Inside Captain Dash’s room, Borris and Rainbow are sitting together at the foot of the bed reading a Daring Do book. “Ahuizotl, arch-nemesis of Daring Do,” Rainbow exclaims to her partner  “always trying to find ways to bring doom and destruction to the world.”

“Interesting,” Borris replies, “you are really into this book series. To think, you despised the text books they gave us at the academy.”

“I’m surprised that you’ve never even heard of Daring Do. It has adventure, action, everything you’d like.”

“I never really did have the time for things like this, I was too busy with the AWE and protecting the ponies of Equestria. Maybe after the war is over I can take the time to actually get into this book.”

“So what do you do in your free time here?”

“I’d usually play with Captain Dash, tend to the younger ponies, and mostly train myself for the next battle.”

“…”

“Something disturbing you Dash?”

“Has it ever occurred to you how weird this has become, the idea of alternate worlds actually existing, the fact that there is another you somewhere out there?”

“It does intrigue me, maybe he might find us and help.”

“How did you find the RAEM?”

“Well, I don’t really feel like talking about it.”

“Why? You don’t need to feel nervous or embarrassed. I am your friend after all.”

“I still don’t want to talk about it.”

“Sometimes talking to your friends about it can make it less painful.”

“I-”

“Guys!” Twilight yells as she barges into the room with Boris’ open journal floating behind her. “Listen to this entry I found;”

Dear Boris,

Just recently, my niece-in-law has given birth once again, this time to a mare. The whole of Canterlot is creating a giant stir about it, rumors have been going around that she has silver eyes and a coat white as snow, something incredibly rare. Ancient tales and folklore stated that ponies with these traits process extreme levels of raw magic, but are highly dangerous at an early age with little to no development. The city is wondering what to do with the baby, but luckily my nephew has assured them that nothing will go wrong as long as she’s in his care. I’m so proud of what Night Light’s become of him. I’ve recently sent a letter to him, congratulating him on what a mature stallion he has become even without a blood father. Seeing as how now I has two great niblings, I now have double the motivation to get some money from my project to redeem myself into the family. What should her name be anyways?

Go me,

Boris G. Sparkle.

“Do you know what this means?”

“You were born pale?” Rainbow asks.

“No, it means I have a sister!”

“Then how did you not know she existed until now?”

“Not sure, I must ask my gruncle about this.” She turns and darts out the room as fast as she came in, leaving Borris to reply,

“Probably pale,”

Meanwhile, inside the lobby, all is quiet except for the dim burning of torches and the snoring of several ponies finally getting some rest. A large black shadowy figure looms in the stairwell looking over the empty room. It slowly enters as two appendages stretch of its back and attach themselves to the wall surrounding the entrance. They pull the main body up towards the ceiling several meters above the grated floor. The shadow turns stiff as the small clomping of hooves catch its attention. Two red eyes inside the hidden figure gaze upon Twilight trotting across the lobby, thinking she’s the only pony awake in the area. Shortly after the small pony leaves, the shadow drops from her hiding place as green wings of magic energy light up the dim room as the lurking pony glides into the hall Twilight came from. Two by two, torches extinguish upon feeling the cold wind of the pony’s flight.

“Gruncle Boris?” Twilight softly whispers at a door with the initials BGS carved into it. The door creaks open as the familiar face of her family member pokes his head out.

“Twilight!” He proudly exclaims, “What bring you here?”

“I have some questions for you.”

“Okay,” Boris squeezes the rest of his body out of his room and closes the door behind him before facing Twilight.

“What’s up, something about my journal?”

“Who’s my sister?” Upon her finishing her sentence, the old stallion shudders spastically as he tries to collect his thoughts and words in shock. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine, I think I had a senior moment for a second.”

“It’s just, I didn’t see a white mare with silver eyes in that family record book we have.”

“Oh we don’t? Must be a mistake, skipped a generation or something.”

“You sound awfully strange Boris, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, I swear.”

“Do you at least know why I haven’t heard of her yet you seem to know?”

“How’d you even hear of this sister of yours?”

“You wrote it in your journal.” Twilight pulls the book in front of her, giving Boris a good look at the cover.

“Volume 17?!” Gruncle Borris immediately then uses his magic to break Twilight’s levitation spell and grabs the journal in his mouth before it hits floor.

“What was that?”

“This is-is a top secret volume, very classified!” Boris mutters before levitating the book behind his back out of Twilight’s sight.

“But I was just getting to know about my sister in your diary entries,”

“I went crazy for a while from studying Mercury, I tell ya, wrote the craziest things.”

“Why are you hiding this from me?”

“There’s some really personal things in there, best you don’t read this.” Boris then opens the door and tosses the book in before slamming it shut.

“Boris G. Sparkle!” The old unicorn freezes in place from his panic attack and calmly replies,

“Yes?”

“You’re hiding something from me, you’re acting is not very convincing.”

“But what if I’m acting like I’m a terrible actor, just to playfully throw you in a loop?”

“Gruncle Boris, do I have a sister and if so, how come I never knew her?”

“You don’t have a sister; I was going a little kooky from as study I was working on so I wrote fake diary pages just to relieve the anxiety.”

“What were you working on? Was it the magic amulet inside your diary?”

“No. I was actually studying the effects of some rouge apple cider that was making Manehattan go insane. Apparently it was some unknown ingredient used in lamp oil. It took its toll on me as well and I came up with a bunch of stupid garbage in my head that wrote as fact.”

“So everything you wrote was…”

“Absolute baloney, so it’ll just take care of that silly journal and you can just forget about this whole mess.”

“Okay. Good night.” Twilight turns back and begins to walk towards the lobby before slowing down to see Boris running the other way, softly mumbling,

“Gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee,” As soon as Boris turns the corner and leaves Twilight alone in the corridor, Twilight slowly heads back towards Boris’ room and slowly opens the door with her hooves. A crack of yellow light enters the dark room and illuminates the journal laying cover down against the cold metal floor. Twilight then quietly sneaks into the room and stumbles upon the family record book hidden in the shadow next to the light. She decides to pick up both books and tucks them into her wings and upon turning around towards the door, she think she sees another book in a corner next to the door. She picks it up as well and leaves the room shoving the unknown journal under her saddle.

Later that night, in the hallway leading to the amulet vault, two pegasus mares are walking down the path, quietly chatting to each other. A large shadow silently crawls on the ceiling above them as the two a unaware of its presence. As the three get closer to the staircase to the vault, the figure drops from the ceiling, creating a loud thud behind the pair. “What was that?!” The beige mare exclaims to her friend, but she looks to her side to see that her partner that was there is gone. She then looks behind to see nothing there as well, putting her on edge. She then hears muttered screaming at the back of her head. The pony slowly turns her head forward to see a large pony, draped in black armour, holding her turquoise friend in its metal claws, and red eyes staring right at her with a solid white grin just below. “MID-” She yelp is cut short by Midnight grabbing her in her other arm. Sharp, serrated claws firmly grip the empress’ latest victims as her long horn begins to glow red. Shortly, the two ponies’ bodies begin to become encased in a red glow. After a minute of struggling, a white flash ruptures through the hall as Midnight looks up to see her mechanical hooves are no empty.

“Sheesh, it always seems to take longer and longer for these things to work,” Midnight whispers to herself as she slowly walks down the stairwell and into the dark chamber where the Alicorn Amulet is. Midnight then comes across Marshal Rarity still staring at the pendant, oblivious of the giant standing a meter behind her. “Rarity,” The marshal turns her head to see Midnight and then back at the pedestal where the amulet lays and asks,

“Is this really the right thing to do?”

“Trust me, ally, the dark ages of Equestria are over. A new era has begun, one that shall stand in solid stone for eons.”

“Are we friends?”

“The word, ‘friend,’ is derived from weakness, we shall call each other powerful allies from now on. And to prove my affections towards this movement,” One of her metallic claws reaches behind her back as she pulls out a rope necklace with a golden triangle attached to it. “Got this after defeating some wannabe villain, a tough foe I may add.” Midnight then levitates the pendant and slips it over the white unicorn’s head and rests it upon her neck. “Now stand aside, powerful ally.” The marshal obeys and moves to the left, giving Empress Midnight a clear view of the resting Alicorn Amulet. “Finally! After several months and restless nights, I have finally found you once more!” Midnight proceeds to laugh manically before grabbing it in her right arm and running out of the chamber. Her laughing soon degrades to a girly giggle as she dashes through many hallways, waking many mares from their sleep and frightening the ponies still awake. Upon reaching the lobby, Midnight stops dead in her tracks and screams, “You all lose!” She then scampers up the stairway to the surface and takes off into the smoky clouds and disappears without a trace. Back in the vault, Marshal Rarity looks down at her new necklace and a small nervous smile spreads across her face.

“Powerful ally, I like the sound of that. And this necklace she gave me is fairly nice,”

“Ms. Rarity,” a small voice squeaks from the back abyss in the chamber, causing the marshal to jump, “did you just give the Alicorn Amulet to Empress Midnight?”

“Raindrop?! I can explain!” But before she even starts, the sky blue No-Pony runs out of the darkness and out of the room, leaving Marshal Rarity alone as she begins to panic.

Dear Boris,

Night Light was wrong, as hard as he tried, he couldn’t control Isabelle and she nearly caused an ice age to hit Equestria. I had to ditch my studies to help the princesses encase the young filly in Chaos Ice and isolate her from the rest of the kingdom. Such a tragedy had to occur to even this generation of the Sparkle family. Since Shining Armour is still very young and my other great niece, Twilight, was born just recently, me, my nephew, and my niece-in law have decided to keep this a secret from them. I am currently in the northern mountains, finding a decent place to keep Isabelle safe. Maybe one day, we can unthaw her and set her straight. Yet she’s only two years old, I’m not sure after what’s happened recently that such a powerful foal can restrain her powers.

To Isabelle,

Boris G. Sparkle.

“Maybe there are a few more to this family book than meets the eyes,” Twilight mumbles to herself inside her room with Boris’ journal and the family almanac next to each other. However, before she can open the second book, Raindrop bursts into the dim room and exclaims,

“Empress Midnight has the Alicorn Amulet!”