"A long time ago in The Crystal Mountains, lived a group of pegasi who called themselves 'The Servants of Morderath,' a demon known only as an anti-void of pure darkness. He arrived to his Servants after raiding the Zebra Tribes and gave them The Sigils of Power, a collection of inlaid stone runes with powers beyond any's imagination. The leader of the Servants was a sorceress only known today as Fractal.

"Fractal was a power-hungry pegasus and led her Servant comrades into a war against Morderath. They used the Sigils to overthrow his power and imprisoned him on a distant land of which nopony has ever seen or heard of since. As for the Servants, they began to turn to stone after using the Sigils and became frozen in time in their mountain keep of Muthran. Nopony who has ventured there has ever returned."

Twilight finished the tale and Faera just sat there mulling over all the information, and then asked, "How did you even know all that?"

"I have no idea!" Twilight blurted. "It just invaded my head, gosh, I feel like I've just been violated, oh my word.." Twilight clutched her head, massaging her temples.

"If you just got bombarded with information like that after I told you about the Sigils, then something is trying to get me to find them or something!" Fae chuckled skeptically.

"Haha, very funny," Twilight mocked, "but I think there's something more serious going on here. You said you had seen a big glob of black goo, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I think you saw Morderath, Fae." Twilight whispered.

Her eyes widened and she began to panick. "Oh no, oh no, he's loose in Equestria, we have to do something!" She began to pace and mutter to herself.

"And now we have a logical excuse to search for the Sigils!" Twilight hooted.

"Um, excuse me?" Faera asked.

"Did you think I was gonna let you go on your own, you big doofus?" Twilight booped her.

"Ahem, no booping please." Faera rubbed her snoot, and Twilight chuckled sheepishly.

"Right, right, of course, my apologies."

"We might want to start packing if we want to get a headstart on finding those Sigils. Any time we waste is another second that Morderath is exploring Equestria." Fae declared.

"Wise choice." Twilight nodded. "But wouldn't some sleep be beneficial to us as well?"

"Yes, yes, fair enough." She agreed.

The two said their goodnights and went their separate ways to try and receive as much sleep as possible with the amount of time they had left of the night.

---

It was now 8 AM, and Fae was tired. She hadn't gotten much sleep since she had arrived home at 4 in the morning. She had packed everything she may need that morning, and had gone to pick Twilight up, who was currently locking up the library. When she arrived, she saw Twilight waiting patiently outside, with a soft smile on her face. She parked the airship and climbed out to greet her coworker. "Hey, Twilight! You ready to get going?"

"Yup! I got everything we could possibly need!" she called back. She came up to the ship and set down her saddlebags, and started heading back down.

"Hey wait, where are you going?" Faera asked.

"There's lots more stuff inside!" she replied.

Fae groaned and followed her down the stairs. Two suitcases, a cooler, and a small portable bookshelf sat ready to be loaded up. "Well, start grabbing stuff!" Twilight urged.

"Are you sure everything here is stuff we actually need?" Fae asked.

"Yes! We've got a first aid kit," - she pulled down the smaller suitcase - "a bunch of my clothes," - she moved the larger suitcase, which was approximately twice her size - "and a collection of food!" She gestured at the large cooler next to the portable bookshelf.

"And the bookshelf?" Faera inquired.

"The bookshelf has a bunch of survival guides if we crash or something similar." Twilight explained.

"Alrighty, well, to start off, we're ponies, clothing is optional, so you can downsize your amount of clothing," she began, "but other than that, I think you're good."

"Alright, I'll sort through my clothes, and then we can get going. In the meantime, would you mind taking everything else up to your ship?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, sure, just make your sorting quick." Fae replied.

A few minutes later, Twilight had a smaller suitcase about twice the size of the tiny first aid kit. "Alright, I'm ready!" Faera was standing just outside staring off into space toward her airship. Its golden balloon glinted in her eyes, the gondola below an oak compound.

"Twilight?" Fae asked.

"Is something wrong, Fae?" she responded.

"What if we don't make it back? What if one of us die and never return to the world we know?"

"Oh, Faera, you know that's your depression talking. I assure you, everything will be alright." Twilight put a hoof around her friend's shoulder and gave her a small hug. "Now, let's get going. Those Sigils await us!"

They climbed onto the airship and set off northward, the sun shining brightly in the early morning sky.

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