Disappeared

Luna ran through the castle like her flowing blue mane was on fire. Spike did his best to keep up, but eventually Luna had to allow him to hop on her back.

"Uh, Luna? There's one problem," Spike said, trying to hold on. "Neither of us has been to the library before, so we don't know exactly where it is."

Luna stopped abruptly. "You're right. But we have to do something. Worst case scenario, we get lost in the tunnels, so I teleport us back to the castle." She continued running.

The two of them raced through the tunnels. Luna had been there multiple times, but couldn't find the library for the life of her. They passed a plaque, and Luna, realizing what it was, skidded to a stop.

"Dragon! You used this word during our game of Scrabble! What does it mean?"

Spike shrugged. "I remembered it from the thesaurus Twilight told me to read. I don't know exactly what it is, but like I told you then, it has something to do with books. To be honest, I thought you'd know, seeing as how you still use language from over a thousand years ago, but-"

Luna passed the Athenaeum sign and hopped up the steps and pushed open the door. Looking back at Spike, she said, "Books… as in a library?"

They passed the oddities Star Swirl had collected over the years. His books were still a disorganized jumble on the shelves, the floor was still dirt. Knowing Star Swirl, Luna wasn't surprised. The eccentric wizard did have a bad habit of being messy.

"Where do you think the Princess went?" Spike asked. Luna looked around in confusion.

"I have no idea."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes for the hundredth time. All these books were so boring.

"Hey Applejack! Find anything yet?"

"Rainbow, if I found anythin', I would have told you."

"Pinkie?"

"Well, I did find this book on hydras, which was really interesting and would be really helpful if we go back to the Froggy Bottom Bog again because I think the hydra's still there, and-"

"That's a no." Rainbow closed her eyes and flew upside down. "I'm bored. Can I go see if Twilight found anything?"

"Sure. It's better than listening to you complain," Applejack said jokingly.

"Ha-ha." She swiftly landed on the ground and ran to Celestia's workshop. But it was eerily quiet. No rustling papers, no sighs of boredom, no nothing. What was going on? "Uh, guys? How is it in here?"

No response. The room was empty.

Panicking, Rainbow yelled, "Applejack! Pinkie Pie! Get in here, now!"

The amount of time it took for them to arrive was too long. Rainbow flew to where the two of them were running and pushed them into the workshop.

"They're gone?" Pinkie shrieked. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I just came in here, and poof! They were gone! What happened to them?" Rainbow scattered the papers on the table, as if looking underneath them for the three missing ponies.

"Rainbow, you know that's not going to do a thing to help. They're probably in another part of the library and just forgot to tell us where they went… Right?"

"Um, Luna?"

"Yes, Spike?"

"That's the third time we've passed the giant coin."

"So it is." Luna sighed deeply. "I swear, I feel like such a plebeian right now. I can't find a thing in this library."

Spike was about to sigh too, but he spotted a flash of a rainbow mane out of the corner of his eye, and he said, "Luna! I think I see Rainbow Dash! Go that way!" Luna looked in the direction his purple claw pointed at.

"I hope you'll stop treating me like I'm just the one ferrying you around," she sniffed, but she started to gallop towards Rainbow.

"Guys! Celestia is coming down here, and you need to get out," Spike called. Applejack turned her head to look at them.

"Celestia came down… Do you think she used the mirror?" she asked. "That would explain why we can't find anyone."

"If she did," Luna said, "the mirror must be complete. She progressed faster than I expected."

Pinkie asked, "What do we do now? Do we go through the mirror, or what?"

"Not the mirror!" Luna gasped. "It would be very unwise to travel across. It appears that Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity are there to keep an eye on her. For now, we can just use Spike to deliver a message to request more information about their whereabouts and hope that the four of them are okay."

"They will be, right?" Rainbow gave Luna a pleading look, and Applejack, Pinkie and Spike joined her. Luna's mind raced, not wanting to deliver bad news, but not wanting to lie either.

"I don't know."

Standing up, Spike said, "Well, we shouldn't just wait around to find out. Someone get me a quill and paper, and I'll write to our friends."

They were in the mirrored world.

Celestia stumbled as she got up. The guard roughly tried to restrain her, but with a flap of her wings he was sprawled on the ground.

"I will go with you, but you can not control me. Same goes for my friends," she said in her most regal voice, gesturing to Rarity, Twilight and Fluttershy.

The guard huffed, "Fine. But this only lasts until King Sombra sees you. And trust me when I say, you won't be able to fight your way out of capture." Fluttershy let out a small "eep!" noise, while Twilight and Rarity gulped.

"Come on, then," another guard growled, and led them into the castle.

They rounded a corner to the hall of stained glass windows, and all four of them gasped.

In the past, Trixie, Queen Chrysalis, Flim and Flam, and Derpy Hooves had been celebrated in the form of colored glass, but every panel on all four windows was completely shattered. For the first time, Celestia let herself doubt her theory. She shoved those thoughts from her mind, insisting that this happened while Sombra was still evil, and it was completely possible that he had been turned into a better pony and just hadn't gotten around to repairing them yet.

Twilight knew what Celestia was thinking. So did Rarity and Fluttershy. They all knew the princess was too optimistic for her own good.

After another bout of twists and turns through the castle, the guards led them to the large double doors of the throne room. Celestia's stomach turned inside of her with the anticipation.

"Moment of truth," Rarity whispered. Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged worried looks.

The guards pushed open the doors.

"Celestia? How did you get back here?" Sombra asked.

But his voice was lower, and it had glints of hate. His coat was a dark gray, his horn gently smoking red. And his eyes… Celestia's heart broke as she looked into his green, red and purple eyes.

Thank you to those who reviewed!

amajorhehe - You better get used to it. I love ending on a cliffhanger ;)

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