Welcome Home

Five mares gathered at a train station in the small town of Ponyville. They had all received a similar letter with the royal seal this morning All of them delivered, of course, with the usual broken property as the mailmare dropped it off. None of them quite knew what to think about it. Most of the mares took it with a grain of salt, thinking of it as the cryptic speakings of royals, One or two of them, however, thought it was something more.

AppleJack was the first to speak her mind on the topic, “I just don’t get what this here letter is about, I mean, ‘Twilights home’, what do you gals think that means? Did Twilight go on some sort of royal mission or something?”

“I simply have no clue darling,” Rarity replied, “so far as I know Twilights been up in Canterlot this whole time, helping Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Its a shame she hasn’t visited more often, Think it has something to do with that?”

They shared in a quizzical look before boarding the train to Canterlot. The ride was a fairly average one for the mares, Rainbow dash fell asleep within minutes, Pinkie talked to the random travelers and made some peoples day better, Fluttershy sat quietly in her seat, and Applejack and Rarity talked throughout the trip.

Everything was normal.

Nothing was normal in Canterlot Castle.

Almost the entire guard force was in the infirmary, there was a dead changeling Queen in the throne room, the real Twilight was back after supposedly ten years, and because of her none to subtle return it was going to be very difficult to explain this to the public without mass panic. To add to all that Celestia had to go through the last ten years and analyze every political and recreational activity Chrysalis did while acting as Twilight.

On the subject of Twilight where was she, turning to Luna who was shifting through mountains of paperwork, as she had agreed to help Celestia. “Do you know where Twilight is Lulu?”

“Last I saw she was down in the barracks impressing everyone.” Was Luna's simple reply.

Twilight looked down at the unconscious guard before her. This was the sixth one to challenge her and the sixth to fall. It was more tedious than actual training considering most of them went down in seconds and all of them had terrible form. Another five went by and she finally had enough. She left with a curt nod to the rest of the guards before heading back into the castle.

Her walk through the corridors of the castle provided ample time to reflect on how the day had gone and how the rest of it would go. She had no doubt that her old friends would be invited, her brother and step-sister would be as well. Celestia and Luna would show up and perhaps Discord but she wasn't certain on that one. It was a lot of people who would be hearing her story and a lot of people who would never look at her the same again. The thought didn't make her sad or make her hate herself, she had come to terms with it long ago.

Looking out of one of the many windows lining the hall, Twilight looked towards Everfree forest. The place had terrified her when she was younger, but now, after seeing so much of this world and many others, it seemed like the only place that made sense here. There was a cohesive food chain and the weather did it's thing on it's own. There was less interference. Twilight had come to relish in that sort of unpredictability and freedom during her absence.

Arriving at her room Twilight rapidly found it uncomfortable. There was frill everywhere, Twilight had forgotten how comfortably everypony here lived. Walking around the room Twilight used her magic to send all the frill into a different dimension where it would never be seen by anyone here again. Nodding in approval Twilight sat down on the bed that was now bare of everything but a sheet and blanket. Twilight closed her eyes and started to meditate while waiting.

Cadence stood by her husbands bed in the infirmary. He was in with a concussion and some bruising. They had heard what had happened from a few guards that were stationed in the throne room but neither of them could quite believe it. Little Twily? Shinning and Cadence couldn't figure out what shocked them more, that Twilight had been replaced by the changeling queen or that the real Twilight had charged her way through an entire guard force only to kill the changeling.

They would deal with that later, in the mean time Shining knew that he would have to figure something out to get the image of the guard back up. If one pony, Celestia's student or not, could breeze past the entire force like they were paper the public wouldn't feels safe and that would defeat the entire purpose of the guard.

Shining turned to Cadence, “This is embarrassing for me and the guard you know.” He said.

“Oh don’t be so hard on yourself, Equestria hasn't seen somepony with so much power for years, I would be surprised and slightly suspicious if your guard was prepared.” Cadence replied.

“Not the best mindset dear, I know that equestria is peaceful but what your saying about the guard implies that were being lazy. And to top it off it was just one pony. This is going to take forever to clean up.”

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow dash, Pinkie Pie and, Fluttershy all got of the train sometime around noon. They still had a couple hours until they were supposed to make it to the castle so they decided that they should make the most of their stay, considering that they didn't get to canterlot that often. Rarity went to visit her old friend Mr. Fancypants to catch up on all the latest in canterlot, Applejack and Pinkie pie visited some of the bakeries to see if they could find any recipes that they hadn't thought up yet, Rainbow dash went to the bookstore to see if they had the newest copy of Daring Do yet, and Fluttershy sat in the park enjoying the fresh air.

The hours passed quickly as they so often do and the five found themselves at the gates of Canterlot castle. Non of them entirely knew what to expect from the strange summons but they did know that it had something to do with Twilight.

“Well here we are girls”, Said Applejack, “Still don’t quite know why were here but  the Princesses said it was important and if its nothing, we still get to see Twilight.”

“Yeah!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie “I’ve been super sadie pants without Twilight to talk to, you think she would visit at least once or twice a month.”

Celestia walked into Twilights room to find her sitting still with her eyes closed. Twilight noted her presence with a simple nod of the head in her direction and continued to sit. As Celestia watched her she noted something strange, there were strong illusion spells around her. Not the same type as the changelings used, but more the type that the showmare Trixie used.

"Why am I sensing illusion spells around you Twilight?"

Twilight tensed for a moment before sighing and responding. "Well your going to find out anyway might as well give you a sneak peak." With that the some of the illusion spells dropped. Twilights horn started to dissolve away, along with her mane, tail, and feathers. Her mane, tail, and feathers were replaced by a bright orange fire but her horn. "I can't really explain at the moment but trust me. Everything will be explained when everyone is gathered. Its quite the story.

Celestia could only nod.