Tootsie: What’s Sweetie Belle’s problem?

Aura: Huh? Oh. Iunno.

Ruby: Cats in the cradle.

Aura: Oh yeah! … Big sister syndrome.

Tootsie: Wha?

Aura: Oh that’s right, you don’t have a big sister.

Ruby: When you’re younger you want to spend time with your big sister, but she doesn’t have time for you. Then, when you get older, your big sister wants to spend time with you. But now you’re the one that’s busy, so she gets on your nerves.

Tootsie: Oh… That sounds sad… Wait, what if she just doesn’t want to watch puppets?

Aura: Tch-eah right! Who wouldn’t want to watch puppets?

Aunt Bon-Bon says kids are always very melodramatic. Lyra says that most adults forget how dramatic it is being a kid.

Double-cross sounds a little harsh. You just want to get away from them.

A simple enough question. You ask.

Berry Pinch forces through a yawn before answering. “Black mail; why else would anypony be here?”
“I was invited!” Zipporwhill excitedly replies.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon return, looking annoyed.
“Aren’t you two done yet?” Diamond Tiara looks square at Berry Pinch, “I thought you said this wasn’t going to take very long.”
Berry Pinch walks towards Diamond Tiara, shoves the clipboard into her chest, and starts walking away, “I’m going home.”
“What?!” Silver Spoon exclaims, “If you leave now we’ll-!”
“You’ll what?” Berry Pinch replies over her shoulder, “Map is in your writing-style. I was never here.”
Silver Spoon rushes over to Diamond Tiara and gasps at the map. Diamond Tiara waves Berry Pinch away, “Let her go. She knows this isn’t over.”
Zipporwhill flies over, looking worried, “Where is she going?”
“Don’t care,” Diamond Tiara replies coldly, rolling up the map, “Just like I don’t care where you go. But it won’t be with us.”
Her wings stop beating and Zipporwhill lands slowly, “But… But you said we were having a sleepover!”
“Tsk. I don’t remember ever saying that.” Diamond Tiara puts a hoof to her mouth and turns to Silver Spoon, “Do you remember me ever saying that?”
Silver Spoon taps her chin, “Something about coming over for the night. Nothing about sleeping. Nothing about staying.”
Zipporwhill’s lowerlip quivers and you can see tears forming in her eyes.
“Too bad,” Diamond Tiara brushes past her, “But don’t worry. We’re sure you won’t get in too much trouble when you get home.”
“Come on, Zipporwhill,” You hear Berry Pinch call back. Evidently she turned around and came back. “You can spend the night at my house.”
Zipporwhill quickly flies over to Berry Pinch, her voice still shaken, “But-but won’t your mom be super-angry?”
“Trust me, she won’t care,” Berry Pinch replies and the two disappear into the night.

After watching this scene, you turn around to berate the two bullies for their horrible behavior, but they’ve already walked away toward one of the castle windows.

Berry Pinch is… different. Ms. Cheerilee says she’s gifted. Aunt Bon-Bon says she’s mature for her age. Lyra calls her “abnormally intelligent”. She can act like a normal filly when she’s playing, but beyond that she’s very serious, very careful, and very smart. You have to wonder what forced her to be here tonight.

From Berry Pinch’s perspective, it must look like you’re working with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, instead of for them. You try to explain, but she interrupts you.

“It doesn’t matter now; it’s too late for you to back out.” Berry Pinch stops what she’s doing to look you in the eye. “But you’d better get away from them as soon as possible. You might think everything is sorted out. That it’s fair. But all they’re doing is gaining more and more clout to hang you with. And once they have enough,” She turns back to her clipboard and resumes writing, “You’ll never be free again.”

You gulp hard with a shiver. It suddenly feels a lot colder outside than it did before.

You’re just a kid! You can’t incapacitate an adult guard! You do tell her everything else, though.

“Don’t worry your little head over it, Little Liza,” Diamond Tiara waves a hoof in dismissal.
“Yeah,” Silver Spoon chimes in. “Secrets never remain secret to us for very long.”
“No kidding…” Berry Pinch says with a dejected yawn.
“And it’s not like we’ll be splitting up,” Diamond Tiara puts a hoof around Silver Spoon. “If we leave you alone, you might blow our cover.”
You see Zipporwhill zip over to comment, “I am so very excited for our upcoming adventure!”
“Yeah,” Diamond Tiara rolls her eyes.
“Whatever,” Silver Spoon does the same.

Zipporwhill gives a wide smile and returns to looking into the windows while Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon take a few steps away, seemingly to talk in private. Berry Pinch glances over at you and stares for a long moment before going back to her drafting.

“Dancing with the devil tonight, aren’t you?”

Diamond Tiara seems to be waiting for you to ask, so you do.

“Oh, it’s really quite brilliant.” She rubs a hoof on her chest and glances down to admire it, “A true testament to my intellect.”
“Except it was my idea…” Berry Pinch mutters under her breath.
“And I picked you to think of something, so that makes it my idea. Daddy says that’s delegation.”
Berry Pinch can only roll her eyes in response.
“As I was saying,” Diamond Tiara turns back to you, “The help is mapping out the back of the castle and guessing at how the rooms connect. It won’t be perfect, but together with our knowledge it should be enough to get us around.” Diamond Tiara leans in close, “FYI, they don’t know what we’ll be looking for. If it is true, the fewer ponies that know, the better.”

You can’t argue with that. Getting caught in another dimension isn’t like getting caught sneaking a cookie. You’d get in at least twice as much trouble!

You have room enough to pack some water. Good thing Lyra buys bottled water. She doesn’t like the taste of tap. You can’t tell the difference.

Another dimension is no place for a dog, so you put out some extra dog food and leave Simple behind. Hopefully you won’t be gone too long. Or somepony comes to investigate.

With nothing more to do, you head out early toward Princess Twilight’s Palace. The sun has completely set by now, but the moonlight is just bright enough to find your way along the empty roads. When you reach the outskirts it appears you’re alone at first, but you see a light shine in the darkness on one side of the castle. As you approach, you realize it was Silver Spoon’s glasses; she was using them to reflect the moonlight as a signal.

“About time you got here,” Silver Spoon puts her glasses back on and adjusts them, “We were starting to think you weren’t going to show!” She turns away and walks along the side of the castle, under the well lit windows. You start to mention that you’re fifteen minutes early, but you’re too exhausted from dealing with these two to argue.

You and Silver Spoon reach the backside of the castle to find Diamond Tiara and, oddly enough, Berry Pinch and Zipporwhill. Zipporwhill is buzzing about looking in the windows and talking to Berry Pinch, who seems to be writing something. Once you get close enough, you can tell Zipporwhill seems to be having the time of her life, but Berry Pinch looks tired and miserable. There are clear bags under her eyes and she yawns two or three times every minute.

Diamond Tiara walks over to “greet” you, “So hard to find good help, and on such short notice. Here’s hoping this little vacay of yours is worth the trouble, for your sake.”