“It will work. I’m positive it will. You’ll see—well no, actually you won’t but take my word for it.”

“How can you be so sure? It’s a crazy idea after all…” The other mare trailed off and ambled across the room. Her hooves barely sounded on the thick rugs the floor was covered in. “After all it’s been tried once and it has failed. There’s no reason why [i]you[/i] should succeed where others probably greater than you have come a cropper.”

“The circumstances were different. There was a war. The country was starved and the commoners had had it. Here in Equestria all is so marvellous, the land is prospering and everypony’s happy—well, if you don’t scratch too much, of course.” She grimaced. “The goals were different too, and I don’t have any intention to use the same means. I must carry on cautiously and bit by bit.”

“How do you intend to proceed? I mean, I won’t be here to watch you, so I’m fairly intrigued.”

“I must first find a suitable place, preferably hidden away from the busiest roads. Then I’ll try to recruit one or two ponies to work out the basics with me. You know, building the first houses, growing the first vegetables and so on. Once it’ll be started I count on the grapevine and a snowball effect.”

She walked to the window and looked outside at the city below. Canterlot. Canterlot the capital city. Canterlot the blessed. Canterlot the immortal. So tamed, so busy, so perfect. So… prig. She stifled a belch.

“That doesn’t sound much of a plan,” the other mare retorted behind.

She sighed and turned around to face her. “Look, I’m going to offer something nopony has ever offered before. It’s a unique opportunity for all the outcasts or those who’ve been unduly whacked by destiny, a second chance to start again from scratch and find the happiness they’ve always been denied here.”

“Well, if you say so.” The other mare snickered.

“Don’t worry for me.” She made a gesture that took in all the shelves that sat in the attics. “I’ve studied it over and over again. I know the theory to a T.”

“There’s a big gap between theory and practice my young trainee. And—”

“The last thing I desire is your commiseration,” she snapped. “After all your own plan is not really that solid either, so don’t lecture me.”

There was a heavy hush. Then the other unicorn pointed at the books. “Are you sure you don’t need any other reference material? Remember I have just one passage left. The next one will be a single ticket, at least for a good while. So it’s your last call here.”

“No I’m fine. I’m not like her new pet, that dweeb of Twilight Sparkle.” She smirked. “I don’t accumulate books just for the sake of it.  What I really need on the other hand is that you keep your promise: if we both succeed, each one ignores the other. Deal?”

The other mare giggled. “Deal! Equestria is large enough for the both of us. At a pinch, we’ll build a wall. But don’t be so hard on that Twilight Sparkle. She might have one or two talents that could be useful… to me.”

She looked up at the wall clock. “Well, it’s not that I get bored but it’s high time I began packing up.” She walked to the shelves, and, using her magic, picked up a few books that she carefully stacked on the floor.

The other mare came closer. “What books are you taking with you?”

“Oh, the basics: Marx, Lenin, Bakunin, Proudhon. The others I can dispense with.”

“I see. Thanks for your help with the mirror, Starlight. Without your magic, I’d never have been able to reactivate it.” The other mare reached out with her foreleg, and Starlight did the same with hers until both hooves connected.

“Good luck to you Starlight!” the other mare said. “To you and your petty egalitarian utopia.”

Starlight Glimmer smiled. “And good luck to you in your fancy other world, miss megalomaniac Sunset. Thanks for bringing back all those works. I hope we meet again soon.”

“I’m sure looking forward to it,” Sunset replied. “Goodbye for now! Canterlot’s high is expecting me.”

Without waiting for an answer, Sunset Shimmer turned around, walked across the room to the door, opened it and vanished into the corridor.