"Welcome back dear. I take it that, with your return, everything is fine with our counterparts?" Rarity asked waiting in front of the mirror with the other four mares.

"Hey Rarity and yes everything is going to be ok now. It was certainly one doozy of an adventure. I'll be more than happy to tell you girls about it in a bit." Twilight Sparkle said striding past her friends and leading them to the map room.

"So, was my double what you needed to take care of those sirens? I bet she was, since she is pretty much me." Rainbow Dash said floating in front of Twilight with a smug look on her face.

"Actually, Rainbow, your counterpart kind of stirred the pot with how big her ego was getting." Twilight replied with a giggle as Dash stopped midway looking a bit let down.

The other girls laughed as well and walked to their respective thrones once they reached the table. They set about asking questions about their doubles and the situation with the Sirens which they now knew were called the Dazzlings. They laughed at the faces that Dash had made when Twilight reached the part concerning the band and how her human counterpart had practically claimed it as her own. They were a bit shocked when they found out that not only had Twilight not been able to discern the counter-spell until the last minute but, that the key to defeating the Dazzlings was Sunset Shimmer.

"Well, I must say, that I for one did not think that Sunset Shimmer would be so... understanding, considering her past. Then again, when you consider that even Discord could turn into a good friend, anything could be possible." Said Rarity as she sipped on her tea before levitating it back down onto the table and refilling it.

"Yea, especially when you consider that she turned into a demon and tried to destroy you and the other girls." Dash added bluntly, before looking at the cake in front of her and eating it all in one bite.

"Well, girls, whether or not it is believable is just us having assumptions on others. Like how Rainbow thought I was working with Nightmare Moon or how Rarity thought Fluttershy liked being a model without actually taking the time to talk about it." Twilight said

"Oh, yes. That was certainly a bad day for both of us." Said the yellow mare turning her tea cup with a smile on her face.

"Well, regardless, we certainly couldn't have done much of anything if we stayed trapped underneath the stage. It was a good thing that Spike was there. Otherwise, I don't know how long we could have been stuck or what would have happened." Twilight said with the same enthusiasm she had when talking about her number one assistant.

"Speaking of, where is the little guy? Did all that adventure tire him out?" Dash asked looking around.

"Yes, I do think it might be wise to let him rest. He is, after all, a baby dragon." Rarity added.

"So he went to go sleep? Who put out the cake and tea then?" Twilight asked, looking at the tableware and the dessert spread out in front of each mare.

"Oh, that was me. I thought it would be ok since Spike isn't here." Answered the pink party mare as she set down a fresh pot of coffee for Applejack and herself.

"Not here? I don't get it; he went into the portal before I did. You girls should have seen him." Said an increasingly worried Princess of Friendship.

"Spike! Spike!"

At this point, Twilight was teleporting around the castle trying to locate dragon. With each teleport, she grew increasingly worried and so did her friends as her cries could be heard from the table. The mares each went around trying to locate Spike as each cry kept getting louder.

Twilight teleported outside his room and knocked on the door. She had checked everywhere else in the castle in hopes of finding him just moving around or on some chore. That wasn't the case, and she couldn't just teleport inside his room, she respected his privacy, and if he were inside sleeping, then it would be rude otherwise.

"Spike, are you in there? Spike if I woke you up let me know. Spike?" She asked knocking on the door and receiving only silence as a reply.

Twilight opened the door and looked around the room for her best friend and number one assistant. Only to find his basket empty and made and his comic collection piled next to it. She searched around the room moving everything with her magic into the air and could not find a trace of him.

"Sp…Spike?"

She teleported back to library portion of the castle and took the book that was the anchor between Equestria and where Sunset resided. The five other mares had rushed to find her when a loud crash could be heard as Twilight teleported without putting the contents of spike's room back down gently. They found her writing in the journal; her hair frazzled and a look of desperation in her eyes.

"Twilight? What's wrong? Did you find Spike?" asked Rarity as she and the rest of the girls stepped into the library.

"No, I can't find him anywhere. Maybe he went back for a bit to talk to Sunset and the others but, I'm not sure. I just wrote to Sunset asking if he went through the portal." Twilight replied never taking her eyes off the journal awaiting a response.

"Twilight, I asked around, and none of the girls saw Spike come back through the portal. I don't understand, how could he not be there? Didn't he leave before you? It can't have been more than a couple of seconds of difference. I have the girls helping with the search; I'll let you know if we find him or anything that could lead to his whereabouts." Was all that the journal had produced as Sunset's reply.

Twilight put the book back in the portal and waited for it to activate again. Pacing about then running through as it came alive. She hopped out of the Canterlot High statue and looked around before going back through to meet five very concerned mares.

"Twilight? What are you doing? What's happening?" asked Fluttershy as she felt a chill wind come in through an open window.

"I'm trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the portal. I can't find Spike anywhere, and Sunset and the others said that nopony came through after he and I left."

She kept going back and forth a few more times before stopping on the Equestrian side and sitting down in front of the mirror. She kept looking at it as if the baby dragon would just pop out any second in a slight daze. He would pop out and ask what happened and then they could research the portal further like they always did when she encountered something strange. They would laugh, stay up, and complain when hitting dead ends. He would scold her for not going to bed, and she would tuck him in before returning to work, only to pass out and have him drape a blanket on her.

She would wake up and find her friend next to her having dragged the basket downstairs, or he would be coming in with a plate full of his crystalberry pancakes that he learned to make when they visited Candance and Shining Armor. It was just a matter of time for it all to be normal. Everything would be back to normal, and all that needed to happen was for him to come through the mirror. Only, he didn't, and as seconds turned to minutes, she knew that something had gone wrong. Something that made her best friend and family disappear without a trace, and she had been powerless to stop it.

Twilight sat there crying. Crying past the attempts of her friends trying to console her. Past the humming of the journal that fell from its place on top of the mirror as Sunset's search had turned up nothing. Ignoring her friends leaving the mare to write a letter to Princess Celestia and Luna, and organize a search. A search that would span the larger part of Equestria only to turn up empty hooved with no signs of the small dragon. She sat there every morning and slept there every night until a week had passed and she moved the mirror to her room.

Twilight had placed the mirror in front of her bed so she could be ready whenever anything happened. She sat on the bed, eyes never leaving the mirror and her friends had taken shifts to take care of her every day. Eventually, weeks turned to months and Twilight was gradually starting to turn for the better. The help she received from her friends had significantly improved her mood. Sunset had even visited more often to comfort her and never stopped searching on the other side of the mirror.

Then, a year and a half passed…

Twilight had recovered to her almost usual demeanor and activities, but she kept the mirror in her room, and checked on it regularly with surveillance spells she put in place. Sunset and the girls of Canterlot High had graduated and moved on with their lives but, they never stopped searching for anything that might lead to their missing friend. Sunset, having spent the majority of the time visiting Twilight grew homesick, and Twilight offered her a job as an advisor.

"Thanks again for the job Twilight, the girls were sad when I told them I would go back to Equestria but, with the mirror being close and the journal being left in their hands once I leave they calmed down a bit. I'll be there in about an hour or so." Was what the journal produced early that morning as Twilight had checked it before returning it to its place on top of the portal.

Twilight had just finished a letter to Princess Celestia and was walking to her room when she heard the mirror activate. She ran to it knowing that it might be Sunset but, hoping it would be somepony else entirely. It was a rude thing to think but, she always wished it was him that came through every time she heard the mirror hum alive. She stood in front of the mirror watching as soft waves formed from the middle to the outer edges, waiting for Sunset to step through.

The mirror slowed to a low hum and then stopped remaining silent as Twilight had a feeling of dread loom over her. She walked up to it and touched it; the mirror came alive once more as she put a hoof through to find it still worked. She walked into it and stepped in front of five girls who were happy to see her, and yet confused.

"Twi'? What are ya doing here? Not that we don't want ya here jus' wondering what the occasion is that made ya be here." Asked Applejack as she and the rest of the girls hugged her.

"Girls, I take it since all of you are here Sunset has already left?" Twilight asked already shaking with the answer that would come.

She wanted everything to stop; she wanted everything to be just a nightmare. A long, horrible, disgusting nightmare. One that robbed her of family and a friend that was close to it. One that saw to make everything in her life bleak and full of loss, full of days wondering whether they were alive. Days that had her heart die each second she didn't know what to do, what to say, or how to save them.

"You mean she didn't show up in Equestria?" was all Pinkie said before rushing forward as the other girls did.

Twilight had passed out tears falling from her eyes and her heart heavy with a familiar pain.

Author's Note

This chapter was quick to edit as it didn't have anything in first-person. I did make a few minor changes, nothing too big, just some small edits to make it flow a little better

As always, thank you for reading my story and please leave a comment or critique as any critique is good. Have a great day!