A few months earlier...

Twilight Sparkle was in her lab, bouncing up and down in her chair. In fact, she was almost ready to get up and start hopping around in excitement. This was huge.

By sheer luck, she had been passing by Canterlot High on the night of their fall formal. She wasn't even sure why she was passing by it that night, since they were Crystal Prep's rivals. Her feet had just taken her there on one of her evening strolls around the city.

Wandering in the city always cleared her mind and helped her think.

And now? There was proof of a potential new energy source: Magic. Unfortunately her phone had been out of space to record the events of the night. By the time she'd (with great difficulty) parted with some adorable pictures of Spike, her pony princess doppelganger was already on her way through the portal in the horse statue.

She did not want to admit that it took her over an hour to select exactly which photos to delete.

Anyway, exiting through the horse statue certainly was fitting. Twilight wondered if there was any magic in thematic coincidences.

Of course, these events had changed a lot of her theories outside of thematic coincidences.

Friendship is magic? If magic is like any other observable phenomenon in the universe, then there must be some isolated, atomic parts to build up the magic of friendship...

Also, if those girls had magic and my own doppelganger had magic.... why don't I have magic? Theoretically, if there is an atomic magic particle, I should also be in posession of it. Yet here I am, without a trace of that base magic particle, at least as far as I am aware.

She started to jot down her thoughts:

1. Friendship is magic
   
2. Friendship is an abstract, human concept
   
3. Therefore, there must be a more atomic, concrete concept that builds up into friendship magic
   
4. Furthermore, the girl who stole the crown and transformed into a demon had no friendship, only an otherworldly artifact
   
5. Therefore, there is more than friendship magic

Twilight leaned back in her chair, and tapped her chin with her pen thoughtfully. There was definitely more than just friendship magic. She had watched herself phase through what should be solid stone, before the pony aspects of the girls who had aided in the magic disappeared. You don't need friendship to dimension travel. Theoretically, all it would take was a rip in the space-time continuum. The only problem with that through conventional means was the sheer amount of energy it took. Which meant that magic is a very, very powerful energy source.

Hmmm.

This magic thing was something that would warrant an extended investigation, starting with that horse statue.

The weekend after the magic incident, Twilight found herself again at Canterlot High, but with a purpose this time.

She was going to investigate that portal. Preliminary plans had been made to enter the other dimension, but she had decided to wait on detailing them until she found out whether she could even use the portal.

Twilight walked up to the horse statue, and made a circle around it. She settled on the face of the pedestal that she had seen her doppelganger enter through, and pressed her hand against the cold stone.

That's all it was: cold stone.

She hadn't recalled an activation phrase. At the end of the night, her other self had passed through the statue wearing a crown, but her lips had not moved.

Wearing a crown.

Was the crown required to use the portal? Did the crown power all the magic, and take it with her back to the other world?
Was she a princess in the other world? She probably hadn't come here to attend school for the sole purpose of becoming the fall formal queen or whatever they called it at Canterlot High.

She wondered if her doppelganger was at all like her then. Definitely not antisocial. She'd made five friends in however much time she'd been here. Twilight had not made a single friend at Crystal Prep.

Twilight preferred it that way, of course. There was more time to conduct her research if she did not have social affairs to keep up with. In fact, that's exactly what happened. Her old acquaintances from middle school had elected to go to Canterlot High. Moondancer, Lyra, and.....

Who else?

It had been so long since she'd thought about them. As soon as she started attending Crystal Prep, she had fallen off the face of the Earth in favor of studying.

The one time she had agreed to spend time with them after middle school, they had ruined a very sensitive experiment she had been running.

And they had laughed about it.

Some friends they were.

Friendship may be magic for the princess, but not for Twilight. She must practically be a pauper compared to her other self.

She took out her phone and quickly Googled the exact definition of pauper. Her strength was math and science, not the dictionary!

1. A person without any means of support, especially a destitute person who depends on aid from public welfare funds or charity

2. a very poor person

Twilight smirked. She may be poor compared to the riches the princess must have, but she was rich in support. While she was still a teenager, she considered herself very emotionally and functionally independent. Twilight could control her emotions. She could manage her time very well. She was only a passable cook, but she also knew off the top of her head edible plants in the area and how to prepare a fire, so there were some bonus points there.

When some of her classmates had stolen her lab report, she had been able to get it back without the teacher needing to intervene.

The princess had needed the help of five others to defeat a crown thief.

Clearly the princess had no means of supporting herself then, outside of money.

The horse statue had been a bust. Twilight put a few solar powered electromagnetic sensors on the statue, just in case something happened.

The next thing to investigate was the remaining magic users. The princess had clearly been their leader in magic, but perhaps something could be discovered by studying her friends.

Of course, she couldn't just go up to them and ask them questions.

For one, she was a very different person than the high and mighty princess they associated with. There was no way her mannerisms were the same. So they would figure out that she was entirely different, and therefore not a friend to be trusted.

Plus, why would they answer her questions? Clearly they were trying to keep this a secret, since even her sock puppet social media accounts had not received any news of the event she herself had witnessed. They had no reason to answer her questions.

In fact, it could end up to be very risky business. That Rainbow Dash seemed to be quite a brute, with Applejack coming in a close second. She could get hurt. The rainbow magic blast may have spared the crown thief, but fists had no "redeem" setting. The only one she could conceive of getting close to was Fluttershy, but Twilight knew well the true insides of "the quiet one", being that person herself. She wasn't going to fall for it.

Anyway, they may also find it strange that there existed a doppelganger of their friend. And if Twilight knew humans, she knew that they would not find it a curiosity to be studied. It would be something to be shunned, the imperfect doppelganger of their friend...

Wait, no. The princess was the doppelganger. Twilight was the original inhabitant of this world!

She would not let herself be made into the secondary Twilight on her own turf.

Over the next few weeks, Twilight learned the schedules of the 5 magic users. Oddly enough, they were befriending the crown thief.

Twilight would have had her put away somewhere where she couldn't pose as much of a threat anymore. It had probably been on the princess's orders that the crown thief be befriended.

She was weak in the other world. The bar was set low for Twilight to beat that strength then. It was another way in which she was better than the princess.

It had been the easiest to learn about Rainbow Dash. Being an athlete, she was often at practice after school. Twilight had plenty of time to take the bus to Canterlot High and watch. Thankfully, it was fall so Twilight could keep her nondescript hoodie on to avoid being noticed.

Rainbow Dash was strong, and fiercely loyal to her friends. If she'd forgotten an engagement, she would immediately do what she could to make it up to her friends, or make some part of the engagement.

So, she wasn't very interesting to study. Even in conversation Rainbow Dash, while enthusiastic, had a few easily predictable catchphrases. And she was very, very full of herself.

More importantly, she had shown no signs of magic or even trying to investigate the magic.

Twilight had gotten a couple things out of her though. Like a few hairs from her letterman jacket. It had been easy enough to collect the hair sample when even the track coach was distracted, and Rainbow Dash's jacket was right there. It would be a crime if she didn't collect a sample of her hair.

Rainbow Dash had also served as an important connection to discover the schedules of the other girls. It was trivial to follow her at a long distance, and occasionally stop so as to be out of sight.

Rarity worked in a clothing store downtown, being an aspiring designer. Twilight could loiter near the store and listen in on conversations she had after work when one of her friends inevitably stopped by as she got off of work.

In fact, she was loitering inside at this very moment.

Rainbow Dash's blase attitude towards magic seemed to be similar to that of the other girls, which was frustrating. Twilight made the decision that during her observations/sample collecting sessions, she would try to evoke magical reactions out of the girls.

Since their magic had activated in a time of peril, it only made sense to do experiments that would cause distress to the girls.

In fact, she realized she might be willing to actively cause harm if it was to get a reaction.

Though, just thoughts of ways to cause distress were making her anxious.

Focus, Twilight thought to herself, This is for science. This is for the betterment of humanity. This is for the greater good.

She took a deep breath in, and then exhaled, letting all of her apprehension out.

Control yourself. Control your base reactions.

Rising from her chair in the store, Twilight walked towards the meticulously arranged clothing rack. She walked next to it, making it to the end closest to the door so she could make a quick escape.

She knocked the clothing rack down.

And she walked out of the store with no regrets.

Twilight had tried that experiment several times over the next few weeks, each time needing less time to calm herself down.

With all the racks she'd knocked down, Twilight was surprised she hadn't been banned from the store yet. Especially since all her experiments did was make a bad day for anyone working in the store. At least now Twilight was feeling no guilt for causing an inconvenience to the store employees. It's not like she was actually hurting anyone.

A tiny voice in her head said, "yet,"

She quashed that voice down into submission.

Oh, and of course she had collected a hair sample from the clothing that Rarity had been handling. Even with her hair perfectly styled, everyone sheds.

Twilight listened in on many of the conversations between the 5 girls she had been trailing, but they rarely broached the topic of the princess or the magic she brought with her. The only thing she had learned was that the place the princess was from was called Equestria.

What a disappointment.

Applejack was easy to follow at the farmer's market, since her family tabled there on the weekends. While the season was nearly over, it was the perfect time for apples and hot apple cider. Twilight had been tempted several times to try the cider, but didn't want to blow her cover. It was easy enough to wander in a hoodie with the hood up, but it was another thing to go up and ask for some cider.

She settled on silently handing over a dollar to a member of the Apple family for a crisp, juicy apple. Of course, the apple wasn't for eating. It was needed. For science. Because maybe the fruit that was handled by Applejack was affected by her magic.

Her stomach protested at the misuse of apples.

Twilight caved and bought a few more apples so she could actually eat one, along with having a few more apples to run tests on. She also retrieved a sample cup out of the trash that Applejack had drank out of. A small saliva sample was better than nothing.

Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense was brewing up an awful storm. She had been twitchy all week, and this was a combo she was completely unfamiliar with. All she knew was that it was a really, really bad combo.

"You know who I am tooootally missing right now?" Rainbow Dash asked, sitting down with the rest of her friends. They'd decided to go out for a meal to celebrate surviving midterms.

It was a McDonald's, but sometimes bad food was the only way to feel good.

"Who would that be, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked, popping a fry into her mouth daintily. A lady could eat what she wanted; the only thing that mattered was how she ate it.

"Twilight. It feels wrong to celebrate the end of midterms without her, and we knew her for literally three days!" Rainbow Dash finished her thought, unwrapping her burger.

Everyone agreed with that statement.

Sunset was eating her food in silence, just listening to her acquaintances. She wasn't really ready to call them friends yet, but she was grateful for their kindness after the Fall Formal incident.

She looked over at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie had been on edge all week, but she wasn't sure if that was normal or not. Pinkie had always been on edge around her before, so she had no idea what "normal" Pinkie was like. Or, as normal as Pinkie Pie could be anyway.

Pinkie's eyes shifted from side to side as she drank her rainbow sprinkle chocolate-strawberry-jalapeno extra whipped cream shake. Sunset wasn't sure if she'd ordered it that way, or if she'd just mixed her own homebrew ingredients in after receiving a regular strawberry-chocolate shake.

At any rate, Pinkie was looking more and more on edge. "You know.... I have the strangest feeling,"

Her eyes settled on her reflection in the window, where she could also see other patrons of the restaurant.

"I almost feel like she's here with us right now," Pinkie said, feeling a little less edgy having gotten that off her chest.

A restaurant patron in a hoodie got up and left as Rarity started with, "Now Pinkie Pie, that's a sweet thought..."

She'd nearly been caught. That Pinkie Pie was annoyingly perceptive. But she needed samples from all of them to run tests on.

Fluttershy would be easy enough. Catch her at the animal shelter and just look anywhere for a long, soft pink hair.

Maybe cause an animal to squeak to test for a magical reaction.

Twilight surprised herself with that thought. Purposely hurting an animal? That was against scientific ethics.

Sure, clothing racks were one thing. They were really just an inconvenience though. No harm, no foul.

But hurting an animal?

Yet some important scientific breakthroughs had happened by not abiding by animal ethics. Besides, it wouldn't be a severe test. Just harmlessly "accidentally" stepping on a paw.

What if it had been Spike though? What if someone in her position saw fit to hurt him?

Twilight found it somewhat disturbing that she was not feeling the normal protective instinct bubbling to the top of her chest.

If it didn't cause permanent damage, it was okay.

Besides, it wasn't going to be Spike.

And it was for science. It was for the betterment of society.

Soon enough, there was a fundraiser/adopt-a-thon for the animals of the shelter. It was three dollars to spend time with the animals, and adoption fees were being reduced or waived to help give animals homes.

Twilight had gotten a hair sample easily enough. Long hair had a tendency to shed if it was played with, and Fluttershy had the nervous habit of playing with her hair when talking to strangers. Inevitably, a hair had fallen to the ground, and Twilight had picked it up.

Now she had paid $3 to sit on the ground in an enclosed area and play with a sweet, friendly kitten. Given the choice between a puppy and a kitten, she went with the kitten because she felt she'd sympathize with a puppy too much to purposely hurt it.

Twilight stroked the kitten's soft fur. She felt a little better about her morals since she was having trouble going for hurting the little guy.

What if this was what produced a magical reaction from Fluttershy?

She idly played with the kitten's toes. It was young enough where it didn't make too much of a fuss about touching its paws.
Or maybe that's just how nice and docile the kitten was. She could feel it purring, the picture of contentment.

Twilight seriously hadn't considered she would get such a nice kitten. This was going to be the hardest moment in her life.
But sometimes the right choice was the hardest choice to make.

Twilight pulled the kitten's tail, hard.

The kitten squeaked in surprise and pain, and Twilight unceremoniously dumped it out of her lap and onto the ground to flee the scene. It looked suspicious and people were probably giving her dirty looks, but it might be what was needed.
Fluttershy was on the scene just as Twilight was out of sight.

She soothed the kitten, but no magic came from her. It was just the ordinary qualities of being kind.

Twilight looked on in annoyance. A step up would be required, then. She hoped all the samples she was collecting would at least yield something.

If only she'd done something more severe, maybe she would have some data.

The image of a miserable kitten, beaten and abused, flashed in her mind, before a yellow glow enveloped it to heal it.

If only she'd been more severe.

Now the image flashed in her head again, this time of herself kicking and beating the kitten. It ended with the yellow glow healing the kitten.

If only she'd been more severe.

The kitten flashed in her head for the third time, but her mind considered the possibility of no such warm glow to heal the kitten.

She should've been more severe, regardless of the consequences.

Her search was not going to be fruitless.

The last sample would be from Pinkie Pie. But that was near impossible. If she got too close, Pinkie might realize who she was.

Now that Twilight thought about it, she might have seen Pinkie Pie before the whole magic incident. Before her life had become this fruitless search for creating more energy reactions.

It would not be fruitless!

She would get it to yield something no matter what.

The kitten flashed in her head again. She had been picturing it a lot lately, and it had long ago lost the yellow healing glow at the end of her imaginings.

Sometimes, it was an image of the very kitten she had been afraid to harm, but it was dead.

The teacher at the front of the chemistry classroom droned on. It provided some decent background noise for Twilight to bounce ideas off the wall of her own mind. School was doing that for her these days. It was simple enough to keep up with homework and brainstorm during lecture.

The past two weeks had gone by in a flash. Twilight had asked her parents for some extra money for a project she was working on.

She had straight up lied to them, of course, saying she needed some fancy microcontrollers and esoteric sensors. They happily provided her with the money, as they were always glad to see their daughter pursue projects outside of school.
While they were curious about what exactly she was doing, they no longer set foot in the shed. A few projects ago, they had nearly ruined a delicate sensor by retrieving some of the power tools from the shed. After that, power tools that weren't Twilight's were in the garage, and the shed was completely hers. Since it wasn't too bad of a walk, she hadn't objected too much to it.

The complete privacy was incredibly convenient. She could conduct her research in there without a problem or risk of being discovered.

Little to her parents' knowledge, Twilight was really working on soundproofing her work shed, and turning one of the tables into a makeshift medical table with restraints.

Twilight was going to test the samples she had gotten from the other four, of course. But she wanted to be ready to take more severe action if no data was acquired from her experiments.

As for Twilight's cover, it was all or nothing. If it was going to be blown, she was going to be in control of how it happened.

Of course, if she was lucky, she could mostly avoid her cover being blown by feeding Pinkie sleeping meds for most of her time in the lab. All she needed was to lure her somewhere secluded, knock her out, and feed her some sleeping pills to keep her under.

As for actually incapacitating Pinkie, Twilight knew that chloroform wouldn't work. The amount needed was much more than a single inhalation.

Chloroform was just a cheap trick to make weak movie rapists stronger.

That was why it needed to get physical. Luckily, Pinkie was also a teenage girl, so as long as Twilight could get the jump on her, or corner her, she should have a decent chance at bringing her back to her lab with just a punch to the solar plexus and knocking her to the ground.

Of course it would be a logistic issue to drag an unconscious girl to her house, but if she had a bag (a wheeled suitcase, perhaps?) large enough, she could probably stuff Pinkie into it and take her home.

Pinkie could also be left in the alley. All Twilight really needed was a hair.

But more tissue samples would be good, and perhaps she could hook some sensors up to Pinkie as she slept. Also, she didn't want the crime to be traced to her.

Twilight shook her head. She'd think about this more when she got home. Right now, she needed to focus on chemistry.

The portal was open.

The EM sensors Twilight had put on the horse statue were recording a much higher energy coming from the statue than normal. It was now a consistent output, but it had spiked sometime this afternoon.

The princess was back.

Maybe Twilight could take advantage of the situation.

The nice thing about plotting to kidnap a princess from another world was that there was no way the police would come after her.

Especially since she and the princess were the same person. Not really, but for all intents and purposes they were. Authorities would laugh at anyone who said she was missing. Twilight was right where she always was.

Diplomacy was briefly considered, but kidnapping was higher reward with less risk than there was when the plan was to kidnap Pinkie Pie. And it was still was higher reward than risk to kidnap her than it was to try talking to her.

The simpler tests would go much easier if there wasn't any resistance, which was a point for diplomacy. However, it was unlikely that the princess would agree to the more intense tests should they be necessary, and likely would flee should she be approached for further testing. Not only that, but she certainly wouldn't agree to being strapped to the table for the non-invasive tests, so she couldn't dupe her into being forced into intense testing.

Intense testing. That was where she was at now. Twilight felt only a little apprehension at some of the things she was considering.

At any rate, Twilight decided she would need to seize the princess by force. Minimal trauma if all the data she needed was gathered by simple tests, and less trouble should her methods need to be more extreme.

Now that the princess was the target, it was imperative that she take this action. If she settled for whatever data she would get from the original samples, then she would have less options on where to go next. And if there was no data, then she will have missed a golden opportunity that had flaunted itself in front of her.

Yes, it was for the greater good that she kidnap the princess.

Twilight knew her time window for action was short. Apparently there were some fresh top bitches at Canterlot High and the princess wasn't going to be dethroned. Or something. Twilight figured her doppelganger must not be a very important princess if she had time to maintain her reputation at some random high school in another dimension. If Twilight were a princess, she would lock herself in a crystal tower and devote herself to academia. She would probably seek to be the most powerful princess as well, whether it be through magic or political power, since that would open any potentially closed doors in her research.

Either way, there was a battle of the bands coming up and Twilight had a feeling the princess would be gone once again after that.

She had been waiting until getting Pinkie's hair to do tests on the hairs and small amount of saliva.

But she needed to see what data she could get now, to assess her starting point once she captured her target.

Twilight had made a list over the past few months on what to do with her samples. Some esoteric tests were included since the crown thief had been zapped with an actual rainbow. It might be something stupid that gave her data, and she wasn't about to rule out something that would give her data! If she had, she wouldn't wish she had killed a small animal.

Twilight ran an EM sensor over the hairs and the cup. Their output was normal for hair and a cup at room temperature.
Then she blasted them with various wavelengths of EM waves.

Nothing.

Next was the first weird test. Twilight put a prism in front of white light and placed the various samples under the colors in different orders.

They seemed to shine a little weirdly, but that could be the light in the room.

Now, the apples for testing were up. Twilight had gotten apples from the Walmart, since they were not likely to source locally and thus not have an apple from Sweet Apple Acres.

She compared their shape, color, firmness, and taste.

The ones from Sweet Apple Acres scored higher, but then again that might just be from the fact they were organic and locally sourced.

Magic was often paired with, or put up against, electricity in popular media. So Twilight also connected a basic circuit and ran electricity through her samples (though not the cup since that wouldn't work very well regardless of magic or no magic).

All the readings, whether it be voltage, resistance, or current, were the same no matter where she measured them with the multimeter.

She ran electricity through an apple, and for a brief moment she thought she saw a rainbow.

But when she tried it again, the apple was unaffected.

The last few tests were chemical in nature, and there were no abnormal results. And with those tests, the samples had been destroyed, so there was nothing else she could do.

It was unfortunate that her starting point would be square one, but hopefully her test subject would provide her with plenty of data.

The princess would be her very own lab rat.

It was fitting. The princess would be the noblest of creatures: a lab rat!

Twilight grinned at this.

The noblest of lab rats: a princess!

Princess Twilight Sparkle was not a bright princess, that much was obvious to the Real Twilight Sparkle. She wasted her time maintaining her rep at a high school, she couldn't fight her own battles, and she had been dumb enough to get her crown stolen in the first place... The only reason she could justify actually going after it was that it was a magical artifact.

The princess probably hadn't known that though. She had probably thought it was just a bauble she could leave unguarded and have 10 more replace it.

What a fool. Twilight was disgusted with her doppelganger. Sure, the only thing she knew about her doppelganger were the things she saw at Canterlot High, but plenty of logical assumptions could be made based on the situation.

Although Twilight regarded the top bitch drama at Canterlot High as small potatoes, she remembered that the crown thief had seemed like a big deal. It would probably be best to wait until the battle of the bands was over.

Actually, if the princess was going to leave after that, it would in fact be the best course of action. Her friends would be expecting her to leave anyway, so they would only find it odd that she hadn't said goodbye.

She could probably just leave a note claiming to have been urgently called home.

It was the perfect coverup.

It would be the perfect coverup, if the princess hadn't brought her dog.

Of course her doppelganger would also have a dog, except hers could talk!! Sentiently too, since intelligence was too generous for someone who would associate with her doppelganger.

By now, it was a habit to follow the magic users around. She already knew about Spike's doppelganger, just not about the talking. Or the constant companionship.

Twilight would never bring her dog to another world. If he was perfectly safe here, why take him on a potentially dangerous excursion to the unknown?

Though it wasn't that dangerous here, she supposed. And since the princess had been here before, it was somewhat justifiable. But why? If her excursions here were short, surely she could handle being away from her pet.

Another point of evidence towards the princess being spoiled.

Twilight refused to admit she was just mad because this made her plan more difficult.

And after all this following, she finally had some data! She had watched one of the qualifying rounds for the Battle of the Bands.

Seriously?? Music?? Playing music brought out their magic??

That completely destroyed her "only in distress" theory of magic. But, it might still be the strongest way to get the magic out.

Perhaps it was strong emotion overall?

That might make sense, but "ponying up" while playing music together was fucking stupid.

Friendship is magic but there had to be more than just friendship!!! And if it was strong emotion, were their lives seriously that boring that they didn't have any strong emotions outside of music?

Twilight continued to mull over what to do about the damn dog.

He was small, but a cornered animal could get vicious. Plus, however the kidnapping went, he could just run away and tell the others, and that would drastically shorten her time with her subject.

Well, her family had a large fishing net. Her mother loved to live on the edge and would often try various outdoor activities while on vacation. They'd gone to enough places with water to warrant all sorts of extreme fishing. In fact, using that net was probably the least extreme of fishing methods.

So, if she used that net, and sneaked up on the princess and her pet, then she could scoop the dog up.

But how would she then deliver a blow to the princess? The jig would be up if she went for the dog first, and it would be up if she went for the princess first. Both could talk.

That was assuming the pet's first instinct would be to run. He would probably try to protect the princess, now that Twilight thought about it. Spike was not sentient, but Twilight knew she could rely on anyone in her family to protect her, as she would them.

Twilight had been researching ways to incapacitate a person. Surprisingly, it was actually pretty difficult without deadly force. For sure, she was going to hit the princess in the solar plexus to wind her and then slam her head on the ground. That would probably cause a concussion, but it was really the only thing Twilight could think to do.

If the dog ran at her, she could probably kick it (Twilight felt no remorse for this thought -- what is this costi-- This is for the greater good. The ends justify the means.) and he would at least lose some speed, allowing her a chance to use the net.

The net! She could nail the princess in the solar plexus with the butt of the net and then scoop the dog up. That would be her first choice.

As for transport, she would probably have to stuff him in the same suitcase as the princess to avoid suspicion. Or, at the very least, have less suspicion than there would be if she was openly carrying a girl and a dog around.

But how would she lure her out alone? Twilight was under no illusions that alone meant without the dog, but she could probably at least get her to ditch her friends.

She would probably have to make contact anonymously. And since the princess probably didn't have any technological ways of communicating, it would have to be a note.

Twilight began to pen the letter...

Spike, the dragon-turned-dog, had gotten distracted by the scent of a juicy.... steak? Is that what everyone at Canterlot High called it? He wasn't particularly interested, having been raised by ponies. The concept of eating another living creature made him uncomfortable. Gems were delicious and more than enough for him, thanks. And when he couldn't get his claws on gems, then he would still prefer to eat the various grasses that ponies preferred.

But he was a dog right now. And dogs loved meat.

Spike really hoped that things would be over after the Battle of the Bands, because as great as it was to explore this strange new world, a lot of things made him uncomfortable.

The scent led him far away from Twilight and the gang. It was a really strong scent.

He found the steak on the ground, in an alleyway.

He hesitated.

That steak had been a cow once.

For once, Spike was properly disgusted with his lack of self control as he dug in.

"Ahh!!" He jumped at the feeling of his collar being grabbed and a piece of paper being shoved in. Whoever grabbed him smelled like home at first sniff.

Spike turned around, but whoever grabbed him was already gone. He took a deeper whiff in to try get a sense of who it might have been.

Twilight?

But....

"Spiiiiiiiike!!!" he heard in the distance.

Twilight couldn't use her magic here. Well, she could but not like she could at home. She couldn't teleport.

"Twilight?" he shouted back.

Twilight was the first to find him. Apparently the girls had spread out to look for him and cover more ground.

"Spike! You smell disgusting! Is that... meat?!" Twilight crunched her nose up in disgust. She understood the needs of carnivores, and the different rules here, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Spike's face fell in shame, "Yeah. I don't know what got into me. I can barely control myself even when I'm not in a weird body!"

Twilight sighed, "I understand. Humans are omnivores, so I get both disgusted and hungry when meat's on the table. If it wasn't for Fluttershy, I probably would've accidentally eaten meat by now. Humans put meat in the weirdest things!" Oh Celestia was she thankful for the Fluttershy at Canterlot High. Twilight had almost eaten Jell-O, but Fluttershy had warned her before she could take a bite.

She noticed the paper stuck in his collar, "What's this?"

Spike looked at her, confused, "Didn't you put this here? And somehow teleport away? It smelled like you..."

Now Twilight was confused, "Like me? But I just got here,"

She took the paper from his collar and uncrumpled it. It was a note. She read it aloud:

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle:

Whoever it was knew who she really was! Were they a friend or...?

Before you read this, it is of absolute importance that you DO NOT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS NOTE. If you do, then what I am about to offer will be completely rescinded.

I have been studying magic in our world. Ever since you arrived here for the first time a few months ago, strange things have been happening. Strange things like large energy surges that could potentially be used to better this world. Strange things like... well, if I told you everything in this letter, you would have no incentive to abide by my request of absolute secrecy.

I want to share my findings with you. Perhaps you could take these insights back to your own world, if they even apply. But this requires the utmost secrecy.

Meet me at Canterlot High at midnight of the night of the final round of the Battle of the Bands. Come alone, or don't come at all. Tell no one, or lose valuable knowledge. If you tell anyone or you have someone with you, I will not show up. It's your choice, but you have the most to lose.

Remember, you can't tell or bring anyone.

From a friend

Twilight pondered this offer. She had to admit, she was curious about this stranger, but to require absolute secrecy? That just screamed danger.

Well, Twilight doubted that the mysterious researcher knew about Spike, or about him being a dragon.

"What are you going to do, Twilight?" Spike asked.

She looked at Spike, a thoughtful look on her face.

"I think I'm going to meet this human. But you're coming with," she smiled, "It's not a proper dimensional adventure without you, after all!"

"But didn't they say not to tell or bring anyone?" Spike asked.

"There's no way they know about you Spike. Plus, I can hide you in my backpack. And on top of that, we'll be right next to Equestria. If we need to, we can go through the portal and then I'll have full use of my magic there, if this note is as fishy as it seems," Twilight reasoned. Though, if it was fishy, she hoped she could at least talk the researcher down from any conflict.

She'd had enough conflict after using the all the alicorn power in Equestria to battle Tirek.

The memory made her shiver. The amount of power she'd had... it had been far too great for any one pony. Twilight didn't think she could've ever mastered having that sheer amount of raw power. The only reason she'd been able to control it enough to competently battle him was because he'd destroyed her home, and nearly killed Owlicious. Not to mention all the destroyed books! Realizing how high the stakes were had given her just enough focus to be able to handle the situation.

The only power she felt right wielding was the power of friendship. Rainbow Power was more powerful than all of the pony magic in Equestria, but it also was inherently a magic of fairness. It was merely distributing magic back to where it belonged. And it had been spread across six ponies.

"Twilight? Spike?"

"Twiliiiiiiiight!!"

"spike? twilight?"

Twilight heard the concerned voices of her Canterlot High friends. Her and Spike exchanged looks.

Twilight crumpled the note up and put it in her bag.

Spike wasn't sure this was right. But he trusted her.

A few days later, the final round of the Battle of the Bands happened, the Rainbooms defeated the Sirens, and oh Celestia was Twilight tired.

The Battle of the Bands had taken a lot out of her, and she was 100% ready to collapse into bed after that debacle.

But she couldn't do that yet.

The curiosity surrounding the note had been burning in her mind ever since she had decided she was going to comply with the note's instructions.

After everyone was asleep at Pinkie's house, Twilight changed into her normal outfit, and put Spike in her saddlebag. Well, it was a backpack now but most of the time it was saddlebags.

She took a deep breath, before unlocking the door and starting her journey.

Later, a note would be left on the inside of that door saying she'd been called urgently to Equestria, sending her love and apologies for not saying goodbye.

There was a gentle breeze as Twilight walked onto the front lawn of Canterlot High. The horse statue was a dark shadow against the deep blue sky, since the school turned the illuminating lights off at night to save electricity.

Twilight was already getting the creeps, but being so close to the way back home was a comfort.

"Hello?" she called into the night. She had no idea who she was even looking for. In fact, she was starting to somewhat regret letting her curiosity get the better of her.

She heard the sound of shoes against pavement softly behind her.

She whirled around, "Who's ther--" before feeling a rod against the base of her chest, and she suddenly couldn't breathe.

The ground came rushing towards her, and she could feel her backpack struggling. She couldn't even catch herself, because she was still reeling at the blow to the chest.

The concrete hurt as she hit it.

A pair of hands grabbed her head and slammed it against the ground.

Everything went black.

Everyone,

I have been called back urgently to Equestria. It can't even wait the night -- they need me right now. I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye before I left.

I love you all and will make it up to you next time I'm here.

Princess Twilight Sparkle

Author's Note

a few things:
Spike eating the steak isn't the forced meat eating. SciTwi will be forcing Twilight to eat meat later. Speaking of eating, I wanted Twilight to eat the apple that she bought for eating, but every time it felt appropriate also would've been hamfisted symbolism and fuck that. I kept thinking of the scene in The Room where Denny eats an apple before going upstairs to creep on Johnny and Lisa, with a crowd screaming "DON'T DO IT DENNY!!! DON'T EAT THE SYMBOLISM!!!!" So Twilight did not eat the symbolism.