Twilight looks in absolute awe as she gazes upon thousands of massive bookshelves bathed under many golden chandeliers. Millions upon millions of books, each of every size, colour, and content neatly organized the humongous basement. The team make their way to the polished wood floor and the alicorn giggles with glee as she levitates tens of books around her as she runs through the halls of shelves. “Twilight,” Fluttershy asks, “Are you okay?

“Okay?!” Twilight squeaks, “I’m in Heaven! This place has got every book around here, from history, to science, to math, to magic, they’re even an encyclopedia on kitchen sinks! And that’s only the non-fiction section! I’ve got to read them all after we beat Midnight.”

“This is certainly impressive,”

“I’m going to need some serious planning time for all of this. Oh! A mini-office with all the quills, ink jars, and paper I’ll need in a lifetime!”

“Shouldn’t we get to the main reaso-”

“This might even have Star Swirl’s ancestry, they said it was forever lost in the 40 Year Fire, but I have a twitchy feeling it might be here.”

“Well, don’t expect to find it within a day Twilight,” Applejack replies.

“Found it!”

“What?”

“Just where I’d put them as well, whoever organized this place has really good tastes.”

“Let me see!” Boris hollers and runs to Twilight and they both study the book, flipping through centuries and centuries of ponies throughout time.

“Guys,” Borris demands, “we don’t have time for this, we need to find a book that’ll help us find out Midnight’s weakness.”

“Wait, is that? Never mind, Grandmother Moon never had a beard that big.”

“Boris, the mission at hoof,”

“I didn’t know Star Swirl had an afro at one point,”

“Boris…”

“Hey look its Celestia’s mom! I knew something was related about them, even if it was extremely distant.”

“BORIS! TWILIGHT!”

“What?”

“Midnight, remember? You can take the book with you, just find something actually useful and then you can look on how ridiculous Celestia’s parents look.”

“Trust me, they do,”

“Gah, just get to it, I’ve only been here twice, and I don’t feel like being the first to enter MorksVille a third time.”

“Fine, fine, Twilight, you take the magic section and I got the history section.”

“Shouldn’t you take magic?” Twilight asks, “You know better about magic.”

“It might help if you catch up on it.”

“Okay.” She puts the book in front of the staircase and gathers her friends as they look to find the section. Borris and Boris head in the other way and they dull their chatter into a whisper,

“Borris, no matter what, do not let them know about Midnight’s past.”

“You don’t think I know that?” The pegasus responds, “Could you imagine if we had another psychopath on the loose around here?”

“Do you really think that that could happen?”

“If they know, the chances will multiply, but as long as they’re here, we can use their intelligence of her prior state to our advantage.”

“That as well as their prior knowledge of you, including Rainbow Dash,”

“You know about Captain Dash?”

“It was too obvious, but you didn’t seem to notice.”

“What do you mean?”

“You what I’m talking about, you and Dash, that little chemistry you two have.” Boris nudges his partner, causing him to side to a shelf.

“How’d you know that bit?”

“You just told me.”

“Really?!”

“Nah, I’ve been seeing you and her playing with each other inside the RAEM when you weren’t in your grumpy mood.”

“Do you think that this Rainbow Dash might feel the same about me like the other one, maybe even more?”

“There’s a chance, but remember, she isn’t Captain Dash, you cannot use her as a replacement.”

“I know,”

“Do you know or do you follow?”

“Boris, I will not replace her.”

“Good,”

“Also, I do not have a grumpy mood, times are required to be serious.”

“Obviously, but you’re so happy in one moment but when somepony brings up something that reminds you of what happened before, you snap into your mood.”

“Hey, don’t forget you had your fair shares of-”

“Wait, did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Sounded like some other pony heading down, really small though.”

“Sir, you might be going senile,”

“Ha ha.” A scrunching of paper alerts the duo and they look down to see a torn up purple book on the floor, pages torn, shredded, ripped, and tossed everywhere. Boris picks up the book and examines its contents, “Must have been Midnight. This would be the only book for her to wreck.”

“Yikes, and that was when she was only adjusting to her arms, look at how dusty the thing is.”

“Tuck this behind my wings, we can’t let them find this.”

Meanwhile, on the other side, the main six are busy looking through piles of books they stacked.

“Found anything?” Twilight asks.

“No,” They all reply in unison.

“I found this excellent cupcake recipe that can be made with only pegasus feathers.” Pinkie Pie hollers, pressing her face deep into an open book, “Rainbow, can I borrow a few of your feathers?”

“No thanks,” the blue pegasus replies, “we should keep looking.”

“Not sure,” Twilight responds, “anything that’ll give us an advantage over Empress Midnight.”

“Wait, look at this!” Rainbow pulls a small book with a brown rusty cover from Applejack’s pile and blows away the dust on it. “Magical Studies of Boris G. Sparkle: Volume 17”

“Gruncle Boris’ field notebook,”

“Yep,”

“Let me see,” Twilight picks up the old book and rapidly searches through the pages. “Allergy Remedies, Trots Cure, Trots Poison, Love Anti-Poison, Aging Spells, Pegasus Flight, Unicorn Magic Channeling, Earth Pony Strength,”

“Nothing too interesting so far…”

“Wait, the last pages, it appears to be a diary unlike the other chapters.”

“Any title?” Rarity asks.

“No, the last page is the conclusion of Alicorn Age Cycling, it then just jumps to an entry.”

“What does it say?” Applejack ponders, Twilight clears her voice and reads out loud;

Dear Boris,

After my latest study of alicorn age cycles, I have made a troubling discovery. It appears my studies have run the Sparkle family bankrupt. With the coal mines paying very little due to recent inflation, they’ve been eating very little and the family house soon going under foreclosure. My brother and sister have stopped sending letters to me, the only reason I know of my newborn nephew is from recent gossip. I have only one chance to set things right, and I know just how. I have begun research to create a new source of powerful magic, which will turn us into the richest ponies alive and me the most famous unicorn in all of history.

With best of luck,

Boris G. Sparkle.

“Oh my,” Twilight gasps, stretching her neck from the read, “I’m pretty sure he did it, let’s read the second entry.”

Dear Boris,

There’s been a slight misfire in my first attempts to create a pendant of powerful magic. I used a standard turquoise necklace and requested Celestia charge it with her magic. I then melted the necklace’s gemstone inside a magma furnace to melt into a liquid. However, shortly after doing so, the furnace combusted, showing me and my colleagues in liquid turquoise. We thought nothing of it and washed it off and went to bed. The next day though, we found ourselves being twenty years younger, causing the now-foals to quit on me. I was all alone, but Princess Celestia’s has given me inspiring words, persisting me to try again and save my family. I’m going to try again tomorrow, but instead of transferring the magic into a common gemstone, I’ll try to transfer it into a stronger magic container.

Got 20 more years,

Boris G. Sparkle.

“So that explains why he looks like he’s in his late 40s,” Rarity says, “I wonder if I could create a similar thing for my business, without the process being so violent.”

“Maybe instead of turquoise,” a small voice squeaks from the other side of a bookshelf, “try using topaz.”

“Raindrop?!”

“Oops…”

“Raindrop!” Another voice yells from the other side, “You just had to say something didn’t you…”

“Sorry, the answer was so easy, I couldn’t resist.” Twilight lifts the bookcase to the ceiling and yells at the dragon and small pony,

“Spike? Raindrop? Are you two crazy?! I told you to stay back at the base. What if you were caught?”

“If you couldn’t see us sneaking behind, I’m pretty sure the Morks wouldn’t have as well of a chance.”

“That doesn’t matter, you disobeyed me.”

“I know that I can help you, but you won’t give me a chance, probably because you assume I can’t do anything because I’m blind.”

“To be honest yes, without Spike to help, you’d probably be stuck in a ditch.”

“Twilight,” Fluttershy softly interrupts, “maybe we can approach this from a nicer angle.”

“No, Fluttershy, I’m addressing this straight forward. Raindrop, you think that a lifetime locked in a room for most of your life and teaching will make you a master in everything, but that’s not reality. The only reason you’re this so smart is because of a pity party, so you might want to hold your pride.”

“She didn’t mean to be so boastful Twi-”

“Let me guess, because of low social interaction, see, teaching doesn’t make you Little Miss Perfect. Raindrop, you are not perfect, far from it, so stay out!” After her brutal rant, Twilight looks down to see Raindrop ducking to the floor and shivering rapidly. Twilight cools her temper and breathes slowly, apologizing to the shocked No-Pony. “Sorry for that, it’s just I’d hate to see Celestia if she found out you were hurt. I also apologize for the abrupt reality check.” Raindrop collects her thoughts for a few seconds with everypony else staring with their mouths gaping open.

“I understand,” Raindrop replies, sniffing and holding back her emotions, “I’m not who I made myself look like. I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you.”

“I forgive you too.” Spike takes the large saddle off of his back and attaches it back onto Twilight as she and Raindrop give each other a hug.

“What’s with all the ruckus?” Boris yells in the distance, with him and his partner’s hooves clomping against the wooden floor. The duo turn the corner to the others and are surprised at seeing the two sneakers. “Raindrop? Spike? How’d you two get here?”

“We followed you guys from behind, with Spike helping me navigate.”

“Sneaky you two are, we could use that.”

“No!” Twilight protests, “We are not going to put them into danger.”

“Right, right,” he then notices the small journal floating in the air and jumps with glee, “Hey, you found one of my books, keep it, a lot of good stuff you could learn.”

“Thanks, so how’d it go with you guys?”

“Nothing that we don’t already know. You girls?”

“No.”

“Did you find anything that can produce scents or odors?” Raindrop asks, Rarity turns to her pile and pulls out a couple of encyclopedias.

“I found this,” she replies, “Merrimane’s Book of Perfumes and The Hoofannica Study of Scents, do you think these will work? I was going to take them home after we got rid of the pest.”

“They might work, we could find out what pheromone’s produced from the helmets and create of buffer for it.”

“And then use it to snap the Morks back to normal!” Boris adds, “Raindrop, that is absolutely brilliant!”

“Thanks. But I can’t take all the credit.” Raindrop replies in an attempt to not sound prideful.

“And humble, are you perhaps a princess of Equestria?”

“Nope, just raised by them.” Before Boris could reply, loud marching soon catches their ears and Borris takes a hoof forward.

“Listen up,” he states to his team, “gather the books and we’ll hide in the treetop until the Morks leave, they might check down here as they pass by, so time is of the essence.” The ten gather the four books and the one hidden in Borris’ wings as they make their way up the staircase to the surface.