Twilight shambled off the last step into the basement of her castle. What once held unlabeled crates and dusty sheets was the Equestrian War Department’s magic and science division. It was clear from the muted din of muttering sorcerers and scholars in the main hall. It was a ramshackle area, too. Desks and tables of varying sizes and types were pushed against the walls, staffed by unicorns Twilight had never met. They wore the customary robes of court wizards—like Starswirl. A tap from Daniel had Twilight bound off before slowing to shuffle through. The desks left little room to maneuver, and several ponies had to siddle by and over one another as they worked.

Their hooves fiddled with alchemy kits or the knobs of scientific machinery, before they scooted over to write on chalkboards. The sight of several books crowding around one another had Twilight grimace. Many were from her personal library. Besides the small tears and needless page folding, she would have to reorganize her books again when she returned from the Wasteland. That was, if she could find a way back.

It had her remember why she came here, and she craned her neck to look over the sea of heads. None bothered to glance at her and Daniel, which had Twilight swell in both pride and relief. She was among fellow scholars, even if they could treat books better. It was a welcome change to passing royal guards in the hallways who eyed her like she was a wastelander until they noticed her wings.

At the far side of the room, where a wall of chalkboards towered over the rest, she spotted Starswirl’s iconic pointed hat.

With all the stress of the day weighing down on her, Twilight had wanted to go to sleep, but anxiety was the biggest hypocrite of them all. It drove Twilight into seeking sleep, only to keep her awake when her head had hit the pillow. She had tried everything. The sheep had been counted, every breathing exercise exhausted, and both sides of her pillow had been warmed from flipping it like a hayburger on the grill so many times.

With sleep eluding her, she had decided to pay Starswirl the Bearded another visit. The first had been shortly after leaving Fluttershy’s cottage, but didn’t last long as he was busy giving Celestia a piece of his mind for her rash decision.

Daniel, who was either not asleep or was a very light sleeper, had leapt off the couch to join her before she had left her bed.

The ancient gray stallion studied one equation next to a diagram of the Everfree Forest, writing a few strings of numbers and letters before roughly erasing them. His ears twitched, and he turned to eye Twilight. The chalk hovering by him in magic drooped.

“Greetings, Twilight,” Starswirl the Bearded said, the movement of his lips hidden behind the voluminous whiskers of his great white beard. “I knew that seven P.M. was a little early to retire for the night. How are you fairing?”

From Twilight’s observances, time was on a similar schedule between each realm. Even down to similar time zones. She had left the Wasteland around the afternoon, about two P.M., and had arrived in Equestria to see the sun in a similar position. She had arrived in Ponyville sometime close to four P.M.

“In hindsight, it was too early,” Twilight replied, sheepishly grinning as she scratched the back of her head. “It’s been a long day, but not long enough to wear me out and get some shuteye. I wanted to come here and talk to you when you weren’t busy with Celestia. Is she still around?”

“She left shortly after you,” Starswirl replied, pointing the chalk to her. “She’s gathering some things to temporarily move here.”

Starswirl then added as Twilight opened her mouth to ask why, “She wants to help fix the damage she caused.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. It was a blunt answer, and had her return to the reason she visited him, waving her hoof idly. “So, do you have an idea on how to get me back to the Wasteland? I had planned for Celestia or Discord to send me back with Daniel, but their method only works because it's a banishment spell. You made the spell, so I thought maybe you had something else in your tomes.”

Starswirl shook his head slowly. “I haven’t had time to devote to looking through my old tomes. I’m busy trying to fix the anomaly. It’s stumping me at every turn, so progress is slow. I’d love to devote time to help you, but I have to stop the random portals first. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Twilight wanted to shout in frustration as Starswirl whipped back around to the chalkboard, tapping his chin. Her friends were still in the other world, and Starswirl was a genius! Couldn’t he devote a little time to getting her back?

“Pardon me, Starswirl?” Daniel asked, distracting Twilight from her anger. He was staring intently at the chalkboard. “Is that how magic is written out? It looks like algebra.”

“Hmm?” Starswirl eyed him as many have the other wastelanders before blinking back at his equation. “Oh, yes. In general, the more complex magical formulas do look algebraic.” Starswirl tapped the chalk onto the board in a simple rhythm as he hummed in thought. He leaned back to look at Daniel. “I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

Starswirl must have been stumped if he was asking Daniel for help, considering Daniel didn’t even know how to use his horn. Glancing at the chalkboard for herself, Twilight couldn’t figure out the issue from a quick look. From what she could tell so far, Starswirl's formulas were perfectly written, balanced, and should’ve had a solution. But the several lines of script all ended in errors. Starswirl was missing something, and Twilight didn’t know if she could solve whatever it was. But she might be able to given time. It wouldn’t have been the first time she completed some of Starswirl’s work.

“Humans built the portal to this world, right?” Daniel said, his unconvinced tone clearly stating he was throwing an idea at the wall to see if it stuck. “We don’t normally have magic, but somehow someone found out how to do it. What we did is probably crude compared to what you’re doing. Like using geometry to solve a subtraction problem.”

“Huh,” Starswirl said softly, his busy beard swishing back and forth as he shifted his jaw side to side. Starswirl levitated an eraser and wiped the old formula off the board.

He set the eraser back down and turned to Daniel.

“It was right under my horn this entire time,” Starswirl admonished himself, shaking his head. “I’ll have to restart my theories from the ground up and run several tests, but using simpler methods means less skilled unicorns can perform the tasks. I can’t get lightning to strike twice by asking you for an idea on how to get Twilight back to the Wasteland, can I?”

“W-what?” Daniel shook his head, gasping. “I was actually right? Okay, um… well.”

Daniel scrunched his muzzle and scratched his chin.

Twilight stood up a little straighter, leaning close. Starswirl tried to hide it, but he rested against one of his hooves to edge closer as well. If Daniel of all ponies could find a solution… well, it would be one more reason to love him.

Daniel hemmed and hawed for several moments, his brows knit in deep concentration, before eventually he explosively exhaled and shook his head.

“I got nothing,” Daniel said, slumping his shoulders and lowering his head. “Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry,” Twilight said, fully meaning her words. Daniel did have something, and it was big. “If your guess about the magic formula pans out, then you just saved a lot of lives by keeping raiders and wasteland creatures out of Equestria.”

It was such a straightforward idea, too. Starswirl had been trying to solve simplicity with complexity, or had been looking at the problem the wrong way. Twilight considered her own predicament with the same mindset Daniel had presented. She was stuck in Equestria, and the only spell that they knew of which could send people to the Wasteland was a banishment spell.

But what if the solution was as simple as Daniel’s suggestion.

“Starswirl,” Twilight said with an excited clop of her hooves. “You said you found Fluttershy’s gang all together, right? Why did they arrive together?”

“The spike-wearing Zebra said she saw the portal open on Fluttershy and Daniel,” Starswirl said. “It stayed open, so she grabbed everyone else in a headlock and jumped through. We’ve already documented several cases of people arriving together because they were holding onto each other or were attached in some way, so it’s not unheard of to us. Why do you ask?”

“Is there a way to trick your banishment spell into thinking I’m from Daniel’s realm? If anyone could modify your spell like that, it would be you,” Twilight said. “Maybe using a native to the other realm and attaching a non-native as a sort of bypass?”

“That’s insane!” Starswirl said, stomping his hoof. “The accuracy would be off by many, many miles. The banishment spell is supposed to safely return whoever it sends within a few miles of the point they left their home plane. Hacking apart the spell and bolting on additions like that imbalances the equations.”

“I didn’t hear anything about it not working,” Twilight said, grinning. “Would it be able to send groups?”

Starswirl grumped, which was a friendly way of saying he was cornered and didn’t want to admit it.

“Y-yes,” he stuttered before regaining his composure. “Theoretically. But I’d only risk one non-native to the other realm in a group at a time, and also keep the group small. The solution is brute forcing a loophole into a spell never designed to do what we want it to do. Adding in too many variables increases the risk of the failsafes failing… ironically. It could send you fifty hooves into the air, or merged with a wall, or just atomise you. I’d feel better sending you and one, maybe two, wastelanders at the most.”

It would mean Fluttershy and her would have to split up again. But Fluttershy could handle herself quite well. And they knew a place where they could regroup, or at least leave a message for each other if some other business needed their attention, that place being Rivet City.

They had a plan, and the thought sent a surge of energy through Twilight. She hopped to turn herself around with a hoof at the ready.

“I’m going to tell Fluttershy about this!” Twilight nearly shouted. Daniel stepped closer, amused but not nearly as energetic as Twilight felt. “It’s not the most ideal, but we have a way back, what do you think?”

“If it means getting back on track to finding my father and your friends, I’ll risk it. I can’t let the trail go cold, so I’d like to leave as soon as possible.”

Twilight didn’t want any of the trails going cold either. It was settled. They were going to go back as soon as possible.

But there was no reason to rush back unprepared.

“Starswirl,” Twilight asked while organizing things in her mind. The organization was already getting out of hoof. “Can I borrow a quill and roll of parchment?”

It was time to make a checklist.

Author's Note

Huge thanks to my editor Superdale33 for co-writing this one as I was feeling under the weather.