The next morning, after a good breakfast, Lightning Star and Sketch went into the living room and started playing one of the games that the latter found last night. This game was a fighting game featuring superhero and supervillain ponies, similar to Injustice, only with ponies, of course. The two were in the middle of a King of the Hill session, and a new player just joined the group.

“Midnight Mistress?” said Lightning. “Oooh! Scaaaaary!”

“She may very well be,” said Sketch. “Check her stats.”

After pressing a few buttons, Midnight Mistress’s statistics showed up on the screen. The two stallions were shocked to see that this player has had over two hundred matches, and hasn’t lost once.

“Okay, maybe she’s a little scary,” said Lightning. “Good thing I have a few matches before I get to her.”

All of a sudden, the phone rang, and Sketch got up to answer it. “You can play the next few matches while I get that,” he said. He went over to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” he said.

“Hi, Sketch!” said a familiar voice.

“Hey, Twilight. What’s up,” he asked.

“Well, is Lightning Star home, too?” she asked.

“Yeah…” he answered.

“Can you two come over as soon as you can?” she asked. “I’ve found some things that you should see.”

“Sure, we’ll get ready, and we’ll be right over,” he said, and then he hung up the phone.

“Was that Twilight?” asked Lightning. “What did she want?”

“She found something that she wants us to see,” said Sketch. “She wants us to come over as soon as we can, so you need to get ready.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, because I’m already showered and dressed, and I’ve already brushed my teeth after breakfast,” said Sketch. “You, on the other hand, still have that ‘nightclub’ smell on you.”

“But I was just about to fight Midnight Mistress!” he whined.

“Too bad,” said Sketch.

Lightning Star grunted and stomped up the stairs to take a shower. Meanwhile, Sketch quickly types a message to Midnight Mistress.

“Sorry, Mistress. Something important has come up, so I have to leave. I’ll be looking out for you next time I’m online.”

A minute later, Midnight Mistress replied with a friend request.

After Lighting Star got ready, the two stallions left their house to visit their next-door neighbor, Twilight Sparkle.

When they get to the library, Sketch knocks on the door, which was promptly answered. The stallions were confused as to why they didn’t see anypony in front of them, but then they looked down to see a small purple and green dragon.

“Sorry, guys. Library’s closed for the weekend. Twilight’s orders,” he said.

“Spike! Who is that out there?” a familiar voice called out.

“Just two stallions, Twilight. No big deal,” the dragon responded.

“Twilight! It’s us, Lightning and Sketch!” Lightning called out.

The alicorn’s head then popped out of a nearby hallway. “Oh! It’s you two!” she says excitedly. “Come in, we have much to discuss.”

The two stallions enter the library and follow Twilight down the hallway she popped out of. The hallway led to a room that was unfamiliar to both Lightning and Sketch. “That’s weird,” whispered Lightning to his friend. “I’ve never seen this room in the show.”

“Twilight,” Sketch said to the alicorn, “did you have this room installed recently? It looks relatively new.”

“Oh yes,” she said. “I got it made a while after my coronation. I only come down here when I need to do some intense private research.”

“There’s your explanation,” Sketch whispered to Lightning.

“So, remember when you guys told me that you were from a parallel universe?” she asked, and the stallions nodded their heads. “Well, I’ve been looking through the library’s archives, and I’ve found several books about universal theories. I haven’t looked through any of them yet, and I thought that you guys would want to help me find something about how you got here to Equestria.”

“We have to… look through books…” Lightning said unenthusiastically. He never was one for doing research, so this didn’t seem too exciting.

“Don’t mind him,” said Sketch. “If this means finding out how we were brought here, we’re prepared to do this.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Twilight said happily.

The three ponies got to work, looking through the books that Twilight had picked out, there were about fifteen of them, and they had to look through them thoroughly, which was gonna take a while, so Twilight decided to make conversation.

“So, how have you two been adjusting to Ponyville, so far?” she asked.

“Pretty good,” said Lightning.

“Applejack told me that you’ve been helping out at the farm, Lightning,” she said to the pegasus, “and Rarity told me that you’ve been helping out as a design consultant, Sketch,” she said to the unicorn.

“Yep,” he answered. “It’s actually not so bad living here.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” said Twilight, “if you like living here, why do you want to go home so badly?”

Lightning’s ears perked and he shook his head at the alicorn. Sketch was still a little touchy about the idea of staying in Equestria forever. Twilight then realized that she just crossed a line that she shouldn’t have. Sketch, in the meantime, stayed quiet, his back turned to the other two ponies.

“I’m sorry, Sketch I shouldn’t have-”

“No, it’s fine,” said the unicorn. “I’m still not sure if I want to stay here or not, but I still want to know how Lightning and I got here, this is less about getting home and more about having closure.”

“I see,” said Twilight. “Still, I should have been more sensitive…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, turning to the mare with a smile on his face. “Let’s get back to work.”

After a few minutes of silence, Twilight decides to start up another conversation. “So… Pinkie Pie called me earlier at about midnight while I was looking for these books,” she said. “She told me that you took her out on a date, Lightning.”

“She did?” the pegasus asked excitedly. “What did she say?”

“She said that she had a really great time, and she’s looking forward to going out with you again,” Twilight answers. “Do you like her?”

“Like her?” Sketch said. “He’s practically obsessed with her. After she agreed to go out with him, he wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“Piss off!” said Lightning.

“Well, Applejack called me earlier that same night and said that she went out to dinner with you, Sketch,” said Twilight. “She said that she enjoyed getting to know you, and she might ask you out again.”

The unicorn blushes, while Lightning Star lets out a chuckle.

After a good while, all hope seemed to be lost, but then Sketch found something very interesting.

“Guys, I think I found something very interesting,” he said. Twilight and Lightning gather around him and look at the book the unicorn had in his hands.

“It’s something called the Dimension Orb,” he said. “It’s some kind of spell that transports beings across dimensions, but that’s all it says.”

“Look at the bottom,” said Twilight. “It says more information can be found in a book called Dimension Spanning Spells, but the only copy of the book that I know of is in the Canterlot library.”

“Then it looks like we’re heading to Canterlot,” said Lightning Star.