With a piercing whistle blast, the Iron Princess coasted into Coltstantinople’s train station. As the doors to the train cars rattled open, a prismatic blur shot out into the bright afternoon sky.

“Freeeeedom! Oh man, it feels great to stretch my wings again!” Rainbow Dash shouted, doing a rapid series of corkscrew spirals and aerial backflips.

As she and the rest of her friends filed out of the train, Twilight turned around to address Smoke Stack and Coal Soot.

“Are you sure you can spare this much Smoke Stack? Really, I’m sure we’ll be fine withou-”

Smoke Stack cleared his throat loudly, neatly derailing Twilight’s third attempt to refuse Smoke Stack's reimbursement of her travel fare. “Ah, oh, excuse me Miss Twilight, didn’t mean to interrupt you,” Smoke Stack said, poorly concealed insincerity lurking behind a mischievous smile, “but I think I left the steam engine on. We’ll be right here when you’re all set to go home, take care, buh-bye!”

With an air of finality, the door to the train car slid closed, leaving Twilight to gape at the brightly painted wood. Well, gape and listen to Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack laugh themselves half to death.

“Hehe, ah, it’s so funny because he was lying to us! Ahahaha, and if we can’t keep Twilight from falling into madness and corruption, heh, a simple steam engine explosion would be a good way to go, ha!” Pinkie Pie continued to laugh hysterically, rolling around on the dusty stonework of the train station platform as her friends edged away slightly.

“Um, Pinkie, you might wanna get up sugercube. Someponies are startin’ to look mighty worried about you.” Applejack stage whispered, nudging the out of breath earth pony with one hoof.

Rarity and Fluttershy had their hooves full waving away questioning frowns and smiling in a faintly reassuring fashion, while Rainbow Dash did a quick circuit in the rafters above the station. As Pinkie Pie slowly recovered her breath, Twilight took a moment to look around.

The station was both weathered with age and clearly well preserved; despite the many chips and cracks in the masonry Twilight saw nothing worrying. Rather than give the station an aura of disrepair, the sand worn stonework instead radiated a sort of solidarity. Twilight couldn't help but think of the station as 'real', and try as she might the adjective stuck.

The train station was on the top of a hill, and Twilight was able to see almost the whole capitol. A monolithic palace rose from the center of the city, casting a collection of homes in shadow as it blotted out the sun. Roads flowed like arteries from the palace, swerving throughout the rest of Coltstantinople. In the blistering midday sun, Twilight only saw a few dedicated travelers; everypony else having the good sense to stay indoors and wait out the worst of the heat.

"Ahem, Lady Sparkle?"

Twilight whipped about with a strangled shriek of surprise, the reddish brown coated stallion in a black butler's coat had crept up behind here without even a whisper of noise. The earth pony twitched his finely waxed mustache in a muted show of shock, taking a careful step back to give the hyperventilating purple unicorn some breathing room.

"Twi, what's wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked, falling out of the air to land with a quiet thump next to Twilight, injured leg still held to her chest. Her other friends followed the prismatic speedster at a more sedate pace, taking the time to seize the group's collective luggage.

"I'm fine Rainbow, I was just startled when Mister. . . um" Twilight looked the stallion over once more, trying to seize onto something that would let her know who exactly this was, and why he knew her name. The bundle of majestic yellow silk laying across his back did nothing to jog her memory, nor did the wafting smoke cloud he possessed for a cutie mark.

"Ah, my most sincere apologies Lady Sparkle," said the butler, bowing his head briefly, "I am Chain Censer, seneschal for the prince of Saddle Arabia. My master bade me to wait at the station for your arrival, Lady Sparkle."

Rarity reached over and gently closed Twilight's gaping mouth as her friend struggled to process what they had just been told. "Pardon us Mr. Censer, but Twilight has had quite a dreadful few days recently, I hope you can overlook it if she seems out of sorts. Oh, how rude of me, I am Rarity, a fashionista from Ponyville and one of Twilight's friends." Rarity bowed with easy grace, a gesture that Chain Censer reciprocated. "These are Twilight's other friends. That's Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Flutteryshy, and Rainbow Dash," Rarity said, pointing to each of her friends in order.

With the fires of excitement kindling in her eyes, Rarity breathlessly gushed, "Now, if you'll excuse my bluntness, I simply must know where you procured such a lovely sample of Yellow King silk; I've struggled for simply ages to get my hooves on even a single bolt of it." Sidling up to the butler, Rarity did her best to mask the envy in her tone. "I'm sure you're well aware of the restrictions on its sale and the length of the waiting list as new fabric is made available. I'd be more than happy to buy any surplus you may have ... laying around."

As Rarity reached out to caress the silk bundle on Chain Censer's back, the silk wiggled slightly and let out a string of muted mumbles. Yowling like a scalded cat, Rarity leapt back into the waiting hooves of Pinkie Pie.

"Whoa, the silk can talk?! No wonder it's rare! Hey, does it know any good jokes?" Pinkie Pie quipped, balancing perfectly on her hind legs with Rarity clinging to her neck. Her winning smile did little to dispel either Chain Censer's frown or her friends collective facehoof moment.

Chain Censer coughed into one hoof, seemingly unconcerned as the silk on slung across his back continued to shift and wiggle. "No, Yellow King silk cannot speak Ms. Pie, it just so happens that the robes of state my master must wear have not yet been tailored to his specifications." Chain Censer said, slowly sitting down so as to let the silk swaddled youth slide down off his back. With wobbly legs, the young pony stood up and slowly limped over to lean against Chain Censer's shoulder.

Despite fussing over the way the rare silk robes obscured every feature of the colt, Chain Censer intoned with almost a ritualistic cadence, "May I present to you the ruler of Saddle Arabia, Prince Able Hazard."

* * *

As Chain Censer gently lifted back the silken hood, Twilight heard an very quiet, but uniquely unearthly shriek. Tears leapt to her eyes unbidden, and her heart resumed a thundering pace, greater or equal to when Chain Censer spooked her. Twilight knew that scream, because who wouldn't recognize their own voice?

"Oh no . . . Sparks, what have I done?" Twilight rasped to herself, grief and horror overwhelming her speaking spell. Shocked at how rough and bitter her own voice sounded, Twilight quickly looked around, dreading to see which of her friends she had just induced panic in.

Fortune would have it that her friends had all crowded closer to see the freshly unveiled prince, which left Chain Censer the unenviable task of keeping Pinkie Pie from hugging royalty. It was clear that collectively next to no attention was being spared for Twilight, something that suited the purple unicorn just fine at that moment.

Scooting further back from her friends (pen pal or otherwise), Twilight began to channel her magic once more. There was no spell that Twilight was aware of that would let her reach Sparks while she remained awake, but to delve into her own dreams would expose her to whatever Sparks was . . . fighting? Fleeing? Whatever she was doing, it wasn't going well for Sparks, Twilight noted as she dabbed the blood from her nose. The psychostigmatism was worsening rapidly, as the wounds suffered within her own mind continued manifesting as bodily harm.

Twilight shifted and shaped her magic, summoning complex arrays of magical seals and symbols to her minds eye, trying to fit the components she needed together so that she could save Sparks. As chills began to wrack her body, and bruises bloomed beneath her coat, Twilight felt her mouth twist into a silent snarl. With a pop of displaced air, the Neighcronomicon blinked into view, borne aloft on a cloud of magical energy. Twilight didn't have time for her ignorance; whatever price she paid later would be worth saving herself now.

"Give me what I need." Twilight thought, reaching out with her mind and her magic, pouring her power into the Neighcronomicon. Vivid sigils of emerald fire and yellow smoke spiraled around the book as knowledge was sent cascading into the Twilight's mind, as well as a surge of pure magical energy. The screams of terror from onlookers and the cries of dismay from her friends gave Twilight only the slightest pause; she had herself to save.

"Trust me," Twilight said in her own voice, looking at her friends with eyes that shined with unholy light. Twilight tried her best to smile for them, though she suspected the blood that spilled from her mouth and down her neck didn't help. Pushing her new found power as hard as she dared, Twilight cast the spell provided by the Neighcronomicon.

With the sound of a soul being ripped in two and the flash of a star's birth, Twilight Sparkle broke reality over her horn.

* * *

Pain. Sparks understood pain. She was the guardian of Twilight's pains, doing what she could to provide relief for her other self. The snark, the sass, and the ridicule she had offered Twilight was a long time coming, but not for an instant did Sparks want Twilight to toss her aside.

"Who knew she'd hate the idea of raves and clubbin' that much? All study and no party makes Twi a dull pony, and Sparks a bored one." Sparks groused as she propped herself up, the grit and sand surrounding her not exactly what she wanted in her coat right now.

Sparks knew many kinds of pain. The emotional pains of isolation (no matter how hard Twilight would deny them), or the pain of her fears and worries twisting her guts into knots. The physical pains of days with next to no food, of nights without sleep, of freaking horn aches because of all that stupid note taking.

"I mean, granted, those weeks did lead to Twi figuring out the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco in advance but would it have killed her to eat and sleep like a normal pony? Or even eat and sleep by university standards, it's not that much to ask for!" Sparks paused her monologue to crack her neck with deft twists of her hooves. The crack and pop of her joints was truly cringe worthy, Sparks always felt it was a shame nopony could ever hear it.

"Ugh, darling, please don't do that! It's bad enough when Applejack or Rainbow crackle like that, but I never suspected you would too!" The dulcet tones of Rarity's voice made Sparks pause, her next point about how Twilight really needs to mare up and talk to Fluttershy dying on her tongue.

As the dust cloud she had been sitting in started to dissipate, Sparks realized that all the pains she had felt were not like the one barely a minute past.

Because neither Twilight or Sparks had never felt the pain of birth. Sparks had all of Twilight's memories at her beck and call, she had even looked for the pain of birth on a morbid whim one night. Sparks began hyperventilating, her pupils all but vanishing as she stared wide eyed at Twilight's friends started making their way toward their friend's voice.

Of course it had been Sparks talking, the proper Twilight was out cold from the magical backlash. Clutched in her hooves was the Neighcronomicon, the cover of which resembled a set of dice tumbling through the air, symbols of death, life, success, and failure instead of numbers etched into each side. Sparks shot a glance over her shoulder before leaning in toward Twilight. The sight of herself, of the damage Twilight had sustained to save her grounded Sparks, who took a moment to spit out the sand she had accidentally inhaled as she wound herself up for a proper panic attack.

Leaning down, Sparks addressed the Neighcronomicon directly. "Listen to me you bucking scrapbook, if you hurt Twi any more than you already have I will roast marshmallows using your spine for kindling." Sparks glared at the eldritch book, watching as the image of cast dice change, shifting to tell her if the Neighcronomicon agreed with her. That the cover of the Neighcronomicon became the image of an alicorn sneering, laughing from behind one hoof did not endear the mystical tome to Sparks.

Motes of light shed from Sparks' horn as she slowly readied the spell that Twilight had only learned to light the occasional candle. Well, not quite that spell given that the magical flame that floated above Sparks' horn was easily the size of one of Apple Acre's "Grade A+" apples.

"So you cut-rate penny-dreadful, do you think Pinkie Pie will be willing to lend me a few marshmallows?" Now it was Sparks' turn to sneer as the cover of the Neighcronomicon rapidly blurred, becoming an image of the same alicorn waving a white flag. "Smart move," grunted Sparks as she let the miniature fireball dissipate. Turning around, Sparks had enough time to take two slow, deep breaths before the haze of grit and sand finally parted, revealing the still unconscious Twilight and herself to Twilight's friends, Able Hazard, and Chain Censer.

They stopped, goggle eyed at the sudden appearance of a near perfect twin to their friend. Even Chain Censer, who had only showed the most muted signs of emotion, all but had his jaw resting on the floor of the station. Fluttershy had fainted dead away, and Rarity seemed to only stave off a similar fate because there was no proper place for a lady to faint on the gritty stone floor of the train station. The young Prince Able Hazard, by contrast, seemed delighted by Spark's appearance, his bright sea-foam green eyes shining like tiny stars.

Sparks realized that in this moment, it was up to her to calm Twilight's friends, to let everypony know that things were okay.

"She's not dead and it's not my fault!!" Sparks shouted at the top of her lungs, the beginnings of hysteria creeping into her voice as the severity of Twilight's (and her own) injuries announced themselves through Sparks' already frayed nervous system. Raw agony washed through Sparks as whatever spell Twilight cast finally finished its task. Such a shame the last item on the To Do List had apparently been setting up Sparks' pain receptors.

As her vision darkened and unconsciousness swooped in to claim yet another purple unicorn that day, Sparks saw Twilight's friends rush over, concern in their eyes and the need to help all but radiating off them like the rays of the sun. Feeling her legs buckle, Sparks fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut, while she whispered to herself, "totally nailed it . . ."

Author's Note

I am never making predictions about how long it'll be til the next update. Ever.
If I do, assume that I'm lying or am being stupidly optimistic. . . or maybe I'm just stupid.
Constructive comments and restrained praise are delightful; but at this point, not expected.