“Spike!” called twilight through the mostly empty halls of her crystal castle. Her voice came echoing back to her, and she shivered. She was still growing accustomed to the viciousness of the empty, unfilled halls, and she often found herself missing the small, warmly lit space of Golden Oaks library.

Only one place in the new castle truly felt at least partially reminiscent of Twilight’s beloved library, and that part was, of course, the new library.

Twilight found her way through the corridors, or at least the ones she knew about, guided by the smell of old paper and book glue. The pull of the books was strong, and within minutes Twilight found her way to the castle’s grand library.

The one advantage of having a crystalline castle to live in, Twilight decided, was that the castle had ample space for a library that could truly be called royal. She stopped for a moment to admire the multiple layers and the hundreds of stacks of shelves. Most were empty, but many were already filled with books recovered from the wreckage of Golden Oaks, as well as the ancient tomes salvaged from the Palace of the Two Sisters in the Everfree forest. Celestia had even sent over a number of overflow volumes from the Canterlot Royal Library; most of them were relatively generic titles, of course, but it seemed that Celestia had also added some that were quite rare and obviously not duplicates. There had even been rumors that part of the Starswirl the Bearded section would be brought to Twilight’s Ponyville branch to assist several researchers who had taken up residence there.

As Twilight had expected, Spike was busy filing away books. Even though night had fallen and it was already well past his bedtime, he had stayed up, waiting for her.

“Spike,” said Twilight, smiling, “you really should be in bed.”

“I know, I know,” said Spike, dropping a large stack of books on one of the many tables in the large room. “But if I stop now, I’m sure to lose my place. Besides, without you hear to wake me up I kind of…slept in.”

“I wrote you a note. And a list. And several backups.”

“A note cannot wake me up,” sighed Spike. “You can hardly wake me up.”

Twilight chuckled. “I know. But I had royal duties in the Crystal Empire.”

“It must have been real important if you had to get there so fast.”

“Something attacked the Crystal Heart.”

“Wait, what?” said Spike, suddenly much more concerned.

“Shining Armor and his soldiers managed to fight it off,” said Twilight reassuringly. “But the princess were still concerned, especially since we don’t really know what it was.”

“Well, whatever it was, it better thank Celestia that I wasn’t there,” said Spike, puffing out his tiny dragon chest.

Twilight laughed. She was well aware of Spike’s reputation in the Crystal Empire as a grand hero. Her laughter rapidly turned into a long yawn, though; even with taking the train on the return trip, the teleport-intensive trip there had been draining. “I’ve got a lot of reading to do tomorrow,” said Twilight. “I’m going to check the old books from the Castle of the Two Sisters, to see if I can find anything like what Cadence described. But right now, I just want to curl up in bed with good book.”

“I hear that,” said Spike, “minus the book, though. Just me, my blanket, and a cold, cold stone floor.”

Twilight smiled, but as the two made their way to the door to attempt to find their sleeping quarters, she heard hurried galloping across the stone floor outside.

Before Twilight could even comprehend why or how somepony had gotten into her house, Rarity burst through the door, panting heavily. Rarity was not particularly athletic, which meant that if she were running and risking the possibility of sweating, something must be wrong.

“Twilight!” she cried, seeing Twilight and Spike across the room and running toward them. “Thank Celestia you’re here.”

“Rarity?” said Twilight, confused. “What’s wrong?”

“Wrong?” said Rarity. “Wrong, why nothing’s wrong, darling!”

“Then why are you in my house in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I would have waited until the morning, but this news was simply too important. Positively groundbreaking, earth shattering, the most important thing possible!” She put her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders and shook her vehemently.

“What…is…it,” said Twilight as she was shaken.

“This,” said Rarity, producing a small rhomboid gemstone.

“This?” said Twilight, unamused. “It’s a gem.”

“A gem? A gem? Do you have any idea what this even remotely represents?”

“Rarity, it’s a gem. You have thousands of them. I would know. I counted.”

“Really?” said Rarity, sounding somewhat insulted, taking the gem away and staring deeply into it herself. “I would have expected somepony so well read to be a bit more worldly.”

Twilight put her hoof to her head. “Rarity, I’ve had a really, really long day, and you know I appreciate your company, I really do, but- -”

“It’s cerorite, Twilight!”

Twilight paused. She remembered the term from a book she had read a long, long time ago, one that had been terribly boring, even by her standards. That one part had stood out, though, mostly because it was so close to her.

“That’s impossible,” said Twilight.

“I know. There are only three pieces known to exist, and Celestia herself wears two of them.”

“And the third?”

“Deeply secured in private vaults. Twilight, wars have been fought and won over that third gem. It is the most valuable and most beautiful substance known in all of Equestria!” She stared even more deeply into the gem. “Just look at the crystalline formations, free of any imperfection; the refractive formations alone surpass even the grandest diamonds! But then it has the color, initially pale violet, but on inspection, it shimmers with rainbows within rainbows!”

“It looks amazing,” said Spike, drooling substantially. That actually surprised Twilight; under normal circumstances, Spike would indeed be drooling, but when Rarity was involved, his eyes would be focused on a very different gemstone- -or a set of three of them, as the case was.

Rarity smiled. “Go ahead, Spike,” she said, passing the gem to him. “Have a taste. Just don’t bite down too hard.”

“Rarity,” said Twilight, “if it really is that valuable, you shouldn’t?”

“Oh Twilight, let Spike have his fun.”

Spike took the gem greedily, and looked up at Rarity. She nodded, and he put the gem in his mouth. His jaws closed, and a perplexed expression came over his face. Whereas he was usually able to crunch gemstones to dust, this one eluded him. It remained intact, even against his hard dragon teeth.

Spike spat it out. “I can’t eat it,” he said.

“Well of course you can’t, Spike,” said Rarity, taking back the gem. Spike seemed to have no use for it if he was unable to eat it. “I’m sorry to play that little trick on you, but I needed you to help me prove the stone’s authenticity. You see, cerorite is virtually indestructible. Why, you could probably pass this gem through the sun itself and it would come out unscathed!”

“That’s amazing, Rarity,” said Twilight, suddenly intrigued by the nature of the stone. She attempted to pick it up with her magic, only to have it slip out of her spell. “Truly amazing. Magic doesn’t effect it either!” Rarity was positively beaming, but Twilight was concerned. “Actually, Rarity, where did you get this? It isn’t that third sample, is it?”

“Sample? Twilight, you make it sound like a simple scientific specimen! Would you call a piece of art a ‘unit’?” Her expression flattened. “Actually, knowing you…”

“Rarity, where did you get it?”

“Relax, Twilight. I didn’t steal it. Well, not from a vault. It isn’t mine, though, it’s Sweetie Belle’s. That’s why I’m here so late, I had to wait until the little dear fell asleep before I could take it.”

“So you stole it from your sister.”

“Stole?! Twilight, I merely appropriated it. For verification of its identity.”

“Well, where did Sweetie Belle get it?” A vision floated to Twilight’s mind of Sweetie Belle and her two friends dressed in black, calling themselves the Cutie Mark Crusader cat burglars.

“She said a strange pony gave it to her as payment for showing him around Ponyville,” said Rarity, almost sounding concerned. “And before you ask, I wondered if perhaps he stole it as well. He might very well have, except that he apparently gave Applebloom and Scootaloo…” she stretched her jaw; apparently, with her accent, the word “Scootaloo” was either difficult or uncomfortable to pronounce, “gems as well, all identical to this one. I was hoping that Spike could send a message to princess Celestia, just to make sure that none of them had been stolen.”

“If you think someone robbed the princess, you’re wrong,” said Twilight. “I saw her earlier today. Both her gems were intact and present. Besides, the Princess has more important things on her mind than gemstones right now.”

“Twilight, you don’t understand. I can’t pretend to know Celestia’s motivations, but I feel like there is most likely a reason she keeps two of the stones on her person at all times.”

Before Twilight could respond, she heard a sound of beating wings, and the sound of something heavy being dragged across her stone floors.

“Why the hay is she so heavy?” grunted Rainbow Dash from the hall. “It’s probably all the sweets she eats. She’s got to way, like, a million pounds!”

“Now Rainbow Dash,” said a much softer voice, “it isn’t nice to talk about a friend’s weight when she isn’t around to defend herself.”

“What are you talking about, Fluttershy? She’s right here!”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came into view near the open door, and to Twilight’s surprise, they were not alone. They were pushing something that she initially took for a statue, but that on closer inspection was actually Pinkie Pie, frozen solid, her hair menacingly straitened and her mouth spread into a psychotic grin.

“Fluttershy! Rainbows Dash! What happened to Pinkie?”

“That’s what- -off,” said Rainbow Dash, setting down the front of Pinkie Pie. “We came here to ask you!”

Twilight trotted over to Pinkie Pie. As she did, she shivered. It was clearly magic, but the magic somehow felt wrong, almost on an instinctive level.

“A little birdie told me that he saw her frozen like this on the street all day,” said Fluttershy, oddly untired from having pushed Pinkie for so long. “It was all he could do to keep the crows from pecking her eyes out while I found Rainbow Dash to help me move her.”

Twilight tapped her hoof against one of Pinkie’s eyes, and it clinked like glass. “I don’t think there was too much to worry about there. She’s frozen solid.”

“Is she?” gasped Rarity, putting her hooves to her mouth.

“Rarity? When did you get here?” asked Rainbow Dash, surprised. “What are you doing in Twilight’s house in the middle of the night?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” muttered Twilight. “But she is alive. Hold on. I think I can dispel this. You may want to stand back.”

“Why?” said Rainbow Dash.

“Because if she fails, the cerorite is gonna be the only thing left in this room,” said Spike.

“What?”

Twilight’s horn ingnited with magenta energy, and she grimaced as she directed the spell at Pinkie Pie. A similar magenta energy surrounded Pinkie Pie, and she seemed to vibrate for several moments. There was a sudden burst of energy that rocketed outward with unanticipated force. It struck the many books in the library, knocking them onto the shelves or into neat piles.

“Is the secret about Blue Berry? OOOH! Do you have a crush on- -” Pinkie Pie blinked and rubbed her eye. “Twilight? What are you doing here? Where is D27?”

“Who?” said Rainbow Dash.

“Dashi? Everypony?” Pinkie looked perplexed.

“Um, Pinkie, your hair,” noted Rarity, pointing. Pinkie looked down at her straightened hair. “Oh,” she said. She puffed out her cheeks and squeezed, and her main and tail puffed up to their normal shape. “How did I get here? Are we having a party? Did I plan a surprise party for myself? No, wait. Is this D27’s party?”

“Slow down, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “Try to tell us what happened.”

“Well, I was talking to D27, and he was all nervous because he was new to Ponyville and had a shaved tail and weird eyes, and then he booped my nose and- -” She gasped. “And then he froze me!”

“So that means- -”

Pinkie squeezed Twilight’s face with her hooves. “You don’t know what this means!” she cried. “It means he skipped out on a Pinkie party!” Pinkie’s face contorted with rage, and she jumped onto a table. “D27!” she screamed into the library, “you have besmirged my Pinkie honor by scornring my party favor! You shall rue the day you crossed Pinkamena Diane Pie! I have your number, D27, and it is…27!”

“Pinkie, calm down,” said Twilight.

“Yeah,” said Spike. “You’re supposed to be quiet in the library.”

“Oops,” said Pinky, putting her hooves over her mouth and whispering. “Sorry.”

“Who,” replied a partially deafened Owlysious from the upper stacks.

“Meeeeee,” whispered Pinkie.

“Did this strange pony happn to be blue, with weird spikes all over his head and bahck?” drawled a voice from the edge of the door. Everypony turned to see Applejack leaning against the doorframe.

“Alright,” said Twilight, “did I leave a door open or something?”

“Yeah!” said Pinkie Pie. “With weird triangles in his eyes.”

“Triangles?” said Rainbow Dash, confused. “How can somepony have triangles in his eyes?”

“Ah know the one,” said Applejack. “Showed up at Sweet Apple Ahcres earlier today. Tongue kissed me, then ordered six tons ‘ah apples.”

Everypony turned to her, and her eyes widened with surprise.

“He kissed you?” said everypony in unison.

“Yeah, and got a hoof from Big Mac to the face for it. Lahk I told Big Mac, though, ain’t the first time I’ve got a sahprise kiss, and it won’t be the last, ahm sure.”

Everypony in the room turned their heads slowly, looking to Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, come on!” she cried, defensively. “Why does everypony always look at me when she brings this up?”

“It was me,” admitted Pinkie Pie, bouncing into the air repeatedly. “Because we’re cousins. Kissing cousins. That’s something cousins do.”

“Um, Pinkie, I think you’re misunderstanding the term,” said Rarity. Then she paused. “Wait. You said ‘shaved tail’?”

“Yeah,” said Pinkie Pie, “made him look like a big’ol rat. But I didn’t say that, because that would be rude, even if it was true.” She gasped. “Oh, I know, cheesecake! He would love a cheesecake! I’ll need cheese, though. And bear traps. He will not escape a second time.”

“A shaved tail!” cried Rarity. “How positively…uncouth!”

“I thought you said that was ‘fasion-forward’ last week!” said Rainbow Dash.

“No, I said it’s never fashionable. It never has, and never will be. It makes one look like a brute and a hooligan.”

“What’s wrong with the tails on rats?” said Fluttershy. “I think they’re adorable.”

“Still,” said Rarity, ignoring Fluttershy, as was the group’s custom. “A blue pony with a shaved tail…that was Sweetie Belle’s description of the pony who gave her this.” She held up the stone.

“Yeah, I know,” said Applejack. “Ah was there. Gave one to Applebloom and Scoot-ah-loo too. Raht after he vomited ten pounds of other gemstones aht my feet.”

“Vomited? Oh my,” said Fluttershy.

“Wait a minute!” cried Twilight. “Hold on!” Everypony stopped talking. “So, let me get this…uhg…as straight as possible. A blue stallion with a shaved tail and…horns…appears in Ponyville. He freezes Pinkie Pie in the middle of the street, and then Sweetie Belle and her friends took him to Sweet Apple Acres, where he kissed Applejack, then…vomited.”

“Hey!” cried Applejack.

“He expelled a pile of gemstones, and bought six tons of apples. He then gave three impossibly rare stones to Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo.” The name of the tiny flightless Pegasus was, actually, rather difficult to say. “And then…”

“I guess he left,” said Pinkie Pie. “Probably hiding. You hear that, you shave-tailed…party…shirker! You jerker shirker! I will find you!”

“Pinkie, calm down,” said Twilight. “Did any of you hear where he was staying?”

“Sahd something about the Everfree forest,” said Applejack. “Ahnd, fah the record, kissing me did not make him vomit.”

“It didn’t,” said Pinkie Pie. “She tastes like apples!”

“Well, we can’t go to the Everfree forest at night,” said Twilight. “How about we wait for morning? Then we can all go to talk with him. Since you’re already all here, why don’t you spend the night at the castle?”

“Can’t,” said Pinkie. “I’ve got traps to lay, and plans to make. My Pinkie party honor shall be restored! By the Madgod, I swear it!” She shook her fist angrily at the ceiling and then, realizing everyone was staring, smiled with an adorable squeaking sound.

“Come on, the rest of you,” said Twilight. She yawned. “I think we will all have an easier time with this in the morning.”

“Thank you, puffy carnivorous night bird,” said D27 as the creature handed him another book. He opened it, and shuffled through the pages, rapidly absorbing the information presented. Apparently, there were one thousand and one recipes for hay. He closed the book and set it aside.

He looked over the railing as the ponies below left. Only the pink one stopped and looked back, as if she knew that D27 was watching. She shrugged and bounced after the others, though, having not seen D27.

Apparently, it seemed, D27’s presence had caused something of a commotion. That was not ideal, but it was also unavoidable considering how little he knew of ponies. He had actually been rather unaware of the value of cerorite himself as well; he only knew that it was manufactured by Cerorians as a kind of armor-piercing munition. Or at least, it had been, before his kind had killed them all.

D27 sighed, and vomited a whole apple. He took it in his claw, and began to eat it as the bird- -an ‘owl’, apparently, though not to be confused with an ‘awl’, which as something different- -delivered several more books. It hooted somewhat annoyed at him, gesturing toward the apple.

“I am a being of interdimensional conquest,” said D27. “I will eat apples if I want to. I promise I will be very careful not to damage the books, too.”

The owl seemed to aquiesse, and returned to categorizing books, allowing D27 to look through several more boring volumes written in inelegant pony-script.

D27 looked down at where the ponies had been earlier, talking about him. The alicorn among them concerned him, as did the structure of the castle he now found himself in. That purple pony, as well as the whole place, stank with the sickly scent of Order. The magic that had formed her was different than the Heart of Order, though, and less familiar. The castle itself was not the Lord; it was created by it and clearly built in the architectural style of Order, but it was not alive itself. The Lord of Order was elsewhere, and the alicorn likely served it. She was a threat, and would probably need to be eliminated eventually.

She seemed so nice, though, and as did her associates. D27 actually felt a twinge in his pony-like chest at the fact that they would probably not be alive for much longer.