Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-jig

by Justice3442

Rating: teen
Tags: Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Drama, Comedy, Starlight Glimmer, Random, Princess Celestia, Sex
Length: 35567

The mysterious Table of Harmony has called on Starlight Glimmer to solve a friendship problem at Canterlot Castle, but wait! A second cutie mark belonging to a magically inclined alicorn has appeared, and unfortunately for Twilight, it’s not hers.

The mysterious Table of Harmony has called on Starlight Glimmer to solve a friendship problem at Canterlot Castle, but wait! A second cutie mark belonging to a magically inclined alicorn has appeared, and unfortunately for Twilight, it’s not hers.

Can Sunset Shimmer help Starlight Glimmer untangle this mysterious problem in Canterlot, or will her own personal past prove more a hindrance than anything?

Spoilers for 'A Royal Problem'

Sunset vector by Sunsetmajka626.
Starlight vector by Cloudyskie.

Published 2017-06-11 06:10:11 UTC
Last updated 2019-11-04 08:18:51 UTC

Chapter 1: The Hound of the Harmony Table

Author's Note

Sorry to heap more required reading on you all, but this chapter will make slightly more sense, at least as much as it can, if you read The Order of Things here.

And hey! Accompanying blog post here!

Chapter 1: The Hound of the Harmony Table

Chapter 1: The Hound of the Harmony Table

“Sunset! Sunset, come quick!” a small purple and green talking dog cried from the classroom door.

Sunset frowned as she ceased absentmindedly fiddling with the red pendant that was dangling from a simple cord around her neck and turned towards the classroom door. Sure, she could lament the fact that her calm school day had just been interrupted, or wonder why it was that a talking dog was now so routine none of her fellow students so much as made mention of it, but mostly she was concerned that she wasn’t sure which green and purple talking dog had come to seek her out.

“Spike!” Sunset exclaimed as she got to her feet. “Did something happen to Twilight?!” Sunset’s frown deepened. Well the answer to that question won’t answer anything, genius!

“It’s Starlight!” Spike added.

Sunset sighed internally. Well, that answers it. “Sorry, Ms. Cheerilee!” Sunset said as she weaved around desks heading for the classroom door. “Duty calls!”

Cheerilee rolled her eyes. “Sure… Just teaching Human Geography here… Not like knowing how many people live in Ecuador is important or anything…”

“Thanks for understanding!”Sunset shouted as she opened the door to the classroom. “And also for noting this class is worthless!” she added as she followed Spike out, the small dogs nails scratching on the tile as he bolted.

“THAT WAS SARCAS-UGGGHHHHH!”

“Pffft, really? Sarcasm?” Aria Blaze said from the back of the class, her large purple boots resting on the top of her desk. She shook her head. “This class is full of the most useless information ever, and Sonata’s shown me charts on the names of characters from puppet shows.”

Cheerilee narrowed her eyes. “Aria. Why do you have to be so… so…”

“Truthful? Honest? Correct?”

“Untactful!” Cheerilee cried. Cheerilee motioned towards a green skinned woman with red dreadlocks who was sitting next to Sunset whose lilac-colored, rather bloodshot eyes were wide open and pointed towards the front of the room. “What can’t you show a little interest like Tree Hugger there?”

Aria glanced to her right. “Man, Tree Hugger isn’t even on this planet right now,” Aria said as she waved a hand in front of the green girl’s face.

Staring forward unblinkingly, Tree Hugger uttered, “Whoa, dudes… Did you know Jupiter has a secret fifth moon?!” She leaned closer to Aria. “NASA doesn’t want us to know about it ‘cause that’s where they keep area 51,” she whispered.

Aria jerked a thumb towards the stoner. “See?”

Cheerilee let out an annoyed sigh.

With a couple zaps, Spike and Sunset found themselves on the other side of a mirror that was surrounded by metal plated wooden doo-dads that blazed with purple energy. Spike used his claws to brush off some dust from his small, scaly dragon form. Sunset took some time to get used to her lower center of gravity and to admire her relatively new wings and looked with a small degree of satisfaction that her pendant was still present around her neck.

“Alright, what did she do this time?” Sunset asked as she folded her wings against her torso.

“Nothing, yet,” Spike answered. “But there’s the potential for some Starlight related trouble here, and all of Equestria might be affected!”

“You could have just mentioned the Starlight related trouble, Spike,” Sunset replied, “I could have figured out the scope of the problem just from that.”

“Fair ‘nuff,” Spike replied. He motioned for Sunset to follow him where the two made their way down a crystalline hallway flanked by door after identical door.

“So, what’s the sitch?” Sunset asked.

“Oh, you know the big table in the throne room?”

Sunset snickered. “What, did Starlight and Trixie lose it again?”

“You know about that, huh?”

Sunset smiled. “Twilight and I tend to use our journal to vent about whatever problems we dealt with when we talk to each other.” Sunset chuckled. “Plus the whole incident is something I get to tease Starry about,” Sunset frowned slightly. “Provided she doesn’t do anything we’ll all regret.”

“Well, the table shows Starlight’s cutie mark.”

“… Okay, and?”

“Uh, and it’s just her cutie mark?”

“Do you think Starlight did something to the table?”

“Naw,” Spike replied with a shrug. “Guess the table just wants her for this friendship problem.”

“… Okay? So, why’d you grab me?”

“Well, you told me to get you in case there might be Starlight related problems!”

Sunset shrugged. “Sure, but… It sounds like the magical table thinks she’s got this… I’m sure she can handle whatever the issue is…” Sunset looked around. “Gee, no wonder Starry gets lost in this place. How do you figure out when to stop? I don’t remember the throne room being this far.”

“Oh, it’s right there…” Spike said as he stopped and pointed towards a Hallway.” We passed it once already.”

Sunset’s face tightened. “You’ve been walking us in circles?!”

“Just the one!” Spike insisted. He threw his claws up in the air. “You wanted me to fill you in! Figured you we should do that outside of earshot of Twilight and Starlight.”

“Spike!” Sunset said in a chastising tone. “Okay, you’re right, but still, this is Starlight we’re talking about! Time is of the essence! Every moment we waste can bring us closer to certain doom!”

Spike folded his arms across his chest. “Exaggerate Much? Besides,'s you just told me you didn't think this was a big deal!”

Sunset frowned. “Too much?”

Spike nodded and held up a claw, allowing for a little space between his thumb claw and index claw. “A little bit, yeah.”

Sunset shrugged. "Well, I'm sure the magic table thing knows what it's doing, but there's always a chance Starlight can endanger us or the entire planet between now and however long it takes her to get to her friendship problem."

Twilight’s blood-curdling scream sounded out from a hallway next to Sunset and Spike.

“Hah!” Sunset exclaimed. "Like that!" she added as she pointed down the hallway with a forehoof.

“Sunset!” Spike snapped as he bolted down the hallway. “We need to help Twilight!”

“I know!” Sunset shouted as she broke into a gallop behind Spike. “But just in case things are bad, I want to get my ‘I told you so’ out of the way in case it’s super insensitive to bring up later!”

Spike rushed towards a pair of massive double doors, pushing them open a hard shove which sent the doors flying open despite Spike’s small size. “Twilight?! Starlight?! What’s wrong.”

Twilight stared at the table in bewilderment. “This… this can’t be happening! I mean… She’s not even here!”

“What?! What?!” Sunset cried as she galloped into the room, and skidded to a halt.

“Sunset?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Hey, Twilight!” Sunset greeted hastily. “What’s the problem?!”

Starlight let out a massive sigh. “Hello, Sunset…” she greeted unenthusiastically.

Sunset raised an eyebrow in Starlight’s direction. “Uh… Hey, Starry… Who pissed in your cereal this morning?”

“You know what?” Starlight narrowed her eyes. “It’s starting to look like you and Twilight took turns doing it.”

Spike shuddered. “Didn’t need that imagery, Starlight.”

Starlight pointed an accusatory forehoof at Sunset. “Hey, she asked!”

Sunset’s eyebrows lowered into an annoyed look. “Just trying to help. What’s the big deal any-Why the heck is my cutie mark floating above the big hologram table thing were Canterlot Castle is?!”

“That’s what I want to know,” Twilight said. She turned towards Sunset. “What the heck are you doing here?!”

“I just said I’m here to help!”

“With what?!” Twilight and Starlight exclaimed in unison.

Spike spoke up, “Sunset asked me to get her in case there was a possibility of Starlight related disasters she might have to help deal with.”

Starlight let out an indignant gasp as Twilight glared at Spike and then Sunset.

Sunset shot a dirty look at Spike. “Snitch!” she accused.

“Whoops…” Spike said.

“Sunset, what the hay?!” Starlight shouted.

Sunset gave Starlight a sheepish smile. “Okay… Now I pissed in your cereal.”

Spike threw his claws up in the air. “Could we stop with the gross cereal metaphor, please!”

“It’s just…” Twilight glanced at Starlight and Sunset’s cutie marks that circled above Canterlot Castle on the table’s map of Equestria. “You two aren’t even element bearers!”

“No, this is fine,” Starlight uttered indignantly. “Just make me more nervous about this whole situation, sure…”

Sunset shrugged. “Well, maybe Starry isn’t but I kind of am.”

“Uh. No?” Twilight replied. “I mean… my friends and I got the element stones. Though, the Tree of Harmony sort of took them back.”

“What?” Sunset pointed towards the red pendant dangling from her neck. “You mean like this?”

Twilight scowled at the pendant then looked back up at Sunset. “Well… Mine was bigger!”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Real mature, Twilight.”

Starlight frowned. “Wait, you got like… an element necklace?”

“Erm, yeah…” Sunset said. “Or something like that… Guess I haven’t kept you in the loop, but my friends and I got these Equestria stones that gave us powers during summer camp.”

“... Can you invite me to the next summer camp?” Starlight asked.

“We didn’t get them as prizes or ‘merit stones’ or anything!” Sunset said. “We got them when we were fighting some crazy nature manifestation that possessed a camp counselor slash co-owner of the place.” Sunset looked down at her pendant. “Plus my power works independently of the pendant… I just wanted to look pretty today.”

Spike smirked. “Like you need a pendant for that.”

“… Awww!” Sunset said with a chuckle. “Thanks, Spike.”

Spike rubbed a claw against his chest proudly. “It’s what I do.”

“So, what’s your power?” Starlight asked.

“Oh, I can read minds when I touch someone,” Sunset answered.

Everypony took a few steps back from Sunset.

“Not every time I touch someone!” Sunset exclaimed. “No need to treat me like I got the plague, alright? Besides! I don’t need to read minds to tell that I’m just ticking off everypony.” Sunset sighed and turned. “I should go…”

“No, wait!” Starlight said. “I’m sorry I got upset with you.”

Sunset stopped and turned. “Uh, really? I mean… I’d be pretty upset with me if I was in your shoes… horseshoes? Whatever…”

“Well, the table must be calling us for a reason!”

“It called you, Starlight,” Sunset said. “It’s probably just showing my cutie mark because it needs some magical maintenance. I’m sure whatever is wrong, I’ll just get in the way.”

The red and yellow sun cutie mark above the castle suddenly grew several sizes and began spinning even faster than before.

“See!” Sunset said motioning to the table. “Totally busted! Welp, I better get going…” she said as she turned again.

Spike piped up. “Or maybe it’s super important you both go to Canterlot. Like possible end of the world important!”

Starlight began to shake nervously.

“What?! No! That’s dumb!” Sunset declared. “Why would it need me to go there?!”

Spike scratched his chin. “Oh! I get it! You’re trying to avoid Celestia!”

“WHAT! NO! DUMBER!” Sunset said. “I love Mommy and would love to see her again!”

“So… You’ll go to the castle, then?” Spike replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Ugggh…” Sunset uttered. “Look, maybe the table just thinks Starlight could use some emotional support or something! I mean, Twilight can go!”

Suddenly, Twilight’s cutie mark appeared above Canterlot castle.

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically.

A red circle with a slash through it appeared over Twilight’s cutie mark.

“No!” Twilight cried angrily.

Sunset peered at the table suspiciously. “You know… For a table, it’s really tracking our conversation pretty well.”

“Oh, I know why!” Twilight shouted.

“Oh?” Sunset said in interest.

“YEAH!” Twilight shouted as she stormed to one side of the table, crawled under it, and began to rap an angry forehoof against the side. “HEY! YOU! WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?!”

“Uh, Twilight?” Sunset said in a confused tone. “You’re yelling at a table…”

“NO!” Twilight insisted. “I’M YELLING AT THE TINY DOG INSIDE THE TABLE.”

“…Okay!” Sunset replied as she forced a smile and her eyes went wide. “Well, I think Twilight could really use some rest, and—”

‘KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!’

“OPEN UP!” Twilightdemanded. “OPEN UP OR I’LL SHAVE RARITY’S CAT AND TELEPORT THE FUR DIRECTLY IN THERE!”

“Twilight, calm down!” Sunset said. “You’re yelling at a—“

“ALRIGHT, ALREADY!” A deep, masculine voice shouted back. “Geez! Keep yer non-existent shirt on!”

“—table?!” Sunset said in reply.

Sunset, Starlight, and Spike suddenly crowded around the table as a rectangular portion suddenly slid away revealing a tiny tan dog with a white underbelly, muzzle, and paws which sat on a small metal swivel stool, working a much larger, but still tiny, control panel with a collection of monitors set above buttons, knobs, and dials.

Sunset, Starlight, and Spike all stared in disbelief.

The dog smiled at the audience he had collected. “Guess that cat is out of the bag, huh? Or the dog is in the table.”

“Tiny… tiny Shiba Inu…” Starlight uttered.

Sunset turned towards Twilight. “Why the heck didn’t you tell me about this before?!”

“Because it would have sounded crazy!” Twilight fired back.

“Tiny dog…” Spike uttered. “Much small. Very control station. Wow.”

“You raise an interesting point!” replied Sunset.

“Thank you!” Twilight shouted back.

“Would ya girls keep it down?” The dog barked out. “We’re all justa few inches away from each other!”

Sunset stared into the little hole in the table in bewilderment, working her mouth a bit before coherent words finally came out. “Uh… Hi? I’m Sunset Shimmer…”

The dog nodded. “Yeah, I know who you are. I remember watchin’ ya grow up in the castle. Ya used to say some pretty messed up things in your sleep.”

“Okay!” Sunset said as worried smiled appeared on her face. “Totally creeped out now!”

“Name’s Order,” the dog greeted. “I help these girls keep the peace in Equestria …” Order turned to look at Starlight. “Sometimes from each other.”

Starlight let out a sad whimper.

“Okay,” Twilight spoke up, “so why are you sending Starlight and Sunset to Canterlot Castle?”

“Well, I can’t just tell them that!” Order snapped. “I mean, c’mon! What would be the point if I just told ya girls how to fix yer friendship problems?”

“… We’d fix things and faster and with less damage?” suggested Twilight.

Sunset waved a forehoof in front of Twilight. “No, no… I think the creepy, tiny, talking dog has a point. I mean… We’d never learn anything for ourselves if he just told us exactly what we should do and why.”

“See!” Order replied as he motioned out to Sunset. “That girl gets it!”

“… Just like Mommy…” Sunset muttered.

“I mean, she’s troubled, but she gets it!” Order added.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Okay, but why them?”

Starlight sighed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Twilight.”

“Yes, why us?!” Sunset exclaimed.

Starlight turned and glowered at Sunset. “Really?”

Sunset grinned nervously and shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“There’s problems in Canterlot Castle that need, fixin’ alright?” Order replied. He pointed at Sunset with one paw and Starlight with the other. “Those two are the girls ‘ta do the fixin’!”

Starlight frowned. “Wait… problems, plural?”

Spike raised a claw. “Question.”

“Yeah, little guy?” Order replied.

The three ponies present all raised their eyebrows in the tiny dog’s direction.

Spike continued. “If you called on Starlight and Sunset, why didn’t their cutie marks vibrate? Can you only do that for element bearers?”

“Oops!” Order said as he turned towards his control panel. “Almost forgot the best part!” he said as a paw slapped a couple buttons.

‘Buzz! Buzz!’

“Ah!”

“Wha!”

Sunset and Starlight suddenly stood up, both their heads hitting the above table with twin thuds. Rubbing the pained spots, they turned to glare at Spike who smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

Twilight sighed. “So… What… You can just butt dial anypony in Equestria?”

“That’s not what that means, Twilight,” Sunset said. “Though, this version is way more accurate.”

Order shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Twilight groaned. “Great… Why don’t you just get everypony in Ponyville or even all of Equestria to solve friendship problems!”

Order narrowed his eyes at Twilight. “Hey. Keep moanin’ like that and I just might.”

Sunset closed her eyes shook her head as if trying to clear the weirdness she was seeing. Opening her eyes, she noticed nothing had changed. Scrunching her lips to the left side of her face, she said, “So you’re the animal-anthropomorphic representation of order in Equestria.”

Order smirked. “Obviously.”

“And you’re a dog…” Sunset added.

Order narrowed his eyes slightly. “What? Ya think it’d be better if I was some pony or alicorn? ‘Cause that’s pretty speciesist of ya to even think.”

“No, no!” Sunset said waving a forehoof in front of her. “I just, you know, thought of order more as just an esoteric concept…”

“Oh, suuuure, some crazy creature that looks like it was the result of some bizarre pony, dragon, lion, eagle, goat, and elk orgy as the spirit of chaos is fine—”

Everypony winced.

“Didn’t really need that image in my head, thanks…” Sunset said.

“Ugh, no kidding…” Starlight added.

Order continued, “—but as soon as you all find out there’s a tiny dog trying ‘ta keep yer cockamamie magic world from falling apart, yer all up in hooves about it.”

“Alright, sorry!” Sunset said.

Order looked around. “What? Is it question the living embodiment of order day? I try to keep ya ponies on the straight and narrow and all ya do is complain! Yer all worse than my ex!” he screamed.

“Alright, already!” Sunset snapped. “I already said I was sor… You had an ex?!” Sunset’s face began to twitch uncontrollably. “The manifestation of order got married and divorced?!”

Twilight’s expression went distant. “I have so many questions and concerns…”

Order shrugged. “Well, ya. I mean… We tried our best, but it’s hard living with the same entity for century after century, you know?”

The ponies and dragons present all looked at each other and shrugged.

“Especially the bitch that was my ex,” Order muttered.

Starlight narrowed her eyes. “Maybe if you didn’t call your ex a bitch you’d still be together.”

Order gave Starlight an indignant look. “Hey, that’s OUR word! You can’t just use it like that.”

Starlight cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

Twilight spoke up. “I think he meant that ‘literally’, as in his ex is actually a female dog.”

“Oh… my apologies,” Starlight offered.

Spike smirked at Order. “Bitches, am I right?”

“Spike!” the mare’s present all said in unison.

“Naw, it’s fine,” Order said. “The kids a dog when he swaps worlds, so it’s okay when he says it.”

Spike grinned to himself and brushed a clenched claw against his chest. “Heh… I have ‘b’ word privileges.”

Twilight let out a groan.

Sunset and Starlight trotted down a Ponyville street, their saddle bags bouncing lightly on their backs as the passed ponies going about their business. Ponies who often stopped to stare at the unknown alicorn. Although usually not one to mind a little extra attention, Sunset’s mind was anywhere but her immediate surroundings. She threw her head up sighed. “I can’t believe I’m going home after all these years based on the vague recommendation of some tiny, creepy dog!”

Starlight cocked her head slightly. “So you were trying to avoid going back to the castle.”

“Well, yeah!” Sunset admitted. “I mean, I’m at least on speaking terms with Celestia again, but talking to her is a lot different than going back to the castle where I spent a great deal of my childhood and wayward teen years.”

Starlight nodded. “Sure, sure… I can relate. I mean… I was nervous about talking to Sunburst, but luckily I had somepony who forced me to talk to him under pain of farting noises to embarrass me!” she growled out.

“Hey!” Sunset said in a protesting tone before she glanced up towards her eyelids and thought for a moment. “Okay… Sorta hypocritical of me…”

“’Sort of’?”

“Look, I reconciled with Mom, Cadance, and even Twilight!” Sunset stared forward, her turquoise eyes unfocusing a bit. “But there’s plenty more ponies in Canterlot my bratty, youthful self-ran afoul of… Not to mention I might end up getting into many heated arguments with Celestia! I mean, that’s not good for anypony.”

Starlight sighed. “You handled things well enough back at the Crystal Empire… I mean… I mostly just screwed things up!”

“You saved everyone from that huge storm!” Sunset pointed out. “I mean, sure, you also did it by condensing the moisture in the air into a giant iceberg in the sky that almost crushed everypony, but you helped there too! Sooo… Net positive goodness!”

Starlight groaned. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I have you to keep me from screwing up too bad.”

“Honestly, I think you have… whatever the problem is in Canterlot,” Sunset said. “I mean, the weird talking dog didn’t even Bat-signal me until Spike dragged me to this side of the mirror.”

“… Bat-signal?”

“Cutie mark signal, whatever…” Sunset put a forehoof on Starlight’s shoulder getting the mare to stop. She smiled. “Look, I know you’ve gotten better and even dealt with that whole changeling thing. I’m sure you don’t need me for this one, but I’ll be around if you need me. To paraphrase something I heard quite a few times during summer camp, Yooooou’ve got this.”

Starlight smiled. “Thanks, Sunset. It actually means a lot to hear you have confidence in me.” Starlight frowned and turned back towards Twilight’s castle. “At least somepony does.”

Sunset shrugged. “Eh, Twilight just responds with paranoia to every problem she’s not asked to help solve directly. I wouldn’t let it get to you.”

Starlight dropped her eyelids slightly and tilted her head. “… You didn’t…?”

“… What?”

“You know… Read my mind?”

Sunset pulled her hoof up to her forehead and closed her eyes. “I’m sensing… sensing… That you’re nervous about this whole trip and scared you’re going to disappoint Twilight and the rest of your friends.”

Starlight gave Sunset a startled look.

Sunset pulled her hoof from her forehead and grinned. “I don’t need mind reading for that!” Sunset said. “Anypony can figure that out just from talking to you. Don’t worry, you’ll knock ‘em dead!”

Starlight winced.

“Not literally.” Sunset chuckled and shook her head. “Hey, the sooner we get there and you fix this problem, the sooner I can get home before things get to awkward, or angry, or violent, or all of the above with my Mom.” Sunset looked around. “How are we getting to Canterlot anyhow?”

Starlight shrugged. “The train, of course.”

Sunset’s face tightened almost on instinct. “You bitch!” she growled out.

“Hey!” Starlight protested. “You don’t have ‘b’ word privileges!”

Chapter 2: Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3: Disparaging Day-old Doughnuts

Sunset Shimmer leaned her body against the doughnut display case, her forehooves dangling off the edge slightly as she stood up on her hind legs and looked towards the gray door which Joe had just disappeared behind. “Joe…? Joooooe!” she called out. “Look, I’m really sorry about the years of being a tyrannical child with an over inflated sense of power who made unreasonable demands and threatened to burn this place down or tell my mommy on you if they weren’t met! …Joe?”

Sitting on a pink stool at a wooden pink table, Starlight Glimmer glanced over at Sunset. “You threatened to burn down Joe’s shop?” she asked, not in disbelief, but in a simple inquisitive tone as if she was clarifying the time of day.

Sunset sighed and threw a forehoof up into the air. “I was just a filly and had somewhat unreasonable expectations about being the daughter of Equestria’s ruler! Like…Raspberry rosemary buttermilk doughnuts, for instance.”

“That sounds… heavenly,” Starlight replied.

“I know, right?”

Starlight nodded. “Much better sounding than jalapeño red velvet omelet cupcakes, at least.”

“Uh… What an oddly specific and gross-sounding comparison!”

“It’s, uh, better tasting than it sounds in a somewhat degrading sort of way…”

“... I don’t have a good response for that! Still!” Sunset let her head dangle over the side of the display case. “I’m sure I could have asked Joe nicely back then instead of threatening property destruction and implied imprisonment…” Sunset sighed loudly. “Story of my life… Oh! Bear claws!” With a crimson glow of Sunset’s horn, two large glazed masses of browned dough were lifted from the display case. Sunset trotted over towards the table Starlight Glimmer sat at and floated down the pastries in front of Starlight and herself. With another red glow of her horn, she unclipped the lock on a brown saddle bag that bore her cutie mark, pulled out a modest pile of bits, and floated them over to the counter.

Starlight stared at this scene and disbelief. “Sunset… Your… your magic…”

Sunset stared back at Starlight in confusion. “Uh… Yes? I mean… I kinda grew up as a unicorn and became an alicorn has just made me more magic… Not to mention the new, magical super powers? This shouldn’t be news to you, you know… being the super magical unicorn that you are.”

“No! Your magic is red now!”

“It… Wha…” Sunset lifted the bear claw in front of her and stared at the red glow that surrounded it. “Oh, what the heck?!” She set the bear claw down and looked downward, glaring slightly. “What did you…” Sunset pursed her lips as she tilted her head to the right then to the left. “Stupid muzzle…” she uttered. With another red glow, she shifted her pendant up and to the left as she tilted her head down and to the right and glared up at the offending piece of jewelry. “What did you do?!” she exclaimed as she cocked a foreleg to awkwardly point accusingly at her pendant.

Starlight tilted her head slightly and leaned forward as she examined the pendant. “So, you think the color change was triggered by your new super power?”

Sunset threw up her forehooves in an exaggerated shrug. “I guess?!” Just as dramatically, she collapsed onto the table, her face facing her bear claw. “Why does my life have to be complicated from my past actions and also outside forces… Can’t it just be one or the other?”

Starlight smiled at Sunset. “I like the red. It suits you,” she said as she levitated her bear claw in front of her face and took a bite. Starlight let out an audible “Mmmmm…”

“But the turquoise matched my eeeeeyeeeees!” Sunset complained. She let her head fall back down to the table and stared off into space morosely. “Hashtag Jumping Through Dimension Problems…”

Starlight chewed and swallowed. “Hashtag?”

“It’s uh… Earth slang… Not really important.” Sunset placed her forelegs on the table and spread them out toward Starlight. “Staaarliiiiight… StaaaaaarliIiIiIiIiIt!” Sunset whined pathetically.

“Uh, yes? Sunset, Sunset?”

“Go out and do something bad!”

Starlight looked taken aback. “Uh, why?!”

“You know… Distraction tactic. Everypony who remembers me will momentarily forget all the bad things I did as a filly and teenager if you’re out running around teleporting tables and turning everything into teacups!”

Starlight gave Sunset a miffed look. “Trixie did those things!”

“Oh, I know,” Sunset replied, “but suggesting you go steal cutie marks or bend time to your will seemed mildly insensitive.”

Starlight winced. “Just a little bit.”

Sunset rubbed her chin and stared upwards. “Although…”

“Oh, no!” Starlight exclaimed. “No, no, no! We’re not going back in time to change your past! I’ve already learned that what seems like the littlest things can mean the end of the entire world!”

Sunset dramatically puffed out her lower lips as her eyes went wide and watery. “You really think me going to tell my younger self to be nicer would mean the end of the world?”

“I have no idea what kind of stuff would happen, but I’m sure if you didn’t end up going to Earth things would be wildly different. Plus, who knows how you’d change? I mean… I know I’m a lot nicer now after Twilight forgave me for my many, many crimes.”

Sunset winced slightly and smiled. “Well, forgiving ponies who’ve almost killed her is Twilight’s modus operandi. The moment Twilight pulled me out of a smoking crater certainly was the beginning of my life improving.” Sunset chuckled. “And not just because she pulled me out of a smoking crater.”

Starlight gave Sunset a little half smile. “Plus, if we changed your past, you might not have met me and then I’d be missing such a special friend in my life.”

Sunset looked at Starlight in surprise for a moment. “Awwww… Thanks, Starry. That’s really sweet of you.”

Starlight’s smile widened and she rubbed the back of her head. “Really, that wasn’t too over the top?”

“No, no… That was good…” Sunset said. “I mean… I guess there’s a good chance I would have ended up in Twilight’s place and we’d still have met.” She frowned. “But ‘forgive’ is usually not my first impulse so uh… Yeah… Let’s not do the time travel thing for your safety.”

Starlight chuckled nervously. “It would be nice to remain unincinerated.”

Sunset thought for a moment. “Of course, I could ask young ‘told to be nicer’ me to find and befriend you as a filly.”

Starlight paused as her eyebrows began to slowly crawl towards each other. “I’m trying very hard to say ‘no’ to this!”

Sunset smiled. “Come on! Young you could be like… my personal yes-pony and servant!” she said excitedly.

“...It’s suddenly much easier to say ‘no’,” Starlight replied dryly.

Sunset shrugged. “I said ‘nicer’, I didn’t say ‘saintly’. I mean, let’s be realistic here.” She sighed. “But no time travel means I’m left with the same problems.”

Starlight waved her bear claw a bit in front of Sunset. “Try your bear claw, you’ll feel better.”

Sunset lifted her head and floated her bear claw up in front of her. She pointed a forehoof at it. “Fix my problems!” she ordered.

The bear claw remained inertly silent.

Sunset looked at Starlight. “Nope. Not working.”

Still smiling, Starlight rolled her eyes. “You know what I meant!”

“Hehe. Yeah, yeah…” Sunset replied with a small smile. She floated up the bear claw and took a bite. Chewing, she let out a hum of contentment and closed her eyes before swallowing. “Just as good as I remembered…”

“See! I knew you’d feel better!”

Sunset sighed. “A little bit! I’d feel better if Joe wasn’t, oh I don’t know… Probably hiding behind a doorway ready to pelt me with some day-old doughnuts and scream if he so much as sees an inch of my horn.”

Starlight chuckled. “You’re exaggerating…”

“And you never met me as a filly!” Sunset countered.

“That bad, huh?” Starlight took another bite of her bear claw.

“My mom didn’t just ‘fake’ banish me because she thought it was funny.”

Starlight swallowed her food. “… ‘Fake banish’?”

Sunset waved a dismissive forehoof. “Long story…” She took another bite of her own bear claw, chewed, and swallowed. “Still, at least this is pretty good… Not as good as blueberry basil doughnuts, though…” Sunset sniffed the air. “Hmmm… I can practically smell them…”

The gray door behind the counter practically exploded open as Joe appeared, a tray of glazed, purple doughnuts balanced on his back and a smile on his face. “Well hi there, Sunset Shimmer! Long time, no see!” Joe’s happy expression dipped slightly. “Heh, or should I call you ‘yer highness’.”

Sunset turned slightly, grinning sheepishly. “Sunset is fine, Joe. Uh… How you’ve been?”

Joe smiled. “Can’t complain. Who’s this?” He said as he nodded towards Starlight.

“Oh, this is Starlight Glimmer. She’s Twilight’s friendship student, or, uh… ascendant friendship student, I guess.” Sunset nodded at Joe. “Starlight, this is Joe. He runs and owns this shop.”

Joe extended a forehoof. “Any friend of Twilight is a friend of mine.” He glanced at Sunset. “No offense.”

Starlight gave Joe’s hoof a slight bump with her own forehoof as Sunset eyed the plate of doughnuts on his back hungrily. “None taken…” Sunset said in reply. “I mean… assuming you brought those doughnuts out for my benefit and not just to withhold as a form of punishment for transgressions I made against you when I was younger… Not that I could blame you.”

Joe let out a small, jovial chuckle as he took the tray off his back with an emerald glow of his horn. He sat it in the middle of the table between Sunset and Starlight. “Now what kind of pastry chef would I be if I withheld doughnuts to punish you, especially after all that apologizin’ ya did?”

“A vindictive one,” Sunset said as she took one of the purple doughnuts in a red glow. “But I’m glad you’re a forgiving chef instead. Thank you, Joe.” Sunset took a bite then let out a tiny squeal of delight. “Oh, this! I’ve missed this!” she declared. “Starlight, you have to try one, or maybe a half-dozen.”

Starlight took a doughnut in an electric blue glow, floated it to her mouth, then took a bite. “Oh… Oh, wow!”

“I know, right!” Sunset exclaimed as she took another bite, chewed, then swallowed. “Maybe if I could get these doughnuts back on Earth, I wouldn’t have been quite so bent to take over Equestria.”

Starlight nodded. “Geez, if I had some of these, I definitely would have reconsidered stealing cutie marks if it meant erasing these from Equestria.”

Joe glanced between the two mares, a pensive smile forming on his face. “Uh… I don’t really get it, but I’m happy you two are enjoying yourselves!”

Sunset and Starlight gave Joe embarrassed smiles.

“Uh, yeah…” Sunset said. “Maybe you should forget you heard that… Or at least refrain from printing either quote and putting them up on your wall as some sort of endorsement of your shop.”

Joe smiled and pulled a forehoof across his mouth. “My lips are sealed!” He gave Sunset a quick look over. “But look at you, eh? A princess! What da ya know!”

Sunset shook her head. “Well, an alicorn. It’s not like I’ve had a coronation.” Sunset let out a small sigh. “Another conversation I get to have with mom, again…”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Joe began, “is that why ye’re back? Visiting your mom?”

“Uh… Sort of…” Sunset said. “The short version is Starlight and I got tapped for some magical friendship errand.”

“Sounds important,” Joe commented.

“Eh, probably not,” Sunset replied. “Think less, ‘saving the world’ and more there’s probably a handful of ponies who need to be told their lives would better if they stopped being jerks.”

“… ‘Handful’?” Joe said.

“Uh… Hooffull,” Sunset said. “I’ve been living… away. Picked up the local slang a bit. Still though, I’m sure whatever brings us to Canterlot isn’t a huge deal.”

“You know…” Starlight spoke up. “Assuming Spike’s wrong and it doesn’t involve Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” she said in a worried tone.

“… Did you just freak yourself out?” Sunset asked with a slightly amused look.

“A little bit, yeah,” Starlight admitted.

“Hey, I can handle Celestia if it comes to that.”

“Okay, but that leaves me with Princess Luna?” Starlight asked as her apprehension began to set up shop in her voice to the point it was selling shiny baubles. “I mean… Call me paranoid—”

“You’re paranoid,”Sunset quipped.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “—but if Princess Luna has seen the dreams of ponies all over Equestria, she’s sure to have come across some sort of nightmare version of me! Either stealing cutie marks or having ponies eat bland, tasteless muffins.”

Sunset smirked. “Those two things don’t really sound equivalent in the ‘bad’ department.”

“Clearly, you haven’t talked to Pinkie about the whole thing.”

“You worry too much,” Sunset said, shaking her head. “I mean, Sure you were a terrible despot and nearly destroyed the world a few times over—”

“… Is this supposed to make me feel better?” Starlight asked in a dry tone.

Sunset continued, “—but Princess Luna has no doubt had to deal with Nobles! Have you ever met a noble pony? Most of them seem to wake up amongst their crazy opulence and wonder why the world doesn’t revolve around them.”

“I’m tempted to point out the obvious,” Starlight said, “but I feel that might be insensitive.”

Sunset flashed a wicked smile. “Oh no, no, no… The world really did revolve around me, better yet, the sun. Anyhow, you at least meant well… minus the seeking vengeance on Twilight thing… But hey, she was willing to talk to me and I’m sure she knew all about the aforementioned attempt to take over Equestria.”

“Huh…” Joe uttered. “I should be surprised, but somehow I’m not… In fact, come ta think of it, that makes a lot of sense.”

Sunset winced slightly before her smile returned.

“Okay, but,” Starlight began, “you’re basically family to Princess Luna!”

“Surprise family!” Sunset replied. “It’s like regular family with much more baggage! She had no idea about my full connection to Celestia until she met me, and Luna still was pretty nice to me! So, don’t worry so much.”

Starlight took a deep breath then let it out. “I’ll try.”

Sunset took another bite of her doughnut. “Try your doughnut, it’ll help… And don’t use the same joke I used.”

Starlight chuckled lightly and went back to work on her doughnut.

“So,” Joe began, “does Celestia know you’re coming back?”

Sunset let out a small groan. “No. It’s sort of a surprise trip all around… just filled to the brim and even overflowing with surprises… We’re practically swimming in surprises, Joe! Drowning, even.”

“Well, I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you again,” Joe replied. “Sounds like you’ve at least met her sister.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. Mom and I also patched things up a while back.”

Joe chuckled. “Wha, you were too busy ta see yer old pal, Joe?”

“Oh, this was in the Crystal Empire,” Sunset clarified. “A visit to see Cadance’s baby…” Sunset let out a small swoon as an oddly mischievous smile spread across her face. “Such a destructive force…”

Starlight stopped mid-bite and stared at Sunset along with Joe.

“Uh… a destructive… cutie… Cute!... Powerful… adorable… force…”

Joe smirked. “More run-a’-the-mill magical friendship stuff?”

Starlight let out a groan. “Actually, the entire Empire was nearly destroyed!”

“Really?” Joe replied.

Sunset gave Joe a surprised look. “I’m, uh, kinda surprised you didn’t hear about this.”

Joe shrugged. “I’m not one for readin’ the paper. Too busy making doughnuts.”

Sunset batted her eyelids at Joe. “And chatting up cute mares at your shop?”

Joe let out a guffaw and motioned to both Sunset and Starlight. “Well… Only the cutest.”

Starlight smiled and blushed slightly as Sunset gave Joe a wry grin. “Oh, you owe me for that setup…”

Joe motioned to the pastries on the table. “Ye’re welcome to more doughnuts if you can finish these.”

“Oh, right…” Sunset crammed her half-eaten doughnut into her mouth, chewed several times, and took a heavy swallow. Inhaling then exhaling contently, she picked her bear claw back up.

“So what happened?”

Sunset tensed and nervously swallowed her food. “Uh… What do you mean?”

“Ya know… regarding the Crystal Empire nearly being destroyed.”

A smile reappeared on Sunset’s face. “Oh that… Uh… the Crystal Heart got destroyed, temporarily.”

“What… Some big, powerful villain come along?”

“Er, more like a tiny, adorable, destructive happy-accident… Babies, ya know?”

“Uh… sure…? No…?”

“Anyway, the Heart got destroyed and then we all nearly died in a huge storm,” Sunset motioned to Starlight. “But then Starlight saved us!”

Starlight let out a heavy sigh. “Sure! By almost dooming us all!”

Sunset snickered and shook her head. “I was going to leave that part out! Yes, yes… She turned the storm into an ice block and nearly crushed the castle and everypony else, but then everypony, including Starlight, un-doomed us!”

Starlight smiled. “You left out the best part! You and Spike drilling a hole through the ice block with a magical fuel spell and his fire breath!”

Sunset waved a dismissive forehoof. “Well, I don’t like to brag…”

Joe let out a laugh. “Well that’s certainly different from the Sunset I knew!”

“Hehe… Okay, I love to brag, but I’ve been trying to cut back.”

Joe smiled. “Well, it’s nice ta hear ya patched things up with Princess Celestia. I started seeing a lot less of her after ya left for your trip.”

The atmosphere in the shop suddenly thickened to fill the void left by the silence.

Sunset gave Joe a sheepish look. “Er… Maybe, that’s a topic for later…”

“Uh, yeah. Sure, Sunset.”

Starlight smiled at Joe. “So, you knew Sunset as a filly! You must have such great stories!”

Sunset instinctively grimaced.

-ooooooo-<

Starting from the tiled floor of Joe’s shop, multicolor-frosted doughnuts piled into the shape of stairs led up to a platform, likewise made of doughnuts. Sitting atop this warm, sugary plateau, filly Sunset Shimmer sat on her haunches and glowered from her perch. “More doughnuts! MORE! My doughnut throne should reach the roof!”

“Yes, yer highness!” Joe huffed out, nearly out of breath as he rushed over with a tray on his back piled so high with doughnuts, they swayed one way and the other, threatening to topple to the floor. He hurriedly began to float over doughnut after doughnut in a green glow to create armrests and a back to Sunset’s ‘throne’.

Sunset snatched one of the doughnuts in a turquoise glow, brought it to her muzzle, and proceeded to devour it. “Fasther!” she exclaimed, spraying crumbs in Joe’s general direction. She swallowed. “My throne is going to start shrinking at this rate!”

“Right, Yer Highness! Sorry, Yer Highness!” Joe said as he quickly did an about face and back towards the counter.

“Oh, Lowly Servant~!” Sunset sang out. “Has my crown sufficiently cooled yet?”

“Yes, yer highness,” Joe said as he quickly returned with a massive, yellow frosted doughnut with sprinkles on top. He lowered the item onto Sunset’s head.

Sunset’s smile grew wild, wicked, and thorny over her face like an overgrown rose bush. “Excellent!” she cooed. “Perhaps I’ll spare your wretched little doughnut shop, Loyal Servant.”

“Yes, Yer Highness! Thanks, Yer Highness!”

The chime of a small bell suddenly broke into the shop.

Sunset turned. “Who disrupts my coronation!” Sunset demanded. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped as she caught sight of the surprise attendee.

Celestia looked at the doughnut ‘throne’ and ‘crown’ with a simmering expression of displeasure. “Coronation, Sunset? This is bad comedy.”

Sunset’s face suddenly went several shades lighter as she stared at Celestia standing in the shop’s entrance.

“Uh…” Sunset hastily threw on a grin. “It’s actually an early Mother’s Day present! Surprise!” Sunset let out a precocious giggle. “Guess I just got a little carried away…”

Celestia looked taken aback for a moment. She turned towards Joe. “Joe. Is this true? Did you and Sunset really set this all up for my benefit?”

“Uh…” Joe glanced at Sunset who immediately puffed out her lower lip as her eyes went wide and glassy. Joe had seen sad puppies that looked far less desperate… and adorable. “Yeah!” Joe said. He chuckled. “Guess Sunset and I got a little too much into character, ya know?”

Celestia’s face let up as she let out a gasp. “Oh, Sunset, Joe! This is amazing!”

Sunset got up, trotted back to the floor, and happily motioned to the throne. “Help yourself.”

“Well… I was trying to watch my weight… Oh, but who am I to say no to such a wonderful gift?” Celestia said as she happily trotted over to the throne and began picking off doughnuts and eating them.

Sunset let out a sigh of relief followed by a startled yelp as she was taken up in a canary yellow glow. She quickly found herself wrapped up in a pair of long, alabaster forelegs.

“Thank you, Sunset,” Celestia said. “This is very sweet… literally,” she added with a wink.

Sunset smiled and shimmied in her mother’s grasp so she could wrap her forelegs and her mother’s neck. “You’re welcome.”

Celestia wrapped her wings around Sunset and squeezed her tighter, wincing slightly as she did.

“Mommy? Is something wrong?”

Celestia gently lowered Sunset back to the floor. “I think you just glazed me.” Celestia looked down at her chest and forearms which were now splattered with a medley of pink, yellow, and purple frosting. “I think we’ll both need a good scrubbing after this.”

“Hahaha… Whoops…” Sunset replied, her back and haunches likewise coated with frosting.

“So, uh…” Joe interjected. “Sunset, you still want those fried dough with cinnamon and sugar wings, and maple bar scepter, or…”

Celestia peered down at Sunset and raised an eyebrow.

Sunset turned towards Joe and raised a forehoof to her lips. “Shhh!” She hissed out with a small glare. Turning back towards Celestia, she put back on a sugary-sweet smile. “Sorry. I was really getting into character…”

<-ooooooo->

“Let’s, maybe, totally, talk about something else!” Sunset said hastily.

Something caught Starlight’s attention and she quickly swallowed her doughnut. “Like the fact that there are guards coming here, probably to arrest us?!”

“What?! Oh, that’s ridi—” Sunset turned, her eyes following Starlight’s. Walking past the large, several pony high windows of Joe’s shop were two Equestrian guards ponies in golden armor heading towards the door, both pegasi stallions, one gray and the other white. “AH!” Sunset exclaimed as she immediately dove under the table.

Starlight likewise made a frightened cry and joined Sunset under the table. “Quick! Use your wings to hide us!”

“Oh, uh… Good idea…” Sunset said as she attempted to unfurl her wings. She suddenly cringed. “No, wait… Bad Idea… I think I just touched some gum that was stuck to the bottom of the table! Ew! Ew!” Sunset’s brow crinkled and she turned towards Starlight. “Wait, why are you hiding under the table? You haven’t done anything!”

Starlight gave Sunset a panicked expression. “But what if you convince me to travel back in time in the future so it’s future me who’s committed crimes in the past?!”

Sunset thought for a moment. “I’m a little surprised I parsed that sentence…”

With another ring of the door Starlight and Sunset grit their teeth and pressed themselves flat against the floor as Sunset did her best to hide them both with her wings.

The ring of the shop’s bell and sound of metal hitting tiled floor announced the arrival of the guards.

“Uh, good afternoon, gentlemen!” Joe greeted as he quickly placed himself in between the guards and the table Sunset and Starlight hid under. “Can I interest you in some doughnuts?”

“Oh, I was interested before we walked in!” the white guardspony said enthusiastically.

The gray guardspony turned and gave his partner a quick scowl.

The white guardspony cleared his throat. “Actually, we’re here to retrieve Sunset Shimmer for her majesty, Princess Celestia.”

Joe chuckled. “Well, as you can see, there’s no pony here but me.”

The gray guardspony narrowed his eyes slightly as he craned his head ever so slightly to the right. “Except the two ponies trying and failing to hide underneath a table, you mean?”

“Uh, oh… Is there two ponies hidin’ under a table?” Joe said in his best attempt at a sincere tone.

The gray guardspony pointed towards the shaking wings and the slightly exposed orange and purple forelegs.

Joe turned. “Oh… Right… Now that you mentioned it a pegasus and her friend came in a while ago, but they were so quiet I musta forgot about them!”

“Riiiight…” The gray guardspony replied.

“Hey!” The white guardspony replied. “Maybe one of those ponies has seen Sunset Shimmer!”

The gray guardspony turned to the white pony, clearly irritated, but the white pony merely winked in response.

“Uh… Never heard of this ‘Sunset Shimmer’ you speak of.” ‘Definitely-not’ Sunset called out. “… Sounds like she’s pretty, though… How about you… uh… Moontwinkle Gleamer?”

There was an audible sigh from under the wings. “Moontwinkle…?” a hushed voice replied.

“I…shut up! I’m all flustered and didn’t have time to think of anything better. Just play along, alright?”

“No officers!” ‘Moontwinkle’called out. “Just me and my friend Sun…rise Shine…Shiny!”

“… I can’t believe you got on my case for ‘Moontwinkle’.” Sunrise Shine-Shiny griped.

“Okay, okay! I admit it’s not all that easy.”

The two guards stared at the scene in front of them, the white guardspony looking on in clear amusement and the gray guardspony far less so.

“Ma’am’s,” the gray guardspony began, “perhaps you could get out from under the table so we could talk face to face?”

“We told you, we haven’t seen this Sunset Shimmer!” Sunrise insisted. “As you can see I’m just a humble pegasus who's dropped her glasses right under this table! I mean… anything I saw would be blurry anyways…”

“… Wouldn’t it be easier to not cover the area with your wings so you could see?” the white guardspony asked.

“Er… I’m-I’m blind!” Sunrise said.

The white guardspony smirked. “But you just said—”

“Legally blind!” Sunrise added. “I’m feeling for my glasses... but really… opening my wings wouldn’t help at all…”

“Okay, but your friend—”

“Moontwinkle is ALSO legally blind! Right, Moontwinkle?”

“Uh… totally! In fact… The light… er… hurts my eyes without my glasses… They’re sunglasses!”

“Uh… right, right! Hence me blocking out the light almost completely!” Sunrise said. “Anyhow, uh… Wasn’t this Sunset Shimmer a unicorn? I think I remembering hearing that long ago from when she still lived in Canterlot.”

The gray guardspony rolled his eyes. “You said you never heard of her.”

“I forgot, okay?! Is that a crime?! Are you going to arrest me for forgetting?! Anyways, I’m clearly not a unicorn so—”

The white guardspony chuckled. “Princess Celestia informed us that Sunset Shimmer now had wings… Big orange ones, too. So far you match the description pretty well.”

“Yes, uh… well…” Sunset let out a massive sigh. “Starry?” Sunset said.

“Yes, Sunri-er, Sunset?”

“A thought occurs that I’m an idiot and could have cast an invisibility spell on myself or teleported away, or any number of other things instead of hiding under a table like a scared filly.”

“… Well. I guess I’m an idiot too for following you down here. I could have done all of that, too…”

Sunset let out another heavy sigh and got out from under the table. She attempted to face the guards with some dignity. “So, Celestia wants me? Did she seem… uh… mad?” she asked trepidatiously as Starlight followed her out from under the table.

The white guardspony smiled widely. “Actually, it was more like completely elated! She just asked us to pick you up. There’s a chariot waiting just around the corner.”

Sunset let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Oh, in that case...” Sunset turned towards Joe and smiled. “Well it was nice catching up, but it looks like I’m being called home for dinner.”

Joe chuckled. “Well, I hope I didn’t spoil yer appetite.”

Sunset winked. “Don’t worry. It’ll be our little secret.” Sunset nodded towards the door. “Come on Starlight, guess it’s time to face our mundane magic destiny.”

Starlight smirked. “You mean our ‘hopefully mundane magic’ destiny.”

Sunset gave Starlight a frown despite the happiness clearly still in her eyes as she walked towards the door. “Well now you’ve jinxed it!”

“Oh, Sunset!” Joe called out. “Here…” with an emerald glow of his horn, Joe produced a brown box from behind the counter, floated it over to the table, and floated the doughnuts into it. He floated the box over to Sunset. “Bring these with you. Maybe offer a few ta Princess Celestia. I’m sure she’d appreciate them now that yer back.”

Stopping near the door, the white guards ponies already holding it open as the gray one stood at attention outside, Sunset smiled at Joe. “Sure, Joe! Thanks again! And, also again, I’m sorry for my years of tyranny.”

Joe snorted out a laugh. “Consider that all doughnuts passed through a pony.”

Sunset winced. “Gross… but maybe apt.”

Starlight waved. “Goodbye, Joe! Though doughnuts were great!”

“See ya, Starlight Glimmer. See ya, Sunset! Stop by again sometime!”

“We will!” Sunset assured. With that, she and Starlight walked past the guards into the bright sunlight of Canterlot.

Letting the door shut, the guards fell into position behind the two mares.

Starlight leaned in close to Sunset. “‘Appreciate them now that you’re back?’” Starlight said.

Sunset sighed. “Yes… I noticed that and took note of the ominousness of the statement.” Sunset’s face tightened. “I just don’t feel like dealing with it…”

Chapter 5: Sins of the Daughter

Author's Note

Some references to Bibliopocalypse: War of the Two Suns ahead.

Chapter 5: Sins of the Daughter

Sunset Shimmer regarded the large golden gates to Canterlot Castle with a sense of nostalgia mixed with dread. They were less imposing now, given she was substantially taller, though the shift in physical perspective did little to stem the tide of emotions seeing them brought. Still, Sunset likely had a friend that would blast them to pieces if she asked. Sunset wouldn’t even have to be nice about it. Starlight Glimmer would likely comply if it was a request, an order, or even if the unicorn caught a whiff that the gates themselves filled Sunset with unease.

Speaking of unease, knowing that’s how Starlight might react wasn’t all that comforting… Still, having any sort of friendly back-up, especially one that would use actions to help instead a bunch of empty platitudes lifted out of the greeting card aisle was comforting. More comfort than Sunset could expect from most her friends… at least without having to prod them a little. In that regards at least, Starlight was an ideal companion.

Starlight herself also seemed somewhat intimidated by the idea that she was responsible for fixing a mess past those golden gates, and that in itself was also a bit if a relief to Sunset.

Sunset took a deep breath and recited a mantra that had just recently sprung to her mind as she made this harrowing journey to her ‘home’. Or at least a place that still had the lion’s share of her most treasured memories… and the moments she most regretted.

How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.

As true as the lines she recited to herself were, Sunset had stolen them from a movie, which in turn, lifted them straight from the book series the movie was based on which she might shamefully admit she couldn’t get all the way through.

Look, it wasn’t HER fault the movies had already been out when she jumped dimensions and that they were so freakin’ good she’d forgo a balanced diet, sleep, and basic hygiene for an entire day to marathon the entire extended trilogy! And, hey! Books were great, but was it her fault she wasn’t born Twilight ‘perfect friend and best bookworm’ Sparkle?! Sunset had had dance popularity contests to win and a high school to rule over!

Sunset frowned heavily. It was amazing what a perspective change brought on by a few world-threatening events could do to make one reflect on several years spent wasted on frivolous pursuits.

The high school stuff, that is. Not marathoning movies. It’d be a below-absolute zero day in HELL before she’d regret any of that.

Anyhow, the mantra had one flaw in that it didn’t offer any advice. On examination of the source material, apparently, the answer was ‘Leave now and never come back!’

Well, Sunset had left, and now she was back.

She wasn’t about to back down now.

“Uh, Sunset?” Starlight interjected. “Are you alright? You’re kinda just glaring at the castle and spacing out…”

“YOU ARE A STUDENT OF TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Sunset unexpectedly yelled at the top of her lungs. “NO MATTER WHAT COMES OUT OF THAT GATE, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!” Okay, yeah… Maybe it worked in a book or in a movie, but that just sounded stupid otherwise.

Starlight put on a determined smile and stood ready as if the devil himself might throw open the gates and attack. “Okay!” she replied as if the thing Sunset had just said was completely natural and not insane at all.

No wait! I take it back. Cool. Totally cool! I’m being cool now and not an overwhelmed dork who isn’t prepared for this at all!

Sunset put on her game face and prepared for the worst. Her wings weren’t for show, after-all. Facing a reality tearing high-schooler who was possessed by a demon of gluttony by utilizing the combined powers of your friend’s most positive traits had to count for something when you had to deal with your past emotional baggage!

…Right?

And then the gates to the castle opened.

And there stood a lone pony. A pale, off-white unicorn stallion balancing small spectacles on his muzzle and wearing a dignified red jacket and blue-grey ascot. He looked across the way to Sunset with his soft-brown eyes and she suddenly understood what it must be like to have one’s soul set ablaze via ‘penance stare.’

Any illusion that Sunset previously held that she had ‘got this’ shattered.

A new set of guards ready to escort Sunset to her unavoidable fate? Sure. Princess Celestia herself? Been there, done that. A horde of Orcs that charged at her and Starlight after the mighty battering ram Grond destroys the gates themselves? Bring it.

But Kibitz, the closest thing Sunset Shimmer ever had to a father? Nope. There just wasn’t enough time to work out the epic mental obstacle course of the ways that might go down.

While it was relatively well known in Canterlot amongst those ponies with longer memories than most that once upon a time Celestia had adopted a poor little orphan filly and said filly had turned out to be a bit of a hellion, what wasn’t well documented was the castle staff that put up with her.

Out of the servants that came and went, some likely directly because of Sunset, Kibitz had been a fixture of Sunset’s life since the moment she first stepped hoof in the castle. This was somewhat unavoidable with Kibitz being the royal scheduling aid and majordomo for Celestia herself. As of such, he became sort of an unwilling babysitter, at least in Sunset’s eyes.

Then one day Sunset thought she accidentally killed her mother, and this unicorn came across the scene. Towering over Sunset, he looked down at the small filly in judgment.

But instead of condemning or even rebuking Sunset when she was at her absolute lowest, he opened his heart to her and told her that everything would be alright. In that moment he became the second pony ever to really let her know she deserved to be loved.

Though, regarding the ‘tragic death of her mother’, Sunset was admittedly being a tad melodramatic at the time. in her defense, she was just a recently adopted orphan who didn’t have a frame of reference for how much damage a large hardcover book could do when lobbed at a pony's head.

Still, even if Sunset learned to reciprocate all the love Kibitz had shown her by making sure she was always taken care of and even occasionally spent time with the little filly on one of the many occasions when her mother was too busy, it didn’t mean she magically became better behaved. As the years went on this poor pony had dealt with a great deal of Sunset’s tantrums, especially since he was so much quicker to put his foot down than Celestia.

Through it all, never once did he ever give the slightest indication that he’d be anywhere but there to help Sunset when she needed it.

And instead of ever thanking him for that, she ran away from home.

Whatever disagreements she may have had with her mother, Kibitz wasn’t part of them, and still… Sunset was able to cut him from her life the same she did to Celestia.

And she didn’t have clue one as to how a pony could even begin to apologize for that.

So, Sunset stood there like a deer in the headlights of a multi-ton, multi-trailer rocket truck and let out a silent prayer that her heart wasn’t about to be ripped out and shown to her.

Starlight, to her credit, did indeed stand her ground as if Kibitz, of all ponies, might be Celestia’s trained assassin. Though the mare did it with some degree of confusion.

Stone-faced as ever, Kibitz took a step, and then another. Then another… In fact, he strode forward as if he was greeting any other royal dignitary as the caretaker of Canterlot castle and not approaching the adult version of a filly whose tantrums he had weathered for many a year. Nor did he look upon Sunset with the eyes she’d expect from a pony who refused to sit at make-believe tea parties but would instead schedule real tea parties with himself and Sunset in attendance.

Sunset searched desperately for the hints of the pony who’d soothe her when she’d accidentally break an ancient vase while playing where she shouldn’t, or part of her mother’s regalia on one of the occasions where she was pretending to be a real princess. Each time followed by discreetly having the item repaired without a word to Celestia. She looked long and hard for a reminder, any reminder, of the love Kibitz had shown when he would read her bedtimes stories when Princess Celestia was still busy with one of her endless royal duties.

Sunset focused all her attention on the pony trotting towards her and practically attempted will into existence that spark of light that showed that her absence had been marked. That she was indeed still loved.

She. Just. Couldn’t. Find. It.

Quickly, silently, Kibitz arrived within a foreleg length of Sunset.

And there was a gulf of silence as Starlight kept an eye on Kibitz’s horn as if it might be used to blast Sunset at a moment’s notice. As comforting as that might be, a terrified Sunset Shimmer kept an eye on his perfect poker face. Waiting for it to break into anger and tell Sunset that she had gone too far. That she had finally crossed a line and there was no going back.

That this time… this time she really did lose the love of somepony whose feelings meant the world to her.

Out of all the ponies that Sunset had wronged time and time again, no pony had shown Sunset more patience or dealt with her often times miserable behavior with more grace and dignity than the pony walking up to her now. If ever there was a pony who had a right to return to Sunset all the pain and stress she had caused over the years as a filly in one single, brutal moment, it was Kibitz.

Sunset had a bag… no, an entire armory of return-fire ammunition to deal with her Mom if it came to defending herself and her old, insufferable ways.

The mental bag of comebacks and tit-for-tats she had for Kibitz? It was a big fat load of air that read ‘you done bucked up’ when turned inside out.

And then Kibitz took a couple steps forward.

He wrapped a foreleg around Sunset’s neck and rested his head on her shoulder.

He murmured, “Oh, child… Why did you ever leave your home? I missed you terribly.”

Sunset’s geode suddenly flashed red, and a tsunami of regret and longing from the pony holding her hit her in an instant.

Then Sunset recognized that her heart had been ripped out and shown to her.

As tears poured forth and the paper-thin walls that held her emotions at bay were obliterated by this wave of emotion, she rejoiced.

Chapter 6: Raw Emotions

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 7: Classic Sunset

Sunset Shimmer looked up as Starlight Glimmer peered tentatively under the table at the currently cowering alicorn. “Why are you hiding from some chef?” Starlight asked in a hushed tone.

Sunset gave Starlight an appalled look. “He’s not ‘some chef’!” She said indignantly. “Kitchen Nightmare is a master chef!”

“Okay?” Starlight said. “Well, why are you hiding from a master chef? I mean, the royal guards I get, but a chef?”

“I’m far more terrified of Kitchen Nightmare than I am of some rando group of guards Mom sent to fetch me!”

The color drained from Starlight’s face. “Oh.” With an electric blue flash and a crackle like the air itself was being torn, Starlight teleported under the massive table to join Sunset.

“How did you remember to teleport but decided that ‘under the table’ was the best place to hide?!”

“How did you forget to teleport somewhere instead of hiding under the table?!”

“I asked you first!”

“Well, I asked you second!”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter because Kitchen Nightmare wouldn’t have any reason to be mad at you!”

Starlight thought for a moment. “Hah!” she exclaimed as had just thought of a legitimate comeback. “He might if he knew how bad the food was back at my equalized village!”

Sunset grit her teeth. “There’s no realistic way of him knowing about the food in your village out in the middle of nowhere!”

“Oh… Uh…” She looked around and frowned. “Well, there’s really no dignified way to get out from under a table.”

“Teeeeleeeeepooooooooort?” Sunset stressed, her tone still quite irritated.

“I’m still teleporting from under a table, so…”

“You could teleport out of the room and just walk in like you weren’t here in the first place.”

“Oh, yeah! Uh… We could also just both teleport and, you know… leav—”

“Found you~,” Kitchen Nightmare sang out. “I mean, you didn’t make it hard this time.”

Sunset swallowed.

“Uh, do I need to help?” Starlight asked.

“No, I got this,” Sunset assured. “Maybe… Look, if I make a bobwhite call, create a distraction and we’ll run.”

“Okay!” Starlight said. “I don’t know what sound a bobwhite makes!”

“Bobwhite,” Sunset answered.

“I know!” Starlight said. “But I don’t know what sound it calls out!”

“Bobwhite!” Sunset said in an irritable tone.

“I heard you the first, second, and third time! But what does the bird call sound like!”

“BOBWH—”

“Well don’t make me wait all day, Sunset,” Kitchen Nightmare called out. “I’ve got a kitchen to run!”

Sunset took a deep breath and crawled out from under the table. Something she remembered doing many times when she was younger, though it was easier when the table seemed so much bigger. She stood up and looked into the face of her confronter. His thin eyebrows framing his angry-appearing eyes, forehead knotted into a look of deep-seated anger… Actually no, that was his default expression.

Much to Sunset’s surprise, Kitchen Nightmare favored her with a smile. “Playing hide and seek for old time’s sake, eh?”

“Uh… Yeah, totally!” Sunset replied as she did her best to remember how behaving while not completely terrified was like.

There was another electric blue flash and the crackle that meant Starlight teleported. Not a second later, the mare pushed open the doors to the dining room and walked in with a smile that suggested she hadn’t just been hiding under the table.

“Good,” Kitchen Nightmare said. “That means you’re not too old for one of these.”

“One of wh—?” Before Sunset knew it, she was in the arms of the unicorn chef and being raised off the ground and spun. Sunset couldn’t help but laugh. It had been years since she had been spun like this. Years, many pounds, and two wings more. She thought she might have even heard Kitchen Nightmare’s back crack a bit as he did his best to spin her in her fully-grown mare glory. And like with Kibitz, a wave of emotions hit Sunset. However, Kitchen Nightmare clearly didn’t carry with him the years of regret or deep-seated loneliness from Sunset’s absence. Instead, Sunset experienced a far more welcoming and warm feeling of his simple joy in seeing her again, and immediately she felt her worries from this meeting melt away. Granted, the spinning probably would have been just as effective in that regard.

Kitchen Nightmare let out a grunt as he sat Sunset down and stretched his back a bit. This time Sunset was certain she heard the clicking of bones realigning.

“Are you okay?” Sunset asked in a concerned tone. “I mean, I might not be getting too old for that, but I might be getting too big.”

“The day I can’t pick you up is the day you better tell your mum to start planning funeral arrangements,” Kitchen Nightmare replied.

Smiling, Sunset cringed. “You better start working out, then,” Sunset said, “I might be as big as her someday.”

Kitchen Nightmare took another look at Sunset and then his eyes opened wide as if he was truly seeing her for the first time today. “Well look at you! A full alicorn princess!”

“Well… those things are technically true separately,” Sunset said with a smirk.

Kitchen Nightmare beamed widely. “I knew you had potential, lass.”

Therewere the tears Sunset thought had been missing from the reunion, but she managed to keep a grin on her face this time.

“Oh, come on now. None of that,” Kitchen Nightmare said as he wrapped a foreleg around Sunset and motioned to the table she had been hiding under moments ago with his free foreleg. “How about you introduce me to your pretty friend who’s clearly been sitting at the table this entire time,” he said with a wink.

“Ha haaaaaaa…” came Starlight’s nervous reply.

Sunset grinned. “Kitchen Nightmare, this is my friend Starlight Glimmer. Starlight Glimmer, this is Kitchen Nightmare, the best chef in Equestria.”

The two ponies extended their right forelegs and gave the other’s a slight tap before ‘shaking’ their legs up and down. Kitchen Nightmare smiled as he and Starlight retracted their forelegs. “Well best is certainly debatable,” he said.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Fine. Most accomplished.”

“Hah!” Kitchen Nightmare responded. “I suppose that’s hard to argue with.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Starlight said with a congenial smile on her face which quickly turned a smidgen unsure. “Er… You haven’t heard of me, have you?”

Kitchen Nightmare frowned. “No.” He turned towards Sunset. “Should I have?”

“No, no!” Starlight said quickly. “I’m juuuust a humble friendship post-graduate student of Twilight Sparkle,” Starlight interjected quickly.

“Pretty sure that’s not a thing, but okay…” Sunset muttered under her breath.

Kitchen Nightmare’s countenance actually turned sourer. “Twilight Sparkle? Hopefully your pallet is a bit more refined than hers.” His focus turned distant for a moment as if he was briefly reliving a particularly trying event in his life. “And that you can handle cheese-heavy dishes with fewer panic attacks...” He shook his head. “I can’t even remember how long it took to convince her she could ask for more than basic sandwiches from the kitchen.” He favored Sunset with an approving smile. “While this one would pull out all the stops every time she was asked what she wanted.”

Sunset let out a laugh. “Go big or go ho-to your room.” Sunset corrected somewhat awkwardly, hoping to avoid yet another comment of ‘You are home!’ from Starlight.

Kitchen Nightmare seemingly let the awkwardness slide and simply turned to face a set of open, tall purple doors set in an ornate gold frame under a banner with Celestia, Luna, the sun, and the moon positioned as if ‘balanced’ with each-other on a two-tone colored sphere. “Alright you lot, Princess Sunset Shimmer gets anything she wants, and you pour your heart and soul into that dish and then pray that it’s good enough.”

Laughing to herself, Sunset shouted out, “It’ll probably be fine! I’ve been living mostly off fast food and frozen meals the last few years!”

Kitchen Nightmare furrowed his brow and shot Sunset a quick glare. “Well, don’t tell them that! I’m trying to motivate them! Also, are you trying to break my heart?”

“Hah! Sorry!” Sunset said. “Turns out cooking is just one thing I’m terrible at.”

“Well, it’s a bloody good thing you’re back home and have someone to make you some real food.”

“Right, home…” Sunset murmured to herself.

Studying Sunset’s face for a moment, Kitchen Nightmare opted to power on past the sudden awkwardness of the moment. “So, what can your chefs make for you today?”

With a burst of energy like a solar flare, Sunset raddled off an order, “Deconstructed-eggplant-parmesan-with-a-side-of-candied-sweet-potato-shoestring-fries-and-a-multi-berry-honey-yogurt-smoothies-with-granola-and-extra-oats-sprinkled-on-top-and-a-triple-chocolate-six-layered-cake-for-dessert!”

An ice-pick smile appeared on Kitchen Nightmare’s face. “Classic Sunset,” he said in a satisfied tone. He turned towards the kitchen and began barking orders, “You heard the princess! Start julienning sweet potatoes. Get a food processor going! Bollocks to the noble’s hors-d'oeuvres! We’ve got a real meal to create!” With that, Kitchen Nightmare disappeared into his kitchen, already a whirlwind of activity before he shut the doors behind him with a fiery orange glow of his horn.

Starlight’s forehead tightened as she looked at Sunset. “Still nervous?” she asked. “Aside from a few hiccups and cases of arson, things are going great!”

“Well, my unexpected encounters with ponies from my past have gone well enough, but I’m sure there are a few more ponies whose lives I’ve made miserable out there. You know… like my Mom’s…”

Starlight gave Sunset a confused look. “But you talked to your Mom already. You know? Back in the Crystal Empire?”

Sunset nodded. “Well, yeah… but…” She sighed. “It’s not like one emotionally charged crying fest just erases the past between us.”

“Well, you two could apologize to each other.”

Sunset blinked a couple times. “Uh… I mean… we sort of did?”

Starlight pursed her lips slightly. “And that didn’t just make everything better between you two?”

“… No?” The alicorn replied in a blustered tone. “We didn’t talk to each other for a few years, and it felt to me like she just wrote me off when I went to another dimension! It’s a bit more complicated than just saying we’re both sorry.”

Starlight frowned. “Apologizing seems to fix things for me almost all the time.”

Sunset raised a forehoof to her face and mumbled to herself something about Twilight and teaching.

Starlight cocked her head. “Oh! Maybe this is a situation where you say ‘sorry’ and then do some clean –up together? That’s worked for my bigger mess-ups!”

“Starlight, for the sake of Twilight’s snoot, could we change the subject, please?”

“Uhhh… sure,” Starlight replied in a somewhat befuddled tone. After a brief moment of thinking, she smiled slightly. “‘Classic Sunset?’”

“Like I said, ‘Go big or go to your room’, Starlight!”

Starlight smirked. “Yeah, I don’t see that catching on.”

Sunset frowned. “Yeah, it’s not very fetch is it…? Or actually, it’s pretty fetch.”

“What the heck does ‘fetch’ mean?!”

“Exactly!”

One extravagant meal later, Sunset and Starlight once again found themselves venturing down the long and lavish corridors of Canterlot Castle. Sunset strolled down the hallways with a beaming smile and a stride that might suggest she owned the place. Starlight, on the other hoof, pulled herself along with the energy of an animal that had just been hit by a tranquilizer dart.

“H-how can you eat that much and not feel like you need to pass out?!” Starlight practically demanded.

Sunset just tittered to herself. “Trust me. I got used to burning it all off pretty quickly when I was younger.”

“What, like running around the castle after each meal?”

Sunset thought for a moment. “Hmmm… more like running my mouth every waking moment.”

Starlight sucked in air through clenched teeth “Hoo-boy… I guess you are going to have more apologies to hand out before the day is done.”

Surprising Starlight, Sunset shrugged this time. “Maybe, maybe not. After some reflection while we were eating—”

“How did you have time to reflect while eating?! You were like some sort of hyper-focused machine sent from the future specifically just to consume meals with alarming speed and efficiency!”

“I do my best reflecting when eating, alright?!” Sunset countered. “The point is, I thought about it and I guess more ponies wrote my behavior off as ‘precocious’ than I imagined. So, maybe this day will go a little smoother than I thought on the way over here.”

“Oh, my darling little coooouuuusiiiin~!” A stallion’s voice warbled out from behind the mares.

One could almost see Sunset’s blood curdle inside her body. “Aaaaand that’s my punishment for jinxing it!”

The two mares paused and took note of the white unicorn stallion strolling towards them. He wore a neatly pressed black suit collar that was not attached to a suit with the front of a white buttoned-up shirt that likewise had no actual shirt to go with it. Finally, a blue bow-tie and corsage of a single white flower with green leaves completed his ‘front pieces of an outfit’ ensemble which almost made his pristine white coat look like a white tuxedo, save for the fact that yellow-and-blue rose compass cutie marks adorned his flanks. Much like Sunset, he marched with a confidence as if he owned the castle itself, his well-coiffed blond mane and tail wafting a bit behind him.

He stopped a few strides away from the mares and smiled at Sunset. If he had noticed Starlight at all, the stallion was doing an excellent job of hiding that fact.

“Blueblood,” Sunset said in a tone that was so even it had achieved true level. “It is certainly an undeniable fact that I am talking to you, now.”

Blueblood let out a little chuckle. “Classic Sunset…” he muttered to himself. “Quite, quite… Well, word spread quickly that you had returned to Canterlot, perhaps not as quickly as some of the fires you’ve already started—”

Starlight took note as Sunset’s left eye twitched ever so slightly.

“— and I knew I just had to see you.”

“Yeah… well… put on a flight-suit and hang up the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner, because you’re looking at me,” Sunset replied.

“Uh, indeed,” Blueblood said, clearly finding Sunset’s current expression unreadable. He took this moment to acknowledge Starlight by leaning forward and whispering to her, “Do you have any idea what she’s on about?”

“Beats me,” Starlight confessed. “She’s been dropping her ‘other-worldisms’ all day!”

“Hrmmm…” Blueblood replied simply. He refocused his attention to Sunset. “Look Sunset, I know you like ponies to be direct, so I’ll get to the point.”

Sunset said nothing, though Starlight noted that the alicorn tensed ever so slightly, as if bracing herself against an uncoming gust of particularly hot air.

Blueblood continued, “I know our past exchanges haven’t always been cordial, and I’ve always regretted that.”

“… Oh?” Sunset clearly taking more interest in the direction the conversation was headed.

Blueblood nodded. “Yes. And there’s something I feel I simply must get off my chest regarding those unfortunate exchanges.”

“Yes?” came Sunset’s reply, now dripping with welcome expectation.

Blueblood nodded. “I wanted to tell you… I forgive you.”

Sunset clamped her teeth together so hard and fast Starlight was convinced the alicorn had just cracked one of them. “Excuuuuuuse me?” she hissed out.

Blueblood gave Sunset a beaming smile. “I forgive you! You know… for all the horrible things you’ve said and done to me!”

“You constantly referred to me as ‘Princess Celestia’s pet orphan rat’!”

Starlight attempted to make a shocked gasp, but it got caught in her throat and died in a gurgle.

Blueblood nodded. “Correct! But only occasionally to your face!” he said happily. “The important part is you’re pardoned! I pardon you!”

Sunset’s face muscles began to twitch as if they were all attempting to leave her face at once.

“Well?” Blueblood said expectantly. “Isn’t there something you’d like to say to me?”

Starlight watched in amazement as an unnatural serene calm seemingly came over Sunset. “As a matter of fact, there is,” Sunset said.

Blueblood’s smile widened. “Yes?”

Sunset nodded. “Go PARDON yourself, L2B4!” she snapped. “Come on, Starlight, we’re going…”

“Uh… yeah!” Starlight said as Sunset stomped away from the clearly shocked Blueblood.

Blueblood swallowed as a modicum of composure returned to him. “Classic Sunset…” he muttered irritably before turning and trudging back the way he came.

Sunset and Starlight walked in silence a bit, the later a tad nervous to take the first steps out of awkwardly stewing in emotions and back into conversation. After a short while, the tension built up until Starlight practically felt like she was being scoured like a pony rubbing at an itchy scab. “L2B4? Is that, like, a Star Wars reference?”

Sunset let out a breath she seemingly had been holding for a while. “I guess I should be happy you remembered the important stuff I’ve shown you, but it’s something that predates me leaving Equestria.”

“Oh, uh… what—”

“Lucky to be born Blueblood.”

“Oh! That’s… wow…” Starlight couldn’t help but smile to herself. “That’s down-right evil…”

Sunset sighed sadly. “I know! I know! It was a bit harsh.”

“And clever!” Starlight insisted. “Very clever.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uh… Thanks? It’s probably not something you should encourage though…”

“Oh, right!” Starlight replied as if the idea had just occurred to her. “Uh… Twilight would probably sa—”

“Nope, I take it back,” Sunset said. “We’ll just leave things at ‘clever’.”

Starlight chuckled. “Yeah, sure…”

“He’s going to act like the whole exchange didn’t happen anyways next time I seem him…” Sunset shook her head. “He always does.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s go see my mom,” she said, suddenly pivoting completely around.

Starlight did a double take. “We… we weren’t heading to the throne room?!”

“I wasn’t ready!” Sunset shouted back. “I’m ready now!”

“You were taking us in the complete opposite direction!”

“I WASN’T READY!”

Author's Note

Okay, I got a little more story in than expecting before they got to Celestia...

Chapter 8: We’re almost up to the 1-minute, 20-second mark before the theme song hits!

Sunset Shimmer stared up at the pair of massive thistle-colored doors; the only things that stood between her and her mother. Well, that and the massive space of the throne room that was in between the doors and the throne itself, of course.

Though the doors were twice as wide as a pony is long and maybe five ponies high before they even hit a fairly-ornate entablature of golden engravings above them, Sunset considered the throne room entrance rather plain looking compared to many of the random doors in the castle. While Celestia had stated the less grandiose door was make her seem more approachable by her subjects, Sunset was always quick to point out that the long distance still required to get from the entrance to the throne would likely counteract any such feelings. This would leave Celestia somewhat flustered, however before the sun princess could mount a proper response, Sunset would add that the throne being elevated while simultaneously being flanked by real fountains also wouldn’t make a pony feel Celestia was anything but royalty of the highest order.

And before Celestia could even process that, Sunset would point out that Celestia was easily twice as tall as most anypony she talked to with a magical mane that seemed to be full of actual sparkling sunlight at all waking hours and that the whole door thing was a farce and maybe Celestia should just admit that she just thought the door thing was a good idea at one point but failed to account for all the other factors built into the castle and that the confusing mess was constructed before she could come to her senses.

This was, sadly, something Sunset could never get Celestia to admit no matter how much shouting was done, objects were thrown, or things were set on fire…

Sunset also used to argue that the throne room was the most appropriate place to lob things around, but that was another debate entirely.

“Uh… Are you sure you’re up for this, Sunset?” Starlight Glimmer asked in a concerned voice.

“You can’t rush genius, Starlight!”

Starlight gave her friend a slight frown. “I’m not? You have been staring at the door for a while, but considering it’s your mom you have to meet for only the second time after you two stopped talk—”

“I swear to my mom, I will boop your snoot so hard Starlight!” Sunset ground out in a clearly stressed tone.

“Classic Sunset.”Starlight said with a grumble before she took a deep breath and once again looked at Sunset with sympathy. “Look, I of all ponies can at appreciate what it’s like to be confronted with something you probably should do, but don’t want to…” She rested a forehoof on Sunset’s left shoulder. “How about you have a quick panic attack here at the door, I’ll whisk you away, and in the meantime, we can solve whatever new thing has cropped up to threaten all of Equestria!” Starlight said with an earnest smile that suggested she was in no way being sarcastic. “You’ll feel a lot better about being home after you’ve saved it!”

Sunset took a few moments to blink and stare at Starlight blankly. “You… you really think that’ll happen?”

Starlight thought for a moment as her smile fell a bit. “Gee, my life is rather busy, isn’t it?”

Sunset let out a laugh as she felt herself relax a bit. “I know the feeling. Also, you’re right.”

“I am?” Starlight said in surprise. “Uh… Okay! Well, start panicking and hope maybe Tirek will have conquered Ponyville!” Starlight frowned heavily. “Just as long as it’s not Chrysalis, again.”

“Uh, that’s not quite what I meant,” Sunset said.

Starlight groaned. “But I already saved Equestria from Chrysalis!” She whined. “And even though everything worked out in the end, some parts were pretty embarrassing…” She added, shaking her head.

“No. I meant the part about a potentially cataclysmic event just popping up is not what I was talking about!” Sunset said. “The point is, I have saved Equestria as well as my new home! Now, if I can just swallow that convincing lie that my deep, unresolved emotional issues with those that I love are easier to deal with than life and death situations despite the fact that my courage always kicks in without fail during those moments and I do the right thing and save the day as if it’s core to my being, then I’ll be all set!”

Starlight immediately frowned. “When I saved Equestria, I hit a big throne made out of solid rock with a much smaller rock before I had to make up some talk about friendship to creatures that literally feed on love…”

“The important thing is you succeeded! And I’ve succeeded! So, let’s just keep on succeeding with a minimal amount of property damage!”

Starlight smiled widely. “I give myself the same pep-talk every morning! Well, with a little reminder about using mind control sparingly.”

“Right, going to just power right on past that one!” Sunset took another look at the door, horn glowing with her red aura before the light in the hallway went dim. Sunset looked up, feeling a sudden chill as she did. The castle was typically lit by sunlight during the day, but this felt different than the sun suddenly dropping. This darkness felt unnatural. Less the absence of light and more the destruction of it. It was as if some malevolent force was consuming the very concept of brightness itself.

Sunset sighed and hung her head. “Starlight, I appreciate the effort, but I really should stop dilly-dallying and just talk to my mom, already.”

“This isn’t me!” Starlight insisted with just a hint of indignity.

Sunset looked up at the darkness. “Wait… Don’t tell me there really is a threat to Equestria…”

One of the plates of a nearby massive window exploded with glass, feathers, and an orange pegasus stallion wearing golden armor with a blue plume and tumbled in a heap at Sunset and Starlight’s hooves.

“Oh, mom damnit!” Sunset blurted out indignantly.

Starlight gasped and bent down to help the pegasus back up to his hooves. “Flash!”

Sunset frowned. “Flash? As in… Flash Sentry?”

“Well, yeah!” Starlight said as she helped Flash to his hooves. “Who else would it be?”

“Starlight! Thank Celestia, I found you!”

“Why? Did she actually help?” Sunset asked somewhat sarcastically.

“What? No, I just need he—” Flash turned, taking off his helmet as he did. Giving his head a shake, his dark-blue tuft of a ruffled mane flowed in tiny waves in all directions as an, admittedly heroic-looking, trickle of blood dribbled down around his muzzle.

“Oh, no…” Sunset whispered to herself. “He’s hot…”

Flash, likewise, needed a moment as he laid eyes over Sunset and seemingly tried to take all of her in through his pupils. “—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—”

“Hey! Flash, focus!” Starlight called out. “What happened to Twilight and Spike?! Also, Trixie if you happened to see her… and, uh… everypony else, probably.”

Flash turned back towards Starlight. “—elp! Uh, right! Some sort of dark portal opened in Ponyville!”

Sunset groaned. “Seriously?!”

Starlight turned towards Sunset. “Okay, you’re my witness! I was in Canterlot when that happened!”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uh, obviously…”

Flash continued. “I think… I think the Hay-Burger king has captured Twilight and the other Element Bearers in a terrible slime prison!” Flash involuntarily shuttered. “Just… so much slime…”

Starlight turned to Sunset, beaming smile on her face. “Yay!”

One of Sunset’s eye shot up so fast it was in danger of flying off her face. “The… the Hay-Burger King?! Twilight and everyone are literally being held hostage by a fast-food mascot?”

Flash rubbed the back of his head. “I mean… Whatever it is has appears to be a cow with the same dead-eyed smile as the hay-burger king and a paper crown.”

This statement did nothing to east Sunset’s skepticism. “Wouldn’t the Hay-Burger King have a real crown and not one possible pilfered from a store?!”

Starlight chuckled. “You can’t ‘pilfer’ a crown from Hay-Burger, Sunset! You know… Unless you’re Trixie and you’ve already nabbed about a dozen in a single visit and the staff asks you to leave some around for the kids.”

“Uh… okay, but what it’s not the reeaaal Hay-Burger King, and like… I don’t know… some sort of necromantic ram that’s disguising itself as the Hay-Burger King for extra shock value.

Starlight thought for a moment. “…I probably would be more scared of an evil Hay-Burger King than I would some evil ram, or whatever…” She turned to Flash. “How evil was this Hay-Burger King?”

Flash gave Starlight a bewildered look. “I mean… he arrived out of a land that seemed to be made out of pure evil and trapped Twilight in everyone in a slime prison that he hacked out of his own unsettling grin and is actively devouring light itself!”

Starlight nodded. “Well, obviously.” She continued with, “But would you say he’s more or less evil than creatures that inhabited typically inhabit lands of pure malevolence?”

“I don’t know!” Flash coughed up an impressive glob of green goo. “I barely got out of there with my life!” he added.

Sunset’s eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Starlight. “How do you even have a metric for beings inhabiting lands of darkness and evil?”

Starlight opened her mouth.

“No, wait! I don’t want to know!” Sunset interrupted. She smiled once more. “Okay! Let’s quickly defeat this so-called, Hay-Burger King and then we’ll see my mom hopefully after I’m high on ‘just saved the world’ confidence!”

Starlight glanced at the doors to the throne room. “Don’t you think she’ll want to help?”

“No,” Sunset said bluntly.

“Uh… sorry,” Flash interjected as he extended a foreleg. “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced, Princess…?”

“Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset replied as she pressed her hoof against Flash’s. “Apparently, I’m Princess of Cleaning up Other Ponies’ Messes.”

With a sly smirk, Flash took a half-step forward and hooked his foreleg around Sunset’s. “Really? I would have guessed you were the Princess of Radiant Beauty.”

Sunset couldn’t help but match Flash’s smile. “Ah, so you’re quick-thinking in this universe too.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Starlight frowned. “Uh… I can’t believe I’m the one saying this, but Ponyville, and Equestria probably, is in danger?”

Sunset and Flash, somewhat reluctantly, broke the foreleg link and eye contact.

“Okay, game faces on!” Sunset declared resolutely. She turned again to Flash with an only mildly lovestruck look. “Did you make any key observations about this malignant monarch when you fought him? Any strategies we should be aware of.”

Flash let out another harsh cough. “Don’t get hit in the face with his slime,” he said.

Sunset nodded. “That’s a good note. But do we have any idea of his weaknesses? I mean… how flammable is he?”

Flash thought for a moment. “Well… I’m not sure if the slime is flame retardant or not, but the crown he was wearing was probably made out of cardboard.” Flash shrugged. “That’s probably a weakness.”

“Okay! I can work with that!” Sunset said excitedly.

The light around the ponies dimmed even further until everything was nearly pitch-black.

“I doubt that’s good…” Flash uttered as both Sunset and Starlight’s horns began to glow fiery red and electric blue, respectively, the dual colors casting the surrounding area in an eerie purple light.

Starlight just shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be fine as long as we get to Ponyville quickly.”

Flash smirked. “Don’t you mean—”

“—in a Flash?!” Sunset quickly interjected with a smile on her face.

“Ahh!” Flash uttered excitedly as he pointed to Sunset. “She knows my thing!”

Starlight’s face turned a lighter shade of purple as she looked between the other two ponies. “Wait… does this mean I have to play ‘straight pony’ for saving Equestria, again!?”

-ooo~ One mind-blowing adventure later. ~ooo-

“Oh my gosh, that was amazing!” Starlight exclaimed as she and Sunset once again found themselves walking down a hall of Canterlot Castle. “And by ‘that’, I, of course, mean our harrowing adventure in Ponyville!”

Flapping her wings hard enough to dislodge the odd glob of green sludge, Sunset smiled. “Well, I could have done with less slime, but we saved the day, became closer as friends, and learned a bit about ourselves!”

“We also achieved brand-new transformations that I’m absolutely sure will come in handy for later adventures!” Starlight added.

Sunset grinned. “And Flash also proved himself a capable and brave warrior instead of just providing info to move our adventure forward and add a smattering of romance to the mix!” Her smile dropped a bit. “I still can’t believe he managed to eat all that slime, though.”

“And every pony learned that ‘harmony’ is something we all can achieve if we just believe in ourselves hard enough!”

Sunset smirked. “I mean… in the sense I temporarily uprooted the Tree of Harmony and beat that clearly fake Hay-Burger King with it, but what you said is technically accurate given enough focus and strength of will…” She frowned slightly. “Shame he escaped. I wonder where he went… and why it only spoke in bleats despite looking like a cow.”

Hooves click of stone floors and echo off empty walls as a creature appearing to be misshapen, perhaps somewhat smashed black-and-white bovine climbs ziggurat stairs in a land illuminated only by swirling purple vortexes that constantly disappear, reappear, and even consume each-other. As it steps up, a nearly burnt to a crisp ‘crown’ falls and crumbles to ash before it is blown away by the shifting void-winds of the land. This is soon followed by a cracked masked of a cow that is smiling too widely, which clatters on the steps and tumbles down them towards an unknown fate. Finally, the black and white ‘coat’ of this creature slumps off it. Falling into a fleshy heap with a sickeningly moist sound.

Free of its ‘outer shell’ a dark, fanged ram woozily makes it up to the top of the ziggurat and walks past an alter to a podium. A podium where a book that seems to be bound in a leathery substance rests as books do when left alone, if one ignores the faint sounds of moaning that seem to be coming from the tome itself. Slowly and painfully lifting a foreleg, the ram looks over the book with it’s one eye not swollen shut and flips open to a page full of runes, many repeating on lines, and all crossed out except for the last line.

With a dark, disappointed sounding bleat, it crosses out the last line, scans the previous lines for a moment, then begins recreating one of the sets of runes as it bleats menacingly to itself.

Starlight shrugged. “The unknown fate and peculiarities of the mystery villain aside, I’m sure you literally using the tree as a bludgeon is also a metaphor that’s empowering, but also serves as a good learning experience somewhere… Oh! And Flash got the girl!”

Sunset groaned.

“And by ‘girl’, I - of course - mean Twilight Sparkle.”

Sunset groaned louder.

Starlight frowned. “Uh, is something the matter?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sunset replied.

“Okay, but you know you know can talk to me about whatever, right? I mean, even conflicting emotions about being attracted to a pony who’s in a relationship with one of your best frie—”

“I just said I don’t want to talk about ‘it’, and by ‘it’, I mean specifically THIS topic!”

“Okay, okay!” Starlight chuckled to herself. “Isn’t it weird how us two, relatively new to saving the day in Equestria, just managed to show up and be the big heroes even with everyone who’d usually save the day in the situation right there?”

Sunset couldn’t help but give Starlight a sour look. “Little bit. Yeah…”

Perhaps catching Sunset’s grumpy expression, Starlight quickly switched topics again. “Say, when do you think that strange curse the fake Hay-Burger King hit us with to make us converse in bizarrely specific sentences will wear off?”

Sunset thought for a moment. “I’m sensing about the time I finish this sentence. You know… soonish…” Sunset took a deep breath as she walked up to the double-doors she was standing at just a reasonable amount of time to hold children’s attention spans complete with the occasional break to maybe advertise a toy here or there earlier. “Just in time for me to be ready to talk to mom…”

Her horn glowing with a red aura, Sunset floated her geode in front of her and stared at it. “Better prepare myself for Emotional Overload 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

"Ignoring the fact I have no idea what a ‘Boogaloo’ is, why don't you just take the geode off?!” Starlight asked in a tone that was borderline insisting.

“Because that’s something a quitter would do!” Sunset exclaimed.

“Erm, okay,” Starlight responded. “But you can still take a quick breather if you feel—”

“Nope!” Sunset exclaimed as a determined look came over her face. “Time’s up! Let’s do this!” With a fiery red glow of her horn, Sunset threw open the double doors to the throne room and began sprinting “Sunset Shiiiiiiiiimer!” she shouted as she began to tear across the red carpet, her body eventually reminding her she had pushed it quite a lot in just the last hour. “Right-huff-throne still-puff-stupid far!”

“My Little Shimmering Sunshine!” an absolutely euphoric cry of maternal glee called rang out as Sunset quickly found herself engulfed in a sunny yellow glow that began to float her the rest of the way across the throne room.

“I seem to have miscalculated…” Sunset muttered to herself as she gritted her teeth and braced for impact. Almost immediately, the purple and pinks of the throne room lit by stained glass window were replaced by alabaster feathers and forelegs as Sunset was completely engulfed by her much larger mother. Thoughts and emotions hit Sunset immediately, first and foremost, simple immense joy from how happy Celestia was to see her. This would have left Sunset with a warm and fuzzy feeling, but the lingering guilt over Sunset’s banishment and the years of silence that followed were close on its heels, followed by the worry that Celestia was perhaps not yet forgiven. As perhaps enlightening as the feelings where they mashed against Sunset’s own residual guilt and anger and she could quickly feel her emotions bubbling to the surface in the form of yet another hysterical crying fit.

“M-mom! -gasp- Need space!” Sunset managed to get out.

Celestia immediately relinquished her grasp and looked over her daughter in concern. “Sunset, dear? Are you alright? Are you hurt from your harrowing battle with the forces of darkness that I got to observe from right here in the castle?!”

“I just—” Sunset took a deep breath and took a few steps back. “—need a mom-whoa!” Sunset caught herself as she almost tripped over something or rather, somepony lying in a midnight-blue heap to the right of the floor.

Luna shot up to her full height. “Yes! I am-yaaaawn-here! What is it, sister?!”

Sunset’s surprise got the better of her and mixed with her already strained attempt to keep from crying and what came out sounded like a terrified whimper.

Luna stared down at the unexpected alicorn. “Oh! Sunset Shimmer.”

“I’m here, too!” Starlight exclaimed from the foot of the throne’s steps.

Luna continued, “Forgive me. I did not mean to frighten you.”

“N-not, frightened!” Sunset insisted. “Just, uh… a little worn out…”

“Okay!” Starlight called out. “I guess I’ll just wait for some pony to notice me!” She frowned. “Wow, this pretty much never happens to me…”

Celestia beamed at Luna. “Sunset just saved Equestria from certain peril!”

“I was also there, too!” Starlight called out.

“Oh! And Starlight Glimmer helped!” Celestia added.

“Yay! Validation!”

Luna gave Celestia an absolutely bewildered look. “Excuse me?! When did this transpire?!”

“Oh! Just a while ago while you napped in the throne room,” Celestia explained nonchalantly.

This response clearly did nothing to alleviate Luna’s bewilderment. “Why didn’t you wake me?!”

Celestia frowned slightly. “Well, I thought you’d need your sleep since you passed out waiting for Sunset and Starlight to arrive at the throne room! I mean… you did elect to nap right on the spot rather than retire to your quarters when Kibitz said Sunset needed to rest-up first.”

“Tia, you ruinous barbermonger—"

Sunset found herself giggle-snorting despite still being out of sorts

“—we’ve been over this! Please wake me if lives are at stake!”

“Oh, I knew Sunset and Starlight had this!” Celestia insisted with a dismissive wave of her forehoof. “There was no cause to worry.”

Starlight couldn’t help but send a frown up towards the ponies above. “There were, in fact, several causes to worry. Most slime and evil goat related”

Luna shook her head. “Well, did you at least help them yourself?”

“But who would make sure no pony woke you up if I did that?” Celestia replied.

Luna made an irritated gurgling sound as she held back pure rage. It was a sound Sunset was quite familiar with, particularly as she was making the same sound right at the moment.

Celestia refocused her attention on her daughter. “Sunset, dear, are you sure you’re alright?!” Celestia exclaimed. “Maybe you should sit down, or I can get you a guard to throw things at!”

“What?!” Luna exclaimed in shock as Starlight raised an eyebrow.

Sunset swallowed nervously.

“Well, it always makes her feel better!” Celestia exclaimed as she motioned to Sunset.

“Tia, you can’t just let ponies lob stuff at our guards to improve their mood, you certifiable walnut!” Luna exclaimed.

“They have armor!” Celestia replied, taking on an indignant tone. “So it’s fine so long as Sunset doesn’t aim for the shins, face, or throat.” She pursed her lips. “Which she usually does…”

“No, I’m fine!” Sunset said in a strained voice as she fought hard to return her motions to something far more balanced than she currently felt. “Just… just a little overwhelmed from being back!”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “I told you to take your geode off!” she shouted up.

“That’s loser talk, Starlight!” Sunset snapped back.

Luna snorted out a laugh. “Well, she seems to have recovered quickly enough.”

Sunset wordlessly turned to look at Luna, blank expression on her face.

Frowning slightly, Luna once again took a somewhat formal tone. “Hrmm… I suppose formal introductions are in order. Hello again, Sunset Shimmer. It is good to see you again.”

Narrowing her eyes slightly and lowering her eyes, Sunset shifted her weight to her back then suddenly pounced, using her wings to give her a little more thrust as she charge-hugged her aunt and wrapped her forelegs around her neck.

Though initially surprised, Luna’s larger size allowed her to remain upright. Her initial shock soon gave way to a warm acceptance, which thankfully evened out Sunset’s mood a bit as Luna returned the token of affection.

“Uh… Sorry for making you wait, Auntie Luna,” Sunset said as she broke the hug.

Luna managed a tired smile and glanced at the spot she had been snoozing in just prior. “Well, I suppose it is alright as I made the most of my situation.”

That caused Sunset to cringe, though she too smiled. “Again, sorry! I haven’t been home for a while… and… you know… coming home after an extended absence can be kinda awkward.”

You could hear a pin drop.

“Sunset!” Celestia finally managed to gasp out.

Sunset could feel her body go cold as the realization of who exactly she was talking to set in. “Aaaand… that was a stupid thing to say!” Sunset admitted out loud as her mind raced for an excuse to talk herself out of the current situation. It’s not like ignorance was an excuse, Twilight had given Sunset plenty of details of Princess Luna’s return. Sunset’s mind began to race as she weighed her options to talk her way out of this against how much it would hurt to fling herself out of one of the courts giant windows.

Surprisingly, Luna simply chuckled, perhaps catching Sunset’s expression. “Yes. It can certainly be a taxing transition.” She gave Sunset a grin. “I suppose we should all be lucky you didn’t try to conquer Equestria on your return.”

Starlight smacked a hoof against her face.

“Luna!” Celestia chastised in a tone eerily similar to the one she had just taken with her daughter.

For a moment, one could practically see the gears tick away in Luna’s head as she seemingly acknowledged her own mistake and gave Sunset an apologetic look. “Oh! I didn’t mean to imply—”

“Oh, I like you,” Sunset said simply, which did wonders to clear most of the thick tension in the room.

Celestia cleared her throat. Something Sunset recognized as the sun princess desiring to get to the heart of the matter. “So, now that we’ve finally met up, I'm guessing you’ll perhaps want to spend some time with me? You know… catch up?” Celestia asked in a hopeful tone with a smile to match.

Sunset frowned. “Er… I would but we’re actually here because… uh…The reason we’re here… uh… erm…”

“Friendship problem!” Starlight reminded Sunset in clearly irritated tone.

“Right! That thing!” Sunset said as she disappeared in a red flash and a ‘BAMF’ before appearing next to Starlight. “Twilight’s magic dog-table-thing said there was a friendship problem that Starlight and uh… I guess I, also, need to fix.”

Celestia nodded. “I understand all those words individually.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “’Magic dog-table-thing’?!” she parroted back to Sunset.

Sunset threw her forehooves up in the air. “I don’t know! There’s a tiny dog named ‘Order’ who lives in Twilight’s table and gives out friendship assignments to ponies! I just thought that this was common knowledge to royalty and ponies with magic destinies at this point!”

A small smile appeared on Celestia’s face. “Oh, Order! I can see him popping up back on the scene now that Discord is active.”

Luna nodded. “Right. You could have just said his name right away.”

Sunset let out an exasperated sigh and turned towards Celestia. “Well, mom could have maybe told me about the tiny dog that likes to stick his so small nose into Equestria business at some point or another!”

The accusatory tone of Sunset did nothing to diminish Celestia’s cheerfulness. “Well, you must understand that tales of my encounters with Order are, by their nature, somewhat drab and dull.”

Starlight chuckled. “I’d pay real bits to see Order’s face about now.”

Sunset thought for a moment. “Alright, I’ll let you have that one as I did prefer to hear your exciting adventures when I was a filly.”

Celestia chuckled. “Well, I always have time to go over one of those if you’re intere—”

“Friendship problem!” Sunset interrupted. “Probably super important!” she stressed.

Celestia chuckled. “Alright, business before pleasure, if you insist.” She put on a thoughtful expression. “Though, as far as I know, there’s nothing wrong here.” She turned towards Luna. “Right sister?”

Luna once again wore her tiredness the way a porcupine might curl up and expose her spikes. “No,” she replied in a tone so sour even Celestia’s lips puckered, “Everything’s perfect as usual, sister.”

Starlight sucked in a nervous breath and leaned towards Sunset. “I think I know where the friendship problem lies.”

“Yeah…” Sunset agreed. “Dibs on Luna.”

“… What?”

“Dibs!”

Author's Note

This chapter went over a somewhat major revision as I made a continuity error when I wrote it.

Details and original section here.

Chapter 9: We’ve finally got through the entire 1 minute, 20 seconds before the theme song hits!

Sunset Shimmer stood gobsmacked in the middle of her foalhood room, embarrassment rolling over her as she looked at the ostentatious furniture she had picked out in her youth. Furniture plated and leafed with gold that gleamed in the setting sun that flooded the room from massive windows on the far wall. It all might have looked somewhat regal - if overdone - were it not for the walls completely covered in posters. Posters featuring bands exclusively composed of adolescent colts and barely adult stallions who looked like they were seconds away from breaking into song or leaping from their 2-dimensional confines and ravaging whoever was on the other side, or possibly both simultaneously.

Standing next to Sunset was - depending on what was going on that moment, and usually more than one category at a time - friend/partner in crime/the pony she often had to discipline or play parole officer to Starlight Glimmer. Starlight said nothing. She didn’t need to. The clearly amused expression on her face said it all.

Towering above the pair, Celestia beamed with parental pride. “I’ve kept it just as it was when you left!” she announced proudly.

“Really?” Sunset said in a droll tone, as she wondered if her mother escorted her and Starlight right into the room to ensure Sunset’s embarrassment was complete. “I would have burned it as an effigy to a childhood misspent,” she growled.

“Nonsense,” Celestia said in her characteristically melodic tone, “you had perfectly normal interest for a filly your age.”

Sunset scoffed. “Right, except for the megalomania.”

Starlight frowned. “Wait, that’s not normal?”

Sunset grimaced as Celestia paused and stared down at Starlight with a look of genuine concern. Specifically of the ‘I might have a responsibility to uphold here’ kind. Sunset quickly slapped on a smile and let out something that was half giggle, half laughter, and all nervous. “Ha ha ha heh… Such a kidder.”

“Oh,” Celestia said as relief washed over her and she let out a polite chuckle. “Yes, very amusing.”

Starlight frowned. “Wait, did I say something wro—”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Well aside from that topic, my perfectly normal interests were marred by my perfectly abnormal access to anything I thought was a good idea to decorate my room with.” Sunset sighed as she glanced upwards and took notice of the gold leafing on the ceiling which matcher her gold-plated bed posts, gold-plated dresser, and gold-framed mirror. “You really should have torched this place. I mean, this stuff is probably worth more melted than intact.”

Still clearly moved by the bounty of colts giving smoldering looks on the walls, Starlight let out a snicker. “Well, except the wallpaper,” Starlight joked. “I’m sure you can still find a pony who’s still in sync with these bands enough that they’d happily make a back street deal and pay you hansonly for it all.”

“You shut your dirty whore mouth, Starlight Glimmer!” Sunset snapped. “I’m sure if there’s a room out there you abandoned as a wayward youth, it’s just as embarrassing!” Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Heck, maybe even more embarrassing, given you were just a little filly when you decided the world had wronged you, and you needed to express your itty-bitty-filly rage at it all.”

Starlight abruptly clamped her mouth shut.

Celestia, on the other hoof, let out a mirthful laugh before she gave Sunset a smile that was fully demonic. “I didn’t think you’d be so kriss kross about this.”

The conflicting ideas that Sunset was being made fun of but that this was probably actually funny crashed inside the orange alicorns head and came out as a snarl.

Celestia let out another chuckle, but one out of endearment this time. “I still think it’s adorable. You used to spend hours in here just singing… Oh, how’d go…?” Much to Sunset’s infinite horror, Celestia began to sing, “Tell me why~! A’int nothin’ but a heaaaaart-ache!~ Tell me why~! A’int nothin’ but a miiissss-taaaaaake!”

“Mistake-like-taking-us-all-to-my-room!” Sunset said hurriedly as her horn blazed red.

“Now-get-the-buck-out!” Sunset quickly pushed both Starlight and the much larger, cackling Celestia out of her room and slammed the door behind her. This was followed by an utterance of “You take that teen-aged, smoldering look to HELL, Timberlake!” the sound of rustling laminated paper, a ‘phwoosh!’, and then the faint smell of burnt laminate and shame in that order.

Starlight didn’t even have time to process what had just happened as Celestia let out a joyous, wistful sigh. “Ah… that takes me back.”

Starlight looked up and raised an eyebrow. “The fit? The being kicked out of the room?” Starlight sniffed the air. “Or the smell of torched posterthat followed?”

“Yes,” Celestia answered simply. She smiled down at Starlight. “Well, let me show you to your room, my little pony.” Giggling, she added, “It’s not as decorated as, Sunset’s I’m afraid.” She took a look at Sunset’s door and smirked. “I suppose you’ll just have to ask her from some spare posters and gold-leafing.”

“Hate you! Hate you both!” Sunset yelled through her closed door.

Giggling to herself, Celestia escorted Starlight down the hall.

With a “Sleep well, my little pony!” from Celestia that was far giddier than Starlight would have ever considered capable from the ruler, the closing of the door, and massive hooves cantering excitedly away, Starlight was finally left alone. Alone for the first time since the day had begun; which also hopefully meant she could get a handle on her assignment, and figure out just how her friendship problem partner could aid her in figuring things out without cratering half of Canterlot.

She took a brief moment to take in her surroundings - a room that was set in one of Canterlot Castle’s many, many towers, which she and Celestia had gotten to after crossing several bridges, going down a tonne of identical-looking hallways and - Damnit, I know what I’ll need Sunset for! Finding my way to literally anywhere! While the room was not nearly as spacious as Sunset’s ‘princess suite’ it did have a number of large plate glass windows set in the rounded walls, several mirrors in between the ornate gray pillars, and plenty of furniture including a desk, stool, dresser, and bed.

Regarding the latter, Starlight wasted no time flopping her back onto the comfy surface and let out a sigh laden with the stress of the day. Still, inconvenient to get to as it was, the room was quite nice. So nice, in fact, Starlight’s thoughts began to momentarily dwell on if a pony like her really deserved such pleasant treatment given her checkered past.

“Psst! Pssst!”

Starlight shot up on her haunches at the sound, her head snapping and eyes widening in the direction of something plucking out a simple tune. On the desk next to a purple lamp was a small, but familiar purple alicorn which was wearing a ballerina’s outfit and spinning to the sound of music from the vaguely heart-shaped, golden music player below. The dancing ‘figure’ was clearly looking and smiling right at her. Creepily.

“Twilight?” Right, right, this was, in fact, a living Tartarus that Starlight was forced to go through as punishment for her crimes, which… to be fair, were numerous and heinous. Starlight jumped off the bed and trotted up to the desk. “Is that you? How are you here?”

“I’m not. I’m still home. It’s an easy spell.” Twilight said with a dismissive swipe of her extended forehoof. “I’ll show you later. Anyway, enough about me. I had to check on you.” Her eyes widened. “Not-in-a-meddling-kind-of-way!-In-a-friendly-‘how’s-it-going?’-kind-of-way. Soooo, how’s it going?” She concluded with a smile that Starlight recognized as a bit too symmetrical and not quite fully earnest.

“Oh, my Mom! Sparkles the Wonder Horse, you are the literal worst!”

Twilight’s eyes shot upwards and Starlight began internally screaming at the sound of Sunset’s voice coming from the lamp on the desk.

“Sunset?” Twilight said, shielding her eyes and squinting as she looked up past the purple lampshade.

“Yes,” Sunset answered as Starlight’s horn glowed electric blue and she took off the lampshade. “The only other pony who’s supposed to be here!”

With another flash of her horn, a glimmering pair of electric blue sunglasses appeared over Starlight’s eyes. “Except you’re not because this is my room.”

“Guest room!” Sunset hissed out as she held the lamp’s light high above her head with one forehoof. “If you recall, this castle belongs to my mom, which makes the whole thing practically mine.”

Squinting, Twilight spoke up. “Er, Sunset? I think you might be letting your return home get to your head just a bit.”

“I don’t recall asking for your opinion, peasant,” Sunset replied brusquely.

Starlight groaned to herself and tapped at her aching head with a forehoof. “None of this is helping…”

“How do you know this spell, anyway?” Twilight asked.

Sunset blew a gust of air past her lips that caused them to flap up and down. “Oh, wow! Now look who needs to get off their high-horse! Somedays you seem to really think you’ve been Celestia’s one and only personal student.”

“Okay, sorry!” Twilight said in a clearly irritated tone. “I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful… unlike some ponies…” she uttered to herself.

“Hah!” Sunset exclaimed. “Losers ‘try’, Twilight. Winners succeeded.”

Starlight could feel the pain in her head crescendo to a near-unbearable level. “Can we please talk about the friendship problem so you can both leave me alone and I can eat an entire bottle of aspirin before passing out?!”

“She started it!” Sunset and Twilight snapped as they pointed their miniature forelegs accusingly at each other.

Starlight groaned. “Look, Sunset and I talked to Celestia and Luna, and well… We think the problem might be between them.”

—“It’s clearly 100% between them, but sure, let’s play make-believe!”—

“Oh no, that’s terrible!” Twilight exclaimed as she raised her forehooves to her cheeks. “I mean, what makes you say that?” she inquired in a more cheerful tone.

—“You’d know why if you spent any real time with my Mom, but okay.” —

Starlight glanced upward for a moment. “You know how some ponies say nothing’s wrong but you can tell something’s definitely wrong?”

—“That’s like half mom’s entire deal” —

“Nooooooooo…” Twilight said, punctuating her answer with a nervous giggle and another not-quite-sincere grin.

—“I take it back, you clearly have spent a bunch of time with Celestia.” —

Starlight tossed a glare at the lamp. “Are you done?”

—“Bitch, have you met me?!”—

Starlight let out yet another groan. “Well, that’s basically what the Princess did when I said there was a friendship problem. Only they did it more, you know, regally.”

Twilight’s shoulders and wings slumped forward. “Oh, I wish I could help you,”

—“I don’t!”—

“But I can’t - both for map reasons and because I have no idea! This is big!” she added in a near panic as she placed her forehooves on the side of her head. “Like, really big!”

Twilight quickly covered her mouth with both forehooves as Starlight gave her a panicked expression.

“Oh, my Mom!” Sunset exclaimed. “Does she ever having you buying into this ‘immortal god-pony’ thing she likes to project.” Smile on her face, Sunset rolled her eyes. “Look, underneath all that, Mom’s just a stressed-out, somewhat neurotic pony who spends each day smiling while she runs around secretly on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, just like everypony else!”

“Yeah,” Starlight said, “except her breakdowns can destroy towns! Maybe the whole world!”

There was a beat of silence while all three mares just quietly looked at each other.

“Wow, we are not a great group to pass judgment here…” Starlight mused.

“No, no we are not,” Twilight agreed.

“It’s fine!” Sunset insisted. “Tomorrow we explain to them what we’ve seen, I tell Mom she’s probably being stupid and everything is likely her fault, bingo-bango, friendship problem solved!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight cried. “You can’t just tell Princess Celestia she’s being stupid and expect everything to just work out!”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Oh, get over yourself! I used to tell Mom she was being an idiot all the time and…” Sunset paused and rubbed her chin with a forehoof. “No… no, okay. You may have a point.”

Starlight rubbed the back of her head. “Uh, Sunset? I’ve been meaning to mention this, but I might agree with Twilight in you maybe have adjusted to being home a little too well and too quickly.”

“HEY!” Sunset snapped. “Do I come into your room and harass you about the things you say?!”

“YES!” Starlight cried. “You’re literally doing it right now!”

Sunset took a look at her surroundings. “Touché, Starlight Glimmer. Touché.”

Twilight snickered.

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Oh, like you’re in a position to laugh.”

Realization almost made Twilight go cross-eyed and she clamped her mouth shut.

Starlight huffed out a sigh and turned her attention to Sunset. “Look, tomorrow we’ll spend some time with the Princesses and covertly figure out what the deal is between them then share our observations with them. Hopefully, that’ll at least get them talking. You’ll get to spend time with your family, we’ll figure out what’s wrong, and nopony will do anything insanely rash and impulsive to solve this problem!”

Sunset glared at Starlight.

“What?!” Starlight replied. “I thought it was a solid plan!”

“It is a solid plan!” Sunset begrudged. “I’m just a bit ticked that you of all the ponies in this room, through magic or otherwise, came up with it!”

“Uhhh… Thanks?” Starlight replied. “I think?”

Seemingly relaxing, Twilight smiled up at Starlight. “Well, I’m here if you ever need to talk! Or listen to music!” she added as she began to spin again and the music box played a little tune.

Sunset glared down at Twilight. “And I’m actually here, you know, just a few towers over, if you want to come to and discuss our cutie-mark-map-tiny-dog-ordained mission!”

From behind her magical shades, Starlight gave Sunset a very serious look. “I have no idea how to get literally anywhere from this room, and fear I might die here.”

Sunset nodded. “I know you’ve got a terrible sense of direction and have already informed the guards they need to send someone to escort you to”—Sunset cringed as if it was painful to say the word that followed— “breakfast, tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, thank Celestia!” Starlight cried.

“Hey! Don’t thank Mom! Thank me!”

An unmistakable countenance of envy on her face, Twilight spoke up. “Okay, but I still have music.”

Gritting her teeth, Sunset looked down. “Keep pressing that button, Twilight. See what happens… I can guarantee that everyone loses, but at least that includes you.”

Twilight gave Sunset a quizzical look. “What are you going to do? Sing? You’re just a lamp.”

Sunset clenched her eyes shut and let out an exasperated sigh. “Just remember that you made me do this! I didn’t want to, but you made me!” Sunset’s horn glowed red and a split second later the entire castle began to shake to the sound of “MMMMMMMBOP, BA DUPA DOP, BA DU BOP~”

“AHHHHHH!” Twilight screamed as she covered her ears. “I’m hearing that in stereo!”

“AHHHHHH!” Starlight cried as she also covered her ears. “I’m hearing that in all my internal organs!”

“BA DUBA DOP, BA DU BOP~”

Luna’s bellowing voice suddenly cut into the sounds of a trio of colts singing their hearts out on what was clearly a contender for Equestria’s best entertainment system. “SO ‘TIS A SHOUTING MATCH YOU DESIRE, OH DEMONS OF THE ABYSS?!”

BA DUBA DOP, BA DU, YEAH-YEAH!~”

“SO BE IT!” Luna began to shriek with a near earthquake causing loudness. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

“MMMMMMMBOP, BA DUPA DOP, BA DU BOP~”

“I SHALL BE TRIUMPHANT! AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

“BA DUBA DOP, BA DU BOP~”

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

Twilight threw up her forelegs “Okay, okay! Message received by me and literally everypony in 100 leagues!”

BA DUBA DOP, BA DU, YEAH-YEAH!~”

The music came to an abrupt stop. “Yeah! That’s what I thought!” Sunset said in the most angrily victorious tone Starlight had ever heard a pony speak in.

“VICTORY IS MINE!”

Correction, the second most angrily victorious tone.

Twilight tilted her head slightly. “How old is that song, anyway?!” she asked. “I haven’t heard that since before I got my cutie mark!”

Sunset seemed to briefly consider tossing the bright bulb of light she held aloft at the pony below her. “You know I can see your house from here, right Twilight? While you might think it’s very large and made of super-resilient crystal, but from here it looks tiny and very explodable!”

Starlight grit her teeth hard, as a pulsating vein surfaced on her forehead. “Oh-my-gosh-I-am-so-done-with-this-goodnight!” she shouted as she took both music box and lamp an electric glow and hurled them through one of the large windows which shattered easily upon impact.

“WAIT, STARILGIHT,” Twilight pleaded. “GIVE ME Time to undo the speeeelll…”

“OH MOMMY,”Sunset cried, “LAMP-ME APPArently can’t fly! This is so sca…”

With a huff, Starlight’s horn glowed again and the broken window shimmered with magic before it was once again whole, all before the two possessed items could meet their fate with the oh so solid ground below.

‘THUD!’

‘SHATTER!’

“Ow, OW! Your sour grape response to my superior vocal skills has been noted, demons! You shall pay for this brutal attack upon my personage!”

Starlight flung herself back on the bed, face down this time, but taking a small glance at the other items in her room to make sure they wouldn’t come to life. Satisfied that she was finally alone she let her mind wander back to tomorrow’s friendship problem and hoped that maybe, just maybe, Sunset could move beyond her past at the castle and find the peace she was looking for.

In no time at all, sleep claimed Starlight. Sleep that could have used fewer nightmares about warring princess and being tiny and thrown into bottomless chasms.

With an “Aaaaah!” and a ‘THUD!’ Sunset fell face first onto her old bedroom floor, which - while uncomfortably hard - was still impacted with far less force than the lethal amount her brain had just been telling her she was going to hit at.

Sunset scrambled to her hooves and placed a forehoof over her chest. Her heart was still racing, but she took a few deep breaths to try to calm it. For a moment, she felt anger bubble to the surface of her thoughts, but it quickly subsided as Sunset realized she kind of deserved what had happened. At least, she couldn’t really blame Starlight for how she reacted, but it wasn’t Sunset’s fault that Twilight couldn’t wait to check up on the unicorn instead of, you know… give Sunset a moment to talk about being home after so long and how it felt like being an anthill with a stick stuck inside it that was shaken around were Sunset was somehow both anthill and stick!

Sunset clambered onto a large, cushioned chair. While the regal purple color and gold trim of the chair blended in well with the rest of the room’s decor, the worn and even split condition of the chair’s cushions stood in stark comparison to everything else. Once upon a time, the chair belonged to a powerful ruler. She’d sit, and snuggle with her adopted daughter as the two quietly read, enjoyed afternoon teas, and simply enjoyed each other’s company. Though, one day it was thought the chair was past its prime and was to be tossed out. After some civil discourse of the hysterical crying kind, the chair quickly found a new home inside the room of the adopted daughter where it lived happily ever after!

The chair that is. The daughter’s happy ending was still very much a work in progress.

Even now, Sunset felt comforted by the chair’s lumpy and uneven cushions, but, as always, it wasn’t quite enough to calm the stampeding herd of thoughts going around in her head. Her Mom and Auntie Luna were clearly not happy with each other, but apparently, their solution was to quietly simmer about the issue until it magically went away, which was so classic Celestia that Sunset could feel a pang in her chest. Still, it’s not like she had done anything but delay Starlight getting to them and made a general mess of everything up to that point…

Sunset glanced around her room and caught her reflection on one of the many mirrors that adorned the room. While usually, her own stunning appearance would cause a brief bout of joy, instead she glared at it and growled out, “What the buck is wrong with you?” She caught several pairs of eyes looking back at her through the mirror. “No, not you, wall-army of teen heartthrobs. Sorry, but this is a problem I don’t think your sexy smoldering looks and feel-good lyrics can fix.”

“Maybe I can help, My Little Shimmering Sunshine?”

Sunset’s heart caught in her throat as anger once again bubbled to the surface of her thoughts, emotions, and face. She turned to glower at an orange lamp. A lamp that Sunset quickly ripped off the shade of revealing her mother’s smiling face as she held up the bulb in both forehooves.

“Sorry!” Celestia began, clearly catching the look of pure rage on Sunset’s face. “But we haven’t talked in so long and you played your ‘feel-better’ music loud enough that half the nation could hear it, so I thought I’d just check and see if—”

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!” Sunset screamed. A demand that became non-negotiable as the lamp was quickly flung out of a closed window that shattered upon impact.

“OKAY SWEETIE, I'LL TALK TO YOU Later, I love you, goodniiiiiight!”

‘SHATTER!’

“OW! I SWEAR I SHALL DEVOTE THIS ENTIRE NIGHT TO FINDING YOU AND ALL YOUR FRAGILE POLTERGEIST MINIONS, DEMONS!”

Sunset groaned, repaired the window in a magic shimmer, and made it from chair to massive, four-post bed in a single leap. She crawled under the thick orange comforter that bared her cutie mark.

Tomorrow… Sunset thought. Tomorrow I’m sure I’ll get my act together…

Her thoughts on her aunt Luna, Starlight, and her mom and how she assuredly was going to do right by them, Sunset passed into sleep. Sleep that really would have been more restful without demon her laughing maniacally and declaring “I’m the real you!” but seriously… What else was new?

Chapter 10: Breakfast of the Goddesses

“Good morning, sister!” Celestia chirped merrily as she held aloft a pile of pancakes with fruit and whipped cream strategically arranged into smiley. “Care to join us?”

While she recognized Celestia’s attempt at a good-natured invite, Luna couldn’t help but feel the slightest twinge of annoyance from both her sister’s tone and her attempt at ‘happy food art’. The ‘night shift’, as it were, had been especially gruelling.

The reason was twofold, specifically the two ‘trouble ponies’ who had graced their way into Canterlot. It didn’t help that ONE was already sitting at the breakfast table.

Starlight Glimmer was directly responsible for many nightmares, but those had mostly abided of late because apparently, the unicorn had managed to manipulate and brainwash some VERY forgiving ponies, even by Equestrian standards. However, she was also indirectly responsible for many nightmares, having created or at least tapped into a number of tragic timelines with her past revenge attempt.

It had always been a difficult task explaining how what ponies called ‘dreams’ could be any number of ‘real’ things, from the mundane repressed memories and interpretive psyche plays, to the more intriguing premonitions or visions of things to come, and even snippets from the actual lives of these ponies’ counterparts in timelines. Luna had learned to be quick to offer up the first, carefully suggest the second, and almost never bring up the third option as most were not ready to consider the fact that as much as an infinite amount of them existed across time and dimensions.

The point was, Starlight was sort of a ‘beacon of thought’ for SEVERAL unfortunate timelines through her magic meddling, but her range of influence was, thankfully, rather short. Luna had long since mopped up most of the Ponyville issues.

But now the little time tinkerer was here in Canterlot, one of Equestria’s most densely populated cities and the prime target of almost all the evildoers from this other timeline.

Ooooooh-good-eee.

Half her night had been full of lines like:

“It’s okay, Fancy Pants! You’re quite alive and your prim and proper lover will NOT have sworn a vengeance oath when you wake!”

“I… Well, I suppose even though it’s true your lover did not die, there’s nothing wrong, per se, with dying your hair blood-red, getting piercings, and arranging your hair into a mohawk, Miss Fleur de Lis. Though I would urge sober reflection over coffee prior to any major lifestyle alterations.”

“Yes, Twilight thinks about you all the time, Miss Dancer. I… She dreams of many things, to be honest. I’m not really at liberty to discuss them! Look, could you please just talk to Twilight about your feelings, or at least to a licensed therapist? Half the ponies who need my help are dreaming of war and rebellion and there’s somehow an unrelated other half that’s just on fire ALL THE TIME!”

Right, that brought Luna to her second problem, which was big in a number of ways, several of which did not endear her to her sister but that was somewhat old news, Luna was being respectful enough to give her sister time to broach with her… And yet, it was unbelievably aggravating that apparently her flesh and blood had adopted a DAUGHTER naught more than a SCORE before her own return and mentioned NONE of this even AFTER said pony had surfaced once more.

It perhaps would have at least prepared Luna for the torrent of repressed memory dreams of the ‘tiny demon which consumed everything in flame and anger’.

It was worth noting that these dreams where not all-together rare within the bounds of Canterlot, Luna just thought them attributed to some foe bested by her sister some time past or perhaps some errant dream entity set to cause mischief that Luna couldn’t ever find.

On the - and I loath even thinking this - BRIGHT side, I at least understand the source of these ‘demon filly dreams’.

The point was that Luna wanted exactly zero conversation on the subject, as her sister was never one to really grasp the night and dream realms. She HAD also tried to “visit” the dreams of both Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer with the hope of finding a solution or at least delivering a severe tongue lashing, but the former’s was some sort of… dating game. A dating game in which Starlight was the lucky prize and the contestants were either without form or composed of nothing but writhing masses of vines/tentacles with notable bulbous ends…

Luna had been asked by some tentacled beast with suction cups in a seventy-two piece suit if she’d like to be the next ‘bachelorette’. She had politely declined.

Somehow, Sunset’s dream was worse… FAR worse…

Despite her immense magical powers, especially in the dream realm, the general atmosphere of Sunset’s ‘thought plane’ was so overwhelming that it forced Luna from her alicorn form into some sort of bipedal one in a strange realm of alarms that sounded each hour and walls made of metal storage boxes.

Luna took a mental note that Sunset was an empath the likes of which Equestria had possibly never known before and that future dream visiting was likely something that should be done with plenty of forewarning to Sunset.

Stripped of her dream powers, it was impossible to skip the nightmarish line of creatures that were waiting to talk to an increasingly exasperated Sunset Shimmer about problems usually so mundane Luna couldn’t help but wonder if they really needed Sunset’s help. Also, worthy of note, many of which resembled ponies back in Equestria, if one could mentally transpose the concept of these ponies as ‘people’ as Luna understand it.

Worse yet, it was a place where everyone asked if she was ‘Vice-Principal Luna’s daughter or younger sister’ and everyone was CLEARLY weary of her for being a younger version of that world’s Luna. She also found it to be impossible to be friends with one of the more attractive ape creatures… Specifically, the one with purple skin and shortcut ‘mane’ of two-toned purple hair held in place with a diamond-patterned band.

No, this other Luna couldn’t even compliment said ape-mare for her attractive clothing choices and luscious deep purple eyes because this amethyst-skinned STAR of Luna’s attraction couldn’t get over the ‘Mini-Vice-Principal’ look.

The night concluded with teenaged, biped Luna eating several pints of ice-cream while crying. She had fled the dream to talk to Miss Moondancer about her Twilight obsession because that seemed the least likely to cause her ongoing mental strife.

Luna took all the pent up frustration of the previous night, rolled it up into a brusque, “Too tired,” and fired it off in Celestia’s direction. Still, she needed SOME substance to fuel herself with, so she magically grabbed hold of the largest piece of produce from the decorative ‘Let’s just pile all the perishable stuff in the center so it looks pretty and it can rot because aesthetic is apparently more important than actually making sure such foodstuff doesn’t go to waste.’ Taking a bite, whatever-it-was was sweet, acidic, and cut deeply into the roof of Luna’s mouth.

Perfection. Thought the quietly raging princess of the night. This delectable fruit would have likely been Luna’s last memory before sleeping if it weren’t for the fact she’d caught sight of a certain orange pony making her way to the dining area and directly towards herself.

Despite her ‘dead on her hooves’ feeling, Luna considered saying… SOMETHING to the young alicorn. Something vaguely unpleasant that hinted her presence had caused more trouble than she imagined. However, Luna saw something in Sunset’s features that made her feel an immediate kinship with the orange alicorn.

Sunset likewise sported a bleary-eyed look. However, where there was a tiredness in Luna’s features, there was a simmering rage in Sunset’s, and while Luna trudged through the morning barely conscious, Sunset walked in a forced march as if someone had done her a great injustice somewhere in between getting out of bed and walking to breakfast.

“Move it, Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way!” Sunset snarled as she made zero effort to correct her collision course with the Princess of the Night.

“Ex-excuse me?!” Luna exclaimed in a flustered-if-more-lucid tone as she sidestepped out of Sunset’s way.

“Excuse denied!” Sunset bellowed to her left as perfectly kept her pace towards the dining area.

Luna paused for a moment and eyed Sunset carefully. Was it possible the fledgling alicorn didn’t know who she was addressing? Yet, a few of the words she used to address Luna suggested she knew exactly who she spoke to. Did she truly not concern herself with the fact she was talking to the Princess of the Night?

Celestia cringed. “My Little Shimmering Sunlight?” she said in a soothing tone. “You shouldn’t talk to your aunt tha—”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Luna said as she mustered some coherence. She began to walk toward the table with her partially eaten sweet-but-pain-inducing fruit. “Perhaps I will stay for ‘breakfast’,” she added, placing a particular emphasis on the word ‘breakfast’, perhaps in the hope that Celestia would cotton on to the fact that it was essentially bedtime for the Princess of the Night.

“Oh! Delightful!” Celestia exclaimed as a smile exploded onto her face.

Hope was dead and the goddess of the sun had killed it.

Luna wandered back into the room but kept her attention focused on Sunset. Sunset, who made her way to Starlight’s end of the table where she took note of the unicorn not with the pleasant look of a pony who was seeing a friend after a good night’s sleep, but with the look of a pony who was seriously considering unmaking the thing in front of her. “You’re in my seat,” Sunset said coldly.

“Oh, uh…” Seemingly sensing Sunset’s odd killing intent, Starlight hastily took up her plate of pancakes and utensils in an electric glow and scooched them over a bit… then a bit more when she wasn’t sure she was giving Sunset adequate space, scooched them over even further. She then proceeded to stand awkwardly at the table which soon had Luna added as another member of the ‘Why am I standing?’ club.

Celestia quickly produced another pre-made stack of pancakes and floated it across the table in front of her daughter. “Sorry!” she said to the group at large. “Sunset is a bit grumpy in the mornings,” she said as if that somehow explained the boiling mass of pure disdain Sunset had somehow transformed into in between when she was last observed and now.

Despite the sudden appearance of stackable foodstuff in front of Sunset, she quickly picked out the missing pieces from the four-pony equation. “Mom,” she began in a clearly vexed tone, “why the heck are there only two chairs at the table?!”

“Oh!” Celestia exclaimed. “I guess I didn’t know how many ponies would be joining me for breakfast.”

Sunset’s face began to twitch as if it had just suffered a complete short circuit. A small and worrying trickle of blood came out of one nostril, only to be snorted back in. “Okay, but you clearly made four stacks of happy pancakes!” she exclaimed, motioning at the food on the table. “How can you prepare food for four ponies, but only think to bring out chairs for two?! Come on, Mom! You’re the morning pony! Literally! How can anypony expect you to run all of Equestria if you can’t remember to place a couple more chairs for breakfast?!”

Starlight’s mouth hung open wide as Luna’s lower jaw involuntarily unhinged itself from the rest of her skull.

“I, erm… I’ll be right back!” Celestia announced as she beat a quick retreat past the open golden door.

It was that moment that Luna looked upon Sunset as if truly seeing her for the first time. She looked upon the pony not as an adopted family member or even another princess of equal standing, but as a goddess wrapped in crude flesh who had somehow deemed the ponies present worthy to bask in her glorious magnificence.

Luna struggled to get her sister to accept or even acquiesce to many things she asked, but apparently to Sunset, the longest standing ruler in Equestrian history was nothing but a nail that occasionally needed to be hammered down.

The goddess suddenly took note of Luna, her own jaw dropping slightly. “Auntie Luna are you… are you eating an entire pineapple for breakfast?”

Luna winced. That DID explain the mouth bleeding and also light-searing pain from the acidic content. She had simply grabbed the piece of fruit in a near-unconscious daze. Oh, how foolish she must look to her niece.

“That’s pretty hardcore!” Sunset exclaimed as she offered up her first smile of the day.

“Oh thank Celes… uh… her mom she didn’t burn down the place…” Starlight murmured to herself.

Luna took little note of Starlight’s outburst, except to note that one of Equestria’s greatest threats apparently held Sunset in complete reverence.

Or fear. In Luna’s experience, there was a very hazy line separating the two.

“Oh!” Luna replied. She didn’t know what ‘hardcore’ meant, but she could understand she was clearly being praised.

But what is the appropriate response here?! Think. Think. Hmmm… Sunset Shimmer is still a bit young. Perhaps she would respond to me taking the compliment by being ‘chilly’. Luna also favored Sunset with a smile. “I just grabbed the first thing I saw on the table and began consuming it. Do you know what I am saying?”

Oh, sweet Equestria. I must sound like a raving lunatic.

Surprising Luna, Sunset let out a laugh. “Gotcha. It’s a ‘no bucks given’ kind of day, right?”

“I, er… Yes! All ‘bucks’ shall be retained for the duration of the day!”

Sunset snorted out another laugh. “Mood. I like your style, Auntie.”

“Yes, thank you, Sunset. I do indeed make good use of words.”

More laughter poured from Sunset as Celestia burst into the room, two ornate chairs floating behind her in a canary yellow glow that matched the aura of her horn.

Starlight cocked her head slightly. “Why didn’t you just teleport them in?”

Shockingly, Celestia’s face flashed anger, REAL anger for a second at Starlight and she snapped back with. “I don’t know, Starlight Glimmer, didn’t you just NOT almost destroy reality when you began tinkering with TIME magic because Twilight and her friends unraveled your little brianwash day-camp?!”

Starlight clamped her mouth shut and stared down at her partially eaten pancakes. The rich, creamy based smile had begun to smudge and melt from the heat and seemingly melted into a crooked frown that mirrored Starlight’s expression perfectly. “Don’t worry…” Starlight murmured to her partially eaten, doughy counterpart. “We’ll make it out of this somehow…”

Sunset suddenly let out another outburst of merriment.

Taking note of Sunset’s jovial reaction Celestia quickly floated the chairs over to the standing ponies while she took a deep breath and gave Sunset a little smile. “Glad my theatrics can bring some joy to you this morning.”

“Huh?” Sunset replied in confusion as she ceased talking mid-sentence to Luna and turned to face Celestia. “Oh, not you, Mom!” Sunset motioned towards Luna with a forehoof. “I was just bonding with Auntie Luna!” she exclaimed happily.

“Indeed, sister!” Luna said happily as she took her seat. “We were just talking about my unconventional breakfast choices, a ‘zero bucks tolerance’ mandate for the date, and my unique styling of words!”

“Hahahaha! Technically all true!” Sunset exclaimed mirthfully.

Celestia couldn’t help but keep the frown from her face. “Oh, that’s… good,” she said, unable to hide the jealousy from her tone.

“Oh by Starswirl’s Beard, I’m going to die eating ‘happy pancakes’.”

“Did you say something, Starry?” Sunset asked.

“I said, ‘Thanks for getting me a chair and making these delicious ‘happy pancakes’, Princess!” Starlight answered as she forced a smile that went from ‘too symmetrical’ to ‘unnervingly broken’ in a matter of seconds.

Celestia managed to put some happiness back onto her face. “You’re welcome my little po—”

“Okay, time out,” Sunset declared while holding her forelegs in a vague ‘T’ shape. “Mom made breakfast, but at least two ponies here would be STANDING at breakfast if it weren’t for me. Thank her for the food, sure, but not for the chairs. She was just correcting a mistake I had to point out!”

Luna swore she could hear her sister’s teeth grind together.

“My darling, light of my life, Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia began, her tone wildly fluctuating from maternal joy to one of ‘screaming match incoming’, the second of which Luna was QUITE familiar with, “I have a lot of my mind, as you know, and sometimes I forget the little things.”

And then Luna saw something quite terrifying from Sunset Shimmer. It was a look of pure murderous rage, as if she could unmake everything before her.

To reiterate, what was before her would be Celestia, Princess of the Day and Master of the Sun and all that the Sun touched.

It was soon replaced by something that made even Luna’s centuries-old blood run cold in fear.

For a brief moment, Sunset Shimmer…

Smirked.

It was a smirk of pure, unrelenting demonic joy. The kind of look one reserves for when their arch-nemesis is begging for mercy as the executioner is ready to drop the axe.

The kind of smile that makes it clear that there was nothing more to be said, and to drop said axe.

And then Sunset’s face became even once more, practically blank in fact.

She replied with, “So Starlight, your SISTER, and myself are ‘the little things’?” she said in a twisted parody of innocence that somehow defiled the very meaning of the word. “Oh wait, there was one chair. Were we supposed to guess your favorite, or was it just whoever happened to show up first?”

Luna watched in awe as something happened behind her sister’s eyes that had never happened before in her long memory. The light which so often meant she was preparing for verbal fisticuffs dulled, as if it was unexpectedly routed.

Celestia, wise, some might say ‘ancient’ Celestia... stood there… dumbstruck by a filly of prime birthing age.

“May I be excused to the nearest bomb shelter?” Starlight asked politely.

Luna mustered enough interest to turn towards the pony and ask a quick: “What is a ‘bomb shelter’?”

“Oh right!” Starlight replied. “I should probably help you all build a few bomb shelters before I start testing Balefire bombs…” she murmured.

Luna cringed. “Almost every word that just came out of your mouth filled me with great unease, Starlight Glimmer.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Starlight said casually as she shoveled a massive bite of pancake into her mouth.

Celestia took a deep, deep, breath, and let it out. “Sunset, you of all ponies understand your mother is not perfect.”

Sunset smirked again, clearly prepared to add all of the hero’s metaphorical friends and family to the line for the chopping block. “I used to use that line all the time! You never cut me any slack!”

“You were setting fires to drapery in protest of long meetings and letting loose cockatrice on the nobles!”

Sunset nodded, “But I also was younger… and still am by a ridiculous measure! Yet I somehow managed to remember how counting and chairs worked!”

Celestia narrowed her eyes and grunted in displeasure. “This conversation is asinine!”

Sunset pointed to the center of the table. “Like the stupid fruit bowls you keep leaving out?”

“Finally, some pony says something…” Luna said, the words slipping out before she had time to think.

Celestia tossed her sister a much-annoyed look.

Starlight took a deep, stress-filled breath, and let it out in a concerned whimper. “He-hey! Did you know Sunset’s current home dimension has a space program?!” she said, forcing some sense of levity into her tone. “They’ve even landed on the moon!” Quietly she added, “So far away from a planet that might be blasted into dust…”

Luna’s head snapped around fire off a glare so smoldering at Starlight that it felt like the temperature in the room increased. “Oh? Is their moon likewise a prison?”

Starlight let out a sound much like a quiet scream then shoveled in some more pancake. “These sure are some bomb-diggity pancakes!”

“The fruit really ties the ambiance of the table together!” Celestia exclaimed. “And ponies are welcome to grab anything they want from the table to eat!” she added, as she motioned to Luna’s partially eaten pineapple.

“Flowers would work just as well!” Sunset insisted. “And they’re also edible!”

“I’m partial to lavender,” Luna chimed in.

Celestia tossed her sister another errant dirty look. “Luna, could I have a moment? I’m trying to talk to my daughter.”

Luna nodded. “‘Trying’ seems to be the operative word, sister. You’re not doing a very good job!”

“Ooooooh, ice burn!” Sunset exclaimed.

Luna snickered. “Yes, we’re playing with ice magic now.”

Celestia moved her pancakes to the side and slumped forward onto the table. “Does any pony else want to belittle me first thing in the morning? Starlight?”

Starlight pursed her lips. “No, but if you’re taking requests can sunrise be an hour or two later?”

“No!” insisted Luna.

“Maybe,” said Celestia before she and her dark sister shared a glare.

Sunset’s lips pulled into a tight frown. “Kinda agree with Mom here… But Fruit bowl is still stupid!”

“Where else are ponies going to get any fruit they want, Sunset?!” Celestia exclaimed.

“The KITCHEN, mom! Or we can ask Kibitz or any number of the castle attendees to get some frickin’ grapes! Look, everyday you put out the frickin’ fruit plate, and then at night, tons of stuff needs to be thrown out because you and your guests are the ponies who know about the fruit plate and never eat it all!”

Starlight looked at the plate, worry still marching across her face. “If I eat everything on that plate right now, will this argument be over?”

There was a moment of quiet while everyone stared at Starlight.

“Can you eat that much fruit?!” Sunset demanded.

Starlight put on a thoughtful look. “Nope,” she admitted. “But, if I create a reality tear—”

Luna’s foreleg shot up. “I disagree strongly with this course of action!”

Sunset groaned. “Oh, for Equestria’s sake! Kibitz! Could you come here, please?!”

At once one of the double doors swung open and Kibitz, looking as dignified as ever, walked in as if it was any other morning in the castle. However, behind him sat a very nervous white-coated unicorn mare with black-framed glasses, a brunette mane tied up in a bun, and a firehose held at the ready in her forelegs.

“Yes, Miss?” Kibitz said, in a perfectly even tone.

Sunset took the fruit bowl in a red glow and floated it over to Kibitz. “Just like.. I dunno… pass out the fruit to ponies you run across today! It’s fruit day! Whatever!”

Kibitz stood for a moment as if considering the request. He gave Celestia the slightest of looks.

Celestia sighed and gave Kibitz a nod of assent.

“Very well, Miss Sunset Shimmer.” Kibitz took the bowl in his own magical aura and trotted out of the room. “If that’ll be all.”

“Thanks, Dad! Love you!” Sunset said with a genuine smile, which turned back into a smirk as she faced her mother once more.

Now Luna had, on occasion, flustered the castle’s dear majordomo, but never intentionally. With a literal monocle pop, Kibitz was so out of sorts by this response from Sunset that the poor pony had likely forgotten what pocket his watch was in as the bowl slipped slightly and some of the oranges, apples, and peaches spilled out onto the floor.

Laughing, Sunset closed the door.

With a huff, Celestia got up to her hooves and did an about-face as she marched towards the door. “Well, I suppose I should be on my way. I have many important duties to get to.”

Sunset nodded. “Okay, just keep in mind that four is twice as much as two.”

Celestia’s entire body seemed to quake for a moment as she mumbled something to the extent of, “You’re twice as much as two… no… half as much as two…” with a heavy sigh and without another word, Celestia simply departed.

Starlight let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Any pony else surprised we all lived? I’m surprised.”

At once, laughter poured out of Luna’s mouth and she found herself scooching up to the table and pulling over one of the pancake piles in a midnight blue glow of her magic. “Oh, my dear niece, I haven’t seen someone get the better of Celestia like that since…” Luna thought for a moment as she cut a modest bite in her pancake. “Well… ever!”

Sunset chuckled. “Hey, some pony has to keep her on her hooves, otherwise being able to raise and lower the sun might go to her head.”

Luna laughed once more. “Here, here!” she said as she raised a glass of juice with her magic that was ‘clinked’ against as Sunset raised her own glass.

Starlight just looked at one pony then the other. “And ponies say I’m going to get the world destroyed…”

Chapter 11: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Electric blue magic slammed open the doors to Starlight Glimmer’s guest bedroom as she ran in so quickly one might think she was recovering items while the castle burned down, which… there was some degree of irony in that way of thinking. But the castle wasn’t yet on fire and Equestria wasn’t yet doomed and it was up to Starlight Glimmer to save everypony!

Starlight stopped dead center in the room.

Okay, yeah… this is why Twilight was a bit worried about sending me out…

Admittedly her own track record wasn’t the best when it came to being put in charge of saving the day, but it was clear Sunset Shimmer’s return visit might mean that her cutie mark map task was going to be a bit more difficult.

She scanned the room and noticed some items had been replaced. Notably the ones her friends had basically taken over with magic; and which she had subsequently thrown out a window so she could get some sleep.

Great! Maybe Twilight can actually offer some help.

She cantered up to a lamp, took it into her magic, pulled it up to her face and made it clear what her current issue was. “Sunset Shimmer is in a MOOD with a capital M-double-O-D!”

No response. “Hello?! Twilight! This is kind of important!” Starlight took a closer look.

Okay, that’s just a regular lamp…

“Uh, Starlight?”

Starlight turned, and there in the music box was Twilight, back in full ballerina gear and giving Starlight a look like the next thing out of her former student’s mouth might be ‘I think I accidentally kick-started the Celestial Apocalypse’.

“Twilight!” Starlight said excitedly as she set the lamp down. “I need help!”

Twilight took a deep breath. “Okay, well, demonstrably Canterlot is intact… Is anyone mind-controlled?”

Starlight sighed. “No…”

“Any new portals that might consume all of creation I should know about?”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “No. That’s fine, too!”

“Has anyone declared war on Equestria?!”

Starlight could feel her frown increasing. “Twilight, there’s not even any foreign dignitaries visiting… that I know of.”

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out, visibly relaxing with her entire body which was still spinning and holding up a light. “Okay! So what seems to be the issue?”

“Well, for starters Sunset Shimmer is rather… abrasive this morning…”

Twilight thought for a moment then smirked. “Oh, that,” she said simply.

“That?”

Twilight nodded. “You’d have been more prepared if you’ve ever seen Sunset on a slumber party,” she said with a mirthful chuckle. “Sunset’s pretty grouchy first thing in the morning.”

“Pretty grouchy?!” Starlight replied in disbelief. “Twilight, she basically told Princess Celestia to go buck herself. No, in fact, it was more she turned a quiet, half-standing room only, breakfast into a ‘go BUCK yourself-a-thon' directed at Princess Celestia.”

Twilight’s smile became wider and less genuine. “I don’t suppose this room has a dollhouse with a tiny doll-sized paper bag I can borrow?”

Starlight narrowed her eyes slightly. “Twilight, are you looking for a bag to hyperventilate into?”

“Noooooo…?” Twilight’s smile remained plastered onto her face.

With a twinkle of electric blue magic, Starlight conjured up a tiny paper bag in front of Twilight that was taken up immediately by the tiny alicorn dancer and breathed in and out of it rapidly.

Starlight’s eyebrows night together as she looked down at the tiny projection of her former teacher. “So… you have tiny lungs in there? Tiny everything?”

“I uh… I guess?” Twilight said. She looked up at Starlight with a fright. “Starlight, could you stop looking at me like I’m a dissection project waiting to happen?”

“Right, sorry!” Starlight replied as she tried to push the scientific detachment from her face. “… Do you think the spell would work on a dead po—”

“Your shovel privileges are still very much revoked!” Twilight said harshly.

Starlight sighed heavily. “I guess I should learn the spell first, anyhow!”

“Aaaaand find and solve your friendship problem?!” Twilight reminded.

“Oh… RIGHT!” Starlight said. “Uh… I... it was a little harder to track what was going on with the Sunset element this morning, but Celestia made pancakes for every pony and Luna seemingly wanted nothing to do with them.”

“That monster!” Twilight exclaimed. “Do you think she’s reverting back to her Nightmare Moon ways?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Do I need to round up the girls?”

Starlight sighed and tapped a forehoof against her forehead. “Right, I forgot you might be a bit biased here. Can you conjure up Spike?”

Twilight’s eyebrows knit close together. “You’re asking if I can cast the spell on Spike so he, too, can show up as a tiny version of himself?”

Starlight’s lips turned into a tight, straight frown. “I guess it does sound silly when—”

Twilight’s face lit up. “I have no clue! Let’s find out! Hey, Spike!” There was a brief pause, presumably for reply from Spike before Twilight responded with. “Hold still!” Her horn glowed purple briefly.

“Hold still for—WHY IS EVERYTHING HUGE?! WHY AM I IN ANOTHER ROOM?! WHY IS THERE A GIANT STARLIGHT GLIMMER?!” Spike grabbed the side of his head. “I really need to stop binge eating my walls before bed…”

Starlight looked over at the lamp she had been trying to converse with. Under the lightbulb was now a very befuddled looking Spike wearing a frilly pink apron.

Twilight gasped. “It worked! Spike, help Starlight with her problem! I’ve got some stuff to write down!” With that, the pony on top of the music box flashed with a brilliant white light and reverted to a burnt orange-colored pegasus lacking the definition of a fully shrunken pony.

To his credit, Spike took the disappearance of Twilight in stride and looked up at Starlight. “Right… magic stuff… Uh… What’s up, Starlight? How’s the friendship sleuthing going?”

Starlight exhaled a breath through partially-closed lips, causing her cheeks to push out slightly. “Not good. Did you know that ponies are collectively a bunch of ding-bats?”

“I was kinda raised by Twilight Sparkle and she’s such a ding-bat that the other Princesses decided they should promote her.” Spike thought for a moment and added, “Though, I wonder if ‘ding-bat’ is offensive to bat ponies.”

Starlight shrugged. “Fine, I’ll stop using it, but uh… Sunset and Celestia apparently still have stuff to work out, Luna’s grumpy mood in the morning is probably upsetting her sister a bit, and I was left all alone after I ate my pancake companion at breakfast and spent a few hours wandering the castle because nopony believes in posting directions in their giant architectural mazes full of near-identical hallways!”

Spike cocked his head to the side slightly. “You got lost? Isn’t Sunset with you?”

Starlight groaned and buried her face in her forehooves. “She asked me if I wanted to go into town with her, and I said I wanted to ‘hang back and check out a few leads’ when really I just didn’t want to get thrown in a dungeon because of Sunset’s pyromaniacal tendencies!”

“Well that just sounds ridiculous.”

“Ghuh! I KNOW!” Starlight said. “She’s my friend and I’m avoiding her like she’s… well, like she’s me in a bad mood and I’m one of my friends who doesn’t want to end up in jail!”

“What? Uh…” Spike smirked. “No, it’s ridiculous because Celestia would never throw Sunset in jail for just about anything, near as I can tell.” Spike looked out the nearest window, saying, “I’m honestly surprised Canterlot isn’t on fire already… again.” He looked again, pointing in the direction of the train station. “Wait, I see smoke over there!”

“To be fair, it was THE train.”

Spike held one claw open, closed his other into a fist and lightly bounced the closed claw against the open one. “Oh, got it. Her arch-nemesis. Yeah, that checks out.”

“Uh… right…”

“Well, where is she now?”

Starlight shook her head. “Honestly, I have no clue. I guess she’s staying out of trouble, at least…”

-~ooo~-

Sunset Shimmer smiled and took in a deep breath of air as she cantered through the castle’s courtyard on her way to the main gates. Naturally, she had been breathing Canterlot air for almost an entire day now, but it wasn’t until she had properly gone through the process of really creating a few disasters by virtue of her return, sleeping in her old bedroom, and thoroughly irritating her mom that it really felt like she was back.

Being back feels pretty great, to be honest.

She had grown up here, after all. Assuming other fixtures like Joe’s were intact, she could do some light shirking of this friendship problem thing, maybe hit up a few boutiques, and also stop for a late lunch.

She gave the stone-faced guards a dazzling smile as one of the gray unicorns pushed open the golden gates to the castle for her. Joy welled up inside her and she felt a song coming on as she continued her upbeat pace outside. “Oh, the sun hangs hiiigh over Canterlot! The city it shimmers and shiiines! I have a wonderful feeling that everything is going to be fi—”

“Oh, Celestia… It’s her! The one from the papers! She might set fire to another train!” a mares voice called out.

Okay… That threw me off my groove… Sunset thought.Must fight the urge to mention that out loud in case it kickstarts a number of events that might have me transformed into a llama… Maybe going outside right now was a bad idea….

“The prophecy is true!” a stallion exclaimed. “The Princess Heir has returned! Shower her with gifts and beg for forgiveness for the transgressions you’re not sure you’ve committed yet!”

Or maybe not…

“Have my babies, Sunset Shimmer!”another stallion called.

Erm… Or probably yes.

“Have MY babies, Sunset!”a mare called out.

… Tempting, but still probably yes.

“Let me have YOUR babies, Sunset!”A deep STALLION's voice called out.

No, wait. Now THAT’s the kind of strangeness I might need for a day reset.

“Hey! You’re good friends with Princess Twilight, right?! How is she? Could you tell her Moon Dancer says ‘hi’ and misses her?”

Wait… Moon Dancer?! Sunset looked up to see a unicorn that looked like Twilight with a pair of glasses and a pallet swap looking at her with the desperate look of a mare who needed a date, but specifically one from this ONE princess and—

With a crazed look in her eye, Moondancer leaned forward and whispered. “I have the bookmark she left at my place… I’ll trade it back for anything that smells MORE like her…”

Nope, nope, NOPE!

With a crimson glow of her horn, Sunset teleported back behind the castle gates which were closed behind her. She did an about-face. Maybe she could instead go back to the castle and pretend to be working on the friendship problem while she was shirking it! She could hang around with Kibitz and try to help and/or maybe try to catch her mom for lunch and try to smooth over all the Sunset Shimmer she had been this morning!

Immediately, Sunset Shimmer felt her heart began to pound away in her chest at either thought. She had spent years of her life trying to do that with mixed results. Being back was a good start, but she wasn’t entirely convinced she could pick up exactly where she left off without experiencing her heart trying to flee her body by way of her throat or pounding through her rib cage.

So… Maybe visit Kitchen Nightmare who will feed me delicious food and tell me I’m pretty?

Her heart leapt at that thought. She smiled to herself and began trotting back to the castle.

-~ooo~-

Spike shrugged his shoulders. “I wish I knew what to tell you.” He scratched the back of his head. “I mean, I’d offer to join you, but…” he trailed off and looked off in a direction that seemingly was either occupied by a hallway, or provided a vantage point to something in view of his full-sized self. “Twilight looks like she might start sending tiny versions of things to Canterlot just for the sake of seeing what happens…”

Starlight groaned. “Okay, that sounds a bit more pressing than what I have going on immediately. I’ll go…” Starlight’s lips twisted. “Guess I’ll track down Sunset again and see what she has to say… Hopefully, it’s a bit more focused on friendship problems…”

Spike nodded, “She is definitely a pony you want on your side if there are friendship problems, though…”

Starlight raised an eyebrow, “Yes?”

Spike looked upwards as he collected his thoughts and carefully let them slip between his lips. “I think Sunset is a mare of action when the chips are down, like… She does a lot of… running around being upset about stuff until it looks like everyone is going to die and then suddenly, she gets her game face on, puts in maximum effort, and then everything is saved and everypony is cheering her name.”

Starlight thought about this. “So… you’re telling me I have to wait for things to escalate before I can rely on Sunset?!”

Spike smiled widely. “Maybe!”

Starlight blew out a frustrated gust of air. That wasn’t exactly helpful in the short term, but it was at least a note that Sunset, lackadaisical as she might have been acting regarding the ‘mission’, was likely to be more focused if Starlight could convince her there was an element of danger… She needed more info though.

“All right, that’s a good note,” Starlight said. “Thanks, Spike! It’s nice at least knowing I have someone else to talk to here.”

Spike nodded. “No problem!” He looked around. “Uh… Does this spell wear off, or…?”

“I threw Twilight and Sunset out a window last time, and they both survived!” Starlight said in an oddly chipper tone.

Spike cringed. “Hard pass to that!”

‘Knock. Knock.’

Starlight and Spike both looked at the door to Starlight’s room.

“Expecting someone?” Spike asked.

“Well, Princess Luna is supposed to send someone for me so we can chat eventually, so…” Starlight’s horn glowed electric blue and the door swung open.

“Princess Celestia!” Starlight said in surprise.

“That is one huge horse…” tiny lamp Spike uttered.

“Hello, my little pony!” Celestia greeted cordially with maybe a hint of nervousness. She glanced briefly past Starlight into the room. “I uh… don’t suppose Sunset is with you?”

Starlight shook her head. “I haven’t seen her since this morning.”

Celestia nodded. “I also haven’t seen her since that fateful chair incident…” she replied in a somewhat grave tone.

“Riiiiight…” Starlight muttered as she felt her lips straighten into a tight frown. It was becoming clear where Sunset got her drama queen tendencies from.

‘Bamf!’

Celestia and Starlight turned towards a red flash that Sunset Shimmer appeared out of from down the tower bridge that led to Starlight’s room.

“Hey, Starry!” Sunset called out cheerfully as she cantered up. “Kibitz told me you might need a guide since you spent the afternoon wandering the castle in circles and crying while you gorged yourself on tomatoes from the Royal Guar-OH SHI-Hi mom!” Sunset gave her mom a pensive smile as if she was just noticing the mare who was a giant by pony standards and also had hair seemingly made out of a literal aurora borealis.

“H-Hello, Sunset!” Celestia greeted with equal awkwardness.

“…Really, Starlight?” Spike’s tiny voice sounded out from inside the room.

Starlight turned to glare at the tiny dragon who had folded his arms across his chest. “I was lost and hungry and thought I might be stuck like that forever!” Starlight explained. “I mean… it’s a pretty big castle!”

Spike rolled his eyes. “And you think other ponies are ‘ding-bats’!”

“I thought we agreed that term was maybe not politically correct!” Starlight exclaimed.

Paying no mind to the exchange insidethe room, Sunset and Celestia continued their awkward staring match for a while, until Celestia blurted out a nearly tear-ridden. “I’m sorry…”

Sunset swallowed, panic beginning to set into her features. “I uh… erm…”

Celestia’s heart began to pound faster and faster in her chest as she stared down at her daughter and said orange princess seemingly stumbled to find a proper response. She took a deep breath and let it out.

“I’m sorry I didn’t put out more chairs this morning.”

Sunset sucked in a breath of air and let it out slowly as her eyelids lowered slightly and her vision unfocused. “Chairs… RIGHT! Uh… No biggy!”

“Sunset, I forgot about you, it is a biggy!” Celestia said.

Sunset made a noise similar to that which a wounded animal might make as tears began to well up in her eyes.

“I mean… I-forgot-about-you-in-the-chair-specific-context-of-this-morning, of course!” Celestia said hastily.

“Ri-right… right…” Sunset said as she closed her eyes and rubbed tears from her eyes. “Again, that’s er… You know how I am in the mornings, and… uh...”

Celestia closed her eyes, and took a calming breath. When she opened her eyes, they where laser-focused and her lavender irises told a story of deep sadness and regret. “Sunset… uh… Look, about what happened, uh… before you… before you left…”

Sunset’s eyes widened and she stopped her breathing as her brain, which has been done zero favors by the sudden oxygen cut off, tried to prepare her for what was going to come next. She wracked her brain for the times she had spent preparing for this moment but…

It was a mountain of hypothetical and made up exchanges. It was daunting in size. It was hours of nights and lonely weekends spent staring at a book that bore her own cutie mark at first, then longing looks at a book that sat unopened on her desk for months… maybe over a year, and then it was an empty feeling as she spared a glance at the dust-covered thing at the bottom of her locker.

She had played out this moment dozens, maybe a hundred times, but it had slowly begun to be replaced with a feeling that maybe, deep down, that when a pony truly got to know her that she was unworthy of being loved.

And Sunset wasn’t sure what to do with that…

Celestia continued to breathe evenly, but that was all she was doing. It was somehow as if the parts of her brain and body in charge of making sure she took in even breaths had just gone on vacation and she now had to will herself to do it. As Starlight continued to bicker with… uh… somepony? Honestly, Celestia had stopped paying attention to Starlight the second Sunset had arrived.

Sunset. Your daughter is RIGHT there. Celestia thought, mentally reprimanding herself. This can be over tonight, Tia! You KNOW she loves you, still! Tell her you’re sorry again. Tell her you selfishly GAMBLED with her emotions and the dice came up snake eyes and you knew… you KNEW it was your burden to reach out as Sunset’s primary guiding light but you just didn’t have the spine to admit how much everything was on YOU.

Celestia had counter-arguments to this perspective of hers. Many that usually stemmed from her duties as Equestria’s primary monarch but…

They weren’t anything she believed in anymore. They were just… burdens of three years spent in hidden agony that anypony Celestia truly loved was destined to be ripped away from her… What’s worse is they had started to become… something beyond guilty excuses that she loathed making and loathed herself for entertaining. They felt like they had become a… foothold of some sort… or had began to form a mental path for a part of her she was trying desperately to forget.

“… Mom?” Sunset ventured, seemingly having pushed past some of her own fears. “Are you okay?”

Celestia forced a smile for Sunset. “I’m fine, My Little Shimmering Sunshine,” she replied in an unnervingly even tone. A tone Sunset recognized as the one she used to respond to nobles when Celestia was actually buying herself time while she formulated a proper response that would address a situation without escalation or agreeing to something patently ridiculous.

“Erm… look… there was totally a nicer way to bring up the chairs! That’s on—”

“Yosh! Princesses,” a feminine voice called out. “I’ve got a message for Starlight Glimmer. Should I deliver it or come back later?”

Sunset and Celestia turned to see gray bat-pony mare in dark-black Royal Guard armor staring at them and glancing at the open door to Starlight Glimmer’s room. However, the bat pony’s most striking feature was her long blue mane of cascading straight hair that was simply too much be contained by her helmet. In fact, since she was quite small by pony standards, she looked to be more mane and tail than pony. She regarded both Celestia and Sunset with horizontally-slanted pupils set in emerald irises that showed a distinct lack of gravitas for somepony addressing a princess, let alone two.

“Princess Luna says ‘she’s ready to talk’, so uh… I should probably tell her so I can get back to”—the bat pony air-quoted with her wings— “ ‘bat-pony guard stuff’.” Casually trotting up to Sunset she leaned closer and added. “It’s a lot of me bat screaming at the darkness.”

Sunset stared blankly at this for a second then smiled. “Are you coming on to me?”

A grin that looked like it would be more appropriate on a cat rather than a bat crossed the ponies face. “I wasn't, but I can certainly start.”

Princess Celestia cleared her throat.

“Oh, don’t even start, mom,” Sunset exclaimed as she looked up at her mom judgingly. “With years of me accidentally trotting into ‘personal guard evaluations’ and watching you make bedroom eyes at foreign dignitaries combined with all the Starlight Glimmer duty I’m pulling, I think you can give me this.”

“Oh, am I being traded away like property?” the bat pony asked casually.

Sunset grimaced. “I, uh… I wasn’t trying to command you, if, erm…”

“Because I’m absolutely down with that,” the bat-pony said, her cat-like smile returning. She offered a forehoof to Sunset. “I’m Sonar, by the way.”

Without missing a beat, Sunset hooked her foreleg around Sonar’s, pulled it up towards her face, and used her magic to pull down the piece of armor covering the batpony’s forehoof. Sunset then followed this up by lightly smooching the back of the hoof and then looking Sonar dead in the eye as she replied with: “Princess Sunset Shimmer. I look forward to owning you, my lovely Sonar.”

The cat-like expression on Sonar’s face remained, but her eyes suddenly unfocused and her long blue tail began twitching furiously; her mind clearly trying to process the sheer magnitude of ‘jackpot’ she had just scored out of the blue.

Celestia sucked in air through her teeth. Now THAT was a moment of ‘My Little Girl is all grown up now!’ she wasn’t quite ready for. Cadance and Shining Armor would often ‘sneak off’ while Celestia turned a blind eye to their antics… Sunset looked like she might start just start having any number of sexual conquests and posting her ‘to-do’ list to Celestia’s door after the fact.

Probably best Celestia didn’t admit she was more than a little proud in this particular moment…

“Hey, did somepony call for me?” Starlight Glimmer asked as she pointed her head out of the doorway. “You!” she exclaimed as she took notice of and pointed at Sonar.

“Me!” Sonar replied, some semblance of coherence returning to her expression.

Starlight continued, “Yes, you! I need some pertinent questions answered from one of your kind.”

Celestia’s eyes widened in a sort of detached horror as Sunset buried her face in her forelegs.

“Starlight, no!” Spike’s tiny voice called out.

“Starlight, yes,” Sonar said with a coy smile. “What can I do for you, oh ye hero of Equestria?”

“’Hero of Equestria’ I like that…” Grinning widely, Starlight let loose with a bunch of questions. “Do you find the term ‘ding-bat’ offensive as a synonym for crazy? Oh! Also Batty, as a similar synonym for insane, also bats in the belfry… etc… etc…”

Celestia’s jaw dropped.

Sunset let her forehooves drop to the floor as she mouthed the word ‘why?’ into a silent scream.

“For the love of Celestia, make it stop!” Spike called out.

Sonar blinked at the questions, though her smile seemed a near-permanent fixture on her face as she once again attempted to bring sense to the last few minutes of her life.

“Oh! Also, do all bat ponies have bat-themed names as a rule? You know, like… Nightwing or… Skree, or Guano?”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits and she marched forward.

“Starlight! Stop before you CAUSE A friendship problem!” Spike called out.

Starlight turned back to look into the room. “I’m just asking this cute creature of the night a few simple questions!”

“Yes, Starlight! ‘Yes’!” Sunset bellowed. “Everything you said or asked was incredibly offensive!”

Starlight turned back and jumped with fright at the sight of Sunset’s fiery expression suddenly a few inches from hers.

“Oh! Okay! That’s good to know!” Starlight puckered her lips. “Say, are bat ponies allowed to date outside their own kind, or does like… Princess Luna keep you all in a secret castle tower and forbid you to interact with other ponies outside her behest?”

Sonar’s smile finally opened into a disbelieving grin. “I’m sure I will prove in due time we’re allowed to date other ponies.”

Starlight tilted her head. “Are you coming on to me?”

“No,” Sonar answered curtly.

“Shoot…” Starlight replied. “That would have been good for data gathering…”

“Aaaaand that’s enough of that!” Sunset declared. She wrapped a foreleg around the back of Starlight’s neck. “Sorry everypony!” Sunset said. “We have a date with Princess Luna!”

Starlight frowned slightly. “I mean… I envisioned it more of a question and answer session than a date.”

“I was joking, Starlight!~” Sunset said in a sing-song tone of annoyance. “Everything was a joke! Except for the racism! Racism is never funny! Indentured servitude is sometimes funny, and I’ll be looking forward to my bat date later.”

“… Score…” Sonar uttered.

Sunset winked. “Not quite yet, but give me a few hours.”

Sonar let out a high pitched squee of excitement.

Starlight went cross-eyed. “Wait. So we’re allowed to own bat ponies, now? What’s the going rate of a bat pony slave?”

“Bye, everypony!” Sunset said hastily.

‘Bamf!’

There was a brief moment of silence as everypony stared at the empty space Sunset and Starlight had occupied seconds before. Celestia took a deep breath and looked down at Sonar. “Tell my sister I’ve granted you a week’s paid vacation effective immediately.”

Sonar looked up at the alabaster monarch and tilted her head. “I keep quiet about this, right?”

Celestia let out a short burst of laughter. “It’s Starlight Glimmer… ‘Racist comments born of ignorance’ is a drop in the bucket offense from her, if my own personal experience and Princess Twilight’s reports are anything to go by. I’d ask you not to go directly to the press, but I suspect she’ll have an unflattering headline to read soon enough.”

Sonar raised an eyebrow. “So I get a week off so long as I don’t fly off to the closest newspony right this second?! Haha! Wait until the ding-bats back at the secret castle tower hear about this!”

Celestia thought for a moment. “Do me a favor: your next stop should be to gather some friends, show up at the ‘Swiss Army Knife’, and tell the mocha-colored mare behind the bar you just had a ‘Starlight Glimmer kind of night’. She’ll know what to do.”

Sonar frowned. “You mean the highly-flammable-looking bar on the edge of town?”

“That’s an odd quality of the bar to fixate on, but yes, my little pony.”

Sonar thought for a moment, leaned closer to Celestia, then asked, “Are you going to have me killed at the bar?” in a whisper.

Celestia gasped as her eyes widened. “Goodness, no!” She leaned down and placed her muzzle next to one of Echo’s large ears, whispering: “If I wanted you dead, I’d just kill you now where there are no witnesses who would possibly testify against me. Also, if you break my daughter’s heart, I’ll have yours on a plate.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeep!” Sonar exclaimed as she flashed a ‘ready to comply’ smile at the Princess. She saluted. “I’ll just go and start nursing the—” Sonar air quoted with her wings once again “—mental trauma caused by ignorant racism at The Swiss Army Knife, now.”

“Have fun, my little pony~!” Celestia said as she watched the blue streak of a bat pony flitter off towards the edge of Canterlot. She made a mental note to bring extra chairs for breakfast… Sunset had been absent during much of that critical juncture when the mare turned her sights to other ponies and decided to either start a harem or start systematically devouring hearts, but all signs pointed to the orange princess having picked up some mercy.

Which was a damn good thing for the young adults of Equestria. Sunset Shimmer was basically a bombshell in every sense of the word and apparently had ‘game’ as the young ponies said… Celestia sighed and leaned up against the wall of the tower, catching her reflection in the door window. Sunset also had unfinished business with her… Business she couldn’t quite vocalize with her daughter. Celestia looked at her reflection in the eye and mouthed the word ‘coward’ at it.

“Rough day, huh?”

Celestia started at the unexpected tiny voice and peered into Starlight Glimmer’s room. “Oh! Hello, uh… tiny lamp Spike… It’s been… a day of ups and downs…”

Spike thought for a moment. “If you’ve been spending time with Sunset and Starlight, it’s probably been closer to a day of ‘rock bottoms’ and the ‘upper atmosphere visits’.”

Celestia found her eyes closing as a bout of mirthful laughter poured out of her. She’d needed that. “I see you’ve had the dubious fortune to have had this experience.”

Spike nodded. “It’s pretty unforgettable.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. “So why are you tiny? No, wait! Let me guess… Twilight cast a spell on you that she wasn’t certain would work, then got excited and began taking notes and just left you.”

“Eeeeeyup!” Spike said. “Do you mind, erm changing me back?”

“OR you can come with me to a few royal meetings and keep me company~?” Celestia counter-offered with a hopeful grin.

Spike glanced over at something presumably in his field of vision off where he was full-sized. “Okay, sure… it’s a lot quieter here without Starlight, and Twilight looks a little ‘lost in her magic work’.”

“Excellent!” Celestia exclaimed as she took the entire lamp into the sunny glow of her magic and floated it close to her.

“So uh… you’re just going to leave me like this?”

“I mean… if that’s okay with you,” Celestia said.

Spike thought for a moment. “How many ‘light of my life’ jokes have you come up with?”

“Oh, at least half a dozen in just the last few minutes of conversation.”

Chapter 4: The Sweet Memories of Nostalgia Delivered Via Wrecking Ball

Chapter 4: The Sweet Memories of Nostalgia Delivered Via Wrecking Ball.

“Could you walk to the castle?” Sunset Shimmer asked sweetly, batting her eyes innocently at the white pegasus guard that had met with Sunset and her cohort at Joe’s. “I mean… We can’t be in that much of a hurry, right?”

Starlight Glimmer paused mid-step as the gray guard held open the door for her. She turned and glanced at Sunset, then at the white guard who began to tether himself to the carriage with a collection of other pegasi contingency. He tilted his head slightly and glanced away, likely momentarily mulling over the saccharinely delivered request. He spoke in a tone that was as much apology as it was an explanation, “Er, Princess Celestia requested we bring you back to the castle with all haste.”

Giving the guard a smile so dazzling it could no doubt give the sun a fit of jealousy, Sunset rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, it’ll only take a little longer!” Sunset swatted at the air with a forehoof for extra effect. “My mother -Princess Celestia- will certainly understand if you say her daughter specifically asked for the scenic route so she could enjoy the sites of Canterlot after oh, so many years. Besides, who wouldn’t want to show them to her dear friend!”

The guards stopped and glanced at one another before shrugging as much with their shoulders as with their wings. “As you wish, princess,” the white guard answered with a smile.

Starlight couldn’t help but notice an eye roll from the gray guard, but whatever annoyance he felt clearly didn’t warrant a verbal response, as he continued to silently hold open the door.

Starlight made it the rest of the way into the carriage, followed by Sunset who raised her hooves high with each step like a show pony on a march. The pair took a cushioned bench seat apart from each other and removed their saddlebags, lowering them slowly onto the available space next to them. Soon, the carriage pulled forward smoothly, and the sound of metal armor clanking and clopping against stone gently filled the empty air.

Sunset gazed out the carriage window, mum and pensive; the pristine, white buildings of Canterlot passing by as nostalgic memories danced in her head inviting a small smile upon her face. Starlight was far less interested in what was going on outside, however. Her attention much more focused on her immediate surroundings of lavish golden gildings inside the carriage amongst a white ceiling, padded purple doors, and a comfortable brilliant maroon colored seat. She took a moment to glance at Sunset, noting her alicorn friend seemed to hold little regard for the opulence. “Huh…” Starlight uttered. “I guess it’s been a while, but this ride must be kind of mundane for you.”

Sunset turned and blinked a few times. She took a few moments to glance around before looking back at Starlight with a smirk. “I guess for me it’s like being reunited with a friend you took for granted, but not one who made such an impression that you don’t immediately take for granted again upon seeing them.” Sunset took the time to look about as if her eyes were finally taking in the interior itself. “In a lot of ways, this carriage brings back a lot of happy and not-so-happy memories…” Sunset took a moment to look at nothing and seemingly everything all at once. “This was the carriage that Celestia took me home from my orphanage with…” she uttered as a somewhat melancholy smile drifted onto her face like dead leaves being blown in the wind.

“Wow,” Starlight uttered, “that must have been an abrupt change of scenery.”

Sunset tilted her head and grinned. “Are you kidding? This carriage could have been my new room and it would have been a crazy improvement over my status in the orphanage.” Sunset’s teal eyes began to become glassy. “Riding in this carriage with Celestia the first time… It was an actual dream come true,” Sunset whispered in a tone so delicate, Starlight had to question for a moment if she even heard it.

“Huh… With all that, I’m surprised you can ride in it without a second thought… Until I said something of course,” Starlight added with a chuckle.

Sunset glanced around. “Well, the interior has been changed a few times since that first ride.”

“Huh,” Starlight pondered, “I guess it must have been a while ago. It makes sense that Celestia would have to arrange to have the interior fixed up.”

Sunset nodded with a wicked grin. “Especially when your adoptive daughter throws a tantrum and incinerates the interior once… twice… er… several times.”

Starlight gave Sunset a befuddled look as her mouth attempted to convey words her brain hadn’t come up with yet. “Uh… Er… Okay…”

Sunset just shook her head and went back to looking at the window. “Not to turn things into some sort of ridiculous screwed-up past competition between us, but there are many ways to be a blight on a country.” Any hints of happiness on Sunset’s expression fled as an aged look of bitterness took hold. She began to take note of familiar landmarks that informed her she was approaching Canterlot Castle, which was once-upon-a-time her home. Raising a forehoof, she said, “Sure, you can try and instate a revolutionary and creepy-brain-washy way of thinking and roll the dice when a princess comes around and hope that works on her; but you can also ensure you do somedamage by spending years on a campaign of emotional warfare on the ruler of a nation.” Sunset took a deep breath, then quietly murmured. “Even if it’s the pony you love the most…”

Starlight paused for a moment, her brain desperately running through Twilight’s lessons as she tried to figure out a response. Luckily, her mentor had lectured her on the odd situation when a friend seemed to be pouring her heart out, and -just maybe- Twilight’s lesson would help fix the situation. “… Do you…” Starlight paused, and gathered herself, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Sunset turned and stared at Starlight blankly. For a moment, Starlight couldn’t help but feel as if she had just found a landmine by tripping and planting her face directly on it. Thankfully, for Starlight’s sake, Sunset spoke. “I-I don’t know…” the bothered mare shook her head, “I don’t know if talking about it will make me feel better… I just…” Sunset glanced out the window again. “It’s really happening... I’m back, but… Do I deserve to be? I-I was pretty much a monster when I left, and in the end I became a literal monster.”

“Er… Well…” Starlight stared up at the carriage ceiling thoughtfully for a moment. “I don’t have experience becoming a literal monster, but what I did do to Equestria was certainly monstrous.”

Sunset swiveled her head, her teal eyes already having turned slightly glassy. She took a deep breath. “I know… It just feels a bit different going back to the place where you spent your time being a monster… er… figuratively in this particular case.”

Starlight smiled. “I totally understand that feeling. I ended up being invited back to the village I started by ‘equalizing’ it! That was pretty overwhelming at first.”

“Oh, yeah… Twilight mentioned that briefly amongst all the talk of you, uh, changing the changelings and defeating Chrysalis.” Sunset tilted her head slightly. “That must have been difficult for you.”

Starlight chuckled. “Right! At first I was afraid they just invited me to the annual Sunset Festival to be polite.”

A small smile appeared on Sunset’s face. “ ‘Sunset festival’? You should take me next year.” Her smile grew slightly coy. “Maybe I could even be the Mare of Honor!”

Starlight let out a short, mirthful, “Hah!” Her own smile grew. “Well, I was afraid when I got there they wouldn’t have forgiven me or that they might even laugh at me for showing up! Instead, it was more that they were really friendly.” Starlight let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m getting tired just thinking about it.”

Sunset’s forehead tightened in confusion.

Starlight continued, “They asked if I could help them pick out a banner for the celebration and also help with a relay race routes.” She shook her head. “They even wanted me to judge a pie competition! Can you believe it?”

Sunset simply blinked a few times. “Noooo… Okay…. So… How did you handle that?”

“Oh… Well… I kinda… freaked out and ran away!” Starlight added chipperly with a smile to match

“You… ran away?”

“Well… Trixie was there. So it was more like I collapsed and Trixie helped carry me away.”

“Wait… So you even had someone go with you to help you with your feelings and extra pie?!”

“Uh! Yeah!” Starlight replied. “Like you have me right now! Except, you know… I have the benefit of previous experience that’s pretty much the same as what you’re going through!”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “So… Just to make sure I have this straight in my head. You were afraid your previous Equalizer victims wouldn’t have forgiven you… but when you showed up, not only had they gotten over you taking their cutie marks and brainwashing them. They wanted to include you in all their activities and give you free pie… And you couldn’t handle that.”

Starlight frowned heavily. “Maybe. I’m not explaining it right. Er… I guess… the problem was that they were too friendly and accepting.”

Sunset’s left eye twitched as her lips began to war between the irritation Sunset clearly felt and the happiness she tried to show. “... And you would rather you travel back to the village to find out they invited you as some sort of… bizarre token gesture and that you even thinking for a moment they actually wanted you back warranted laughter from them?”

“Well… no… but uh… Er… Well. I think you’re lucky!" Starlight smile returned, nervousness tugged at one side, pulling it askew.

“I’m lucky because the first pony who recognized me screamed in terror upon seeing me and hid in his kitchen?” Sunset deadpanned.

Starlight nodded her head up and down a little too enthusiastically. “I expected at least somepony to be mad at me, and instead no-one was. The acceptance was almost harder than being yelled at!”

“...”

“Uh… Okay… Look… The important thing is, I got over that first visit, and after the whole changeling hive thing I went back and everything worked out!”

“So… I should freak out… Leave… Solve some sort of potential world-ending event... Then come back. That’ll make me feel better?” Sunset frowned. “Starlight, I’m sorry. That sounds a little ridiculous.” Her forehead tightened. “And sadly, I don’t mean the world ending part.”

Starlight smile faltered. “I guess the point is, I can totally relate to what you’re going through right now! Except the part where ponies got mad at me for what I did to them! That totally didn’t happen to me.”

Sunset whimpered.

Starlight waved her forehooves about in front of her. “Uh… Let me try again…” Starlight gave Sunset one of her patented ‘too symmetrical’ smiles. “Both of us were pulled out of a pit by one pony that saw we could be better than that. And it turned out we did get better...for the most part! Er… I mean me with the last part… For you it’s a monster part… Except for the parts were you scared ponies on the street.”

Sunset slowly began to lower her head and stare at the carriage floor, her eyes becoming glassy and unfocused.

Starlight grit her teeth. “The important thing is that we’re not flawless!” she blurted out.

Sunset looked up.

“W-We’re a work in progress?”

Sunset puffed out her lower lips a water welled up in her eyes.

“Okay! I know that sounded corny, but—“

Sunset leaned forward and wrapped her forehooves around Starlight.

Confusion plastered on her face, Starlight returned the hug.

“Starlight?”

“Yes, Sunset?”

“Thank you. Shut up, but thank you.”

“Uh... you’re welcome?”

Sunset leaned back, took a deep breath, and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Still, I don’t think any pony realizes I’m still a work in progress, or I put in a lot of work or anything… They think I’m the same small filly!”

“Well, you’ve grown!”

Sunset flashed Starlight an unamused expression. “Yes. Now that I’m bigger, they’ll think I’m more of a threat.”

“No! I meant, uh… emotionally. You’re a much nicer pony, now!” Starlight smiled. “I mean… snark and sarcasm aside, you’re usually one of the nicest ponies I’ve ever met.”

Sunset smiled slightly and turned back to look outside. “Well, that’s certainly true. Still… being nice now doesn’t magically make up for all the bad I did.”

Starlight took a deep breath then let it out. “I know exa-approximately-exactly what you mean.”

Sunset turned again. “Yeah. I guess I’m talking to the right pony.” She let out a tired sigh. “Starlight, what am I doing here?”

Starlight grinned nervously. “Er… Mundane magical destiny stuff delivered by dog?”

“I know! But said ‘dog’ picked you before I showed up!”

“Well… I guess you’re making me feel better about being here for my mundane magical destiny stuff delivered by dog?”

“Yeah, yeah…Sorry, guess it’s my turn to freak out about this whole trip. Uh… Not to put the pressure back on you, but I guess I also don’t know if a table or tiny talking dog pasting my cutie mark over a city means the correct choice was made.” Sunset turned and frowned out the window. “I’ve already caused trouble just by showing up and being a pyromaniacal brat…” Sunset thought for a moment. “Guess that’s an improvement from being a pryomegalomaniacal brat, so… baby steps.”

“Er…” Starlight rubbed the back of her head and grinned nervously. “I guess with your past here that does make my own hang-ups look a bit silly.”

Sunset’s head whipped around, her face pulled tight around her eyes and nose. “No.”

“… No?”

Sunset closed her eyes and shook her head. “No,” she repeated. She opened her eyes and stared at Starlight with orbs of piercing turquoise. “Don’t think like that. Don’t think my personal baggage about coming back here somehow diminishes your own fears. I mean…” Sunset motioned out into open air with her forehoof. “Sure, I’m standing by my previous comments that you’ve got nothing to worry about, but just because I had a moment where I doubted myself doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to feel the same way. Okay?”

A small smile crept onto Starlight’s face. “Okay.”

Sunset nodded satisfactorily and moved back toward the window.

Something hot and anxious stirred in the back of Starlight’s mind as she stared at the back of Sunset’s head with its red and yellow mane seemingly blazing like fire. Maybe it was something in Sunset’s tone… something didn’t feel quite right, like trying to see the world through a pair of reading glasses. Or maybe it was more akin to Twilight’s voice urging her to press what was certainly a major friendship issue. “So, uh… er… Are you okay?”

“Of course!” Sunset said as she turned with a smile that suddenly gave Starlight clarity to why her ownfake smiles often un-nerve other ponies. “I mean, why wouldn’t I be?!” Sunset let out a somewhat unsettling giggle. “I mean… I’m home! I get to see my Mommy again! And Auntie Luna! And all the ponies I knew when I was a filly! It’s going to be fine! FINE!” Sunset stressed through clenched teeth as her eyes silently, desperately, pleaded for help.

“Uh, right… It’s just that—”

The carriage suddenly slowed, coming to a complete stop. Before Starlight could so much as get another word out, Sunset’s horn glowed red and her saddlebags floated onto her back. The red-maned prodigy pushed open the door so quickly there was an audible ‘clank’ as the door slammed into the helmet of the gray pegasus guard that had reached out to open it for them. Ignoring the cry of discomfort, Sunset jumped out into the bright sunlight as the guard back paddled and quickly adjusted his helmet. “Ahhh! Good ol’ Canterlot Castle!” Sunset cried, her eyes drifting one way, then the other like a pair of marbles let loose on a ship at sea. “It’s been far too long since I’ve been here!”

Starlight stepped off the carriage, her saddlebags on her back. She gave Sunset an unsure look as the guards went about untethering themselves from the carriage.

Sunset paid this no mind. “Just,” She inhaled through her nose, then let it out with a satisfied ‘Ahhhh!’ “Just smell that Canterlot air! It smells like—” All at once, Sunset’s face seemed to come to a screeching halt, her smile broke just as her eyes went glassy. Her pupils began to quiver while she gazed upwards at the castle as if her eyes themselves were struggling with the weight of it. “—home…” she quietly murmured to herself.

Home. The place where most of Sunset’s happy memories had taken place. On the other hand, it as where many of her worst memories had occurred. Sure, she had hit rock bottom back at Canterlot High, but she dealt with that every day to the point where she had become to numb to the sharp pain the school's entrance inflicted on her every time she walked up to it. But Canterlot Castle had just been something she accidentally glanced at from the outskirts of Ponyville before she averted her attention to something else. Now, it was all around her once more. Her entire world. A world controlled by… by…

“Sunset?” Starlight asked in an unsure tone. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Sunset said nothing, instead continuing to stare up at the castle wordlessly as the quivering of her eyes stopped and her smile evaporated from her face. Her expression now unreadable, as guards and Starlight stood around expectantly. After a few moments, Sunset took a deep breath, turned to the grey guard, and said a simple, cold, “Leave us.”

From behind the gray guard, the white guard turned with the barest hints of a frown. The gray guard looked at Sunset with a look of stern professionalism. “Princess Celestia ordered us to escort—”

Sunset’s horn blazed crimson for a moment, then burned a fiery orange that exploded into a demonic face radiating a sweltering heat, fire flickered like a raging bonfire as a cacophonous “BUCK OFF!” was bellowed in a supernaturally loud voice. It echoed off the castle walls and reverberated like a small aftermath of an earthquake.

The guards froze, their fight or flight instincts coming so far forward in their minds one could see the conflict in their eyes. After a moment, the gray guard shook his head dismissively to regain his senses, before uttering a sharp, “Yes, Princess,” and motioned for the other guards to depart with him. There was no further protest. The remaining guards dutifully shuffled toward the castle, opened the double doors, and marched briskly inside.

As Starlight watched the guards trot off, their bodies tense and feathers clearly ruffled, she turned towards Sunset, hoping for some sort of explanation.

What she got from Sunset’s expression stole any demand for an answer from her lips.

Staring at Starlight with desperate eyes that were draining tears like buckets bailing water from a sinking ship, Sunset’s stalwart expression had more than cracked; it had shattered. Starlight was looking at what was unquestionably one of the strongest ponies she had ever known. Said pony had not only reached the end of her rope, but it looked like a rope or a lifesaving tether was an utterly foreign concept to the mare in front of her.

Nearly gagging on sobs that seemed a hair's breadth away from consuming her. Sunset choked out a frantic “S-s-star-Starlight?! I. Can’t. Do. This!”

Starlight had often taken comfort in Sunset’s assertions that friendship wasn’t something you learned from a book, or flashcards, because Twilight’s lessons had NOT gifted her with the analytic mathematically proven method to deal with what was in front of her. Thoughts raced through the purple mare’s head like eager rats darting through a maze- without purpose or direction, crashing and crawling over each other while trying to find an exit that might not even exist. Words failed her. She had no answers. She had no context, nor platitudes regarding moms to help Sunset. She was simultaneously jealous that Sunset was lucky enough to be in this situation, and wracked with guilt for her jealousy. Starlight had no parents- adopted, estranged, or otherwise- to work from as a frame of reference.

But she did understand loneliness.

Beyond that, she understood the overpowering emotions surrounding the all-encompassing certainty that what one had previously done was wrong, and that forgiveness was not something one deserved.

So, Starlight did the only thing that she could think to do in the situation presented. She leaned forward, wrapped her forelegs around Sunset, and hugged her.

Sunset’s breath immediately caught in her throat.

For a while, neither mare spoke. Starlight merely held on tightly and Sunset did little more than stand frozen; before rising her own forehooves, wrapping them around Starlight, and letting loose quiet, but powerful sobs directly into one of Starlight’s shoulders.

Both mares held on for a while until Sunset’s cries died down to silence.

Just as the quiet seemed like it might overwhelm the mares, Starlight spoke, “I don’t get it.”

Sunset said nothing.

“I’m sorry, Sunset… I never had a Mom. But I do know what screwing up is like and…” Starlight trailed off and broke the hug slightly, her hooves still on Sunset’s shoulders as she maintained eye contact, while Sunset’s forelegs dropped back to the ground. Starlight smiled. “I know you’ve at least talked to Celestia; that’s got to count for something, right?!” Starlight grinned. “And you saved Equestria. Like, twice!”

Sunset grimaced. “I almost destroyed it once too, you know…”

Starlight shrugged dismissively. “So, let’s say you saved it once.”

“I…” Sunset pursed her lips. “Okay, I know it shouldn’t work like that, but I also know I wouldn’t hesitate to use a similar line on you, so I’m going to let you have that one.”

Starlight chuckled and nodded. “Celestia is going to be THRILLED to have you back! So what if you maybe terrified a few ponies on your way here, and made your entrance in such a way that has you reliving the very things you kinda hate yourself for doing as a filly?”

“… Starlight? I don’t want to undermine whatever point you’re making, but you kinda suck at pep talks.”

“Yeah, sorry. Not my strong suit- unless I’m delivering some sort of half-crazed megalomaniacal manifesto… Should I stop?”

Sunset shook her head, “No, it’s fine. Keep going.”

Starlight nodded. “The point is, I’m sure Celestia loves you and will overlook your past transgressions… Even if those transgressions are from just a little bit ago!”

There was a beat of silence followed by the sound of a distant colt schilling papers by shouting, “Extra! Extra! Princess Prodigal Progeny Returns, Promptly Proceeds to Punish Populace!”

Nervousness began to contentiously tangle with the encouragement on Starlight’s smile.

Despite this, Sunset herself, forced a smile. “Yeah… You’re right… And that’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”