I hadn't yet recovered from the shock of seeing Pinkie in this light when a choked cough snapped me out of my stunned stupor. I focused my attention back on Sandpit as he gave a ragged gasp and glared up at the angry pink mare atop him, his teeth grit in pain and frustration.

"W-What the buck?" he gasped, "there... there wasn't supposed to be anypony... a-anypony on this—ngh... this road!"

Pinkie said nothing in response, merely narrowing her eyes and pressing her hoof deeper into his chest and making him grunt in pain. She turned and cast a glance towards the wagon, finally taking notice of me and the fact that I was still chained up in a cage. Her eyes briefly widened in surprise beneath her flowing pink curtain of a mane, but she quickly stifled the expression behind a mask of indifference.

"Maud!" she cried out suddenly as she returned a venomous gaze to Sandpit, "get that cage open!"

Maud?

I didn't have time to dwell on the name before hearing a cry that was suddenly cut off somewhere behind me. I turned and saw the grey earth pony mare moving away from a now unconscious—or at least I hoped that was the case—Ghost Pepper. Upon closer inspection, I could see that it was indeed Pinkie's older sister, though she was missing her trademark frock.

"What?! N-No!" came Sandpit's desperate, angry reply, "that purple nag is our ticket outta all this! If you think I'm just gonna—"

I winced at the sound of Pinkie's hoof slamming into the stallion's face and the muffled grunt that followed. I hadn't missed what Sandpit had said before that however, and my mind latched onto one thing.

"He... doesn't want to do this?" I muttered to myself in surprise, "he's... neither of them are doing this because they want to?"

I thought back on the conversation from earlier and how much harder life seemed to be since the Celestia of this timeline had taken the moniker of Queen Daybreaker. If the two slavers were to be believed, them being forced into this kind of life may not have been such a far-fetched idea, but still...

No, that doesn't absolve them of the crime of selling a pony's life away. They chose to do this when there were no doubt, several other paths they could've chosen. I'm sure there were...

"Just shut up for a minute!" Pinkie growled in the stallion's face before turning back to the wagon, "Maud, the cage?"

"I've got it, Pinkie."

A deafening screech of metal from directly behind me made me shriek and slam myself against the opposite side of the cage. I watched in both shock and fascination as Maud pried to the bars of my cage further and further apart with her hooves, to the point that I thought they'd snap right off.

It took me a moment, but I regained my composure and began thinking of a way to help make the process easier. My eyes fell on the padded lock on the door of the cage, and I frowned thoughtfully.

If she's strong enough to bend such high quality metal with only her bare hooves...

"I appreciate the help, really... but, um..." I pointed to the padded lock, "wouldn't it be easier just to break the lock on the door?"

Maud paused in her work and stared at me impassively for a moment. I smiled and shrugged awkwardly in response, and her gaze slowly moved from me, to the lock in question. Without a word, she let go of the bars and smashed a hoof into the lock, causing it to dent, but not to break. She hit it again with a bit more force and the lock popped off, falling to the ground below in two pieces.

The force of the blow caused the door to creak open, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief at almost having been freed. That relief was short lived when I thought about just how the mare was going to get both my chains and the horn ring off. As she stepped into the cage and reached for my chains, I held up my hooves.

"Wait," I said before raising a hoof as high as I could and gesturing towards my horn, "if you can get this horn ring off, I can do the rest, though I don't know how it works exactly, so you might have to—"

"It won't be a problem," Maud interjected in a dull tone as she reached for the ring, "I can handle something like this."

I reflexively clenched my eyes shut as she pressed a hoof on the ring. When nothing happened I peeked an eye open curiously before snapping them both open as I felt her hoof twist sharply. With a surprisingly loud snap, the ring fell to pieces on the floor of the cage.

I gasped in shock as the mana came rushing back into my horn like a river bursting through a dam. My horn sparked and flashed with pent up magic, and, thinking quickly, I cast the first spell I could think of. With a thought, I increased the size of the shackles and wing clamps binding me.

Because of the excess magic however, they grew a bit larger than I had intended and Maud was forced to scramble back out of the cage as the chained shackles took up most of the space.

Embarrassed by my blunder, I apologized as I stepped out of the enlarged shackles—the wing clamps having already fallen off with loud, metallic clangs. Wasting no time, I quickly stepped out of the cage and stretched my wings, wincing slightly as they cramped up from being bound so tightly.

"Thanks for that," I replied gratefully, "now I can... wait," I looked around in concern, "where's the other cage? Where's Starlight?" I hopped off the side of the wagon and moved around to the back, spotting Starlight's cage further back along the trail, "Starlight! Oh sweet Celestia please tell me she's okay..."

I nodded my thanks to Maud once more before lighting up my horn and disappearing in a magenta flash. I reappeared an instant later next to Starlight's cage, and looked her over worriedly. I breathed an audible sigh of relief a moment later when I saw that she was still breathing and that there were no additional injuries aside from the ones she'd sustained at the hooves of the two slavers.

"Thank Celestia," I muttered, "she's still alive and... wait..."

I paused and my ears twitched slightly as I heard a soft groan coming from the mare. My eyes widened along with my smile as Starlight began to stir.

"Starlight!" I cried, leaning against the cage, "Starlight, can you hear me?"

Her only response was to groan again and wince as she tried to shift her position. I frowned and looked her over, gauging her condition. She was trying to regain consciousness, but couldn't quite seem to manage it, and her hooves were still bound, most likely making movement difficult and painful given her injuries.

Then I noticed the horn ring, and my frown deepened.

With Starlight's magic blocked like that, it could be interfering with her mental recovery. I should probably take care of that before moving her out of the cage...

"Do you need some help?"

I turned to see that Maud had made her way over to where I was and was watching me with that same impassive expression from before. I blinked and looked from her to Pinkie in the distance. The pink mare was leaning in close to the stallion and it looked as though she was saying something, though she was speaking so quietly I couldn't hear her.

If the stallion's terrified expression was anything to go by, whatever Pinkie was saying must not have been pleasant to hear. I grimaced and looked away, returning my attention to Maud.

"No, I think I've got it from here," I finally replied with an appreciative, if somewhat strained smile, "just... give me a minute."

Maud simply nodded and turned away, trotting toward her sister and Sandpit. I watched her go for a moment before focusing my magic into a spell and aiming it at the lock on Starlight's cage. The padded lock clicked open and I pulled it away before telekinetically swinging the door open and stepping inside.

My first thought was to simply teleport Starlight out of the cage, but that would've been dangerous with the horn ring still attached. It could've interfered with the spell and caused a nasty reaction, such as her horn being separated from the rest of her.

I shuddered at the thought as I examined the ring on Starlight's horn. I reached out and touched it with my magic, only for it to slip off the ring. I hummed aloud and reached out with a hoof instead, feeling around for some sort of mechanism to unlock it.

"How did Maud do it?" I muttered, "maybe if I just..."

I pulled upward and, to my surprise, the horn ring came right off with very little effort on my part. I sat there for a moment staring at the inert ring in my hoof with a puzzled expression, but was soon distracted by another groan from Starlight. I quickly cast the ring aside in favor of checking on Starlight's well-being.

The mare's horn lit up with a cyan glow briefly before flickering out, after which Starlight jolted suddenly with a sharp gasp. The aura continued to flicker and spark for another few moments, the mare groaning and whimpering in pain. It was clear the build up of mana was affecting her differently than it did me.

I had more mana by far, but as an alicorn, my body could handle a large amount of mana build up. Starlight, who was a powerful unicorn in her own right, seemed to have more mana than her body could regulate at that moment.

It wasn't a problem normally, but the horn rings that were used to bind our magic didn't allow mana to flow properly, a careless mistake which quashed what little sympathy I had for the two slavers. In this case I had little choice but to siphon off what I could, as Starlight was in no shape to cast any spells herself.

"Starlight?" I repeated, stepping back a bit as her horn sparked weakly, "sorry, but this is gonna sting a bit..."

With that, my own horn blazed to life, and I took a deep breath before adding another layer of magic to my horn, this one the cyan color of Starlight's magic. Like a magnet, Starlight's mana was drawn into my own horn, the transfer causing the pale pink mare to wince and twitch in discomfort.

This spell was something I learned a long time ago, and I hated the fact that I had to use it. It wasn't something Celestia had ever taught me, and I'd never had to, nor had I ever wanted to use it, at least until now. Still, I had learned it specifically for this very purpose.

It was this very same mana siphoning spell that Celestia herself had used to rid me of the excess mana I had released as a foal during that fateful exam. Celestia didn't even know I knew about it, and I never told her I'd learned it on my own just in case something like this happened again.

Watching Starlight now, writhing around in discomfort like this, I knew now why Celestia had given me that apologetic smile after all was said done, I knew why she never told me, and I also remember feeling the same way back then, though I hadn't found out why until much later.

I didn't fault her for it—it had to be done or something much worse would've happened, but that didn't mean I didn't feel horrible subjecting Starlight to the spell. I continued to reflect on these thoughts for another moment or two until I noticed Starlight's expression begin to settle into something more peaceful, after which I cut off the spell.

I used the additional mana I'd drained to rapidly rust and break the shackles around Starlight's legs. That done, I used my own magic to lessen the pain from her wounds, thanking Celestia that the most she suffered were some nasty bruises. I could heal a few of her lesser injuries, but without the aid of the magical devices used in hospitals and the like, that was the most I could do for the moment.

There is another way to heal all of her wounds...

I frowned at the traitorous thought, casting it aside as Starlight finally opened her eyes. I smiled as she turned to me, and went to ask again how she was, but her ragged scream of terror cut me off. Startled, I scrambled back just as she did, though she had pushed herself back against the bars, her wide, horrified eyes locked on mine.

"Starlight! Starlight!" I cried, trying to make myself heard over her shrieking, "it's okay! It's me, the Twilight from your timeline! I'm not her! You're safe now!"

Her eyes were wild and panicked, darting this way and that as she scanned her surroundings—no doubt looking for a way out of this situation, but she'd stopped screaming at least. She breathed hard as she turned her fearful gaze back to me, and to my relief, she seemed to actually stop and take in my appearance.

I gave her the most reassuring smile I could, though her reaction had shaken me more than I wanted to admit.

"It's okay now," I said in what I hoped was a calming tone, "she's... the other Twilight isn't here. We're not in that horrible place anymore, Starlight," my smile dropped slightly, "we're... somewhere else now."

Starlight eyed for several seconds without saying anything, her expression not changing from fear and panic, to fear and confusion as she once more took in her surroundings. After another moment she visibly shuddered, swallowed, and turned back to me before finally speaking.

"W-What happened?" she croaked, "where... w-where are we, Twilight Sparkle? Why am I in a cage?" as she spoke, her composure began to return, though her fear was quickly giving way to anger as she sat upright, "what did you... what did that... that... thing do to me?!" she ground her teeth and shook her head once before stomping a hoof, "what in Celestia's name is going on here?!"

I couldn't bring myself to meet her glare, and looked away as I replied.

"It's... complicated, Starlight," I nearly whispered, "I don't really know exactly what happened—I'm still trying to sort things out myself, both about what happened before and what's happening now," I turned back to look her in the eye, "but I promise I'll try to explain what I can in a moment. Right now we need to..."

I looked over to where the wagon was, and noticed, with a start, that both Pinkie and Maud were watching the two of us from a distance. I couldn't read either mare's face from where I was, but further behind, I could see that Sandpit was no longer moving and my heart skipped a beat.

Oh, Pinkie... please don't tell me you—

"I need to know what's going on, right now, Twilight Sparkle," came Starlight's strained voice. I returned my attention to her and saw that she had followed my gaze, a hard frown on her face as she stared back at the other two mares, "what happened and where are we now?"

I opened my mouth, shut it, and looked back over to the other two before hanging my head and letting out a tired sigh.

"I used Starswirl's time spell to get us back home, but..." I grimaced, "...something went wrong and we wound up here," I replied dully, "I don't know what happened directly after that, but when I woke up, we were both in cages, captured by slavers."

At that, Starlight whipped around to face me, her eyes wide with shock. I continued speaking as she sat there in a stunned silence.

"They were going to sell us off, but they—" I nodded towards Pinkie and Maud, "—ambushed the slavers and freed me. I just freed you, and that's more or less all I know regarding our current situation. I don't know what happened to Spike or the other Twilight, and as for where we are..."

I turned my gaze skyward, squinting in the merciless sunlight, then cast a furtive glance towards Pinkie Pie, who was watching me with narrowed eyes and a suspicious frown. I let out another long sigh before returning my gaze to Starlight.

"We made it out of that horrible wasteland... but we didn't quite make it home."

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