Rediscovery

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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Laying on a pile of books wasn't so bad, really.

It offered a lot of... Support? They were firm?

Twilight rolled to her side, staring at the bookshelf.

This place, this world, it was amazing. It was wonderful!

She missed her home.

She rolled back on to her back and looked up, gazing into Thorn's green eye and pondered this world. The technology here was so...

Wait.

"Thorn!?" Twilight shrieked, waking Spike up who, thankfully, did not start barking. "What are you doing here?!"

"Oww, Twilight! That was my... Thorn?" Spike circled around and looked up, also meeting the gaze of the strange person.

Pony?

Who'd been dogging their footsteps since they'd gotten here.

"Yeah! What are you doing here?" Spike couldn't decide between a shout or a whisper, his question coming out as kind of both.

"I thought I'd check up on you. You've been here all day, right? I know how confusing, scary this place is when you're on your own." He sounded wistful and, honestly, kind of sad.

"We-I fine..." Twilight sighed and sat up, bringing her knees to her chest. "I want to go home."

"I know." Thorn sat down on the floor, next to the books and pulled off his backpack. "This place, underneath the surface it's not like Equestria at all."

"It's really not. It looks like it, at first. But the more I listen to everybody here I see more small things that make it look less like home." Her friends broken up, the administrators disregard for their students. It seemed like there were nearly as many kids here as there were ponies in Equestria! Or at least a significant percentage.

"But Twilight, this world has all of our friends! Like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and Applejack and-" Spike sighed dreamily, garnering an undecipherable look from Thorn. "-Rarity."

"Which is even weirder. Spike, all the parallels adding up, it's almost like we were destined to come here, or like our own world we were destined to become friends." She caught the way Spike deflated at her statement, though she wasn't sure why.

As the trio descended into silence, Twilight opened the backpack handed to her by the other human and opened it. It took her a bit of struggling, it was packed full to bursting but eventually she worked the zipper over.

Two very squished pillows and a thin blanket, folded into a small, neat square.

"You didn't have to do this. We're only going to be here for tonight, just sleeping on books would've been fine." That said, she wasn't going to just give them back to him. She fluffed the first pillow out, its dimensions returning slowly and set it where her head had been. The other, after some fluffing, was placed next to it where Spike had first laid down.

"I'd guessed as much, the portal won't be open for you for very long. Still Twilight-" He turned his head and grinned at her. "-I know what it's like to wake up, alone, cold and lost in a world you don't recognize."

She would've thought he'd sound bitter, maybe resigned after saying something like that.

"Say, you two hungry?"

"Yes!" Spike hollered.

"No." Twilight demurred before her stomach growled. "Okay, yes."

"Alright. I left something downstairs. I'll go get it and bring it up." He stood up and walked out the aisle. Once he'd turned the corner, Twilight got up and followed, Spike at her heels.

They turned the corner at the edge of the bookshelf, but didn't see him. They rushed to the stairs.

He wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"You remember telling me there's no such thing as ghosts?" Twilight picked Spike up and began edging her way back to her bed.

She'd thought it was kind of creepy when he did the same thing this morning.

Alone, in a dark library with only her dragon.

Dog.

Spike for company?

It was so much worse.

She turned the corner to her bed and screamed.

He was sitting there, sitting next to her bed and holding a box!

"How did you get here?!" He was shifting uncomfortably, probably at the accusation in her tone.

"I... Walked?" No! Absolutely not!

"We were right there! At the top of the stairs! You did not just 'Walk' past us!" You tell him, Spike!

"I walked really fast?" He turned the box around, hooking a finger under a flap and lifted it.

The smell was divine, readily interrupting their interrogation.

It was coming from a circle, a glorious golden circle half covered in every kind of vegetable Twilight could imagine. The other half was a beautiful golden brown, small bubbles risen to the top of the meal within the cardboard treasure chest.

"Figured you'd need a snack. Strange place, strange library in the dead of night? Your... pup could probably use some real food, too." He had some plates with him, too. Flimsy and made of foam, but he doled out a few slices of the food on two plates. He handed Twilight hers and put the other on the ground.

"Thorn, thanks. Really." Twilight took a bite, savoring cheese and tomato and olives and peppers.

"Yeah Thorn, thanksh!" While Spike was simply gobbling as fast as he could.

"It's no problem. I can't imagine going hungry is too pleasant." He lifted the box off of himself and set it to the side. "So do you have some kind of plan for tomorrow?"

"I... Don't know. I mean, I know what needs to be done but I don't know how to do it." Thorn made a hand motion, one she assumed meant for her to go on. "I have to fix my friends friendship, check on the party decorations, win the fall formal and get my crown back and I've only got a day to do all of that. If I mess that up, my friends won't be friends, or everything will be ruined or I'll lose or-or!"

"Stop!" She froze and stared at Thorn when he did a thing with his hand, moved his fingers and made a snapping sound. "Now breathe. Just take it slow, alright? In, then out."

Twilight blushed and buried her face in her hands. She was getting worked up again, she couldn't afford a meltdown now! Too much was too critical!

"Alright, it sounds like you've got a list of what needs done, right?" She nodded at his query. "So let's just focus on what needs done, rather than how it needs to get done, alright?"

"Alright, yeah. That's a good place to start I guess." Twilight took a shuddering breath and began listing off her bullet points.

"My friends. And their broken friendships." It was her number one concern. Everything else was still important, but Equestria could make do without the element of magic for a little while.

Right?

"If they were friends, then they probably still are friends. They just might be angry with each other. I've only seen a few friendships that ended so badly it couldn't be resolved by talking." He sounded certain about that.

And she didn't think he was wrong.

"I've also got to check on the party decorations tomorrow."

"Can only help you so much with the decorations, Twilight. Popping in between classes doesn't leave me much time to help you. I'm sorry." She made an irritated sound in the back of her throat. It wasn't ideal, but at least she had proof he had more to do than coddle her.

"And the rest?" She didn't really know how to win over large groups of people! With ponies, so long as she was useful, she was needed. Humans here were so much more...

Fickle.

"Be yourself. If people here aren't blind, they'll see Twilight Sparkle for the amazing person she is. Human or not."