Needless to say, it was Luna that led us to our next destination. Emotionally wrecked as she was, Celestia was clearly in no condition to act as as tour guide right now. Luna assured us that she'd have herself composed and ready to speak by the time we met again but both Twilight and I had our doubts. Twilight had also needed a moment to recover from the baggage the Princess had dropped on us all. For my part, I was just happy to move on to the next matter at hand. It had been a long, long time since I'd seen or experienced something with enough emotional impact to move me to tears, but I damn near broke right alongside Twilight.

No one really felt like chatting after that. Twilight and I didn't even bat an eye when Luna turned her armoire into a magical doorway like this was The Pony, the Man, and the Wardrobe. The gateway inside the armoire was oddly reminiscent of a certain infamous fog door—only the fog in question was a swirling mix of blue and black. It probably wasn't that weird for Twilight and while I thought the gateway was kind of ominous, I had the good sense not to make any quips about bosses or bonfires. Once the gate was up, we all stepped inside without a word. I went in last and it was a good thing too, because I had to stop to make sense of what I was looking at once I was on the other side.

"Well would you look at that..." I mumbled to myself, my brows rising in interest. Just past the gate was a set of crystalline steps leading down to a large circular platform. Both the steps and the platform glowed with some kind of ethereal blue light, making them the first thing to catch my eye. At first I thought the glowing platform and steps were floating in a black sea of nothingness, but once my eyes adjusted, I could see that wasn't the case. The surrounding walls were made of a stone whose shade was a blue so dark it was almost black. The stone itself almost seemed to absorb the light coming from the platform, leaving very little illumination for the rest of the small-ish room.

A closer look at the stone platform revealed an intricately woven set of runes and sigils inscribed in a circular pattern. Now that I was paying attention, I saw that the ethereal glow actually came from the runes and sigils themselves. A stupidly complex latticework of radiant lines brought the whole design together, making the entire stone platform one giant spell circle. Looking at it objectively, the thing practically screamed 'magical fantasy teleport circle'—either that or some fancy elevator. I looked up to see an uneven stone ceiling just a few meters or so overhead. Satisfied that I'd taken everything in, I made my way down the few steps it took to get to the glowing platform where both Luna and Twilight were already waiting.

Twilight was inspecting the complicated magic formation with some interest but, in an impressive show of restraint, chose not to comment on it. Once we were all situated in the center of the platform Luna's horn flashed a brilliant cobalt blue. The already radiant spell circle flared even brighter for a brief second before the whole platform shuddered and started descending at a steady pace. Okay, elevator it is then, I thought as I adjusted my footing slightly. The ride down was smooth and nearly silent save for the low warbling hum of active magic. Unfortunately, it was no longer the morose and respectful silence of earlier. Now it was the awkward silence of riding in an elevator with a stranger while you both try not to acknowledge one another's existence.

Yeah... no, I'm not doing this.

"So this complex magic circle you got going here," I began in my best casual tone, "seems like a lot of work just to move a giant slab of stone up and down." My innocuous observation was directed at Luna but it was Twilight that spoke.

"I'm not familiar with many of the runes or sigils used in this particular array," she answered, her eyes tracing the many lines and symbols on the moving platform, "but from what I can gather, it looks like most of the magic is being funneled into some kind of... security measure?" She turned to Luna for confirmation. The taller alicorn nodded in response and elaborated.

"A keen eye, just as expected,” she replied with the ghost of a smile, “this stone lift leads to what is essentially the innermost sanctum of our makeshift sanctuary from the Dark.” Her expression grew more serious, "Much of what you are about to see is restricted to all but a precious few, and this array ensures that, should a would-be trespasser somehow find their way onto this lift, they would proceed no further—not without my voluntary assistance."

I nodded as I tried to put the pieces together. "So no one gets into the depths of this place without your say-so?"

Luna nodded in the affirmative and replied, "That is correct. Beyond my personal gateway, there is only one other entrance, and it is effectively impossible to reach without my aid. I am also the only one who can activate the array that moves the lift."

"It sounds like you're putting all responsibility for the safety of whatever lies below in your own hooves," Twilight noted with some concern, "I don't mean any offense, but... is that wise? Wouldn't it be easier to gather at least a few ponies to watch over things in case something happens to you?"

I wasn't sure if Twilight noticed it, but I could see the small frown forming on Luna's face as the younger, newer alicorn spoke. Whatever the former Princess of the Night had to say in response, I doubted it would be anything comforting. Sure enough, when she did reply, it was with slumped shoulders and a weary sigh. "You are right, of course—and I do have some assistance, minor and troublesome though it may be," she said, her tone world-weary and bitter, "but few are the ponies I can trust to do what needs to be done," she fell into a pensive silence for a second, then huffed, "no, it's best to keep things as they are."

Twilight gave a small frown of her own.

"But, what about... I mean..." the smaller mare had opened her mouth to say... something. Maybe argue against the claim that Luna had no one to trust, but apparently she'd decided against the idea. Judging by the pained look on her face and her sudden interest in the dark walls surrounding the descending stone lift, it seemed she was about to bring up a sore subject. I had a few guesses as to what she was about to say, and evidently so did Luna, because she gave the despondent mare what I was pretty sure was a sad smile. It was kind of hard to tell sometimes, given how her eldritch mane still covered the top half of her face.

"Though my sister maintains her own kind of vigil over the Crystal Caverns and what remains of her subjects, there is little she can do as she is now," Luna explained without prompt, "and the Elements... what is left of your counterpart's friends are not... what they used to be," her sad smile gave way to a grim scowl, "Fluttershy and Pinkamena... they are not well, Twilight Sparkle. I did trust them and the other Elements with the task of protecting the remnants of our society for a time. I believed that, with everything you—the other you—and they had been through as the Elements of Harmony, they could handle such responsibility..."

She paused and hung her head. The majority of her face remained obscured but I could feel shame and guilt washing off the mare in waves. "Only after it was far too late did I realize my expectations were misplaced," she lamented, "The Twilight Sparkle native to this realm brought death and devastation on a scale seen only once in our long, long history. To think those girls would be prepared to handle something of such magnitude... my sister and I were fools."

Twilight didn't reply immediately. It looked like she was having some kind of internal struggle, some war between her desire to console Luna and her own boundless curiosity. I thought both outcomes were equally likely, but to her credit, she decided to go the reassurance route. "For what it's worth Prin—er, Luna, I don't think it's your fault, nor do I think your sister was to blame," she replied, placing a gentle hoof to the taller mare's front leg. "If the girls here were anything like the ones I knew back in my Equestria, I'm sure they would've volunteered to take up the role even if you hadn't asked."

A sad smile stretched across Twilight's face, a smile that was more than a match for Luna's. Her eyes grew glossy with unshed tears but her voice was steady and comforting as she spoke, "I bet they all jumped at the chance to do some good and... save some lives, right?" For long moment, Luna just stared back at Twilight, her expression inscrutable. Then she turned away with a quiet chuckle that somehow morphed into a gloomy sigh.

"It was just as you say," she finally answered, "even had I voiced any reservations, I doubt Celestia and I could have done anything to dissuade those poor souls from the path we set them upon." She sighed and looked away. I could've sworn the mare looked almost wistful as she continued. "It seemed like the clear choice at the time and for a time, they did perform their duty admirably... but in the end, it wasn't enough."

"Um... if you don't mind me asking," Twilight began with the tone of someone trying desperately not to step on any proverbial toes, "what exactly did the Twilight of this Equestria do? Or rather, how did she fall so far as to cause all of this?" The mare frowned at the ground, then looked Luna in the eye—sort of. "How did it come to this? How did things get so bad?" The questions came like a tsunami, Twilight apparently unable to hold back anymore. For her part, Luna didn't seem to mind the onslaught, but before she could reply, the magic elevator shuddered slightly and its descent slowed to a crawl.

It jerked to a stop a few seconds later, the stone platform coming to rest before a small set of crystalline steps and a doorway, both the same as what we saw above. This time though, the steps led down off the platform and there was an actual physical door in the doorway. The door in question looked like a smaller version of the double doors leading into Luna's room. More striking was the circular magic array that lit up in the center of the double doors as we reached the bottom. It looked like the circle on the elevator, but composition was different.

That was about all I could tell. I'd done some light reading on magic back in Golden Oaks, but most of the arcane arts were still way over my head. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was hoping that would change once I could properly manifest my chaos magic. For now, all I could do was take an educated guess on this being some kind of magical seal or something. Luna was the first to step off the stone platform and down the steps to the doors. There was a brief moment where I thought Twilight's questions were going to go unanswered.

Twilight seemed to think so too because she opened her mouth to say something. But just as the words were about to spill out, Luna finally spoke without turning to face either of us. " You will have your answers in painful detail soon enough, Twilight Sparkle. For now, let us say that innocent curiosity turned to twisted obsession, and I did not try hard enough to prevent the inevitable outcome." She paused for a brief period as if to collect herself, but she continued on before either of us could comment, her next words curt and businesslike. "Now come, our destination awaits just ahead."

And just like that, the discussion was over—at least for the time being. Twilight and I followed Luna down the steps and watched as she dispelled the shining seal attached to the doors. She pressed a hoof up against the center of the spell circle and it flashed once before vanishing with an ethereal hiss. The double doors swung open on their own and we wasted no time in stepping through the entrance and into the forbidden and oh-so-mysterious depths. I wasn't sure what to expect coming down here and somewhere deep down I was somewhat disappointed at what I saw.

The room we'd walked into a sort of circular antechamber, the size and shape of which wasn't dissimilar to Luna's bedroom. The vast majority of the floor was taken up by yet another massive and complex spell circle carved into the stone—though this one was unlit and seemed entirely inert. There were a total of four other doors—two on either side of the double doors we'd just come through—and a hallway leading to another set of double doors at the opposite end of the antechamber from where we all stood. Naturally, all the other doors also had magical seals in front of them. With all the circular arrays I was beginning to wonder exactly what kind of path magic had taken in this Equestria.

There was a time when I couldn't have cared less about something like that, but apparently, Twilight's enthusiasm for the arcane had rubbed off on me a bit over the month or so I'd lived alone with her. In any case, the additional seals didn't surprise me all that much. What did surprise me and Twilight as we entered the large chamber were the two cloaked equine figures standing before the three of us. The cloaks in questions were similar to the one Luna wore and the faces of the two ponies—assuming they were ponies—were completely hidden beneath heavy hoods.

What caught my attention in particular was the disparity between the two. One of the equine figures, the one on the left, seemed to be an average sized adult pony, but the pony on the right was diminutive to the point that they could have easily passed for a foal. Twilight looked just as baffled as I probably did and we both turned to give our own cloaked guide a questioning look. Luna ignored our bemusement and took a step forward towards the two silent figures before addressing them both. "I trust everything is in order?" she asked without preamble.

"Yes, my lady. The forbidden records have been prepared just as you asked," answered the average sized figure in a feminine monotone. I figured at that point it was safe to assume the speaker was a mare, though a chance glance in Twilight's direction gave me some pause. She was watching the mare who'd just spoke with a scrunched brow, like she was trying to puzzle something out. I briefly wondered if maybe she knew the pony, but before I could think too hard on the matter, Luna spoke again.

"Very good. In that casse, I shall leave the rest to you two," she replied with a satisfied nod. She finally turned to address Twilight and me directly, "I must attend to my sister alone and will be away for some time.” She held up a hoof to shut us up before we started in on the questions and continued. “I shall grant you access to the archives until my sister and I are ready for you.” Luna turned to the two hooded ponies and nodded. They silently returned the look for a brief second before raising their hooves and pulling back their hoods in unison to reveal—

“Wh—Moon Dancer?!”

Just as Twilight's shocked gasp stated, the taller of the two cloaked ponies was indeed the titular bespectacled egghead and foalhood friend of the stunned purple pony next to me. The mare looked... I want to say awful, but that wasn't quite true. I didn't know enough about pony anatomy to accurately assess biological growth, but to my eyes, it didn't look like Moon Dancer had aged at all.

Time hadn't brought any noticeable wrinkles to her equine face nor any streaks of grey to her red and purple mane. She even now wore those same thick black horn-rimmed glasses—tape and all. There was one difference though, and it was a big and rather unnerving one. Looking into her dark violet eyes, I couldn't see... anything. There was absolutely nothing behind that stolid gaze. Moon Dancer's eyes were bottomless in the worst kind of way—empty, like she'd peered too deeply into the void and came back with a piece of it hidden somewhere within her.

I saw Twilight shudder beside me out of the corner of my eye and I honestly couldn't blame her. That said, my own focus was fixed on the much smaller pony standing next to Moon Dancer. It hadn't been all that long since she was introduced in the show back when I was whisked away from Earth, but I would've recognized that, bright pink coat, those baby blue curls, and that disgustingly cute face anywhere. Huh, I thought with a grim sort of amusement, You know, for some reason I'm not all that surprised to find her here of all places.

Cozy Glow, like Moon Dancer, looked as though she hadn't aged a day and had absolutely no life in her ruby red eyes. It was like looking into a fathomless black pit. I was almost afraid I'd fall right into those horrifying eyes, never to be seen again. It was enough to give me literal chills and reminded me why I rarely, if ever, looked people directly in the eye. I wouldn't normally, but pony eyes (at least in the case of these cartoon horses) took up like half their face. It was hard not to look.

“I've informed these two of our situation,” Luna continued on, paying no heed to our reactions, “ they will act as guides in my stead, answering any lingering questions you may have should our records prove insufficient.” Her horn suddenly flared to life as she turned to face me specifically, “I will take my leave here, but once I return, my sister and I will teach you what it truly means to be a creature of chaos.”

Okay... so that wasn't super ominous at all...

Her words sounded foreboding but in truth I couldn't help a bit of skepticism. After all, they weren't creatures of chaos. Well, Luna was probably getting there given her appearance—but she was still a pony, mostly, yet she was standing there making that delcaration like she was Discord himself. Just how were she and Celestia going to help me exactly?
Still, I was a stranger in a strange land. I had no idea what kind of knowledge they would have picked up over the years so I kept these doubts to myself. Twilight definitely looked like she wanted to say something—she looked like she had quite a lot to say actually—but Luna vanished in a flash of dark blue light before she could get a word in edgewise. That just left us with our creepy guides and a very uncomfortable silence.

A few heartbeats passed without any kind of dialogue. Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow just continued watching us mutely, standing at attention like we were their COs. Twilight was the first to get her gears spinning again after a bit and rushed over to plant her forehooves on Moon Dancer's withers. “Moon Dancer!” she cried, shaking the other mare slightly, “Moon Dancer, what happened to you?! Why are you—h-how did you—”

“Twilight,” I called out in a calm attempt to get her attention. When she ignored me and continued fussing over her 'friend' I called out a bit louder. “Hey, Twilight!”

“Salvatore!” she snapped her head in my direction and I could see the near panic on her face, “Salvatore, we have to do something! Moon Dancer, she...” she shook her head and looked back at the mare in question, “...there's something wrong with her! I don't—” her eyes widened in horror, “Luna! She did something! She—”

“Twilight! Just... chill for a second!” Twilight opened her mouth again but I verbally steamrolled right over whatever she was going to say next. “Look, I don't know what's going on either. Maybe Luna did something, maybe she didn't. Either way, flipping the fuck out over it when we don't know the full story isn't going to get us anywhere. Also...” I hesitated for just a second, not really wanting to say my next words but knowing they had to be said. “...She's not your friend, Twilight. She doesn't know you and you don't know her.”

Twilight looked like she wanted to argue the fact. I could see the denial in her eyes and I knew the argument she wanted to make, but she couldn't hide the flinch. She knew it as well as I did. This was a different timeline—a different Equestria entirely. Even if her counterpart's and this Moon Dancer's pasts had been similar or even the exact same, life had clearly taken them down an entirely different path.

“...I get it, alright?” Twilight finally muttered after a tense moment. She lowered her head and sighed, then looked back up at me with a bit more fire in her eyes as she said, “I understand she's not the same Moon Dancer just like I know the Pinkie and Fluttershy of this Equestria aren't the ones I knew... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't help them.”

Oh boy...

“Well, we can ask Luna about helping them when she gets back,” I replied, trying to push past the issue, “for now, why don't we stop talking about these two like they're not standing right there and actually talk to them? Maybe get a few of those answers we're looking for?”

“Right,” Twilight agreed looking slightly abashed. She took a deep breath and faced the other two ponies. She went to speak but paused as her eyes fell on the smaller of the two. She frowned in confusion, looking as if she'd just noticed the filly for the first time. When she actually did speak, her tone was bemused and uncertain. “And... who are you?”

The filly quite literally seemed to come to life at Twilight's question. Up until now her face, like Moon Dancer's, had been completely devoid of emotion. Then the filly blinked once and her entire face lit up with the adorable smile of a healthy, happy foal. Her eyes, once horrifying portals into the infinite black, were now bursting at the seams with life and emotion as she answered.

“I'm Cozy Glow! I've heard so much about you from Lady Luna,” she stepped forward and a look of what I think was supposed to be sympathy crossed her face, “it sounds like you and your human friend have gone through quite a lot, huh?”
“I... I suppose we have, yeah,” Twilight began, taking a step back in surprise. It was clear Cozy Glow's sudden transformation had caught the mare off guard and judging by the look she shot me, she was just as disturbed by it as I was. Her expression was pleading me to help but I just shrugged back at her in response. That earned me a quick glare from the alicorn but she pushed through her frustration and forced a friendly grin as she returned her attention to the creepy little filly. “So, just... how much did Luna tell you? A-About us, I mean?”

And now that I'm thinking about it, when did she even have the time? I thought, but kept the question to myself.

“Oh she told us all kinds of things,” Cozy Glow replied with that same look of not-quite sympathy, “if all goes as Lady Luna hopes, then we may have a chance to retake our world, but yours...” she shook her head sadly, “no matter what happens, you'll never be able to return. Even given what we're going through I can't imagine how that must feel.”

Twilight's forced smile froze at that. Her whole body stiffened and for a moment, I was afraid I'd have to do some emotional damage control. From where I stood, Twilight had been doing an admirable job keeping it together after losing literally everything she ever knew and loved so far—and I knew it wasn't just surface level strength either. Neurotic as she could be, Twilight was a tough mare. The fact that she kept going after what happend to her friends was testament to that.

Still, I also knew there was only so much she could take before the weight of her circumstances broke her. If that happened, we'd both probably be up a creek without a paddle. I wasn't sure what Cozy Glow's deal was, whether or not she thought she was helping, but I didn't like the way things were going. Thankfully—and surprisingly—Moon Dancer chose that moment to jump in before the tension got too thick.

“Cozy Glow!” she hissed, “Do you have any idea how insincere you sound right now?” Apparently, the taller of our two guides had also come to her senses at some point. When she turned to address Twlight, her eyes also had a spark of life in them. She adjusted her perpetually broken glasses with a hoof and flashed Twilight an apologetic smile, “I'm... sorry about her, Even before all this madness started, Cozy Glow was a... troublesome character.”

“Aww, now that wasn't a very nice thing to say,” Cozy Glow replied with an adorable pout she'd clearly been practicing for years, “I was just expressing my sympathy for our guest's awful, awful plight.” She turned her big red eyes on Twilight and tilted her head slightly, “I'm sorry if I caused any offense. I didn't mean anything by what I said. Forgive me?”

Fake. So goddamn fake that it's hurting me physically.

Twilight gave Cozy Glow a look that said volumes about how little she was buying the filly's act. To her credit, she managed to push past Cozy's attitude and focus on the issue at hand. Shaking her head, she ignored the filly and spoke to Moon Dancer instead. “It's fine. More importantly, why are you here, Moony? Why are either of you here? What happened to you?”

“Moony?” Moon Dancer raised a bushy eyebrow over her thick spectacles, “Huh... I suppose you really aren't the Twilight I knew. She never called me anything like that, even when we were foals.”

Twilight looked confused for a moment. She made to speak but then frowned in thought. It only took a second for her to realize something and she gave the other mare a wry half smile before explaining, “Sorry, the Moon Dancer from my Equestria and I were... close. Even after I left Canterlot for Ponyville we still kept in touch through letters and the occasional visit back to the capital. At least until... well...”

She trailed off, leaving the rest understandably unsaid. Her expression had grown somewhat hollow—haunted even. After hearing her account I found myself wondering if there was something more than friendship there. She never once mentioned anything about Moon Dancer when we were living in the library. I didn't know enough to tell for sure and honestly it wasn't any of my business. If she wanted to talk about it, we'd talk but I wouldn't pry.

Moon Dancer—the one standing in front of us—seemed to understand Twilight's pain. She gave a sympathetic nod that was way more sincere than anything Cozy Glow could muster. “I see...” she replied after a moment, “the Moon Dancer of your Equestria was one lucky mare to have a friend like you.” She gave Twilight a hollow grin of her own. “My Equestria's Twilight and I didn't truly become friends until she had her own castle, and even then we didn't see each other much.”

I don't think Twilight was prepared for Moon Dancer's response. The alicorn looked at a loss for what to say, so I figured it was my turn to drop into the conversation. I took a step forward and asked, “So what's your story? How'd you two of all people—er, ponies, wind up working for Luna all the way down here?”

Rather than answer right away, the two would-be guides gave each other sideways glances. They looked uncertain and I was wondering if they were planning to dodge the question when Moon Dancer spoke up, her tone definitely anxious. “We don't mind telling you but...” she paused to adjust the frames that had slipped down her muzzle, “...it's a long story.”

Cozy Glow gave a hesitant nod, all fake sincerity and surface level cuteness gone from her face as she replied next. “I know Lady Luna told us to answer any questions you both might have, but wouldn't a look at all the stuff in the archives serve you better? I'm sure my Lady won't be all that long in taking care of her own business and you may not get another chance to browse through all the information.”

Now it was mine and Twilight's turn to look at each other. I personally didn't mind either way. Whether it was looking through dusty books or getting a firsthand account, we were likely to get a better grasp on the events that led up to this tragedy in either case. I told Twilight as much and she considered my words. After a few seconds of thought, a lightbulb seemed to flicker on in her mind and she turned to Moon Dancer.

“By any chance,” she said with a mix of trepidation and anticipation, “do you know if Luna would allow us access to the journal this Equestria's Twilight kept?”

Neither Moon Dancer nor Cozy Glow answered her question—at least not immediately. The two guides went stiff almost the moment Twilight finished uttering her question. Their expression had once again gone terrifying blank, all life draining from their eyes as if pulled into a singularity. I didn't react outwardly, but the abrupt shift made my heart skip a beat. A sudden and overwhelming feeling of being watched washed over me.

The fuck...?

I cast a quick look around the antechamber out of reflex, but no one was standing behind me or anything. With no one immediately present other than the four of us, I returned my attention to the creepy display in front of me. Twilight hadn't taken her eyes off of the other two so either she didn't feel the same weird sensation I did or she was too preoccupied to notice. Couldn't blame her for that or her startled outburst of “What the hell?!”

No, I couldn't blame her, but I could certainly question her very out-of-character turn of phrase. That's the second time I've heard her talk like that, I thought. I wondered if I should give this weird quirk a bit more consideration. Does she even realize she's doing it? I'll make a mental note to ask her about it later.

The sensation of someone or something watching me only lasted a few seconds and vanished at about the same time Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow snapped back to life. Again. Speaking as if she hadn't just powered down like a damn robot, Moon Dancer finally replied with another apologetic smile. “Sorry, Twilight, but it looks like the journal is still off-limits for now.”

“I... u-um... what?” Twilight blinked a few times as she tried and failed to comprehend their eerie reactions. Before she could go off on a panic fueled rant, I lightly kicked at one of her hind legs to get her attention. I ignored the look of confusion and irritation on her face and shook my head. My desire to move on from all the weirdness had spiked and I'd just gotten an idea—a hopefully better and more productive way to go about all of this.

“How about this?” I exclaimed to everyone present, “why don't we split up? I'll get the story from Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow can take Twilight to the archives to do some research of her own.”

“What? No!” Twilight was the first to shoot the idea down, “I want to hear this just as much as you do, Sal! More even! I need to know what happened. I need to know if I can—”

“I can tell you all about it once we're done,” I cut in, fully turning to face Twilight, “think about it for a minute. We can kill two birds with one stone and besides that, it makes more sense for you to do the reading,” I ticked off the points on my fingers, “you told me back at Golden Oaks that you were a speed reader, so there's that. And—” I glanced over to Moon Dancer to confirm my next point ”—I'm guessing you're the better storyteller of the two of you?”

Moon Dancer tilted her head and frowned for a second as she gave it some thought. She looked over to Cozy Glow and, in a surprising show of humility, Cozy Glow nodded, though she didn't exactly look happy to admit it. I nodded in turn and resumed my attempt to convince a still reluctant Twilight. I knew that she knew it was a decent idea, but her concern for Moon Dancer wouldn't allow her to admit it—or that was my guess anyway.

“There you have it,” I continued, “I can be a good listener when I want to be and Moon Dancer can probably spin a good enough yarn for me to follow. And we'll do the talking in a separate area because I know you by now. I know you don't like being distracted or interrupted when you're studying something. I learned that the hard way back at the library, or do you not remember when you—”

“Alright, alright already! I get it!” Twilight snapped, her face slightly red and a disgruntled scowl marring her expression, “I said I was sorry! Are you ever going to let that go?”

“Nope. So you good with the plan then?”

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Sure, why not?” she groused, “I'll focus on doing what I'm good at and you two can just... just chat the night away like old pals.”

“Yup, that's the plan,” I replied without missing a beat. I ignored the incensed alicorn's indignant spluttering and clapped my hands once. “Alright then! Let's get this ball rolling, people! Moon Dancer, I assume you have a more comfortable place for us to chat? Y'know... like old pals?”

That one actually got a chuckle out of the bespectacled mare. With that, Cozy Glow led a very grumpy Twilight off to one of the sealed off doors and Moon Dancer and I headed to another. I wasn't too worried about Twilight's mood. She'd slip into research mode and forget all about her irritation soon enough. That said, I couldn't say the same when it came to my own worries about Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow.

I was acting like everything was fine now, but I knew there was some kind of fucked up something going on behind the scenes. Call it intuation or years of experience reading horror and dark fantasy stories. All the flags were here and I wasn't looking forward to discussing what we'd found when Twilight and I met back up... or that's what I wanted to tell myself anyway.

The reality was that if I dug deep enough, I could feel a sense of anticipation. I wanted to say it was weird, but I'd felt this kind of quiet excitement before. It was the lead up to the kind of grim fascination I felt whenever I got to the tragedy. It was what drew me to grimdark in the first place. Somewhere deep down, I was waiting for it with a reader's anticipation. Waiting for that moment when everything goes to shit and I could bask in that sweet, sweet catharsis.

As Moon Dancer used some sort of magic to unseal the door we'd stopped in front of, I took a moment to reflect. I recognized what I was feeling and frowned in confusion. The sensation didn't sicken me exactly, but it did cause some concern. I hadn't felt like that in the beginning and certainly not while I was living with Twilight. In fact, this was the first time I could remember feeling this way with regards to my situation.

Is it because I'm about to listen to a story? Maybe, but that'd still be fucked up given this actually happened to someone... right? Why do I suddenly feel so... disconnected?

I huffed out a quiet breath and followed Moon Dancer through the door she'd just unsealed. I couldn't help what I was feeling and didn't know where to begin trying to resolve it or even if the matter needed to be resolved. In the end, as long as my moral compass wasn't being fucked with, I'd just leave it be. I'd keep a mental eye on my emotions but in the meantime I had shit I needed to do and I'd already resolved to man up and do it.

If there were any consequences, I'd deal with them later.

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