"It is odd. Normally, I cannot stand being awake during daylight hours." Mademoiselle was sitting, having a cup of tea with Princess Celestia. Across the room, Sunset was still working on her magic. "I think it is this castle. It's strange, most places tend to feel… unwelcoming."

Celestia sipped her tea, eyes resting on Sunset, watching the mare work magic over and over. "It is literally a castle born of the magic of friendship, how could it not welcome you?" Celestia levitated up a plate holding a slice of cake. "Well, apart from the obvious. How is Sunset's hunger coming?"

"Sunset can hear, you know." Sunset paused in her casting, giving her former mentor a grin, of course she showed more than a little fang. "And she goes well, although still hungers for snacks."

Maddie couldn't keep from laughing at the reply. "It doesn't seem like long to me, but it has been some time, hasn't it?" Celestia turned her attention back to the vampony sipping tea beside her. "I remember when you tried my cake for the first time, was that really what sparked your… habit?"

"It is not a habit." Celestia took a small bite from her fork. "And yes, it has been some time, over a thousand years. They were not the happiest of years." There were a lot of memories, a lot of ponies had come and gone. None had had as much of an impact as Twisty, nor she realized, as Twilight Sparkle. "This is a much nicer age to be alive in, trust me."

Sipping her own tea, Maddie sighed and nodded. "As for your question, she is doing quite well, the best I have seen… out of two that is. Although she is not quite ready to trust her own self to drink, or rather, stop drinking. I will ask some ponies if they would like to help her."

"Her friends would be a good start, the ones from the mirror world." Celestia ate some more of the cake. "Which brings me to an important thing." The white alicorn turned, looking directly at Sunset. "You know what I am going to say." She read the mare's expression, Sunset nodded.

"I can't go back." Sunset looked blankly at the floor. "When my friends go to their home, back to their lives, I have to stay here."

"You are a very good pony, Sunset Shimmer." Celestia looked at the pony. "Perhaps good enough to want to be a princess?"

Two flame-colored wings shot up as Sunset widened her eyes. "A princess? But I am a vampony!" It was a shield she would use, Celestia realized, to keep the world away. The Princess of the Sun would have none of it.

"Even if I crowned you Princess of the Night? Oh you will want to be working more with Luna than myself, but I believe it would work." Celestia's words were casual, as if she were discussing flavors of cake.

"But what would I do?" Sunset gestured at the small pile of destroyed fruit she had. "I can't even do a filly's first spell properly."

"You were my student." Celestia's eyes narrowed. "I expect nothing short of perfection, and I know you will reach it. There will be others, living under the cover of night, they need their own princess."

"You would make her Princess of Monsters?" Maddie seemed to find this hilarious. "She is so young, very few will follow her."

"She is older, where it counts, than she looks. Once she can control her hunger, once she can cast freely, contact me." Celestia drained the tea and finished the last bite of cake. "And if you wished your job back, Head Chef, I think it could be arranged."

Maddie's jaw was nearly on the floor as Celestia left. She had to be joking, how could she walk into a job like that now?

Vinyl got to the castle, but didn't go for the front door. Instead, she circled around the side, where the tree was. She walked up to Granny slowly, settling down at the base of the strange variant of The Tree. "Mother says you have all of her, deep inside you." The unicorn leaned forward, resting her head against the bark at an angle, so her horn didn't mark it. "I like to believe her, her ideas are… nice. I wrote you a song, Granny, you probably wouldn't like it, it has some bass-drops in it…" Vinyl's tears were slow, now. Her time with Applejack had helped her get past the worst of her grief.

The soft tune of the tree, sung to her, matched perfectly the tune she clung to. "She will love it." Octavia lay down beside the unicorn. "She didn't say it directly to you, but I saw her bouncing her head to your tunes, some nights."

"Tavi…" Vinyl leaned over, kissing her wife and pressing against her. She opened her snout to say something, then completely forgot what it was.

"Vinny, you have gotten yourself tied to a lot of ponies. Set out roots so to speak." Octavia drew on the song of the young tree, repeating it, strengthening it. "I remember the cute mare who wanted to roam Equestria, with just her deck, a keyboard and a pile of records."

"She grew up… I think she would like me." Vinyl twisted her mouth into a half grin. "I know I like her, she was so free, she traveled and saw everything."

"Definitely not a stupid mare, she knew the value of friends, she just needed more to understand why she needed them so much." Octavia's mind was completely into the winding song. "But I think she needs to wander inside and start some music."

"Maybe she should. Tavi, let's go." Vinyl started to get to her hooves, her wife following suite. "Have you ever messed with my deck?"

Octavia blushed. She would have hated to admit she was interested in how her wife made music, but she was. "I did once, the sound of the needle scratching nearly turned me inside out."

"Tonight I will teach you, my adept filly. And tomorrow, you teach me how to play that cello of yours a little better." Vinyl walked side by side with Octavia, the slight chill of the night banished by the castle the moment they entered the double doors.

"Thar y'are!" Applejack wore a smile as she approached the two musicians. "Starry got yer things all set up, sugarcube, can you play her song?" The last words felt more serious, to all three.

Vinyl nodded. "She is singing it even now, I wanted to talk to her before I played it, but it is going to be loud enough that she can hear it." Vinyl pulled her shades down.

"Now listen, we got some of the snootier relatives here, I want you to blast them so hard they either loosen up or fall apart, if'n ya know what Ah mean?" Applejack walked along with the two, gesturing with a slight nod to some ponies clustered together at one corner, clearly avoiding everypony.

Suddenly, Gel and Twilight entered the room and all eyes turned to them. Glasses were furnished and the pair were practically beset by AJ's snootier relatives.

"Should I go save them, you think?" Octavia Melody narrowed her eyes. "Vinny, go start with something soft, I will give you the signal when you drop everything and blast it, okay?"

Vinyl snorted. "Flick both your ears at once, left, then right." The DJ grinned mischievously and despite herself, AJ couldn't resist liking this plan, it was the sort of silliness Granny would have loved.

"C'mon then sugarcube, let's go schmooze." Applejack, with the other earth pony at her side, casually walked over to her husband and wife. "Twi, Gel!" She moved up to give each a gentle kiss. In the background, soft music started. "Ah was just tellin' Octavia how much we need ta have some classier shin-digs here."

Twilight was giving a sigh of relief before she realized it, the ponies that had harangued her and Gel the moment they entered seemed to shy away from Applejack. Noticing this, she leaned in and gave her wife a sound kiss. "Octavia Melody, that would be lovely."

A soft muttering went through the upper-class crowd of ponies. "The Octavia Melody? You performed during the Grand Galloping Gala?" One stallion seemed to be exuding slime as he walked closer to the gathering. "I say, that was quite the performance."

Octavia suddenly wished she was a unicorn. She hoped Vinyl would play just what she wanted. "Oh, I did what I could, that poor chap was doing horrible things with his piano beside me. Did you hear, my lovely wife will be performing live tonight."

"That'll be lovely!" Applejack wasn't great at lying, but this was hardly that, it would be lovely if Vinyl would play the song they put together.

The stallion seemed prepared to ignore Applejack completely, moving subtly to block his rural cousin from the conversation. "Oh, what does she play? I do hope she can play the violin, I adore that instrument."

"Wait, I think she is preparing to play now." Octavia looked over, saw Vinyl's glasses gazing back. She twitched both her ears and tucked them back.

The bass note could be felt more than heard, it led right into a piece of music they had made together, remixed cello and, half-hidden in the back-beat, moans that sounded more like an instrument than a voice. "She is just lovely, isn't she?" Octavia had to half-shout to the stallion, who was trying to get as far away from the speakers as he could. "Where are you going?"

Dialing back, at least after another chorus, Vinyl wore the biggest grin ever. The stallion and his clique weren't gone, but they were clustered at the opposite end of the room, well away from Octavia and the royal family.

"Hot-dang I have never seen a pony with a fence post so far up their plot run so fast." Applejack leaned over and pressed against Gel. All her soul searching had brought her firmly to the fact that she did love him, and loved him more and more each day. "Ya tried the hard stuff yet?" Although she loved the stallion, she was delighted when Twilight shifted around to her free flank.

"You brought the hard cider? What about…" Twilight loved seeing the two get close like this, she pressed in against her wife.

"Muh own special, o'course." Applejack found the attention welcome after a day that had started with her emotions being battered and had gotten worse from there.

Sunset left the dungeon rooms. Nice as they were, with the sun down, she really wanted to see her friends. Opening the door to the suite she was hit in the face with streamers. "Surprise!" Pinkie Pie bounced in place, releasing balloons.

"I get to call you 'Bitey' now, right?" Mirror Rainbow Dash stepped up and ran a hoof down her side, from neck to her ribs. "Like the new paint-job."

Before Sunset could reply, Mirror Applejack stepped forward and looked at Sunset with some trepidation. "That still you in there, right?"

"I am still me, AJ. Just got a little… more, to deal with." Sunset smiled and was suddenly collided into by her friend, getting hugged tight. "Whoa, I am not fragile but…"

Pulling back, Mirror Applejack just kept grinning. "What, big tough vampire can't handle a girl showing her relief?"

"AJ, you were never just a girl. C'mere! You are all my besties!" Sunset spread her wings, pulling the six ponies tight together. Her blood-sense was practically drooling, but she had fed recently, from Maddie. "I need to tell you all something…"

It was like a sobering wave spreading through the mares. Each stopped and looked to Sunset, silent, expectant.

"I can't go back with you all, when you head home…" Sunset was ready for bawling, ready for sobs and tears.

"Figured as much." Pinkie gave a nod. "First of all, it would suck if you went through the portal and it was totally day time there." Sunset's jaw hung open. "Ugh, and how would you get a job, you would have to hide out underground all day and be like 'blah, blah blah'!" Pinkie did the standard vampire trope rather well.

"You would get to wear a cape, darling, capes are coming in this season." Rarity gave a grin, she was learning more from her own doppelganger about why things were coming into fashion than she had ever dreamed of.

"I bet you could move mad-fast." Rainbow Dash reached a wing out and hugged her friend. It was a little odd for Sunset, her friend's double in this world was a little more… overbearing with her attentions. Not that Sunset minded. "Wanna race?"

"Only at night, thanks Dash." Sunset spread her own wing out and hugged the pegasus back. "Fluttershy, you okay?"

"I am going to stay too." The yellow pegasus was so quiet that she would have not been heard normally, but her friends were used to her tone and all turned to her in shock when she said it. "All… all the animals here, they have a 'me' here already for them but she… she is one pony."

"Well I want to go home. One Pinkie is enough for this world, I bet back home there is a distinct lack of Pinkie-ness." Pinkie Pie giggled.

Rarity's heart was torn. On one hoof… hand, whatever, she wanted to go to fashion school. On the other, she practically already was at fashion school.

Author's Note

Some of the mirror mares make up their minds as to what they are doing. Sunset had to break the ice first, I doubt any of the others wanted to bring it up... except maybe Pinkie, but who knows what she is ever thinking?

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