Early morning came without further incident, with the exception of Fluttershy having a little chit-chat with Discord in a guest room. At first, it was just friendly "good morning" banter between the two that lasted well until the very early afternoon, until something slipped out of Discord's lips and flipped the entire conversation right on its head.

"I made sure they didn't do anything remotely loud," Discord stated with a small smile on his face.

"Made sure who didn't do what?" Fluttershy asked, raising a brow ever so slightly.

"I was trying to make sure they wouldn't wake everypony else up," Discord murmured, eyes half-lidded as his mismatched arms crossed over his chest.

"Who? And what?" Fluttershy repeated in a slightly sterner tone of voice, a hint of a frown gracing her muzzle.

"Oh, for the love of—" Discord's arms fell and he groaned. "Put it like this, two of our Fantasian guests would have gotten intimate had I not directly intervened. And besides, the little chastity belt I put on Splotches should have dissipated by now."

"Chastity belt?" Fluttershy repeated, her mind briefly halting when those two words left the draconequus's mouth.

"Yes," Discord affirmed with a nod. "They'd have woken you and everypony else up otherwise."

"How do you know that?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes narrowing in seconds as her tone took on an icy edge to it.

"I… uh… peeked in on them, and they were getting ready to…"

Fluttershy put two and two together as Discord trailed off, his pupils shrinking as sweat began to bead on his brow. "Breed?" she finished for him, her voice low and almost too quiet for him to hear.

"Yes, that," Discord replied with a hesitant nod.

"That doesn't give you the right to stop them—besides, you didn't let them do it, so neither of us know if they'd have woken anypony else up. What if I did the same to you? Would you have liked it?" Fluttershy snapped, her inquiry causing the draconequus to stiffen as her gaze went to his face. "I thought so."

Discord's shoulders sagged a bit. "I'll make it up to them, later today," he sighed.

"Good." Fluttershy stretched her wings for a few seconds, wincing as she felt and heard a bone or two pop into place, only to close them thereafter. "And if I hear that you didn't…"

Discord held up his paw and talon and waved them like Fluttershy was two seconds from mugging him. "I'll be good, I'll be good, I Pinkie Promise!" he exclaimed, balling his paw into a fist before conjuring a stick with a cupcake at its end and using that to poke himself in the eye. The cupcake exploded into a shower of rainbow confetti as soon as it made contact with his eye, and the stick then vanished in a puff of green smog.

"Alright." Fluttershy's face softened, and a smile broke out on her muzzle. Discord made for the door at a leisurely pace, but he froze when his talon went out to reach for the knob as she spoke again. "And next time, just… redirect the sound elsewhere, or soundproof the room or something less… cruel than a chastity belt."

Discord's talon changed course and rose up to his goatee, and he lightly tugged it in thought before a lightbulb poofed into existence over his head and lit up with a click that came from said goatee instead of the bulb itself. "Mmm, yes, I can certainly manage that," he promised, reaching up with his paw to tap at the bulb, though he paused when he heard a scratchy voice shout in the hall.

The bulb shattered into fragments that then became candy wrappers with enough sound to drown out the yelling. The wrappers then crinkled up of their own accord and drifted down as he grappled the knob with his paw in short order and flung open the door before he made his way out. He stumbled right into a heated bickering in the hall, one between Rainbow Dash and Spitfire that was spectated by a handful of guards, all of whom seemed unaware of his exiting into the hall.

"That's not your only reason for coming here?" Spitfire growled, eyes narrowed. "You're telling me that the Fantasians being here and that the Elements of Harmony are just two of a few reasons?"

Rainbow nodded, her face hardening. "Yes ma'am. A lot has happened—"

Spitfire cut her off in a firm, reprimanding tone, "Just cut to the chase, Dash."

"Rarity needed to make a delivery, Fluttershy wanted to check on a little Fantasian filly, the Crystal Heart's been acting funny, a few guards got whaled on last night, and Twilight wanted to check on Spike and she just had to check the library while she was at it," Rainbow replied in one seating. She wasted no time taking a few seconds to inhale deeply as soon as the tail-end of the ramble tumbled out of her mouth.

Spitfire blinked once, and after that she lifted a brow. "Is that all?" she asked.

Rainbow shook her head. "What if I told you one of our Fantasian guests is a general?" she retorted, her visage softening just a smidgen.

Spitfire's brow rose higher. "Are you exaggerating again?" she asked in a bored, if slightly miffed, tone.

Again, Dash shook her head. "No, ma'am. I wouldn't blow something like this way out of proportion; that's something either Pinkie Pie or Discord would do," she replied.

Discord took that as an opportunity to clear his throat. "Dearest Rainbow, do you yet realize I'm standing right here?" he teased, waiting until both pegasi turned to him before he flashed them a toothy grin. He rose his talon before snapping the thin digits, and a flash of light enveloped him for less than a second, causing Spitfire and Dash to wince and shut their eyes.

When they opened their oculars again, the two mares saw that Discord now rested on a long couch, his lengthy tail half-dangling from one arm of the piece of furniture and his paw holding up his cheek. Dash rolled her eyes at the display, while Spitfire just blew out air from her nostrils. "Thanks for informing us of your presence," Spitfire stated with an air of sarcasm to her voice, right before she turned back to Dash yet again. "And find me this 'general' fellow, if you please."

"I'd like to inform you now, Captain Spitfire, that the general… is a very quirky lad," Discord chimed in, his grin widening when she turned to him again.

"Everypony's quirky to one degree or another. I know that as well as anypony else does," Spitfire retorted, a tiny frown creasing her brow. With that, she turned to Dash once more and watched her as she tottered a few doors down the hall and veered to the left before opening one and peering inside.

"Hey, you got a visitor," Dash called into the room.

"Send 'em in," the room's occupant replied with an audible huff. Spitfire didn't need a second invitation; she trotted over before Dash could so much as turn to look her in the eye and nod, though she paused when her fellow pegasus decided to linger in the doorway for a few seconds. When said pegasus scrambled out of the door, Spitfire trotted into the room and instantly met with a pair of crimson eyes whose uniform-wearing owner sat at the foot of the bed.

Spitfire found herself scanning Lance up and down, her wings twitching ever so slightly as she immediately realized that he was doing the same to her. Her eyes narrowed, and his did likewise. She caught a slight rustling under his coat that came from his side, and her wings twitched again. It was as if she found herself staring at a fraternal twin that came from another dimension.

She cocked her head a little to the left; Lance tilted his to his right, and at this she smirked. "You really are a quirky stallion," she chirped.

"I've met quirkier mares," Lance quipped with a small smile forming on his face. "So, what business do you have with me?"

Spitfire's smirk fell. "Rainbow Dash told me that you were one of the reasons she skipped training," she said.

"Training?" Lance's brow rose. "Of what sort?"

Spitfire's eyes widened. "She didn't tell you?"

Lance shook his head. "Wasn't anything I thought I should've concerned myself with."

Spitfire sighed, a frown of exasperation forming on her face. One of her front hooves lifted up and connected with her forehead in short order before going along the bridge of her muzzle. "For the love of—" The hoof dropped, and she trotted over until she reared up to rest her forehooves on the foot of the bed and lean in until her muzzle was just inches from Lance's own. "And why not?" she hissed.

Lance's eyes narrowed some more, forming the thinnest of crimson slits. "Want me to give you the entire bucket list, or the whole situation in a nutshell?" he retorted, his voice cold and sharp.

Spitfire's nose wrinkled, and her lips pulled into a tight frown. She started contemplating, but heard the sound of buzzing wings that stopped and then gave way to hooves hitting the floor. This was followed by said hooves coming into the room and shuffling every so often, but she did not turn away from the Fantasian stallion until the noises ceased entirely and a thin hoof poked her square in the cutie mark.

She gazed towards her flank to find a pale face with blue orbs staring at her and instantly reeled back, barely managing to avoid smacking Lance with a flailing hoof as she returned to the floor on all fours. Katie scoffed, with a hoof of her own raised at eye level and staying there. Her orbs shifted as she glanced from one pegasus, to the second, then back again. "The fuck is going on?" she asked.

Spitfire's jaw dropped open, and it stayed that way for several seconds on end as she stared at the foal-sized wraith, who was also scanned from head to hoof. When Katie spun her still-raised hoof in a few circles, Spitfire swallowed heavily and composed herself before answering, "I think I'll need to reprimand Dash a little more."

"Then you go do that," Lance scoffed, glancing at Spitfire as the remark came from his mouth, with an additional and dismissive wave of his hoof. Then, he turned to look at Katie. "You need something, other than 'what the fuck is going on?'" he asked.

Katie turned to meet his gaze, and she assumed a straight face with slightly dimming orbs. "Uh, yeah… but it's not me that needs something," she replied.

Lance's visage eased. "Then who does?" he pressed.

Katie's hoof moved to gesture to the door, and silence fell for a moment. Lance strained his ears, and he could've sworn he heard several hoofsteps echoing into the room at once—how many, where they originated from, and who they belonged to, he wasn't certain of. "An entire hoofful of ponies do," she replied, her voice just loud enough to drown the noise out for no more than a few seconds before it resumed once more.

"Who?" Lance repeated, face hardening once again.

"See for yourself," Katie replied, her wings starting to buzz. With that, she became airborne after a few seconds and flew out of the room before Lance could say anything else, and this was promptly followed by the sound of a door opening and then closing immediately after.

Lance growled, though he said nothing for a good minute. He climbed off the bed and turned to Spitfire. "Want to continue this conversation at a later date?" he asked.

Spitfire nodded. "Remind me to tell that changeling to keep her hooves to herself, if you bring her with you whenever you're available. When you're done with… whatever it is you're doing, meet me up at Cloudsdale," she answered.

"My wings are bald. Gonna be hard to get there by myself," Lance sighed, sitting on his haunches before raising a front hoof and lifting the side of his coat just enough that Spitfire could see the tip of his wing jutting out from under his shirt and vest. "So the wraith that just left may or may not come with."

"Duly noted," Spitfire said with a sharp, single nod of her head. "I'll speak further with Rainbow Dash in the meantime." With that, Lance stood up with a nod in return and trotted out of the room. Looking both ways, he found that Cadence and Shining were just at the bend, chatting with Amethyst Maresbury as they juggled a levitating book amongst themselves and tottered about in circles.

"Hrm, yes, that could be the cause of it…" Cadence paused, spotting Lance and motioning for him to come over with one of her wings. She turned to Shining with a frown on her face, "Are you sure that's it, though?"

"At this rate, I'm positive," Shining replied with a nod. "Somepony informed me last night that she'd been hexed. How or why, she refused to say."

"Who did what to who, and for how many cookies?" Lance asked as he reached them, eyeing Shining with a curious brow raised. He then turned to the book, a small leatherbound thing that was a glossy blue in color with a gold font so faded that he found the title hard to discern even up close.

"We found something, with Amethyst's help, that may pique your interest," Shining replied, using his magic to hold the book before him and flip it to a seemingly random page. He then forked it over to Amethyst, who scanned the pages just once before nodding.

"Mmmyes, I do believe that's the right page," she chirped, whereupon the book was then handed to Lance with pages wide open.

Lance found a few illustrations about the Crystal Heart, painted in various colors that ranged from its usual blue to a shade of dark purple. "What the?" he asked.

"Go on, read it," Shining implored.

Lance nodded and sighed before doing just that, "'The Crystal Heart might change color if ponies bearing hexes are in the Empire or its rulers' immediate vicinity, and though some scholars speculate that it was crafted with this specific enchantment in mind, they haven't been able to determine why…'"

He gulped and went on, "'The color the Heart changes to depends on who is hexed in accordance with the hue of the cursed's mane, and how severe the hexes in question are. Bright colors indicate strong hexes, and dull colors indicate weaker hexes…'"

Shining nodded when Lance turned to him. "Could you come with us for a few minutes?" he asked, turning around as if intent to start trotting down the hall already. His guest nodded, and the four tottered off down a hall and then down a few more for several minutes. Upon reaching a set of spiraling stairs going down, the lot paused.

Amethyst turned to Lance and sent him a small, though gentle smile upon seeing a tight frown on his muzzle. "You look troubled, young colt," she noted.

"I am," Lance replied tersely, his wings shuddering under his uniform. A frown creased his brow as he licked his lips before he carefully added, "It's a long story."

Amethyst nodded as Shining and Cadence made to descend the stairs. She followed, and so did Lance. "Oh, you could always tell me what's wrong," she stated, still gently smiling.

"I'd... not to sound callous, but I'd much rather save you a potential heart attack," Lance replied in an uneasy voice, swallowing heavily.

Amethyst nodded again and paused for just long enough to shoot him a glance over her shoulder. "It's quite alright, dear. It couldn't be much worse than having to endure King Sombra's reign… You're a fortunate lad, in regards to not being around when that dreadful rule was established."

"What rule?" Lance asked, eyelids slanting.

"That of Sombra's, my dear," Amethyst replied, a hint of sadness in her voice. The two trotted on, and caught up to Shining and Cadence as they made their way to the ground floor and strode out. As soon as they managed to reach them, Lance realized he'd been led directly to the overhang that upheld the castle itself, and immediately his gaze turned to the ever-twirling Crystal Heart that still changed colors.

Only now, though, it never went back to red. Instead, it was its usual teal for a time before it changed to a faint yellow and then to a very bright green to then promptly start cycling back once more. Shining then turned to Lance and gestured to the Heart with a hoof and a grin on his face. "You have my sister to thank for that," he chirped. "We sorta-kinda fixed the Heart a bit, and now that we know what makes it act like that, we can hopefully mend it some more now."

Lance nodded, though he kept his mouth shut. Amethyst piped up in his stead, "Oh, Emperor Armor, do you need the books still?"

Shining nodded and took a few minutes to break away from the group and trot around the Heart. "One of them helped my sister remove Lance's hex," he replied, tottering back over to lift a hoof and pat the pegasus on his withers with it. "We may need the rune-translations at the very least."

Amethyst's smile broadened as Shining turned to her. "Then you can have the runology book for as long as you see fit, if it helps our guests out," she cooed. "But, you'll still have to return the other tomes at some point."

"Thank you very much," Shining stated. Then, he turned to Cadence. "What say you that we have the Crystal Faire… a day early?"

Cadence donned a vexed look as she turned to the Heart and then to the streets outside. "... maybe they haven't set up the booths and such for the Faire yet?" she retorted, frowning as she turned to look at Shining.

"Perhaps. But we could still ask the populace to set up early, just in case," Shining replied with a slow nod of his head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight spent most of the day in her room, sitting at the table with NoLegs and Spike at her side. Before her were two open books, one being the runology book and the other that was supposedly written by a pony named Clover. Between said books, she wrote down notes on a piece of paper that sat atop a stack half as long as her neck, flipping the pages as needed only to then jot some more notes down.

She was halfway into both tomes when Spike piped up, "Anything yet, Twi?"

Twilight shook her head. "Just bantering," she answered. "Long and groveling bantering."

"About what?" Spike pressed, frowning.

Twilight's brow furrowed at the inquiry. "About Clover's day-to-day life before they met Starswirl. Nothing major," was the answer. NoLegs gave an inquisitive meow, and at this Twilight stopped jotting down the notes and handed what she had so far to the cat who used his magic to shuffle through them. In seconds, said notes were returned to her, and she immediately resumed scribbling thereafter.

Several minutes later, when she reached approximately three-quarters of the entirety of both books, she slammed them shut with her forehooves and stood up abruptly with an aggravated sigh leaving her mouth. "How could a pony ramble on and on, conscribe it into paper format, and call it a book?!" she cried, glaring at the tomes as if they had the audacity to insult her brother.

"Maybe this Clover pony was a foal, or a teen who wrote down their experiences… and then another, not-as-good author found their records and mangled them, or something," Spike replied with a shrug. "I have no idea, honestly."

"Remind me to find that pony, if they're still alive, and to give them an eight hour long lecture if such a mangling of a maybe-ancient document really did happen," Twilight snorted, a firm frown on her face as she turned to Spike.

Spike nodded. "Will do," he replied. Twilight's horn glowed and picked both him and the cat up before bringing them over and putting them on her backside. "Where are we going?" he asked as soon as he was parked on violet withers.

"For a walk," Twilight tersely replied after taking a minute or two to compose herself. She immediately trotted to the door, flung it open, and went out into the hall from her room with the drake and cat perched snugly on her back.

She paused, though only long enough to make sure that her magic closed the door behind her before trotting on for a bit. But when she immediately saw Discord laying on a couch in front of a door snoozing soundly thereafter, she halted well before she could pass by a door or two. Her brow rose, and she turned to the two passengers on her back only to receive shrugs in return.

"Why's he on a couch?" Spike asked, a brow raised.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's probably Discord being Discord again," she replied before turning back and trotting up to Discord. When she reached him, she lifted a hoof to poke him, but stopped when NoLegs meowed and the draconequus cracked an eye open in response.

"Yes, my dearest Twilight Sparkle?" Discord chirped, smiling as his other eye cracked open. He sat up and made the couch disappear with a snap of his talons, though he remained floating in the air as if still laying on it.

"Well… I've been meaning to ask something, and I wish I had asked this sooner, but it slipped my mind," Twilight began, before taking a deep breath. When Discord motioned with his paw to continue, she obliged, "Could you take me to the other libraries in Equestria, barring my own and that of Canterlot's?"

Discord's brow rose. "And why would I need to do that, pray tell?" he asked.

"Well, I've been helping our Fantasian guests… or trying to, at any rate, help them find books on Starswirl the Bearded. Ever since I've learned that he went to Fantasia, it just… made me ask questions I couldn't answer," Twilight replied with a sullen sigh. "Shining's trying to help too, but so far, he has almost nothing."

"Her mane and tail became fire last week. She was that frustrated," Spike piped up, garnering a meow from NoLegs thereafter.

"That, and I… I feel it may take too long if the Fantasians scoured all of the libraries by themselves," Twilight added, a slight frown on her face. "Put it like this: I don't want them getting so frustrated and… last time that happened, some ponies got killed. I saw it with my own eyes."

"The Fantasians killed some ponies?" Discord repeated, his brow raising higher.

"Yeah, on their planet. And the ponies were wraiths, but still," Twilight answered with a nod. "I don't want a repeat of that mess."

Discord nodded in understanding. "Alright, if you want to spare some lives from potential death, I'll bite. Though just this once, Twilight. Now then, where to, again?" he asked, lifting his talon with digits prepared to snap.

"Every library, except in Canterlot's and Golden Oaks. I got a letter from Celestia that told me the Fantasians went up and down its library, and I helped them clean out mine to get nothing in the way of information," Twilight replied. She then turned to Spike and NoLegs, both of whom nodded.

"And books on Starswirl the Bearded—just those?" Discord's digits pressed tightly against each other.

"Yep," Spike answered before Twilight could open her mouth again.

"Alrighty," Discord chirped, and with a snap of his claws a flash of light enveloped him, Twilight, Spike, and NoLegs and whisked them out of the Crystal Empire. In a little under a minute, the four found themselves in a different place, lined with books filling spruce shelves filling a large room with a beige ceiling and a soft, carpeted floor.

Discord then conjured a map with another snap of his fingers and looked at it carefully before showing it to the other three, his paw going up and coming to rest on a city in the northeastern ocean that was, according to the parchment, very close to land. "We're in Manehattan, fellas." He then snapped his paw, and all of the books that the three could see turned into bits of spruce.

Twilight looked at the shelves and the books that just became wood, then shifted her gaze back to Discord. "Um, are the books transforming temporary, or…"

"The effect will wear off when we leave," Discord replied with a grin. He rolled up the map and scooped Twilight and Spike and NoLegs up with his tail. "Now then, let us search for books on Starswirl!" he declared, and with that he sped down to the end of the row they were in with the trio in tow, but he didn't go fast enough to make their vision blur. All they could see from that row were books-turned-spruce; none of the once-leatherbound stacks of parchment appeared to be different from the others.

So they went on to the next row, and the row after that. "Nothing there… no book on Starswirl here…" And so forth, until they effectively scanned every single row, at which point Twilight sighed in frustration. "Nothing's here…" She turned to Discord. "Now I'm starting to see what you did."

Discord nodded and snapped his paw's digits, and the act caused magic to envelop the books before it reverted them back to what they were. Then he snapped again, causing him and the trio he juggled to vanish and subsequently reappear in another large room, this one with oak shelves that were curved so much they gave the impression of half-domes. The ceiling was painted in a snowy white color, while the floor was tiled with a decorative flower pattern.

He snapped his talon's digits, and magic embraced all of the books before turning them into book-sized gummy bears. With the three still wrapped in his tail, he yet again flew up and down the rows of shelves, although this time he conjured a floating boat with some oars to maneuver himself between the shelves via rowing.

"Nope… nada… nothing there…" Spike groaned when a few minutes passed with no books in sight. The gummy bears faced outward, and some looked at him with fawning giggles leaving their chewy mouths. NoLegs, meanwhile, eyed the bears with a drooling mouth and a gleam in his eyes.

Discord stopped rowing and noticed the cat drooling. "I take it you have a sweet tooth?" he asked, garnering a nod from the feline. "I'll get you a few sweets when we're done, I promise." He began rowing again, and up and down several candy-filled rows they went. Several more minutes passed before they left without a book in tow and found themselves in yet another room that was even larger than the last two put together, albeit one lined with shelves no higher than Spike's head that framed a grey floor and hardwood ceiling.

Spike looked at the shelves with a brow raised. He turned to Discord and gestured to the shelves. "Um, what library is this?" he asked.

Discord grinned and then flew around the room for a few minutes, before stopping when he realized every single shelf wouldn't help them as they were now. "Don't know, but we're still searching," he chirped, and he snapped his paw-fingers to enable his magic to do its work. It enveloped the shelves and stacked them one atop the other, until a single row that reached the ceiling had formed. Then, he sped up and down this one row, turning the books that Twilight hadn't requested into boxes of matchsticks.

Alas, because he made all of the shelves stack on one another, nothing turned up. So he returned them as they were and turned the boxes of matches into books before letting his magic whisk him and Spike, Twilight, and NoLegs elsewhere. Upon finding themselves in another large room where all of the furniture except the books was made of oak, he pulled out the map again and showed it to Twilight. Another city that was further out in the ocean glowed on the parchment.

"We're in Trottingham now?" Twilight asked upon seeing the glowing landmark.

Discord nodded. "Hopefully, this town's libraries could yield something," he answered with a grin. He looked around and slumped a bit. "Hrm… bland…" Then his digits snapped again, and the floor promptly turned to ice while red rose bushes grew out of the tops of the shelves. "Much better," he cooed, and with that he began skating along the rows, making sure that his tail didn't go too sharply to the left or the right. The books turned into little busts of Discord, and yet again nothing turned up.

A good three hours passed as Discord hopped from one library—and town—to the next all over Equestria with NoLegs, Spike, and Twilight in tow, before they returned to the Empire's guest room hall empty-handed. When they returned, Twilight waited until Discord set her down before trotting a few steps from Spike and NoLegs and throwing herself on the floor with an aggravated groan leaving her lips. This was coupled with her front hooves coming up to smack herself in the temples repeatedly.

"Twilight, do you need a punching bag or something?" Spike asked with a sigh.

Twilight only answered with another groan and a series of smacks aimed at her head.

"Okay then," Spike murmured, and with that he turned to NoLegs, who shrugged with a meow. The two looked at Discord who also shrugged.

"Not my fault the other libraries in Equestria weren't stocked," he stated matter-of-factly. He then conjured a paper cone laden with a big swath of cotton candy on top, and he handed it to NoLegs, who took it in his magic with a purr and another gleam in his eyes. While the cat began scarfing the treat, Spike waddled over to Twilight and used a claw to pat her on the withers gently.

When Twilight stopped hitting herself in the face and growling like a wild animal, she turned to Spike and sent him a fond smile. "I… think I've vented it all out now," she sighed, a few bruises forming along her temples and forehead. Her horn glowed, and white mana embraced her head, making the bruises vanish in seconds. When the glow died, one of the guest room doors opened and Natalie trotted out of it with unsteady hooves and a trussed-up mane.

"What was with… the groaning I heard earlier?" Natalie asked, eyeing Twilight with a vexed expression on her face.

Twilight stood up and rolled her eyes. "Oh, nothing," she replied in a sarcastic tone. "I just had Discord save us a lot of hassle."

Natalie's brow rose. "Do what?" she pressed.

"Discord took me and Twilight and NoLegs to all of the other libraries in Equestria. As far as books on Starswirl go, there was nothing," Spike answered with a frown on his face. "Nothing. At. All."

Natalie's legs threatened to buckle, wobbling as if a tornado was about to suck her up when that bit of intel reached her ears. "N-nothing?" she repeated, eyes widening.

"Nothing," Discord piped up. He gestured to NoLegs with his tail when Natalie turned to look at him. "Your feline friend is a witness." Then Natalie's gaze trailed to NoLegs, who meowed through a wad of candy floss with a nod of his head.

Twilight noticed Natalie's shaky legs, and then her unkempt mane. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Natalie turned to Twilight and nodded frantically, a faltering smile framing her muzzle in an instant. "Y-yeah," she answered, a faint blush blossoming onto her cheeks. Then she started to backpedal into the room she came out of, slowly and with shuffling hooves at first. Her horn glowed and embraced the knob as she passed it on her way back in. "J-just woke up is all. I-I'm going back to bed." With that, the door closed, and Spike and Twilight glanced at each other with puzzled brows raised.

Spike turned to NoLegs, who was still gnawing on the cotton candy. "Is she usually like that when she wakes up?" he asked, using a claw to gesture to the door Natalie just retreated behind. NoLegs shook his head before taking another bite out of his treat.

Twilight then sighed, and she also turned to NoLegs. "Say, can you help us find Lance, please?" she asked, garnering a nod and another meow that came from a candy-filled mouth. At that, she smiled, but only for a few seconds.

"Well, I must get going now," Discord chirped, lifting his talon to snap his digits again. "Just send me a telepathic message if you need my assistance." With that, he snapped and vanished in a flare of light.

Twilight's smile fell immediately after Discord vanished to parts unknown, because when he did she realized just how Lance might react to the news that no other libraries in Equestria contained any books on Starswirl the Bearded. At this her pupils shrank and her ears fell back against her head. She silently prayed to Faust that he would understand. She shuddered as NoLegs turned around and bounded off with his treat in tow, and she and Spike both reluctantly followed him.

"Spike, is it just me, or did we jump libraries with Discord's help for nothing?" Twilight asked, shooting another brief glance at Spike.

Spike looked at her with a frown. "Not just you…" he replied tersely, with a sullen shake of his head. As they went, a door opened just a sliver behind them, and an azure eye gazed out of it, silently watching as the three rounded the bend.