“You need what now?” Twilight Sparkle stared at me as if I had asked her to fetch Cerberus from his post. She lay sprawled on a pillow in the main reading area of the Ponyville castle library, a large green textbook propped comfortably on a pillow beside hers. She was wrapped in a wool crocheted blanket, colored a rather fetching shade of light blue, to ward off the chill of the castle’s interior.

“The journal,” I said. “The one you use to communicate with Sunset Shimmer.”

She smiled. “Oh! Sure. Is… something wrong?”

“I must speak with her.”

She regarded me with a searching gaze, her mouth curled in a little hook-like frown. “Alright.”

She left for one of the many bookshelves lining the hall and returned with the journal. She held it aloft a moment ere handing it over. Myriad were the words on the tip of her tongue.

“If you need anything, just let me know,” was all she said, however. She afforded me one last glance before settling back in.

I tucked my nose to my chest. I had been rather abrupt in my appearance today. ’Twas rude of me to intrude on her affairs two days in a row, especially during what little free time she had to herself. I was thankful she understood, however, and so I retreated to the little corner nook where this journey began.

I laid myself down upon that same velvet pillow, crossed my forehooves, and frowned at the journal as it hovered in my magic.

It stared back, unassuming. Still it weighed heavy in my grasp, but rather than the weight of knowledge, ’twas a weight of foreboding.

I opened it to a clean page and drew up a quill and ink. Tip against paper, however, I hesitated.

What was I to say? How best to navigate these treacherous waters? Were… were such waters for me to tread at all? The thought stuck itself in my mind, and the longer I allowed it purchase, the more I feared taking that step into the unknown. I could not sit idly by whilst Sunset wasted away from within, but I could not deny the potential of that Pandora’s box were I to intervene directly.

The quill trembled in my magic, and I pulled it from the page ere I snapped it in my fit of distress. I closed the journal, rose, and returned to Twilight.

She watched me approach the entire length of the aisleway. The slant in her mouth summoned from the depths of my soul an otherworldly sense of judgement, as if I carried upon my back a great stone that grew heavier with every step. Wordlessly, I offered her the journal, which she accepted hesitantly.

“That was… fast,” she said. She wore a searching gaze, her eyes dancing back and forth between mine. Same as the evening before, I felt the tether connecting her subconscious to my soul pull taut. She considered the book, the barest hint of magic teasing the opening length of the front cover, eager to open it and sate her curiosity. Ever the patient, respectful sort, however, she set it aside and heaved a deep sigh before returning that pensive gaze to me.

“Princess Luna,” she said. “I understand you want to keep this between you and Sunset, but it’s bothering you a lot, and it hurts seeing you like this. Please let me help. Whatever it is.”

“Twilight…”

I considered her offer. Sister knew Sunset Shimmer the longest, which I had to regretfully accept was not the Sunset of today. However, Twilight knew her, the Sunset who had saved the human world from destruction on multiple occasions, the Sunset who made friends and earned her redemption.

Perhaps it was wrong of me to seek Sister’s counsel instead of hers.

“I have done things I am not proud of, Twilight Sparkle. In my exile, I used Sunset Shimmer as a means of foiling Sister’s attempts to gather the Elements against me. Among… other things.” I rubbed a hoof along my foreleg. “I am the reason she fled Sister’s tutelage. I am the reason she tried enslaving a foreign world in order to conquer Equestria.”

Twilight laid her ears back. She knit her brow and looked longingly at the book in her grasp. She then brought those innocent eyes back around, and by the stars I could not bear it. I deserved not even a shred of the empathy I saw in them.

“You should talk to her,” she said, again offering me the book. “Tell her how you feel. She’ll understand. Maybe not at first, but she will later.”

I grimaced and pushed the book back toward her. “I… I no longer believe this to be the best course of action, Twilight. I was a fool to think so in the first place.”

She wilted at my refusal of the book, but accepted it nonetheless, gingerly taking it in her hooves like a broken toy. “But talking out our problems is how we overcome them. If you don’t talk to her, you’ll never be able to do that.”

I shook my head. “You do not understand just how much I hurt her, Twilight. I did not simply haunt her dreams. I manipulated her, mentally and emotionally. I took advantage of her love for Sister and her ambitions of becoming one of Equestria’s greatest unicorns. I tore her apart from the inside whilst claiming to love her in return.

“And when she would not fully commit herself to the machinations I demanded of her, I…” I knitted my brow, clenched my teeth together. My lip trembled, and I almost couldn’t speak the words. “I, I broke her, Twilight. And she has not yet healed. Not truly.”

Twilight lowered her ears and looked away as if searching for something. The silence spanned second after terrible second, and my heart reached out that I might find something to grasp hold of or else fall into the void of my own self-loathing.

“There’s an old Zebrican craft I read about once,” she finally said. “Whenever a pot is broken, they use gold and epoxy to put the pieces back together. Zecora actually has a few. Even though it’s not the same as it was, the patterns caused by the broken pieces makes it unique and oftentimes more beautiful than it was before.”

Twilight smiled and placed a reassuring hoof on mine. “I don’t like the idea of the ends justifying the means, but she’s found happiness over there. She made that happiness, and no matter what might be between you two, that’s a good thing. She’s in a place where people care for her, and she has a whole group of friends that couldn’t be happier, too.

“And don’t forget,” she said, her smile growing just a hair, “she’s reformed, just like you. That’s common ground. You have something to relate to.”

’Twas true. Common ground oft was the foundation for many a treaty. Yet I knew not how to bridge the fact that I was the reason for her need to reform in the first place.

“It’s why you want to help her,” Twilight said. “Isn’t it?”

A tingling sensation ran up my spine. I saw in Twilight’s eyes the yearning of one who needed to understand, but could not fathom the depths of the matter. When I blinked, I saw Castle Everfree, myself, Sister—that first embrace we shared after my cleansing. I felt the Tantabus within me, dormant, yet ever present.

“Because you know what that’s like,” she said.

I looked away. I could not bear her gaze.

She was right, however. In my attempt to destroy Sister through Sunset’s manipulation, I created something new. I formed from her a kindred spirit, a victim that, like myself, fell prey to the temptations of ambition and vengeance.

’Twas my doing that broke her, yet still I knew her struggle. I felt the pain I inflicted upon her as if it were my own. Whether it was for her salvation or my own, I would know no other recourse, yet I knew it was not my decision to make.

“As beautiful as all that may be, Twilight, I do not believe it an excuse to wedge myself back into her life.”

“Would you like me to talk to her for you, then?” she said.

I reflected on that for a moment, ere hesitantly: “I would like that very much. If she is willing.”

She returned my statement with a smile I wished I could share, confident she had done her due diligence. “No problem. I’m happy to help. Let me tidy up and I can go talk to her. In the meanwhile, you’re more than welcome to spend the night here. I can have Spike get a room ready.”

“I… I would appreciate that. Genuinely.”

Twilight nodded. “In that case, give me one second.”

She marked her place in her book and closed it, ere stacking it on top of the journal, and made quick work of folding her blanket. Planning on returning to them shortly, I mused, she placed them on a little study table in the corner and led me out of the library.

“Spiiike,” Twilight called into the cavernous ceilings of the hallway, as if he were skulking about the shadows collecting there.

Within the moment, the pitter patter of claws down the conjoining hallway met our ears, and the mighty little dragon himself came scampering around the corner. He held in his arms a small pile of fresh linens, mayhaps preempting her request by way of some clairvoyance only the noblest of assistants possessed.

“Need something, Twilight?” He stopped short at the sight of me. “Oh. Hi, Princess Luna.”

“Spike,” Twilight said. “Could you prepare a room for Princess Luna? She’ll be staying with us tonight.”

“You got it.” He saluted her in a manner most amusing for its seriousness and the way he almost dropped the linens in his attempt. He turned that energy toward me and said, “Do you like cotton? Satin? Silk? What’s your preferred threadco—”

“However you would normally arrange for guests is sufficient,” I said. “I am… not one for overcomplicating matters.”

“Coming right up!” he said, hefting the linens in his arms, and gave them a smile. “Guess we’re going up to the guest wing instead, little guys.” And much the same as he entered, he scampered off to leave us on our journey to wherever it was Twilight led me.

An odd one, that dragon. Though, much like Twilight, that energetic innocence of his brought a smile to my face in this hour when I needed it most. ’Twas was something I found endearing all the same.

Quickly enough, we found ourselves in an interior room not far from the library. As one might have expected, shelves full of books lined the walls as if it were merely an extension of the library proper. In the middle, she had designed some sort of contraption of hardwood, tubes, pipes, and wires, all centered around what I realized to be the mirror itself.

Twilight placed the book upon the contraption’s pedestal, situated as if it were its keystone, and touched it with her horn. Like an engine whirring to life, the energies of the portal activated, and the mirror’s once solid surface rippled like that of a lake teased by a light wind. My reflection stared back at me, but beyond the surface lay the faint haze of another world.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone,” she said. “But you’re welcome to whatever you like in the castle.” She gave me an endearing smile that not even Sister could match.

“I cannot thank you enough, Twilight. I… I would ask what you would like me to do in the meanwhile. My conscience does not permit that I remain idle whilst you do this.”

She flitted her wings, and a smile entertained her for but a moment. “You don’t have to do anything in return. Helping a friend is its own reward. But if you’re insistent on doing something, you could always help Spike re-shelve the library returns. He’d really appreciate that.”

“Then that is what I shall do,” I said.

Twilight nodded and flitted her wings. “Sounds good. Hopefully, I'll see you in a bit with some good news.”

And with that, she stepped through the portal to leave me alone with my thoughts and fears.

Author's Note

Onward and Upward!

This story has undergone changes. Some comments may no longer make sense or be relevant.