Twilight blinked in the harsh daylight as she and Trixie walked out of Canterlot castle. With the amount that had gone on that day it was bizarre to think it was barely midafternoon.

"Boy have these ponies got a surprise coming," Trixie commented idly. It took Twilight a moment to work out she was talking about the ponies walking by, each of them painfully unaware of the coming storm.

"They'll find out soon enough," Twilight said back, mostly for the sake of having something to say.

"So, where do we begin with all this? I don't think the two of us are quite going to cut it."

"Oh? Is the Great and Powerful Trixie admitting to not being up to the task?"

Trixie shrugged, "Twilight, I barely know the first thing about Starswirl the Bearded."

"You know how to read though, don't you?"

"Yes Trixie knows how to read!" Trixie snapped back. "I'm just thinking that it mightn't hurt to consult an expert or two about the mysterious pony we have to find."

Twilight smiled sideways at Trixie, "Starswirl's been my idol for most of my life Trixie. Trust me when I say that there's not many ponies that know more about him than me. The only pony that might know more is Moondancer..." Twilight jolted as a memory struck her, "Moondancer! She was an even bigger fan than I was! I bet she'd... Oooh..."

"What?"

"It occurs to me that I haven't spoken to her in over two years... I get the feeling she might not be very receptive to me asking for her help."

"Over two years? You mean when you moved to Ponyville?" Twilight nodded weakly. "You mean you moved to Ponyville and cut ponies you knew from Canterlot out of your life?" Trixie playfully batted Twilight on the side, "Some princess of friendship you are."

"I know, I know, and I didn't intentionally cut them out. I just barely paid attention to them while I was here, then never looked back after meeting..." Twilight swallowed back the lump that formed in her throat as she thought of her Ponyville friends. "The point is... The point is that I was a terrible friend to those ponies, and it might be too late to fix that. I don't even know where Moondancer lives."

"Do you know anypony who does?"

Twilight thought about it for a moment, and remembered something about a different obnoxiously loud blue pony she used to know. "I might."

"But?"

Twilight anxiously chewed her bottom lip, "But they are also one of these friends I horribly neglected. I don't think going 'hey you, do you know where Moondancer lives?' is going to go down well. In fact, it might be better to give up on this idea altogether."

Trixie rolled her eyes are Twilight's weak attempt to get out of reconciling with her past. "Twilight, we need ponies that know about Starswirl, so swallow your pride, raise your tail, and take it like a mare."

"Easy for you to say."

"I've been taking it like a mare for the last six months Twilight! I'm sure you can manage doing it for a little bit."

"Fine... Let's go find Muh... Mih... Minuette! Yes, Minuette. She'll probably know where Moondancer lives."

Barely a thing had changed about Minuette's house in the last two years, save that it was now being graced by the presence of a purple pony that was on the verge of an anxiety attack. The little window boxes were the same, the hourglass shaped door was still the same colour, and the cheery humming coming from within was hauntingly familiar. Once again Twilight was left feeling that only she had changed while the world remained oddly static around her.

"You know, this'll go faster if you stop staring and go knock," said Trixie.

Twilight whined in the back of her throat, and begged her heart to slow down a little as she edged towards the door. She raised a hoof to knock, then froze as the humming within changed tempo, becoming even more upbeat. Twilight suddenly felt guilty for dragging her problems here and started to back away when Trixie ran up, knocked on the door, then jumped away again as she grinned at Twilight.

"Coooming!"

"Trixie!"

Trixie smirked up at Twilight, "No backing out for you, Sparkle."

"But I wasn't ready!" The door opened and Twilight snapped her head back around and put on her best rictus grin, "Hi Minuette!"

"Twilight! Oh my gosh! Of all the ponies I was expecting to see, you certainly weren't one of them! And look at you, being a big alicorn princess and everything now! You know, my co-workers thought I was lying when I told them we were friends back in the day!"

Twilight awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, "Uh, yeah... Well that's me now, a big alicorn princess, and everything, heh-heh." Twilight swallowed her embarrassment and tried to focus on the point of why she was there. "Look, I'm sorry to disturb you but-"

Minuette's eyes lit up as he thought of something. "Wait-wait-wait! I know what'll prove we used to be besties back in the day! Wait right there!"

Twilight sighed as Minuette ran back into the house. This was really not what she wanted, or needed right now. "Maybe I should have gone to look for Lemon Hearts." She re-donned her grin as Minuette ran back out with a camera floating in her magic.

"Okay! This will prove once and for all that you and I used to be totally best friends! Uh..." Minuette spotted Trixie and waved her closer, "Hey, do you mind taking a... Wait..." Minuette squinted as she scrutinised Trixie. "Do I know you?"

Trixie's eyes darted about, and she grinned uneasily as remnants of a life she no long lived came back to haunt her as well as Twilight. "...no?"

"You sure? You look just like some magician I saw once who was a little bit full of herself. The something and something...Triskie I think?"

"It's Trixie!" Trixie blushed at herself. "I mean, that's what she'd say her name was, if she was here to correct you. Yep. Totally. Different. Pony. Who is not me."

Minuette squinted at Trixie a little longer, then shrugged. "I guess I'm wrong then. Still, it's uncanny how much you look like her. Where was I... Oh yeah! You mind taking a picture of me and the princess?"

"Of course! No problem! No problem at all." Trixie took the camera in her hooves, and took a moment to let Twilight's put-upon smile to grow a little shakier before pressing the button. She was interrupted though as Minuette suddenly had an idea.

"Wait! Twilight! How about you spread those wings of yours? You know, really fluff 'em up!"

Twilight spread her wings, trying to keep her smile in place as Minuette spread her legs out parallel with Twilight's wings. This was so far off the beaten track of how she had wanted this to go that she was expecting to find a lost tribe of pygmies at any moment.

"Oh that one is definitely a keeper," Trixie said happily, pushing the button that would immortalise this moment for the rest of time.

Minuette took the camera back into her magic and bounced with joy, "Eeee! Thanks Twilight! Thanks...you!" she said to Trixie. "This'll really show those doubters who's right!"

"You're very welcome," Trixie said back, ignoring the death glare Twilight was giving her.

"So, what can I do for you anyway?" Minuette asked. "It's not like you to just come here for no reason. And where's Spike now I think about it? Isn't he normally with you?"

"Spike's... Spike's gone away for a while," Twilight answered hesitantly. It wasn't a lie as such, but it hardly felt like the truth either. Truthfully Twilight found it easier to think like that as well.

"Aw, that's too bad. I would've loved to have seen the little guy again."

"Me too..." Twilight caught herself and shook away the misery that was creeping up on her. "Yeah, uh, I was wondering actually if you knew where Moondancer was living these days? I really need to talk to her about...a special research project Princess Celestia has me working on. I thought Moondancer would be the perfect pony to work on it with."

"Moondancer? Hmm..." Minuette cocked her head and look up at the sky as she thought. "To be honest it's been over a year since I've even talked to her. I see her going to the library sometimes and wave, but she never waves back." Minuette shrugged, "Maybe she just needs new glasses or something. I don't know."

"Yeah, maybe." Twilight doubted it though. She and Moondancer had been very alike before she left for Ponyville, and usually spent their time nose deep in a book. It wasn't hard to think that maybe Moondancer had forgotten to look up every now and again.

"I'm not totally sure where she lives though, but I know where her sister works, and I bet she knows! Come on! Let's fly! Y'know, fly, because you have wings? Tee-hee!" Minuette bounced off into the distance, leaving Twilight to direct a groan at the pavement.

"Twilight?"

"You're enjoying this, aren't you."

Trixie nodded and smiled, "You bet I am, and you can't stop me. Now come on, let's 'fly!' Y'know, because you-"

"I get it! Shut up!"

Twilight and Trixie had silently elected to hang back as they let Minuette do the talking. The scowl that Moondancer's sister had given Twilight as they walked into the coffee shop she worked at was more than enough to inform them that Twilight was not high on her list of favourite ponies, and frankly she possessed the kind of eyebrows you didn't argue with. When they scowled, you prayed for your life.

Minuette trotted out of the coffee shop and held up a napkin with an address scribbled on it. "Okay, so she was a bit reluctant to give me Moondancer's address for some reason, but when I told her that you wanted Moondancer's help for a research project, she seemed a bit more willing. Weird right? Anyway, Moondancer lives out by the stadium, which isn't too far from here."

"Thanks Minuette; you're a lifesaver."

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

"That sounded almost exactly like 'thanks for the help, now I'll take it from here.' Come on Twilight! You're not just going to love me and leave me are you? We could get the gang back together, go find Moondancer, and have a proper catch up. It'll be great!"

Twilight tried to hide her grimace, and was fairly sure she failed. "As much as I want to catch up with you, Lemon Hearts, and Moondancer, I-"

"And Twinkleshine."

"Yes! Her! And her, yes. The fact is though-"

"And Lyra Heartstrings, but she lives in Ponyville now, so you probably see her all the time anyway."

"Uh, yeah... All the time." I really am an awful pony. "The thing is, this research project is big, and very, very important-"

Minuette gave Twilight an appraising look. "How important? Like 'suddenly run off to Ponyville without telling anypony to defeat Nightmare Moon' important? Or merely, 'I'm Twilight, and I love research to the exclusion of everything else' important?"

Trixie grinned at Twilight, "They have a scale. Did you know they have a scale?"

"No, I did not," Twilight hissed back. "And truthfully Minuette, it's the former-"

"So long as it's not as bad as Discord or Tirek then."

"Why?" Trixie asked. "What did they do to you?"

"Well, Tirek stole my magic, which was really kinda sucky, and Discord made it so I could only see behind me."

"Really? How'd you cope with that?"

"By walking backwards of course. How else?"

"Of course," Trixie deadpanned.

Twilight took a deep breath, "Okay Minuette, I get it; I was a terrible friend to all of you, and I didn't even say so much as goodbye before leaving, and I'm sorry for everything, I really am, and I promise I'll try and make it up to all of you once the project is over. Truthfully though, what I'm doing is really important for the future of Equestria, and I really can't drop it for a reunion, no matter how much I want to."

Minuette smiled sadly, "I get it. Once a hero, always a hero. I'm going to hold you to that promise though, and I won't hesitate to drag the girls to Ponyville to see you if you won't come here."

Twilight smiled and choked out a laugh, "Okay, but the project might take a while. I'm sure you'll understand once you hear the news tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why tomorrow?"

"Because tomorrow, everypony will find out. I wish I could tell you, but until tomorrow it's-"

"Top secret princessy stuff," Trixie finished for Twilight.

Minuette rubbed her chin and hummed, "Top secret princessy stuff does sound important... Very well Twilight, I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow then. You take care of yourself, and give Moondancer my love. Bye-eee!"

Both of them stayed quiet as they watched Minuette leave with a hop in her step. Twilight hated herself for various reasons that stifled her desire to want to say anything, and Trixie was just straight up confused.

"I know she seems like a happy pony, but I'm pretty sure there was some serious barbs hidden in what she was saying."

"That's Minuette," Twilight sighed. "She could make the death of a loved one sound like fun."

"Speaking from personal experience, I really doubt that." Trixie kept watching after Minuette until the mare turned a corner and went out of sight. "Anyway, let's hope Moondancer isn't as emotionally crippled as Minuette was after you abandoned her."

"You do realise I could send you back to the hospital right?"

"I'll be good."

The sight of Moondancer's house filled neither of them with optimism. The boundary wall was crumbling, the garden was overgrown, and the roof sagged. It seemed too much to hope that the pony this building housed put more effort into her own upkeep than she did her abode's.

Trixie summed it up thusly, "What a shit hole. What are the odds she's actually dead in there and nopony's noticed yet?"

"Don't say that."

"You know I'm right though. That is exactly the kind of house where ponies see it everyday, yet ignore it until some curious kid goes in one day only to find the skeleton of its owner surrounded by the skeletons of two dozen cats. The same cats that ate their loving owners face after they weren't fed for-"

"Will you shut up Trixie!" Twilight shouted, stomping a hoof in annoyance. "You are really picking the wrong day to push my buttons, so unless you want to go back to the hospital with several broken bones and a concussion on top of a case of crazy, I suggest you shut your Luna damned mouth!"

Trixie raised a hoof, then slowly lowered it again. "You make a valid point. I'm sorry."

Twilight sighed out through her nose, "Thank you."

"Still, if she is dead in there I totally called it."

"Ugh." Twilight made her way up the surprisingly intact path, mostly because stones possess a certain durability, and stopped in front of the front door. Lacking a lot of other options now she was there, Twilight knocked, breaking a chunk out of the aging door that had all the apparent durability of tissue paper.

"Yep, that's totally going to endear you to her."

"Oh for the love of... Seriously Trixie, get off my case. You've been doing your best to annoy me ever since we left the castle, and I really wish you'd stop."

"What? I've been in hospital for six months, and I have a lot of time spent not annoying you to make up for, so I'm trying to compress it all in now so I don't distract you during something important later."

Twilight stared deadpan at Trixie, "Really?"

"It also helps to distract you from your woes."

Twilight had to consider that for a moment, and couldn't deny that getting annoyed at Trixie did distract her from the crushing reality that three of her friends had been kidnapped, and-

"What do you want?"

"Dah!"

Trixie sighed and pouted at the bespectacled pony glaring at them through the now opened door. "Damn it, I was so sure she'd be dead. Good job we didn't make bets."

"Moondancer!" Twilight gasped, "I-um... Hi. It's me, Twilight." Twilight grinned hopefully, only for Moondancer to groan and slam the door shut in her face. "I'm sorry about the door. I can pay to have it...fixed..." Twilight groaned quietly, "I was expecting this to go better."

"I don't know. I think this is going perfectly..." Trixie cut herself off as Twilight glared at her, her eyes giving promises of violence if silence wasn't immediately achieved. "Shutting up now."

Twilight made a zipping motion across her mouth at Trixie, then turned back to the door to peek through the hole she'd made. "Look, Moondancer, I'm sorry I haven't been back to see you for a while, and I know that what I'm saying now won't make up for that, but I need your help. Equestria needs your help, so won't you at least hear me out?"

The door creaked back open, showing the entirety of Moondancer. Trixie had to clamp her hooves over her mouth to stop herself laughing at the ridiculous topknot she wore in her mane. Or at the scruffy black turtleneck she wore that had buttons for some indecipherable reason. Or the eyebrows. The glasses weren't great either. They had tape in the middle of them.

"What's wrong with her?" Moondancer asked as Trixie's eyes bulged from suppressed laughter.

"Just ignore her. Please. As hard as it might be."

"Uh-huh. Look,Twilight Twinkle, as much-"

"Sparkle."

"Whatever. As much as I would love to entertain your fantasy of Equestria possibly needing my help, I'm far too busy studying to waste time on you. Good day." Moondancer slammed the door shut again, temporarily befuddling Twilight at how she managed to do that without breaking it.

"And that's that," Trixie said cheerfully. "We tried, we failed, we moved on with our lungs still blissfully intact."

"Starswirl's secret retreat," Twilight said loudly. She waited, and in her head she could hear Moondancer fighting against her own curiosity, and felt incredibly vindicated when the door creaked back open.

"What did you say?"

"Starswirl the Bearded's secret retreat. That's what we're trying to find, and there is nopony I know that knows more about Starswirl the Bearded than you."

"I've never even heard of that. You're making this up."

"I swear I'm not. Celestia told me about it earlier, and told me that it may contain knowledge crucial to the future of Equestria. The problem is she doesn't know where it is, which I why I was hoping you would help me find it. Come on Moondancer, you know I wouldn't lie to you."

"That is just one of many things I thought you wouldn't do to me," Moondancer said back, her voice laced with bitterness. "I want first credit with finding it if I help you."

"Uh..." Twilight looked back at Trixie, who shrugged in return. "That's not the point behind us finding it, but if that's what you want it's all yours."

Moondancer considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Very well, but this doesn't mean that we're anything more than research partners."

"I can accept that," Twilight said back. Truthfully, she was just glad to have Moondancer on board.

"I'll go pack."

"You can catch the train to Pon-" Moondancer was already gone though, leaving her door wide open, allowing both Twilight and Trixie the perfect view of inside. An inside that was stacked high with books and takeout boxes.

"Holy crap," said Trixie. "How can a pony eat that much takeout and not be the size of a house? Anyway, you better shut the door before all her cats escape."

"She doesn't have cats!"

"And what makes you say that?"

"Because she's allergic to them!"

"Y'know what, that makes total sense now you say it," Trixie guffawed. "She does look the type to be riddled with allergies."

"Trixie, will it absolutely kill you to be nice to Moondancer? The last thing we need is you being a complete jackass to her and chasing her off."

"Fiiiine... But if she wiggles those ridiculous eyebrows at Trixie a little too much I won't be held responsible for what I might do. How'd you know telling her about what we're looking for would work anyway?"

"Because I know myself very well," Twilight replied morosely.

"But she's not you..."

"I know."

"I'm ready to go."

"Dah!"

"Moondancer," Twilight said once her heart had slowed a little. "I was going to say you could catch the train to Ponyville tomorrow instead of packing now. Don't you have to inform your landlord you're leaving, and sort your rent out, and other things?"

"My parents own the house and pay the tax on it, and I don't earn enough to pay taxes elsewhere. Frankly I think they bought it so they didn't have to look at me." Moondancer locked the door and deposited the key in her bags. "Nopony's even going to notice I'm gone."

"Well that's horribly depressing," said Trixie. She started walking back down the path, then stopped to look back at the other two. "Shall we?"

Moondancer looked up from the journal Twilight had given her to catch her up on everything that had happened in Mareitania since it was relevant to what they were doing now. Trixie had to look away as Moondancer raised her eyebrows at Twilight.

"You died."

"Uh, yes, yes I did."

"But you got better again."

"I... Yes, that is also true.

"Uh-huh." Moondancer glanced back down at the journal, "How is any of this even remotely connected to finding Starswirl's retreat?"

"If you got as far as me dying, then you must have read about what I found in the dungeons when we rescued Fleur?"

"Faust, the Equestria hating super alicorn you were telling me about earlier?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, but a lot of it is rather personal to Celestia and Luna, so I didn't write a lot about her. The point is she's free, and we have to find a way to stop her."

"And you're saying Starswirl knew the most about her, even though he never mentions her in his writings."

"Right."

"So," Moondancer delicately cleared her throat, "to sum up, we have to find a place that nopony is even sure exists, to find information that might never have been written down by a pony that's likely dead, to stop an all powerful alicorn that for all intents and purposes, cannot be stopped."

Twilight winced, "It doesn't sound so good when you put it like that..."

Moondancer snapped the journal shut and stood suddenly, "I've changed my mind. Stop the train, I want to get off."

"Moondancer please, I'm not asking you to get into a fight. Even if all you do is give me an area where I can start looking, that'd be more than enough. You could go home after that."

"Or you could do something with your life," said Trixie.

"Excuse me?" Moondancer growled as Twilight's hoof smacked against her own face.

"What is it you actually do with yourself?" Trixie asked Moondancer.

"I study."

"Study what?"

"Science, magic, history, economics, pottery. Stuff like that."

The flat and emotionless delivery of those subjects really made Trixie question just how much Moondancer really enjoyed them. "So, what? You're going to become a professor or something?"

"No."

"A...teacher?"

"No."

"A quizmaster?" Moondancer shook her head. "You're really planning on just spending the rest of your life studying? Wow Twilight, you really did break her."

"Trixie..."

"My point is, you can spend the rest of your life being a sad loner, studying at home, or you could be the pony credited with finding the lost retreat of Starswirl the Bearded. A literal treasure trove of ancient knowledge that could massively benefit the future of pony kind, and not just by helping us defeat Faust. Come on Moondancer! Isn't being the pony to discover all that worth a little risk?"

Moondancer rubbed a hoof up her leg, "I don't know..."

"I'll tell you what. You do this, and I'll buy you a really nice pair of tweezers. How about it?"

"Tweezers? What would I need those for?"

Twilight clapped a hoof over Trixie's mouth before she could say why. "And that's enough out of Trixie." Twilight smiled awkwardly at Moondancer, "She's not totally wrong though. Finding Starswirl's retreat could be the opportunity of a lifetime, and it would certainly win you the respect of the academic community, and make you part of history. Is that really not worth helping us?"

Trixie pulled Twilight's hoof away from her mouth, "Also the future of the world. That's important too. You can't study when Equestria's been destroyed!"

Moondancer sank back onto her seat, "You're not actually giving me much of a choice here, are you."

"Moondancer, nopony is making you do anything."

"It's just that not helping us might spell disaster for the world."

"Trixie!"

"What? I'm being honest here!"

"I know, and it's not helping!"

Trixie grinned at Twilight, then glanced at Moondancer, and was surprised to see a hint of sadness in her expression, although it was soon buried by the disdain that was her usual expression. "You alright there Moondancer?"

"I'm fine, although I have no desire to keep listening to your childish bickering." She picked Twilight's journal up in her magic and harrumphed, "If you need me, I'll be over there, reading the most ridiculous story I've ever encountered."

"Okay. Just wait until the bit where I go utterly mad with dark power. It's a cracker!" Trixie kept smiling as Moondancer walked away, tutting all the way. "Yeah, she's totally on board."

"And how can you tell that?"

"Because she's desperately lonely, and this is the only way presented to her so far that allows her to reach out to another pony in the hopes she doesn't die alone after a sad and cat-less existence." Trixie cocked her head slightly and looked at Twilight with puzzlement, "You mean you didn't pick up on that?"

Twilight shoved Trixie over, "You're insufferable."

"Moondancer will be as well for a while until she gets so crushed under her own emotions that she has no choice but to open up. It'll probably be a real tear jerker when it happens." Trixie sat back upright and smoothed her coat down where Twilight had pushed her, "Anyway, who else are you going to sucker into helping with this?"

"Who else? How many ponies do you think we need?"

Trixie shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought that if Celestia's going to be sending you everything they have on Starswirl, that it had to be a lot of stuff, so the more ponies we have reading, the quicker it goes. And I'm not going to deny that I'm perhaps not exactly research assistant material, and am slightly more suited to the physical aspect of this mission. Surely there must be some other pony you know that had a fancy education like you, who maybe knows a thing or two about Starswirl the Bearded?"

"Maybe there is..." Twilight said, a certain person coming to mind. She concentrated, and a book popped into existence in front of her, its cover emblazoned with an image of Celestia's cutie mark.

Twilight held her arms around herself as she waited by the statue at Canterlot high school, or at least what was left of it after her humanoid counterpart did her best to destroy it. She tried to tell herself that it was because she was cold, and certainly not because her anxiety was telling her that Sunset didn't need to get involved in any of this.

Not that she wasn't cold though. It might have been nearing summer, but the weird, hairless, vaguely simian bodies these humans had always felt cold to her without a coat of hair to insulate them.

"Twilight!"

Twilight looked up and managed half a smile as Sunset ran towards her, along with six others and a purple dog in tow. Twilight held still as six of the seven people piled around her in a group hug, her counterpart thankfully keeping her distance, but she felt no joy from it. She was simply too tense.

"Oh Twilight, I'm so sorry about your friends. Are you alright?"

Twilight didn't look at Sunset. Or rather not at four of the people there that stood behind her. She felt bad for not looking at Applejack, Fluttershy, or Rarity, but looking at them felt ten times worse. The fourth person was the one that looked just like her, but that was purely because she found it plain weird. She was also holding her own Spike, fully completing the mockery Twilight felt she was experiencing by being here.

"Not really," she answered after a moment.

"That's fair, I guess. Look, whatever you need Twilight, I'm here for you."

"Thanks Sunset."

"And if you need our help too," said the human Fluttershy, "you know we'll be more than happy to help after how much you've done for us."

Twilight forced herself to look up at the human approximations of her stolen friends, and gave them a shaky yet sincere smile. "Thanks guys, I mean it. I take it Sunset told you everything?"

"She did indeed," Rarity confirmed, "and I must say that Faust sounds like a terrible danger, although I must admit I feel somewhat sorry for her too. Hopefully she'll simply realise what's she's doing is wrong."

"As nice as that would be, it's not something we should really count on." Twilight dropped her gaze back to the floor again, "Are you really all okay with Sunset going back through the portal to help me?"

"Sure we are Twi...light?" Applejack looked between the two Twilight's and frowned. "Pony Twilight? Princess? We shoulda worked this out beforehand. Anyway, what I was gonna say was that helping you is important to all of us, and that Sunset'll only be on the other side of that portal if we need her."

"Yeah," Sunset agreed. "Ooh! That reminds me." Sunset slipped her backpack off and dug into it, pulling out the book that bore her cutie mark. She wistfully brushed a hand over its cover, then pressed it into Rarity's hands, as Sunset trusted her the most to not lose, break, or otherwise misuse the book to message her ten times a day. Especially since there wasn't much room left. "You can use this to keep in touch with me if you want. I probably shouldn't take it with me anyway, in case it stops the portal from opening whenever we want, or something. I don't know." She also took her magic necklace off and gave it to Rarity. "I suppose you better have that too."

Rarity smiled at Sunset and slipped the book into her own bag. "Don't you worry Sunset, I shall take good care of them. Now come here. You might be gone for a little while, so it's only appropriate we say goodbye properly."

Twilight couldn't watch as Sunset's friends piled into a group hug, including her doppelganger. While she was glad Sunset had agreed to help, separating Sunset from her friends to help get her own friends back was too ironic for Twilight to not feel guilty over.

She was still looking away when Sunset tapped her on the shoulder. "You okay Twilight?"

"Huh?" Twilight blinked, then realised she had tears in her eyes and quickly wiped them away. "Sorry. Are you ready to go?"

"All set."

"Okay then." Twilight started walking back to the portal, then stopped. "I think it's only appropriate to give you fair warning that we'll have a Trixie with us."

"The Trixie I read about in your journal after you came back from Mareitania?"

"The very same."

"The same Trixie that made my own dalliances with dark magic look like a joke in comparison?"

"Yep."

Sunset smiled awkwardly, "I'm sure she'll be fine. I mean, the Trixie here might have locked us in a dark room under a stage with the intention of leaving us to die, but I know she's a good person really. I'm sure pony Trixie can't be that different."

"I think it's only fair to say she's no worse than me." Twilight stepped aside and gestured to Sunset, "After you."

"Okay then." Sunset stood before the portal and squared up to it. "Nothing to be scared of Sunset," she said to herself. She gave her friends one last wave then stepped through into a vomit inducing whirl of ridiculously bright colours, before being spat out the other side. She tried to balance on her hind legs, then fell onto all fours. "Okay, right, four legs and hooves. Four legs, and hooves." She jogged on the spot and smiled as it all came back to her, "Yeah, like riding a bicycle."

"What's a bicycle?"

"Huh? Oof!" Sunset fell forwards and smacked her chin on the incredibly hard crystalline floor as Twilight smacked into her rear, having come through the portal behind Sunset. She also slid a few meters as the incredibly hard crystal floor was also incredibly smooth.

"Crap! Sorry Sunset."

A purple hoof waved in front of Sunset's eyes, and she took hold of it to pull herself up. "My fault. I should've moved."

"Seriously though, what's a bicycle?"

"It's something humans ride," Twilight answered while Sunset stared at a blue pony that could only have been Trixie. To the side of the room was another pony with a cream coat and glasses, but Sunset didn't recognise who she was, and the mare seemed too busy reading to even acknowledge the ponies coming through the inter-dimensional portal.

"Uh-huh," Trixie said back to Twilight's answer. "That explains nothing." She held a hoof out towards Sunset, which the yellow pony shook. "You must be Sunset Shimmer."

"You've heard of me?"

"I have indeed."

"All good I hope?"

"I daresay that stealing an Element of Harmony, turning into a demon, and enslaving an army of teenage 'humans' to wage war on Equestria was hardly your best moment. And frankly it's the dumbest plan I've ever heard, and that's from the pony that's gone mad with dark power twice, and covered Ponyville in a giant fishbowl while she enslaved children to pull wheel-less chariots."

Sunset blinked, "What?"

"My point is I can hardly judge you."

"What?"

Trixie bowed before Sunset, "The significantly humbled, and currently powerless Trixie, at your service."

"...what?" Sunset looked at Twilight as the alicorn consolingly patted her on the shoulder.

"I tried to warn you."

Sunset pointed sideways at Trixie, "Is she trying to out evil me or something?"

"Hah!" Trixie laughed, "That's hardly a competition."

"I don't know," Sunset said back. "On top of what you know about, I did terrorise a high school for years. I did...also try to kill Twilight."

"Oh please, hooves up who hasn't tried to do that at some point." Moondancer, her nose still in her book, raised a hoof, while Twilight's hooves all stayed on the floor."

"I'm counting 'got myself killed' into this, since I'm the only one to actually succeed at killing me." Twilight said in return to the way Sunset was looking at her. "And truthfully, Trixie did put a lot more effort into it than you."

"I've also successfully killed hundreds of ponies," Trixie said with an odd mix of pride and shame. "Does that make me the most evil out of us?"

"Sounds like it?" Sunset said slowly, really unsure as to how this topic had ever come up.

"Nope," said Twilight. "If the number of ponies killed is what we're going by, then I win by a landslide."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "Oh? How so?"

"Destroying Caverndown alone nets me at least a thousand ponies killed. Then there's the ponies I killed myself, and the ponies I ordered other ponies to kill, and then there's the ponies I sent to their deaths with orders to kill those other ponies." Twilight fell quiet, really wishing she hadn't gone into this. "Sorry. You guys keep making introductions."

"Right." Sunset was still extremely unsure of what she'd just brought herself into, and watched Twilight nervously as the alicorn hugged herself and trembled. "You're not evil Twilight."

"Open to debate," Twilight muttered. She vaguely waved a hoof towards Sunset, "Just give me a minute."

"Ooookay then." Sunset trotted over to where the one pony she didn't know was still sat reading. "And who might you be?"

"Moondancer."

Sunset nodded and waited a beat, but no more information seemed to be forthcoming. "Okay, so are you a friend of Twilight's?"

"No."

"Oh, okay." Sunset waited again, but Moondancer had chosen to become mute again and hadn't so much as looked at her through their entire exchange. "It's...nice meeting you anyway."

"Mmhmm."

Sunset left Moondancer to her reading, and found Trixie smirking at her while Twilight continued holding herself. "It's been while since I've been the most normal person, or pony, in the room," Sunset said to herself. She froze as Trixie sidled up to her with an overly seductive walk.

"So, Sunset... The way Twilight described you and the things you've been up to, I was half expecting you to be an alicorn."

Sunset frowned at Trixie, then looked at her back, finding it totally devoid of wings as she had fully suspected it would be. "Why would you think that?"

"Because you turned into a..." Trixie turned to Twilight, "What did you call it again Twilight?"

"A friendship seraphim," Twilight said without looking up.

"Yeah, one of those, whatever they are. But she said you grew wings!"

"Yeah, but they were made of magic rather than actual wings." Sunset looked sideways at Twilight, "Just how much exactly has she told you about me?"

"Loads. It helped take her mind off the guilt of dragging you into her crap, and the way she described it all... I think I might have discovered who Twilight's really been gay for this entire time."

"For fuck sake! I'm not gay!"

Trixie smiled smugly at Twilight as the alicorn angrily stomped up behind her, "Welcome back."

"What?" Twilight was almost surprised to find that she was no longer a trembling wreck. "That's so not fair. Anyway, is it wrong for me to be impressed by Sunset's achievements?"

"Not at all. I bet it takes a lot of work to get a flank that fine."

"That's not what I meant! And maybe I should be feeling bad for dragging her into this strange little dynamic you and I have."

"And maybe it's your flank I'd rather be thinking about," Sunset said to Trixie in a saucy enough tone to make any stallion blush. It was certainly enough to send Trixie into panic mode.

"Heck no, you do not get to think about my flank! Trixie's flank is very much off limits. To mares anyway."

Sunset winked at Twilight, "So she does speak in the third person."

"What?" Trixie looked between Twilight and Sunset, finding them both grinning at her. "Oh, great. So this is how it feels to get ganged up on. Figures it had to happen at some point."

Twilight smirked at Trixie, "Yes she speaks in the third pony, although she does it a lot less than she used to."

"Wait... Are you referring to the song stealing Trixie through that weird portal?" 'Song stealing?' Sunset mouthed to Twilight. Twilight shook her head in the hopes Sunset wouldn't ask further. "What's she like? Wait! What are her parents like?"

"Her parents?" Sunset rubbed a hoof down the back of her neck, "Her parents are actually...gone."

"They are? How?"

"Uh..." Sunset looked pleadingly at Twilight, but she seemed just as curious. "Alright then, they were caught up in some gang thing where a gang wanted revenge for something, I don't know what, and burnt their house down, only it wasn't their house that the gang was supposed to target. They...didn't escape the fire, except for Trixie."

"Oh..."

Twilight nuzzled Trixie, "I'm sorry Trixie. I wish I could be surprised, but that world runs with a strange parallel to our own."

"I know. I guess I just wanted to think that Trixie at least had a happier story than my own, even if she is a song stealing harpy. Did they at least catch the ones that did it?"

"Most of them yeah. The only one to get away with it was their leader, some guy who called himself the Duke."

"Mother-fucker! Is he still alive?"

"Trixie, I'm not letting you go there to kill him for your revenge."

"But-"

Twilight stomped a hoof, "No."

"Aww..."

"It wouldn't matter anyway," said Sunset. "I think he got killed not too long ago, but I have no idea how."

"That's something at least." Trixie stared at the floor, then sighed explosively. "Whatever, I don't care. How about we start thinking about what we're supposed to be doing."

"Uh..." Twilight looked around the room, then remembered that they weren't actually in the library. "I don't have much of Starswirl's work here, but I guess that can get us started until all the rest of his work gets sent here from Canterlot. Follow me."

Since the library was right next door, it wasn't exactly what you could call a long journey. As Twilight had predicted, Trixie was utterly unimpressed, but she was at least pleased that the sight was enough to make Moondancer look up from the book she had been reading even while she walked.

"All these belong to you?"

"Yes and no. Most of them are government property, and are replacements for when the Ponyville library got destroyed by Tirek."

Moondancer turned on the spot, taking in the entire library. "This is a public library?"

"That's right."

"Then why can't I see any books missing from the shelves?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask the ponies of Ponyville why that is," Twilight grumbled with a pout. "Anyway, let's get started." Twilight picked a book off a shelf and held it front of Trixie. "Trixie, you can have the abridged biography of Starswirl the Bearded to get you started."

"Yay..."

"The rest of us, pick a book and see what you can find."

Sunset looked over the shelves, finding quite a number of books on Starswirl. "Not that I want to question your methods Twilight, but what should we even be looking for?"

"Oh! Right. I guess that if his retreat was somewhere in Equestria, we'd have found it a long time ago, so we likely can rule that out. Perhaps we should look for mentions of places outside of Equestria, with places being mentioned multiple times, or in multiple sources, being the more likely. I imagine we won't find much without Starswirl's own writings, but this should at least get us warmed up."

"That hospital doesn't seem so bad now."

"And you can definitely consider no whining as one of the rules Trixie."

"Bitch."

Twilight awoke with a start, and felt about her chest for something that wasn't there, but that time it was mostly out of habit. A deep, rhythmic banging that echoed through the castle had awoken her, and it took her a moment to realise it was somepony knocking on the door, and therefore nothing she could blame Trixie for. She had no idea why that was currently her 'go to' explanation for unknown noises though.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Twilight struggled out of her bed, tripping over a front hoof that had become tangled in her sheets overnight. She teleported, hoping to save herself from a unfortunate meeting with the floor, but only succeeded in moving the inevitable somewhere else, and her face smacked into the ground right by her front door instead, which was no softer.

Grumbling, Twilight stood and rubbed her pained nose, then pulled the door open to find Octavia smiling nervously, along with some Royal Guards, and a cart stacked high with books under a tarpauline. "Octavia? What are you doing here?"

"These fine gentleponies offered me a lift home after I missed the last train back to Ponyville last night. I would have come with you, but you and Trixie left so quickly I thought you wouldn't want me to come with you..."

"Huh? Oh! Oh Octavia, you didn't have to think that."

"So you're not mad at me? Or Fleur? Or any of us?" Octavia drooped as Twilight took a moment to answer. "You are, aren't you."

"No! Not at all! I'm just..." Twilight ushered Octavia to the side so the guards could start moving the contents of the cart inside. "I'm just used to having you guys around when things got rough. I understand your reasons for not coming, but I have to admit I was a little hurt by it at first. It's fine though, really. I've found a couple of ponies to help me out besides Trixie, so I'll be fine. Besides, I thought it was very sweet of you to think of Summer like that."

"She needs stability Twilight, and uprooting her to go piling after you is the opposite of that."

"I know, but if there's a war coming to Equestria, then stability isn't going to happen I'm afraid."

"I know." Octavia smiled bravely, "Fleur and I talked about it, and while we won't be of much use to you, we have decided to help in other ways if we can. If Equestria is going to build an army, then they'll need medics. I might not have it in me to do the task itself, but Summer and I can at least teach. And Fleur wanted to talk to Luna about assisting Equis if she could. At least then we'll still be doing something to help."

Twilight nodded, pleased that they weren't trying to get out of the coming fight. Even if was only in a small way, the fact that they still wanted to help was nice. "Sounds like a great idea. Your skills and experience would be more use elsewhere anyway since all we'll be doing for the next few weeks is reading. Although, if you want to help with that, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course. I want to head home to see Vinyl and Summer first, but I'll drop by when I can."

"Great! Thanks Octavia." Twilight waved Octavia off as she made her way into town to her own home, then made her own way back inside, making sure to give the guards plenty of room to do their work, even though she could do it all herself in a fraction of the time. Trixie, Sunset, and Moondancer were all waiting by the library, watching the pile of literature grow with varying emotions. Trixie looked like she wanted to die, while Sunset grew more apprehensive the taller the pile grew. Moondancer though, was acting like a filly on Hearthswarming.

"I didn't know half these books even existed!" she said excitedly to Sunset.

"I guess you never made it to the Starswirl the Bearded wing in Canterlot Castle then?"

"I applied for permits once, but it was denied because curiosity wasn't a good enough reason apparently."

"Yeah, they are pretty strict about who gets to see inside that place. Still, I'm sure the unfettered access you get now is probably worth the wait." Sunset looked over as she noticed Twilight arrive out of the corner of her eye. "Morning Twilight. I guess Celestia wasn't kidding when she said she wanted you to go through all of Starswirl's writings."

"Actually, judging from the amount here, I'd say this is only half of the collection from Starswirl's wing."

"What?!" Trixie shouted. "You're fucking kidding right?"

"And I doubt she'd send the spell scrolls either," Twilight continued.

Trixie stared blankly at the growing pile and groaned, "How did Starswirl get anything done if he spent this much time writing?"

"A question for the ages," Twilight replied offhoofedly. "At any rate, we have our work cut out for us, so we better get started."

Author's Notes:

So what's better than one book-horse and a Trixie? Three book-horses and a Trixie!

The fact that I'm posting this on the same day that the polish version of the Eqg specials with Sunset coming back through the portal came out is purely coincidental, since I did write this around a month ago before I even read the synopses for the specials. I also haven't seen it yet, so any similarities really are purely coincidental. It's also a good job that people put screenshots up on derpibooru showing Sunset still being a unicorn before I posted this, because I'd have rewriting to do if she wasn't. Still I'm a little disappointed she wasn't an alicorn. I mean, what does a horse-girl have to do to grow herself some wings?