Both Twilight and I went back upstairs, and while she went towards the kitchen to make whatever it was she was going to make, I took some more time to look around while I collected my thoughts.

There were still a lot of questions I wanted to ask, and now that Twilight was feeling a bit better, I could focus on those questions. The problem was that, even if she was no longer suicidal, she was still very much not okay.

I had to be careful about how I asked the questions I wanted to ask. Moving out of the actual library and into the main room where the entrance was, I took a moment to look outside.

It was a clear day out, and nothing really seemed to be out of the ordinary at first glance. The sun was shining, the flora was green and bountiful, and there was no destruction anywhere to be seen.

It was quiet, though.

I didn't even have to be outside to know that the air was still. I didn't see or hear a single animal around, and could take a pretty good guess at why.

I also didn't see the shield Twilight had mentioned, and while I wanted to check to see if it was actually there, again, I wasn't stepping foot outside—not until I was prepared anyway.

I didn't want to find myself swarmed, and I wanted more information about the situation first.

With a sigh, I turned away from the window, wondering if Discord had taken over, and if that was the case, why everything was so... normal. Based on what Twilight had said, I was fairly sure the Princess's weren't in their right mind when they put the shield up.

None of what they were doing made any sense, and my first instinct was to blame Discord's influence. Maybe it wasn't that simple, or maybe it was, either way, Twilight apparently had no idea.

After a moment's thought, I decided to check on Twilight in the kitchen. I followed the familiar smell of pancakes to the room in question, and found the mare sitting at a dining room table with a small stack of books.

I looked over to the stove to see a pan wrapped in a magenta glow. It shifted, moving the sizzling pancake batter within and giving it a flip, though Twilight didn't once look up from her books to check on the stove itself.

Next to the stove, I could see a few fully cooked pancakes on a plate. Next to the plate was a stick of butter and a bottle of... apple syrup.

Well, that'll be a new experience for me...

I turned back to the mare and frowned slightly, trying to decide if I should catch her attention, what with her focusing on both her books and the pancakes at once.

Glancing back at the pan, I could see that the pancake was already almost cooked, so I figured I might as well get this conversation on the road.

"...Hey, Twilight?"

"Hm?"

Twilight didn't look up from the page she was reading, nor did the pan stop moving. I took that as a good sign to continue, walking closer to the table.

There were a lot of things I needed to find out about.

I was both curious and concerned about the odd, nonsensical behavior of the Princesses and the situation with Discord and the citizens that were evacuated.

Before that however, I wanted to touch on the immediate threat prowling around out there in town somewhere. I wanted to know what we were up against exactly.

"So before we get into this whole thing with my chaos magic," I began, taking a seat across from Twilight, "I was... kind of hoping you could tell me more about... y'know. Spike—or whatever he is now."

For a few moments, Twilight didn't say anything, and I thought she had simply ignored me, but then she closed her eyes and sighed heavily.

She dog eared the page she was on, closed the book, and set it aside. The low hum of the active stove stopped and the now finished flapjack flung itself onto the plate along with the others.

That done, the plate of pancakes, the butter, and the syrup along with two pairs of forks and knives floated over to where we were sitting.

We both took a silent moment to prepare the breakfast the way we wanted. I patiently waited for Twilight to speak as I slathered my own pancakes in syrup.

She cut into her pancakes and took a slow contemplative bite before finally turning to me. She looked worn, and the countless stress lines on her face made her look a lot older than she probably was.

She swallowed, and when she spoke, her voice was tired and sullen.

"I suppose I have to tell you," she conceded, "if for no other reason than that we'll most likely have to go back out there to test out whatever solution I come up with."

I nodded.

"Sorry for bringing it up again," I replied, "but... well... knowing is half the battle and all that. I wanna be prepared when we do have to go up against the thing."

"Right," Twilight muttered, leaning over the table and rubbing her temples, "where do I even start?"

"Well, you already told me how this happened..." I replied, taking a large bite out of my first pancake.

I frowned.

"...Salvatore?" Twilight asked, "are you okay? Are the pancakes not any good?"

"No... no, they're fine," I replied, shaking my head and taking another bite, "I was just thinking of where to begin."

"Oh, thank goodness," Twilight said with a tight, yet relieved smile, "I can't really afford to be making terrible pancakes right now."

I chuckled a bit before putting on a thoughtful frown.

"Well anyway... how about we start with what makes the thing so deadly? Y'know, aside from the whole duplication thing?"

Twilight nodded slowly.

"Yeah... yeah, okay," she responded, sitting up in her seat, "Spike was small—about half my size, and that at least, hasn't changed much. As you saw though, it makes up for that with its ability to appear suddenly and make more of itself."

"Does it have a limit?" I asked, "the duplication I mean."

"I don't know for sure," Twilight answered quietly, "but what I do know, is that it can at least make enough of itself to cover the entire town."

Well that's not good...

My next question was going to be a painful one, but it needed to be asked.

"You've been here for about three years," I began carefully, "did you or any of the others try to... y'know... put it down?"

"You don't need to tiphoof around the issue for my sake, Salvatore," Twilight replied with an unappreciative frown, "you're asking if we ever tried to kill it, and the answer is yes, several times."

She paused and looked down at the last pancake on her plate. For a moment I thought she was going to push them away with the way she was looking at it.

To my surprise though, she shook her head, stabbed a fork into the pancake, and shoved the entire thing into her mouth.

I raised an eyebrow at the display, but she ignored me as she finished the last of her breakfast and wiped her face clean with a small rag she pulled from the counter behind her.

That done, she continued on as though she'd never stopped talking in the first place.

"Celestia herself tried and failed to kill it, her spells just bouncing right off of it," Twilight said bitterly, "Luna tried more physical means, but every time she tried to smash it, crush it, slice it... anything, the corpse would just vanish, only for it to reappear moments later alive and no worse for wear."

"Well fuck me," I muttered, "no wonder they chose to evacuate the town."

That still didn't explain exactly where they had all evacuated to, but I'd get to that bit of information later.

"Wait, so if magic didn't work, how were Celestia and Luna able to trap this thing behind that giant barrier?"

"When killing it didn't work, they tried trapping it both physically and magically. Unfortunately It just broke out any cages and regular magic barriers didn't work either."

"And the giant shield covering the area?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, "how'd they manage to keep it trapped behind that?"

"With no way to trap the thing through normal means," Twilight explained, "the Princesses had to resort to... drastic measures."

"Such as?" I pushed.

"They've effectively cut the entire area around Ponyville off from the rest of Equestria through a dimensional barrier."

"A dimensional barrier," I repeated flatly, "and how exactly does that work?"

"We can see outside the barrier, but there's no way to interact with anything beyond it, nor can anything or anypony interact with us.

"If you try to move past the barrier's edge, you'll just wind up right back inside its walls on the opposite side. Anypony that tries to cross into the barrier just ends up on the other side, outside its walls."

Effective, but that kind of really fucks us over here. Seriously, why the hell didn't they just lock the thing up behind a smaller version of that?

I asked as much and Twilight shook her head morosely.

"If they had made the barrier any smaller, it would've destroyed itself and everything else within roughly a fifty mile radius," she snorted derisively, "I guess they cared just enough to not kill us all directly."

Even though they technically kind of did with the whole cutting 'Ponyville off from the rest of the world' thing.

She shook her head again and slammed her hooves into the table.

"Why did she do it?!" Twilight growled, "I've been asking myself that over and over again since this Tartarus forsaken barrier went up!

"We... my friends and I were the Elements of Harmony! Even if she hated me enough to trap me here for what I did, you'd think she'd still need us to take down Discord!

"Was he the one that made her do this? It had to have been him! There's no way Celestia would have done something so... so... stupid! There's no way she and Luna would be this... this heartless..."

She pressed her hooves into the table and fumed silently for a second, tears streaming down her face.

I waited for her to finish her sudden rant, not really having anything to add on the matter. I had the same questions after all, and it seemed I wasn't going to get them from Twilight.

And assuming we did find a way to stop this thing for good, how are we even expected to get out if we're cut off from the rest of the world?

There were several other implications that came to mind, such as what would've happened if I were to break the crystal inside the barrier, and...

Wait a minute... would that work?

An idea was forming in my head.

It was something I normally wouldn't have entertained, but given the circumstances it may have been our only choice.

The issue was that I really, really didn't want to go through with it if I didn't have to, and I had no guarantee it would work either way.

I'll hold off and see what Twilight comes up with first.

I kept my silence however, not wanting to go that route just yet. Instead I watched as Twilight took a few deep breaths and wiped her eyes, regaining her composure and continued on from where she left off originally.

"Anyway, after some... heated words with my friends about taking matters into their own hooves, we all decided it would be best to try and... end him before he could hurt us."

"And... what happened?"

Twilight lowered her gaze and said nothing.

I frowned at her.

"...Twilight?"

"You felt it, right?" she suddenly asked in a near whisper, "that hazy, dreamlike fear and foreboding that nearly overwhelmed you even before it showed up?"

My frown deepened as I remembered that strange dread I felt at the time. I nodded, wondering where Twilight was going with the question.

She nodded in return and spoke again.

"For reasons I haven't yet fully figured out, Spike—as he is now, emits some sort of fear aura that clouds the mind," she explained, "my only guess is that Discord had something to do with that, but it could've been another side effect of my spell going wrong, I'm not entirely sure."

She looked back at me, then looked through me, her eyes going distant as she remembered some no doubt horrible event.

"We all felt it, and it was only after I created a spell to counteract that fear aura and used it on myself and my friends that I realized that the aura was actually keeping us alive.

"In order for the spell to work properly, I had to tweak the brain's fear response, and that had the unfortunate effect of making my friends fearless."

"Like morphine running through your veins," I surmised, "without the body's response to pain, after awhile you start getting reckless."

"I'm not sure what 'morphine' is," Twilight replied, coming back to her senses, "but from how you worded it, I'm assuming it's some kind of drug that dulls the nerves, and you're exactly right.

"Without the paralyzing effect of the fear aura, my friends and I were able to focus on finding out a way to end the threat... but like I said before, they stopped listening to me."

"They started getting reckless due to the lack of a fear response I'd imagine," I guessed, "is that about right?"

Twilight nodded in affirmation, her expression sullen.

"By the time I realized what was happening, we had already lost Rainbow and Fluttershy, and Rarity and I were the only one's left when I finally found a way to reverse the spell I created."

"And... Rarity?"

"Couldn't take it anymore," Twilight replied tonelessly, "she killed herself before I could stop her."

"Oh... damn," I muttered, images of Rarity and the ship I had been on coming to my mind unbidden, "I'm sorry, Twilight."

Twilight merely nodded in response, her gaze haunted.

And thus, any hope of blasting Discord with the Elements goes right out the window, probably just as he planned, the son of a bitch.

I idly wondered if he'd been watching all of this play out somewhere where we couldn't see.

If that was the case, though, wouldn't he have seen or sensed me show up? I'd imagine that would've been enough to gain his attention and investigate, then I'd be able to ask my questions.

But no, I had no idea what he was doing or what happened to the Princesses or the rest of Equestria beneath the supposed shield trapping us here.

Best to focus on the here-and-now for the time being.

"So... I have a few more questions," I said, somewhat tentatively, "one of them you're probably not gonna want to hear."

"I have a feeling I know what you're going to ask," Twilight replied with a dark frown, "but go ahead and ask anyway."

"O...kay, then," I said, leaning back in my chair a bit, "my first question is this," I jerked a thumb over my shoulder and in the direction of the main room, "I can't see the shield out there. If it is there, how do you know it's still active?"

"Mage sight," Twilight replied simply, "it allows me to see the inner workings of complex magical systems, and with it, I was able to see that the shield is completely static. Even if Celestia and Luna were to die—not that they could, mind you—the shield would remain active until the magic burned itself out."

"And how long would that take?"

"Given how powerful Celestia and Luna are?" Twilight leaned back and looked towards the ceiling thoughtfully, "it would be at least another three or four years easily."

Well fuck me.

"And what about Discord?" I asked, "couldn't he just break it down whenever? Even if it is a dimensional barrier?"

"He probably could," Twilight replied with a small shrug, "the question is, would he want to? I mean he has—had us all right where he wanted us. Out of the way so he could... do whatever he's doing right now."

"Fair enough," I replied with a nod, "now on to my second question. If magic just bounces right off that thing, what makes you so certain chaos magic will do anything to it? Just because it was transformed by chaos magic doesn't necessarily mean it'll be affected by it."

"...I know that," Twilight said quietly, "but it's the only type of magic I haven't tried yet, and the only one I didn't have access to—at least, until you came along."

"The problem with that being that I have no idea how to access it," I replied, "I tried once, but it didn't really work out. At all."

"Well, if there is a way to draw it out, I'll find it," Twilight answered with a resolute frown, "I have to. If I can't use your chaos magic to cure Spike, then at least I might be able to finally put him to rest."

Yeah... about that...

"Well, if you can help me unlock my hidden chaotic potential, then by all means, go for it," I replied, "it certainly beats being completely powerless like I am now."

Twilight nodded slowly before rapidly shaking her head.

"We'll worry about that later once I've come up with some ideas," she continued, "for now, just ask the question I know you're going to ask."

Well, if she's already expecting it...

"Alright, I'll just come out and ask it then," I leaned forward and looked the mare in the eye, "how do you know that thing was ever really Spike to begin with, and not some kind of construct created by Discord?"

"I brought him the body, Salvatore," Twilight replied in a low, grave tone, "I watched as he touched Spike's forehead with a talon, I saw Spike open his eyes, I... I heard him speak to me again... I heard him say my name."

Her voice began to waver.

"It was like he never... n-never died at all," she paused and closed her eyes, breathing deeply before continuing in a calmer tone, "it was... is really him, Salvatore. I know it is."

I watched her for another few seconds before giving a shrug.

"...Alright, Twilight," I replied, "if you say so."

I was far from convinced of the fact, but at the same time, I had no proof that it wasn't really Spike beneath all the abominable horror.

Still, I didn't push the issue, as it wouldn't have helped in any way. If anything it probably would've only gotten her pissed at me, and I didn't need that right now.

Instead I opted to think of ways I could help Twilight with her research. I couldn't help with the science of it all, but I could still probably throw a few ideas out there.

I thought back to the one idea I had earlier, and wondered if Twilight could help me find any other less deadly options.

Should I tell her about the crystal? Would she even be able to do anything with the knowledge?

It was a risk, but with the way things were looking...

No, not just yet. If we can't find anything else, then I'll mention it, but for now, I'll leave that little nugget of information as a last resort.

And aside from that, if she could help me find out how to control at least a little of the chaos power, then it just might be worth holding out for now.

"You barely touched any of your pancakes."

I blinked and refocused my attention on Twilight. She was eyeing me with an odd mix of concern and disapproval.

"Hm?" I replied, regaining my bearings, "oh, yeah... I guess I'm not all that hungry. Sorry."

"You should eat," Twilight emphasized, "I managed to stock about two months worth of food, but I still don't want it going to waste."

"Yeah, you're right about that," I replied, picking my fork back up and digging in, "just... not used to the situation like you are. Again, sorry about that."

"It's fine," she replied, taking up her own empty plate in her magic and heading over to the sink, "we'll talk more later. For now, I'm taking a few books and heading back down into the lab. I want to jot down a few thoughts and questions I have about your magic."

"Alright then," I replied, watching her dump the plate in the sink and trot out of the kitchen—way more than a few books trailing behind in her magic, "just... let me know if you need anything I guess."

"I will," she called back, "I might be awhile, so you might as well find something to do in the meantime. Read a book or something."

A beat of silence.

"You can read, right?"

"Yes, Twilight," I replied with a roll of my eyes, "I can read just fine. I'm actually something of a writer myself."

"Really?" I heard her reply curiously. The sound of hoofs against the wooden floor told me she was coming back, but then they stopped, "no... now's not the time, but you'll have to tell me about that later."

"Will do," I called back, fully intending to lie about what I actually wrote.

"Alright then," she said, moving away once more, "I'll come get you once I'm ready."

"Right," I replied, taking another bit of pancake into my mouth, "good luck."

With that, the hoofsteps got further away and a moment later, I heard the basement door open and close.

My chewing slowed to a stop and I looked at the breakfast in front of me with a frown. I hadn't mentioned it to Twilight, but something was very, very wrong here.

It turned out there was more to it than just not having to eat. I could smell how delicious the pancakes were, and they even made my mouth water a bit—I could certainly tell Twilight enjoyed them.

The problem was that they didn't taste like anything.

It was like I was eating plastic or something.

It could've just been that Equestrian food was fundamentally different than that of Earth in some way, but somehow I doubted that was the case.

It could've been that the food was far more bland than the smell would've suggested, but again, I didn't think that was it either.

Good or bad, there should've been some kind of taste, and yet there was nothing. I turned away from the food and looked back to where Twilight had left.

I was almost certain this had something to do with the chaos magic Discord pumped into me, and once Twilight was ready to start testing, I was going to figure out what exactly what that something was.

I should've asked Discord more about the power when he poofed me back to the Chaos Realm, but prior events had put it completely out of my mind.

Now, more than ever, I needed answers, and I didn't care which Discord I had to ask to get them.

I was gonna split this one into two chapters, but I figured eh, screw it.