In Canterlot, deep inside the royal palace, an alicorn and a dragon were alone in one of its many chambers. The chamber itself was large, easily able to hold twenty ponies comfortably. But right now, it was mostly empty, save for a full length mirror and several boxes of scrolls.

The baby dragon paced back and forth in front of Celestia’s mirror. It’d been eleven days since Twilight and Rainbow Dash had gone missing, and the little dragon hadn’t stopped blaming himself since. He had returned to the library that day—eleven days ago—to find it… empty.

There had been worry, concern, and anguish. He had quadruple checked all of Twilight’s checklists three times; she wasn’t scheduled to go anywhere that day. Twilight should’ve been home, working on the portal. She had promptly cleared all her tasks off her schedule that day specifically for that purpose.

Worried beyond belief, Spike had immediately went to Rarity. The most beautiful mare in all of Equestria had told him it was nothing, and that Twilight must have had some last minute shopping she needed to get done. Such platitudes—even from Rarity—did nothing to calm his nerves.

Rarity, in a show of consolidation to the baby dragon, said she’d investigate the matter personally. Drawing on the investigative style of the Adventures of Shadow Shade mystery novels she loved so much, Rarity set off to search the castle.

The evidence Rarity found was well… it warranted an urgent letter to Princess Celestia, and a gathering of all their friends. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were gone. All the evidence noted something diabolical had happened to them. The smoking remains of the device Twilight had created to open the mirror was the final nail in the coffin.

That was eleven days ago; since then, they’d moved the mirror to Canterlot and everyday Princesses Luna, Cadance, and Celestia would take it in turns to scour the different universes the portal connected to. They could scan without going through, looking for some sign of the missing alicorn’s power.

It was not a simple task, much like trying to find a microscopic piece of hay in a needlestack as big as a planet. However, just because the task was nigh-on hopeless didn’t mean they wouldn’t try.

The room had been full the first week. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, and Shining Armor had all crowded together, hoping that each day would be the day in which their two missing friends came home. But with each passing hour their hope began to wither as no new information was received.

They all had the best of intentions; but, mostly, they were just getting in the way and annoyed the three alicorns that were searching for their missing princess and friend. This got even more obvious as mere minutes would pass by and they’d start offering ‘advice and suggestions’ on how to find her. Which were basically summarized as “look harder” or “look in the right places” or in Applejack’s case, “Maybe yer doin’ it wrong”.

Their separate responsibilities meant that they couldn’t wait forever. After a full week, Applejack had no choice but to get back to her farm. Rarity went next, going back to her shop. Fluttershy, Shining Armor and Pinkie Pie both wanted to stay longer, but the princesses promised them they’d let them know as soon as they had anything to report. It was that or the princesses would try and duplicate the accident using them as test subjects.

But there was one little dragon that wouldn’t leave, not even with an offer to stay with his beloved. He paced back and forth in front of the Princess of Love as she channeled her beam of magic into the mirror. His small size meant he couldn’t possibly get in the way; still, it wasn’t exactly a safe place to be.

“Spike, I know you’re worried, but please don’t pace so close to the mirror,” Cadance said as she augmented her magic ever so slightly to scan a new universe.

“Huh?” Spike asked as he paused to look up at her. There was a scroll hovering next to her with a quill that wrote several numbers down. The three princesses had taken it in turns to scan the multiverse; and while the danger was minimal, that didn’t mean there wasn’t any.

They had learned that lesson the hard way.

“You know it’s dangerous, Spike. You can’t be so close to the mirror like that,” Cadance said.

“I can’t help it, Cadance,” he stated, eyeing the alicorn and then turning his attention to the portal. “I just… I’m just so worried about her. Last time we went in there it was crazy! I can’t imagine her going in there without me.” Tears started falling from the young dragon’s eyes. Of all of them, even Twilight’s brother, Spike had taken her disappearance the hardest.

Cadance couldn’t stand to see the dragon so heartbroken. Placing the scoll down, she picked up the dragon in her magic and brought him in for a deep hug. “We all miss her, Spike. All of us, and we’re not going to stop searching until we find her.”

“What if we never find her? What if she’s… she’s…” The dragon’s words were coming out in breaks, his throat horse, his tears flowing freely into the pink alicorn’s coat.

“We will find her, Spike. I simply know it.”

“H-h-h-how?”

“I can feel it. In my heart. I just know we’ll find her,” Cadance said. It wasn’t exactly false, she did feel it in her heart that they’d find her, even if her head told her something else.

He mumbled his next words through a few tears. “I wish our friends could’ve stayed.”

“Me too, Spike. Me too.” Cadance placed the dragon down and went back to her task at hoof. It was the equivalent of counting up to a million, only for that to be one number in a much bigger count. Even after eleven days, they had only checked two thousand different universes, some with... odd results.

“Anything new?” The familiar question came, just like it always did at this time of day. Cadance didn’t even need to look back to know that Luna and Celestia had just walked into the door.

“No, Auntie Celestia, nothing new to report,” Cadance said with a sigh. If I did find her, I would’ve sent fireworks into the sky. Or had a very long lecture with my sister-in-law about toying with inter-dimensional portals and then let everyone know she was safe. Yeah, I’d do that.

“Same as always then,” Celestia said in a tone of voice that said she expected that answer, but was disappointed all the same.

Cadance rolled her eyes at Celestia’s words. Her aunt’s passive aggressiveness was a little wearing at times, even for her. They had all felt the loss of Twilight: Cadance’s sister-in-law, Celestia’s student, the same.

“Thou can ignore our sister, she is still mad that we did not record the location of the cake universe we discovered during our first night,” Luna said sleepily.

“I am not mad about that, Luna. I was upset that you weren’t keeping track of what locations you were searching.”

“Sure you weren’t,” Luna said through a grin, and then yawned.

“Auntie, you should go to bed. You’ve been awake all night, it’s past your bedtime,” Cadance said with a smile.

“We are fine,” Luna yawned again, much to everypony’s amusement. “Twilight Sparkle is our friend, as is Rainbow Dash. We know our shift starts after our sister’s, but we wanted to check, just in case.”

Just like every day, she’s as worried as the rest of us, Cadance thought.

“Besides, we have a… feeling about today,” Luna stated, causing everyone in the room to stare at her.

“What do you mean, Princess Luna?” Spike asked, shocked. Any information or feeling somepony had was enough to get the young dragon’s hopes up, but he knew that with the situation Twilight was in nopony could be certain about anything. So in the end he just listened quietly to what she had to say.

“The dreams we’ve been having of late, they,” Luna paused. “It’s hard to explain, but today feels different, like we should expect something to happen. We believe it is their return.”

“We can’t know that for sure,” Celestia replied. “Besides, I think you just want to stay awake because you’re still sore over the fact that I didn’t wake you up when the firebeast came through the portal.”

“We agreed to a certain arrangement, Sister,” Luna chided her, eyes glaring in anger.

“Um, Auntie Luna, Auntie Celestia’s the one that get’s premonitions, right?” Cadance asked.

Luna stomped her hoof on the floor. “Do not change the subject! We agreed that if any foul beast came through the portal we’d alert each other.”

“Luna, I—”

“Stop!” Cadance yelled, grabbing everypony and dragon’s attention in the room. Three sets of eyes turned her way.

“Cadance, what is it?” Celestia asked.

“I feel her,” Cadance said as she concentrated more power on the portal. “I can feel… Twilight, her magic! She must have found a way to send us a signal. It’s not very strong, but maybe if we help...”

Luna and Celestia both quit their bickering and focused their magic on the portal. “She’s… she’s right,” Celestia said.

“We have to open the portal all the way, quickly,” Cadance said, causing Celestia and Luna to go to her side. All three of them charged their horns and powered the portal.

Whatever changes that Twilight had been making on the portal, she had yet to finish them. The plans were meticulously laid out in exacting detail, of course; but since the young princess had failed, Celestia hadn’t tried to finish her work. Twilight had missed something that caused all of this to happen in the first place. As such, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance simply used their magic to change the destination location of the portal, just as Starswirl had taught Celestia all those years ago.

The portal was draining on their power, but nopony knew how long it would take to try and duplicate what Twilight had done; or, more precisely, how to find the error in her calculations.

“Spike, come sit by me,” Cadance said as she gestured to the spot next to her. With the amount of power the three were pouring into the portal, she didn’t want the young dragon to accidently get in the way.

The small, purple dragon looked at the portal with trepidation before looking back to Cadance. Even with the power pouring out of her horn, Cadance was giving him kind, soft eyes that he just couldn’t resist. The little dragon ran over to her and sat between her front legs, allowing her to wrap him up as they waited to find out whatever would happen.

Several minutes passed as the princesses poured more and more power into the portal. Spike looked around, growing more restless as the time went on. In the end he simply couldn’t hold his tongue anymore. “Umm, should it really be taking this long? Why isn’t she here now? If you could feel her magic—”

“Oh, don’t worry, dear Spikey Wikey. The princess-ss-s-s are simply opening the portal, but they can’t make dear poor little lost Twily and Dashie walk through it, now can they?”

“Discord!” Luna, Spike, and Cadance all yelled out. The sun princess could only glare at him and hope that he wouldn’t try anything while they were engrossed in their work.

The draconequus slithered his way around from behind the portal and the three beams of magic, almost in an implied threat that he might actually do something to interfere.

“Discord. If you interfere I will forget every promise I’ve ever made with you and banish you to a place worse than Tartarus,” Celestia said him; but it only made Discord laugh heavily.

“Oh relax, dear Tia. I’m just here because my good friend Princess Twilight will be home soon. What sort of friend would I be if I wasn’t around for her homecoming?” Discord asked as he gestured innocently with his hands, his form no longer had the snake-like qualities it did when he first appeared.

“Where have you been anyway?” Cadance asked. “We could’ve used your help in finding them.”

“And what would I have done, my dear Mi Amore’? Use my incredible, limitless magic to scour each and every universe looking for them?”

“That would’ve indeed been something you could’ve done,” Cadance noted, but quickly concentrated back on the task at hoof.

Discord blinked three times. “Oh, I suppose I could have done that huh? Oops, sorry. Maybe next time.”

“Next time‽” Everypony yelled at him, scowling him down like a vicious timberwolf.

“Poor choice of words. What I meant to say was that if there is a next time, I’ll, of course, be sure to do that. Sorry!”

“Discord, if I find out you’re somehow responsible for all of this, I’ll—”

“Celestia, I’m hurt,” Discord said as he reached behind him and pulled out a small, spherical ball. “I assure you, I had absolutely nothing to do with Twilight Sparkle forgetting to install the focusing cube into this thing-a-ma-jig.”

“Thing-a-ma-jig?” Spike asked as he squinted to examine the device the spirit of chaos was holding.

“Is it strange that we believe him?,” Luna asked, unsure why it felt like the draconequus was telling the truth all of a sudden.

In reply Discord just blew all three princesses a raspberry.

“Still, why is it taking so long?” Spike asked. “As soon as the portal opened they should’ve walked through.”

“Like I said, they have to walk through on their own,” Discord reminded him. “It is strange though. Maybe I should pop in and see what’s keeping them?”

“No!” A chorus of shouts echoed around the chamber.

“Yeah, I guess not. Don’t want to upset the balance of the other world, do we? Besides, she’s probably just saying goodbye to whatever friends she’s made over there.”

“Friends?” Spike asked, confused.

“What? Don’t you think the Princess of Friendship could make friends anywhere? She has been there for eleven days. Took her less time to—”

“How do you know about this?” The young dragon puffed up his chest as he glared at the tall chaos bringer.

“A huge magical accident sucked Twilight Sparkle the Princess of Friendship, and Rainbow Dash into another world and you think I wouldn’t know about it? If anything I’m ashamed that I didn’t cause it,” Discord said, smiling as he ran a claw down Spike’s scales.

“Anypony else think he knows more than he’s letting on?” Cadance whispered to the others.

“It’s Discord,” Celestia said with a grunt as she fought to keep her power on the portal stable. “He always knows more than he let’s on.”

Before Discord could respond, the portal started to shudder.

There was a burst of energy as the portal glowed a shimmering blue. The princesses grunted with the taxation being put on their magic. Working together they strained themselves to pour even more of their magic into the mirror, fighting to keep it open. Then, as if to reward their efforts, it stabilized. The magic flowing from their horns to the portal sat strangely and calmly. The light from their magic bathed everypony in a dim glow. Then just as suddenly, with a burst of white light, everyone in the chamber was forced to cover their eyes.

As quickly as it had come, the light vanished, leaving in it’s place a lavender alicorn and cyan pegasus. The two ponies were panting heavily, the cyan pegasus kneeling down to catch her breath. The lavender alicorn stood up straight and ruffled her wings, shaking off the sudden stiffness in her muscles, and, unintentionally, the cyan wing around her back. Dash and Twilight both dropped the gifts their other selves had given them at the surprise of seeing everypony gathered around, still trying to recover from their own blindness. Thinking quickly, Twilight teleported the bag and her notebook to her bedroom in the crystal castle.

Twilight was momentarily surprised that it required more power than she had expected, but didn’t have time to dwell upon it. She just didn’t want to have that conversation right out the gate.

“Hey… everypony…” Twilight said, punctuating her words between each breath. “We’re… back. Miss us?”

Spike ran forward on his short legs taking him as fast as they would let him. “You’re back!” He shouted and leapt into her hooves. His action all but knocked Twilight onto her back as he greeted her in a great big hug.

After taking a moment to catch their collective breaths from all the energy they’d expended on the portal, the princesses were finally able to celebrate their friends return. Dropping their magic and rushing toward the two, Celestia and Luna both went to wrap Twilight in a hug. Cadance walked a bit more reserved towards the cyan pegasus, a smirk gracing her muzzle as she sensed something that wasn’t there the last time she had seen the two ponies.

No pony, or crying baby dragon, noticed Discord standing with his lion’s paw on the still glowing portal. They were all too focused on the homecoming of the two ponies rather than the actions of the spirit of chaos and disharmony.

“It’s nice to see you all too,” Twilight said, a few tears falling from her muzzle as well.

“Welcome home, my faithful friend,” Celestia said, maintaining all the poise and regality of her position.

“We are most pleased to see thou have returned unharmed!” Luna struggled to reign in her excitement and keep herself from slipping back to the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“Twilight, I can’t believe it, you’re finally back!” Spike fought to speak clearly through the tears of joy that were starting to slip from his eyes. “I... I mean we... we were all so worried about you!” He choked out a sheepish laugh causing the alicorn to smile.

Rainbow Dash looked on at the display of ponies surrounding Twilight. “Hey, welcome back, Dash,” she mumbled softly to herself. “Yeah, nice to have you back, Dash. We were all worried about you too. You were so brave protecting your marefriend over there and all. So awesome.”

Cadance walked up to Rainbow Dash and leaned down next to her. “So when did Twilight and you get together?” She asked in a whisper.

Dash turned her gaze from all the other princesses and stared up at Princess Mi Amore’ Cadenza. Her eyes widened in shock at the thought that Cadance had heard her. Should’ve kept my bucking mouth shut.

“Oh don’t be so surprised, Rainbow. I am the Princess of Love after all,” Cadance said with a smirk.

“Well… I think Twilight and I have our new uh... friends to thank for that,” Dash said as she awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

“And who are they?” Cadance asked.

“I think...that’s a story for Twilight to tell if I’m being honest,” Dash replied sheepishly, not really comfortable with the topic. And totally don’t want to have that talk with you of all ponies. That’s all yours, Egghead.

“Luna, Cadance, Spike, let’s give Princess Twilight and Rainbow Dash some space,” Celestia said.

With a frown everypony backed away, even Spike although reluctantly. Twilight looked grateful, going through the portal had been a little draining. Even still, she looked over to Dash. The pegasus nodded and walked over to her, stumbling a little before the two were sitting side by side. Just where the alicorn wanted her to be.

Twilight couldn’t help but feel the absence of the others though. Both their human selves, Twi and Rainbow. And her missing friends. “Princess Celestia? Where are our other friends?” There was noticeable hurt in her voice.

“They were here, Twilight,” Cadance answered for Celestia. “Even your brother, but you were gone for almost eleven days. Applejack had to return home to check on her family, Rarity her shop and her own sister, Pinkie the Cakes, Fluttershy her animals, and Shining has to run the Crystal Empire in my absence. They all stayed for as long as they could, but eventually had to return to their home lives.”

“What about Scoots?” Dash asked, suddenly worried. Twilight looked over to her, somewhat surprised at the worried tone in her voice. It wasn’t a bad surprise in any way and made her feel a deeper respect for the pegasus.

“Scoots?” Celestia asked.

“Scootaloo,” Spike said. “She was here too, but after a few days they dragged her back to school. Cheerilee gave her some time off, but she had to draw the line somewhere.”

“You stayed, Cadance?” Twilight asked.

“Only powerful magic can open the portal, I couldn’t just leave this to Celestia and Luna. We… took it in turns scanning the multiverse.”

“Multiverse?” Dash asked, confused by the word.

“It’s a… complicated subject, Dash,” Twilight said. “Basically there’s an infinite number of possible universes, we live in one and we just visited another. They were scanning them all, one at a time, looking for us.”

The pegasus just looked confused. Celestia stepped forward. “Imagine a beach, and that each grain of sand is a different universe. We were simply looking for the grain of sand that you two were stuck on.”

“Okay?” Dash said.

“And when Twilight sent her beacon, it was like that grain shot off fireworks,” Cadance added. Pleased that while they had failed to fully explain multiverse theory, Dash was at least comprehending the basics.

“Was it different than the last time you went through?” Luna asked Twilight.

“Oh very much so,” Twilight said with wide eyes. “For starters, I didn’t become a human this time.”

Celestia spoke up. “Twilight? But the portal is meant to transform the user into their matching equivalent in the other world.”

“It took me completely by surprise too, but somehow we both stayed ponies.”

Discord removed his paw from the mirror and stood off to the side, a halo hovering over his head as he hoped that nopony would notice what he just did.

“Was it inhabited by the same humans as the other world?” Cadance asked.

“Actually, they were a little different this time, the—”

“How were they different this time?” Cadance interjected with a raised brow.

As if in answer, the portal started to glow with a now, all-too-familiar light.

“How is that still open,” Celestia called out, shielding her eyes from the glare.

“I don’t know, it shouldn’t be,” Cadance replied, doing much the same.

“‘Tis a fight,” Luna said excitedly, preparing herself for a battle.

The light from the portal’s magic bathed the room.

Much the same as the first time, the blinding light vanished as quickly as it had come, replaced instead with two other beings the likes of which the ponies had never seen before. All except for Dash and Twilight anyways.

Discord casually circled around behind the princesses to look at the newcomers with the rest of the ponies.

They were two, strange, bipedal creatures. The smaller one just as tall as Celestia’s horn, the larger one a little taller. The smaller of the two was dressed in a fancy skirt and a side holder shirt. It flowed elegantly from her left shoulder down to the right. Her hair was long and indigo with a violet and dark-pink stripe running through it. Despite the fancy clothes, she had an obvious case of bedhead.

The larger of the two wasn’t anywhere near as fancily dressed. She was wearing a navy blue in coloring uniform, her hair cut short in the front, and colored in a distinctive rainbow pattern. Her skin tone was a few shades darker than her companion. She had just as bad a case of bedhead as the smaller girl, but it seemed to look natural on her.

As all the ponies blinked their eyes clear, Twilight and Dash looked up in shock. But of the two it was Twilight that broke the silence. “Rainbow? Twi? What are you two doing here?”

“Ummm, hi,” Twi said with a sheepish smile on her face.

Author's Note

It's good to be back. We were away for far too long.

You can expect a release every Thursday. Of note is that chapter lengths will vary a bit more wildly this time around. Although we plan on the story to be around the same length, just with more chapters.