Canterlot, the morning after the Everfree Incident

Luna had spent the last two hours telling Celestia everything she had learned about Noctris.

Everything but one small detail. So when Luna finished her explanation without revealing that, Celestia asked, “And who are they? The vampires you interrogated.”

“I won’t reveal them,” Luna said decisively.

“I thought you wanted to tell me everything?”

“I gave them my word that I would never reveal their identities.”

Celestia was clearly unhappy about that and trying to find an argument to convince Luna to tell her, opening her mouth several times, but always closing it again because she couldn’t think of anything. In the end, she just asked, “And what do you intend to do now?”

“Continue to make sure that the Nocturnals and Equestrians get along, trying to improve diplomatic relationships with Noctris. And in order to do that, I will rebuild the castle in the Everfree.”

“How is that supposed to help?” Celestia’s voice tried to be supportive and genuine, but mistrust and anger still came through.

“Equestria and Noctris need a place to negotiate, and it's perfect,” Luna explained. She added with a bit of resentment, “and besides, I’m the only princess to not have a castle, so I might as well claim that, since you abandoned it, anyway.”

“I only did so because I couldn’t deal with the memories,” Celestia said defensively, “and I thought it would be in your best interest to leave the past behind as well.”

“Be as it may, you gave it up, so I’ll take it. It’s better to not meet with them in Canterlot.”

“Why?”

“Well, on the one hoof, you clearly demonstrated your dislike for them, and Canterlot isn’t the most tolerant city, anyway.”

Celestia begrudgingly agreed.

Luna continued, “And on the other hoof, what if they betray us? If we invite them here, we have no way to defend the city. But if they do the same while in the castle in the Everfree, Canterlot is still safe… You seem surprised, Tia.”

“I’m just relieved that you don’t blindly trust that monster.”

Luna wanted to respond, but yawned instead. She decided to just let it be and go on to the next topic. “About the… little quarrel between our guards—”

“They won’t press any charges,” Celestia said, “Your guard had his orders, and mine had theirs. Let’s just forget about that.”

Luna nodded and said, “Goodnight,” before walking to the door

“Sleep well,” Celestia said moments before the door fell shut.

Luna stood in the throneroom of Castle Everfree with her sword on her back. She had just raised the moon when the head of the scholars sent there a few days earlier approached her.

“Your Highness, the parts of the castle we could already examine are in decent enough shape, but it's not possible to give an accurate estimate yet. There’s too many parts we can’t even reach. We will have to repair the foundations as we make our way through the underground tunnels.”

“Understood. What else?”

“Well, there is the issue of all the magical artifacts hidden around the castle, and the books in the library. We need a place to store them until the repairs are completed, or get rid of them.”

Luna thought about it for a moment. “Is it possible to rebuild the side building first—”she pointed to the lone building the Elements of Harmony had defeated her in years ago“—as a vault for the artifacts?”

The scholar looked at it, then at his notes. “That should be possible, yes. It doesn’t have any rooms underneath it, and the foundation is stable.”

“Then do that.”

“As you wish, your Highness. And what about the books?”

Luna grinned. “I have an idea for that. Just start with the other parts of the castle.” She turned away from the hole and started walking towards the exit.

The scholar followed her, “We should also rebuild the bridge leading to the castle and set up camp on the plains on the other side.”

“Agreed, but don’t forget to not harm any trees. I don’t want this to cause conflict with King Aspen.”

“I will remind everypony of that, your Highness. But we can’t start the reconstruction before spring. The weather—”

They walked through the front door of the castle. Shaded waited outside the entrance. He knew that she was an ally now, and that she had offered to donate all the stone they needed for the reconstruction, but seeing her in the flesh still scared him.

Shaded noticed the unease of the scholar and said, “I can come back later, if I’m interrupting something.”

“Not necessary,” Luna said. Then she turned to the scholar. “You were saying?”

“The… The weather during the winter won’t… It’s too cold to build, we can’t work when we also have to take care of snowstorms, or whatever the Everfree has in store. And it wouldn’t be cost-effective to have mages here to continuously keeping a shield up for months.”

“I may be able to help with that,” Shaded said.

“And how?” Luna asked.

“An artifact that casts the shield for you, based on the magic used to protect the Crystal Empire. It’s of course way less powerful, but enough to keep the castle and its immediate surroundings protected from the weather.”

the next day, Friendship Castle

“Hi, Luna,” Derpy, carrying a batch of muffins, said when she saw Luna coming through the front door.

“Hello, Derpy. How are you?”

“Good, thanks. And how are you?”

“A bit exhausted, if I’m to be honest.” She sighed. “The last few weeks have been… rather tiring.”

“Do you want a muffin?” Derpy asked, “They always help me feel better.”

“Gladly.” Luna levitated one out of Derpy’s basket and began to eat it. She looked from left to right, as if to make sure that they were alone. Then she gestured for Derpy to come closer. Once she was close enough, Luna said, “Don’t tell anypony this, but your muffins are even better than Celestia’s, even though you shared your recipes with her,” placing a grin from one ear to the other on Derpy’s face. “How’s Twilight?”

Derpy’s grin dropped. She began to trot down the hallways, and Luna followed her. “She’s been worried for days. I tried to cheer her up, but nothing worked. She hasn’t left the library since she came back from the Everfree. Starlight thinks that it’s just one of her normal phases, but Spike and I can tell that it’s more than that.”

“I may have something to cheer her up—”

“Oh, that’s great!”

“—but it would probably mean that she can’t spend a lot of time with you until it’s done.”

“If Twilight’s happy, I’m happy as well,” Derpy said with a smile.

Twilight can consider herself lucky to have a wife like her, Luna thought.

They reached the library. Books covered all the tables and parts of the floor—some opened, some closed—except a small place with notes where Twilight sat, mumbling something to herself. Luna waited in the door.

Derpy walked up to her and placed the basket on the table. She placed a wing above Twilight’s cutie mark. Twilight turned to Derpy and gave her a quick kiss. “You need to take a break,” Derpy said.

“But I have to figure out what—” Twilight wanted to protest, but Derpy placed her other wing over her muzzle.

“Even you need a break from time to time. And we have a guest.”

“I know, but… WHAT?” Twilight jumped up. “But I’m not prepared! Loot at this mess! What if they think I’m a lousy princess? Or if they trip over a book? Or if they mess up my notes?” She started to hyperventilate, but then placed a hoof on her chest, took a deep breath and exhaled while pointing the hoof away from her. “Ok, who is it?”

“Good afternoon, Twilight,” Luna said. She walked up to her, carefully avoiding the books and papers scattered around. “What are you researching this time?”

“I’m trying to find out more about Shaded, but it's hard to find anything specific,” Twilight said, “The information is just going in circles or leading to dead ends. But enough of that, what brings you here?”

“I need your help with rebuilding Castle Everfree.”

“I’ll do everything I can. It’s the least I can do after…” Twilight didn’t finish the sentence.

You almost started a war, Luna thought. “We need a place to store the books from the Castle until the work there is done.”

Twilight blinked a few times. “You want to give me every book in your old castle?”

“Well, lend, but yes. And it would be good if somepony could make an inventory to find out what books are still there. Some probably need to be repaired, others might be beyond saving.”

“You want me to organize the entire library of yours and Celestia’s old castle?” she asked, her eyes glowing with anticipation.

“Yes, if you feel up for it.”

“Of course!” Twilight started to bounce around, with Derpy joining in.

Luna sighed with relief. “Good to hear that somepony finally takes care of them.”

“Huh?” Twilight stopped and looked at Luna. “What do you mean?”

“Those books have been lying around there for over one thousand years. And some of the tomes are literally irreplaceable. Tia could have easily sent a team to get them a long time ago, but she just left them there to rot. I really don’t understand why she didn’t.”

Luna looked at Twilight, and she could almost hear her brain misfire. She idolized Celestia, but would fight anypony who dares to treat books like that, and that disparity was too much for her. So she just froze in place. Derpy waved her wings in front of Twilight’s eyes, but she didn’t even blink.

“Do you want my guards to deliver the books or do you want to fetch them yourself?” Luna asked, in an futile attempt to snap her out of it. Luna turned to Derpy. “Could you leave us alone for a moment? I want to talk to her in private.”

Derpy nodded and left the room. Luna placed a seal of silence on the library, then she rose up on her back hooves before stomping down, summoning thunder when her front hooves slammed into the ground.

Twilight shrieked and fell over, but at least she wasn’t petrified anymore. Luna repeated her question once Twilight was back on her hooves, and Twilight said, “I’ll get them myself tomorrow. I don’t want them to be hurt anymore just because they aren’t handled properly, and I can get a feel for the way they were organized.”

“Good, I’ll inform my scholars.” Luna looked around the room. “You may have to postpone your project for a while.”

“It wasn’t leading anywhere, anyway. I tried to find information about Shaded, but couldn’t find anything specific. Some vague references that might be related to her, that’s it.”

“If you want to know more about Shaded, why don’t you ask her?”

“And how? You’re the only one with a way to write her.”

“I can give you the scroll to learn it,” Luna said, making her way back through the chaos, “You could invite her for hearths warming eve, since you throw a big celebration for the whole town, anyway.”

“I don’t know… She would probably ruin the mood for everypony else…”

“Twilight, let me be honest. Many Equestrians mistrust the Nocturnals, and there are already rumors about me preparing to become Nightmare Moon again. It would certainly help to ease the tensions if you would become friends with Shaded. And it might help with my sister’s fear of Shaded just exploiting me for her own, egotistical ends. It would also mean a great deal to me to have a second opinion form somepony I trust. Could you please do that for me?”

“Of course.” Twilight shifted her weight around from left to right. “I’m… kinda relieved that you still trust me with this… even after I almost banished you to the moon...”

“You did it because you trusted Celestia, something I can’t blame you for. Just don’t do it again, alright?”

“I promise, but I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“What’s it like to be banished to the moon? I was wondering ever since—”

Luna felt her throat close. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But you are the only pony who ever was on the moon, and—”

“I don’t. Want to talk. About my time. On the moon.” Luna’s voice cracked more and more with every word she said.

Twilight noticed that Luna was holding her breath, so she said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

Luna took a few deep breaths. “Maybe I’ll tell you one day, but not now. Goodbye, Twilight.”

Noctris-City Everfree

Shaded was talking to a school class when Twilight’s letter arrived. She apologized to the students and teacher and left to deal with it. The pupils all understood that Shaded had more important duties, and just returned to the normal lesson.

All except one.

An eleven year old, white coated unicorn sitting in the back of the class found it far too interesting to just let go. A small smile appeared on her face, showing the sharp edges of nachtmare teeth. Lis just had to have patience until next break.

Sneaking out of school was easy for Lis. Sneaking into Shaded’s office, on the other hoof, was a bit more challenging. She had to turn into her mist-form a few times to avoid the guards seeing her, but eventually reached her destination. So, where’s that letter?

She checked the desk first, but it wasn’t there. Then she emptied the paper bin and riffled through the contents. She found a bunch of letters, notes and plans, but not what she was looking for. Lis sighed and put everything back in its place before trying her luck with the drawers.

There, she finally found Twilight’s letter.

The door started to open just as she had finished reading it. Lis cursed, turned herself into mist and pressed herself into the corner behind the door. The guard would look around, see nothing suspicious, and would leave again, and then she’d just read the letter in peace. That was the plan, at least.

She didn’t expect Shaded herself to come back. And of course, she noticed that the letter on the desk wasn’t supposed to be there.

Maybe she’ll think she just remembers it wrong, Lis thought, or she turns her head enough to slip out of the room.

Shaded slowly stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. “Lis, I know you’re here.”

DAMMIT!

“You improved since last time. The guards at the front entrance had no idea that you came through.” Shaded let her gaze wander through the room.

And past Lis.

Lis thought that she had succeeded in hiding from Shaded because she shrugged, sat down on her desk and started to write a letter.

“Lis, you are still too sparkly.”

Shaded heard a sigh from the white cloud of white mist hanging in the corner. Lis left her hiding spot and reformed into a physical form in front of Shaded. “Hey, Shaded.”

“How long did you need this time?” Shaded asked.

“15 minutes,” Lis said, proudly pushing her chest out and holding her head high.

“Impressive, last time you needed 20.”

“Thanks!” Lis had a bright grin on her face. “So, Princess Twilight wants you to come to her Hearth’s Warming Eve celebration?”

“It seems so.”

“Can I come with you?”

“Lis, I won’t be able to look after you. It’s going to be an exhausting evening for me already.”

“Please! It’s boring here! And I promise to not make any trouble!”

“Hm,” Shaded thought out loud, “I suppose your improvements warrant a reward…”

Lis looked at her with stars in her eyes.

Shaded sighed. “Alright, you can come with me—”

“Yes!”

“—under the condition that you convince another adult from the family to come with you. The celebration is open to everypony, after all.”

“...and that’s why I wanted to ask you to tag along,” Lis said to Silent Syringa, a dark purple earth pony stallion with a long brown mane and tail. They sat in the common room of Syringa’s college.

“And why should I put myself through that? You know that I’m not the pony for festivities like that.”

“The whole castle is one giant artifact, and you study artifact engineering, right?”

“Well, yeah. That actually sounds worth a look… And why do you ask me?”

“Because I know you would be interested in the castle and the library, and…” Lis wanted to say something, but couldn’t come up with anything.

Syringa was silent for few seconds before saying, “I’m just the last pony that didn’t refuse yet, right?”

“Yes,” Lis said embarrassed, “who knew that a reputation as ‘teacher’s nightmare’ would be so troublesome one day.”

“And you plan to stand up to your reputation there as well.”

“...No?”

“You’re lying.”

Lis shrugged and grinned.

Syringa sighed. “At least I can expect it to not be boring, then.” They played with the orange crystal ring braided into their mane, then he stood up. “And it gives me a chance to test my tracker.”

“Tracker?” Lis got up as well, and followed Syringa out of the room.

“Something I’ve been tinkering with. All you have to do is wear a necklace that I made, and then I should be able to track you through the entire castle. Sounds fair, doesn’t it? One hoof washes the other, deal?”

“Deal.”

Hearth’s Warming Eve had finally arrived, and so had Shaded in the throne room of the Castle of Friendship. Twilight had used a summoning scroll to allow Shaded to directly teleport into the throne room despite her never having been there.

“Welcome, Your Majesty,” Twilight said with a bow. “I’m relieved that you agreed to meet me in private before going to the celebration.”

“I completely understand your reasons for doing so, and I feel honored by your invitation nonetheless, Your Highness.” Shaded curtseyed without bending her knees. Seeing Twilight’s surprise over that gesture almost made Shaded chuckle. “I want you to know that I wouldn’t mind dropping the royal etiquette, if that would make you more comfortable. Of course, if you want to keep a professional distance, I wouldn’t take that as an offence, either.”

“Oh,” she said surprised, “Yes, I’d prefer to drop it. We’re meeting as friends, after all.” Twilight looked confused. “Your cutie mark is… wrong.”

Shaded looked at her cutie mark, a big, almost full light blue moon with a crescent, violet, smaller moon inside it. “It’s not Nightmare Moon’s cutie mark, that’s true. It’s mine. When Luna and I formed Nightmare Moon, our cutie marks merged.”

“That’s fascinating.” Twilight levitated a notebook she had left on the map over to her to write that down.

“Now, since you offered to share your Hearth's Warming traditions with me, I want to share one of our traditions as well.”

“You have Hearth’s Warming traditions?”

“No, my people don’t celebrate it that much. A few of my subjects that have their origins in Equestria do, but they follow your traditions. What I wanted to share is the practice of surrendering your weapon. If you enter somepony else’s home, It’s customary for my people to give over your weapons to the host, as a sign of trust and good will.

“And that’s why I want to surrender my scythe to you for the duration of my visit.” Having said that, Shaded summoned her weapon from the shadows and levitated it to Twilight.

She took it with her magic and only now noticed the sheer size of it. The shaft, made from very dark wood, was already two meters long, with the black blade being around one and a half meters long itself. After a moment, Twilight realized something. “If you can summon your scythe from anywhere anyway, then it’s a pretty pointless gesture, isn’t it.”

Shaded tilted her head before sighing. “Right, I forgot that you probably don’t know the spell. There’s a rune spell that allows you to bind stuff like that. I can teach you right now.”

In the main hall of the castle, everypony was having fun. Cheerilee was chatting with Bon Bon, but suddenly tensed up.

“What’s wrong?” Bon Bon asked.

“There’s trouble coming, I can feel it.”

Syringa and Lis walked through the front door of the castle. “Ok, you remember the plan. Try to not catch any unnecessary attention and… and you're already gone. Perfect,” they said while Lis was already running through the crowd.

A crowd that had a dragonquus in its midst, in company of a certain yellow pegasus.

Lis ran through the crowd, carefully avoiding running into somepony, until she reached Discord. She leapt over Fluttershy, yelling, “UNCLE CORDI” at the top of her lungs, and dangled from his throat a moment later, giving him a big grin, showing off her new tooth gap.

Discord grabbed her and held her in front of his face. “Who are you?” He asked humored.

“The one and only Lis!” She added sulkily. “Don’t you remember your favourite niece?”

A second Discord puffed into existence on his right side with a magnifying glass. He bent down to look at Lis’ teeth. “The Lis I know has all her teeth, so you can’t be her.”

A third joined them on the left side. “But she’s still growing up, of course she loses some teeth.”

The original one said, “I’m capable of doing this without you two, just get lost.”

Both vanished.

“Now, with those two nuisances out of the way, if you really are Lis, then you should have no problem completing this sentence. I solemnly swear…”

“That I am up to no good!” Lis exclaimed.

Discord, finally unable to keep the act up, burst into laughter. “You are Lis! Oh, it’s so good to see you.”

“Uhm,” Fluttershy asked, “would you mind introducing us?”

“Oh, of course, where are my manners.” He put Lis back on the ground. “Fluttershy, this is—”

“Lysinda Eulenspiegel,” Lis said, shaking Fluttershy’s hoof, “but my friends just call me Lis. And you’re Fluttershy, right? Uncle Cordi’s—” she smirked into his direction “—girlfriend?”

“I am, yes.”

“Oh. Well, nice to meet you.” Her grin dropped, and she glared at Discord, who now floated beside Fluttershy.

He said with a mischievous grin, “What, did I forget to tell you that I confessed to her?”

“Discord, why didn’t you tell me about her?” Fluttershy asked. “She seems like such a nice little filly.”

“My dear, I’m as old as time itself. There’s a lot I didn’t tell you yet.”

“But—” Fluttershy wanted to say something, but Applejack walked up to them and interrupted her.

“Now hang on just a minute. Ya just said she’s your niece, right?”

“My favourite one, yes.”

“That means you have a sibling?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes,” Discord said casually.

“Who?” Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash asked simultaneously.

“Well, my dear sister of course. Shaded.”

“She has a daughter!?” Applejack asked Discord.

“Shaded is your mother?” Fluttershy calmly asked Lis.

Discord giggled. “One? Applejack, my sister has countless children!”

“Well, not biologically,” Lis admitted, “I’m adopted. Like all my brothers and sisters.”

Applejack shook her head. “I really wouldn't have taken her to be the motherly type.”

“That’s really kind of her,” Fluttershy said.

Syringa joined the little group that was deliberately ignored by the rest of the crowd. “It is, but not all of them see her as their mother. She still makes sure that nopony is left behind.”

“And who are you?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.

“The name’s Syringa, and my mother is also one of her children. I’m here to look after Lis.”

“Then I’m terribly sorry to inform you,” Discord told them, “That she just left to play catch with the other kids.”

Fluttershy blinked. “When did that happen?”

“Oh Nyx dammit… I should probably go get her before something happens.”

Cadence walked through the castle, Flurry on her back. Twilight had been away for a while now, and she wanted to make sure that everything was alright. The library was empty, so she walked back to the others. Maybe Shining had found her already. Dinky and a white unicorn rushed past her.

She heard voices coming from the throne room. “Now you just have to add one line here, and then charge it with magic,” a voice that sounded almost like Luna said.

After a moment, Twilight responded, “Like this?”

“Exactly. Good job for the first try.”

Cadence opened the door and walked in. “Twilight, you’ve been gone for—”

Twilight and Shaded turned to her, the scythe floating in a circle of runes between them.

Cadence was shocked, but she couldn’t figure out what to do before Flurry Heart teleported from her back onto Shaded’s face. Flurry gave off a few exited blabbles.

“And you’re really tiny,” Shaded said nonchalantly.

More blabbles.

“I was just talking to your Aunt Twilight, I’m sorry if you missed her."

“Twilight,” Cadence hissed, “What is going on?”

“I… Well, you see… she… I…”

“I was invited,” Shaded explained, “Luna asked Twilight to see if I’m trustworthy and—”

“You’re Nightmare Moon!” Cadence yelled, “Of course you aren’t trustworthy!” She turned back to Twilight. “What is going on here?!”

Flurry made a few scared blabbles.

“Don’t worry,” Shaded said, “Cadence is just concerned about you.”

Confused blabbles.

“Who are you talking to?” Cadence asked angrily.

“Flurry Heart. I speak baby,” Shaded said casually, “Now, could you please calm down? You’re scaring both Flurry and Twilight.” She pointed to the currently hyperventilating Twilight.

Cadence walked up to Shaded, looked her directly in the one eye that Flurry didn’t cover, and demanded, “Give me Flurry back.”

Shaded lowered her head far enough for Cadence to pick up Flurry before going to help Twilight calm down, who then explained everything to Cadence while Shaded waited on the other side of the room.

“So, what do you think,” Cadence asked Twilight, “Is she friend or is she foe?”

“I’m not sure. She didn’t do anything evil yet, and Luna says that she herself was responsible for Nightmare Moon’s actions... I admit that she’s scary, but I think—”

“Sorry to interrupt you two,” Shaded said from across the room, Flurry sitting on her back, “But it seems that Flurry Heart’s bored.”

More blabbles.

“Has anypony seen her...” She looked at Flurry. “Could you please repeat that?”

Demanding blabble.

“Her... Whammy? Did I get that right?”

Satisfied blabble.

Twilight turned to Cadence and said, “But I think Flurry wants us to give her a chance.”

Dinky and Lis were happily playing when they got into the library. Lis suddenly stopped, causing Dinky to run into her, throwing both of them to the ground. After both got back on their hooves, Dinky asked, “Why did you stop?”

Lis pointed at something at the other end of the room. “What’s that thing? It looks cool.” She walked over to it, Dinky following her.

“That’s the Mirror-Portal. Mom says we aren’t allowed to use it, it’s too dangerous.”

“A portal to where?” Lis asked, standing a few steps away from it, glancing over the strange machine parts Twilight had added.

“Mom didn’t tell me. She just said it's too dangerous.”

Lis grinned, showing her teeth. She made a step towards the mirror.

“What are you doing?”

Lis giggled and said, “Mischief. Just wait here, ok?” before jumping through the mirror.

Dinky was shocked stiff for a moment, then paced through the library. I should go tell mom, but I don’t want Lis to get in trouble with her own mom. Maybe I should go through the mirror myself and bring her back. But it’s dangerous to go alone… But Lis is alone, so I should go and help her… But mom forbade it… I should just get mom, but Lis asked me to wait...

That circle continued for a few minutes, until Syringa came into the library, following the tracker disk attached to his left hoof.

Lis’s big brother! Dinky thought.

Syringa noticed her staring at them. “Hey, Dinky. Where’s Lis?”

“She went through the mirror! Please, you need to bring her back!” She frantically pointed at the portal

He sighed. “Well, that explains why the tracker comes from there. Don’t worry, I’ll get her.”

Syringa stepped through the portal, and dropped to the ground on the other side. An ice-cold wind hit them. “Well, I’m definitely not in the castle anymore.” They wanted to look at their tracker, but their hoof was gone. In its place was a strange, pale purple... thing. “What the… What are those things? Claws?” They checked the other side, but their right hoof was also replaced. “No, Claws are scaley, these things are meaty. And why don’t I have a coat?”

They looked down on his body, and discovered that they were wearing a long coat in the colour his fur had. “What is going on… Wait, no, doesn’t matter. I gotta find Lis first, I can worry about the other stuff later.” They started to walk on all fours, but realized after a few steps that that somehow didn’t feel right.

Standing up surprisingly did, however. “Ok, your body knows how it wants to move, just trust it. If it wants to go on two legs, so be it.”

The tracker told them that Lis was nearby. They called out for her, and her head popped up a few meters in front of them. “Yeah?”

She stood up, covered from head to toe in a white, thick overall. And with her white hair and face, she almost vanished in the snow, if it weren’t for the dark grey bobblehead. “I was making a snow angel!”

“That’s nice, but we need to go back.”

“But it’s so much fun having hands! It’s so easy to grab things.”

“Huh, that’s what those things are called… But that’s not important now, Dinky is really worried because of you. We have to go back.”

“Ok, you’re right. But first… SNOWBALL FIGHT!” She threw the snowball she had hidden behind her back.

Syringa stretched their arm towards it, and the crystal in their mane started to glow. Their hand closed as if they were grabbing something. An orange glow covered the snowball, and it levitated in front of their hand.

“Cool!” Lis walked closer to them. “Why are you holding your hand like that?”

“I don’t know, it just felt natural.” They moved their arm around, and the snowball followed. When they opened their hand, the glow disappeared, and the snowball dropped to the ground. They played with their braid again. “So the levitation crystal still works… interesting.” They looked at Lis. “Does your magic still work here?”

“I don’t know… There’s no magic in this world, can’t you feel that?”

“Lis, I can’t even feel the magic in our world.”

“Oh, right—” she facepalmed “—Let me try something.” She made a concentrated face, and started to hover. A white glow surrounded her, her legs turned into hooves, and her horn grew back. “YAY, I knew this was going to work! I don’t know why I knew that, but I did!” She tripped a little when she fell back to the ground.

“Lis,” Syringa said, thier patience coming to an end, “We need to go back. Now.”

“But I want to see what’s over—Woah, hey, that’s rude!”

Syringa levitated her in front of them. “If you would have come, I wouldn’t have to carry you.”

He walked through the portal, a very disappointed Lis in front of them, just to bump into Shaded on the other side, Twilight standing behind her.

She looked at Syringa for a moment, then raised an eyebrow at the in front of her face hovering Lis.

“To be fair,” Lis said, “I just promised to not cause trouble. I didn’t say anything about portals.”

Shaded picked her up with magic and hugged her. “I’m just happy that you’re safe.” She placed Lis in front of her on the ground, looked her in the eyes and said, “But you should have asked Twilight before using her portal.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologise to me.”

Lis nodded, walked to Twilight, and said, “I’m sorry that I didn’t ask for permission.”

Twilight was still confused, so she just said, “It’s okayyyy.”

Lis went back to Shaded. “Mom, if I find somepony to look after me, can I go live in the other world for a while? I wouldn’t even miss school, they have them there as well!”

“I don’t see a reason why not, to be honest. There’s no magic in that world, so its sun should be harmless. But who could go with you?”

“I’ll do it,” Syringa said, “I mean, if you allow it. I’d obviously need to finish my bachelor first, so Lis would have to be patient for a few months, but it seems like an interesting opportunity. I could study how artifacts work over there.”

“And it would be interesting to learn about their culture,” Shaded murmured.

Lis jumped up and down from excitement. “I’m moving to the human world!”

Castle of Friendship, Night

Two months later, everything was prepared. They had a home, enough bits, and the paperwork was done. Twilight wasn’t there to send them off though, because she had promised Applejack she’d keep an eye on Pinkie.

Lis and Syringa stood with filled saddlebags in the library. Shaded pulled both of them in for one last hug. “Don’t forget to write me every once in a while.”

“I won’t,” Lis replied.

Shaded let them go and turned to Syringa. “And you didn’t forget anything?”

“Don’t worry, I brought everything over there.”

Shaded nodded. “Until we meet again.”

“Until we meet again,” Lis and Syringa replied. They almost reached the mirror, but Discord’s voice filled the room.

“You wouldn't just leave without saying goodbye, would you?” Part of the floor opened like a trapdoor, and he ascended the suddenly existing stairs below it.

“It’s hardly their fault if you aren’t on time,” Shaded said, but Discord ignored her.

He hugged Lis and said, “Make me proud, my Lil Shit.”

“You betcha,” Lis replied enthusiastically.

Syringa sighed. “What did I get myself into…”

Shaded just shook her head. She might as well be Discord’s daughter.

With the last farewell out of the way, Syringa and Lis once again stepped through the portal. Spring had come to the human world, and so the portal gave them a new set of clothing.

Lis got dark blue jeans and a hoodie with a black middle and orange top half. Her hair was styled in pigtails.

“The portal gave you angel wings,” Syringa remarked. I didn’t think a portal could have a sense of humor.

Lis turned to them, giving them a bright smile with her pointy teeth. “And you a cute dress.”

“The portal certainly has a sense of style,” they said. They really liked the dark purple, ankle length, long sleeved dress, and the comfortable, black boots that came with it. “But do you want to know the best thing?”

Lis nodded.

“It has pockets!”

Author's Note

"one hand washes the other" means the same as "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

The scythe is 6'6'' for the staff and 4'9'' for the blade long.

Lis's and Syringa's story is continued here