Morning came, and its light shined through a wide window framed with parted yellow curtains onto a wooden bedroom. Bookshelves were carved into the walls, a set of stairs led from a bedroom into a sort of side-room where a table sat near another flight going down. A few vases stood here and there with plants sprouting from them, and there were some crescent moon and sun insignia dotting parts of the ceiling. Some more parts of the walls weren't made of shelves, but instead had wooden doors and drawers fitted onto them to serve as storage compartments currently not in use.

In the bed next to the window lay one Twilight Sparkle, her form entirely still despite the light shining right in her face, save for her breathing. She had a complacent look on her visage that didn't waver, even as someone rushed up the flight of stairs straight to her while raising a ruckus.

"Twilight, Twilight, wake up! It's urgent!" Spike shouted over and over again, though the unicorn he was addressing didn't stir once in her bed. A star-decorated quilt covered her frame, and she dozed even as the drake moved to stand beside the bed hollering. He paused and took a deep breath before he began shouting with all his might once more, and still the lavender mare failed to move.

He slumped for a moment and narrowed his eyes, mumbling to himself through teeth he started grinding, "Drastic times call for drastic measures." He grabbed the quilt and tugged it off, casting it aside where it folded into a heap on the floor behind him. When that failed to rouse her, he clambered onto the bed, careful to avoid stepping on Twilight's body, and began to jump on the mattress fervently. After hurriedly trampolining about a few times, he paused to catch his breath.

Twilight still didn't wake up, instead muttering something he couldn't make out. He tried jumping again, but was thrown off as the unicorn shifted and kicked him off the bed. Spike took a second or two to recover as he found himself with his back to the floor, sitting up as he hissed in exasperation, "Okay, Twilight, you asked for it now."

He stood up, dusted himself off and ran down the two flights of stairs, and for a while the sound of things shuffling from below resonated into the room. It eventually ceased, shifting into a lull of quiet before Spike came running back moments later with a megaphone in his claw.

"Twilight, wake up!" he shouted into the contraption, his voice amplifying tenfold in volume. He began smirking when the unicorn finally got out of bed with a harried jump, flailing her legs willy-nilly and emitting a startled yelp. She stayed in that position for a moment, before gravity kicked in and sent her falling to the floor face-first, halting her erratic movements altogether.

"Spike," Twilight grumbled in a tired, indignant voice as she made to stand up. "What's all the fuss over?"

"Come to the front door, like right now!" Spike answered, dashing down the stairs before Twilight had the chance to ask him any more questions. She wearily grumbled to herself, squinting her eyes as they adjusted to the light before trotting down the stairs. Her mane hung in clumps and clung to her neck, but she forwent grabbing a hairbrush for the moment—after all, Spike had wanted her to see something. She surmised that, whatever it was, it had to have urgent enough to warrant usage of the blasted megaphone.

Making a mental note-to-self to talk to the drake about the megaphone at a later time, she sauntered down the stairs, past the table, then down another flight to find herself at the living quarters with the horse head carving. A knock sounded from the front door, persisting for a moment before Spike rushed over to open it and tell whoever it was that Twilight was coming. Twilight cantered over, hastening her pace when she finished the flight and peeked out of the door, an angry glare set firmly into her face.

What she saw beyond that door melted her glare into a state of wide-eyed shock in the span of seconds. Beyond the door stood Princess Celestia, and an assortment of guards which included Shining Armor, and a bunch of cloaked beings accompanying them. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but had that chance taken from her as a small cloth-wearing form rushed over and tackled her in the chest, knocking her back a few paces and wrapping their front legs around her neck. She felt multiple poking sensations along her maneline, but that had been the least of her worries.

"Purple horn-pony!" the being exclaimed in a cheery, all-too-familiar young voice. The befuddled mare looked down to see the form's hood falling off and revealing a pale pink-grey coat, brown irises and a messy violet mane all framing a grinning face.

Twilight gaped. "Oh, um… hello," she managed. Turning to Celestia, her knees wobbled as she gave a weak, "I guess you can all come in…" Celestia nodded and turned to the guards and cloaked beings behind her to nod to them, and most of them strode inside. The few who didn't were guards that Shining barked at for a moment or so before catching up with the lot in his full set of armor.

Shining closed the door with a gentle kick of a back hoof and stood next to it, now silent as a statue. A faint series of flaps echoed into the room, growing quieter and quieter until the entire place had fallen under a tense tranquility that soon broke.

Maria slid off of Twilight and grinned at the dumbstruck mare for a moment before she noticed the carving and ran to it. "What's this?" she asked, pawing the wooden statue with her claws for emphasis.

"A carving, little one," Celestia answered in a sweet tone with an amused grin cropping up on her face. She turned to Twilight, whereupon the smile immediately fell. "Quite a lot has happened last night," she stated flatly, all traces of her previous amusement gone like a brief gale of wind.

"A… lot? Care to elaborate?" Twilight asked, her tone low. The instant she saw a flicker in Celestia's magenta eyes and Shining stepping forward to flank the Princess, she found herself feeling that, whatever it was, it likely did not bode well.

"A riot—one where the unicorns directed their ire to the pegasi at first, breaking wings and de-feathering whoever they could catch. But then a prison breach happened sometime during the confusion, and the prisoner and his partners-in-crime directed the rioters' anger to our guests," Shining answered in a grim tone, shaking his head.

He made to speak again, but got no further than opening his mouth again as NoLegs appeared on his head in a flash of magic with a mew. He looked at the feline cross-eyed for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and continued as he began purring, "And said guests had to… defend themselves. To varying degrees of success."

Twilight flinched, immediately envisioning several unpleasant scenarios in which the Fantasians could have killed some ponies, or vice-versa. Shining saw a spark of worry flicker in her eyes, and he said in a soft tone, "No, nopony was killed. There have been many injuries and broken wings, but things honestly could have been much worse."

Twilight relaxed a bit as NoLegs jumped from Shining's head to land in front of her hooves. He mewed and rubbed his head on her forelegs before another small cloaked form with a mask stepped up. A pair of orbs lit up in the eye-holes of the mask before the form spoke in a hollow voice, "So… what now? What do we do?"

"Well, you guys are all inside, so… remove the cloaks and stay awhile, I guess," Twilight answered hesitantly. The group obliged, and a bunch of familiar faces had been unveiled as they shook off their garments—with the exception of Lance, who had his uniform on beneath his cloak for some reason. Twilight sighed in exasperation when Maria jumped onto her back, and addressed said foal without even looking at her, "Yes? Do you need something?"

"Why's your mane like a bunny's tail?" Maria innocently asked, using a talon to grab a tangled lock and tug at it.

Twilight winced, her horn glowing as a lavender aura embraced the foal. Maria found herself lifted up, then gently lowered to the floor. "I didn't have time to brush it," she sighed, turning to Maria for a brief moment before directing her attention to the rest of the Fantasians. Almost immediately, she now saw that everyone had gotten bruises that showed through their fur, with varying sizes, colors ranging from red to deep purple, and placements. Anna and Sarah looked as though they'd taken quite the thrashing, sporting the most bruises out of the lot that Twilight could see—and a wing cast in the case of the latter.

"Um… why do you have black eyes?" Twilight hesitantly asked, looking pointedly at Sarah.

"I took a pair of back hooves to the face. I'm amazed my skull didn't fracture upon impact," Sarah scoffed, raising one of her talons to rub her temples with it.

"Last night was nothing short of the purest madness I have witnessed in my days. At the very least, I am grateful the royal guards were able to stop the riot before it could descend further out of their control," Fenrir growled, shifting to sit on all fours. "Though, the damage done was nothing compared to what I witnessed back home."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked in an uneasy tone, a brow raising up.

Fenrir rose a paw and gestured to Maria with it, a firm frown set into his face. "From where does our little one hail?" he retorted. Twilight stiffened, shivers running down her spine. She nodded, forgoing speaking words, as if uttering even one syllable had potential to conjure images of atrocities she'd rather not remember.

Shining Armor decided to interject, "Twilight… Celestia's entrusted me with watching the Fantasians."

"Yes, I have," Celestia confirmed before Twilight even opened her mouth. "Something is amiss; that much I know. I believe our foreign guests might help us figure out just what that is, with their… talents and diversity." She turned to Lance and stared into his eyes for a moment before continuing, "However, I request that you abide by our laws while you are in Equestria. Do as you will, but do so while maintaining some modicum of respect for the rules in place here. Am I understood?"

"Yes. You are understood," Lance replied tersely, breaking eye contact to glare at his advisors, troops, and the odd Fantasians out. They too answered Celestia with simple "Yes"s and nods of confirmation. NoLegs mewed, nodding when the Princess turned to him expectantly. Maria followed suit, grinning as Celestia's intense gaze briefly fell on her.

Celestia shifted her wings a bit at the foreigners' response and turned to Twilight and Shining Armor. "You two, notify me if they do anything… questionable," she stated. When siblings in question nodded, she softly smiled at them and made her way out of the library, pausing as the guests moved to either side of the door to let her out before opening said door and striding out with a spring in her regal step.

She gave Twilight and Shining one last glance from over her shoulder, fully exiting the library and gently closing the door behind her and leaving the two factions to their own devices. Again, a faint flapping sound echoed shortly after her departure, leaving another silence in its wake.

Twilight turned to look at Maria again, and noticed a soft, fresh down of dusty brown feathers growing in erratic patches on her bald spots. Some more feathers grew along the margin where her front limbs joined with her talons, making her look just a little more like a hippogryph. "Have you been doing well? I see you're starting to grow feathers again," she mused with a faint smirk on her face.

"Well?" Lance scoffed, garnering Twilight's immediate attention. He had a smirk on his face too, with the addition of a glint in his eyes. "Hell, she's been doing excellent. We've been feeding her right, and enough to put a little extra weight on her bones—but we also had her do some exercise to keep from getting excess. At this rate, she might start flying soon enough."

"And I might get my cutie mark," Maria eagerly chirped, rising to stand on her back legs. She rose a claw and tapped at Twilight's cutie mark with it. "What's this mean?"

"Oh, you mean my starburst cutie mark?" Twilight mused, turning to her mark and sighing. "Well… my talent's magic, to put it simply."

"Can I do magic?" Maria asked hopefully, a glimmer in her eyes. It fell when Lance spoke up.

"You can't channel raw magic like a unicorn could, but you have a natural magic regardless," Lance said simply.

NoLegs mewed again, jumping up into the air and hovering in front of Twilight. He purred when she turned to him and shrieked in surprise, eyes widening as she registered the sight of the seemingly-floating feline. Twilight glanced at Shining and the assembled Fantasians, as well as Armin before she noticed that no horns had been glowing. She turned to the feline and asked in mild surprise and exasperation, "Alright, cat, how are you able to do that?"

"Look at his tail," Alexander instructed. Twilight did as she was told, eyes squinting as she watched the furry limb swish back and forth eagerly.

"All I see is a tail," Twilight groaned. She heard Matt chuckle as the cat found himself bathed in a brief golden glow, and her irises shrunk immediately after that—a pale blue glow surrounded the cat, coming up from the tip of his tail. "Wait, he can do magic? But… but…" she stammered as the cat mewed again, purring almost like he was taunting her. Another golden glow surrounded the cat, and the pale blue glow already around him seemingly vanished with the second aura, though he still floated regardless.

"To be honest," Matt began with an amused smile on his face, garnering Twilight's attention again, "none of us know how he's able to do that either. But hey, at least it makes getting around easier for him, especially since… y'know, he lacks legs."

NoLegs mewed in agreement, levitating closer to the dumbstruck Twilight before licking her on the nose. She merely sighed in resignation and hesitantly rose a hoof to pet the cat on the head. She pulled her hoof back when the tell-tale sound of books being tampered with reached her ears, and she glanced around for a moment to find Natalie browsing through a shelf. Clearing her throat and stopping her seemingly-eager-to-read guest right in her tracks with the noise, she stated in a flat tone, "If it has to do with the barrier that broke, I already scoured up and down all of my shelves and found next to nothing."

Natalie whirled around and looked at Twilight with a brow raised. "What did you find, then?" she asked.

"A ruined book," Twilight answered, turning to Spike and nodding in his direction. Spike nodded back and scrambled past her and the others and up the stairs.

"What good's a ruined book?" Lance scoffed, giving Twilight a hard, almost sour look. "And how beat up is the damned thing anyway?"

"Eh, you'd have to see it to believe it… it's in pretty bad shape," Twilight replied in an uneasy tone, a wavering smile spreading on her muzzle. She rose a hoof and started rubbing awkwardly at the back of her head when all her response garnered was a narrowed pair of crimson eyes. She heard something open and slam faintly, followed by soft thuds that came from above. She turned to the stairs to find that Spike was already coming back on swift little heels.

"In case you're wondering, it's so beat up Twilight barely found diddly," Spike answered as he came down the stairs, an old and worn book in his claws.

"But," Twilight started, summoning a scroll in a flash of magic. "I found this inside that book, and I believe one of you knows the inscriptions on this parchment." She waved it for emphasis, and charged up some more mana into her horn. Glowing white runes appeared above her head, spinning for a moment before conjuring up a blade of pure light that shot up and embedded its tip firmly into the ceiling.

The Fantasians looked at the anomaly, and they all gaped. None of them, not even NoLegs, could come close to the wide-eyed, shrunk-irised, ears-against-the-head, slack-jawed expression that was plastered onto Matt's face. "H-how… w-where…" he stammered, the dark parts of his face draining of their color, leaving only an aghast white. He turned to Twilight, eyes glinting in askance. "It… looks almost like…" he trailed off, partly from shock and partly because she started speaking again, cutting him off in the process

"I found it in an old shelf that's underground. I don't know how long it's been there," Twilight answered, handing the floating scroll to the still-stunned Matt. He studied the runes on the page, a shudder running through his spine as he absorbed the scrawlings. "Can you show me your sword again? I want to be sure I have the right pony here."

Matt let his horn glow and begrudgingly summoned Heaven's Gate. Twilight used some more mana to pry the blade of light out of her ceiling, and took the silver-and-gold sword to hold the two side-by-side. She looked closely at the weapons, and found them to be near-identical in every way as far as overall shape was concerned. She made the light-blade vanish, and returned Heaven's Gate to its owner, who likewise made it disappear.

"Do you know that spell?" Twilight ventured, noting Matt's ongoing silence. He mutely responded by conjuring mana of his own, summoning the same runes and sending another white blade into the ceiling exactly where Twilight had first landed hers. She turned up and stared at the blade before it dissipated. "I'll… take that as a yes."

"What does that book you supposedly found the scroll in contain?" Anna asked with a straight face, eyes glinting with a spark of emotion—of what emotion exactly, Twilight was not sure.

"Well… from what I could glean, it's a diary of a stallion who went to Fantasia… before Celestia and Luna began ruling Equestria," Twilight replied, a chill running down her spine as her guests exchanged glances and brief mutterings. Matt still remained quiet, as if his brain had shut down and left the building. "I have another question to ask you all," she piped up, and instantly the murmurings ceased. All sets of eyes belonging to the otherworlders turned to her, watching her as if expecting to have a sword of concentrated light pointed on them.

"Do any of you know this… uh, phrase or sorts…?" Here, Twilight paused to clear her throat and steel herself before she uttered, "''As the stars gleam in the night sky like the moon, so too shall the forests whisper in the winds and bring about the hope in Fantasia?'"

Immediately, and to her instant wide-eyed surprise, the response she got was a series of choked gasps, flared changelings' wings, a yelp from Fenrir, and a mew from NoLegs. Sarah stepped forward hesitantly, pupils nothing but tiny vertical slits adrift in twin lakes of green. Once in front of Twilight, her ears fell back. "I've… heard about it from dad. He told me and Anna that… long ago, a pony named Starswirl came to Fantasia somehow…" she murmured in a quiet voice.

"Starswirl?!" Shining cried in a high-pitched squawk that suggested he'd just caught on, rearing onto his back legs as if somepony had managed to suckerpunch him in the chin. He reverted to all fours, going as wide-eyed as the otherworlders when Sarah slowly nodded once.

"I thought it was just some old foal's tale, but… but dad also told me the Starswirl pony crafted a spell that summoned a blade of light. Now that I've seen you and Matt cast something that fits the bill, I'm… just…" Sarah uneasily trailed off, turning her head left and right to gaze between Matt and Twilight fervently.

Matt's visage contorted as he sat on his haunches, his jaws closing and his irises enlarged, though his ears were still back on his head and his features looked pale. He fixed Twilight with a vexed look before deciding to speak for the first time in moments, "Do you… have anything else written by this… this Starswirl pony?"

"Yeah, but last time I checked, they had nothing to do with the barrier between the worlds. The damaged book and the scroll were the closest things I could find, and—" Twilight inexplicably paused, her eyes widening as she turned to Sarah. "Wait, did you say that Starswirl crafted the spell I cast earlier?"

Sarah slowly nodded again, fidgeting in place. Her right wing flapped for a moment, as if by instinct. "I'm only going by what I was told when I was a filly, though. I don't know if it's true or not, but… what I saw was impressive, to say the least," she replied, her voice as shaky as her body.

"Well, at least we have something to go on," Lance interjected coolly, also shifting to sit on his haunches. He turned to Spike and asked, "Can you hoof over that book for a second, please?" Spike immediately waltzed over, and handed him the book as soon as he was within arm's reach. Lance studied its title for a moment before turning his attention back to Twilight. "Do you think there are any other copies of this book out there?"

Twilight shook her head. "It's not likely; it's very old, and damaged. I'm under the impression that, whoever defaced it, they didn't want whatever Starswirl found to be commonplace knowledge," she answered glumly.

Lance blinked and rose a hoof, tenderly opening the book's cover. He started scanning the pages, and quickly came upon the 'defacing' that Twilight spoke of. He dejectedly turned a few more pages, only to groan and close the book as carefully as he opened it. "Well, this is a problem. For all we know, the book could've been wrecked to hell and back just weeks after being published," he sighed bitterly, eyes narrowing at the blasted thing as if it insulted his mother.

"But then, how'd it get here to begin with?" Anna asked, waving a hoof around the room for emphasis. "This looks like a place for new books, or recent translations of old books—not the kind of area to find that beat-up stack of papers in," she added, her hoof turning on the book Spike held as she spoke.

Twilight wrinkled her nose a bit, only for said wrinkles to smooth out as she put a hoof to her chin and gave Anna's remark some thought. She set her hoof down and trotted around the room before levitating herself, scanning each and every shelf she could. To her chagrin, Anna tragically had a point—every book on the shelves she could see had been fairly recent, with the oldest book a whopping twenty years in age. The book Spike held, on the other hoof, was far older, if its weathered condition had been anything to go by.

Which brought her to echo said guest's earlier question as she descended to the floor, "You're right: how did that book get here?"

"Don't look at me. I just live here," Spike replied, shrugging his shoulders as Twilight's gaze fell upon him for a second.

"I don't know about you guys, but this is pretty suspicious if you asked for my input," Shining interjected, turning to Twilight as she turned to him. He broke eye contact and shifted his gaze to Lance. "Do you know anything about what Twilight said earlier? About the stars gleaming and the wind whispering or somesuch?"

"I heard that as an old foal's tale, but honestly, I don't remember exactly how it went," Lance answered, eyelids slanting for a moment. He sighed deeply and added, "In fact, I forgot all about it until today. I guess being in my current position just… detracted most, if not all of, my attention."

"I can understand that entirely," Shining murmured, nodding to the general before turning back to his sister. At Twilight's nod, he once again shifted to glance at the otherworldly tourists. "Anypony know, or remember anything else you might've heard about Starswirl?"

The group exchanged glances, and with the exception of Sarah, Lance, and Anna, the others shook their heads. NoLegs mewed, and when Shining turned to him, he instantly saw that the feline had frowned. Then he turned to Katie, who waved her front hooves and reared onto her back legs simultaneously, jaw soundlessly moving up and down and tongue flopping about in a manner that suggested she spoke in muted gibberish.

Upon looking at Armin, he saw another frown, albeit one marked with pointed and jutting fangs. "I know zilch," he said flatly. turning to look at Katie as she still flailed about, and lit up his horn with a bright green magic aura that grasped her to keep her still. "Would you stop that? You look like a damn fool doing that!"

"She's in a closed space with the rest of us. She can act as foolish as she wants. Besides, we took her horseshoes away last night, Armin—she can't do much without them," Natalie chided, shooting him a cold glare that made him relinquish his magical grip on Katie, who immediately returned to flailing her front legs every which-way while balancing on her back ones, her mouth and tongue moving at rapid-fire rates.

Shining exchanged another glance with Twilight. He pointed a hoof at Katie and asked, "Erm, is she alright?"

"I don't know, but it looks like she's trying to tell us something…" Twilight murmured, shooting Katie a concerned look. "Um, did you lose your ability to speak or something?"

"No. Sometimes I just… spasm like that," Katie replied in an uneasy tone, whereupon she sat on her haunches and brought her front legs up to her chest. Her wings buzzed, and she stayed in that position for a moment or so before her hooves returned to the floor, looking at the wood surface while allowing her mane to fall over half of her face. The translucent red wings slammed shut against her thin sides, and her orbs dimmed.

Shining eyed Katie rather suspiciously for a moment, entirely befuddled at her behavioral flip-flop. He shrugged in resignation and turned to Fenrir. "I know not a thing regarding the stars gleaming, nor of our wraith's temporary attempt at proper sign language. For my ignorance, I sincerely apologize," Fenrir stated flatly, a frown forming on his face as he set about crossing his front limbs.

"Sign language?" Shining asked, a brow quirking up.

"It is what it seemed to be, yes," Fenrir answered, nodding slowly. "As I see it, how could it be anything but, at the very least regarding terms of appearance?"

Twilight turned to Maria, groaning as she found that the filly in question had decided to clamber on top of the horse head carving. Maria sat snugly between the ears, cocking her head to one side as Twilight stared at her. "Um, did your daddy tell you anything about stars and winds and such?" she asked in desperation, wincing when the query caused her small guest to frown.

"No, he didn't. Hardly anygryph saw the sky back home," Maria answered sadly. "And when they did, the big bearded meanie said it was a bad thing to see the big round white thing in the sky."

Twilight sighed, her head lowering as the noise she made devolved into a bit of a whine. She stopped abruptly as a mew reached her ears, and she rose her head a little to find that NoLegs stood in front of her, looking back with a soft purr. Immediately, and inexplicably, she then beamed at the cat. "Maybe my friend Fluttershy could talk to you and tells us what you know," she thought, a grin spreading on her face.

Twilight turned to the other Fantasians, who at this point looked at her with varying emotions marring their features. Some brows were quirked, a few mouths were slightly agape, a pair of orbs brightened, and another mew hit her ears. "Guys, could you stay put for a few? I think I might have found the solution to our problem; it's just that I need to get somepony first so we can crack it," she stated. Without warning, she ran to the door, flung it open, and galloped out in a hurry with a cloud of dust flying behind her.

The door freely swung about for a moment before Shining trotted to it and closed it with some magic. "Anypony else have a bad feeling all of a sudden?" he asked, turning to the assembled Fantasians who merely looked at him and shrugged with befuddled looks on their faces.