"It takes a lot of courage to rewind time," Truly stated. He quickly followed it up: "So who did you pay to get it for you?"

Daring chuckled, despite herself. Getting to see her old mentor stick a cigar in his mouth once again, while holding tightly to that toothy grin of his, was somehow able to take the attempted sting out of his words. "Hey, let's be real here. It takes just as much stupidity as it does courage."

"And no one can beat you at that." The dusty brown stallion pocketed his lighter after igniting the foot of his cigar. He flapped his aging wings, which carried him to the table Daring had set the precious rock on. Finally, he grabbed the mystical item with a hoof, using a touch less care than Daring Do would have preferred. "So what do you call this thing?"

Daring gave a quick glance out of the cabin's window. They could be attacked by a swarm of over-sized cats any minute, or someone might be quietly listening. She didn't really like either of those things. That short peek was all the time she was willing to investigate into the matter, however, letting her turn her attention back to Yours Truly. "I don't know. I haven't put much thought into it. And who cares? It's what it does that's important."

Truly mostly ignored Daring after the first few words. "The 'reverstone...'" he cackled, choking on some of his own cigar smoke in the process.

Daring groaned, "Very clever. That must have taken at least five seconds."

"Hey, it sounds better than, 'I don't know.'" The reverstone was dropped to the table, again with less concern for its well being than its owner would have liked. "So where did you learn about this thing? And where did it come from? And where the hay is your brother?"

The adventurer's mood dampened, and with it, she pushed her pith hat further down to cover her eyes. Truly's smile faded a bit before a word was even spoken. "When I went back in time, I couldn't save both you and my brother. He had agreed beforehand that it was okay to rescue you instead."

Truly removed the cigar from his mouth for a moment. "Oh, Daring..."

"I wanted him, but I need you," Daring continued bluntly, regaining some of her vigor. She looked her friend straight in the eyes as she went on, "I 'borrowed' the rule book to this thing from Ahuizotl. It's all in some ancient text. I was able to read enough of it to do what I did, but I couldn't figure all of it out. I—" She paused for a moment, then decided to change her word. "—We were hoping you could translate the rest. Maybe there's a way to go back and save both of you. This might not be over yet!"

The rolled up tobacco went back into Truly's mouth before he leaned over the table. Daring had slid a book over to him. Thousands of years old, he could tell, just by its appearance. It was open to a specific page, leading Truly

There were three distinct knocks on the door. It was okay. She had come to expect distractions by this point. Still, they could have at least been kind enough to wait for her to finish the paragraph. "Come in," she said. Her own voice startled her. It had been awhile since it had seen much use, making it sound scratchier than it usually does.

The door attached to the explosion of pink that she called her room was gingerly shoved open. Her best friend, Twilight Sparkle, was found on the other side with a strange expression on her face. She almost looked surprised. "Pinkie? What are you doing?"

The sight might have been a little strange, the party pony granted her friend. Even though it was mid-afternoon, Pinkie hadn't bothered opening the curtains to her room yet, making the space darker than it needed to be. Besides that, it wasn't very easy to find Pinkie laying belly-down on her bed with nothing but a laptop computer in front of her. Her mane may or may not have been ignored lately, too. She didn't actually dare find a mirror to see what she looked like. It couldn't have been terrible, though, and probably not worth the look Twilight was giving her. "Hey, Twilight. I'm not doing much. Just writing a little."

That look instantly shifted from confusion to skepticism. "Writing?" the purple mare asked doubtfully.

"Uh-huh!" Pinkie replied. She was feeling the most cheerful she had felt in awhile, now that Twilight was here. "Daring Do and the Trek Through Time! Or maybe Daring Do and the Unnamed Rock. I haven't decided yet."

Twilight stepped into the room. The critical look faded quickly. She must have liked one of those titles. "So you read those Daring Do books, huh?"

For some reason, that question triggered a small wave of depression inside of Pinkie. She decided not to chance her voice, instead answering with a nod.

Pinkie's gaze shifted from her guest to the back-lit computer screen. She was re-reading the last line she had written when she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Twilight had sat down on the floor. Twilight's mouth opened, but it took an extra second or two for any words to come out. "The Cakes told me that you haven't left your room that much lately."

The pony was normally able to mention the specific second it was when she did the most mundane of things. This time, however, even she needed to strain her brain a bit to realize that her friend was right. Apart from a few snacks and a handful of potty breaks, it had been a couple-few days since Ponyville had seen any sign of her. She couldn't help that. "I guess so."

"Do you... Do you want to talk about anything?"

Pinkie gave a little gasp. That was nice of her to ask! But why did she sound so nervous saying it? "Do you want to read my story?! It's got action and adventure and a jungle and—"

She halted herself when she heard Twilight laughing. The unicorn seemed to be trying to repress it, but failing to a significant degree. A warm smile finally took its place. "I don't know anyone that has half the imagination you do, Pinkie. I'm sure your story is amazing, and I'd love to read it over sometime. But what I meant was, do you want to talk about our friends?"

Oh. That.

Pinkie's silence seemed to somehow answer everything. Her excitement dwindled, and her eyes again conveniently found their way to her laptop. She wasn't reading anything this time, though. "Your staying in this room is a reflex, Pinkie," Twilight explained. The recipient wasn't sure if she felt like hearing a lecture right now or not, but didn't do much to stop it. "It's only natural to have a reaction like this for you. Our friends aren't around here anymore. This is really hard on me, but... I can't imagine what it's like for you."

Once again, her eyes did a lot of talking for her. She stared at the floor, contemplating what to do with the information she was just force fed. "Twilight?" she asked weakly, still thinking on her friend's words.

Twilight released a sigh. She was probably relieved Pinkie wasn't going to Pinkie her way out of this. "Yes?"

"What do you think happened to Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash was the worst. Fluttershy and Rarity, they went away on account of their passions. Applejack too, even if she left without much more than five words. It was eleven, actually. "I gotta go, sugar cube," she had said, "Apple related. I'll be back soon." Sure, it might have been a month (maybe two) by now since they had heard from any of them. That was all right, though. At least they were probably somewhere safe doing what they loved.

But Rainbow Dash. Word had spread she hadn't shown up at work for a few days. It'd been even longer than that since Pinkie Pie had seen her around. Now her picture was on milk cartons all across Ponyville.

"I... I don't know."

Twilight's answer snapped Pinkie out of her own thoughts. She spotted Twilight watching the Daring Do book that laid on the floor near the other side of her bed. Maybe Rainbow's disappearance had a little something to do with Pinkie being interested in that series. It had still been on her to-read list way before that, though. No doubt it was a small list, but she did have it.

"But I can say one thing for certain."

That caught Pinkie's attention. Now Twilight was smiling at her again. It was hard for her to feel too bad when a friend smiled at her.

"We still have each other, Pinkie, and I'm not going anywhere for a long while." Twilight's grin grew bigger, as if she was reassuring herself as much as her friend. "Why don't we have a party while we wait for everyone to come back? We could invite our other friends, like Cheerilee, or the Crusaders!"

"Maybe..." Pinkie agreed, a few ideas already popping into her mind. She set them to the side of her brain for the time being and showed off a smile of her own. "Thanks for being my friend, Twilight."

"We can help each other to feel better. Spike is in charge of the library for a few hours. Wanna go get something to eat?"

The party pony pondered that for a minute. Eventually, a better thought formed in her mind. "Well, I'd really feel better if you read my storrryyy!"

Twilight Sparkle laughed, this time not attempting to restrain it. "All right, Pinkie Pie," she stated, trotting towards the laptop and its owner, "Let's see what you wrote." By the time she reached her, the author had scrolled up the page to a more interesting part of her tale.

Daring Do placed her hoof against the outside temple wall. Something leathery rubbed against the bottom of her foot, which made her silently pray it wasn't poison ivy. She didn't want the answer though, instead choosing to peek into the dark abyss that was her next adventure. She glanced over to her brother on the opposite side of the cavernous entrance. Even from the respectable distance, she could see he was shaking. "Darrin, what's the matter?"

"I don't explore temples," the grounded pegasus retorted, his voice cracking, "I research them! In a safe library!"

Daring wanted to understand the scope of the mission from Darrin's point of view; he never witnessed the daily rush of adrenaline like she did, or see so much violence that wasn't beyond a movie screen. Unfortunately for the colt, it was much easier to just get mad at him, and his sister hastily settled for that. "Look, Darrin, we both need that rock. I just lost a really good friend who was working his flank off to make sure we made it to this point. This whole situation blows, but if we can find this thing and get out of here, it'll almost have been worth it. If you stay out here, Ahuizotl's army will track you down before you even find a bush to hide in. We're going in this temple. Now." Without giving him even a chance to respond, Daring stormed into the abandoned shrine. She didn't look back, but her big sister instincts forced her to keep an ear out, just to make sure he was following.

Darrin stumbled over his words for a minute before giving a reluctant chase after her. "W-well, okay then."

"Darrin, DUCK!"

The dark-yellow stallion froze on the spot before quickly falling on his tummy. He covered his eyes with his hooves and couldn't stop shivering. The end was here, he knew it, a trap triggering a barrage of arrows, or a giant boulder sent to crush him, or—

Daring turned around and backtracked two hoofsteps. She blinked her eyes in confusion when she saw her brother's pathetic state. "Darrin? What are you doing?"

Working up more nerve than he knew he had, Darrin nervously lifted a single hoof away. He glanced up, unwittingly coming face-to-face with a low hanging ceiling. He wasn't about to be killed... he was about to bump his head. Daring's look of confusion didn't waver. Clearing his throat while trying to come up with a solid-sounding reason for doing that, he got back to his hooves. Both of them pressed on, Darrin making sure to keep his neck low from time to time.

Twilight took a moment to herself. It was just like someone told her magic didn't exist; she couldn't believe what was right in front of her. "Pinkie... You wrote this?"

"Do ya like it?" the messy-maned Pinkie wondered with a hopeful grin.

The lavender mare took a seat right on the floor. Her attention didn't waver from the screen. "I have to admit, I was expecting a lot more... balloons. But your character development is great, I love the humor, and can't wait to read some of your action scenarios."

Pinkie was only half able to keep up with that review. It was just like Twilight to offer good critique, though, and that sounded mostly positive! "Thanks, Twilight!"

She began reading a few more lines, noticing Pinkie was now reading along with her. Before either of them got far, Twilight had one more thought cross her mind. "You should probably stick with Trek Through Time, though."

Neither of them remembered they were just about to go eat lunch.

-TRS-

It had been more than forty-eight hours since Twilight visited Sugarcube Corner. In a rare moment of free time, she allowed her mind to drift back to the conversation she had had with Pinkie, but refused to dwell on it too much. Between managing the library, planning time to plan other things, and actually doing those other things, she was kept busy enough. It was a pretty late eight 'o clock in the evening, making Twilight yawn as she used her magic to lock the door to her tree home. The admittedly cheap metal glowed a mystic pink as it sealed the door shut for the night.

Satisfied, the unicorn turned around to see how her partner was doing. The bite-sized dragon was halfway up a ladder with an ever decreasing stack of books. One by one, he slipped a misplaced book back in the shelves. Categorized alphabetically, by type, and when applicable, by color—he was such a great assistant. "Good job, Spike! This might be a record clean-up time after a visit from Derpy Hooves! You finish doing that, and I'll go see what we have for dinner, okay?"

"Sounds good," was his jubilant reply. He wavered slightly on the ladder, but quickly regained his balance, saving the pile of books in his claw in the process. He'd done this for so long now, it was pretty much second nature. "Hey, do we have any more amethyst?"

"Sorry, Spike, I don't think so. We can close a little early tomorrow and go hunting for some, if you'd like."

She didn't get an immediate response to that, so she assumed the topic was dropped. As she started to make her way to the kitchen in the side room, however, she heard a quiet noise. Then she realized it was Spike, mumbling.

"Rarity always found the best gems..."

Twilight stopped in her tracks. She didn't take much offense by the statement, as it wasn't a secret that her close unicorn friend was a much more gifted treasure hunter than she was. Spike had probably taken Rarity's sudden leave the hardest. Besides Spike not finding a romantic interest in any other creature, the lady was able to provide him with weeks' worth of meals solely off of collected gems that she had no use for.

The unicorn that Spike was stuck with had doubts that she was supposed to hear what he said. With less pep in her trot, she continued toward the kitchen area.

"It's not like any of our friends to never contact us..." Twilight thought to herself as she pulled a couple bowls from a cupboard with an absent mind. It didn't even strike her to use magic until she had already brought them over to the table with her mouth. The kitchen was the smallest room in the tree; she reaffirmed that by looking around it and sighing. "It's not like any of them, but I'm especially worried about Applejack and Rarity. They left family as well as friends behind in Ponyville. What could they be doing that they couldn't get a quick letter off?"

She grabbed some forks out of a nearby drawer, this time remembering the horn that was attached to her forehead. They hovered obediently in the air for a minute while Twilight's attention moved instead to a calendar tacked to the wall. It had a picture of two bunnies on it. Naturally, it had been a present from Fluttershy. "It's officially been at least a month since everyone took off... closer to two for some."

The silverware finally made it to the quaint, round table in the center of the room. She moved to the fridge next. "'Since everyone took off,'" she repeated in her mind. That could potentially be incorrect. Her heart ached on a beat when she thought of Rainbow Dash. It hurt even more when she remembered the unknowing look on Pinkie Pie's face when she had inquired about her. Twilight prayed Rainbow really had followed her stubbornness and simply "took off" somewhere. Any other alternative was too horrific to think about.

Spike stepped into the kitchen warily, concerned about the amount of silence that was in it. He found Twilight idling in front of the fridge, her neck bowed apparently in thought. His eyes darted over to the wooden cupboard on the opposite side of the room—the one that happened to contain the jewels he loved so much—and silently wondered why the first of those things wasn't closer to the second. "Uh, Twilight?"

The train of thought crashed. She jerked her head around, causing her mane to whip her on the side of her face. It'd been awhile since she'd had it trimmed, with Rarity gone and all. "Oh, Spike. Sorry." She resumed gathering dinner at a much faster pace. She got a hold of some fresh hay that was in the fridge using her magic, then multiplied it to grab the peanut butter that was on the counter. "I was just thinking of... where we could look tomorrow, that's all."

"Uh-huh..."

It was a lie, obviously. What she wasn't sure of was if it worked, or if the dragon was more interested in a meal than her fibs at the moment. Regardless of which one it was, she set the items she had gathered on the table before moving over to the cupboard Spike had been eyeing. The door swung open, once more with magic, revealing basketfuls of various gems. Red, and orange, and... yellow... and green. Twilight couldn't stop a sigh. She forget that she had organized the gems by the colors of the rainbow.

She really needed to be less organized sometimes.

Still clinging tightly to her practiced magical powers, she lifted up a few gems of each color. A gem salad, it could be called. She tossed all of them in the second bowl on the table, which Spike quickly scampered up to. Her eyes stayed on the table for an extra moment. There were no chairs to accommodate Spike... Huh. "Buy a chair for Spike," she added to her mental checklist of things to do.

The distraction didn't last long. Now she couldn't even fix a meal without longing for her friends? It was a pretty fair point, she eventually decided. She had done pretty much everything imaginable with her friends, thus it made sense so many things reminded her of them. She just hated that there was so little she could do about it.

Twilight's back slouched as she moved over to her side of the table. Some peanut butter and grass should help her feel better, after all. Feeling like a rogue, she dipped the grass right into the jar of peanut butter. That's right. No knife to slather the condiment on this time. She was going all-out Ponyville style.

Just as she opened her mouth up to take her first bite, a series of pounds connected on the front door. Twilight groaned loudly.

The situation made Spike laugh. As his friend angrily set her meal down on the table and stomped away, the baby dragon chucked a chipped quartz onto his awaiting tongue.

The annoyed mare was halfway to the door when a second round of rapping started. "I'm coming!" she roared.

She could yell at whoever was on the other side of the door for disturbing her during a meal. She decided against doing it, though; that would only take up more time that she could use to get back to her food. Simply greet the pony, answer their inquiry, and shut the door in their muzzle.

The lock was shifted, the knob twisted, and the door pulled open. As soon as it was open wide enough to see outside, shock replaced frustration. A pink mare stood waiting for her. She didn't look like she had been crying, necessarily, but to see her so sad was nearly as bad. Her mane, which so often resembled bouncy cotton candy (delicious, edible cotton candy), was frazzled and without much life. It didn't look like she had touched it since Twilight had seen her two days ago. Had she even slept since then?

"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?!" the violet pony shouted, this time out of concern instead of anger.

Sniffle. Sniffle, sniffle. "Twilight... I need to leave."