The restricted section was a large round room without doors and windows. At least there had been an exit, but it was bricked up. Many ponies had tried to enter this area until Twilight decided to wall it up. Only with her permission ponies were allowed to visit this place, which located meters below the library.

Stralight Glimmer appeared in the center of the room. Of course, with the spell circle beneath her that followed her as she walked on. Sunburst, Tempest and Trixie appeared next to her. They lighted their horns up, because this area was very dark, despite the candles and firefly lamps.

“I’m simply speechless!” shouted Sunburst as he looked at all the dusty books on the shelves. “The Mysteries of the Memory Stone”, “The Three Forces” and “Changelings, Origin and Legacy, Are they aliens?” Wow!”

Twilight appeared on the stairs and trotted down the steps. “I haven’t been here for a while. It’s nice to have a look inside again.”

Sunburst was already delving into several books that he thought might give a clue to Starlight's curse. It was an old volume titled, “Dark Spells of Pre-Equestrian Times.” This one went way back in time.

Starlight looked at some artefacts stored in glass display cases. None of these objects seemed dangerous in any way. But then again, appearances can be deceptive.

Twilight joined Sunburst and started to read some books, too. Since Starlight had nothing better to do, she joined them as well.

Tempest kept the position and helped everyone to find some books. Trixie, on the other hand, kept looking around and yawned. Then she wandered around the rotunda.

Unfortunately, the first search for a clue wasn’t successful. Starlight threw the next finished book onto another stack and rubbed frustrated her head. If only she had the patience of Twilight. She seemed convinced that there must be something, "All it takes is a little hint. Let's split up and everypony take a separate stack. You too Trixie, please!"

Starlight had to admit that this research into the blue wasn’t the best strategy. “Isn’t there some kind of catalogue of the registered books of this archive?” she asked.

“Well, yes,” Twilight answered, “but the mechanical catalogue has not been well maintained for a long time.”

She pointed at an old, dusty machine on the edge of the rotunda. Its rollers were crooked and some of the modules were missing altogether. Somepony had probably tried to run this machine and must have fallen apart. "I've been meaning to get it fixed for a long time, but until now, I've been distracted," she said flushed.

Starlight sighed. Her hoof felt like lead. She had hardly moved it in the last few hours and felt that this wound was slowly spreading. She scratched herself and felt tingling sensation in her joint, as if one of her limbs went to sleep.

“I think, we should take a break,” she finally said as she closed the book of “The well-known curses of Equestria, volume thirty”. “Anyway, I need one, Sunburst, what about you?”

The stallion sat between two stacks of books and looked up. "Just go ahead. I have an essay about the talking rabbit creatures of Rautia. Supposedly they’re only fantasy figures, but some ponies think they have seen some of them. That's really interesting."

“And does it have anything to do with that monster at the school?” Starlight asked mockingly.

Sunburst blushed immediately when he realized how far he had drifted away. “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!”

But Starlight didn’t bother, because she just wanted to move her legs again. She had been in this cellar for what felt like an eternity and it was getting cold. There had to be a draught somewhere, so she decided to look for it. The spell circle followed underneath her like a spotlight in a theatre show. She hoped it would last long enough, because this spell had to drain Twilight’s powers.

“Please don’t go too far, Starlight,” the princess suddenly exclaimed, “or the circle will be broken.” That was true, the luminous structure on the floor slowly faded. But the breeze was coming from the opposite direction. There was only one possibility. She called out to everypony, “I think I have something there!”

She heard the hoof steps of her friends and the spell became stronger again. Starlight walked a few steps ahead and reached a cracked wall from which an icy cold wind whistled through.

She knocked on the wall when her friends found her like that. Twilight shouted in amazement, “Unbelievable! There's actually another room?”

Starlight grinned at her pleased. “You can name this section after me if we find something.

A slight magical blow was enough to cause the wall to crumble. Sand was trickling down on Sunburst and Trixie. “Pff! Watch out or do you wanna bury us all?” shouted the latter fretted. She was probably peeved about all that pointless research.

The big hole gave a view into a natural cave. In the distance they could see rails and angular stone columns.

“Hello, Starlight Glimmer Cave!” yelled Trixie and the echo returned, “Cave… cave…cave…”

Twilight looked around and spoke a little nostalgic, “I recognize this place. These are the crystal caves of Canterlot. This was a mine once. Crystals and gems had made the founders rich. And once I was trapped here with my sister-in-law when Chrysalis had attacked the city …” Twilight stepped into the cave with a light dance and laughed, “My brother’s wedding. That was quite an adventure…”

Starlight remembered the Changeling Queen. “Oh, yes! Right… Chrysalis… If she hadn’t been so stubborn, I could have turned her on our side. I guess reforming our enemies isn’t my strong suit.”

Twilight ran ahead and smiled friendly at Starlight. “There was nothing you could do. The queen had chosen her path, and you had chosen yours. You have no responsibility for the decisions of others.”

As they continued to wander through the cave, the ponies passed a gorge. It was very ominous and no one could tell how deep it went. Tempest looked suspiciously at the darkness. “Be careful, Princess. We don’t know how far this cave extends.”

“Don’t worry,” she replied, “We’ll turn back as soon there’s nothing to see.”

They kept on walking and indeed they found the end of the path. Behind a ledge in front of them there was nothing but darkness.

“Well, that’s it,” Sunburst said disappointed. Twilight narrowed her eyes. Alicorns were known for their good vision and she wasn’t called the Pony of Dawn for nothing. “Wait a minute! Tempest, would you be so kind?”

The captain nodded, she charged her halved horn and shot a glaring spark into the darkness. Like a bright shooting star, the light flew down over a large rock formation. Then it exploded with a muffled “puff!”

All of a sudden the whole cave was illuminated. Crystals that had stored light within came to life. It was as if a whole starry sky had risen in the cavern, so there was much more to see. In front of the ponies, twelve large, dark columns rose from an underground lake. They were all set up in a circle and strange structures glowed on their surfaces. All ponies became big eyes, everyone’s mouth was open, and everyone shuddered before the beauty.

As the flares above the formation slowly sank into the water, Twilight took the floor, “As Princess of Equestria, I hereby rename this area Starlight Cavern.”

Starlight’s heart made a leap. She had expected many things, but this one had been the least likely. She had meant the naming as a little joke, but it just happened. Twilight had simply renamed the cave after her.

Sunburst applauded, “What a fitting name!” Then he stopped and inspected the columns. “What is this, anyway? Is this a temple?”

Twilight also spoke in deep thought, “I guess we’ll have to find that out. I’m not familiar with this architecture.”

Suddenly a deep humming sounded under their hooves. For a moment of shock, they thought the cave was about to collapse. A sloping stone slab rose from the ground next to them. On the surface lay something round and shiny. Sunburst raised his head in surprise and shouted, “Is this a pocket watch?”

Starlight approached the podium carefully. The golden lid of the pendant was decorated by Starlight's six-pointed Cutie-Mark star, as if this jewel had been made just for her.

“What is the meaning of this?” she shouted almost in shock. She opened the watch and found the clock face. “She has no numbers at all. “ She looked at Twilight, hoping for an answer, or at least a hunch.

But she only shook her head. “I have no idea, Starlight. It reminds me of something, but there are so many differences. We have to find out for ourselves… or maybe just you? Who knows?”

Starlight gazed at the empty watch with great skepticism. First her hoof and it seemed that a certain fate was weighing on her, pushing her down without mercy.

Trixie suddenly burst into laughter. It wasn’t her usual hearty cackling. It sounded much deeper and more vicious, “Tehehehe! You found it, not bad, and without a clue. I call that coincidence, nothing but puuure luck!”

The ponies turned their heads confused to the blue mare. She covered her face under her hat. Then she raised her head and showed two yellow, demonic cat-like eyes. “It is just wonderful how you stand in front of the oldest building of all times, completely clueless!”

Starlight has the uncomfortable feeling that this wasn’t Trixie the whole time. “Okay! Who are you?”

The fake Trixie drooled from her mouth and drew a grinning grimace that went far across her face. “Who I am doesn’t matter! I’m here to eliminate Twilight Spaaarkle, and then I’ll destroy you and take the watch with me!”

Tempest jumped in front of the princess and released glistening sparks from her halved horn. “Then you’ll have to get past me first,” she growled.

"Aah, hahaha! Tempest Shadow! The former lap dog of the Storm King! Opened your eyes lately?”

Tempest lost her posture when she heard this and stared at the pony stunned. “But wha…? How did you…”

Then the wrong Trixie let loose a bright yellow energy beam. Twilight jumped in front of the captain. Her eyes glowed bright and thousand little suns shone in her mane. The beam was repelled by a thick shield and yellow sparks sprayed past the princess.

The Trixie imitator grinned happily at Twilight’s demonstration of her power and mocked, “So tough is the Princess of Friendship? But you can’t protect everypony!”

“Enough of this foolish game,” Twilight yelled back. “What have you done with Trixie?” She spread her wings and strode forward in a menacing way, holding the shield steady. Her power became so strong that some loose stones lifted off the rocky ground. Her mane swirled around as if a real storm was blowing.

The fake Trixie laughed in the princess’ face, “Do you wanna know what happens to Starlight Glimmer? She’ll be your downfall; I’ll be your downfall!”

Starlight stepped in between. Her horn was blazing in rage, “What? What do you mean?”

Twilight shouted at her in a furious, half-loud voice, “Out of my way, Starlight!”

That crazy something kept on teasing, “I created a wither pony by resurrecting a corpse, its task was actually simple: Twilight Sparkle has to die. But I must have made a mistake, my wither pony got lost in Ponyville. Luckily, you came along…” He sneered at Starlight. “Actually, the wither pony was supposed to scar Tempest Shadow and then murder Twilight without really wanting to. But Starlight is also a good choice. Now she is bearing the mark, she is slowly becoming a wither pony and nothing, absolutely nothing can stop this transformation. Whoever touches its tongue is doomed to die.”

Starlight’s horn glowed weaker. Her breath stopped and she staggered a little to the side. What had this pony just said? She was slowly turning into a pale creature that she had fought in the school? Something inside her collapsed. Her whole body went limp as if something had cut off her nerves to the brain. This had to be the feeling when someone found out that they were about to die.

A magenta-colored beam whizzed past her and just missed the wrong Trixie. She leapt backwards and reared up, the magic stored in the horn. Twilight moved towards the pony. “You’re lying! Where’s Trixie?” she hissed.

“Tehe, she’ll be fine, she’s in my pocket dimension and sleeps. I will take you down, and then I’ll set her free. Everypony’s going to think Trixie murdered you all, isn’t that funny?”

Starlight somehow managed to free herself from her paralysis. She couldn’t believe what nonsense she heard and yelled out, “Are you an idiot or something? Do you really think it's believable that Trixie would be able to overpower an alicorn?”

With a wicked face the pony laughed at the others and spat on the ground. Its face seemed to melt from its head. “Your fates are sealed, and it doesn’t matter if I die in the process.”

A new pony emerged from this Trixie suit, a stallion with dark red fur and a black, disheveled mane. His demonic eyes were real and no affiliation of the suit. This crazy unicorn had been standing in the throne room the whole time, accompanying Starlight. He was a perfect actor and had fooled them all.

Twilight lifted this pony by levitation and let it float helpless in the air. “All right, my patience is wearing thin! Why are you doing this? Are you the only one who wants to bring me down? Spit it out!”

The pony in the air kept laughing. Starlight and the others knew it wouldn’t say anything. “You may be smart, Twilight. But so are we, and there are many of us. Don’t think everyone loves you just because you’re the Princess of Friendship, your brief era will be over soon. Watch your back!”

He pointed at Starlight. In all the frenzy, the spell had disappeared beneath her. She felt that thing in her hoof again, trying hard to break out. Sunburst wanted to intervene and build a protection wall, but his strength wasn’t enough. Tempest wanted to help, but her horn wasn’t capable of performing such spells.

“Twilight, Sunburst, Tempest! Don’t worry about me, just finish him off!” shouted Starlight in pain. Then she closed her eyes.

Only one last time she heard Sunburst’s scream. “Starlight, DON’T!”

She fell backwards into the depths of the gorge and splashed in the cold water. A high fountain sprayed in all directions.

Sunburst had just reached out his trembling hoof to her. Then he slammed the ground, “NO!”

Sunburst was sitting on the edge and couldn’t believe what Starlight just had done. Tempest tugged at his cape but clung on tight and just wouldn’t leave the cliff. Finally, the captain took him piggyback to carry him to Twilight. Sunburst recognized with watery eyes that the princess had seen it too and her horrified face was unmistakable.

The crazy stallion floating in the air made a confused impression, “Oh, wow! What self-sacrifice! Is that what you taught all your, friends, Twilight?”

The princess twirled her head around with snarling teeth. Her magic seemed less merciful and squeezed him. He began to choke, his insides cracked as Twilight's face darkened further and further. Before she completely crushed him into a ball, she simply threw him on the floor.

She stood in front of the red stallion, which lay there half-crippled and twitching, all his legs broken. Twilight’s thunderous voice echoed, “There is no worthy punishment for you! You used dark magic against my friends. I should turn you into stone and just throw you in the ravine!”

Tempest arrived with the distraught Sunburst and added, "That sounds like a plan, but as a prisoner he's indispensable."

Twilight’s mane and eyes no longer glowed. Instead she just looked at the stallion sadly. He wanted to say something, but he was paralyzed with pain. Twilight used her magic again to dislocate his legs to a normal state. Even though the unpleasant sound of cracking bones could be heard, the stallion did not feel anything. Still he couldn’t move because she had immobilized him up to his head.

“Speak or remain silent, what happens to you afterwards my staff will decide,” she said in a cold, authoritarian voice.

The stallion gasped hoarse, “Me-memento…” His horn glowed and screamed like an overcharged battery.

Tempest and Sunburst went flat on the ground. “Be careful, he’ll…”

In a cry of pain, the lunatic yelled loud, “…MORI!”

He exploded in a red fire ball. Tiny stones flew against the ponies like sharp bullets, but Twilight had built up her magic shield in time.

Sunburst stood up and had to adjust his glasses. Then he stared in bewilderment into the crater where a pony had lain before. “What was that spell?”

“Dark magic again,” Tempest said in a meagre voice, “It can only be learned if you already walk deep in the shadows and refuse to be pure in heart. That pony was lost, Twilight. There was nothing we could do.”

Twilight stared with wide, teary eyes at the small black spot on the floor.

Sunburst sat on the ledge and watched Tempest fire another flare over the lake. Twilight flew with a glowing horn over the water, where the light didn't reach. The crystals on the ceiling had not gone out yet. The cave was so bright and yet there was no sign of Starlight. Sunburst rolled a pebble back and forth under his hooves in deep sorrow.

He heard flapping wings behind him. Twilight had landed and gazed unhappy at the stallion. Sunburst looked even more clouded at the rocks. A deep urge to stay here sprouted inside him, hoping that Starlight would reappear. This mystery of twelve columns before him shimmered over the lake, waiting to be solved. At last he let the pebble rest on the ledge. Then he turned around, heavy hearted, and followed Twilight and Tempest back to the restricted section.

The entrance was a narrow hole at the foot of a circular wall, which was part of the foundation of the library. Right in front of it was a blue unicorn with a white mane without cape and hat lying on the floor.

"It's Trixie!" shouted Sunburst and galloped towards her. He held his hoof under her nostrils and felt a slight warm breath. "Thank Celestia, she's alive," he gasped.

Twilight spoke right away, "At the moment when this stallion died, she must have fallen out of his pocket dimension. Nothing just simply disappears."

They took Trixie into the round room and put her on a provisional book bed, which Twilight quickly assembled with her magic. It had become much cooler in the department, so Twilight covered her with a sheet.

Sunburst sighed as he sat on the floor, "How we will explain to her what happened to Starlight?"

Twilight put some books on the shelf and replied, "First, we're not going to give up hope. Maybe she survived and can find her own way out of the caves."

Sunburst turned to her and said, "Really? Do you think she's still alive? That fall was hard to take."

"She's a unicorn, and a strong one too, you know that." Twilight put the last book on the shelf. "At any rate, I'll send out a search team."

Suddenly Trixie soared up and gasped in confusion. "Huh? Where am I?"

Sunburst was amazed at how quickly she was back on track. Trixie rubbed her eyes and blinked at the ponies several times. She was trapped in this dark pocket dimension for a long time, disorientation wasn’t that surprising.

"Twilight", Trixie's voice sounded dull, "You look much more like Princess Luna..."

Twilight smiled sheepishly and grazed her long neck. Sunburst turned to the awakened one. "I'm so glad you're awake. We have some things to explain."

"Some things?" Trixie chirped skeptical. She raised one eyebrow and looked around. "Everything, where am I, anyway?

Twilight told her everything in detail. The curse in Starlight's hoof, the search for a possible cure, the discovery of the new cave area and of course Starlight's downfall into the lake.

Trixie sat fixed in the book bed and seemed to process the whole thing. Sunburst and Twilight were giving her time. Then finally she said, "This creep followed me down the street. He captured me and I could hear him something mumbling."

Tempest also approached to her. "Something we should know about?"

Trixie tried to remember and scrubbed intimately over her head. "I know he was reading something, and he read it out loud. The Swordshield Brothers... Yeah, I think he was reading something about the Swordshield Brothers!"

"Swordshield," hummed Sunburst and understood a few things. Everypony knew the tragic story of the unicorn brothers. They tried to revive their father who had died during a magic experiment. The result was horrible, both brothers lost their eye sight and were mutilated, and their father... nopony knew. The brothers' house burned down that day and all clues were destroyed.

Sunburst had to conclude something, "Can it be? The stallion told about a wither pony that was created in an attempt at necromancy. The Swordshield Brothers must have tried the same thing and created such a creature in the process."

Twilight continued his theory with horror, "So somepony deliberately performs a failed necromancy to attack me and my friends?"

Trixie watched them both wary, as if she was dealing with two conspiracy theorists. "But wither ponies are just old mare’s tales to warn unicorn foals against dark magic."

Twilight turned to her and sighed in reply, "Well... if Starlight wears this mark and the stallion was talking about it, I guess they're not just horror stories."

Trixie gasped and stared resignedly at her blanket, which was actually a tapestry. „Oh, dear… Starlight... will become a..."

She burst out in sweat and her eyes grew smaller. Then she hugged the tapestry as if it was a cuddly toy and rocked like a little foal that had just heard this scary story. "Is there no cure? We have to do something!"

Sunburst knew that Starlight and Trixie had always gone through thick and thin, they were like siblings mentally.

Twilight reassured Trixie with a calm voice, "We will find a solution, I promise. Starlight is my friend too, and I will do everything possible to save her!"

Trixie smiled thankfully and climbed out of bed so the princess could remove the books as well. Then Twilight gathered everypony around and prepared to teleport out of the restricted section.

Sunburst would miss these books he had read. He knew he couldn't simply borrow them.

A few drops fell on Starlight's forehead and woke her up. The water waves touched her waist so that her fur stood on end with cold.

She rose up and saw nothing for a while. But she knew she was still in the cave. Some crystals glowed in the distance and shone with little light. She sat at the foot of a natural column that had been formed into a small, steep island due to erosion.

She looked down at her dark blue hoof, which was unchanged and no longer throbbed in pain. When Twilight's spell had disappeared, the curse was about to break loose again. Starlight had acted on instinct and jumped into the water.

“Water…” she thought, looking at her reflection in the lake. Then she smiled as she hit on an idea.

"Ha!" she laughed and shook the said foreleg, "Now I know your weakness! How do you like that?"

Something rumbled inside her, but that wasn't her curse. It was her stomach, which called for a good meal.

Starlight looked up and let her horn shine more brightly. Then she recognized a lot of small, furry ears above her. A bunch of bats hung beneath a ledge. When Starlight turned on her light, they had woken up.

Starlight yelped and ducked as the swarm swept over her head. After the small mass panic of the bats was over, she was able to look up again. The animals flew in a said direction, probably towards the exit. So she raised her horn and levitated herself into the air.

She hovered over the water and left the cave column behind her. She gained more and more speed. Like a Pegasus, she flew past the other columns and stalagmites. The turquoise light of her magic surrounded her and reflected on the water surface beneath her. She knew how Rainbow Dash felt when she did her laps in the clear blue sky, a wonderful feeling, no doubt. Starlight had to laugh and dipped her hooves into the water as if she was riding across the lake at full gallop.

She saw the swarm in front of her that she had startled earlier and followed them at safe distance to avoid confusing the animals.

Far ahead she spotted a reflection on the water surface. The stream became faster underneath her. A big waterfall was right in front of her. She saw the sky at the exit of the cave, which had to end on a high cliff. She accelerated and jumped headfirst out of the hole like a skydiver.

She followed the waterfall down and circled it in a downward spiral. The water touched her mane and her back.

Then she turned around so that she could land on solid ground. The waterfall flowed into a lake at the foot of the mountain on which Canterlot laid. Starlight was directly under the city and she could see the airships passing overhead. The magical flight was comforting for her and she had almost forgotten that she was cursed. She was glad to be alive.

She set off for Ponyville and had to think about what to do with this curse. The dark marks on her front leg had grown a bit further. Even though she felt no pain, she was seriously worried.

She decided to teleport. Since she was no longer in a cave, she could do it with ease. It was necessary to have orientation and the known destination. So she concentrated on Ponyville, right in front of her castle.

She disappeared and reappeared in front of the building, Twilight’s former castle in Ponyville, which was not far from the school. It was Starlights home, a residence for students and a tourist attraction.

Starlight opened the big gate and stepped straight through the entrance hall. She might run into some students, as classes were suspended temporarily. She entered the main hall, a large round room with a table in the middle and six seats. It was the teacher’s conference hall.

Starlight's muscles ached as her magic was exhausted and she sat down moaning in her seat. She let some time pass and thought about what had happened. In her mind, she heard the mad unicorn say, "Nothing can stop it..." She thought of this creature at school: A Wither Pony.

When she was a little filly, she went on a trip with her family and Sunburst's family. Over a campfire, they told horror stories about the times when the three pony tribes lived apart from each other.

Starlight recited aloud the end of the story her father had told, "Beware the wither pony, my young filly and colt, don't seek the darkness, or your story remains untold.”

At the time, she had been so afraid of magic that it took a while before she could dare to cast spells again. Therefore, Sunburst had made considerable progress and received his cutie-mark before her.

She shook herself out of her memories and stood up again. She went into the kitchen to raid the fridge. She then prepared her personal sandwich, because after a proper meal she could always think clearly again.

While she was eating, she went back into the conference room. A small bread crumb flew to the floor. Her gaze accidentally landed on the pocket watch she was wearing around her neck. She opened it and still she found a clock face without numbers.

Starlight gazed into her and waited for something while she continued chewing, a glimmer of hope or whatever. Something that might help her, did anything happen? Of course not…

"Useless trash," she smacked in anger and tossed it on the table, which served as a map for all of Equestria.

She wanted to go in her room, but then all of a sudden, something flashed in the corner of her eye. The watch was hovering above the map table, spinning in circles and then it opened its lid. Starlight didn't notice that she had dropped her half-eaten sandwich.

The watch threw sparkling symbols out, which circled chaotically around it. Each of them was different and some of them resembled each other. There was an Aries-shaped symbol, a circular symbol with two horns. There was even a symbol that resembled the equal sign.

Starlight did not cease to be amazed. The lights were reflected in her pupils like a thousand little fireflies. Slowly, she walked towards this spectacle.

The symbols lined up in an ordered circle and continued to dance around the watch. It sank slowly back onto the table, the signs followed and rested on the edge of the map. Starlight tried to touch one of the lights. Then it moved up and floated to a certain point on the map, a mountain that Starlight had never seen before. "What's the meaning of this?" she gasped.

Suddenly she heard voices and footsteps. She rushed onto the table and grabbed the watch. The symbols disappeared just in time when the newcomers arrived. There were six students who had their quarters in this castle. Gallus and Silverstream were also amongst them. They wanted to prepare for their final exams next year, real model students.

A young stallion, named Sandbar, asked in surprise, "Uh... Headmare Starlight? What are you doing on the table?"

Starlight hopped down and cast a temporary invisibility spell on the watch. She didn't want to answer any more questions. "Nothing, I just... took a closer look at the map."

The students didn’t seem very convinced, but they left it that way. They wanted to prepare for the exam and use the map for something. Starlight had allowed everyone to do so, as long the room wasn't being used for conferences.

A young yak lady walked past her and all of a sudden fell down. As she had a natural layer of fat and a shaggy coat, a powerful thud was heard. She looked back and recognized the culprit she had slipped on, Starlight's half-eaten sandwich. Sandbar ran to her and helped her up. "Are you alright, Yona?"

Yona rubbed her chin and the others looked confused at the headmare. She couldn't help but facepalm herself. The tomatoes and cucumbers that Starlight had carefully laid on top of each other were scattered all over the floor. "I'm terribly sorry, Yona," she said sniveling. She would rather cast the invisibility spell on herself.

"It's all right, nothing happened to Yona" said the young yak lady with composure.

Starlight cleaned up the mess by conjuring the slices of bread and the contents to the nearest compost. She had gotten herself into a mess, and Smolder, the dragon girl asked the most awkward question, "Why was there a sandwich lying on the floor?"

Starlight had to come up with an answer, "I thought I'd eaten it already."

Her conscience shouted at her, "You couldn't have thought of anything more stupid!"

Smolder curled her muzzle, Gallus and Silverstream looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“Are you okay?” Sandbar asked.

Starlight laughed up and waved declining, "Ah-haha, everything is alright! Keep on learning! You're doing great!" She quickly left the room before the students could ask anything else.

As they were alone, an embarrassing silence remained. The changeling Ocellus tried to understand the situation, "Is she sick? Her hoof didn't look very healthy."

Smolder tapped her forefinger under her chin and said, "Now that you mention it, I have seen it too. Something’s wrong with her."

"I suspect it has something to do with the incident this morning," Gallus explained. "Silverstream and I found her passed out in the park. When she woke up, she mentioned something about a creature that had attacked her."

"So it's true then?" Smolder asked with interest and leaned her claws on the table.

"Whatever it was," Gallus answered, "she must be after something."

"A sandwich monster, maybe," Yona asked in between.

Smolder laughed and held a claw to her eyes: "Yona, please!"

The other students shared the chuckles, and so they started with their calm studying.

Starlight had overheard them behind the door. Then she turned around and left the castle with mixed feelings. She trotted down the stairs, the watch on her neck reappeared when the magic faded away again. As she walked through the peaceful walkways of Ponyville, she pondered what to do next. In any case, she had to know if the others had managed to defeat this stallion. She counted on it.

After a long stroll she found herself in front of the post office. The building had the well-known post logo, which swayed in the wind as a wooden signboard. Starlight came up with an idea. "I'll just write to her!"

Sending letters to the princess by mail was cumbersome and if she wanted to write on her own, she would have to return to the castle and she didn't want to disturb her faithful students in their studies.

She entered the building and found it empty. At the counter was a silver table bell. Starlight inhaled a delicious fragrance, it smelled like muffins. She knew there was a mare who worked here that loved to eat muffins at lunchtime. She hadn't exchanged many words with her, but she made a nice impression.

She tapped the bell three times fast. It was loud enough to be heard throughout the building. Immediately Starlight heard a rumble and a grey Pegasus mare with a blonde mane dashed through the door. She gave her new customer a polite squint. Starlight greeted her: "Hello, uh... Could you do me a favor? I have to send a telegram to the princess."

The mare nodded and laid the papers ready. She wrote with a pen in her mouth. Most of the non-magic ponies did this and that extremely well. Starlight dictated the message to her:

"Dear Twilight. – I'm still alive. – Hope you're all right, too. – Made it out of the cave and into Ponyville. – Please bring Sunburst to me, and Trixie when she made it, I hope. – I've got to know how you are! – Starlight Glimmer."

She ordered this shipment with extreme urgency and paid the high price with a check. The grey mare folded the message into an envelope and flew out of the window at an impetuous speed. Starlight looked at her as she left the office.