Questions

Twilight stood in the doorway, shivering. After the creature's discovery, a battalion of armed creatures had opened the trapdoor and had led her through twisting sewers and corridors until she had finally emerged into the streets of a bustling city.

The sewers had possibly been the worst thing Twilight had ever experienced - not only did the foul smell of excrement seem to permeate everything in the subterranean tunnels, but Twilight could have sworn she saw ghosts and other undead creatures, which she had long thought myths, stalk the darker regions of the sewer. There were oversized insects dwelling inside too, with which the guards appeared to be locked with in perpetual combat.

The stench of death had lingered in those dark corridors, and to Twilight's nose it was an unwelcome scent she had rarely smelled before, if ever, and she had trouble not throwing up again, for a second time.

Now, however, after having been washed with cold water and dried with a towel, Twilight stood, shivering slightly, for it was cold within the grey stone walls of the palace, and was about to enter what she had been told was the library.

She lifted her hoof up to slowly push open the door and investigate inside, when the door suddenly opened inwards to reveal the librarian.

"Ah, hello again. If you would be kind enough to come in and take a seat?" the creature said, gesturing to a nearby stool.

The guards who had been accompanying her since she was extricated from the sewers, clearly intrigued and slightly suspicious of Twilight, nodded to her and she walked inside. Much to her surprise, they remained outside and closed the door, leaving her inside with the librarian, whom Twilight noticed to be the creature who had been studying her outside.

Twilight approached the aforementioned stool, but as she drew closer she saw there was really no comfortable position in which she could sit on such an object. Seeing no sofas or couch-like objects around, she opted to stand instead.

The library itself was filled with with a few bookcases, and although it was undoubtedly smaller than Twilight's library, each bookcase was packed with scrolls, parchment and books themselves, so Twilight had no doubts it must have contained just as many books as her library, despite being smaller. Twilight also noticed, that upon closer inspection, the books were all extremely old, even the youngest seemed oldest than the books she held within her home.

At the back of the library was a huge book, mounted on a large lectern, and although Twilight could hardly see it, she thought it seemed to contain lots of names. In front of the book was a table, at which she saw the creature was seated, so she moved to stand nearby.

There was a small silence whilst each of the two persons present seemed to examine each other for a while, but before it grew awkward, the strange creature piped up and at last spoke.

"Okay, I am sure you must have many questions, and I do also, but before we start any of that I suggest we simply introduce ourselves. Now, I am a man, and I carry the name of Reldo, and I am the palace librarian here in Varrock. What about yourself?"

Reldo's introduction had left Twilight many questions, such as what or where was Varrock, and more importantly, what was a man, but she answered him anyway.

"Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I live, or well, used to live, in Ponyville in our country of Equestria, where I was the town librarian. Where I am now, however? I have no idea."

Reldo looked deep in thought, staring into the air.

"That's interesting," He started, "I have never heard of any of those places, and also, if I may ask, what kind of creature are you?"

Twilight felt disheartened at Reldo's answer.

How am I going to get home if he doesn't know where my home is?

Twilight started feeling a little depressed, and several hairs in her mane started coming lose as she started to realise that she may never see her friends again.

Wait, what if I know where I am? I have read so much about the geography of Equestria and lands for miles around, wherever I am, I will surely know!

Looking back up at Reldo, who was starting to look a little worried, she replied.

"Well, I am a unicorn, and I can cast magic and stuff. I used to be the princess's personal student however, so I'm sure I will know where we are, if you wouldn't mind telling me?"

Reldo blinked at how suddenly the unicorn had become happy again, and also at how many new questions had been presented.

"Well, this is our fair city of Varrock, in the kingdom of Misthalin. The lands around here stretch for a long way, with the island of Karamja to the south, the eastern lands to the, well, east, elven lands to the far west, as well as the homes of the gnomish peoples, and then, to the immediate north, are the scorched and blackened lands of the wilderness. Now, I am afraid that's basically as far as we men have explored Gielinor, although I am constantly hearing of tales of huge frozen wastelands to the extreme far north, further than most humans would dare to sail." Answered Reldo, trying to paraphrase, but also constantly aware that there was simply too much to try and explain.

"Wait, what's Gielinor?" Twilight asked, her confusion deepened.

"Well, it's the realm that you are currently in." Reldo answered like realm physics was more natural than breathing itself.

Twilight stared at Reldo in abject horror.

By Celestia's great beard, what is a realm?!

"Okay, so what's a realm?" Twilight asked, very panicky now, strands of her mane coming lose as she hoped her assumptions were wrong.

"Well, realm physics are kind of hard to explain, but in short, the multiverse is constructed of many different pockets of existence, called realms. Normally, these cannot interact with each other in any way, but with powerful magic, one can traverse these realms. Many realms are interconnected with Gielinor, such as Zanaris, or the rune-crafting altars, and of course the most famous example of inter-realm travel was when Guthix first opened the world gate and populated Gielinor." Reldo finished his, relatively, concise answer, and looked to the purple mare.

Twilight sat down, feeling faint. The man, as he said he was called, had just made her more confused, and she now had even more questions. She had never heard of Varrock, or Misthalin, or Gielinor, or any of the places he had mentioned, and had lost all sense of hope for returning home.

Stay calm Twilight, you can get through this... ...maybe.

She lay her head down on the table, her head hurting, and for the first time in her life, except maybe that time about Pinkie's Pinkie sense, she genuinely understood none of what she was being told.

"Are you ok?" Reldo asked, actual concern lining his voice, although he made no other move to comfort the unicorn.

"I think you best ask me some questions now, you clearly have some." Twilight made her answer in a tired voice, she was clearly exhausted and extremely confused. She finally opted to attempt to sit on the strange stool, and actually found it relatively comfortable.

"Okay, well I have a few questions," Reldo began, "First of all, the starter of many, could you tell me about Equestria?"

Twilight saw that Reldo and a quill and book ready, so she began.

"Well, Equestria was founded a couple of thousand years ago by an alliance of friendship between the pegasus, unicorn and earth pony races, and now has several large cities. We are ruled over by the princesses, and well, generally just get on with our lives. There are a few dangerous places, however, like the Everfree forest, but nothing really bad ever happens." Twilight spoke fondly, as if remembering a particularly nice memory.

"But nothing really bad happens?" Reldo broke her reminiscence with the comment, which was flowing with sarcasm and open scepticism.

"No, it doesn't. What would you expect?" Twilight asked, genuinely confused as to why anything bad would ever happen to a good pony, and why Reldo and seemed so sceptical.

"Okay, tell me more about these princesses." Reldo asked next, completely ignoring her question, but Twilight was happy to continue talking about Equestria,

"Well, there's Princess Celestia, my teacher, who is over a thousand years old and governs the country. She has the powers of all three races of pony, and raises the sun each morning. Then there's Princess Luna, her sister, who raises the moon." Twilight's look darkened. "Unfortunately, she was corrupted by jealously, and betrayed Celestia, and was banished to the moon for a thousand years. Recently, however, she returned, threatening to plunge Equestria into eternal night, but me and my friends managed to thwart her plans using the magic of friendship, returning her to her true self." Twilight smiled once more as she finished her story. She glanced over to Reldo, but saw he had stopped writing.

"She raises the sun every morning? You do realise that the sun and moon do that naturally, right? She could just be bluffing." Reldo's scepticism and disbelief was so palpable it was more solid than his actual physical being.

Twilight stared at him in a mixture of horror and incandescent rage.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE PRINCESSES! CELESTIA IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY BEING IN YOUR PATHETIC REALMS! PAH! WE DON'T EVEN NEED YOUR REALMS! DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MY FRIENDSHIP!"

She had shouted at the librarian at the top of her lungs, and now sat deflated on the floor.

Reldo seemed in deep thought. If nothing bad ever happened to these ponies, then no wonder a lethargic princess who claims to raise stars would seem almighty to them, he thought to himself. Reldo then made a decision, although he knew it could shatter this frail creature's naivety about the lack of violence in the world, and the apparent power of friendship.

"Follow me" Reldo said sternly, no emotion breaking through the thick hold of his voice.

Twilight was crying softly. She was still angry, but the confusion and strangeness of the day had finally caught up with her. Complying, she got up.

Reldo pushed open the library door, and Twilight followed him as they walked down grey stone corridors, lined with suits of armour and paved with thick, red carpets. They reached what Twilight presumed was the corner of the huge building, just down the hall from the library, and Reldo pushed open another door, leading inside. Once inside, Twilight could see weapon racks hanging from the walls, and a wooden spiral staircase in the centre of the room.

"Climb." Once again, Reldo's voice was cold.

Twilight put her hoof on the bottom step, testing it. It seemed firm, so she climbed up the stairs until at last she emerged into the open air. Looking around, she saw she was in top of one of the tall towers she had seen from her cage. Looking around, she could she a menagerie of dull stone buildings stretching out in front of her. It was nothing compared to Canterlot, but she still found it rather impressive.

Turning to the right a little, she saw a huge covered forum, and although it was currently the depths of night, it was crammed full of traders, the noise of their deals and sales easily reaching her ears.

"Look this way." Reldo said, his voice still cold.

Twilight turned around... and froze.

She blinked. No, it was still there.

Walking slowly to the edge, she gazed out upon the scene in front of her, her brain trying to tell her what she was seeing was impossible.

Once more, she began to cry, although only softly.

As far as she could see, the earth had been bent into blackened, gnarled terrain, and horrible fissures scarred the landscape.

Corpses littered the wasteland, too many for Twilight to count, some looked like those of what could be men, the others were of horrific abominations of nature. Although it was far away; the blackened wastes spread all the way to the horizon, and presumably far over; she could see horrific hordes of foul creatures scurry across the landscape, and lumbering beasts engage in the slaughter of smaller creatures, but those smaller creatures did not run, they retaliated with full force, relishing in the violence and bloodshed.

Twilight was mortified, shocked, her perception of reality destroyed. This was twisted, far worse than what any pony could ever imagine, not even in the most fantastical of tales.

"W-w-what happened?" Twilight asked, trembling, filled with fear, repulsion, and also a sense of guilt she had been so ungrateful previously about a land free of violence, filled only with friendship.

"The god wars. For centuries blood was spilled across these fields, and millions died in the duty of their masters. The land was scorched by ethereal fires, and the flames of war, and has never recovered. What remains are beasts whose natures reflect the brutality of the massacres that occurred here, and due to the dark magic that plagues the tainted land, the souls and bodies of the dead still roam free to kill in their uncontrollable rage, trapped forever in this mortal coil unable to rest, forced to either slay the living, or watch them be slain by the fearsome dragons and demons that lurk within the land's fiery depths."

Reldo had answered with a straight face, but Twilight had not kept hers. As he descended the stairs back down to his library, leaving Twilight alone on the roof, she had started crying, and could not stop, lamenting for the lives lost and the families shattered, weeping for a country forsaken, and of wounds never to heal.

Such a pain had never been known to Equestria, Nightmare Moon's betrayal seemed like a small squabble to Twilight now.

If she ever made it home, she would not be the same mare anymore, and she would never take for granted her friends, her home, and above all, peace.