I wanted to ask exactly what Twilight wanted from me, but instead she busied herself by pulling out another piece of parchment and starting her notes over, completely unbothered that she'd destroyed her previous notes.

"It's time for you to make good on that deal, Salvatore," Twilight said, scanning the paper ejected from the machine even as she jotted down more notes, "I told you a bit about what happened, but before I tell you the rest, you need to tell me some things about you."

I wanted to argue that I never actually agreed to any kind of deal, but I let it slide and simply shrugged my shoulders.

"Fair enough," I answered instead, "so what's first on the list, Doctor Sparkle?"

"Your species," Twilight replied immediately, "what are you and where did you come from?"

"Easy enough," I replied with a nod, "I'm a human—scientifically speaking, a homo sapien. As from where I come from... that's actually a bit more difficult to explain—"

"I've already deduced one of two explanations given the data that I have now," Twilight interjected, suddenly eyeing me suspiciously from over her notes, "either you're an as-of-yet to be discovered race hailing from some unknown land on Equus... or you're an alien."

I laughed out loud.

I couldn't help it.

For all intents and purposes, I should've been nervous that she had deduced that much, but for some reason, the fact that she just outright called me an alien was funny to me.

It was probably the sheer unexpectedness of the accusation, that caught me off guard. What made it even better was how Twilight went from highly suspicious to angry, red-faced embarrassment in an instant.

It was adorable despite her ragged appearance, and overall a nice change from the gloomy atmosphere from a moment ago.

It put me in a strangely good mood, and I decided to tell a bit of the truth regarding where I came from—though not how I got here, what the actual stakes were, or that I was dealing with a certain Lord of Chaos.

"Alright, you got me," I replied, still chuckling, "sorry I laughed in your face like that, I just wasn't expecting that last bit is all."

"Well, admittedly the former guess is a lot more likely," Twilight replied, clearing her throat awkwardly and looking away, "but I didn't want to rule anything out."

"Oh no, you're more or less right about the whole alien thing," I responded casually, "I can't tell you how I got here or how I know you, but I can tell you that I'm definitely not from around here."

She stared at me.

I stared back with an unflinchingly serious expression.

"I'm not joking."

Twilight blinked, opened her mouth, closed it, turned back to the readouts for a few moments, then looked back at me with an intensely scrutinizing gaze.

"You're not joking, are you?"

"Nope," I replied, crossing my arms, "I can't tell you how I got here, but if you want to know about my personal life or where I came from, I'd be happy to tell you."

Telling her about myself and Earth was a gamble, but the look in her eyes—the light in her eyes when I told her that—was absolutely worth the risk in my opinion.

And so my plan to lift her spirits by sating her thirst for knowledge began... and lasted for the better part of three hours.

For the first hour and a half I didn't mind, but as I got into the more mundane facets of everday life on Earth, things began to get tedious.

Thankfully she respected my decision not to tell her about how I came to be here or how I knew about her, her friends, and the Princesses—at least, for the most part.

She tried to steer me into talking about it, but her attempts were... laughably obvious to say the least. For all of her intelligence, apparently Twilight—or this Twilight at least—was most definitely not a master manipulator of any kind.

Time passed and the desk quickly became buried under piles of parchment as Twilight rapidly scribbled down note after note, completely forgetting about the major problem at hand.

Truth be told, I kind of forgot about it too for awhile, but as the Q&A session wore on and my mind began to inevitably drift, I finally noticed the faint itching sensation that told me a crystal was nearby.

I didn't even bother looking around for it, but it did remind me of what needed to be said and done.

"Hey," I interjected, cutting off Twilight's next question, "so this has been awesome and everything, but I think we should get back to the whole issue of what actually happened here?"

"What? Already?" Twilight whined, "but I haven't even touched on Earth's ecosystem, or how the cycle of the sun and moon work, or—"

"Twilight," I pressed, "we can talk about that stuff later, but I think it's time I get to hear about what happened with you, Spike, and your friends."

"But... but I..." her ears folded back and she looked away, speaking in a quiet voice, "I don't want to..."

I cursed inwardly as I saw the light in her eyes from earlier completely die as the reality of her situation reasserted itself.

I watched with more than a little regret as the old friendly, academically minded Twilight faded away and the embittered, depressed, and possibly deranged Twilight returned.

Well, it was nice while it lasted...

"I'm sorry, Twilight but I..." I blinked and furrowed my brow before letting out a sigh, "actually, you know what? It just occurred to me that I don't really need to know what happened to help you, so I guess you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Twilight's ears perked back up and she looked back at me in surprise. I just gave a dismissive grunt and shrugged at her response.

"You said it yourself," I continued, "I already have what you need. I doubt you'd expect me to actually help you with the actual science or magic or whatever. Somehow I get the feeling I'll be playing more of a passive role in all of this."

"I... you're right, but..." Twilight bit her lip and looked back at the ridiculous pile of notes on covering the desk. She gave the same sort of sigh I had a moment ago and turned back to me, "no... you've given me so much to think about... the least I can do is tell you about... what happened."

"You sure," I asked, raising an eyebrow, "I mean, I can probably guess at some of what happened based on what you've told me so far, but—"

"No," Twilight said, shaking her head and frowning at her hooves, "no, I... I think I need this," she looked back up at me, "I've been alone for three years. For three years I've had to suffer these memories alone, try to fix everything alone, only to fail time and time again."

I frowned.

"Twi—"

"You want to know the truth, Salvatore?" she continued, tears welling up in her eyes, "before you arrived, I was going to throw myself off that balcony. I was going to let that Failure... my son, do to me what it did to my friends... I was going to... I was..."

She lowered her head into her hooves and her body shook with stifled sobs. I made no attempt to move the conversation along for the next few moments.

Of course she'd be pushed that far after being alone for so long in a situation like this.

I didn't blame her in the slightest, for her choice—hell, I was still somewhat shocked she had even made it this long.

But even then...

"If that's the case, then I'm glad I showed up when I did."

She didn't respond, but the quiet, muffled sobs I had started to hear subsided into small sniffles. After another minute, she looked back up at me with watery eyes and I gave her my best reassuring smile, which probably wasn't all that great.

"If you need to get this off your chest, I'm all ears," I continued, "after that, we can go about getting this mess cleared up, alright?"

She stared at me for a few seconds longer before wiping her eyes and giving me a nod and a weak smile. It fell quickly and she took a deep breath before letting it out in a shaky sigh.

Then she spoke.

"We... my friends, Spike, and I went on a mission in the Frozen North to save my sister-in-law's empire," she continued after a moment, "it was being attacked by the dark shadow of an evil stallion named Sombra."

And just like that, I fit the pieces together. The next few minutes or so was spent explaining the events of what happened in the Crystal Empire, and it all seemed to check out... that is, until Twilight tried to nab the Crystal Heart.

"I was an idiot who had no idea what she was doing at all," Twilight spat, "I got caught in an obvious trap and Spike... Spike suffered for it... he died for it. Died because of my stupidity."

Tears of sorrow, rage, and despair welled up in her eyes and she grit her teeth as she continued.

"He tried to save the Crystal Heart," she nearly whispered, "he tried so hard... and he almost made it... but then Sombra, he..." she swallowed and shook her head rapidly before letting out a single choked sob, "I managed to get the Heart and save the Crystal Empire in the end... but Spike... he was wounded by Sombra and... a-and he didn't make it."

Ah... god dammit...

And so there was the root of the problem. Spike died during Sombra's attack on the Crystal Empire and it tore Twilight up inside, not just because the baby dragon—who was apparently like a son to her in this universe—died, but also because she felt it was her fault.

"And so the Faustian deal was struck," I muttered, before chuckling quietly, "heh... Faustian..."

Nothing about the situation was funny, but I couldn't help acknowledging the joke in that statement. Thankfully Twilight didn't seem to notice as she continued speaking.

"I bucked up... I made the mistake," she clenched her eyes shut, "I wanted my assistant back, I wanted my little brother back, I wanted my son back... but I didn't want to use Dark Magic to do it."

"Would Dark Magic even have been able to bring him back," I asked with a slight frown, "I'm guessing Necromancy classifies as Dark Magic, right?"

"Right," Twilight replied, wiping her eyes with a hoof, "Necromancy could've brought Spike back, but not in the way I would've wanted."

"So you turned to Discord for help instead, didn't you?" I asked. Twilight's eyes widened in shock, confirming my growing suspicion, "you figured, he was an all powerful god, he must know a way to fix all of this... to bring Spike back."

"I... yes, I did," she confirmed, still stunned that I had figured it out so easily, "but... how do you know about Discord?"

"The same way I knew about you," I replied with a shrug, "and like I said before, I can't tell you how I know, so you'll just have to deal with the fact that I know."

I could tell she wanted to push the issue, but thankfully she remained silent on the matter, allowing me to move on.

"So you made this deal with Discord," I pressed, "and what... he turned Spike into that... spider... dragon... thing?"

Twilight's thoughtful look disappeared beneath a dark expression as she replied.

"In exchange for releasing him from his stone prison, he promised to bring Spike back to me," Twilight snorted angrily, "he guaranteed I'd get to see him again with no strings attached. I'd see him just as he was before he died."

"And you believed him?"

"Of course I didn't!" Twilight cried, slamming a hoof on the desk, "I didn't believe a word of it!" she suddenly deflated and lowered her head, her ears falling back, "I knew there'd be some sort of catch... but Discord, he... he said things I needed to hear, and at that point I didn't care how he brought Spike back, as long as he brought him back."

So now Discord's free," I surmised, "and what about your friends and the Princesses?"

Twilight turned away from me and didn't speak for a long time.

"...Twilight?"

A twitch of an ear was all I got in response.

I sighed and moved over to the many bookshelves lining the walls. Having gotten tired of standing for so long, I lowered myself to the ground and leaned back against one of the shelves.

I wanted to ask again, but I figured it might be better to let her have her moment. It turned out that was the right choice, because a moment later she spoke again.

"The deal was struck, I freed Discord, he gave me Spike back, just as he was," Twilight explained in a low monotone, "both the Princesses and my friends were horrified, but I didn't care, I had Spike back and that was all that mattered."

She slowly turned back to me, her eyes somehow duller than they were a moment ago.

"I explained my reasons to Celestia and Luna, along with my friends," she continued, "my friends at least, understood why I did it, but the Princesses... Celestia was... she... I thought out of all ponies she'd understand most of all... but she was so... angry."

I didn't like the lack of tone in her voice.

"She and Luna both sent me and the rest of the girls back to Ponyville and I didn't hear from them again until... until it was too late."

"So, Spike was normal... until he wasn't," I surmised, "I'm guessing it was some kind of... delayed reaction? The change I mean."

Twilight nodded slowly.

"My friends had been staying over at the library to comfort me and Spike, and we were all about to go to bed... when the son I had been holding onto changed into a giant spider."

She visibly shivered and held a hoof to her other front leg. It drew my attention and it was only then that I saw a large but faint scar peeking through her lavender fur.

"It attacked my friends, and I... tried to change him back... I did my best, but I panicked, and the spell went awry... and when it hit him... he turned into what you saw outside."

At this point, she was back to staring at the wall as she spoke, her eyes distant and cloudy.

"I failed, and the effects of the botched spell only made things worse... so much worse," she muttered, "it multiplied rapidly, calling out for 'mommy' and attacking my friends as they tried to protect me from it."

Silence reigned again for a short time, completely unbroken by me as I waited for her to continue, which she did eventually, though with a bit more emotion thankfully.

"Somehow I managed to teleport them all out of the library before sealing it off," she said, "I sent a letter to the Princesses through my own magic and they... they came to Ponyville immediately."

"And that's when they evacuated all the townsfolk except for you," I finished, "and apparently your friends."

"I've never heard Celestia sound so furious before," Twilight lowered her head and shuddered, "she screamed at me, and my friends... I told them to go with everypony else... but they stayed. Even after they got hurt trying to protect me, they stayed."

Twilight lifted her head and looked up at the ceiling, as though it held all the answers to her problems somehow.

"Celestia argued against it, but Luna convinced her to let them stay," she said before finally turning to look at me with weary, reddened eyes, "once everypony but us was evacuated, Celestia and Luna sealed the area while they went to track down Discord."

I almost asked how they expected to stop him without the Elements of Harmony, but stop just short, not wanting to distract Twilight from her story.

"Luna promised she and Celestia would return as soon as possible so we could defeat Discord together, and even put extra wards around the library before they left, but it wasn't enough in the end."

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking around, "seems to work fine so far."

"There's nothing wrong with the wards," Twilight replied with a shake of her head, "the problem was that we needed to eat, and I only had so much food at the library."

"...Oh."

Twilight gave a grim nod.

"At first, we held up fairly well," she continued, "we had a plan, we stuck to the plan, and we survived... but then my friends started deviating from the plan... and they got picked off one by one during our food runs."

"And you survived until now," I remarked, "you stuck it out for three years."

"I stuck to the plan."

I nodded at that.

I didn't think there was much left to say after that where the story was concerned. I more or less had the situation figured out by now, and it didn't look like Twilight was going to say anymore about it either.

"So..." I said to break the silence, "I'm assuming Discord is still out there somewhere?"

"Who knows? I haven't heard anything about what's been going on outside since the barrier went up," Twilight replied, turning away from me and shifting through her notes. She stopped and looked back at me with an expression I couldn't quite place, "y'know... when I got the results back from your blood test I..."

She paused, then shook her head and went back to searching her notes.

"No, nevermind... it's stupid to think about now, knowing what I do about you."

"What is it?" I asked, grunting as I rose to my feet, "what were you thinking?"

"Well..." Twilight glanced back at me with an uncertain expression, "I told you that you had something I needed... and it was because of that 'something' that I... well... that I thought you were Discord in disguise."

I stared at her blankly for a moment before realization set in.

"You thought I was Discord... because—"

"Because the blood test reveal trace amounts of chaos magic in your bloodstream," Twilight finished, "it was only a small amount, and that was why I didn't freak out and reveal what I suspected. I wasn't sure."

I nodded.

"Fair enough, I guess," I replied, "I'm definitely not Discord though, I can promise you that."

"I know," Twilight replied with a small smile, "well, I know that now. With everything you've told me, and the way you've acted... Discord would never act this way... even if he was acting. He wouldn't be able to keep the act up for so long."

"I told you there was no such thing as actual magic on Earth—not like you have here," I said, getting ready to lie my ass off, "but maybe humans do have some kind of natural dormant chaotic magic. It would make sense given how chaotic humans are."

"I... guess that could explain it," Twilight replied thoughtfully, "but without any other humans to confirm that... I don't know."

I just shrugged at her and moved on.

"So, you need the chaos magic in order to fix this," I said, trying to move the conversation along,, "and since I have chaos magic running through my veins, you think I can do something about it?"

Twilight nodded with a determined frown, something I was happy to see after everything she'd told me.

"I still need to find a way to harness it—without harming you of course," she quickly added at my wary look, "but once I can accomplish that, I might be able to find a way to return the Fai... return Spike to normal."

She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling again, this time with a look of utter disbelief.

"After three years... I finally have a chance to get Spike back," her eyes grew wet, but no tears fell, "I can't bring back my friends... but at least I'll be able to see my Spike again."

I watched her for a moment before clapping my hands together.

"Right then," I exclaimed, "whatever needs doing, I'm ready to do it."

She wiped her eyes and nodded before hopping out of the chair.

"Alright, I'll need to prepare a few things, but in the meantime you must be hungry," she replied, making her way over to the staircase, "why don't we head back upstairs and I'll make us something to eat?"

She paused and gave me a funny look.

"You said your species was omnivorous, right?"

"Yup, but we can't eat hay or grass or... a lot of the flowers you ponies eat in general, really," I replied, "just... give me whatever isn't that stuff."

She nodded before turning back to the staircase. I decided to keep my apparent lack of a need to eat to myself, though i wanted to be sure of something else.

"Hey, Twilight?"

She stopped near the top of the stairs and turned back to me with a questioning look.

"You feel any better after letting it all out?"

Twilight opened her mouth slightly before furrowing her brow in thought. Eventually she smiled back at me and nodded.

"You know what? I kind of do actually."

This chapter ended up being way longer than I anticipated.

Anyway, here's something new for ya... hope! Pure, unadulterated hope! I know, crazy, right?

Let's see if it gets rewarded.