Evidently Pinkie had had enough of waiting around for me and Starlight to catch up, because her suspicious scowl deepened and she began trotting over to where we were. Maud followed closely behind her sister, her expression as impassive as ever.

Leaving Starlight to process her current predicament for the moment, I turned to fully face the approaching Pie sisters. I didn't quite know what I wanted to say to them, and Pinkie's unnervingly grim frown was making me more nervous by the second. Eventually I just decided to give voice to my most immediate concern.

I forced a smile on my face and reminded myself that this wasn't the Pinkie I knew. In all honesty I found it wasn't really that hard to do, given how different this one seemed.

"Thanks for saving us from those stallions," I called out, "I'm not sure what we would've done if the two of you hadn't shown up when you did... but... um..." my smile faltered and fell as my eyes flicked towards the unmoving stallion, "that stallion—Sandpit I think his name was... d-did you—"

"He's still alive if that's what you're wondering, I just knocked him out," came Pinkie's sudden curt reply as she stopped in front of me. She looked me up and down before narrowing her eyes, "but what you would care if he wasn't? He and his lackey tried to sell you into slavery."

Oh thank Celestia...

"I know, I realize that," I replied, breathing a quiet sigh of relief, "I'd just... rather not have anypony die is all. Not if I can help it," I suppressed a shiver at the resulting sneer Pinkie gave me and gave her a stern frown in response, "they don't deserve that much. I've talked with them and I don't think they're bad stallions, I just think they made some bad decisions during a desperate time in their lives."

Pinkie's brow furrowed and her mouth fell slightly open in silent disbelief.

"...What?"

My frown wavered and doubt began to seep into my expression at the low dangerous tone in Pinkie's voice. As Pinkie took a sudden threatening step forward my frown vanished completely, replaced by fear and shock. Her cold blue eyes bore into mine and I took a startled step back as she advanced.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" the pink mare nearly whispered, "of course somepony like you doesn't know. 'Oh, they just made a bad decision'," she snorted in contempt, "let me tell you something, princess..."

She jerked her head in the direction of the unconscious stallion behind her.

"...those stallions are bad. I don't care what they told you, and frankly you're an idiot for believing anything they say in the first place," she gave Sandpit a scathing glare for a few seconds before turning back to me, "I don't know what life is like wherever you came from, but I can tell you what life is like for a slavepony."

I swallowed nervously, not liking at all where the conversation was headed. I cast a quick glance behind me to see that Starlight was watching us silently. To my slight surprise she looked just as troubled as I felt, but it appeared she didn't have anything to say on the matter just yet.

"There is no actual slavery in Equestria, only slavers and pony traffickers," Pinkie continued, "they capture ponies from all over the country and sell them off to clients for a huge profit; those clients take them out of Equestria and they're never seen again," she leaned in close and smiled a horrible smile that lacked any sort of mirth, "...but I know what happens after that. Do you wanna know what happens to ponies who get sold into slavery, princess? Do you wanna know what Maud and I really saved you from?"

"Pinkie."

Pinkie frowned and turned to Maud, who in turn shook her head and stepped forward. The pink mare looked like she wanted to argue something, but relented instead and settled for a silent glare in my direction before stepping back to let her sister talk.

"My name is Maudileena Daisy Pie and this is my younger sister, Pinkamena Diane Pie. You can call us Maud and Pinkie if it's easier," Maud began tonelessly. She nodded to her sister and turned back to me, "I apologize for Pinkie's behavior, but both she and I feel very strongly on this matter," her gaze slid over to the overturned wagon and the empty cages, "this is a very personal situation for both of us."

"Maud, we don't have to tell them anything," Pinkie interjected. She stepped up next to Maud and frowned at me before addressing her sister again, "I got what we needed out of that stallion, so let's just go. We're wasting time as it is."

Maud eyed Pinkie passively for a moment, then looked back to me, then to the stallions they'd attacked. For a minute I thought she'd say something against it, but she returning her half-lidded gaze to Pinkie and gave a single slow nod.

"W-Wait!" I cried, taking a step forward as the two of them turned to leave. They both stopped and looked at me; Maud with a dull frown and Pinkie with an irritated grimace. I winced and retreated back to where I'd stood before, "I don't really know what's going on, and you don't have to tell me what you're going through, but just... tell me one thing before you go."

"Ugh... fine," Pinkie groaned in annoyance, "but no promises."

"The trafficking," I began hesitantly, "how... just how long has this been going on? Why hasn't Cel... why hasn't the Queen done anything about it? Does she even know?"

"We don't know exactly how long pony trafficking has been around," Maud replied, "but we do know it's been going on since at least before the Princess became Queen Daybreaker. The Queen already knew about it, but hadn't really made any progress in stamping it out until recently."

"Not like it's done a lot of good yet," Pinkie snorted, "most pony traffickers are smart enough to stay far out of the Queen's reach," she glanced back at Sandpit with a vindictive smirk, "...most of them."

Too lost in my own thoughts, I failed to respond and simply stood there in stunned silence. Back in the Equestria I'd come from, trafficking and slavery had long since been a thing of the distant past, but somehow it had managed to survive here.

But why? What makes this Equestria so different? What changed? How was this allowed to happen under Celestia's rule?

I couldn't fathom how it was possible, but I had to remind myself yet again that this wasn't my Equestria and that this Celestia wasn't my Celestia. The only consolation I could take from this news was that Daybreaker was apparently taking measures to quell the problem.

Maybe Daybreaker isn't as bad as I thought?

I still had my doubts, but if she was trying to rid Equestria of something so horrible, then she couldn't be all bad. Right then and there I resolved to try and speak with Daybreaker if I ever got the chance; before that possible conversation could happen though, I needed to find Spike and the other Twilight.

And I guess getting back home to my own timeline is more important...

I knew finding the others and getting home were top priorities, but the problems I'd stumbled upon here in this Equestria were quickly piling up and beginning to get to me. I found myself wanting to help Sandpit and Ghost Pepper turn their lives around, I wanted to help Pinkie regain her bright smile, I wanted to help do something about the trafficking, I wanted to talk to Daybreaker.

I was starting to want so many things beyond just finding the others and going home.

"Well we told you what we know, so we're leaving," came Pinkie's voice from much further away than it had been a moment ago. I looked up from where I was staring at my hooves to see the two earth ponies had already trotted a good distance away. Pinkie gave one last look back and gave that same unpleasant smirk from before, "try not to get captured again, princess!"

Watching the two mares go, I had a sudden, almost overpowering desire to follow after them. I wanted to know where they were headed, what they were planning to do. In the end, I just stood there biting my lip with worry and staring after them as they disappeared down the path.

It wasn't long before I heard hoofsteps from behind me, and a moment later, Starlight quietly appeared beside me. We both stood there in silence for a few seconds before Starlight finally spoke up, her voice oddly quiet.

"I thought you were gonna charge after them," she began, turning to me with a small frown, "yelling to take you with them. Thought you were gonna spout some nonsense about Friendship and working together to solve your problems," she jerked her head towards the road, "the pink one was your friend, right?"

"No, Starlight," I replied with a heavy, melancholic sigh, "she may have been Pinkie, but she wasn't my friend, and as much as I want to help them, none of what they're going through is my business," I fully turned to face Starlight, my expression as grim and determined as I could make it, "we need to find out what happened to the others so we can get back to our own timeline."

"Wow, that's... surprisingly pragmatic of you," Starlight commented with an impressed raise of her brow. Her brow furrowed a second later as what I said sank in, "wait... what do you mean... others. I know that little purple dragon was with you..."

Her eyes slowly widened in horrified realization and she took a step back from me.

"You said you didn't know what happened to that... that thing that looked like you," she muttered, staring at me with terror in her eyes, "d-don't tell me you actually took her with us when you cast the spell?"

I winced and looked away.

"I'm sorry, Starlight... I know what she did to you was horrible," I began, giving the other mare a pleading look, "but I don't think she's bad. She's just... been through a lot, and it changed her."

"No," Starlight replied, slowly shaking her head as she took yet another step back. She visibly shivered and her voice grew shaky with fear, "nononono... I don't know what in Tartarus you were thinking, Twilight Sparkle, but I'm not going near that thing... not again."

"Starlight, please!" I practically begged, "she did the same thing to me!"

That gave Starlight some pause, though she still looked as though she wanted to flee. Seeing that, I pressed on before she could say anything else or make any sudden moves.

"After you went catatonic, she approached me," I explained in a somewhat more measured tone, "she said something about me holding the answers to the depths of your sins and... and then she did something. I didn't see it, but I assume it was the same thing that happened to you."

"And you still want to take her with you back to our timeline?!" Starlight nearly shrieked, "that thing must've scrambled your brains worse than it did mine," she shook her head once and stomped a hoof into the dirt, "I'm going to have nightmares about that freak!"

"She's not a freak!" I shouted back, unable to help myself. I took a second to calm down and continued in a softer tone, "I... when she probed my mind... when she looked into my memories, I kind of... saw hers," I looked Starlight in the eye, "that was the Twilight Sparkle of that timeline, and while I don't exactly know how she became what she is now, I know she's suffered far worse than any creature should ever have to."

"You're insane!" Starlight snapped back, "I don't care if it used to be Celestia herself! Whatever it might've been, Its nothing but a monster now!"

Anger I hadn't even noticed was building up inside me suddenly bubbled to the surface. I stomped my own hoof and glared back at the pale pink mare with undisguised frustration.

"Her entire world was destroyed, Starlight!" I hissed through gritted teeth, "as far as I could tell, there was nopony left except for her and the other Princesses," the anger faded from my voice as I thought about the other Twilight's predicament, "...and they were all driven mad with despair and turned into monsters. The only one left was the other Twilight... she had to endure all of that alone, and in the end..."

An image of Pinkie Pie came unbidden to my mind, her struggling form desperately and futilely trying to breathe through a crushed throat. I shivered and tried to push the thoughts back to the deeper recesses of my memory, and found it harder to do so. Perhaps it was because I'd run into Pinkie herself, but I couldn't quite blot out that horrible memory, so I distracted myself by speaking to Starlight instead.

"I know you have every reason to be scared of the other me," I began, turning back to a contemplative looking Starlight, "I know you don't agree with me, but I couldn't just leave her there in that place. My friends and I, we can help her; we can give her a better life than what she had. I know we can."

"Ugh, more friendship?" Starlight groaned in irritation, though I noticed her heart didn't seem to be in it, "not everything can be magically resolved with kind words and holding hooves and... and singing songs," she took a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh before looking me in the eye, "if... if what you're saying is true—a-and I'm not saying it is or that I care—but if it was, then she'd need more than just friendship to fix her. A lot more."

"I know that," I muttered, "I know it's going to take a massive effort to help her, but I still think my friends and I can do it," I matched her serious expression with my own determined frown, "friendship alone might not be enough, but its a good start. That said, I think I need all the help I can get if I want to help my other self," I held out a hoof to Starlight, a hopeful smile crossing my face, "so what do you say, Starlight... will you help me? Please?"

For a long uncomfortable moment, Starlight didn't move; she simply stood there staring at me with a slight frown. She looked from me, to the offered hoof and her frown deepened before she looked back to me again.

"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" she asked, to which I answered with a quiet shake of my head. She nodded once and spoke again, "okay, so what would you do if I said no? I could travel back to our timeline on my own, you know. I don't owe you anything, Twilight—"

"That's not true, Starlight," I interjected, lowering my hoof back to the ground. I was both relieved at the out the other mare had given me and uncomfortable for taking advantage of it, "while I'm aware that it doesn't really help my case for the other Twilight, I did save you from being eaten by her, so yes, you do owe me for at least that much."

Starlight opened her mouth to argue the point, but that simple fact couldn't be argued against. I had put the lives of myself and Spike at risk to save Starlight's own life, and as much as she wanted to deny it, that was something that couldn't be ignored, not even by her. Her mouth hung slightly open, but no words came, and in that silence I took the opportunity to speak again.

"I want your help, Starlight, but more than that, I want us to be friends, I want us to see eye to eye," I tried, giving her the most reassuring smile I could, "I want to understand you and what you have against cutie marks, but before any of that can happen, we need to get back home. All of us... together."

The pale pink mare grit her teeth and glared at me, but I could see that her eyes were full of indecision. She stayed that way for a good few moments before startling me with a loud, wordless cry of frustration, after which she sank to her haunches and gave a tired groan of defeat and resignation.

"Starlight?" I asked, taking a tentative step towards the mare, "are you... okay?"

"I feel like an idiot," she finally muttered before giving me a sullen, bitter stare, "you want to know why I did all of this? Why I tried to create a society of ponies without cutie marks? Why I went through the trouble of traveling through time to get my revenge? Why I despise your friendship so much?"

I didn't reply.

We both knew she was going to tell me regardless, and I had no need or desire to ruin her moment by saying anything in response. Sure enough, she let out a humorless chuckle and shook her head before speaking again.

"It was because my best friend got his cutie mark and moved away when we were both still foals," she continued, "I was hurt, I was angry, I was bitter. I felt like he'd moved on, forgot about me and left me all alone. I never heard from him again, but looking back on it, that was as much my fault as it was his."

"You never tried to reach out to him, and he never got back in touch with you," I surmised, moving closer and sitting down next to the despondent mare, "I made the same mistake with some old friends of mine from Canterlot, and it tore me apart when I realized how much I'd neglected my old friendships in favor of the ones I'd made in Ponyville."

"And I bet you went rushing back to Canterlot to make it up to them, right?" Starlight asked with a roll of her eyes, "knowing you, you probably went to some ridiculous lengths to win back their friendship."

"Well, most of them forgave me pretty easily," I replied, my idle gaze on the path ahead as I thought back to Moondancer, "but there was one pony who I'd hurt far more than I realized. It took a lot of effort, but in the end, we managed to make up and become friends again."

"Figures," Starlight muttered, "must've been nice, getting your friend back. I don't even know where mine is right now," she sighed again and followed my gaze down the road, "everything I've done up until now, all of my ridiculous plans seem so stupid when I stop to really think about them.

"I isolated myself from others after Sunburst left, so there wasn't really anypony around to tell me how dumb my ambitions were. I didn't confide in anypony; I had nothing and nopony to put things into any kind of perspective other than my own... until now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, before my eyebrows raised in realization, "wait... are you talking about the other me?"

Starlight nodded.

"I don't... really have a reason not to believe you about what happened to that... to the other Twilight," she conceded, "and compared to what happened to her—what happened to that entire world, my problems and vengeance suddenly seem horribly shallow and foalish.

"Not only that, but when she... did whatever she did to me, I saw my life flashing before my eyes. I remembered all of my plans, saw what I'd done to the ponies in that town, saw what I'd done to you and your friends, and relived what we'd gone through in the past."

"And... you felt bad?" I guessed, to which Starlight shook her head.

"I was angry," she replied, much to my dismay, "I still felt justified in what I was doing and what I'd already done. I was prepared to fight against you for a literal eternity if it meant you'd lose the friendships you'd made," she suddenly gave a visible shudder and her voice grew slightly shaky, "but... but then I heard the other Twilight's voice somewhere in all of the madness."

"You did?" I asked, surprised, "when she got into my head, I didn't hear her say anything."

"Count yourself lucky then," Starlight replied with a grimace, "she spoke to me, told me things about myself and who I was—things I didn't even know. She read me like a book and what she said to me... it hurt," she winced, "eventually I couldn't take it anymore and... I don't know what happened next. The rest is a big blank."

"Oh, I'm... sorry to hear that," I said, unsure of what to say, "and... how do you feel now?"

"I don't know, Twilight," she answered with another heavy sigh, "I really don't know anymore. I realize how stupid I was being, but it doesn't make me feel any better about you, the other Twilight, or our current predicament. If anything I feel worse, and I still don't want to see her again."

We were both silent for a moment, each of us lost in our own thoughts. At the very least, Starlight had acknowledged her mistakes and that a was huge step in the right direction. Now I just had to convince her to come with me somehow, but I was running out of ideas.

"Hey," I tried, "can I ask you something?"

"Oh sweet Celestia, I think I feel a headache coming on," Starlight groaned, rubbing at her temples, "what is it now?"

"You said you could leave at any time, and I don't doubt that you could," I pointed out with a bemused frown, "but why didn't you? If you were that terrified of meeting the other Twilight again, why didn't you just cast the spell to take you back to our timeline?"

"I don't know, okay?!" she snapped before wincing and rubbing her temples again, "I just... I don't know."

I stared at her for another long moment, going over my options. She frowned when she turned and saw me looking at her.

"What?"

I decided to ask one more time.

"Starlight... come with me."

"Oh for the love of—are you serious?" she cried, her eyes rolling up to the sky in exasperation, "Twilight, I don't. Want. To see that freakish mare again!"

"She won't do anything to you," I promised, "I swear she won't. I'll make sure of it."

"And what can you do?" Starlight challenged, "you saw her for yourself; you saw how powerful she was. What could you possibly do if she decides to snack on me like a pack of hayfries?"

"I can talk her down," I answered simply. She scoffed at that, but I ignored it and continued on, "Starlight, she's not some mindless brute who can't be reasoned with. I already convinced her once to spare you, and she already agreed to do so. She won't hurt you, please just trust me on this—"

"FINE!"

I took a startled step back at the sudden outburst and Starlight jabbed a hoof in my direction. Her eyes were wide and angry; her voice was loud, and her words weren't exactly what I wanted to hear, but...

"I'll go with you, I'll help you find that monster," she spat, "but know this, Twilight Sparkle... I know you. I know that if something happens to me because of this, it'll eat you up from the inside out. If you still want to risk that, then by all means, let's go find our little lost lamb."

"I... I understand," I replied, somewhat shaken by her words but still resolute in my decision, "thank you, Starlight. You won't regret this, and neither will I. I know it."

"We'll see about that," she snorted, "now where do we go?"

Despite her less than stellar attitude, a small smile still found its way across my face. As I took one last look back towards the stallions who'd captured us I remembered everything I'd heard from Pinkie and Maud. My smile fell as I wondered where the two were headed and what they'd planned to do. I wondered if I'd see them again at some point.

If the others are where I think they are, it's highly unlikely.

I let out a quiet sigh and turned back to Starlight.

"If this trip into another timeline is like the others, then they'll probably be somewhere around Ponyville," I explained, "I'm not sure how long we've been here, and they might've moved on already, but that's really the only lead we have right now."

"They might not have even crossed over with us," Starlight pointed out, "we all should've ended up in the same place, but apparently we didn't so who's to say they weren't left behind or something?"

"They're here," I said with absolute certainty, "I know they made it. Once we reach Ponyville we can ask around, see if anypony has seen anything."

"That's a great plan and all," Starlight replied before gesturing to all of me, "but do you really think it's a good idea to go around as an alicorn?"

"Ah," I answered, looking myself over, "you might have a point. Best not to stir up any more trouble while we're here..."

I furrowed my brow in concentration and my horn flashed to life. An instant later my wings vanished, hidden beneath a static illusion that rendered me a simple unicorn to everypony else. Satisfied that the glamour would hold I turned back to Starlight with a wide smile.

"There, that should do it. Now let's get going, shall we?"

Next Chapter: Here's to Finding Oneself Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 36 Minutes