It was well into the evening by the time Twilight made it back to the retreat, having dumped the crate of armour next to the mirror, then kicking it once or twice for good measure. Most of the others had gone to bed, except Sunset, Luna, and Tr-

"You went somewhere without me!"

Twilight blinked at Trixie as the unicorn got up in her face close enough that their noses were nearly touching. "I was only going to get a box of armour, and you were sleeping when I left. Besides, nothing happened that required the expertise of the Great and Powerful Trixie."

"Don't you try and butter me up, Twilight Sparkle. Trixie is upset that you went somewhere without her, and now I feel like you've broken some unspoken rule of the universe. Besides, if you were just fetching something, why were you gone so long?"

"Because expectations rarely match reality."

"That's- That's not an answer!"

"Okay, I had to take the long way to Ponyville because of the army marching from Hollow Shades to Canterlot, then I had an amusing conversation with Starlight Glimmer via hologram. She wants access to the map in my castle for some reason. Then the map sent me to find Fluttershy and Spike, which led to me going to Luna and Celestia's old castle where I found the Mareitanians are collecting creatures from the Everfree, although that might be to stop them attacking the workers there, I don't know. Point is, the castle is still being rebuilt. After that I had a little chat with the Tree of Harmony." Twilight looked over to Luna, seeing how exhausted she was, "It told me some things about Celestia."

"Oh," Luna said, perking up a little, "and what might those be? Are they enough to account for her trying to murder all my children?"

"Perhaps? It's hard to describe. From what I could tell, Faust isn't controlling Celestia, but has replaced most of her memories so that she thinks Faust brought her up, and that Platinum was imprisoned for trying to trap Faust and steal Celestia, although you were still born in that scenario."

"Same sire?" Luna asked lightly.

"Same sire. It made you easier to paint as a monster. You're also the one that imprisoned Faust a thousand years ago when you tried to overthrow Celestia with your army of thestrals, which Celestia spared at the time, thinking that's what Faust would do."

"How wrong she was, apparently."

Twilight nodded sullenly, "I don't think that alone justifies what Celestia did, but with all these memories of her and Faust, I don't think she knows her own mind any more. She thinks she's in the right to do as Faust asks, because it's her dearest mother doing the asking."

Luna made a face, then closed her eyes and sighed. "What of other events Celestia and I did together? What of Discord's defeat, or what happened with the Crystal Empire?"

"Celestia and Faust did those things together, as far as I could tell." Twilight rubbed her head, "There was a lot of memories, and most of them passed in a blur. The only major events with you are your rebellion and banishment, then your return a thousand years later. Funny thing is, you were never Nightmare Moon in these memories. You were just... Luna."

"Making it all the easier for Celestia to see me as the villain Faust wishes me to be, no doubt."

"That's what I thought." Twilight broke out into a small smile, "Apparently I brought you back from the moon against Celestia's wishes, convinced her you were redeemed, then when Faust invaded it was because I'd allowed myself and Cadence to be corrupted by you, and together we were denying the return of Equestria's queen. Faust had no choice but to take her country back by force."

"While Celestia simpered and fretted about us stopping her beloved mother." Luna shook her head at the whole thing, "This all sounds terribly flimsy, Twilight, especially when the history books all say different."

"Faust tried to account for that. Apparently there are a lot of situations where the citizens of Equestria couldn't ever know the truth of what happened. Of course that just makes where the idea of Nightmare Moon came from in that scenario an even bigger mystery."

"Does she at least remember me?" Sunset asked quietly.

"A lot of stuff for the thousand years Celestia ruled alone didn't change, except for Celestia wanting her mother back, rather than Luna."

"So she still remembers me being a spoilt brat, betraying her trust, and running away?"

"Quite likely."

"Oh." Sunset sat and played with her hooves for a moment. "Is it weird I feel happy about that?"

"I wouldn't be," said Twilight. "She knows you're helping us, and we aren't exactly viewed favourably at the moment."

"Oh, right." Sunset looked down at her hooves, stilling their movements. "I guess I won't be getting that happy reunion just yet, huh?"

"I'm afraid not."

"I don't suppose a thousand gigathaums of rainbow laser friendship magic would bring her memories back?" Sunset asked hopefully.

"Possibly," Twilight replied, "although we really aren't in a position where we can do that. Hopefully there's other methods we can try."

"Especially since her memories likely aren't missing, just hidden from her." There was a flash as Starsy appeared among them. "The most likely method I can think of Faust using, is masking Celestia's real memories with these fake ones. The real ones are still there, but are hidden beneath the ones Faust planted. Even now her real memories likely creep into her dreams and absent thoughts."

"That's good, isn't it?" Sunset said, looking around the others until she stopped at Luna. "Oh, wait, Faust would probably just explain it as you trying to corrupt Celestia through her dreams, or something."

"Indeed," Luna muttered. "Faust has even turned dreams into a weapon against me. One might think she has an issue with my existing. Until we can think of something to shatter this mask of memories, we shall have to hold on to that 'thousand gigathaums of rainbow laser friendship magic' as our primary method of bringing Celestia back."

"We'll think of something," said Twilight. "How did it go with the Emperor, Luna?"

"He wasn't what I would call happy about it, but he has agreed to shelter the thestrals for now. I don't think we can impose much more upon him at the moment though, not without making promises we can't keep."

"At least he did that much," Twilight said pleased that the thestrals were safe for now.

"Were it that I never had to ask for such in the first place." Luna closed her eyes and sighed, "If only all my children had made it there too." She shook her head ruefully, then forced herself to move on. "There is at least some good news however. The Emperor has begun to organise his military in as subtle as way he can, so as to not alert Faust. He says that in a few weeks he'll be ready to make his move when we say. He's instructed Griffon Intelligence to focus on counter intelligence for now, due to their current limitations, so while we won't benefit from fresh news, what happens in Griffonia should remain secret."

"That's good, but a few weeks seems optimistic if you ask me. There's no way we'll be ready by then."

"Especially since you didn't bring the armour I asked for," Starsy grumbled.

"Actually I did," Twilight told him, raising her nose a little. "It's by the portal in Starlight's village."

"Well why'd you leave it there?"

"Because I thought that bringing the anti-magic armour through the incredibly magical portal, would lead to all kinds of disastrous circumstances," Twilight explained politely, "such as destroying our only route to Equestria."

"You might raise a valid point," Starsy sniffed, clearly embarrassed at having not thought of that himself. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to research it if I can't see it though."

"I guess you'll just have to trust us to do it for you," Trixie said brightly.

Starsy raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "Miss Trixie, I can't even trust you to boil the kettle without hurting yourself, let alone research an ancient and highly complex set of anti-magic armour."

"That was one time!"

"One time this morning, might I remind you."

"Trixie?" Twilight asked, extremely unsure of what was going on.

"I'm fine, it was only a little scald, and Sunset used a thingy to heal me. Don't worry about it."

"I'm... still worried."

"She used a combustion spell to try heating the kettle faster," Sunset explained. "She basically flash boiled it, and while the kettle didn't quite explode, there was boiling hot water everywhere."

"Which is exactly why Trixie did it with nopony around, and at a safe distance."

"And you still got burned," Sunset said sarcastically. "Never heard a scream quite like it. I'm talking like a guy trapping his man parts in a zip type scream... which is a reference none of you understand. I really need to stop doing that."

"It wouldn't have happened if Twilight hadn't abandoned me here," Trixie said with a pout directed straight at the alicorn in question.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "Or you could've used the heating spell I showed you, and waited that extra thirty seconds for the kettle to boil. You spent considerably more time researching the spell you used, learning it, and cleaning up the aftermath, than you saved."

"But it could've worked perfectly."

"No, Trixie, no it could not. Combustion spells are supposed to blow things up."

"So in essence, you're saying that Trixie performed the spell exactly how it was meant to be cast."

Twilight decided right then and there that her brain had had enough for now, and didn't want to deal with Trixie being an idiot on top of everything else. "Okay, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear most of what I just heard. Instead, I'm going to get some sleep, then tomorrow we're going to figure out how that armour really works. Good night."

Twilight didn't sleep. She couldn't, not with the best part of a millennium's worth of memories crammed into her head that day. Couldn't the Tree have given her the highlight reel instead of the whole thing? She was thankful that she couldn't really remember less than half of what she'd been shown.

The memories that annoyed her most, apart from the ones with major divergences of Equestrian history, were the ones involving herself. The memories from before Luna's return are largely the same, except her younger self was shown to be argumentative, and unwilling to learn from her mistakes because she thought she knew better than Celestia. Amusingly that actually made her more like Sunset than not.

What she was like after Luna's return was very different. She was sullen and grumpy, and prone to angry outbursts, along with an outright rebellious attitude at times. Sure those things were true now, in a way, but not until Twilight had gone to Mareitania. The fact that this moody, sullen, failure of a pony had become an alicorn during that time seemed to have been whitewashed over.

It all seemed so terribly fake though, and not just because she knew it was. Perhaps it all seemed different in Celestia's head, more real, but Twilight was having a hard time taking these memories seriously. Maybe Celestia could see the problems with her new memories, but only went to big mummy Faust, who shushed her and told her to not worry about it.

"This is bullshit," Twilight swore, finally giving up to the call of her bladder as another morning crept in after another sleepless night, totally unapologetic for not letting Twilight get some rest. If she was going to have to be awake, she might as well be productive with it.

Having relieved herself, she made her way to the observation area, where she was surprised to find Moondancer already up and taking notes out of a thick tome. Twilight walked over to her, trying to see what she was doing, but Moondancer flipped the page over before she could see.

"Yes, Twilight?" Moondancer said testily. "I'm kind of busy here."

"I was only trying to see what you were doing."

"So you could point out what mistakes I've made, no doubt."

"Not at all. You know Moondancer, this hostility isn't helping either of us."

"It makes me feel better."

"Okay, fine, but it still isn't helping." Twilight lifted Moondancer's leg off the piece of paper, and flipped it over, finding the beginnings of a containment spell there. "Okay, that's all I wanted."

"So you're not going to criticize it, and tell me I've done it wrong?" Moondancer asked harshly.

"Why would I do that? You're literally copying it out of a book."

"Because that's what you used to do when we were kids."

"Moondancer, I was a smart-alecky little know-it-all when I was a kid, so yeah, I did. I'm not that pony any more though. Okay, I might say something if you were doing it wrong, but only because I want to help, and this isn't something we can afford to make mistakes with."

"Uh-huh."

Twilight sighed, quietly giving up. "I'll just leave you to it, although Sunset and I could use your help studying that anti-magic armour later, if you want?"

"And here I was thinking Trixie was going to be helping you with that," Moondancer said dismissively as she resumed copying the spell onto her paper.

"Moondancer, I could write an entire paper on how helpful Trixie is at times. Literally a single piece of paper, probably in big writing. The conclusion would say she is when she wants to be, but don't expect that to be often. Your skills would be far more use."

Twilight waited as Moondancer mulled it over, and could see the battle taking place between spending more with Sunset, versus spending time around Twilight and Trixie. Eventually Moondancer reached a conclusion.

"Fine, I suppose it wouldn't hurt if we need the armour to help fight Faust."

"Excellent. I'm going to have to find tools to make some adjustments to the armour, so if you could bring the others through the portal to Equestria when they're ready, I'd appreciate it."

"Okay, but what kind of adjustments are you talking about?"

"The armour's designed for earth ponies, so I'm going to have to spend some time drilling a hole for one of these," Twilight tapped her horn with a hoof. "Since I can't use magic to do that, it's probably going to take a while, so, no rush. I'll see you in a bit."

In actual fact, it took about twenty minutes to make the hole for a horn, but Twilight wasn't going to advertise that she had used a hammer, a rock, and a spike to do most of the work, so decided to stay where she was on the Equestria side of the portal, and take a quiet break sitting in the morning sun.

Both Ember and Mayfly were already there, with Ember basking atop a roof, while Mayfly wandered around doing something, but she did seem to be smiling. Both of them were oblivious to Twilight's presence, and Twilight was happy to keep it that way for now. Instead, she thought upon the oddities of the little village she was in.

It was a place where Starlight Glimmer befriended ponies who came to live in peace and equality with others. On paper it sounded pretty good, but when you add that its leader was a dictator that stripped ponies of their cutie marks, by force if necessary, then forced you to not only be equal to others, but the same, it quickly sounded a lot worse. It also didn't add up with the Starlight Glimmer she'd encountered the previous day, who could, in a good light, pass for a normal, functioning unicorn.

Twilight decided to not let herself be fooled by it. Sure Starlight might be chafing under the hold Faust had on her reins, but to have the freedom to wander around unchecked like she was, she had to be playing her role pretty well. Only time could tell which side she was really on.

The other pertinent question Twilight had was how the hell Starlight kept the ponies here fed when nothing grew here, but she knew that was likely to be a question she'd never get an answer to.

A memory popped into Twilight's head, although it wasn't one of her own, but one of Celestia's new ones. In it, Luna was still the one that stopped Starlight Glimmer, but only after losing hers and her friends' cutie marks, and getting rescued by other ponies. It made Twilight want to laugh, because there was no chance that could've happened in reality. No chance at all. Apparently Faust loved making Luna look like a failure.

"Twilight?"

"Hmm?" Twilight turned to see Sunset, Moondancer, and Sunset coming up the steps behind her. "Oh, hey guys."

"Were you just laughing to yourself?" Sunset asked.

"Was I? Oh, sorry. I had one of Celestia's memories about this place in my head, and it was pretty ridiculous. Anyway, thanks for coming."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "What else were we supposed to do?"

"I... don't know. Give me a break, okay? I got a head full of fake memories that belong to somepony else, and I didn't exactly sleep last night." Twilight held up the helm of the armour, "Anyway, I'm going to need you to put this on now, Trixie."

"Fuck no! I don't even want to look at that armour, let alone put it on. No way in hell am I doing that."

"But the rest of us need to study it, which I know isn't your thing."

Trixie shook her head emphatically, "No way, no how. Just seeing that armour again is giving me the creeps, to say the least. The last time I saw a suit of that stuff, I technically died."

"Then why say you'd do this if you don't even want to look at it?" Sunset asked.

"Because I thought Twilight was going to put it on, and I was more than happy to experimentally blast her with magic in the name of science.

Twilight pouted at Trixie, "Gee, thanks." She rolled her eyes as Trixie beamed a smile at her, then looked at Moondancer, before crossing her off the list and moving straight onto Sunset. "I get the feeling you're going to have to put it on, Sunset."

"What? Why me? Why can't you do it?"

"Two reasons. First, I'm a bit too big for the armour, so I'll have gaps between the plates, which isn't ideal, and second," Twilight spread her wings, "these."

"But- But-" Sunset turned her head towards Moondancer, but quickly drew the same conclusion as Twilight had. "Aww man. Fine, I guess I'll put the scary looking armour on."

"That's the go getting attitude we need," Twilight said jokingly as she tipped the crate over, spilling the rest of its contents onto the floor in a jumble of two dozen pieces. Thankfully her time in Mareitania taught her a thing or two about wearing armour, otherwise she wouldn't know where she was supposed to even start here.

They started from the bottom up, going up the legs to the bigger pieces of armour. It also took quite a bit of time since Trixie refused to help, Moondancer didn't know how, and none of them could use their magic.

"I really don't like the way this stuff feels," Sunset said as more pieces were put on. She started to anxiously shift her weight from side to side, "I'm really not sure this is a good idea."

Twilight paused in putting on the armour, "If you have a better idea, I'm willing to listen."

"No, I don't," Sunset sighed, trying her best to keep still as Twilight resumed her work.

"How does it feel?" Moondancer asked, notepad at the ready to write down Sunset's observations.

"I don't know, it's... cold, but not in a chilly way, but more a spiritual way, like... like..."

"Like somewhere saturated in dark magic?" said Twilight. "That cold, slimy sensation of wrongness."

Sunset shook her head, "No. It's like a... void, I guess. Like I can't even feel myself. Y'know what I mean, right?" Sunset sighed at their blank expressions and shook her head, "Of course you don't. That sounds insane even to me."

"So you're saying that you feel dead wearing it?" Trixie asked, her interest piqued for the moment.

"No. Yes. I don't know. I certainly don't feel like myself, that's for sure."

Twilight stopped in the middle of trying to attach another piece. "Do you want to stop?" she asked, taking Sunset's concerns more seriously than before.

"Yes, but we need to learn about this armour." Sunset smiled bravely at the three of them, "I'll be fine."

Twilight glanced at Trixie, who shrugged. "Alright then," she said, carrying on again. She knew Trixie was probably the worst pony she could be asking, but she had a limited number of choices. "If it gets worse, say, and we'll stop."

Slowly, Twilight managed to get most of the armour on, but not without further concerns. Sunset had gone quiet once Twilight started covering her back, and a sheen of sweat covered her face, which had gone pale. Before long, all that was left was the helmet.

Twilight held the helmet in her hooves in front of Sunset, very much worried about her friend's condition. "Sunset, even I think this is a bad idea now. Are you really sure you want to do this?"

"We've got this far," Sunset said, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was saying. "Let's just get this over with so I can take it off again."

"Alright." Twilight placed the helmet over Sunset's head, taking care to get her horn lined up with the hole. The helmet set into place, and Twilight stepped back as Sunset started to breath heavily. "Sunset? Are you alright?"

"I- I- I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Sunset staggered sideways until she hit the wall, then started to yank at the helmet with her clumsy armoured hooves until her panic got too much for her to even do that, and she started to scream and cry as she thrashed her hooves around, making it considerably harder for Twilight to get the helmet off.

"Trixie! Pin her down!"

Trixie jumped on Sunset, keeping her legs from kicking Twilight as the alicorn fought to get the helmet off. She succeeded after a few seconds, and tossed it aside. "Sunset?"

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" Sunset whimpered tearfully as she unsuccessfully tried to pull the armour off. Twilight quickly took over, tearing off piece after piece, not caring if the fastenings got broken in the process. Trixie let Sunset go after a moment, letting her kick the last pieces off herself before she scooted away from it backwards until she hit the adjacent wall.

Twilight rushed over and grabbed Sunset as the unicorn sobbed, holding her tightly as she rode out the end of her freak-out. "It's okay Sunset, I've got you, you're okay." Twilight kept repeating that until the sobs were reduced to tears, and the shivering to an occasional tremble.

"That armour is evil," Sunset choked after a couple of minutes. Twilight could tell Sunset was trying to not look at it, so gestured with her eyes for the other two to put it back in its box out of sight for the moment. That took a minute, and when they were done, Trixie took up Moondancer's notepad that had been cast aside in the unicorn's hurry.

"Subject S. Shimmer is distressed," she said out loud as she wrote, getting a strangled laugh out of Sunset as Moondancer snatched the Notepad back.

"Distressed doesn't even begin to cover it," said Sunset, making no effort to get Twilight to release her. "That was... horrible, to say the least."

"Could you give us more details?" Moondancer asked, giving Sunset an apologetic smile as she did.

"It was like being trapped in a dark, airless room. I couldn't breathe, or see, or hear, or feel anything. It was cold too. So fucking cold." Sunset wiped her eyes and raised her head away from Twilight's chest, "So yeah, as you can tell, I kind of freaked out, a little. Or a lot."

"So, in conclusion," Trixie said loudly, "anti-magic armour is not for unicorns. Go figure."

"So that's what you were doing," said a voice from the door. Ember was standing there, along with Mayfly. "I've never heard those kinds of screams before, but they suggested you were going in dry, in the wrong hole, using something the size of your leg."

Sunset laughed once, "You paint a vivid image, Ember, thank you. I can honestly say though, I think I'd rather go through what you said than put that armour on again."

"You say that now," Trixie muttered. "So, yeah, as I said, not for unicorns. Guess this means we need a new test subject. Too bad we don't have any earth ponies. It doesn't seem to affect them. Wait," Trixie looked up at Mayfly, "you can turn into an earth pony."

Mayfly glanced over at Sunset, paying particular attention to the way she was still shivering. "No, I don't think this one will be putting that armour on. Besides, I'd only look like an earth pony, I wouldn't actually be one."

"But we have so many unicorns," Trixie whined. "Unicorns and alicorns that is. The only ones that aren't are the both of you."

"And Rainbow," said Sunset "Lightning, Vapor. Then there's Daring Do as well, occasionally."

"Wherever the fuck she is." Trixie pouted as she thought, "Actually, where the hell is Daring Do now I think about it? I'd almost forgotten she existed."

"You almost forgot the others existed as well."

Trixie shushed Sunset, "Stop changing the subject, because I really am genuinely curious about where Daring Do went."

"I'm sure she's fine, wherever she went," said Twilight. "Frankly, we have bigger things to worry about, such as how to defend ourselves in a fight against Faust."

"Quite," Trixie agreed. "Especially when we still have no earth ponies to experiment on."

Sunset gave Trixie a funny look, "I'm going to choose to rephrase that in my head. We could still use a pegasus though, unless they also get affected by whatever that armour did to me."

"Actually, there's not much point in carrying on," Moondancer said as she adjusted her glasses. "Since we're testing this armour for its effectiveness on alicorns, and it did that to a unicorn, we can only assume the same or worse would happen to the princesses. That said," Moondancer smirked at Twilight, "it mightn't hurt for Twilight here to try it, just in case. She is a third earth pony after all."

"No thanks," Twilight replied slowly. "I think we're just going to have to assume that encasing a unicorn, or alicorn, in rune warded armour is tantamount to torturing them. I'm sure there's plenty of conclusions we could draw from what little we've seen, primarily of which is the armour blocking even the passive magic of a unicorn. We have nothing of use to learn from it now."

"Apart from working out if it's an effect of the runes, or the metal they're cut into," said Sunset.

Twilight stood and walked over to the crate. She picked up a greave and placed it on her left leg. As soon as she did the runes started glowing a cold blue colour. "Yeah, I'll say that it's the runes," she said, shaking the piece back off into the crate. "So, I guess this line of investigation really is a bust."

"Back to the retreat then?" Trixie enquired, pleased for the chance to get away from that armour. She didn't want to admit it, or heavens forbid actually do it, but seeing that armour made her want to scream and attack it.

"Yep. That includes you two as well," Twilight said to Ember and Mayfly. "You shouldn't risk being seen like that. Especially you, Mayfly, considering what you think Chrysalis would do if she found out about you. What were you doing out here anyway?"

"I like exploring the village, seeing these abandoned homes and speculating about what happened to the ponies here. Did they all die? Or were they driven away by famine?"

"Uh, neither, actually. There's a bit of a story behind it, but the basic reason is that the village got damaged in a fight between Luna and a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer a couple of years ago, and the ponies that lived here moved away. Most of them ended up in Ponyville."

"Oh." Mayfly seemed disappointed with the explanation. "I think I preferred it when there was a mystery."

"Well if you want somewhere mysterious to explore, and somewhere to bask in the sun," Twilight added for Ember, "there's plenty of both in the Circen Desert. We don't need any unnecessary attention being drawn here, okay?"

"Fine," Ember growled, while Mayfly merely nodded, "I'll go sunbathe in the stupid desert."

"That's all I ask."

"So we're chalking the armour up as a completely nonviable method of protection then?" Starsy said after Twilight explained their findings to him.

"That about sums it up, yes."

"Hmm, disappointing, but not the end of the world."

"It technically might be," quipped Trixie.

"Shush you." Starsy hummed to himself as he started to pace around, running a hoof through his beard as he did. "There is another option, but it has an element of risk to it."

"Like that's ever stopped us," said Twilight. "What is it?"

"I believe I told you about the crystals we'll need from Zebrica?" Twilight shook her head. "I didn't?"

"We've been occupied with the whole Celestia thing, so no."

"Ah, yes, that." Starsy frowned unhappily, "Quite. Anyway, there's a place in Zebrica, a mountain specifically, that sits over a leaking ley line."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Starsy, "Since when can ley lines leak?"

"They can if you dig into them, like the zebras did quite some time ago. They stay well away from that place now, and with good reason. A ley line, when it leaks, will cap itself in a process that takes centuries upon centuries. It does this by basically crystallising raw mana over the leak. These crystals that form have some interesting and useful properties. For starters, the ones that form directly on the cap are so magically charged they're practically immune to anything less than the power of the ley line itself."

"Here we go," Trixie scoffed. "What's the catch?"

"Interfering with the cap is incredibly dangerous. If you're too rough, the cap could crack, which would unleash the power of the ley line, and it wouldn't be a slow uncovering like the zebras did. It'd be an unleashed all at once, level the mountain sort of occasion."

"And you're going to say we need these crystals to create suits of armour?"

"That I am." Starsy smiled at them, although it wavered as Moondancer came up to him and whispered something in his ear. "Or I am not, apparently." Starsy cleared his throat in embarrassment, "My able assistant informs me I might have got that a little mixed up, although she could've whispered that from the other side of the library instead of making sure you all knew I had got it wrong."

"You can hear things from across the library?" Twilight asked in amazement.

"I can hear everything that goes on in here, and I have to tell you, some of you need to leave yourselves alone at night," he said, directing a dirty look at Rainbow, who blushed bright red. "You could go blind doing that sort of thing."

"You become a mare and see how much you like estrus, buddy," Rainbow grumbled defensively.

"Anyway," Starsy continued, "Moondancer has reminded me that the cap crystals aren't immune to magic, but are very stable platforms for powerful enchantments, such as we need for the lock on the oubliette. The crystal you want for the armour are from the opposite end of the scale. The crystals that form furthest away from the cap are the magically inert ones, and are perfectly safe to harvest."

Trixie smirked playfully at Starsy, "Bit of a difference there, don't ya think?"

"Get as old as I am, Miss Trixie, and we'll see how good your memory is."

Twilight nudged Trixie, silently telling her to back off. "So you're saying that everything we need is in Zebrica?"

"For now, yes."

"Then I guess that's our next port of call."

"By the by," Trixie drawled, interrupting Twilight, "I don't suppose you know where Daring Do went?"

"Saddle Arabia I believe."

"What?" Twilight shouted in surprise. "Why the hell would she go back there? She was deported from there!"

"She said something about dangerous artefacts falling into the wrong hooves." Starsy shrugged, "She seemed like she knew what she was doing."

"I strongly disagree." Twilight held her breath for a few moments, then released it in one. "Trixie, Rainbow, get yours and Lightning's things ready, and Vapor's if she wants to come, because we're heading to Saddle Arabia. I'll go find Luna and Cadence."

"And I guess I'm staying here. Again," sighed Sunset.

"I suppose you could come if you want, although I don't remember our last visit being all that fun with the giant spiders, and the attack, and all the other bad things that happened while we were there. I suppose helping Daring find whoever has those dangerous artefacts wouldn't be too hazardous to your health, in theory. Perhaps."

"You raise a valid point. I still want to go with you though."

Moondancer held up a hoof, getting their attention. "Uh, not to rain on your rescuing Daring Do parade, but surely getting the materials we need for the oubliette, and your armour, is way more important than saving Daring Do from her mistakes?"

"Mmm, potentially," said Twilight, "but we need to head to Saddle Arabia at some point anyway, so it might as well be now. Hopefully it won't take too long."

"That sounds exactly like famous last words."

"See, that's where I have an advantage in that I'll never have to say last words," Twilight said with a lazy grin. "Anyway, you all get ready, and I'll find the other two princesses."

Twilight found Luna and Cadence in the upper reaches of the library, tucked into the cushion filled reading nook. She had been following the sound of somepony crying so quietly it was almost silent, although she was surprised to find it was Luna doing so, with Cadence trying to comfort her. At the same time, it was hardly a surprise considering what had very recently happened.

Twilight shushed Luna as the dark blue alicorn tried to straighten up and tell Twilight she was fine, and wordlessly hugged her around the neck until those tears started to fall again. They sat like that for several minutes, until Luna started to dry her eyes.

"Forgive me," she said, sniffling. "You don't need to see me like this."

"It's fine, Luna, really." Twilight smiled soothingly at Luna, "I'd be more concerned if this hadn't happened, considering what you had to do."

"What I had to do? Twilight, you had to do considerably more than I did. Celestia was like a second mother to you, once upon a time."

"She was." Twilight snorted a sharp and bitter laugh, "Those days have passed though. Don't get me wrong, I still love Celestia, but that idolization I had for her died some time ago. It was hard to see the way she looked at me though, like she was so disappointed in me for choosing the sane and rational path of not utterly devoting myself to a psychopath like Faust."

"It's still hard to believe Celestia could do that though," said Cadence. "She's always been so caring and compassionate, so to be willing to wipe out the thestrals just because Faust told her to..." Cadence slowly shook her head, "I don't even know what to say to that. If Faust could make Celestia do that, what chance would we stand?"

Luna chuckled at Cadence, "I don't think I need to worry about that. The most I would get out of Faust is some gloating at my defeat, before making Celestia do whatever she has in mind for me, just to break my spirit that little bit more."

Twilight agreed with Luna, "I imagine she has plans for all of us except Celestia. Flurry might get out of it, but the rest of us? Not so much."

Cadence held Flurry a little tighter, "Flurry's so impressionable at this age. I hate to think what Faust could turn her into, given enough time."

"All the more reason to stop Faust," Luna said to Cadence reassuringly.

"Not that we don't have enough already," Twilight snickered.

"Indeed. In regards to that, perhaps it is time we moved onto the next leg of this venture. It is Zebrica we are moving onto next, is it not?"

"Actually, we have a small change in our schedule there. Apparently Daring Do has returned to Saddle Arabia after receiving news about some dangerous artefacts. Since she's been deported from Saddle Arabia, her going back there is already a bad idea, so we're going to help her. Since we also want to get Saddle Arabia on our side, I thought we could do two jobs at once."

"An excellent idea," Luna agreed. "It has been a long time since I set hoof in Saddle Arabia. Is it still as painfully hot as I remember?"

"Possibly hotter," Twilight replied with a smile.

"Marvellous. Saddle Arabia and Zebrica. Much sweat will be lost over the coming weeks, I feel."

"Perhaps a sun hat?" Cadence suggested.

Luna snorted into laughter, "Oh Cadence, you have no idea what you're about to experience. I think you'll find a sun hat isn't going to help all that much. I would recommend some sunblock for Flurry though. White ponies tend to have terrible trouble with sunburn in those kinds of places."

"And black ponies," said the voice of Nightmare above them. She was draped along the top of one of the bookcases, her gaze soft as she looked at Luna.

"How long have you been up there?" asked Twilight.

"Long enough." Nightmare stood and jumped down, softening the landing with a flap of her membranous wings.

Luna went rigid and raised her head a little as Nightmare stood before her, "I sincerely hope you haven't come to mock me for crying over Celestia."

"No, because I'm a bit torn up over it myself."

Luna relaxed a little, and let a confused smile creep onto her face. "Why are you upset over it?"

"Because she's my sister too!" Nightmare shouted. She made no move to cover herself like it had slipped out by mistake, and her lack of embarrassment made it clear she'd meant it. "She might not ever accept me, and honestly I can't blame her, but that doesn't stop me thinking of her as my sister."

"Oh," Luna said dumbly, like she'd just found out it was going to rain this afternoon after she'd already made plans. "I see."

Nightmare looked Luna in the eye for several seconds, then sighed like she'd been expecting something more. "Anyway, I want to come with you."

"You do? Why?"

"Because I need to stop Faust. She's slighted us by turning Celestia against us, and harming our children, and frankly, I don't accept such insults lightly."

"Uh..." Twilight held up a hoof until Nightmare gave her her attention, "This is mostly going to be a bunch of politics and potentially a rescue mission. Not a whole bunch of fighting Faust will be happening."

"I'm also really fucking bored."

"Now that's a reason I can believe. You'll have to travel in disguise though."

"Tell me that like it should surprise me."

Twilight shrugged, then looked to Luna and Cadence. "Any objections?"

"Not from me," said Luna, while Cadence shrugged and shook her head. "It might be nice to spend some time with my crazy little doppelganger."

"And why am I crazy exactly?"

Luna smirked at Nightmare, "Have you paid any attention to the rest of your family?"

"I'm telling you Vapor, you don't have to come."

Vapor calmly pushed Lightning's hoof to the ground, and gave her a gentle smile. "I'm coming, and that's final. Besides, how dangerous could it possibly get?"

"That's idiot talk, and you know it. It'll be dangerous because of the simple fact that we're going there. You did hear the story about the giant spiders, right?"

"And it was fucking ridiculous, even if it was true." Vapor spread her wings and flapped them slowly a few times, sending puffs of sand flying away from her. "I'm not hiding scared in that library because something bad happened to me. If there are giant spiders, roving war bands of griffons, or something even worse, I'm ready for them. Face it Lightning, you're not going without me."

"Rrgh!"

"They'd make a cute couple," Trixie said to Sunset as they quietly observed the argument. "Y'know, if both of them were raging homosexuals, instead of just one of them."

"You mean Lightning?"

"I certainly don't mean Vapor."

Sunset screwed her face up in thought, then shook her head. "Nah. I'm not saying Lightning isn't gay, but I'd say she'd have more of a thing for Rainbow. She wants a partner that can not only keep up with her, but push her."

"Hmm, you raise a fair point, and I counter it with the argument that some ponies want to look after the other in a relationship. In this case we have the more masculine Lightning, and the effeminate Vapor. Problem is, Vapor can take care of herself, and it's damaging how Lightning sees both Vapor and herself."

"So she's no longer the sweet little wifey in this equation?"

Trixie nodded once, "Exactly. Plenty of relationships go awry when one half discovers they can stand on their own four hooves, and the other doesn't know how to deal with it."

"Sounds like personal experience."

"Not really. There are few ponies I've met that I could consider as being even half good enough for the Great and Powerful Trixie. That, or I have a really terrible taste in stallions. What about yourself, Sunset?"

"Me? Um, well, I've had one relationship in the past few years, and I was only dating him to become more popular. He eventually caught on and dumped me."

"For shame, Sunset, using others to further your own goals. How positively maniacal."

Sunset looked sideways at Trixie, "I have no idea in what kind of spirit that was meant."

"Part of the mystery that is Trixie."

"Uh-huh." Sunset turned and shielded her eyes as she looked out over the half buried city in the Circen Desert. "This place still gives me the creeps. I mean, it's amazing, don't get me wrong, but still creepy."

"Yeah..." Trixie said without looking around. "Hopefully whatever eldritch abomination inevitably crawls out of this place is a bit easier to stop than Faust is."

"What?" Sunset turned back to Trixie, her mouth flapping soundlessly. "W-w-why would you even say that?"

"Because that's what our life is now, Sunset. Shit, followed by worse shit, with various gradients of shit in-between. For example, the thing with Twilight's friends in Fillydelphia is shitty, but it's a fairly solid shit that isn't worth worrying about. Celestia on the other hoof, is a full on attack of explosive diarrhoea. Y'know, the kind that comes on suddenly, and there's no toilet nearby, and it just slips out and gets in your tail, and-"

"Stop! Just stop! Your analogies suck."

"Oh come on, you could've at least said they were shitty."

"Nope! I absolutely refused to." Sunset rubbed a hoof between her eyes and groaned, "Great, now my head's going to full of shit analogies and thinking about what could come out of this place. Thanks, Trixie."

"I'm here to help."

"No, you're not. You're really not."

"Yeah, you're right." There was a whoosh of magic, and four alicorns, along with an extra baby alicorn, stepped out into the harsh sun of the desert. "Ooh, Nightmare's coming. This could be interesting."

"It could be." Sunset walked towards Twilight, "Are we ready to go?"

"More or less. Here's hoping Daring hasn't gotten into too much trouble. Hah! What am I saying? Of course she has." Twilight shrunk Sunset and Trixie down and tucked them into her bags, "Maybe if we're lucky, we can get through this without starting a war of some kind."

Trixie poked her head out of her bag as Twilight spread her wings, "You really need to stop talking now, before you jinx it."

"Too late now. Let's go."

Author's Notes:

One of those chapters that I write with no particular direction in mind, and let the crap in my head dribble into my writing. You'd think I'd learn to stop, but here I am throwing a scale of passing rocks to diarrhoea in, referencing butt fun and masturbation, and not bothering to remove any of it for something slightly less stupid or related to rear ends. Sorry, not sorry. I put a mature tag on these stories for multiple reasons.