The sun rises over Equestria as Twilight and Spike are on their walk back to the Ponyville Library following an early morning supply run.

"You don't think we'll be picked for that team Celestia is sending to Saddle Arabia do you?" Spike asks as they turn the corner to the walkway leading to the library.

"No. Celestia seemed to be looking more for ponies specializing in pony behavior over magic…" Twilight says "Besides from what Rage told me, they didn't seem to keen on saying much. I think it's more a show of good will than anything." Twilight replies opening the door.

"Morning Twi!" Rage says as he rushed across the room with a strange sphere-like object. Back around, "How-" and around "were", and again "your errands?" He finally dug his hoofs in and managed to stop. He slumped some and sighed in relief.

"Everything okay?" Twilight asks in a curious tone. "You're acting weird."

"What? No I'm not." Rage chuckled. Twilight glared at him. She didn't believe him. In fact the more she thought about it the worse it got. Since when did he wear anything? He had a cheap sweatshirt covering himself.

"Rage." Twilight states. "What's under the shirt?" She demands to know.

"N-nothing!" He exclaims defensively

Twilight walked up and he began sweating. Twilight quickly used her magic to remove it before Rage could react. She gasped in shock as to what she saw. Rage was covered in cutie marks!

"I'm sorry!" Rage sighs "I don't know what happened! They just started to appear all of a sudden…I don't know what's going on!!!"

Twilight was well aware of what was going on. Though it was strange; Rage was far too old for this. "Strange…" Twilight says looking at some of the cutie marks. "You have the Cutie Pox…but I've never seen someone as old as you get them…normally you get them as a kid and that's that…"

"Cutie Pox? Sounds like a disease…" Rage sighs. "I should be immune to diseases…"

"Perhaps because it's more of a magical affliction over a traditional disease?" Twilight asks as she walks over to a shelf and starts looking at various books one by one.

"That doesn't explain the orb." Spike says.

"Oh this thing?" Rage asks as it hummed with energy again and starts acting like it was trying to get away from him. "Hold on." He grunts holding it tightly and smacking it. "Dumb thing…" he mutters as the glowing lines and markings dimmed. "It's an old device from Mobius…" he says, putting it on a table.

"So…what does it do…?" Twilight asks as she took a book from the shelf. Book in hand the alicorn walks back to the table looking curiously at the orb. She had never seen anything like it. It was clearly not of Equestrian origin.

"Well…it's supposed to detect specific forms of magic and guide you to the source…but…it's been acting up since I brought it here…" Rage sighs crossing his front hooves. "It's almost acting like it's confused."

"Strange." Twilight says "I thought you could sense magic though so why this?"

"I can but as you already know my abilities are…not fully developed." Rage answers. "…this Cutie Pox predicament hasn't helped either…"

"When Applebloom came down with it didn't she like end up trying to do everything each cutie mark represents?" Spike asks looking at Twilight who nods affirmatively. "So why aren't you?" Spike asks.

"Lots…and lots…and lots…of self control." Rage says with a heavy sigh "Every fiber of my being wants to do so many things right now…I'm barely holding it together as is…" he says. "If not for the copious amount of self-control and training I had years ago I'd not be holding it together at all…"

"So…why drag that orb all the way here?" Twilight asks shifting the topic back to the orb.

"I was hoping to use it to find any traces that…Christian may have left behind…" Rage answers with a heavy sigh. "It's a long shot but I want to see if there's anypony else he may have had dealings with…"

"But…?" Twilight more asks over states predicting Rage's next sentence;

"But all of the abundant and strange magics here in Equestria has the thing confused for lack of a better term and I can't for the life of me figure out how to attune the stupid thing…" Rage sighs. "It's frustrating!"

"Why don't you ask Sonic?" Twilight asks. "Maybe he could help?"

Rage laughed in response "Sonic doesn't know anything about magic." He replied. "Besides, even if he did, this thing is older than dirt."

"So where did you get it from?" Spike asked as he put a clat to it and taps.

"It was a gift." Rage answered "When I was in training, Dranzer, one of my instructors, gave it to me as a birthday present."

"Dranzer…the same one?" She asks, referring to the journal they had been piecing together over the last few months. Rage nodded.

"Yeah, though obviously I didn't know anything about Equestria at the time." Rage nodded as he answered her.

"What if we used it to help Saddle Arabia?" Twilight asks "Maybe it can track down what seems to be ailing their citizens?"

"Hmm…" Rage looks at her with a bright look. "That's not a bad i…" Rage pauses and inhales deeply. "I…" he tried to continue once again but is stopped and inhales again.

"Is something wrong?" Twilight asks looking at the red alicorn with worry.

"Achoo!" Rage sneezed loudly and with enough force to shake the table in front of him. It was with the sneeze however that some of the cutie marks that had covered his neck seemed to vanish. This was followed by another which caused more to vanish and finally one last sneeze causing the rest to vanish. This left only his actual Cutie Mark. He panted for a second as Twilight looked in shock.

"That's strange…" Twilight says looking at him.

"Huh?" He asks looking back at her.

"Your Cutie Pox seems to have…disappeared!" She exclaims "What did you do to get rid of it?"

"I…I dunno?" Rage shrugs as he replies. "I sneezed…?"

"With Apple Bloom we had to use a potion…though she also kinda gave it to herself." Twilight says "Cutie Pox is a perplexing condition."

"Maybe, my own magic or Chaos power had something to do with it…" Rage theorized. "Maybe because it's not a disease from Mobius, my body had a hard time figuring out it was unwelcome?" He asks

"Regardless, with that out of the way we can take the orb to Celestia!" Twilight exclaims.

"That won't be necessary." Princess Celestia's voice comes from the door prompting the three to look over at her.

"Oh! Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaims as she bows watching the white alicorn walk to them. "If I knew you were coming I'd have-"

"It's alright, but this is important.." She says. "Time is short."

"No rest for the wicked huh?" Rage asks with a sigh. "We just got back from that other world and you're already calling on her?"

"Rage…" Twilight grumps but Celestia shook her head.

"It's alright, I understand where he's coming from and personally I'd rather not bother you but like I said…it's important." Celestia says looking at Twilight with a grim look. "I need you to come back to Canterlot with me, Twilight."

"But the library-" Twilight tried to object but she was stopped by Rage;

"Go Twilight. The library will be fine." Rage says with a confident smile "I am better and Spike is here. We can keep it running for a while without you,"

"You sure…?" Twilight asks nervously.

"Go ahead, seriously we can handle it," Spike says with a smile.

"Alright but if anything happens-" Twilight starts to speak again but is interrupted by Rage,

"I'll contact you." The crimson alicorn rolled his eyes as he spoke "Lighten up some Twi, it's not like we're a pair of fillies you're putting in charge."

"Alright." Twilight says "I'll be as quick as possible."

"Stay safe." Rage says as she walks over to Celestia and the two leave. With Twilight gone there was a silence in the library.

"So…what do you think that was about?" Spike asks, breaking the silence.

"I…don't know." Rage answers. "It's been a while since I've seen Celestia in such a hurry."

"Well I should get back to cleaning. The shelves won't dust themselves!" Spike says.

"Right. I'm going to work some more on the journal." Rage says more so to himself as he uses his magic to grab Dranzer's journal and some supplies.

A few hours went by and by now the sun was high in the noontime sky as Spike was finishing the last of the shelves he looked over to where Rage had been sitting. "How is your thing coming along?" Spike asks walking over to Rage.

"It's slow but I'm learning a lot…in fact…I want to try something. Care to help me?" He asks.

"With what?" Spike asks curiously as Rage hands him one of the notebooks he had.

"Hold this and stand across from me." He says. Spike nodded and took a few steps back as Rage looked at the book.

Rage's horn glows as he begins to cast a spell. As he finishes the spell a flow of magical energy surrounds him. Spike had to look away.

When he looks back he screamed in shock. Rage was there, his body still an alicorn but his head was that of his Mobian form. "What did you do?!" Spike exclaimed.

"Huh?" Rage quickly looked at the mirror off to the side and exclaimed in shock seeing his reflection. He quickly looks back at Spike and casts another spell reversing it. "So…that still needs more work…"

"What…is this supposed to do?" Spike asks, looking at the notebook.

"It's a spell from Dranzer's journal." Rage says extending a hoof for the notebook which Spike hands back to him. He looks at it to see where he went wrong. "It's supposed to change me back to my Mobian form. Clearly I still need to work on it."

"Why would you want to do that though?" Spike asks. "Isn't the whole reason you look like this is so you can blend in?"

"It is." Rage nods "However, I am…still not used to how my abilities work like this…I'd like to have this spell down in case of emergency."

As Rage prepared to do another cast the door opens and he turns to see a dark red unicorn with a short dark purple mane and a silver stripe and a short identically colored tail. On his flank a moon in a book for a cutie mark. He looked at Rage and Spike.

"Hello. Welcome to the Ponyville Library." Rage greets him.

"Where's Twilight?" The unicorn asks, seeming to be surprised she wasn't here.

"She's on business in Canterlot. We're running the Library till she gets back." Spike says.

"I see..she was supposed to have a book for me." The unicorn says "Do you know when she'll be back?"

"No clue." Rage says "Celestia picked her up a few hours ago." He comments as he walks over to a shelf with various packaged items. "What's your name?"

"Lunar Relic." The unicorn replies.

"I've heard of you." Spike says, his eyes lighting up when he heard the name. "You're that researcher from Canterlot right? The one who specializes in magic history and archeology?"

The unicorn looked embarrassed. "I am…but my work isn't all that special." He replies. "Not compared to the feats of Twilight and her friends."

"Nonsense! Twilight speaks praise about your work!" Spike says.

"Here we go." Rage says pulling a small package off the shelf with the unicorn's name on it. "It's nice to meet you, Lunar Relic. I'm-"

"Burning Rage." He says "I'm aware of who you are."

"Oh…" the crimson alicorn says a bit distant and caught off guard as Lunar takes the package.

"So…you're like Twilight's protege or something right?" The unicorn asks.

"Eh…not quite. I am staying with her until we can figure out…more permanent living arrangements." He answers "So I help out around the Library with Spike."

"I see." Lunar nodded. He then looked at the wall which had a mess of notes and things pinned up. The weeks of work Rage had gone through for Dranzer's journal. He walked over and looked at it curiously. "Hmmm…is this one of Princess Twilight's projects?" He asks looking over some of the untranslated work.

"Uh…mine actually…" Rage admits walking over to the wall covered in his notes and work.

"Impressive." Lunar compliments looking closer at a torn page. "This is a language I've never seen before…" he says, tapping a hoof to the ground. "Based on the looks of things this looks like maybe a diary?"

Rage looked a bit surprised that Lunar was able to deduce that given how different Mobian languages were from Equestrian. "It is. How can you tell?" He asks in response.

"Well it's old and handwritten. The format of the page fits how I'd expect one to go…though I can't make out anything…it almost seems alien in a sense." Lunar continued to examine it. "Where in Equestria did you get this?"

"Celestia gave it to us…Twilight first started translating it but I took over when she got busy with princess stuff and all. I'm actually the one who cracked it." Rage replied. "It wasn't easy even after I managed to figure the language out. Most of the journal is written in code. It wasn't fun to decipher either…"

Lunar spent a few more minutes scanning the wall before he looked at Rage and bowed his head "I should be going. It was nice to meet you. Tell Twilight thank you when she gets back for me. I know this book couldn't have been easy to get."

"We will." Rage promised. "See you soon." He waved as Lunar left.

"I wonder what kind of book he asked about." Spike says as he took a paper and crossed Lunar Relic's name off the list.

"Dunno." Rage answered. "It was a heavier one though." He then gathered up his notes and looked at the lowering sun.

"Twilight's never been gone this long…" Spike says concerned. "At least not without saying something."

"That so?" Rage looked at Spike. He wondered what could have been so important. However all of his thoughts kept looping back to what had been brought up during that meeting with the Saddle Arabia dignitaries.

"You think she's okay…?" Spike asks him.

"I'm sure she's fine." Rage says. "I trust if something was wrong she'd have said something." He looked to the small dragon with a soft smile. "C'mon let's get some rest."

"Right." Spike agrees as both he and Rage retire for the night.