Twilight Sparkle quietly trots through the halls of Canterlot Castle with a bullfrog on her back as time progresses.

No pony messed with the Royal delivery service. The young mare had garnered the name from a habit the guards had developed by leaving notes on the outside of her books. Twilight was usually so engrossed in reading that she never paid any mind to it, simply going her own way.

Michigan usually stood ever watchful of those who'd approach and usually do something about it. The frog had forged quite the reputation amongst the castle staff for his singing fits but and even worse one amongst the nobles for spitting slim up their noses or sticking his tongue to their eyeballs.

On the note of protection Twilight was never lacking. She usually had Levi, Marmy, Bedrock, or the princess with her at all times. If none of the later were available, then she would have a Survey Corps member with her or following her from the unseen eye.

Bedrock had told Marmy about his past the night of Stella's birth and the to were back on very good terms after that and have remained ever since then. Solid had talked with Levi about no more secrets but Levi wasn't having it and decided to put the the stallion through one more test. The test of roughing it with Levi in one of the most dangerous places ever, The Dragonlands. Safe to say the younger stallion passed so Levi revealed his true self and told him of the Survey Corps and what her was, Bedrock didn't falter but only admired the man even more. A few months later Solid and Marmy were married and not long after that they announced they were excepting. Levi knew why they rushed to get married, as did everypony else but they never said anything against it. That fall little Stella Aria became an aunt to Strawberry Rock Candy who looked nearly identical to her mother in terms of her color-scheme except a bit darker. Instead of a unicorn she was an earth-pony and built like her father.

Some years later...

Twilight Sparkle quietly trots through the halls of Canterlot Castle with a bullfrog on her back. Levitating in a soft magenta aura In front of her face was a thick book on foreign Dimensional Magical Practices and Practical Applications. She was on her way back to the tower Celestia had given her as a birthday present when she turned thirteen.

Three little shadows follow the teenage mare. The frog rolls his eyes with a shake of his head as he'd knew who these three were, they always tried their luck at this.

"I know they're there Michigan," Twilight says with a quiet giggle. "Shinny wasn't the only one who learned a few trick from Papa Levi Michigan and I doubt the Surveyor would've let any creature get this close if they didn't know who they were. Just act natural."

The frog thinks for a minute then pulls out a cane and stove top had before dawning a black bowtie. After adjusting the tie starts to causally walk around his master's back and while singing, 'In the Merry Month of May.'

Twilight rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Not that casual you ham."

Michigan wiggles his brow with a grin then keeps singing.

"You knew we were following you, didn't you?" A boy’s voice says from a hallway corner.

Twilight sighs and turns, "Yes Spike. I knew all of you have been following since I left the library."

"That's not fair," Spike pouts coming out of the shadows with his arms crossed. "I've been taking lessons from dad for a year now. I should be getting better."

"To be fair," a little girl's voice rings out and out steps the drake 'little' sister who was a nearly half a head taller than the drake coming just above twilight's chin. "Twilly has most likely already seen those lesson from dad when she was a bit older than we are now dearest brother of mine."

"I get that," came another filly’s voice stepping out next to Stella, "And we don't have all the cool gear that grandpa and mom have either my oh so doting auntie."

"If I haven't known you three since you were foals, then I would be trying to untangle the knots in my brain that you three can so easily create with only two sentences," Twilight looks at the ceiling with a slight smirk.

"We love you to big sister!" the youths all said as one time.

"Come here you three," Twilight uses her magic to pull the younger ones in close for a hug. "You three are just too cute for you own goods!"

Michigan had already resumed his dull position on Twilight's back as he let out a croak. 'You have a very strange family dynamic... In layman's terms, 'your family is weird'... Sha la!'

"Oh, shush you," Twilight snaps at her familiar.

The young mage learned long ago how to understand the green machine, Aka Michigan J. Frog, Dick extraordinaire.

Having released the children from her grip Spike noticed the book floating behind his sister, "What you doing with that anyways?" Spike asks. "A new thesis or something?"

"Something like that my most faithful dragon brother assistant mailbox," Twilight place a hoof on her chest while Spike grumbles. "Oh, relax Spike you know how much I love you and you mean to me, right girls?"

"Right!" the fillies agree.

"You’re the best mailbox big brother ever!" Stella jumps.

"You're always there when we need you Uncle," Candy with a sly grin, "Especially when we need to contact anypony!"

Spike then thinks and gets a grin, "I would look good in somepony yard," he rubs his chin.

Twilight shakes her head with a smirk, "Come on you three and I'll show you what I've been working on in the tower. Moondancer is already there. I just had to run to the library to get this," She motions to the book. "But you can't tell anyone what you see, promise..."

"We promise with blades on wing and thigh while soaring through the skies!" The all said in unison with raise claw, and hooves.

"There's no breaking that," Twilight says with a head tilts as she heard the younger ones recite her surrogate father's binding oath. "Let's go then," Twilight turns and happily trots along with the others.

Twilight trots into her tower with her trio of assistants. The facility was huge, something to to with a special type of spell that makes things bigger on the inside then they look on the outside. It came in very handy and she'd actually learned the spell from Marmalade after visiting her and Bedrock's home after Candy was born.

"Have you three had lunch yet?" Twilight says looking around. "I wonder where Moonie is?"

"No, we haven't eaten yet," Stella answers.

"I think she might be in the book fort again," Candy suggests. "You two are weird about reading. I never understood the phrase, 'be one with something you love doing' until I saw you come out on a draw bridge made out of books over a mote filled with books."

"Apparently she's been doing it since before she was your age," came an older mare’s voice that was coming down the steps of a spiral staircase. "Hello Twilight. Hello little one."

"Big sister!" Spike and Stella shout and then homed in on Spitfire.

"WAIT AT LEAT LET ME GET OFF THE- OOF!" Spitfire yelps but is immediately tackle by her younger sibling tumbling down to the bottom steps. "Stairs..."

Candy laughs her but off. "Heheehehe... hey hehehehhe... Aunt Spitfire hahahahHAHAHAHAAHHAHA!"

"I see you had some free time," Twilight slyly smirks. "How's Soarin?"

"A pain in my flank because he can't fly straight! Spike, Stella I love you to but...," Spitfire says looking down at her younger siblings, "LET ME UP!" The yellow pegasus complains.

The drake and unicorn kindly obliged.

"What are you doing here?" Spike asks.

"We though you we on duty in Cloudsdale?" Stella pronks around her older sister.

"I was on duty, still am technically but I have some stuff to do in Canterlot, mainly paperwork pickup and drop off on new recruits," Spitfire explains, "But I also thought I'd come by and see you guys since I was in town for today," she smiles. "I wanted to have lunch with you guys, so I came here first since I know you three as Twinkle’s assistants."

"Don't call me Twinkles," Twilight grumbles.

"Sure, thing Twinkles," Spitfire smiles while Twilight stares annoyed. "Anyway, I came here but no pony was answered so I let myself in and found zip on the bottom floor, so I went up top. I found diet Twinkles snoozing in a book house drooling all over herself. Must have been one crazy dream because that look on her face was, Oh wow!"

Twilight looks up, "Hmm... She must have pulled an all nightier, again, or she just didn’t want to go home," she shakes her head, "I've told her not to spend the night here. This is not her apartment," Twilight then glares at Spitfire, "And she is not a diet version of me! And stop calling me Twinkles!" She snorts.

"What are you two doing anyways?" Spitfire squints. "It better not be another gadget that is supposed to revolutionize pony kind by ten years. I'm still finding metal little bits of you last experiment in all my uniforms."

"Hehe..." Twilight blushed. "No, we're actually working on something that has already existed for a good while now. Papa asked for our help with this actually."

"Dad actually asked you for help?" Spitfire is taken aback. "This must be serious if he asked you and diet Twinkles for help. Speaking of which, what does she know?"

"About the corps and all of the ponies here but that's it," Twilight says as every ascends the stairs. "Papa had her sign a Contract of Silence just to be on the safe side though I know Moonie would never tell a soul about the family and his Corps. She doesn't know what he really is, but she has realized that he has had a bit of a book trail behind him. Even if only three or four of his works have officially been published as under his name Papa did technically write many of the medical books and the books on plants we've been using for some years now, though Princess Celestia edited them into pony versions for his secrecy." The stopped at the top, "Yep, book house," Twilight said flatly. "I'll get Moonie out and woken up. Feel free to browse but don't touch anything that's on the table or with a sheet over it, I'm talking to you Candy."

Candy quickly pulls back with an embarrassed blush from a table with a lot of glassware on it.

"Be back in a bit," Twilight sings as she set the book on a table and then grabs a paddle with her magic and starts for the book house. "Oh Moooooonnnnnniieeeeeeeeee, I have a surprise for yoouuuuuuuuu!"

The bull then croaks from atop Spitfire's back, 'At least she's in a good mood this time... I hope Diet Twilight remembered not to drool on the book this time...'

Spitfire quickly turns her head to look at the frog with a raised eyebrow, "When did you get up there?" she tilts her head.

The frog does a mismatched blink and croaks, 'Honey, that's for me to know and you to, never know...'

The pegasus looks at the amphibian with half lidded eyes, "I don’t need understand you to know what you said, but it sounded snarky to me, " she turns her head back around. and deadpans, "Dick."

'Bitch...'

Suddenly...

*THWACK!!!*

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" A pony cries out in pain inside the book house. "MOTH er OF ALL FAUST ALL MIGHT MY [BEEEEEEEEEEP!]"

"Wow," Spitfire says with wide eyes, "Yelling enough for the censorship spell to activate. Gotta give Twinkles her props," she nods approvingly.

"It’s far from over from what you told us," Spike says.

"Yea, if Moonie was drooling on the books as much as you made it out to," Stella adds. “Things are gonna get good.”

"Yea, now that you mention I did say that," Spitfire rubs her chin recalling. "There was a pretty big puddle in there. Why is it important though?"

"How big was is exactly if you can remember?" Spike asks.

"Two or three books around the size of the one Twinkles had," Spitfire says.

"Then we're in for quite a bit of-" Candy starts.

"Twi, put that down now!" Moondancer yells out in the book house.

"I've [BEEP!]ing told you countless [BEEP!]ing times this is not your [BEEP!]ING APARTMENT!"

*THWACK!*

"OOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW! MY [BEEP!]ING [BEEP!]!"

"That," Candy points at the book house.

*CRASH!*

*SQUISH! SQUISH! SQUISH!*

"What the [BEEP!] am I stepping in that's soo... Is this a [BEEP!] towel that... OH MY [BEEP!]ING GODS ABOVE! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! SO GROSS!"

*SWISH! SPALT!*

"Now Twilight... I can explain that," Moondancer said as she sounds like she is cowering in fear.

The pegasus outside merely blinks while the foals and dragon were sharing popcorn amongst one another.

The frog just shrugs it off and, 'Meh's', it.

Several crashes followed by the sound of breaking glass were heard; followed by the book house jumping off the floor several feet in the air only to land in one piece on the floor. The books miraculously styed in place as if glued the. Spitfire was sure she saw a few timbers fly out the windows with each time a crash was heard while the book structure jumps.

"We should really do something," Spitfire speaks up finally.

"I'm not going that," Spike points as-

*THWACK!*

*THWACK!**THWACK!*

*THWACK!*

*THWACK!*

"[BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!] MY [BEEP!]ING [BEEP!]" Moondancer cries out.

The fillies and young drake merely shook their heads very rapidly.

Soon more ruckus passed and soon out pops an pony very similar in looks to Twilight with and inverted mane and tail colors and a cream yellow coat but with big black frame glasses and a sweater. She flops out and land on her chin butt straight up in the air red and sizzling. Twilight proceeds to follow out of the house with a content smile and a broken paddle while humming Michigan's signature show tune.

The lavender mare then cast a spell on the book house and the books all good to their proper shelves or to the restoration area that Twilight had built for just such occasions.

Twilight then tosses the paddle in a corner, with several other similarly broken paddles.

"Owwwwww! My butt..." Moondancer says as she tries to rub her posterior only the wince back from the mere proximity. "You don't have to beat me Twi!"

"If you would get it through that thick skull of yours that this is my tower and not you apartment then I wouldn't have to!" Twilight raises a hoof in the air. "That's just the main reason you shouldn't be sleeping anyways. The other is this is a lab and I often have family and or Military personnel, let alone ROYALTY HERE!"

The mare's colors started to lighten a bit until Spitfire clears her throat, "Ah... yes so what exactly are you working on Ms. Sparkle?" She tried to ask professional.

"Oh!" Twilight quickly pulls her attention to the group, "Sorry- Wait, popcorn? Stella was that really necessary?!"

"Yes, yes it was," Stella cutely smiles.

Twilight vision narrows at her adoptive sister slash assistant slash student only for the foal to cutely smile back.

Twilight let's out a sigh of defeat, "Come on and I'll show you while Moonie cleans up the rest of her mess, right?” She glares at her diet self.

"Yea, yea," Moondancer crosses her forelegs, "Right after my ass stops stop’s emitting heat!"

"Bad!" Twilight says as she pops in a rolled-up newspaper and swats Moondancer right on the keister, again. "We have foals present."

"OW! MY [BEEP!]ING [BEEP!]!" Moonie cries out in pain once more.

"Please follow me," Twilight quickly turns with a smile.

"Was that last hit really necessary?" Spitfire asks.

"Yes, yes it was," Twilight proudly proclaims proudly leading the way into another room.

The Mirror Room

Her in the center of a large room was sat a large purple horseshoe shaped mirror with the image of an earth pony engraved on top. It was on top of a two-step stoop that had horseshoes facing upwards in a row decorating the first step.

"Twilight what is that thing doing here?!" Spitfire points at the mirror. "You better have a good explanation for this that doesn't involve some sort of series of cooky experiments!"

"Hey, take that back," Twilight protest. "I'm not cooky or any variation of the word!"

"Why is the mop dancing the Macarena with the bucket?!" Moondancer shouts.

"Okay may a bit quirky," Twilight nervously gives a light chuckle. Clearing her throat while ignoring Spitfire's squinted glare and the youths incessant laughing at Moondancer as she did her best to match the Mop and bucket's tempo, "Anyways, no Spitfire this is what Papa asked me and Moonie to look into. A way to possibly force open or keep open the portal while we wait for it to opens again," She and the others walk in front of the mirror to show all their reflection with Spitfire in the dead-center. "He wants to get Sunset back for the Princess, you, and Stella. That's why he has one of us or the Corps monitoring it nearly at all time of the day for any activity at all. It's why he had it moved here. We have proof she's been back since she left, if only to get some gold and gems."

"He's trying to get Sunny back?" Spitfire walks up and places a hoof on the mirror. "I didn't think dad cared that much about her, or Summer, or me. I thought he just saw us as his step kids."

"Why would dad look at any of us less than the other sis?" Spike speaks up. "I mean look at us?" he motions to everypony but especially himself, "I mean I'm a dragon and he doesn't see me any less than you or Stella and Stella his actually his kid!"

"Technically, I'm not even related to him by blood or directly from that matter," Candy raises a valid point. "I'm fifth generation Strawberry but still a descendant but he treats me just like all of you. Twilight isn't even part of the family, but he still treats her as if she was blood kin."

"He loves his wife but is trying to love mom to," Stella speaks up. "I don't think dad will ever get over what he lost but he is trying to love mom and trying to make her happy along with all of us."

"I once told him I wouldn't call him dad and he said he was fine with that," Spitfire sighs, taking her hoof off the mirror. "Before I knew a little over a year had passed and I was talking to him as normally as my birth father. He helped with my training, and he even helped me better my relationship with mom," She turns and faces the others. "I'd never thought her as anything but a mother, as nothing more than a joke but here am calling him dad and the mother who was all but estranged mom thanks to him."

"Dad has seen and done a lot that I think makes him want to cherish everything," Stella looks into her reflection. "He is the only one of his kind as far as we know. For a long time, he thought he couldn't have foals and then I was born."

"Something changed in papa after you were born Stella," Twilight says placing a foreleg on the filly's back. "He started showing a lot more emotions to everypony. He was a lot softer with everypony like he was with the Princess before you were born. I think when you were born, he finally felt like he belonged here."

"You think so Twilly?" Stella looks up with twinkling eyes.

"You can bet your mane on baby sister," Spitfire agrees. "I hate to cut things short girls, but we should get going. I’ve got to be back in Cloudsdale by tonight. I bet mom and dad will be happy to have supper with us though."

"I think dad should be back from Manehattan by then," Spike think rubbing his chin.

"Why'd he go there?" Spitfire asks.

"Something to do with one of Equestria's most wanted," He shrugs. "A lead on a former noble. A baroness of or something I think."

"Don't push yourself too much to remember Spike," Twilight speaks up with a bit of a squeak. "You four go on and get lunch. I have a few things here I need to look into," She notes as the book she had earlier float up and over from the stairwell.

"I'll take them for a while Twi," Spitfire reassures the purple mare. "It's been a moon sense we last did anything together anyways."

"Thanks Spitfire," Twilight waves. "Take care and feel free to check in with me or Moonie for updates."

"There's water everywhere!" The other unicorn cries out.

"Speaking of which I better tweak that self-cleaning spell, but later," Twilight notes with a grin. "Bye girls and Spike."

"Bye sis," the youth yell in unison.

"By Twi!" Spitfire says waving, "You," she looks at the frog still on her back, "GET OFF!"

'Whatever...' Michigan croaks jumping down and over to a water feature before jumping in in and popping up on a lily pad singing 'We Were Sailing Along On Moonlight Bay'.

"I don't even want to try and understand how," Spitfire deadpans as she trots off with youths in hoof.

Author's Note

GOOD MORNING!

GOOD AFTERNOON!

GOOD EVENING!

MY OH SO LOVELY READERS! First off, I had most of this written the same day I posted the last chapter but wasn't able to finish due to... Work, helping my parents and all around real-life bullshit! YEEEEEEEEAAAAAA! This is actually one of my fun chapters and I had a lot of laughs writing it and I hope you enjoy it and laugh while reading it. Enjoy my avid followers and readers!

GHOST ALVASA OUT, MMM... PEACE!_!