrise, to be sure the princess was awake. "Good morning, my good sirs. We're here to see the princess," Twilight stated.

"Good morning to you as well, Twilight Sparkle. I am afraid you will have to wait. She is with a student right now, and she has asked for no interruptions," the guard replied. "Nice to see you again, though."

"Same here," Twilight agreed. Even though all the Uniforms looked identical to other Uniforms, it was safe to say she'd met this one before. "Could you let Princess Celestia know that my friends and I will wait in the library until she's done?"

"I'd be happy to," he replied with a smile and a nod.

Right, Steel Saber is in there learning the spell of her choice. Guess she's as eager as I was to learn. Twilight thought as she walked away with her friends.

"I can't believe through all these Starswirl books, there's no mention of any sword anywhere!" Ruby nearly shouted.

"It was his secret project. Maybe it's in some sort of worded code," Twilight offered. "I wouldn't be surprised."

Epona had been too engrossed in the book she chose to peer through to engage in conversation. Emmy and Spike shared looking through theirs and took turns talking when the other was reading. Spike spoke up, "Maybe... Do we have that kind of time?"

The group turned to the door as soon as it opened. The stallion from the throne doors came in with one other: Princess Celestia. "Good morning Twilight Sparkle. When I was told you had come to visit, I was surprised, since you've come at an interesting time."

"You're telling me," Twilight stood and smiled at her. "Princess Celestia, Link has pulled the Sword of Masters and has disappeared. You being knowledgeable, we thought you could shed some light into the why of it." She monitored the princess' expression.

"Disappeared? Hmm..." was all she could say.

"Then you don't know either?" Celestia shook her head. "That's unfortunate. None of these-" Twilight gestured to the piles of books at her side, "books had any information either."

"Of course they wouldn't. The Sword of Masters is an artifact studied by Starswirl the Bearded. Once he disappeared, we sealed his records behind closed doors. Neither my sister nor myself has seen what they contain. All we know is what he has decided to share with us."

Ruby asked, "Well, have any of its past owners vanished like this?" Celestia shook her head once more. "I guess there really is a first time for everything."

Emmy stood, leaving her book with Spike. "Twilight says he's fine. He's her brother. I have to believe her."

"That's right," Epona added, finally snapping to attention. "He'll be back and tell us himself."

"Well, there you have it, Princess," Twilight concluded. "So sorry to have come uninvited."

"It's quite alright. Would you care to stay a while?" she invited.

The others looked between each other. "I think we'll head home and wait. We kinda want to be there so he doesn't think something happened to us," Twilight rejected.

Princess Celestia nodded. "Alright. Do come by and visit more often."

"We'll certainly try," she replied with a smile. Twilight fired up her teleport and disappeared with her entourage.

Something's different about her... Something... I don't want to believe... Celestia thought as her star student vanished.

Ruby kicked up her hooves on the couch with a semi-worried smile. "That's that, then? Just wait for him to come back?"

Emmy and Epona shared a spot on the floor while they played a game of chess. The former moved her piece while the latter asked, "And how long will that take, you think?"

Twilight sat at her desk and looked out the window at the town. "I don't know when, but he'll be back. Ruby? If I could ask you to go back to the castle after your visit here and wait for him there, that would be fantastic. From what you said," she turned to face her at that point, "Link saw you right before he vanished. I think yours should be the first face he sees when he comes back."

"He really is not here, huh... If he was somewhere else, he'd have sent a letter, telling us not to worry, right?" Ruby asked.

The entire group looked up at Spike, who was putting some books away. "I got nothing so far."

A collective sigh filled the room. "That's a bummer," Emmy said. "Guess this really is a 'hurry up and wait' situation, huh."

Ruby ended up leaving the library later that day. Emmy and Epona played a best of three set of chess and they were close games, but Epona won 2-1. Spike handled book returns and some cleaning while Twilight just sat and waited...

Short and sweet as he left his friends in the past.

Will put in a 'Past' chapter here and there. Won't be an 'every other' deal.