Twilight Sparkle stared, bleary-eyed, into the depths of a magically-charged crystal ball that stubbornly refused to show her what she desired it to. To the outside observer, the ball was clear, empty, and casting faint rainbows on the table that originated from a beam of sunlight streaming from a nearby window. To Twilight, it contained a shapeless darkness with vague hints of movement throughout. Fighting against frustration to maintain the detached focus her spell required, Twilight decided to double-check her calculations by changing the target.

Princess Celestia.

The darkness cleared instantly, revealing a scene of Equestria’s beloved mistress of the Sun sitting down for a light lunch in the privacy of her royal suite. The princess started to levitate a watercress sandwich to her mouth, but then paused and looked straight at Twilight, smiling in faint amusement. Her horn glowed gold and the vision clouded over.

Twilight felt a flush of embarrassment at being caught so easily wash over her, and waited for it to pass before trying again.

Pinkie Pie.

Predictably, the scene that appeared was in Sugar Cube Corner, where Pinkie was entertaining the young Cake twins with all manner of strange movements and faces, which the infant unicorn and pegasus were eating up. None of them seemed to realize they were being watched from afar. It seemed the Pinkie Sense didn’t include “somepony’s scrying on me.”

It obviously works well enough within Equestria, Twilight thought, and I managed to get a glimpse of another world at least once before. I think. It wasn’t anyplace I recognized at least, which means it is possible to-

The sound of gong rang through Twilight’s thoughts and broke the spell, and then she brought her focus back to her real surroundings to the sound of Spike announcing, “Break time!” Twilight sighed, but didn’t try to start the spell again or scold Spike for the interruption. The gong, which sat on the desk near the crystal ball, had been placed there by Twilight herself for the exact purpose of being used to break her out of a scrying trance after the space of an hour. “Thanks Spike,” she said, backing away from the desk.

“No problem your highness,” the baby dragon said with a slight teasing tone on the title. “Any luck this time?”

“No,” Twilight said sadly, “and I’m starting to think this might be a dead end after all. I did catch a glimpse of Princess Celestia having lunch though. Is it lunch time now?”

“Yep,” Spike said, “we were going to have it over at Rarity’s today, remember?”

Twilight nodded, smiling both at the wistful look in her assistant’s eyes and the thought of spending some casual time with a friend. Well, as casual as Rarity ever could be with an alicorn at her table.

As Twilight and Spike left the library and walked through town toward the Carousel Boutique, they did so with wariness and deliberation toward not attracting attention. Not that there was any trouble brewing in Ponyville, or that the newest Princess of Equestria was trying to hide the fact of her existence. The latter would have been absolute folly, considering how grand and public her coronation of nearly a year before had been and how prominent she had been in Ponyville even before she’d transcended her old understanding and capabilities in magic and become an alicorn. The problem was that despite her increase in power and status, Twilight was still essentially the same pony inside – more than willing to stand up and intervene if something particularly bad or crazy happened but not willing to stand judgment over some petty concern or problem that the other ponies were quite capable of resolving themselves, thank you very much! That majority of the towns-ponies understood and respected this fact, but there were a few exceptions.

Fortunately, Twilight and Spike reached their destination without being waylaid. Rarity was in high spirits as she invited the pair into her kitchen, on account of having received high praise for some of her latest designs through her Canterlot connections and a stream of orders that had come in as a consequence. “Oh yes, I am simply on Cloud Nine, darlings,” she exulted. “Of course, I know I’ll have had my fill of long nights before too long, but the payoff will be worth every minute. I’ve even received orders from the Crystal Empire, and Fleur de Lis herself. Oh, but don’t let me hog all the conversation; how has your day been, Twilight? You’ve been busy, I presume.”

“I have been trying to find or create a scrying spell that will let me see into other worlds,” Twilight said, “but it hasn’t been going well.”

“Other worlds?” Rarity blinked in confusion. “Why on Equestria would you want to… Oh!” Her mouth dropped open into a little “O” when it dawned on her. “Ash,” she said, “The Order-naries.” Twilight simply nodded. “So you’ve started looking for a way to go to them again,” Rarity said wistfully. “It’s been almost two years Twilight; why the sudden desire to pick that research back up?”

“Because it has been almost two years, Rarity,” Twilight said. “They said they’d come back to visit us occasionally, but we haven’t so much as heard from them in all this time.”

“Do try not to worry so much,” Rarity said soothingly. “They made a promise, and Ashen Blaze is a pony of his word.”

“He’s not even a pony though,” Spike said, a dark cast coming over his features.

“Neither are you, Spike,” Rarity pointed out teasingly. “It could simply be that they haven’t been able to find the time to get away from protecting Taryn from who knows what kind of problems.”

“I’d hope that’s the case,” Twilight said, “but I’d feel a lot easier if I could at least see what they’re up to.”

A thunderous crack rolled through the air, rattling the dishes on the table and causing all three of them to jump with fright. As the echoes faded, Twilight and Rarity met each other’s gaze and shared a slow, ironic smile. “Sounds like your wish has been granted, Twilight,” Rarity said.

“Sounds like,” Twilight agreed, getting up from the table. “Let’s go make sure the town isn’t in a panic over that noise and clear a landing strip for them to use.” Rarity and Spike both nodded and made to follow the lavender alicorn, although Spike did so with some reluctance. The trio had only made it to the kitchen door, however, when a small object flew through the window over the sink and hit the table with enough force to reduce it to splinters.

Fluttershy had just finished lunch and was curling up on her couch to read when the thunderclap struck. She shot up nearly to the ceiling with a frightened squeak, and then flared her wings out to catch herself in the air as her brain caught up with her. There weren’t any rainstorms planned for the day, and the sound hadn’t been that of lightning from a kicked cloud, which left, in Fluttershy’s mind, only one source and reason for it.

“It’s ok,” she called out soothingly to the little animals scattered about the room which, frankly, weren’t behaving altogether worried about a noise that had already passed without repeating. “I’m sure it was nothing to worry about,” Fluttershy continued, “probably just some old friends showing up… unexpectedly.” She alighted on the floor and bent her ears in the direction of her yard, suddenly not so sure of her own conclusion. An old memory told her she was probably supposed to be hearing another sound after the thunderous crack, trailing away as its source moved toward town. That sound was absent. A moment later, Harry the bear stuck his head in the door and roared. “What?” Fluttershy exclaimed. Harry huffed a brief reply and then withdrew his head, clearly expecting Fluttershy to follow. Fluttershy gladly obliged, readying herself for any kind of unexpected disaster. She wasn’t disappointed in that regard.

It was a scene simply dripping with déjà vu: three strikingly familiar ponies were sprawled out, unconscious, on the ground a few feet from the fence around the chicken coop. One was a unicorn, ash-grey in color with a mane and tail of fiery red and orange. The second pony was also a unicorn, of golden-yellow hue and sporting a brown mane. The third was an earth pony, dark brown on brown. There should have been a fourth, a pegasus that matched the second unicorn, but Fluttershy saw no sign of her, which made the situation all the more dire.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” Fluttershy said, prancing in place and looking around nervously. “What should I do? I need to go tell Twilight! Oh, but what if they wake up before we get back? Silly Fluttershy, of course they’ll wake up soon, they’re used to this. Something’s obviously wrong, and it would nice to let them wake up to a familiar face, but Heart’s missing and… Oh!” She turned back toward her cottage and called, “Angel!” The white bunny rabbit poked his head out of the door, and then hopped over to Fluttershy with a bored look on his face. “Angel,” Fluttershy appealed, “you remember Gold Heart, don’t you? Could you please be a dear and put together a little search party to see she landed somewhere else nearby?” Angel made a big show of rubbing his chin, tapping his foot, and thinking. “I’ll give you something special for dinner,” Fluttershy added enticingly. Angel pondered a bit more and then nodded. He hopped away as he stuck a paw in his mouth and whistled shrilly, calling several more bunnies from around the yard.

Satisfied, Fluttershy then turned to Harry, who was still standing nearby, and said, “Keep an eye on these three please. I’m going to go fetch them some water real quick.”

Rarity and Spike both had stars in their eyes as they gazed upon the large diamond, despite the damage it had caused to Rarity’s window and table. Twilight wore a more grim expression as she regarded the gem, and then looked at her companions and said, “Doesn’t this strike you as familiar?”

“Hm?” Rarity said, coming out her trance. “Whatever do you mean, darling?”

“I mean,” Twilight said, “a loud cracking sound comes out of nowhere right around lunch time, followed by a big gem flying in like a meteorite to land nearby.”

Rarity stared blankly at her friend, but before Twilight felt the need to elaborate, comprehension dawned. “You’re right, Twilight!” she exclaimed. “This is remarkably similar to the circumstances surrounding our first meeting with the Order-naries! You don’t suppose..?” she added, eyeing the large diamond with nervous suspicion.

“It couldn’t be,” Twilight said, but her voice betrayed uncertainty as she lifted the gem out of the wreckage of the table, “but… We might as well make sure.” Spike and Rarity gave her plenty of room as she set the diamond down in the floor, stood back, and carefully probed it with her magic. Almost instantly, the gemstone lit up like a lightbulb, and Twilight was hit with a gentle magic feedback that filled her mind with images of pure, sustaining, overwhelming Light. “Gyah!” Twilight cut off her magic abruptly and backed away from the Diamond, her eyes wide with unbelieving shock.

“Is it the real thing, Twi?” Spike asked, “Are they back? Please say it isn’t so! I don’t want to go on a gem diet!”

“That… hopefully won’t be necessary, Spike,” Twilight said. She picked the Diamond up in her magic and floated it over to Rarity. “Lock this up somewhere,” she said, but then changed her mind and brought it back over to her, saying, “On second thought, let’s take it with us. The Order-naries have some questions to answer.” Spike mounted up on Twilight’s back and the two mares galloped out of the Carousel Boutique and toward the town square, which seemed the most likely place for the Order-naries’s transport to be parked. The ponies of Ponyville who were milling about and gossiping nervously calmed slightly at the sight of their local princess running with deliberate purpose through the town and began to follow along in her wake to see what was happening. Twilight, Rarity, and Spike reached their destination with a sizable entourage behind them, but Twilight ignored this as she searched the sky in the direction of the Everfree Forest and Fluttershy’s cottage. There was no sign of what she was looking for, and with a frown she sent a large magical flare into the air as a signal. “Could they have gotten lost?” she wondered aloud.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash called out as she came in for a landing, sliding to a perfect stop right in front of the lavender alicorn and saluting. “I already flew out to where the Everfree portal’s supposed to be, and I didn’t see anything,” she reported. She then spotted the Diamond floating in Twilight’s magic and asked, “What’s that?”

“I’m afraid to guess now,” Twilight said, deeply troubled. “Did you happen to fly over Fluttershy’s?” she asked.

“Nah,” Rainbow said, “I figured if they’d come out that way we’d already know.”

“We heard it breaking open,” Twilight pointed out. “The Everfree portal is too far away for that. Whatever’s going on, I think Fluttershy will be the one to know by now.”

“Right,” Rainbow said, “let’s go.” She took off, leaving Twilight and Rarity to catch up.

They met up with Fluttershy on the road to her house, and the yellow pegasus was inordinately relieved to see them. “Thank goodness,” she panted, whirling right around to run back to her house. “I don’t understand what’s happening,” she said. “I guess I misjudged how quickly they’d wake up, but I never thought they’d go running off.”

“Which way did they go?” Rainbow asked. The group arrived at Fluttershy’s yard, and she led them over to the chicken run, where the bear was sitting and nursing a sore nose.

“I… I’m not sure,” Fluttershy admitted apologetically. “They must have been startled to wake up with Harry standing over them, because they hit him and ran off while he was dazed. At least, that’s the story I got from him.” The bear groaned.

Rarity scratched her head. “Even if the four of them-”

“Three,” Fluttershy cut in. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Rarity simply gave her a curious look and gestured for her to continue. “Well,” Fluttershy said, growing quieter, “There were only… three of them here.”

“Three?” Twilight exclaimed, “Who was missing?”

“Gold Heart,” Fluttershy answered.

“Ah-ha!” Twilight said, grinning. “That might explain it then! Gold Heart and Soul Mage can’t stand to be separated, but for some reason Heart came out into the Everfree Forest while the other three came out here.”

“I didn’t see anypony out in that clearing though,” Rainbow said.

“Did you really look?” Twilight asked. Rainbow started to retort, but then simply closed her mouth and shook her head. “Ok,” Twilight said, resuming her hypothesis, “so they all woke up, Soul went tearing off into the Forest to find Heart, and the others went along to keep him safe.”

“But why didn’t they use that big flying machine of theirs to come here?” Spike asked.

“Only they can answer that, Spike,” Twilight said, levitating the dragon off her back. She pressed the Diamond into his claws and said, “Rainbow and I will try to catch up to them. Spike, you and Rarity go back into town, tell Applejack and Pinkie Pie what’s going on and have them help you keep watch in case they come out of the Forest somewhere without us, and keep a close eye on this Gem. Try not to eat it.”

“If it’s what we think it is,” Spike said drily, “I won’t even lick it. I have no intention of finding out what it’d do to me.”

“Good,” Twilight said, “come on Rainbow.” The pegasus nodded and trotted off at Twilight’s side into the depths of the wild, untamed Everfree Forest.

The trail was fresh and easy to follow, but the quarry was evidently not slowing down for anything, nor did it seem that they’d been hindered much by breaking through the underbrush every so often. After several minutes, Rainbow Dash frowned and glanced up at the canopy of trees. “Something doesn’t feel right,” she said. “Wait a second; I need to check on something.” She flew up through the canopy and Twilight, not wanting to wait or risk getting separated, followed her after a moment. She found Rainbow hovering high above the trees, turning about slowly as she looked for landmarks. “Ah ha, I thought so,” she said, pointing. “They’re not heading toward the clearing under the portal at all. What gives?”

Twilight was at a complete loss, but before she could express that, a flock of birds burst out of the trees in the direction they’d been traveling, accompanied by the roaring of a manticore. With a shared glance and unspoken agreement, the cyan pegasus and lavender alicorn dove toward the source of the sound. The trees reluctantly parted under the power of Twilight’s magic, allowing the pair to swoop in quickly and unscratched to the scene of a battle coming to a quick end. The manticore was casually sweeping aside the body of a brown earth pony mare convulsing from an envenomed wound, and then caught a defiant but uncoordinated grey unicorn under its paw. A short distance away, a golden-yellow unicorn lay unconscious at the foot of a tree, bleeding from a head wound. Rainbow and Twilight both gasped at the sight, and the pegasus put on a burst of speed to try and intercept the manticore’s tail before it could strike. She was a second too late; the stinger-tipped tail flashed down and pierced the pinned unicorn at the base of his neck. With an incoherent cry, Rainbow whirled herself around at the last second and drove both rear legs into the beast’s face, sending it flipping through the air to land a short distance off. Snarling, the Manticore rolled to its feet, spat out a broken fang, and prepared to attack. Twilight struck next, using a little magic to add weight to her kick and dislodging another tooth. Twilight and Rainbow landed next to each other, wings kept spread wide and heads down challengingly. The manticore eyed them for a second, and then turned and slunk off into the woods, grumpy at being denied a meal.

“Whew,” Twilight breathed, relaxing for a second, and then turned around and started taking stock of the damage. In a rush, she conjured up bandages to wrap Soul’s head in, and then looked over Ash and Gale. Both had received a dangerous dose of manticore venom, sending their bodies into seizures and paralyzing all voluntary motion. Twilight bit her lip in worried thought, and then cast a general wellness spell over them that stopped the convulsions, although their eyes remained deliriously blank. “We need to get them to Ponyville General now,” she said, gathering her power for a massive teleport spell.

“What about Gold Heart?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t think she’d be happy if her brother and friends died, Rainbow,” Twilight snapped. “We’ll ask Zecora to help search the forest for her,” she added more gently, “but these three need medical attention now.” A bright magenta light flared around all five ponies, and they vanished from the woods.