The words didn't even make much sense, even though it seemed like she kept hearing them from everywhere these days. Slowly, however, they began to make too much sense. On each of Pinkie's sides was a saddlebag, both of them crammed full of who knows what. Twilight's body had a sudden reaction to the situation: fight-or-flight. If she didn't react now, she was going to lose contact with the last true friend she had in this town.

"Pinkie... What? What do you mean you need to leave? What happened?"

"Is Spike asleep yet?" Her voice was small; her confidence was seemingly smaller.

Twilight accepted that as a fair point. Until she could understand it herself, there was nothing to be gained by getting Spike worked up over this. She stepped past Pinkie Pie, shutting the door behind her as quietly as possible. "Pinkie, you're scaring me. Why do you need to leave? Are the Cakes okay?"

"They're fine. It's nothing like that." Pinkie suddenly became entranced by the ground, for her eyes couldn't lift any higher than it. She dug casually at the grass, seemingly only to buy time. She was chewing on her lip, too. "I'm leaving to go on a mission."

Twilight's tension lowered by a notch. The last time Pinkie Pie used the word "mission," it was to find a bag of color markers she had misplaced. The saddlebags meant nothing at that point. During the marker crusade, she had somehow donned an entire suit of armor. "A mission for what?" the lavender pony ventured to ask.

They were both illuminated by nothing but a lantern Twilight kept outside the library at night, and a half moon. The rest of Ponyville was lost to the almost complete blackness of night. It made the scene eerie for Twilight. When Pinkie continued to refuse eye contact, she only began feeling worse.

"I... I can't tell you. You would just laugh at me."

Twilight let herself take some time to think about that. It's true, Pinkie's imagination could sometimes get the better of her. Still... "We've had a lot of laughs together, but never once have I laughed at you. I'm not going to start now."

"Do you Pinkie Promise?"

It was a little startling just how prepared she was to ask that. She does rely on those to get around, though. "Cupcake in my eye," Twilight said, shortening the ritual while still making the motion of putting a hoof on her eyelid.

The bubblegum-tinted equine finally relaxed a bit. That was good. Super-Serious-Pinkie was frightening. "The thing is, Twilight..." She looked up to meet her friend's gaze. Twilight could have sworn there was a twinkle of water in the corner of Pinkie's eyes, but didn't have any evidence of it. "I really, really miss everyone."

Okay. Pinkie was lonely. She could work with this. A slumber party! And she was more than invited to go gem-hunting with them tomorrow. It was no reason to leave Ponyville (and Twilight) for months at a time. Now she just needed to be convinced of that. Taking a deep breath for confidence, Twilight spoke, "I know, Pinkie. I've found myself thinking about them all night, too. The thing is, we can't even be sure of where they are. Rarity might still be in Canterlot, but it's pretty plausible that her business has gotten so big that she's needed more stores around Equestria. And Fluttershy did say she was going to Zecora's homeland, but she could be anywhere by now. And the other two we're still not really... sure of."

"I know." Pinkie sighed. She seemed to be expecting the worst to come from the next part. "The thing is, I'm not really going to look for them. I'm going to look for the reverstone."

The mini librarian inside of Twilight's head searched through any available mental databanks for her. The reverstone. What in the world was that? It sounded familiar, but why? She needed a nudge in the right direction. "Come again?"

"The reverstone," she answered quietly. It looked like she was still worried about Twilight's reaction, which was morphing over to incredulous. "It can reverse time, and..."

Click. The fog that was hiding the answer cleared up all at once. That Daring Do story. Twilight's jaw made a good attempt at dropping to the floor. "...Pinkie..." she whispered, her mind still gathering broken thoughts. Before continuing, she cleared her throat, bringing the volume of her voice back to normal. "Pinkie, there's no easy way to tell you this. It doesn't exist! You're the one that made it up!"

The party pony's stance changed. She moved from scared and humbled to defensive. "Hey, I'm not a dodo, Twilight! Of course it's real!"

"It's not real. There's no logical way it could be real. You made it up for your story!"

"Who says I made it up?" Pinkie bit back. "Maybe I read about it somewhere!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. It's true, she was speaking to a friend that was very vulnerable right now. The problem was that friend was spewing unscientific facts, and there was never an excuse for that. "Did you?"

Any bravado that the anger surge had given her fizzled out. Again, Pinkie looked to the ground for advice. It didn't offer much. There was a blinking lightening bug on that blade of grass, though. "I... might have, when I was little. I don't remember that well..."

Sometimes the unicorn felt bad for always winning verbal debates between her friends. She allowed herself a private frown before setting a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder. It was supposed to provide comfort, even though she wasn't sure if it did. "Listen, Pinkie. I know a lot about magic and the history of Equestria, and time-traveling artifacts don't come up in my books very often. If it'll make you feel better, we can spend some time tonight looking through the library. We'll research this 'reverstone' and see what comes up, but I don't think—"

"I can't waste that much time," Pinkie stated, shaking her head. She noticed the hoof leave her shoulder, but tried her best to soldier on. "You don't understand, Twilight. The reverstone has to be real. I need to go back in time."

"Pinkie—"

"It's not the same!" was barked, cutting Twilight's response off. "Even before everyone just vanished... it's not the same. I could never find a time to host a party where all of our friends could be there. Anytime AJ let herself take time off, Rarity was gone on a fashion trip. Or when Rainbow Dash could make it, Fluttershy was too busy. That didn't use to happen, Twilight. I want to go back to the first day we all met you and stay there forever and ever."

"Pinkie—" she said again, this time with more desperation. But again, she got interrupted.

"You can't talk me out of this, Twilight Sparkle. I'll write to you soon."

She turned around and began walking away.

Twilight couldn't believe what just happened. Had that just happened? Pinkie was always on the sensitive side of things. It goes without saying that almost all of her friends suddenly vanishing—no, taking off, not vanishing—would have an adverse effect on her. Still, to go to the lengths of convincing herself something she created was actually real was unprecedented, even by Pinkie Pie standards. No. It wouldn't end like this.

"Pinkie! Stop right now!"

Had she thought any of this through? How many bits did she have on her? Please say there was a first aid kit in one of those bags. Did she know how to apply any of it even if there was?

"I demand you turn—Pinkie!"

Where in the world was she going? Twilight's guess: she had made up the location of this 'reverstone' while she was at it. She could be headed anywhere, and the statistical chances that it was somewhere safe were astronomically low. Pinkie Pie wasn't obeying Twilight's clear orders, and the harsh truth was that the lantern light didn't stretch on forever. Her last friend from Ponyville was about to take off, no different than the others had.

No, she wasn't. If Pinkie Pie wouldn't listen to reason, maybe she would listen to crazy.

"Pinkie Pie! I'm coming with you!"

That didn't have any trouble causing its intended effect. Pinkie stopped where she was. Four or five seconds after that, Twilight got to see her face as she whipped her neck around. No tears, or anything close to it. A Pinkie smile was attached to the mare's face. "You are?!"

Twilight trod cautiously into that question. If only she knew where her own declaration had come from, she might be able to answer the question posed to her a little easier. She sluggishly trotted forward in order to close the gap that had been created between the two ponies, all the while trying to figure out why she just said what she did. "Well, I..." she started, hoping the rest would spill out itself. It didn't, though, leaving her the task of doing it. "If you won't stop and think about this for a minute, I'll just need to go along with you then."

About half of Pinkie's smile faded away. Maybe Twilight could have worded that better, but if any offense had been taken, Pinkie didn't seem to let it bother her much. "Thanks, Twilight."

"I'll need to pack some things," said the mare, "and let Spike know what's going on. Don't go anywhere, all right?"

Pinkie plopped her backside onto the grass, her grin growing larger again. "I won't!"

Trusting her, at least enough for that, Twilight turned around and reentered the hollow tree. Once inside and with a shut door, she closed her eyes and sighed. A passing thought made her wonder if she could outlast Pinkie by just staying in here. That would never work outside of cheesy romance novels, though.

She opened her eyes and found something bittersweet waiting for her. Across the room, halfway up the first stair leading to her bedroom, Spike's unconscious body laid almost motionless. If it wasn't for his snoring, she might have gotten worried. Instead, the scene incited a giggle. As softly as she could, she lifted his scaly body with magic and hopped up the stairs with him in tow. "It's better this way," she told herself, "The poor dragon would never get to sleep tonight if he knew he had to worry about me and Pinkie."

Gently, she levitated his body down to the pile of hay he slept on every night. Not even a sign of waking up. She chuckled at it, even if it was short-lived.

She looked around her room. Everything was in place. Her bed, her dresser, her organized (to her) pile of books. What destroyed her mood was when she locked eyes with her own pair of saddlebags, hanging there in the corner like they always did. She was hoping against hope that the next time she needed to use them would be to a sunny vacation somewhere. She heaved one more sigh for the night.

-TSR-

"Dear Spike," she reread for the third time.

Some time had passed. Twilight didn't dare to find out how much exactly. The sandy brown saddlebags she had, which had been lined with small sapphires by her fashion friend, rested heavily on top of her back. Tacked to the door in front of her was the note she had just written her assistant.

"I'm going out on some crazy adventure with Pinkie Pie. I promise I'll write as soon as I can explaining more. I'll try to send those amethyst you asked for, too. You're in charge of the library, and try not to bother the princess much while I'm gone, okay? Love you, Twilight"

She didn't like being that vague, but "adventure" and "Pinkie Pie" should answer enough questions for the time being. She didn't want to keep her fellow adventurer much longer. With one last glance at the bottom floor of her library, Twilight pulled the door open just enough to slip by it, and left the reading center behind for the strangest quest she had had yet.

Pinkie Pie had somewhat broken her word. Rather than staying in her spot, she had laid herself down on the grass. A scroll of parchment was laid out in front of her. Closer inspection of the piece revealed it to be a map of Equestria. Twilight entertained the thought that maybe her friend really had put more than five minutes' worth of thought into this. "I'll regret asking this, but where are we off to?"

Pinkie scratched at her chin, before slamming her hoof into the sheet of paper. "We'll start by heading east."

Twilight barely avoided screaming. Instead, she got by with just a groan. "Pinkie, that's west."

"Okay then, we'll start by heading west!" Satisfied that was figured out so easily, Pinkie rolled the map up, grabbed it with her mouth, and shoved it into one of her bags. She immediately turned in a direction (the right one this time) and began trotting away. Twilight, though reluctant, still followed.

West. West wasn't a terrible place to go. It was nothing but plains and light forests for awhile; the desert wasn't going to show up until later on. Maybe she could convince Pinkie Pie to turn back around by then. For now, the main question lingered on her mind. "So, do you know where the reverstone is?"

No more eye-rolling every time she said that word. The normally eccentric pony was still looking downtrodden, and for her friend's sake, Twilight could pretend that she believed in the thing for a little bit.

They exited out from the range of the lantern. The moon had a hard time lighting much, being so high up in the sky like that. Twilight couldn't make out much more than Pinkie's outline as she responded, "I'm not sure. But I'll look all over Equestria if I need to."

They were coming up to the stony path that led out of town. The transition from grass to rock felt strange underneath their hooves, but at least the way forward was obvious now.

"This is really important to you, isn't it?"

There was a delay between the question and response. It was hard to remember a time Pinkie had been serious about something for twenty consecutive minutes and counting. "I've been thinking about this for days, Twilight. It's just something I need to do."

There was a time and a place for blunt honesty. There was a voice inside of her—her urge to blurt her opinion out—screaming. "You're an idiot!" it wanted to yell at Pinkie Pie, "You're chasing after a rock that doesn't exist so you can selfishly abuse time travel!"

There was a time and a place for blunt honesty. This wasn't it. "I understand, Pinkie," Twilight responded softly.

It wasn't a long trip to leave Ponyville. From there, they traveled through the area locally known as the Great Plains. Unshaved weeds were everywhere, as were unthreatening fauna. Neither were able to deter the traveling ponies for more than a minute. Before long, they were already in the next area: the Mid-Great Plains. They had only been on their journey for barely a couple hours, but they couldn't escape the fact that they had gotten off to a rather late start. The moon they were relying on was getting ever closer to its apex, and outside of special study sessions, Twilight never allowed herself to stay up that late. Conversation had turned quiet soon after leaving Ponyville, but finally, the silence was broken.

"Pinkie, maybe we should rest here for the night. We'll be better off when we aren't so tired."

Unbeknownst to Twilight, she had caught the earth pony mid-yawn. "You're right," she agreed heartily.

A look around their surroundings kept them unimpressed. The Mid-Great Plains were known as such because the farther west one traveled, the warmer the temperature got, thus stopping the grass from growing as tall as it does in the Great Plains. With no trees or ponds to be found, all the scenery they were left with was a half-dead meadow. It would at least, however, provide them with a respectable spot to get some rest.

"Hey, Twilight? Could you shine a little light over here?"

That was a simple request to fulfill. Upon giving herself a seat on top of an especially withered patch of grass, the unicorn tapped into her magical strengths and cast a beginner's spell. A tent of welcoming light shrouded the pair of ponies, originating from the tip of Twilight's horn.

The brightness fended off the dark, revealing Pinkie Pie to be in a familiar position. She was once again belly flopped on the ground, her eyes scanning her trusty map. This was the first time Twilight paid much attention to the piece of paper. It looked old—thirty years or older, probably. She briefly wondered where Pinkie had stumbled across something like that, but a different thought replaced that one in her mind.

"Is it okay if I ask you something? It's a little silly, but..."

"Fire away!" the pony answered. "Pew pew!"

It was somewhat startling to discover that she found the need to provide her own sound effects. Once the shock wore off, though, Twilight was left with a grin on her face. Even when a little depressed, Pinkie was still Pinkie. "I've been thinking about this since earlier, when you said it was getting hard to throw parties that all of your friends could attend. You aren't... mad at me, are you?"

That immediately drew Pinkie's attention away from the paper. Her sky-blue eyes locked with Twilight's own before the latter could make a retreat. "Why would I be mad at you?"

"Well, it was just that one time when Spike needed to go to Canterlot," the mare started, finally managing to look away and at the surrounding grass. "When we were told that Spike couldn't stay in Ponyville anymore—"

"Oh, Twilight," Pinkie said, almost with a laugh, "of course I'm not mad at you! That was really important! And besides, apart from that one, you and Spike always come to my parties. You shouldn't worry so much about small things like that."

She was a strange pony to take advice from, given the circumstances. Still, the fact that she had a point made Twilight giggle. "Maybe you're right." Now wanting to get away from that topic, she leaned forward in her spot. "Did you find what you needed on that map?"

A bouncy reply was half-expected, and received. "Mm-hm! I have a good feeling about tomorrow!"

Twilight avoided the brightness emanating from her own horn to look up, all the way to the moon. It didn't hold many answers for her, but it was still a beautiful object to look at. "I hope your good feeling is right, Pinkie."

"We start first thing in the morning!"

Those were the last spoken words between the two for the night. Pinkie shuffled the map clumsily back into her bag and Twilight halted the flow of magic to her horn, instantly coating the both of them in blackness.

Crickets sang a lullaby as both ponies drifted into a dreamless sleep.