Twilight stirred at the sound of her door opening as quietly as possible, and her ears twitched at the sound of hooves tapping gently on the floor as somepony made their way around the side of her bed. It took a lot of mental wrestling to wake herself enough to the point she was able to speak, but she managed it. "Ngh, who's ther-"

THWAAARP!

"YAAAHH-AHH!" A wave of telekinesis pulsed from Twilight's horn in her panic, throwing aside everything around her, and smashing the pony assaulting her ears against the wall, along with her bedside table, breaking it to pieces. "What the fuck?!" A quiet chuckling from by the wall alerted Twilight that her attacker was very much still there, and she scrabbled to her hooves to find that, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Trixie, lying on her side, and not moving much. "Trixie!"

"Ehehehe... Ow. You know, after six months of being in hospital, I'd almost forgotten what pain feels like."

"What the hell Trixie? I could've seriously hurt you! What were you thinking?!"

Trixie reached a hoof out towards the offending noise maker, but couldn't quite reach it, so gave up. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I had a look around your castle and found an air-horn," she said by way of explanation. "So I thought I'd give you one of our good old fashioned, stupid wake up calls." Trixie slowly rolled onto her chest, "I seem to remember them hurting less though."

Twilight growled, then started the short process of reassembling her bedside table, while taking care to not reveal some of its contents. Just because she wasn't inclined towards ponies in a certain way, didn't mean she didn't sometimes have needs. "You know, that wasn't funny back in Mareitania, and it isn't funny now. I could have really hurt you."

"I think you might have..."

"Pull that crap again, and I'll be inclined to find out if this place has a dungeon I can lock you in at night." Twilight nodded with satisfaction as she fully repaired her furniture, then hopped off the end of her bed. "I'll go start breakfast," she said, leaving the room in a huff.

"Wait," Trixie called after the departing alicorn. "Carry me."

"No!"

"Why do you even have an air-horn? Twilight? Twilight? Are you ignoring me?" Trixie turned enough to see out of the door, but Twilight has gone. Instead, Moondancer was there, looking annoyed, but she always looked like that.

"You deserve every moment of suffering you get."

"Oh please, you say that to me every day."

"And every day it's true," Moondancer said back before leaving.

"Wait! Moondancer! Will you carry me?"

"No!"

"Aww... Sunset?"

"Not a chance Trixie!"

Twilight held her healing device over Trixie as all of them ate breakfast, with Sunset helping Trixie since her legs weren't feeling too clever, and her magic was still inhibited. Hopefully this morning would be the last time that she tried something like this.

Twilight realised what she'd just thought and dismissed it immediately.

Twilight cleared her throat, "So, girls... First I want to thank you all for helping with this. Octavia too if she were here, but even so, I'm afraid time is becoming an issue. It's been two weeks since we started, and I really think we ought to start looking for this place, rather than sit here and read books. We really cannot spend any more time on this, so I think we need to point out some possible locations."

"Well none of the books I've read have even mentioned this secret retreat," said Trixie. "Are you even sure it exists?" Trixie turned nervous at the way all of the others had started looking at her. "What? Is that not what we were doing?"

"We were looking for commonly mentioned locations in his writings," Twilight told her in a tight voice. "Not for mention of the retreat itsel- You know what? Forget it. What'd you find Moondancer?"

Moondancer pushed her glasses up her nose as she consulted her notes. "I found quite a few mentions of the Crystal Empire, and the frozen north, but we know it's not in the Empire itself because Starswirl wouldn't have been able to use it while the Empire was banished. All the mentions of the frozen north concerned the windigoes though, and no actual studies of them, so I'm not sure we should include them or not. Other than that, I have him as having spent a lot of time studying the ancient temples around the Tenochtitlan Basin and the Forbidden jungle, which is odd, because I thought that place was fictional."

"It's very much real," said Twilight. "And every bit as dangerous as the Daring Do books make it sound."

"You've been there?"

"Once, about two years ago. I can see why that place would interest Starswirl though. Anywhere else?"

"There was a few mentions of the Badlands, Minos, the centaur homeland, and a few mentions of lands in the far south, but nothing to the degree that it seemed relevant since he never went to visit a lot of those places."

Twilight nodded thoughtfully as she jotted these places down, "Okay, good. Sunset?"

"Same as Moondancer about the Tenochtitlan Basin, and there was a few mentions of the Badlands, as well as Saddle Arabia. Then there was the three whole books he wrote about the Circen desert."

Moondancer looked inquisitively at Sunset, "Isn't circen old equish for round?"

"Round?" Trixie sniggered. "Why the hell would it be called a round desert?"

"Because it's a square, obviously," Sunset replied sarcastically, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "According to Starswirl the desert is pretty much a mathematically perfect circle, centred on the ruins of an ancient city. He spent years studying this place, trying to discover its secrets, so I think it's good to add to the list."

"Yeah..." Twilight noted it down, then looked at the major culprits they had so far. The Badlands, the Forbidden jungle, the Frozen north, and the Circen desert. The biggest outlier in those four was the Frozen north. The entire place was inhospitable, and she very much doubted Starswirl chose that place to create his retreat. The problem was that the desert was likely inhospitable as well.

"What about you Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"Hmm?" Twilight looked up as Sunset spoke to her, "Oh, uh, yeah. The notes Octavia left me mentions a few of the same places as you, but included a few attempts at studying the Dragon-lands, which fits in nicely with what I discovered. I really doubt he built his retreat there though, since dragons aren't exactly known for being welcoming."

"So that leaves us with the Badlands, the Forbidden jungle, and the Circen desert as our main culprits." Sunset tried to count them off on her fingers, then blushed as she remembered not having any.

"Yeah, but I get the feeling he never built his retreat in the Circen desert either, since it's just as inhospitable as the Frozen north."

"Not always though," said Moondancer. "If there's the ruins of a city there, then it must have supported life at some point. If anything, I'd say the Badlands is unlikely since pretty much everything in that place is hostile."

"Lots to study there though," Sunset pointed out. "What do you think Twilight?"

"Truthfully, I don't think he built it in any of these places," Twilight said tiredly. "Celestia's own research to find the retreat all came up with the same ideas as us, and they're all silly places to build his secret retreat. What she does mention though, was that he managed to research these places, and be of service to Equestria, all at the same time, and looking at some of the dates on these books, I have to agree. He'd finished writing a paper on the indigenous creatures of the Badlands two days before he started one on the significance of the frescoes in the temples in the Tenochtitlan basin. Then a week later he started researching something else in a different place before he'd properly finished that, all while being at Celestia's beck and call. How could he have possibly gotten around that fast, and still be available to Celestia?"

Trixie waved her hooves in circles, "Magic."

"Well, obviously. But he couldn't possibly have the power to teleport around like that on his own. Not even alicorns can do that!"

"Then he must have had some kind of teleport network set up," said Sunset. "He was a master of portals, and stuff like that. It's the only logical solution."

"That's what Celestia thought. If we find his teleport network, we can find his retreat."

Trixie looked around at the others as they all agreed with that assessment, while she didn't. "I think you're getting too excited. If he did have a teleport network, then surely he'd have a way in Equestria to travel to it. If so, why hasn't Celestia found it?"

"She did mention it," said Twilight, "but thinks that it either broke at some point, or was intentionally sabotaged. She's never found anything anyway."

"So, what? We're going to go traipsing off to wherever in the hopes of finding some ancient portal to Starswirl's secret retreat?" Trixie threw her hooves into the air as Twilight nodded, "This sounds even more improbable than finding the retreat itself!"

"It's all we have Trixie."

"The great hope of Equestria and the world..."

Twilight stomped a hoof angrily, "Unless you have a better idea Trixie, this is pretty much the only chance we have of finding a way to defeat Faust!"

"And how about we just fight her! I fought you just fine when I went nuts, so surely you and the other princess could fight her!"

"I was holding back against you Trixie!"

Trixie felt like she'd been slapped, "You were?"

"Of course I was! The problem I had fighting you was that I didn't actually want to really hurt or kill you, which kind of limited my options."

"Oh, I see. Then that makes you even more powerful than I thought, so fighting seems like an even better idea."

Twilight shook her head, "Even if that were true, the fact is that we don't think we can defeat Faust, hence why we're going for this desperate kind of plan."

Trixie dismissed the idea, "I really don't think she could possibly be that powerful. The only thing I can think of as being that powerful is Discord."

"And Discord ran away as soon as he heard about her. What does that tell you?"

Trixie was quiet for a moment, "It tells me that if this desperate plan doesn't work, we're so fucked."

Twilight slumped in her seat, "And Bingo was his name-o."

"What about other ideas?" Sunset asked. "How about stealing her magic like Tirek stole all yours?"

Twilight shrugged at the suggestion, "And put it where? Tirek was the only one capable of containing that kind of magic, and I really don't think he's willing to share his secrets. And even then, he could probably only steal something like hers or Discord's power when he was near his full strength, and we have no idea how he even did it."

"Couldn't you contain it?"

Twilight almost laughed at the suggestion, "I could barely contain the power of Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Faust's power would probably burn me from the inside out. I'd rather not find that out, y'know?"

"So..?" Sunset said hopefully.

"So we have this plan, and this plan alone."

"...bummer."

"You said it." Twilight quickly cleared the table of stuff, and summoned a map of the world, with Equestria sitting rather egocentrically at its middle. "So we're agreed that the Frozen north is to be excluded?"

"I think we'd have to be even more desperate than we are now to risk an expedition there," said Sunset.

"Right, so that leaves our best chances of it being the Badlands, the Tenochtitlan basin, and the Circen desert." Twilight placed at marker on the map for each of those places, finding that it made a nice curve heading southeast from where they were now. It also cut through the middle of Saddle Arabia. "Didn't one of you mention Saddle Arabia?"

"I did," said Sunset.

"Then I guess we get to have a look around there too." Twilight stared at the route they had to take, then shrugged. All they had to do now was follow it, and hope they found the proverbial needle in a haystack.

"The odds of this working are stupidly low," said Moondancer.

"I guess that means you aren't coming then?" Trixie asked.

Moondancer glared icily at Trixie, "A walk through some of the most dangerous places in the world doesn't sound like fun."

Trixie blinked at Moondancer a few times, "I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"Well, I'm in," Sunset said proudly.

Twilight jolted in surprise, "You are? But what about your friends? What about your whole life you have in the other world? I'm not asking you to come and leave that all behind Sunset, you know that."

"And you don't have to. Equestria is my home Twilight, and it's in danger, along with the entire world. What kind of person, or pony, would I be to just walk away from that?" Sunset grinned cockily at Twilight, "I'm in Twilight, and you better accept that."

Twilight swallowed and nodded, trying to keep the torrent of thank yous she wanted to say under wraps. "Thanks Sunset, glad to have you on board. What about you Moondancer?"

Moondancer looked from pony to pony, then sighed heavily. "I never wanted this, but if me coming with you increases your chances of success, then I'll come. Especially now that there's a pony I actually like going."

"Aww, I like you too."

Moondancer scoffed in disgust, "I really wasn't talking about you Trixie."

"Pfft, whatever."

"Anyway," Twilight said to change the subject, "thank you both for coming. Since we have a long way to go, we better start getting ready if we're going to leave by tomorrow."

"You'll have to leave me out of that," said Sunset. "I'm going to have to go back through the portal and sort my life out before I can come with you. And explain all this to my friends." Sunset sighed and smiled weakly, "I can see this being emotional."

"Yeah. Speaking of your friends..." Twilight walked over to a small chest and pulled a couple of books out of it before presenting them to Sunset. "I know you didn't have much room left in your journal, so I made these for us so we could keep writing. I guess now you should give one to your friends instead so you can keep in touch with them."

Sunset took one of the books and hugged it to her chest as she started to choke up. "Thanks Twilight. I- I can't believe I'm almost crying already. I'll try to be back by tomorrow morning. See ya!"

"Give them my love too!" Twilight shouted after Sunset as the mare practically ran out of the room. While she was ecstatic that Sunset was coming, Twilight still felt horrible for separating Sunset from her friends, even if it was Sunset's choice.

"Hey! Equestria to Twilight!"

"Hmm?" Twilight realised she'd been staring at the door Sunset left through for a while, and that she also had tears in her eyes that she quickly wiped away. "Sorry Trixie, I was just thinking."

"Uh-huh. Maybe you could tell us what we're going to be doing instead."

Twilight nodded as she quickly ran through a mental checklist of everything they might need. "First we're going to need saddlebags. Good ones. And a book of enchantments for preserving things. Then we're going to need a lot of food."

"Yes, those sound like normal requests."

Twilight smiled at Trixie, "Wait until I tell you about the bottomless canteens I devised."

"And when can I see those?"

"As soon as I make them."

Trixie idly played with the ring in her ear, then drummed her hooves on the counter in Twilight's kitchen once that got boring, while doing her best to annoy Moondancer as she sorted through the shopping list Twilight had given them. Moondancer seemed impervious to Trixie's attempts to irritate her though, and so she started making popping noises as well, before giving up when that achieved nothing either. "Are we done now?"

Moondancer narrowed her eyes at Trixie's question, "Done? What have you got to be done with? You didn't do anything!"

"Trixie showed you where the shops are."

"I know where the shops are!"

"And I provided moral support."

"Doing this with you has been absolute hell!"

Trixie pouted at Moondancer, "Would it hurt you to be a little nicer?"

"Yes! Now go away! I'm sure Twilight might have some inane task for you that won't surpass your meagre capabilities."

Trixie was stunned, and found herself unable to reply for several seconds. "Wow, that actually hurt my feelings. Bravo Moondancer, bravo."

Moondancer rolled her eyes and continued sorting through their purchases, only stopping after Trixie not only failed to leave, but sat there staring, her bottom lip jutting out slightly. "What?"

"I'm waiting for you to apologise."

"As soon as I'm made aware that hell has in fact frozen over, or is otherwise filled to the brim with flying pigs, I will get right back to you. Until then, please leave me be so I can get this done."

"Ugh, fine..." Trixie flopped to her hooves and dragged herself out of the kitchen, making her way through the castle to where she'd last seen Twilight. Thankfully it was easy enough to find the alicorn, mostly due to the flickering purple magic that came from the slightly ajar door. Trixie pushed the door open, and averted her eyes as what Twilight was doing threatened to blind her. "Dude! That's fucking bright!"

Twilight pushed her welding goggles up as Trixie squeaked, and let the heat dissipate off her horn for a moment. "Perhaps I should have put a sign up saying 'do not enter.' Are you alright?"

Trixie blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the after images she had floating around in her vision. "Were you welding? With your horn?"

"Yes. Why? Is that a problem?"

"No, I just didn't know you could do that until just now." Trixie blinked again as her vision cleared, then looked at what Twilight was building. It looked like an oversized water cooler, if water coolers had glowing, purple, spinning things attached to where the water came out. "What the hell is this?"

"This is our bottomless canteens. Basically it teleports water straight into our canteens as we use them. Then I've connected it to the water in the castle, so it refills itself. Neat huh."

Trixie studied the contraption intently, not sure where to even begin if she had to build one herself. "And you didn't think to make one of these when we were in Mareitania?"

"Firstly, I didn't know how back then, and I wouldn't have had time. Mostly though, Mareitania was, for want of a better word, a 'civilised' country with clean water available in most places, so this would be unnecessary. In the Badlands, and the Circen desert though, not exactly a lot of water, and I imagine the water in the Forbidden jungle isn't exactly problem free."

"Uh-huh." Trixie looked at the rough wooden frame holding it together, then at the spinning... thing, which was a mess of bits and bobs that held four gems, none of which were the same size, shape, or colour. "Why do all your creations seem really haphazard?"

"Really?" Twilight deadpanned. "You're criticising that?"

"Yes really! Apart from this thing, your healing device was a confusing bunch of wires and gems glued onto what looked like a fold out lampshade, and that crap around the portal looks like a half dozen afterthoughts slapped together."

"I work with what I have in the time I have to build things." Twilight plucked a sapphire out of what she knew was a amplified teleportation matrix, and held it up in the air. "If you keep on you won't be getting any nice, clean water on our travels."

"Alright! Sorry! Sheesh!" Twilight placed the gem back in the matrix, which seemed to suck it back into place. "So how come you can teleport water halfway around the world, but not us?"

"Because it's in small quantities, I can use an amplifier, and it isn't a quartet of complex, living organisms. Does that answer your question?"

"More or less," Trixie nodded.

"Good. Now why are you here, pestering me, instead of helping Moondancer like I asked?"

"Because she's being mean to me."

"And did you deserve her being mean to you?"

"Well, yeah, probably. That doesn't mean she had to call my capabilities meagre though."

Twilight slid her goggles back into place so she could finish welding the pipes that refilled the tank together. "You'd be more capable if you took that inhibitor off," she said as she started casting again.

"Not a chance," Trixie said as she averted her eyes from the bright light that Twilight was producing. "What if I take it off and turn evil again? The last time I used magic I tried to kill you! What if I end up trying to do that again?"

"Then I'll kick your ass again," Twilight replied dismissively. "Really though Trixie, I think you're being a little paranoid about this. Your magic isn't going to do anything you don't want it to. Just avoid dark magic and you'll be fine."

"But I'm scared Twilight!"

Twilight sighed and stopped what was doing. She pulled her goggles down to hang around her neck as she thought of how to tell Trixie she was being silly, without telling her she was in so implicit a way. "Look, I know none of us liked what happened with you back in Mareitania, but you can't hide from your magic forever."

"Yes I can. I've managed without magic just fine for months now, and I don't see why I should start using it again if I don't want to."

"So walking into some of the most naturally hostile places in the world isn't a good enough reason?" Twilight nodded with respect, "You must be a brave pony to do that."

"Uhh..."

Twilight smiled kindly at Trixie, "Look, I know you're nervous, and considering you have eldritch beings claiming ownership over you, I can't exactly blame you, but there is nothing you can do that we can't fix unless you really wanted to do it. Or go on a murder spree, as unlikely as that is. You are in charge here Trixie, not them."

"I don't know Twilight. This sounds like a bad idea."

Twilight stood and hugged Trixie, the blue mare going stiff before accepting and returning it. "Do you trust me?" she whispered into Trixie's ear.

"Twilight, you're almost as big a bag of crazy as I am."

"That's not what I asked. Do you trust me? Or do you at least trust me to wipe the floor with you on the off chance you do get taken over by dark magic?"

"Is it 'destroy Trixie's confidence day' or something? I might, possibly, beat you-"

"Trixie!"

"Yes! Yes I trust you!"

"Good." Twilight grinned and held the inhibitor up in front of Trixie's face, "Because this would be totally awkward if you didn't."

"What? No!" Trixie snatched at the inhibitor, but Twilight moved it away too fast. "Give it back Twilight!"

"Not a chance."

"Please!" Trixie started hyperventilating, and pulled on her mane as panic took root in her mind.

"Trixie, the more you think something bad is going to happen, the more likely it is to happen. Calm down, and think for a moment. I took it off the moment I hugged you, and you didn't even notice. There's been no surge of dark magic, and you've not lost control, or anything. In fact, your horn hasn't so much as made a spark. You're fine."

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm absolutely fine." Trixie kept repeating the words as she forced herself to calm down. As much as she wanted to though, she wouldn't, and soon worked out that it was because she was angry rather than panicked, and that Twilight was its target. "You fucking bitch!"

Twilight stepped back as Trixie swung a hoof at her, "I am, I know, and I'm sorry, but look, nothing bad has happened in the slightest."

"Raargh!" Trixie leapt at Twilight, knocking her over and standing over her. "That! Wasn't! Funny!" Trixie screamed, punctuating each shout with a slap to Twilight's face.

"It wasn't meant to be! And I'm sorry! Now please calm down!"

Trixie didn't move, remaining standing over Twilight as she decided whether to slap her again, her rage not abating for one moment after the stunt Twilight had pulled. Then it slowly started to occur to her that even though she was angry, her dark magic hadn't so much as stirred.

"This seems unnecessarily sexual," Moondancer said from the doorway, having caught a heavily breathing Trixie standing over Twilight, who lay on her back. "Anyway, I was just going to tell you I'm done. All you have to do now is whatever you were going to do to all that stuff Twilight." Moondancer blushed and shuffled away from the door, "I'll leave you two to it."

Trixie groaned and punched Twilight on the chest. "Ah! What was that one for?"

"That was for Moondancer thinking we're lesbians."

"If it helps, she doesn't now since she's still stood outside the door."

"Eep!" There was the sound of rapidly retreating hooves.

"Well that's creepy. Seriously though Twilight, what the hell made you think that was a good idea?"

"I really am sorry Trixie, but you needed to see that nothing bad was going to happen. That would never happen if you were too afraid to take the inhibitor off."

"If you'd just said you were going to take it off I might have reluctantly agreed! Because, y'know, I trusted you! What a mistake that was!"

"You would have let me take it off?"

"Yes!"

"...Oh. Now I feel like more of an asshole than I did anyway." Trixie groaned and moved off Twilight, allowing the alicorn to roll onto her chest and poke her tender face. "That's going to bruise."

"Shut up!" Trixie snapped at Twilight. She rubbed her temples and tried her best to calm down. "Why did you have to make me angry Twilight? You know what used to happen when I got angry."

"It's not happening now."

Trixie turned to glare at Twilight, "Believe me it's really fucking tempting." Trixie sucked in a deep breath and released it harshly. "Princess of friendship my fucking ass," she grumbled to herself. "Princess of no interpersonal skills more like. Is it that hard to ask for permission sometimes? I don't think it is. This is way worse than the coat dye incident, and that was already pretty fucking shitty."

"Is it?" Twilight asked weakly.

"Yes! It is! You stupid, shitty..." Trixie sighed as Twilight shrank back and looked down at the floor, "Adorably well meaning pony. Fuck!"

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you said that."

"And I mean it!"

"Noted." Trixie gingerly touched her horn, like she expected it to explode if she was too rough with it. In the privacy of her head she was a little bit terrified of the bony protrusion on her forehead, and wanted nothing more than to put the inhibitor back on. She also knew that she'd lied when she said she might have let Twilight remove it, and truthfully just wanted an extra reason to be mad at her because what she did was still a shitty thing to do. At the same time though, the lack of reaction from her horn was upsetting in a way.

"Why isn't my horn doing anything?"

"What do you mean? What were you expecting to happen?"

"I don't know! Just, something! Some magical surge, or flash of light, or something to show that my power's been unleashed again."

Twilight managed an extremely weak smile that hung nervously to the corners of her mouth. "It really doesn't work like that. After so long your magic might take a little time to work again. Have you tried using it?"

"Are you crazy?! Of course I haven't!"

"Then perhaps you should." Twilight picked a screwdriver out of the toolbox she'd used to build her water tank, and placed it in front of Trixie. "Try to pick it up."

"Oookay..." Trixie focused on the screwdriver, trying with all her might to pick the tool up off the ground. Try as she might though, she couldn't find the slightest sliver of magic with which to do it. She couldn't even manage a few weak sparks. "Great! So now I can't even do magic at all!" She kicked the screwdriver away, "You think I'd be happy about that."

Twilight picked the screwdriver back up and returned it to its place in front of Trixie. "It just needs a little time Trixie. Don't give up, and try not to get frustrated with it. The last thing we need is dark magic stepping up in your normal magic's place. Keep practicing while I finish this off, and it'll soon come. You'll see."

The sound of a sword being drawn echoed through Twilight's mind, and she burst into wakefulness, shouting as she felt about her chest for a wound that wasn't there, while her heart thundered in her chest. A chest that had a rapidly fading sensation of cold stabbing through it.

She slumped back in her bed, gasping for air as her sweat covered body worked out that she was uninjured, and in no danger of dying. It had been a while since she'd woken up like this, and the sweat drenched sheets she was entangled in were but one reminder of how much she hated it. Who knew that dying could leave such a mark on the psyche?

Groaning quietly to herself, Twilight picked up her alarm clock in her magic, only to find it was due to go off in ten minutes anyway, which did at least mean that she'd gotten some sleep last night, even if waking up like this left her exhausted. She was tempted to try for another half an hour in bed, but the damp sheets weren't exactly the most comfortable, and she did plan on leaving today, so perhaps it really wasn't worth it.

A quick wash later, and Twilight made her way out of her room. She could hear an alarm going off down the hall from Moondancer's room, so she'd be up soon, while the door to Trixie's room was wide open, and her bedding undisturbed.
Concerned about what Trixie might be up to, Twilight kept going, checking the more obvious rooms for signs of the blue unicorn. The most obvious one she found was the throne room, whose door was ajar, letting the flickering light from within shine into the corridor. Wondering what was causing it, Twilight pushed the door open, and recoiled at what she found.

Dark purple and black flames burned in patches around the floor, and danced between the roots of the Golden Oaks library suspended above the table. A dark sigil covered the table itself, glowing with unnatural light, and behind it, sat on Twilight's throne, was Trixie, her eyes leaking smoke as her horn bubbled with dark magic.

"I lifted the screwdriver," Trixie said in a cold voice that sounded like several ponies speaking at once. "Lifted it right up."

"Trixie! What are you doing?!"

Trixie stood and slammed her hooves on the table, "I warned you Twilight! I warned you this would happen!"

Twilight danced back as Trixie threw the screwdriver onto the floor before her. Like a lot of the room, it burned with dark fire. "Trixie, stop! You can't let this magic control you! You're better than this!"

"Am I?" Trixie slid out of her seat, and stalked around the table towards Twilight, moving with a catlike grace. Twilight froze as Trixie sashayed towards her, too entrapped by her own horror to do anything else.

"What's the matter Twilight? Scared? You shouldn't be. After all, you made this happen." Twilight flared her wings as Trixie walked behind her, brushing against Twilight's tail before coming around the other side. "Oh Twilight, I've been looking so forward to this." As Twilight tried to get some moisture back into her mouth so she could speak, Trixie grinned nastily and raised a hoof which she gently pressed against Twilight's nose.

"Boop."

Twilight had no idea what was happening, shown succinctly through her total inability to form a complete word, let alone sentence, as she flapped her mouth uselessly while fixated by her own nose. "Huh?"

Trixie cocked her head, maintaining her grin. "Whatever is the matter Twilight? Has booping you been your weakness this entire time?"

"I... What?"

In a flash the dark fires and sigil were gone, and the magic on Trixie's horn faded to a soft pink as the smoke from her eyes dissipated. The grin didn't go anywhere though, "Gotcha."

"...Wha?"
"By the way, I don't know when it happened, but my illusions have gotten a lot better."

"Nngh." Twilight rubbed a hoof along the bridge of her nose, "Does this make us even now?"

"Not even close."

"Oh come on! You almost gave me a heart attack! And I've already almost had one of those this morning as it is."

"So you admit that you were thoroughly rused by all this?"

"Yeah, you got me alright. Bravo, good job. Now please don't scare me like that again."

"Oh please, it wasn't that bad."

"I already have serious hang-ups over having to fight you the first time Trixie! Having to so something like that again is literally one of my greatest fears." Twilight took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, hoping it would help her calm down. "Not that I've ever told you that."

"In my defence, I didn't know that," Trixie said imperiously. Then she thought of something. "Hold on. If that's one of your biggest fears, why were you so keen for me to remove my inhibitor?"

"Because I knew that you'd be in control. Because I trusted you."

"Oh. Shit." Trixie sighed to herself, "Can we just move on from this? It's turning into one of those confusing situations that I don't care for. You're still a bitch, and a shitty pony for taking off my inhibitor like that, just so you know, since that was my biggest fear."

"And I'm sorry for that."

"I also lied when I said I'd let you take it off if you had asked," Trixie admitted.

"I'm minutely less sorry, but still very sorry."

Trixie nodded, glad to put this behind them for now. Hopefully Twilight might at least learn a thing or two about asking permission. "So, why is fighting me your biggest fear?"

"Actually it's fighting any of my friends like that."

"Okay, but I still want to know why?"

"I don't like hurting my friends."

"Wait, so you're not worried about losing?"

Twilight grinned at Trixie as cockily as she could, which at that moment wasn't cocky at all, "Never even crossed my mind."

Trixie watched idly as Twilight enchanted their bags with spell that would preserve anything kept within them. There had been some long winded explanation about the bag freezing time within themselves, and Trixie had wanted proof of that, but had been told that the spell ended as soon as the bag was opened again, and resumed when it was closed, so she had no way to tell if it worked or not. She only had the assurances of Twilight that it did.

Then Twilight started shrinking all their food, so that you could fit a week's worth of meals into your hoof. The whole process was rather bizarre, and beyond Trixie's ability to comprehend, so she decided to not worry about it. Chances are that if it's magic, and Twilight's casting it, it probably worked. This did raise some other questions though.

"Why are we doing all this travelling by hoof? Can't you just shrink us and fly? With the time thingy spell-"

"Time dilation.

"That. I won't even know we've been flying, so no freak-outs."

"No can do I'm afraid."

"Why not?"

Twilight stopped what she was doing to explain. "Firstly, the effects of casting a time dilation spell, and a shrinking spell, on a pony at the same time is entirely untested. I'd rather not find out if it has negative effects in the middle of this. Secondly, Moondancer has a metal plate in her head, so I can't shrink her."

Trixie turned to look at Moondancer, who blushed as she furiously pretended to not listen. "How'd that happen?"

"I fell down some stairs, and cracked my skull," Moondancer hissed between her teeth.

"Lame. Still, why does that stop you from shrinking her?"

"You know that thing where we had to remove the-uh, nails from Fleur's hooves when we rescued her from High Rock."

"I seem to remember that you chickened out, so I had to do it."

"Well, yes," Twilight mumbled. "The point is we had to remove them because metal shrinks at a far slower rate than organic matter, or not at all in some metal's cases, and the nails would have torn her hooves apart. The same would apply to Moondancer, except having your head torn apart is probably even less survivable."

"So we're having to walk because of Moondancer?" Trixie glared at Moondancer, who was still pretending to not pay attention. "Gee, thanks Moondancer."

"I'm quite happy to stay here if not for the fact that you'll probably need me," Moondancer growled back.

"Does that mean you can't teleport her either?"

"Actually, that's no problem. The amount of magic it takes to teleport a living creature is more than is needed to teleport metal, so the plate in Moondancer's head won't matter in the slightest."

Trixie snorted a laugh. "Boy, that sure is convenient," she said, make Twilight smile brightly at her.

"It is, isn't it. Anyway, I'm only enchanting one of our bags each with a time dilation spell, so if I have to I can still shrink you and Sunset, and carry Moondancer. Besides, how are we supposed to find what we're looking for if I'm just flying us around everywhere?"

"Point poorly made."

Twilight finished shrinking the last of the food, and placed it in Sunset's bag, placing that next to the others. "Okay, that's food sorted. At least until we can hopefully buy more in Saddle Arabia if we need to. What else is on the list Moondancer?"

Moondancer consulted the checklist Twilight had given her the previous day. "We have food, water, and bedding sorted. One of the new healing devices that we can all use, as well as one of the prototypes. Sun cream and sunburn lotion. And rope, for some reason. All that's left then is personal effects, and an entire Sunset that's still not back. I'm not seeing Trixie's brain on this list either."

"When you're as brilliant as me, you don't need one."

"Sure. Anyway, apart from those two things, I think we're ready."

Twilight nodded thoughtfully as Moondancer listed the things off. "You've already brought what you need Moondancer, and I suppose you have too Trixie, except for one thing."

"What's that?" Trixie asked in confusion, pretty sure she could fit her current possessions in a shoebox.

"I'll show you." Twilight led them out of the kitchen, including Moondancer since she was also curious, and back to the portal room, which tended to double as a room for assorted knickknacks. Towards the back of the room was a chest that Twilight dragged into the middle of the room. "Open it," she said Trixie.

Trixie did so, but not without trepidation as she eased the lid open. Her eyes went wide, and she slammed the lid fully open, squealing happily as she saw what was inside. "My armour! You didn't throw it away!" She picked up the helmet and placed it over her head, "Still fits too!"

"Of course I didn't throw it away." Twilight smiled happily as Trixie assembled the armour around herself, although it was more because Trixie was happy than anything else. The armour itself certainly wasn't a reminder of happier times. Quite the opposite. "Even if you never used it again, I thought you might want to keep it."

Trixie struck a pose towards Moondancer, "Neat huh?" Moondancer merely rolled her eyes. "This, I think, is worth forgiving you for Twilight. I thought I'd never see it again."

"I was going to keep it as a surprise until you were better, because I wasn't sure how you would react to it. Now you might need it though."

Trixie lost some of her joy, "That's an understatement. Still, thanks Twilight."

Moondancer watched with interest as Trixie removed the armour and made it vanish. "Do we all get a suit of armour like that?"

"If you can find me a suit of armour to enchant, I will happily teach you how."

"You enchanted it to make it tougher, right?"

"...yes?"

"Think you could do that to my glasses since they're the only pair I have, and I don't want to lose, or break them."

Twilight thought about it, then shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"So what's that one do?" Moondancer asked, pointing to one of the runes around the enchanting circle Twilight had drawn with chalk on the floor.

"That's strength. That'll make them really hard to break. Then there's resistance, which will basically keep them clean forever. And summoning, so you can summon them to yourself, even if you lose them. All you have to do now is let me engrave your glasses, and then you can enchant them."

"Okay." Moondancer passed Twilight her glasses, and sat squinting at everything around her. Her eyesight was terrible at best, and diabolical at worst, and even a few meters away was little more than a blur of colours. "Will this take long?"

"Only a few minutes."

Moondancer nodded, and waited quietly until the peculiar whir of machinery behind her pricked her ears. She turned around, seeing various purple flashes that were very hard to decipher without her glasses, but quickly became very obvious as there was a final flash which produced an orange blur that hurtled towards her. She had unwittingly sat in front of the portal.

"Aaaahhh!" Moondancer and Sunset both screamed as Sunset flipped head over heels, bringing her rear into a collision with Moondancer's face, and sending them both flying into a pile of books that collapsed over them.

"Ugh, ow," Sunset groaned as she pushed books off of herself. "Sorry Moondancer."

"No, I guess it's my fault for sitting there," Moondancer said back grumpily. She'd never been slapped by a pony's entire ass before, or even part of one, and didn't much care for the sensation. What she cared for even less was when she sat up and Trixie started laughing. "What?"

"Oh my fucking Celestia!" Trixie howled, "Her mane looks just like yours Twilight! Ahahaha!"

"What?" Moondancer quickly felt the top of her head, finding that the bobble had fallen out of her mane. "No!" she shouted, scrabbling about in the books to find it, "Where is it?!"

"Looking for this?" Sunset found the bobble and held it up for Moondancer, who snatched it out of her magic to quickly fix her mane. "Why does your mane look like Twilight's?"

"Shut up! I don't want to talk about it!"

"Why? We already know you have a stripe like hers, so why is it an issue?"

"I said I'm not talking about it!"

"Alright, alright," Sunset said while Trixie was still chuckling to herself. Sunset heaved herself out of the pile of books, then offered a hoof to pull Moondancer out, which she accepted. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Moondancer replied, exasperated. "Twilight, are my glasses ready?"

"Sure." Twilight placed the newly engraved glasses into the enchanting circle. "Now I just need you to feed your magic into the circles, and you'll be done."

"Twilight, I can't even see the circles, let alone feed magic into them."

Twilight waved a hoof in front of Moondancer's face, "Can you see my hoof."

"Just about." Moondancer followed Twilight's hoof as she moved it down to the ground.

"Just aim your magic an inch past the ends of my hoof. Moondancer squinted harder, and could just about see the chalk circle if she really tried, and started feeding her magic into it, making it light up.

While Moondancer worked on that, Twilight turned and smiled at Sunset, "How'd it go?"

"About as well as you'd expect," Sunset sighed. "They cried, and I cried, so they cried more, and then I cried more, sooooo... yeah, it was a mess. On the practical side of things though, Rarity and Applejack agreed to store most of my stuff until I come back, and I gave up my flat, which was a hole anyway, so no loss there. I also talked to Principal Celestia about my finals, and she said I can do resits, or make up tests, or equivalency exams, or whatever, so I'm not totally boning my future."

"Well, that's... good." Twilight looked at the portal, feeling guilty. Again. "Sunset, are you totally sure about this?"

"I am. This is way more important than some exams for me not to Twilight."

"I was talking more about your friends."

"Oh, yeah, right." Sunset floated the other of the two books Twilight had given her the day before over to herself. " I gave them the book, so we can still stay in touch. Speaking of books..." Sunset plucked the book with Celestia's cutie mark off the pedestal above the portal, closing the portal completely, and brought it down to hold in her hooves. "No point in inviting trouble by leaving the portal open, " she said before passing the book to Twilight.

"Agreed," Twilight said back, placing the book on a shelf. "Anyway, we're all packed, so now you're back we can get this show on the road. By road I of course mean train to begin with. The closest place in Equestria to the Badlands is Dodge Junction, so that's our first stop."

"Sounds good." Sunset squinted and shielded her eyes as a flare of magic from Moondancer's horn lit up the room for a second before dying completely.

"Did it work?"

"Let's find out." Twilight picked up the glasses and gently tried to bend them, and nodded as they didn't flex in the slightest. Then she smacked them against a shelf and threw them across the room.

"Hey! Stop that!"

Twilight picked the glasses up and inspected them. They weren't bent, broken, or even scratched. "I think it worked," she said before eyeing Trixie up across the room. "Hey Trixie, grab one of those big tomes behind you and go long!"

"Don't you dare!" Moondancer's horn flashed, and the glasses vanished from Twilight's magic to reappear in front of her and drop to the floor. "Oh. I guess that works," she said, picking them up and putting them on. "Honestly, could you try not destroying my only pair of glasses?"

"Sorry Moondancer. I knew they'd be fine though. Anyway, we're all here now, and we're all packed, so I think it's time we were off."

Using her magic, Twilight sealed her castle from intruders. Having some kind of key would be easier, but the tree that had built this place had neglected something so simple as a lock. Still, using her magic did mean that she didn't have a key she could lose, which was a small silver lining.

With the castle on lockdown, Twilight adjusted her bags, took a deep breath, and turned around to take the first step of their journey. She stopped before she began though, as she saw Trixie pouring the water out of her canteen, shaking it up and down as the last drops fell out.

"I thought this thing was supposed to be bottomless."

"Close it, wait thirty seconds, then try again," Twilight told Trixie, before setting off, her head held low at Trixie's antics. Thirty seconds later there was a splashing sound as Trixie poured the water out of her canteen again.

"Well I'll be damned..." Trixie closed the lid and waited before opening it again and pouring the water out once more. "That modern fusion of magic and technology eh? Marvellous."

"Are you going to do that all the way?" Moondancer asked sarcastically.

"With this I shall bring water to the desert, form a lush oasis, and become as a god to the primitive natives of the land. They shall grovel at my hoof, or suffer my wrath."

"Or we could get on and do what we're supposed to do," said Twilight.

"Well, yeah. Afterwards though, I shall be known as Trixie the Almighty, Goddess of the Endless Waters!"

"Except it comes from here, and isn't endless, and would pull Equestria into a drought as you teleported the water elsewhere, as well as bankrupt the treasury trying to pay my water bill, so no, you will not be Trixie the Almighty, Goddess of the Endless Waters while I'm here to smack sense into you."

"And so ends my reign before it even begins," Trixie sighed. "Thanks Twilight."

"Any time. Really."

Author's Notes:

Originally the preparation was supposed to be quite short, and they would be further into their journey by now, but I somehow turned the preparation into a chapter of its own. *Shrugs*

Anyway, how about that movie trailer? Ponies going on an adventure to foreign lands to beat an evil so-and-so and save Equestria? Sounds like a terrible idea...

Animation does still look weird to me though.