A Queen's Perspective - Equestria Girls

Chapters

Another World
Of Principles and Princesses
Tensions and Confrontations
A new Dawn
Unity
Revelations
Coronation Celebrations
Duel at Sunset
Aftermath
Farewells
A Diplomatic Visit

Another World

Sitting on her haunches on the eastern balcony of the Crystal Spire, Princess Celestia had just finished raising the sun when she heard the distinctive buzz of changeling wings approaching. She turned around to see Twilight and five of Cadista's drones landing behind her, in the room just beyond the balcony door.

"Princess Celestia," Twilight exclaimed hastily, "a unicorn just entered the castle and stole the element of magic. Then she left through the magical mirror on the eleventh floor."

Taking only a moment to note that despite having practiced to just call her 'Celestia' outside of formal situations, Twilight still relapsed to calling her 'Princess' when she got panicked, Celestia was quick to put two and two together. "Can you describe this unicorn?"

"Yes. Yellow coat, wavy red and yellow mane and a cutie mark with a red and yellow sun of sorts. Why? Do you know her?" Twilight quickly answered, lighting her horn to project an illusory image of the unicorn in question in the space between her and Celestia.

Celestia took one look at the image, barely listening to the description, and sighed quietly. "I'm afraid yes, I'll explain in a bit. Inform Queen Cadista of what happened, then go wake Spike and your friends. I'll fetch Luna, Cadance and your brother. Meet us in the throne room." With that she turned back around and took off to fly around the spire to the opposite balcony, where she knew Luna would still be sitting after raising the moon. Twilight silently dismissed the drones to return to their posts, leaving only Gilded Shield at her side as guarding her was the post she had been assigned, before pinging Cadista to inform her of the situation whilst taking off towards the hallway that led to the chambers her friends and Spike were likely still sleeping in.

Gilded took only a split second to marvel at the multitasking ability the young queen displayed before taking off to follow her.

15 minutes later, everyone was gathered in the throne room. Both Cadence and Rarity could only be brought to leave their rooms after their manes had been tamed with a generous helping of magic form Celestia and Twilight respectively. Both silently envied Applejack and Fluttershy whose manes were miraculously behaving after just one shake of their respective heads. Only Rainbow sported a sizeable bedhead that Rarity's magic was idly fiddling with. The pegasus had given up telling her to stop five minutes ago.

"The unicorn you encountered, Twilight," Celestia spoke up, "is Sunset Shimmer." Cadance's eyes widened slightly at the name, but nopony else showed any sign of recognition.

"She was my personal student and protégé before you and left only a few months before your entrance exam. She was a lot like you once: curious, talented, eager to learn and, after some training, a very skilled sorceress. But where you were isolated and sometimes picked on, she chose the opposite path, she became cold and controlling, and her heart turned dark. After she left, I could have sealed the mirror, but I chose to leave it open, hoping for her to see the light in the world beyond and one day return to seek forgiveness. It seems that now she has returned. But for a different reason."

At this point Celestia fell silent and Luna seamlessly took over. "You must retrieve your crown from this other world. Without it the other Elements are powerless and Equestria is vulnerable."

"Not to mention," Celestia took over once more, "the consequences of taking such a powerful magical artifact into another world. We know little of this other world but we can assume that introducing the element there, perhaps even without using it as Sunset Shimmer undoubtedly plans to do, would have equally dire consequences as removing it here."

The group of ponies and the one dragon riding atop one changeling had slowly been walking through the spire and were now coming to a stop in the mirror room.

"I must warn you, Twilight Sparkle," Luna spoke up while rolling her eyes as she magically removed Pinkie's forehoof from the mirror's surface, "this mirror only opens for three days once every 30 moons. As it opened tonight that means you only have until midnight two days from now before it closes again."

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Rainbow spoke up

Pinkie bounced gleefully "Ohh this is gonna be great, a whole other world to explore."

"I'm afraid not" Celestia interrupted, casually ignoring Pinkie stopping mid-bounce to hover in the air. "The Element's presence is disruptive enough, sending all of you could offset the balance further."

"Don't worry girls," Twilight addressed her friends, "I'll be back soon." With those words she took a deep breath, stood up straight, and stepped through the mirror. The last thing she heard were encouraging words from her friends followed by gasps and the clicking of tiny claws on the crystal floor.

When Twilight's head stopped spinning she opened her eyes and saw ...

Stone.

Once her sense of balance decided to respond again she realized that she was staring at the floor. Well, that would account for the pavement. So far so good.

"Twilight, are you okay?" The voice of Spike shook her from her contemplations. Looking up to where the voice had come from she saw a dog. A purple dog with green ears and a tuft of green fur on the top of it's head.

"Spike?"

"Yup."

"Are you a dog?"

"Seems so. I have no idea what you are, though."

"What do you mean?" Twilight lifted her forehooves to find, that she no longer had forehooves. Instead she found strange claw like appendages, but without talons. The shape seemed remotely familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen it before. As she tried to move the strange appendages, only to find that she could, her mind started to lock up in panic.

As she was about to start screaming she felt her panic suddenly falling away, together with the gentle touch of Queen Cadista on her mind.

Looking around Twilight saw a large building of red brick forming what seemed to be a U-shape with large doors right in the center and a dome above them. Approaching the doors from all directions and entering the building were many tall, slender creatures that, to her surprise, seemed to be walking on two legs. Looking closer, she noticed that they had the same appendages that had replaced her forehooves.

"Okay so I have these forehoof thingies that they have" she muttered to herself "Spike, does the rest of me also look like one of those?" she asked, pointing at a few of the strange creatures ahead.

"Looks like it. Now that I think about it, they remind me of these 'Human' creatures Lyra keeps going on about."

"Right, Lyra. That's why these things seem so familiar." she motioned to her altered forehooves, "These are hands, she showed me a drawing of them once. Well if I want to fit in, I suppose I should try figuring out how to walk on two legs." Slowly standing up, she wobbled for a moment before stabilizing on her unfamiliarly long legs. So far, so good. Turning around, she saw a tall statue on a tall pedestal with pillars framing polished stone. The surface she was facing had a sheen of magic to it and when she tried touching it she felt her new hands submerge into it like water.

"Well, this looks to be the way back to Equestria. Now to find the crown."

Still slightly unstable, she approached the large brick building. By now the humans from earlier seemed to be inside with only a few still coming in here and there. She walked up to the doors instinctively trying to have them swing open with her magic only to feel nothing. She might have been able to stop in time were it not for her unfamiliarity with her new legs. As such, she crashed into the glass of the doors, feeling a jolt of pain from her strangely shortened muzzle.

"Uhh Twilight I don't think you can use magic here. You don't exactly have your horn."

"Wait, what?" She tried to look up but couldn't see any trace of a horn. Then an idea struck her. If I'm still connected to the hive mind that must mean that my psychic powers are intact and I don't focus those through my horn. "Hold on, I'm going to try something." She focused her mind on the door tried to use her psychic powers to replicate the effects of her telekinesis. After a short moment of trying different ways to focus, the air around the doors seemed to warp slightly and the doors swung open.

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Spike asked, staring from the door to Twilight and back.

"Psychic power," Twilight explained with a smirk. "as Yumia put it: 'It's good to be the Queen.',"

"So that's something changeling queens can do?"

"Yes, although simply using magic for something like this is usually easier." Now that she had cleared her mind she realized that she was starting to pick up emotions around her. Mainly there was a background aura of mostly boredom with a bit of frustration which, Twilight had found - to her great surprise - seemed to be commonly found in and around schools, but there was also something else coming from her left. Two sources, one giving off anger, the other giving off fear. "Come Spike, I think something is happening."

As they approached a corner, they slowed down, stopping next to the edge. Peeking around the corner Twilight saw two girls, both with yellow skin. The closer one had her back turned towards her. Despite that, her golden yellow skin and wavy red and yellow hair were easily visible, Twilight found her to be the source of the anger. The source of fear seemed to be another girl with pale yellow skin and equally pale pink hair. Despite facing towards the corner she was watching from Twilight couldn't see her facial features as they were largely hidden behind her long hair.

As she watched, the second girl spoke up in a quiet voice that Twilight found to be eerily familiar, "Oh, I'm really sorry. I-I just found it, and-and I thought I should give it to her. I didn't know you had dropped it. "

"Well, I did!" The first girl closer girl answered in a voice Twilight was certain she had never heard before. "And I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything! You shouldn't pick up things that don't belong to you."

"It ... doesn't really belong to you, either." The quiet girl answered in an even lower voice than before but Twilight could feel a trace of determination mixing into her fear.

"Excuse me?!" The other interrupted incredulously, her anger now tinged with surprise.

"N-n-nothing..."

"That's what I thought. It's as good as mine, and you know it. You really are pathetic. It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals." Twilight had heard enough. She leaned back before stepping around the corner and raising her voice.

"How dare you speak to her that way!"

"What did you say?" This time there was a clear note of surprise. Twilight felt the bully's anger shift towards her but her determination was stronger.

"I said, 'How dare you speak to her that way?'!"

"You must be new here. I can speak to anyone any way I want." Throwing closed the locker Twilight only now noticed they had been standing before, the hot headed girl strutted off towards a staircase at the other end of the corridor.

Twilight sensed the quiet girl's fear giving way to relief, confusion and a touch of admiration. "I can't believe you did that!"

"I couldn't just stand there."

"Well, it's just that nobody ever stands up to Sunset Shimmer." Her admiration only seemed to grow at Twilight's apparent lack of fear towards Sunset.

"Sunset Shimmer!?" So that's how she looks here. Of course, the hair, coat - no wait, not coat, skin - I should have guessed.

"You've heard of her?"

You can say that again, she's the reason I'm here. "Sort of..."

"I don't think I've seen you around before. Did you just transfer to Canterlot High from another school?"

So it is a school! "... yes! Another... heh, school! My name's Twilight." The other girl gave a quiet sound that Twilight could guess were words but couldn't hear well enough to understand. "Sorry, what was that?" After an even quieter repetition Twilight was getting a sense of deja-vu, "It sounds like you're saying Fluttershy, but how can that...?" In that moment Spike followed Twilight around the corner from where he had still been watching.

"Oh, my goodness! Who's this sweet little guy?" The girl exclaimed, her shyness suddenly gone, a wave of joy almost knocking Twilight off balance.

"That's Spike! My, uh ... dog!" Twilight explained, still unused to Spike's new species. Fluttershy, meanwhile, picked up Spike in one arm while reaching for her bag with the other grabbing some dog treats from a side pocket.

"Oh, he's so cute! Go on, eat up, little pup!" Spike was still confused by the whole situation but wouldn't deny getting free food. "Oh, wouldn't you just give anything to know what they're really thinking?"

"He usually just tells me." Twilight replied, confused.

"Oh, w-what do you mean?" Fluttershy's confused reaction and a bark from Spike reminded Twilight that dogs couldn't usually talk.

"Oh, uh, nothing! Never mind. Sunset Shimmer said you picked something up. Something that belonged to her. It wasn't a crown, was it?"

"How did you know?"

"Uh, lucky guess? Do you still have it?" Fluttershy shook her head "But you know what happened to it." A nod.

"I didn't want anything to happen to it, so I gave it to Principal Celestia"

"Principal Celestia? She's the ruler here?"

"You could say that. Technically, I guess she and Vice Principal Luna do make the rules."

"Where is she now?"

"Probably in her office. Third door on your left." Fluttershy pointed out an unassuming door a few meters down the hallway.

"Thank you!" Twilight turned towards the door, while Fluttershy's gaze followed her for a short moment before settling on Spike.

"Oh, wait! You're not really supposed to have pets on school grounds." Twilight turned around, confused. "Might wanna tuck him into your backpack. That's what I do." As Fluttershy's backpack opened a snow-white cat, a small red bird and a very familiar looking white rabbit hopped out. "They just get so lonely when I'm in school all day." As Twilight took in the scene, there was one thought on her mind.

Same old Fluttershy. Even if she's from another world.

Twilight gave the shy girl a genuine smile, the task of not scaring her made much easier by the fact that she didn't currently possess fangs. "Oh, okay! Thank you!" As she got to the significant task of practicing to control her new hands to take off the backpack that had appeared along with the clothing she now wore, the loud ringing of a bell filled the hall for a short moment.

"Oh, no! I'm late for class!" Fluttershy gave a worried frown before swinging her backpack low to the floor, scooping up her animals in it and placing it on her back. As she ran off towards the end of the hallway Twilight could make out two white paws pulling the backpack closed.

Of Principles and Princesses

Principal Celestia loved her job. Well, most of it at least. She loved taking care of her students, the young minds she and her colleagues had been entrusted to shape. But while every job had things to like, things to love even, every job also had less pleasant parts to it, the mountain of paperwork a highschool principal had to deal with, despite her sister's frequent help, was one of these unpleasant parts.

So it happened that when, there was a knock on her door, she didn't even look up from the especially long form she was currently in the process of dealing with. "Come in." She made sure to let none of her annoyance at her paperwork seep into her calm voice. As she heard the door open, she added, "How may I help you?" Still focused on her paperwork she didn't notice that the door closed on its own behind her visitor.

"Uhm, hello." Hearing a voice she didn't recognize the principal finally looked up to see a teenage girl with lavender skin and purple hair with a streak of orange, wearing a pale lavender blouse and one of the short skirts that were 'In fashion this season', she'd never understand trends. On the skirt was the symbol of a six-pointed star on the backdrop of an orange starburst surrounded by five white stars. "I'm Twilight Sparkle," the girl continued with a respectful nod which Celestia instinctively reciprocated.

"I'm new here," Twilight went on to explain. A year earlier she'd have been nervous at giving such an explanation, but being a changeling queen for a year and mother to thousands had a tendency to strengthen one’s character. "I understand that Fluttershy found a crown this morning and gave it to you."

Celestia remembered well how the shy girl had come to her early this morning holding the crown in her hands, she had no idea how it ended up on the front lawn, but since Luna had said that the safe was empty when she put it back, she hadn't thought much of it. Luna had also scolded her that it wasn't a good idea to leave the keys for a safe underneath said safe, a point which, with the benefit of hindsight, Celestia had to concede. "Yes. I've had Vice Principal Luna put it somewhere for safekeeping. No idea how it ended up on the front lawn. Were you interested in running for Princess of the Fall Formal this year?" Despite the fact that she had never seen the girl before she almost hoped that she would be interested, Sunset Shimmer had gone unopposed for three years in a row.

"Uh, no. Not exactly. The truth is... Well, the truth is I... You see, the crown is actually... Princess of the Fall Formal?" Celestia watched with a hint of amusement as an expression of confusion settled on the girl's face.

"It's Canterlot High's big Fall dance."

"Like the Grand Galloping Gala." Twilight muttered, more to herself than the woman sitting before her.

"Uh, Grand Galloping Gala?" Now it was the principal's turn to be confused.

"Oh, uh, it was a big deal at my old school."

"And was there a princess?"

"Yes, but she wasn't exactly a student." Twilight chose not to mention that said princess was the principal’s magical pony counterpart.

"Here at Canterlot High, the students select one of their peers to represent them. She receives a crown at the Fall Formal."

Twilight thought the matter over, giving a contemplative hum. She didn't know where the crown was being kept and this Celestia seemed to be almost as good as her Equestrian counterpart when it came to hiding her emotions, even from an empath, so she was unlikely to get a clue from her. At this point it seemed that the easiest way to get her crown back was to simply win it. "You asked me if I was interested in running for Princess. Can anyone run?"

"Yes. You just need to let the head of the Fall Formal planning committee know you'd like to be on the ballot. Was there anything else?"

After a short moment’s thought Twilight shook her head, "Um, nope! That was it!"

"Well, if you do need anything else, my door is always open," Celestia called after her as she left, the door closing behind her.

I'll never get used to these automatic door-closer-things, she thought to herself as she turned back to her paperwork. After a moment she stopped, sure her memory was playing a trick on her. She could have sworn that her door was scheduled to receive one of those devices next week.

With a hint of trepidation she looked back up to the door. Her memory had not been tricking her. No such device was found anywhere on the door frame.

Suddenly her paperwork seemed very enticing.

In the throne room of the Crystal Spire Princess Celestia sat with Princess Cadence, Shining Armor and the remaining element bearers – Princess Luna had retired for the day – as well as Steel Gaze the second of the two queens-guard Twilight had brought along from Stripped Gear. Gilded Shield had retired after her night shift was over. Steel was keeping everyone else informed about anything his queen told the link about this other world.

"It seems this other world, at least in the area around the Portal is inhabited by bipedal creatures my queen calls 'humans'. Many of them seem to be equivalents of ponies living in Equestria. She is currently in a place called 'Canterlot High School' which seems to be ruled by counterparts to yourself and your sister, your Highness." Celestia gave a contemplative nod, a hoof beneath her chin. "She has already come across a counterpart to you, Dame Fluttershy."

"Oh my, is she much like me?"

"From what my queen says, there are obvious physical differences, given she is of another species, but her personality is strikingly similar. It seems the crown Sunset Shimmer brought here was used for a ceremony called the 'Fall Formal'. Where the students would vote on a representative who would then be crowned Princess of the Fall Formal."

"A voted princess?" Rarity chimed in, "now there's a strange concept." Both Princesses in the room silently decided not to mention certain events in Equestrian history.

"Certainly. It seems that due to their striking resemblance the Element of Magic was mistaken for the Fall Formal Crown and is currently being kept by Vice Principal Luna. My Queen has decided that the easiest way to get it back would be to simply win it." With that Steel finished his explanation.

"I knew Twilight would keep a cool head," Cadence remarked. Steel remembered Twilights initial panic as she learned of her transformation but chose not to mention it, though he was sure at least Celestia had noticed the amused smirk that momentarily played across his lips. If she did, however, Celestia didn't mention it either.

"It seems like a reasonable plan,” she admitted, “is there much competition?"

After a short inquiry, Steel shrugged. "We don't know yet."

"So has Twilight come across any of us besides Fluttershy?" Rainbow piped in with a friendly glance at Steel. She had taken a liking to the drone during her stay in the hive. He was one of the few who could almost keep up with her.

Almost.

"Not so far," Steel answered, returning the smile.

"Now Dash, let's not forget that Twi's been there for barely an hour. If there are counterparts of all of us, ah'm sure she'll let us know." Applejack chided

"Huh, guess you're right"

"Indeed, but I have one question. What is a 'Human'?" Rarity asked looking around at everyone.

Steel was about to give a closer explanation when Pinkie interrupted. "They're the things Lyra keeps talking about."

A round of 'Ohh's ran through the assorted Ponyvilleans leaving two Princesses and a former guard captain to share confused glances.

Looking for Fluttershy, Twilight spotted her entering a large room that seemed to be some sort of dining hall. A sign on the door read 'Cafeteria'. Following her inside, Twilight found her at the end of a line of students along a counter at the other side of which there was an elder woman wearing a yellow top and a red and white apron as well as gloves. Twilight caught up to Fluttershy and they soon got into conversation.

"I know we've just met, but I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something."

"Of course!"

"I've decided to run for Princess of the Fall Formal, and–" Twilight recoiled at the wave of utter shock that erupted from Fluttershy, which was fortunate as it allowed her to avoid Fluttershy's salad landing on her blouse as it's owner dropped it.

The stunned look on Fluttershy's face quickly became apologetic before switching to confusion as she didn't hear the plastic bowl hit the ground. As she looked down it was sitting there, perfectly upright and all its contents safely inside.
"Oh! Oh, gosh! Sorry. It's just, oh, running for Fall Formal Princess is a really bad idea."

"Why?"

"Sunset Shimmer wants to be Fall Formal Princess, and when she wants something, she gets it! She'll make life awful for anyone who stands in her way. Just ask the girl who ran against her for Princess of the Spring Fling."

Though she was taken aback by this revelation, Twilight's determination didn't waver. "I have to try!"

"Oh, I don't think you understand. You'd have to convince everyone here to vote for you instead of her: the athletes, the fashionistas, the dramas, the eco-kids, the techies, the rockers..."

"Why is everypony–" Twilight interrupted herself as a purple furred paw shot out from her backpack and hit the side of her head. "Uh, everybody separated this way?"

As they walked together to one of the tables after getting their food, Twilight sensed a wave of resignation from Fluttershy. "Maybe it was different at your old school, but at CHS, everybody sticks to their own kind. One thing that they do have in common is that they know Sunset Shimmer is gonna rule the school until we graduate."

"Not if I can help it!" Twilight exclaimed around the apple hovering in front of her before taking a bite, "So, uh-" At Fluttershy's confused look she quickly released her psychic grip and caught the apple in a hand, putting on a placating smile. "-where would I find the head of the party planning committee?"

Steel Gaze's eyes shot open as he received an update from Twilight. "Ah, it seems the only other candidate running for Princess of the Fall Formal is Sunset Shimmer herself."

"Hmm, how popular is Sunset Shimmer?" Celestia asked, looking up from watching Shining Armor lose a game of chess to Rarity.

"It seems she is more feared than popular." Shield answered contemplatively.

"Good, then the other Students will likely support another option if it is sufficiently well represented." Cadence replied.

"Yay, Twilight's gonna be a princess and a queen!" came the inevitable outburst from the ever enthusiastic Pinkie.

"Well darling, I don't know how much power it would afford to be a princess at a school in another world. Though it would still carry a certain glamour." Rarity conceded.

"Incoming!" After she had opened the door to a large hall and walked in a few steps Twilight ducked at the words only to find strips of paper raining down on her. Looking up she saw a pink skinned girl bearing an uncontrolled mane of even more vibrant pink hair. The girl seemed extremely familiar.

"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle and ..." She stopped dead in her tracks as the girl before her looked up from her balloon. The moment her purple eyes meet these sky blue ones, realisation struck her. "Pinkie Pie?!"

At Twilight's words the party planner lost her grip on the balloon she was inflating resulting in all the air once more being set free. Rather suddenly. In the general direction of Pinkie's face. Once she had quelled the stream of air, the girl let out a gasp as she turned to Twilight. "Are you psychic?!"

"Uhm, well, yes, actually. I don't get what that has to do with this but, sure." came Twilight's confused reply.

"Thought so." Pinkie stated with a broad grin. "Anyway what brings you here?"

As Pinkie started to inflate another balloon Twilight sent Steel gaze a status update stating that she had found another duplicate, before explaining. "Fluttershy said this is where I'd find the head of the Fall Formal planning committee."

At her words, Pinkie turned away from her and started tying the ballon closed "Fluttershy, huh? Don't let the whole 'shy' thing fool you. She can be a real meanie."

Twilight's face was a mask of confusion as she clearly picked up a wave of resentment towards the shy girl coming from the party planner. She walked over to inquire further. "You two aren't friends?"

Ignoring her question Pinkie twirled around holding a hand out to her in an inviting gesture. "Waited a bit to get your name on the ballot, huh? Dance is the day after tomorrow."

Letting the topic go for the moment the transformed queen explained. "I'm brand new here."

At these words realisation flashed across Pinkie's face in a comedically over the top manner that reminded Twilight of her Equestrian counterpart. "Oooh! I thought you didn't look familiar." After a moment however Pinkie started staring intently at the new 'student'. "Though, now that I'm really lookin' at you ... Do you have a twin sister who lives in the city, has a pet dog named Spike that looks just like that one?" She pointed at Spike who had left Twilight's backpack and was enjoying himself with one of the balloons strewn across the floor.

So we have counterparts here too. Guess I should have expected that. "Uh, maybe?"

At her words, Pinkie's face was immediately freed from any hint of suspicion that was there before. And she spoke up, cheerful as ever. "Thought so. Anyhoo, just need to fill this out and you are officially up for the coveted Princess of the Fall Formal crown." At these words she held out a pen and a clipboard she had pulled from her hair.

A brief bout of enthusiasm shot through Twilight's mind as she laid eyes upon the official looking list of participants. The list was little more than a bold printed title above a frame with lines on which to put names. There was only one name in a pointy looking font that seemed to Twilight like a loose imitation of Princess Celestia's hornwriting: 'Sunset Shimmer'.

Within a brief moment of mental focus the pen slid form Pinkie’s fingers and added a second name to the list. Written in a smooth curly font the new entry read: 'Twilight Sparkle'. All the while Pinkie's smile never faded, as if floating pens were nothing new for her.

For all Twilight knew, they might not be. Once could never quite know with Pinkie Pie.

As soon as she finished, Pinkie turned the clipboard back around and snatched the pen out of midair before giving an approving nod. There was a moment of silence before the clicking of a door latch and a pair of squeaking hinges indicated that someone was opening the door. Before Twilight could turn around she heard that someone speak up with a very familiar voice.

"Somebody order a dozen cases of fizzy apple cider?"

At these words Pinkie looked up, once more breaking into one of her trademark smiles. "Oh! Oh! Me, me-me-me, me," As she bounced over to the new arrival she earned herself a sceptical look from the girl. She gave an awkward laugh before settling down a little "yeah, ha-ha, me!"

Twilight turned around to the new arrival and instantly recognized several features. First of all, there was a very familiar looking light brown stetson hat, currently held in the girl's hands as she was wiping the sweat off her brow. Her hair was long and straw blond, held together at the bottom by a simple red ribbon. She was wearing a white shirt with a green section from her chest up to the neckline, a blue jeans skirt with two prominent pockets and, to round of the cowgirl look, two tall boots of brown leather. Smiling, the girl turned to the door where a tall, muscular boy with blonde hair and rosy skin, wearing a red T-shirt and long jeans, had entered after her. Most of his form, however, was obscured by three cases of the aforementioned cider he was carrying. As he put them down, the girl, whom Twilight was rather sure was Applejack's counterpart, spoke up.

"Can you bring in the rest?"

The simple nod and the reassuring "Eeyup" he gave all but confirmed Twilight's suspicions that this was indeed this world's counterpart to Big Macintosh, the eldest of the Apple siblings, whom now turned to leave the gym once more.

As she looked up Applejack spotted Twilight and a look of recognition came to her face as she spoke up. "Hey, I know you."

"You do?" Between these further human counterparts and now this unexpected statement Twilight's mind was in a state of utter confusion.

"Sure. You're the new girl who gave Sunset Shimmer the what fer today." Applejack explained with a somewhat proud smile before taking a large gulp of cider from a bottle she had fished from the case she had just brought in.

"Twilight Sparkle here is gonna run against Sunset Shimmer for Princess of the Fall Formal." Pinkie explained cheerfully leading to Applejack spitting out her drink and turning to Twilight with a distraught expression.

"I'd think twice about that." She stated simply before turning around to the table and grabbing two balloons. As she turned back around she revealed them: a yellow one with a crude drawing of Twilight's face as well as a red, heart shaped one with an equally crude drawing of Sunset's face, bearing a wide smile. "Oh, sure, she'll probably approach you all friendly like..." She had the red balloon bounce towards the yellow one to mimic walking, before continuing in an impression of Sunset's voice "I sure am lookin' forward to some friendly competition." She wiggled the red balloon for a moment to show speaking before doing the same with the yellow one and continuing in an impression of Twilight's voice. "That's so good to hear." She finally returned to her normal voice. "But then, here comes the backstabbin'." As she said that she moved the red balloon towards the yellow one poking a fingernail out until the yellow balloon finally popped.

She let the red balloon fall to the floor, from where Pinkie quickly snatched it up, before she continued. "About the only girl in this school you can trust less than Sunset Shimmer is Rainbow Dash."

Twilight gave her a sceptical glance. "Rainbow Dash?"

"She's the captain of, like, every team at Canterlot High." Pinkie chimed in, idly popping the balloon with Sunset's face on it.

"She's also the captain of sayin' she's gonna do somethin' for ya, and then turnin' around and not even botherin' to show up." Applejack warned, a sour look on her face and, once more Twilight felt a wave of resentment directed at someone who was not present

"Thanks for the advice, Applejack, but this is something I really need to do."

The farmgirl gave her a confused look. "Huh, suit yourself, but how'd you know my name is Applejack?"

Twilight, realizing her mistake, scolded herself for letting her guard down before swiftly speaking up to cover her tracks. "Huh, didn't you say your name was Applejack?"

A resounding "Nnnope." came from the door, where Big Mac had just deposited two further cases of cider.

"Huh, strange, well, call it intuition then. Anyways, it sure was nice meeting you both. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around."

Picking her bag up from the floor and letting Spike jump in, she left the gym. Leaving a confused Applejack in her wake.

"Don't worry about it, she's Psychic!" Pinkie explained, which – as far as that was possible – only served to confuse Applejack further. She had little time to worry about that, however, as moments later the main doors to the gym opened to reveal Sunset Shimmer flanked by two younger boys whom Pinkie and Applejack immediately recognized as Snips and Snails.

"This looks terrible!" She spat. "There should be more streamers near the stage and fewer balloons." She used a long fingernail to pop one of the various balloons around the large hall.

"Yeah, streamers!" Snips exclaimed holding up a short piece of one he had found on the floor.

"And fewer balloons!" Snails added picking up a balloon and trying to pop it. However, as he soon found out, hugging it was not conducive towards that goal, and the balloon soon slipped from his arms, sending him tumbling to the floor.

Sunset, meanwhile, walked over to the cases of cider that Applejack and her brother had delivered earlier. "Fizzy apple cider?" She let out a grunt of disgust. "This is my coronation, not a hoedown."

"Well, now, it ain't necessarily gonna be your coronation this time around." Applejack pointed out. Sunset turned around.

"Oh, is that so? You country folk really aren't that bright. Must be why the other students say such awful things about you." She grabbed Applejack's hat and rammed it onto her face. Muffled grumbling noises could be heard from underneath it.

"Obviously it's gonna be my coronation. I'm running unopposed." She explained as she struck a pose for no particular reason.

"Not this time. The new girl just signed up!" Pinkie chimed in with a grin that seemed completely out of place in this tense situation, holding the clipboard out for her to see.

"What?!" Sunset spun towards her snatching the clipboard for herself to read the name of her competitor. "Where is this Twilight Sparkle?" she mumbled to herself before turning to Applejack and Pinkie Pie, and letting out a laugh that fooled no one."I'm looking forward to meeting the competition!"

Tensions and Confrontations

In the throne room of the Crystal Spire, Steel Gaze gave his latest status report.

"My queen has discovered further counterparts, both of you Dame Pinkie Pie and of you and your brother Dame Applejack. She has also now officially entered as a candidate to win the crown."

"I see." Princess Celestia stated simply.

"Ahr Coun'erparts? How were they?" Applejack looked upon the queens guard with renewed interest.

"According to my queen's descriptions, much like yourselves, safe for the obvious differences, however my queen noted some details." Steel looked around the gathered ponies before elaborating. "First of all, every counterpart she identified so far had a skin color matching the coat color the pony counterpart has here. There is, however, one exception." He turned towards Applejack. "Your brother. His counterpart has a much lighter skin tone, his clothes match far better."

That remark brought about some puzzled looks but everypony remained quiet waiting for Steel to continue.

"The second note she made is significantly more troubling. It seems that your counterparts are not the same group of friends you are here." After a few shocked looks he continued. "So far my queen has discovered tensions between the other world's Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy as well as Applejack and Rainbow Dash."

"Oh, so I have a counterpart there too, huh? How is she?"

"The other Applejack described her as unreliable, she is also the captain of every sports team at the school"

While Rainbow Dash and Applejack exchanged confused glances, Rarity let out a short giggle. "Oh my, I keep forgetting that our counterparts are highschoolers."

"Anything else?" Shining Armor spoke up, worry for his sister clear on his face.

"My queen believes she is about to encounter Sunset Shimmer."

"And what brought her to that conclusion?" Cadence inquired.

"Miss Shimmer is basically a walking beacon of anger and resentment, easy enough to locate."

Twilight leaned against a locker in one of the school's hallways, several lights above her head were flickering or completely broken. Spike was looking out of her backpack up and down the hallway. After a few moments of waiting Twilight spoke quietly to her assistant/small brother/temporary pet. "She's coming."

Spike quickly pulled his head back into the bag and watched as the backpack closed on its own. Twilight meanwhile turned her head to the side and spoke up, louder this time. "I was wondering when you would come talk to me, Sunset."

Twilight savoured the brief moment of shock from her opponent, but Sunset recovered quickly, giving her a superior smirk. "Princess Twilight" Her words were tinged with barely contained sarcasm.

Now it was Twilight's turn to be surprised. But she recovered equally quick. "Princess? You think I am a princess?" She gave an uncharacteristic low chuckle that had spike's fur stand on end.

"Are you not?"

"No. I guess you saw that I had a crown, an Element of Harmony no less, and assumed I was Equestria's newest princess." She let out a soft sigh. "Perhaps that could have happened. I was Celestia's protégé like you were. But, like with you, things took a different turn."

Sunset was thoroughly confused at this point. She was glad that Twilight was the only other person here and seemed to herself be caught up in her own thoughts and memories, because her mask of the bad girl was slipping and the buried need for knowledge from her days under Celestia was pushing her to ask more questions. Her attempts to reign it in were only partially successful. "But, you have a crown."

"Until it was stolen from me, yes. But I am no princess." Twilight now stood upright and focused Sunset with a look of pride and determination. "I am a queen"

Sunset gave her a look of scepticism. "A queen?"

"A changeling queen, yes."

Sunset's scepticism only grew. "What's a changeling?"

"A shapeshifting equine insectoid that needs to supplement their diet with love."

"Love?"

"Yeah, I could go for some right now. This also means that we can sense emotions, which brings us back to you." Once more Twilight faced her fellow equestrian.

Sunset grew defiant once more. "What does you being weird have to do with me, huh?"

Despite having grown used to such sentiments during various visits to Equestria throughout the last year, Sunset's words still stung, but Twilight wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that. "That means I can sense your anger. The resentment you hold for her. What happened between you two?"

Sunset, knowing immediately who Twilight was talking about, hid her emotions as well as Twilight had, but to an empath they were clear as day: anger flaring up once more, confusion and worry growing alongside it. But for the first time Twilight picked up something else from the girl, a hint of uncertainty and a deeply buried core of loneliness. Suddenly she understood what had happened. So that's what Celestia did differently with me.

Sunset however remained defiant. "That's none of your business."

At that Twilight gave only a short sigh. "Fine then, I'll get the story from her." Your emotions speak clearly enough anyway

For a split second, it seemed like Sunset would answer, like she wanted to justify herself, but then she simply let out a grunt of annoyance, before turning around and stomping off before turning a corner and disappearing from sight.

"How'd you learn to do that?" Spike said in awe, as he poked his head out of the backpack once more.

"Summit of the Queens. After a few hours of dealing with the likes of Chrysalis and her sisters, you learn a few things on how to deal with grating personalities."

"Your empathy thing pick up anything on her?"

"Perhaps. She's hiding it well, from herself more than anyone, but she's lonely. That may be something we can use to get her to embrace friendship, but it won't be easy. Her pain runs deep, and a few years alone in this world can't have helped."

"So why are we here again?" The voice from her backpack didn't really surprise Twilight, she had been sensing Spike's boredom for some time now.

"If I want my crown back, I'll need to win the vote. I can't do that if I don't know anything about this world, so it's time to do some research."

"Just like old times, huh?"

After a short chuckle from both of them, Twilight nodded before realizing that Spike could hardly see that from inside a closed backpack. "Pretty much. We should probably be quiet though, this is a library, and I don't think I should be seen talking to a backpack."

Spike grumbled for a moment but remained quiet otherwise. Several books on various subjects later, especially on those that were obviously different in this world like biology and engineering, Twilight noticed something. For a while now she had noticed two emotional signatures nearby. Both were feeling a combination of childish glee and malicious enjoyment.

She hadn't paid it any mind at first but after the signatures had repeatedly shown a tinge of satisfaction, sometimes when she gave a short remark to Spike, sometimes when she accidentally dropped a stack of books and once even when she gave a confused glance to one of the machines standing on a table in the center of the library's lower floor.

After another time she felt this, she got up and decided to investigate.

Snips and Snails had been shadowing the new student for some time now. They had gotten some bits of video of her talking to her backpack, dropping a stack of books that no normal person could hope to read in a week and even walking past a computer before going on to return to her books.

They had both agreed that no one normal would rather learn from a book than from the internet. Of course neither one of them would learn at all if it could be avoided.

They had just managed to film her looking at her hands for several moments before quickly picking her nose and going back to her books, as the girl looked up as if she had heard something. The fact that she looked right in their direction didn't really help quelling their worries either. A moment later the girl stood up and walked off. They both breathed a sigh of relief and exchanged glances before returning to looking at the girl. When they did however, she was gone. They looked around for a moment, not seeing her, then returned their attention to where she had left her books, waiting for her to come back.

"May I ask why you're shadowing me?"

They both let out a short yelp of surprise at hearing the girls voice right beside them and jumped away from her.

After a short moment a 'Shhh' could be heard from somewhere beyond the books. As they turned around they saw the girl they had been shadowing the entire afternoon, an unamused frown on her face. Both very suddenly grew sheepish faces and started sputtering apologies.

Twilight heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Look, just stop, okay? You're really distracting."

They both gave short nods before running off, only to hear another 'Shhh' at the sounds of their loud footsteps.

After they had left the library at a more measured pace, they looked at each other before Snails spoke up.

"That was scary -"

"-but awesome"

They both grew malicious grins before running off to find Sunset.

[The library will be closing in five minutes.]

As the announcement rang throughout the library, Spike was pulled from his slumber. After a yawn he realized something. "I hadn't even thought about where we're gonna sleep tonight!"

"Way ahead of you." At the voice he looked up to see Twilight standing next to what could only be described as a makeshift bed. Books stacked on the ground, many of which he recognized as ones Twilight had read parts of over the day, overtop them lay various seat cushions she likely gathered from around the various reading areas, all covered by a blanket of which he truly couldn't guess where she'd found it.

"It's a little dusty. But it doesn't seem like anybody comes up here." Spike said, interrupted by his coughing.

A few minutes later, after the library had officially closed, Twilight and Spike sat down on the makeshift bed looking at a book.

After he had recovered from his coughing fit, Spike spoke up again. "So, how'd your research go?"

"I found this book." Twilight opened the tome she'd been holding. "It's called a yearbook. It seems to be something they use to keep a record of things that have happened at the school." It only took her a few moments to open the book to the page she had been looking for. A page with a photo of five girls. Three of them were clearly younger versions of the three counterparts of her friends they had already met, the fourth leaning into the picture at the far left had very recognizable rainbow hair and cherise eyes which were already enough to identify her, the fifth, meanwhile, sharing a bench with Fluttershy, had pale white skin, and very familiar deep purple hair. "Look. That's Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and I'm gonna bet the girl on the far right is Rarity."

Spike nodded to that, letting her continue. "They look like they're friends."

"They do look like our friends. But I thought we'd figured that out already."

"No, I mean ... they look like they're friends with each other. But it doesn't seem like they're friends now. I could feel the resentment some of them hold for eachother. I just can't help but get the feeling that Sunset Shimmer had something to do with it."

"I wouldn't put it past her. But she wanted your crown 'cause she's planning on doing something even worse! If you're gonna stop her, you have to focus on making friends here. Can't worry about why these girls aren't friends anymore. Even if they do remind you of your Ponyville friends."

Twilight heaved a sigh. "You're right, Spike. Eyes on the prize."

The sun was setting over the Crystal Empire, painting the throne room a beautiful golden color. A few minutes earlier Gilded Shield had come in to take over Steel Gaze's post for the night. The Princesses and the Element Bearers were having dinner on a table that had been brought in.

"Good evening, Sister, my friends, how is Twilight Sparkle faring?"

All eyes turned to the door where Princess Luna had arrived to take over for her sister.

"Ah, Luna," Celestia spoke up happily. "She's doing quite well so far.

Over the rest of dinner, or breakfast for Luna, the Princess of the Moon was filled in on all the details and events she had missed throughout the day.

After the others had departed for bed, Luna and Gilded sat in the throne room in relative solitude. Sometimes a crystal guard would come in to report to Luna, sometimes a changeling guard would report to Gilded over the link. After half an hour or so Gilded saw Luna opening her eyes after one of her trips into the realm of dreams, bearing a soft smile, doubtlessly out of satisfaction of a job well done.

"Say, can you access our dreams, princess?

"Pardon?"

"The dreams of changelings, can you enter those or can your powers only access the dreams of ponies?"

"I can access the dreams of intelligent changelings, at least as long as they are in Equestria. I'm afraid your hive is too far away for me to reach. Otherwise I would have known about it sooner."

"Can you reach her?"

"Whom?"

"Queen Twilight. I know she's asleep right now. I was just wondering if you could sense her dreams in the other world."

"I suppose it might be worth finding out." Closing her eyes once more a string of white light ran up the spiraling groove in Luna's horn before rising upwards and dispersing in a soft white mist. A few moments later the string seemed to bend and it's end solidified before it disappeared out of the window in the direction where the Column of Spring was currently parked, the quiet whooshing sound of it's engines keeping the Q-ship aloft interrupting the otherwise quiet night. After a few more moments the string faded away completely and Luna reopened her eyes. "I cannot reach her directly but if I access the dreams of the sleeping changelings aboard your ship I can make use of your hivemind to access hers."

"Clever. I don't know if I would have thought to try that." Gilded said, bearing a genuinely impressed expression.

"Well, we – I – have been doing this for quite a long time now."

"True" Gilded remained silent for a few moments. "Is she dreaming well?"

"She is." Luna gave the Queens’ Guard a rare smile. It took only a moment before Gilded replied in kind.

A new Dawn

[Good morning, students, and happy Thursday. Just a reminder to pick up your ballots for the Princess of the Fall Formal today. They are due at the time the dance starts tomorrow night, so don't forget to turn them in and make your voice heard.]

Twilight and Spike had awoken about half an hour ago and disassembled the book-bed. Once more, Spike had no idea where the blanket had vanished to. By the time Principal Celestia's announcement rang throughout the halls of the school, they had left the school's library and were walking through the halls. More specifically, Twilight was walking, Spike was once more situated in her backpack.

Twilight had an odd feeling. The way the students were looking at her. The way they quietly talked to one another as they passed. But more than any of that it was the emotions she felt from them. Amusement, Bewilderment and general confusion seemed to be what was most prevalent throughout the students.

Suddenly a door opened to her left and before she could react, a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her into what appeared to be an empty classroom. By the time she had recovered from the shock, Twilight was standing in the middle of the room, wearing a green dress with fitting boots and a belt with a star-shaped golden buckle as well as a blonde wig. Her backpack had somehow remained on her back and Spike's head was poking out of it, looking as confused as she felt.

Standing before her was the girl from the photo she had seen the evening before, several years older of course but still unmistakably Rarity. The girl was looking her over, seemingly admiring her work. After a moment her gaze settled on Twilight's face and she gasped. "Darling, whatever happened to your eyes?"

Twilight's confusion only increased at that. "My eyes? Why? What's wrong with them?"

"Well, have you looked at them?" Rarity inquired before turning around to her own backpack, sitting on the floor next to her. After a short moment she turned back around and held a hand mirror out to Twilight.

"I don't see anything wrong." Twilight said after a short moment.

"Are you sure your pupils are supposed to be, well ... slitted?"

"Well yeah. They've been like that for a while now." Twilight explained, happy to finally have understood what Rarity was talking about. She only barely managed to stop herself from explaining how eyes like that were normal for a changeling queen.

"Well ... I suppose it is a rather unique look." Rarity considered, her expression shifting from worry to a professional interest. "Perhaps-" Her thoughts were cut off as the door swung open.

"There you are, Twilight" Applejack had entered the room looking concerned at the 'disguised' girl.

Rarity crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "So much for the disguise."

"I've been lookin' all over for ya!"

"Me too." Fluttershy had appeared behind Applejack followed by ...

"Me three! I like your new look!" ...Pinkie Pie who seemed as happy as ever.

"I do have an eye for these sorts of things. Not that you seem to care." Rarity gave a stern glare to Pinkie Pie who in turn simply looked confused.

"What?!"

"Why do you think she doesn't care?" Twilight shook her head. "No, never mind. Why were you all looking for me? What's going on?"

"Oh, she hasn't seen it yet." Fluttershy gave a relieved sigh.

"Well, ah s'pose it coulda been worse." Applejack remarked.

"Indeed. I know that all too well. Look"

Twilight watched as Rarity pulled a small device out of her pocket. After a short moment a moving picture appeared on the screen and sound came from a speaker she couldn't see. After a short moment Twilight was pulled out of marveling at the technology before her as she realized what the video was about. Several clips of her in the library, clearly edited to make her look bad but fortunately not all too effective. The voice narrating the short piece made it all too clear who was responsible.

After the video was over, Rarity spoke up once more. "Truly it could have been much worse. I suspect she couldn't get enough material to work with on such short notice."

"So that's what they were doing!" Twilight suddenly exclaimed.

"Uhh, who are 'they'?" Fluttershy asked tentatively.

"Yesterday at the library I found two young boys watching me."

"Oh? How did they look darling?"

"Uhh, amber skin with green hair, blue skin with orange hair -"

"Snips n' Snails." Applejack groaned.

"Sunset's usual entourage." Rarity added.

"Well how bad do you think this is?" Twilight asked, gesturing at the now once more black screen.

"Well" Rarity spoke up, "you're an unknown Twilight, the students here may not like Sunset, but they know her. They don't know you, for all they know you could be worse."

"And if anything," Pinke chimed in, "this just confused them more."

Twilight groaned in exasperation. "How am I gonna deal with this?"

"Not that it'll make any difference, but I'll still vote for you." Fluttershy pointed out in her usual timid way. Twilight's forehead now got very quickly introduced to the surface of the table she was sitting at. Fluttershy continued undeterred. "You were so nice to stand up for me when Sunset Shimmer was picking on me yesterday."

"If ya still wanna run, maybe there's something I can do to help!" Pinkie smiled as Twilight raised her head off the table.

Fluttershy now approached Twilight more closely and whispered into her ear. "Word of advice? Don't accept her help. She doesn't take anything seriously!"

Pinkie groaned at that. "Why do you have to be so awful to me?"

After a few comedic noises that could only be interpreted as vague disagreement, Rarity regarded her with a stern glare. "Don't play innocent, Pinkie Pie! You are no better than she is!"

"And what is that supposed to mean?!"

Rarity now turned to Twilight. "I am happy to offer up my assistance as well." She turned to Pinkie, her gaze stern once more. "To someone who would appreciate what I have to offer!"

The three girls descended into general arguing. Before Applejack interrupted them. "Listen to y'all carryin' on! Get over it and move on!"

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "You mean like how you've gotten over what happened with Rainbow Dash?"

Applejack's face instantly became a mask of barely contained anger. "She said she'd get the softball team to make an appearance at my bake sale. I tell everybody they're comin', and then not one of 'em shows up! She made a liar outta me! That's different!"

"Is not!" Rarity and Pinkie replied as one.

"Is too." Applejack responded defiantly.

Once more the girls descended into arguing, this time it was all four of them. Twilight was feeling an oncoming headache from all the heated emotions around her.

"STOP! All of you!" She let out a relieved sigh when the others instantly stopped their arguing at her outburst "I wanna show you something." She pulled out the yearbook she had found the day before and reopened it to the photo of the four girls present and the as of yet absent Rainbow Dash. "You were friends once."

At seeing the picture, Applejack gained a look of nostalgia. "The Freshman Fair. Y'all remember?"

Pinkie and Fluttershy gave noises of general agreement while Rarity replied with a simple "Yes"

"But something happened." Twilight continued "I think that something was Sunset Shimmer."

Rarity scoffed slightly at that. "Well, it's a nice theory, darling, but Sunset Shimmer had nothing to do with it."

Fluttershy nodded vigorously. "She's right. Sunset Shimmer isn't the one who ruined my silent auction for the animal shelter by bringing fireworks and noisemakers! It was supposed to be a serious event, and Pinkie Pie ruined it!"

Pinkie's face lit up with confusion. "What are you talking about? I got a text from you saying that you didn't want a silent auction. You wanted a big party!"

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to be confused. "Uh! I never sent you a text!"

"You didn't?"

"You don't think she's the one who's been sending me those eMails, do you?" Rarity chimed in now, seemingly worried at the discovery they'd made. "Every time I volunteer to help with the decorations at a school function, I get an eMail from Pinkie Pie saying she has plenty of volunteers! And then I find out she's done everything herself."

"I never sent you any eMails!"

"Maybe she's the reason Rainbow Dash didn't show up for my bake sale!"

Twilight, who had been watching the exchange with growing exasperation, now spoke up, looking at Applejack incredulously. "Didn't you ever ask Rainbow Dash why she didn't show up?"

Applejack smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. "Heh, I guess I kinda stopped talkin' to her at all after that."

Twilight rolled her eyes."Maybe now would be a good time to start."

A few minutes later, Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy were standing at the edge of the soccer field behind the school glancing worriedly at Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were standing in the middle of the field.

"They're actually talking! That's a good sign!" Rarity pointed out. A moment later they saw that the two girls in the middle of the field were smiling at each other before embracing each other in a tight hug.

"Hugs!” Pinkie squealed. “Ooh, hugs are always good!" Soon enough the two girls approached them.

"Somebody, and I think we can all guess who, told Rainbow Dash that my bake sale had been moved to a different day. Dash showed up with all the softball team and thought I'd cancelled on her!"

Rainbow Dash gave Twilight an appraising look. "So you're lookin' to dethrone Sunset Shimmer and become Princess of the Fall Formal, huh? Gotta say, I'd really love to see that happen. I'll totally help you out! All you gotta do is beat me in a game of one-on-one."

"What?" Twilight's expression instantly became one of surprise, then of panic as Rainbow Dash picked up a ball, bouncing it in the air with one foot.

"First to five goals wins." She kicked the ball up once more before somehow hitting it over her head and landing it in the goal behind her. "One-zip!"

Twilight gulped audibly.

"That's game!" One disastrous match later, Twilight was panting heavily, lying on her back at the edge of the field.

The other girls leaned over her and Rarity spoke up with a nervous laugh. "I ... really thought you were gonna ... pull it off there in the end!"

Rainbow seemed unfazed. "So what's the plan? How can I help you be princess instead of Sunset Shimmer?"

Twilight could sense that she was being sincere, which only served to amplify her confusion. "But ... I ... lost!"

"Of course you lost. I'm awesome!" Rainbow held out a hand to help Twilight up, which she gladly took. "But I'm not gonna help just anybody try and beat Sunset Shimmer. The Fall Formal Princess should be someone with heart and determination. You've proved that you've got 'em both!" The two of them embraced in a hug while the other four girls cheered.

If Twilight hadn't been overwhelmed by the love and gratitude of the other five on top of her own exhaustion she would have noticed that Sunset Shimmer was watching them.

In a local café that Twilight guessed was this world's counterpart to Sugarcube Corner, Twilight was currently ordering a drink from this worlds counterpart of Mrs. Cake, before turning back to her friends. As she did, she almost ran into another customer behind her, only managing to avoid him because her empathic sense had alerted her to his presence. They both started apologizing at the same time. Taking a moment to look at him, Twilight found him to be a boy about their age, with yellow skin, blue hair and clothing dominated by a leather jacket.

As Twilight made her way to the table where her friends were sitting, Flash Sentry and Mrs. Cake simultaneously decided to ignore the fact that her drink was floating beside her.

As Twilight returned to the table, she saw her new friends engaged in idle chatter, the only one who saw her coming was Pinkie who, once more, didn't seem bothered by items floating next to Twilight. As she took her seat the others turned to her and she spoke up. "Who was that?"

"Who was who, darling?"

Just as Twilight was about to point him out, Pinkie, the only one who had been watching her, did it for her. "That was Flash."

"Who?"

"Flash Sentry, dear." Rarity, having now seen the boy herself, went on to explain. "He is, well was, Sunset Shimmer's boyfriend. He broke up with her a few weeks ago."

"I can't believe she hasn't done something awful to him yet." Fluttershy looked on incredulously.

"Maybe she's just waiting until she has the power to do something really awful." Twilight suggested morbidly.

Applejack then brought the conversation back to the task at hand. "All right, girls. Dance is tomorrow night, and we still don't know how we're gonna get Twilight the votes she needs to be named princess. We need to show folks who Twilight really is."

After some general noises of agreement and a few moments of more or less silent contemplation, it was Rarity who spoke up, rising to her feet. "I'VE GOT IT!" Everyone in the café turned to look at her prompting her to sit back down, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Ahem. I mean, um, perhaps I have a solution. Now this may be an absolutely preposterous idea, but what if we all wore these as a sign of unity?" She held up what could only be described as an attachable pony's tail that could be clipped to the back of one's clothing and a hair clip with two pony ears, both in the yellow and blue Twilight had begun to suspect were the school's official colors.

"Freshman year, they were very, very popular. A way for everybody to show their school spirit! You know? 'Go, Canterlot Wondercolts!'" Once more she grew a sheepish smile at the expressions he was getting from the group. "Ahem. I haven't sold any in ages. I mean, the five of us are obviously very different, but deep down, we're all Canterlot Wondercolts!"

As she spoke the girls put on the new accessoires one by one. "Sunset Shimmer is the one who divided us, Twilight Sparkle is the one who united us. And we're gonna let everyone know it! What do you think?"

Unity

It was the beginning of lunch hour and despite the fact that no lessons were taking place this morning, it being the day of the Fall Formal, many students still chose to eat in the cafeteria. In a corner of the room, next to a battery powered music player, sat Spike, waiting in Twilight's backpack. Nearby Fluttershy, holding two empty cups, took a seat next to Sandalwood at the table with the eco-kids. Pinkie was standing at the food counter a tray in her hands. Rarity, another empty tray before her felt right at home at the fashionistas' table, she was slightly nervous however as she had been agreed upon to be the one to give the starting signal for her plan. She reached into her bag and pulled out the accessoires from earlier putting them on, it only took a split second before the other fashionistas took note.

Seeing this, Rainbow Dash started approaching the athletes' table another set of ears and tail tightly in her grip. Allright, Showtime. Determination clear on her face she put on the ears followed by the clip on tail and quickly sat down on an empty chair at the table. Looking up, the other athletes soon took note.

This was the signal Pinkie Pie had been waiting for. She pulled out another set and put it on before gripping her tray once more. With a determined slam of the tray on the counter and a sly grin on her face, she started the beat.

From the other side of the cafeteria, Rarity echoed the beat, adding the stomping of her feet to the mix.

At the eco-kids' table Fluttershy, who by now had also put on a set of the accessoires took hold of her cups and softly banged them on the table, adding to the rising music. The general chatter in the cafeteria started to die down.

Sitting opposite of Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and her own sister Applebloom, as well as a very confused looking Big Mac, Applejack added the clapping of her hands to the music.

Across the room, at the athletes' table rainbow had started taking part in the beat with a tray of her own. This was the signal Spike was waiting for. He reached a paw out of Twilight's backpack and pressed a button on the music player.

The moment the first notes of the instrumental began to play the last of the chatter in the cafeteria ceased and as one the five reunited friends raised their voices and started singing.

"Hey, hey, everybody
We've got something to say
We may seem as different
As the night is from day."

Gradually the confusion of the students began to shift towards enthusiasm at the impromptu musical number, as the five friends, who had gotten up from their seats, approached one another.

"But you look a little deeper
And you will see
That I'm just like you
And you're just like me.
Yeah!"

The singing paused as a few well chosen guitar riffs rang throughout the hall.

"Hey, hey, everybody
We're here to shout
That the magic of friendship
Is what it's all about"

One by one the students noticed that all five of them had pulled blue sweaters, with the stylized C in the shape of a horseshoe that was the school's logo, over their normal clothes.

"Yeah,
We thought we were different
As the night is from the day
Until Twilight Sparkle
Helped us see another way"

As the five girls arrived next to one another at one of the walls of the cafeteria and turned towards the gathered students, they began the refrain.

"So get up get down
If you're gonna come around
We can work together
Helping Twilight win the crown
So get up get down
'Cause it's gonna make a sound
If we work together
Helping Twilight Sparkle
Win the crown!"

As they danced through the hall each of them sung in turn. Pinkie starting them off.

Hey, hey hands up now,
We're sending a message
To the crowd
Hands wave up
Then come down
We party together
All around

Rarity began now. "Generous, honesty,"

"Laughter, kindness, loyalty" Applejack seamlessly continued.

Fluttershy and Rainbow rounded of the quintet

"Twilight helped us each to see"

"All that we can be!"

As recognition flashed across the faces of the students the five began the refrain anew. They danced across the room in various patterns until Rarity and Pinkie reached the door, pulling it open to reveal Twilight Sparkle. She too had pulled a CHS Sweater over her clothes and wore the pony ears and clip on tail. With an enthusiastic grin she began her solo.

"I'm gonna be myself
No matter what I do
And if we're different yeah
I want you to be true to you"

As she passed the rockers' table Flash Sentry got up with his guitar and joined the music.

"If you follow me
We'll put our differences aside
We'll stick together and
Start working on that school pride!"

The other rockers had by now taken places in an impromptu band setup with a bass and even a drum kit. Everyone present simply assumed that Pinkie’d had a hand in setting it up and chose not to question the matter further. Instead almost all present students got up from their seats as the five friends spread around many sets of the same pony-themed accessories they had been wearing for the entire song. Students all throughout the cafeteria took them and put them on before joining in the singing as the instrumentals cut out and their voices alone were left to carry the refrain.

"Jump up make a sound (Hey!)
Stomp your hooves turn around
Start now, make a change,
Gonna come around
Jump up make a sound (Hey!)
Stomp your hooves turn around
Canterlot Wondercolts
Help her win the crown!"

The refrain repeated a few more times before the singing students slowly calmed down and instead approached Twilight to ask her questions, to express their support or to simply get to know her better.

Half an hour later, Twilight sat in Vice Principle Luna's office. On the Table before her lay various photographs showing her in various aggressive poses around the destroyed party decorations in the school's gym.

"This is impossible."

The Vice Principal seemed unimpressed. "This is clearly you in the photographs, is it not?"

"Clearly. Nonetheless this can't have been me."

"Oh? Why not?" Despite her scepticism Luna couldn't quite hide a shred of curiosity. Listening to the original excuses of the students was one of her favorite pastimes.

"You said this happened during lunch hour?" Without waiting for an answer, she pressed on. "I was occupied at the time. I wouldn't have had the time to do this. That aside I have no reason to do such a thing."

At this, Luna's curiosity took center stage on her face. "Occupied?"

"At the beginning of the lunch hour, my friends and I put on a little musical display in the cafeteria. I spent the rest of the lunch hour talking to various students."

Luna was dumbstruck. So that's where that music came from.

"We did attract quite the crowd so if you just ask a few students they will confirm this."

"Very well. I will check this. Wait here." She walked towards the door and opened it. "And don't touch anything."

"Mister Sentry, were you at the cafeteria during lunch hour?"

"Yes, Vice Principal, I was."

"And was Twilight Sparkle there?"

The boy took the time to let out a short chuckle. "She was. Kinda hard to miss."

"So I was told. Thank you mister Sentry."

"Anytime, Vice Principal.

"You were at the cafeteria during lunch hour?"

"Yeah, dude, that was cool, man. They put on like this music show, or something. In the end we were all singing along, totally rad, man."

"I take it by they you mean Twilight Sparkle and her friends?"

"Yeah, man."

After questioning a few other students throughout the school's hallways, the Vice Principal was satisfied that the picture was sufficiently clear.

As she returned to her office, the Vice Principal found Twilight still sitting in the chair, as she walked around the desk she saw that the girl's eyes were closed, a serene expression on her face. Luna cleared her throat and Twilight jumped.

"My apologies, I was ..." She chose not to mention that she had been communing with the hivemind. " ... lost in thought"

"I understand. This is a big day afterall. Anyway, seven separate students have independently confirmed your story, so it seems that Sunset Shimmer's evidence was fabricated."

"Sunset Shimmer," Twilight deadpanned. "I should have known."

"Still with your innocence confirmed the fact remains that the Fall Formal Dance cannot happen with the gym in this state. We'll have to postpone."

At those words Twilight's face was one of panic once more. But after only a few seconds Steel Gaze contacted her over the hivemind. She had used Luna's absence to keep her friends and family back in Equestria updated on this latest turn of events.

Twilight took a deep breath, employing the technique she had learned from Cadance years ago. As she answered her voice was calm first inside the hivemind, answering her guard, Then in the real world answering Luna. "We'll see about that."

Luna was surprised to hear this. "Do you have a solution in mind, Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight stood up from her seat and turned towards the door. As Luna heard her speak once more, there was only determination in the girl's voice. "I do. See you this evening, Vice Principal."

As she left the office Twilight turned to find her new friends, knowing it was the time for truth.

Revelations

Twilight found her friends anxiously waiting around the corner of the corridor in front of Luna's office. As they heard her approaching, the girls turned to her and immediately called out. "Twilight!"

After some greetings Twilight spoke up. "Girls, we may have a problem. Is there somewhere we can talk? In private?"

The girls exchanged worried glances at this cryptic request, but after a moment Rarity spoke up. "Principal Celestia allowed me to set up a dressmaker's workshop in one of the unused rooms at the school. We can talk there."

Twilight thought on that for a moment before giving her a soft smile. "Good, lead the way."

After a few moments, they arrived in front of a room on the school's top floor and Rarity fished a key from her bag, swiftly unlocking the door. The room seemed to be a small unused classroom, various dressmakers puppets stood around the room and a sewing machine sat on a table in one corner. All in all, the room strongly reminded Twilight of Carousel Boutique.

After the girls had entered and Rarity had closed the door behind them, Applejack spoke up. "Now what exactly was it Luna wanted from ya'll?"

"Sunset Shimmer blamed me for destroying the party decorations in the gym."

"WHAT?!" Pinkie interrupted horrified.

"And Luna believed her?" Applejack asked incredulously.

"She had photos. Fabricated evidence."

"How did you get out of that?" Fluttershy asked in a hushed tone.

"Well, it happens that Luna checked the decorations herself before the lunch break. And they were fine then. So this must have happened during the lunch break. As you can guess, I had quite a few witnesses confirming I was elsewhere at the time."

"Yeah, we did gather quite the crowd." Rainbow chuckled, humble as ever.

"And there is the problem. With the decorations destroyed as they are the dance can't happen tonight."

"They need to postpone?!" Rarity worriedly asked.

"That's the problem." Twilight explained as she opened her backpack to let Spike poke out of it. "I need the dance to happen tonight."

"And why, sugarcube?"

"Well, you see ..." Twilight took a calming breath but just as she was about to speak up again, she was interrupted.

"You're from an alternate world and you're a changeling queen there and the crown actually has a magical element embedded in it that helps power up other magical elements, and without it they don't work anymore, and you need them all to help protect your magical world, and if you don't get the crown tonight, you'll be stuck in this world and you won't be able to get back for, like, a really, really long time!" Everyone stared at Pinkie, dumbstruck. Pinkie herself meanwhile simply smiled.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that isn't the reason." Rainbow deadpanned.

"Nope, she's pretty much spot-on." Spike answered, equally deadpan.

"He can talk!?" Rarity asked while Fluttershy stared at the dog, a wide smile on her lips.

"Oh, yeah! And back where we come from, I'm not even a dog! I'm a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon!"

"This is so amazing!" Fluttershy interrupted, "Tell me, what are you thinking right now?"

"Sure would love a scratch behind the old ears!" At a distraught noise from Rarity, he sat back down. "Uh, maybe later."

Twilight meanwhile continued her disbelieving stare at Pinkie. "How did you know all that?"

"Just a hunch." Pinkie answered with a wide smile.

"Wait a minute! Lemme get this straight. You're a what exactly?" Applejack asked.

"A changeling, I used to be a pony but, well, things happened and now I'm a changeling queen."

"You're a queen?" Rarity aked wide eyed.

"You're from another world?" Fluttershy asked incredulously.

After an affirming noise from Twilight there was a short silence soon interrupted by a resounding. "That ... is ... awesome!" from Rainbow Dash.

"Is that why you knew so much about us?" Fluttershy asked carefully.

"Yes. The two worlds seem to be counterparts to one another. I knew so much about you because you are the counterparts to my best friends. The other Element Bearers."

"Element Bearers, darling?" Rarity questioned.

"Yes. You see, the crown that Vice Principal Luna is keeping is mine," she reached into her bag and pulled out the duplicate Sunset Shimmer had replaced her own crown with. " I suspect this is the actual Fall Formal Crown."

After some short gasps from the girls around her she put the crown back and continued. "The jewel in my crown is something known as an Element of Harmony. The Element of Magic to be precise. It holds great power on it's own but it's main purpose is to act as a focus for the other five elements. Your counterparts are the bearers of those elements, as I am the bearer of this one."

She listed the elements and bearers pointing at each of their counterparts in turn. "Applejack, the Element of Honesty." The farm girl gave a slow nod. "Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness." Fluttershy gave a small smile. "Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter." At that four pairs of eyes were rolled leading to a confused 'What?' "Rarity, the Element of Generosity." Rarity gave a prideful smile. "And Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty."

"Yeah, I'd say those all fit quite well." Rainbow pointed out.

"Indeed"

"Together the Elements are the greatest Magical Power known, the Magic of Friendship, or Harmonic Magic as scholars have taken to calling it."

"You said you were a Pony?" Fluttershy now asked.

"I was. On top of that, Sunset Shimmer still is one." That revelation got a reaction. Several surprised glances and a gasp from Pinkie as well as a quiet 'Oh my' from Fluttershy. "I kinda was her successor."

"Successor?" Applejack questioned.

"As the personal protégé of Princess Celestia."

"Uhh, Princess Celestia?" Rainbow inquired.

"Oh right, yes, The counterparts of Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna are two of the three princesses that rule Equestria. The Princess of the Sun and the Princess of the Moon respectively."

That revelation silenced the girls for several seconds as they tried to digest this new information.

"So you said you became a changeling, How'd that happen?" Applejack finally spoke up.

"Well you see, a bit more than one year ago, well more like a year and 3 months, but anyway. Me and the others were invited to the wedding of my brother and the third of the princesses, Princess Cadence. Cadence had been my foalsitter at some point so I knew her quite well." The girls listened intently as recounted the events leading up to the wedding. As she finished with the words, "And after that we prepared the real wedding for the real Cadence." Rarity finally spoke up.

"So this Chrysalis character is another changeling queen?"

"Yes she's the queen of another hive. You see, we changelings are organized in hives with generally one Queen and anywhere from a few thousand to several ten-thousand drones."

"Wait, if'n this is like an insect hive does that mean the queens lay eggs?"

"Yes, it does."

"And if you are a Queen, does that mean you do that too?"

"It does, I have close to 1700 children back at the hive, all of them still nymphs of course, and about 300 more eggs still waiting to hatch."

This stumped the girls.

"You have children." Rarity said quietly, Twilight gave a nod.

"1700 of them." Rainbow continued,equally quiet.

"And I love each one of them." Twilight added with a soft smile.

"Well. That was unexpected." Pinkie finally broke the tension in the room and the girls shared a goodhearted laugh.

"Anyways. A few weeks after that wedding debacle we were having a meeting about how to deal with this situation, when an ambassador came in and revealed herself as a changeling from another hive. Led by a queen named Cadista. After some discussion Princess Celestia allowed me to go with one of the trade convoys and visit her hive to learn more about them. But on the way there we were attacked." Several gasps were heard, especially from Fluttershy and Rarity. Rainbow was listening intently, captivated by the story and Pinkie was munching on a bowl of popcorn she had pulled from somewhere. Even Spike, despite knowing the story already, seemed to be listening closely. "I nearly died but Queen Cadista knew that there was one way to save me. A process called rebirth. I could be saved, but I would become a changeling in the process."

Twilight went on to explain a few more things, the girls seemed especially interested in her descriptions of the hivemind. After some more minutes however, the girls' attention shifted back to the problem at hand and Rarity asked: "Now what exactly are we supposed to do about this situation?"

"Well if my time with my friends has taught me anything it's that good friends can get through anything. If we all work together, we can fix this. Who knows, some of the others may even choose to help too."

"Now that's the kinda can-do spirit I'm lookin' for in a Fall Formal Princess! Let's do it, y'all!" Applejack cheered.

"Absolutely!" Rarity agreed with a determined expression.

"Rock on!" Rainbow exclaimed enthusiastically

"Yes, indeedily!" Pinkie, as usual, bore the widest grin of all.

Even Fluttershy gave a whispered 'Yaaay!'

Arriving in the gym, the girls were shocked to see the extent of the damage done but they were determined to do their best anyways, one by one more students came by the hall seeing their work and choosing to join in. In record time the hall was cleaned and then even faster the decorations were restored, more elaborate than ever. By the time they were finished nearly half the student body had come to help.

Their work now done the students quickly dispersed and the girls themselves left for Rarity's home to get ready for the dance, which Principal Celestia had just announced would happen this evening after all. As they left, the Students cast their vote at the ballot boxes set up at the various exits of the school building and the gym, many of them openly voicing their support for Twilight.

At Rarity's home the girls prepared for the dance, some of the time the girls simply spent catching up after being separated for so long, while other times they chose to ask Twilight various questions about both her hive and Equestria. There was some laughter as well, like when Rarity convinced Applejack to let her work her make-up magic. In the end Applejack asked her to remove some of the make up, then some more, and a little more until no one dared tell her she looked exactly like she had before.

Soon enough, however, the time came to head for the dance and the girls did so in a stretch-limousine Rarity had organized somehow. As they drove up towards the school, Twilight entirely entranced by the intriguing technology that was the car they were in, the girls saw other students approaching from all directions, equally dressed up for the dance.

Finally the driver stopped the car and the girls got out, all six of them walking towards the school with purpose before opening the door to the gym and joining the celebrations.

Coronation Celebrations

It had been only a few minutes since the doors opened and it would be a while still before the dance officially started, so by the time the seven friends arrived, the gym was still relatively empty. Spike was happily out and about, as were Fluttershy's animals since for this special occasion Principal Celestia had allowed pets on campus. Being early suited Pinkie just fine and she immediately zipped off to do her duties in managing the party, after all she was the head of the planning committee.

Fluttershy was splitting her attention between watching animals, both her own and the the as of yet somewhat few brought by other students, and chatting with Spike who found the conversation to be eerily similar to the ones he’d had with Fluttershy's counterpart over the first few days he and Twilight had stayed in Ponyville.

Rarity was constantly making small adjustments to her attire while watching that of the other students with professional dedication. Applejack had joined Rainbow near the refreshments, partaking in the cider she had helped bring in the day before.

Twilight meanwhile was socializing with the students, between her training in politics from her time under Celestia's tutelage, her understanding of the relations between friends from her time in Ponyville, her innate commanding presence from being a Queen and her empathic sense keeping her aware of the emotions around her, she was feeling right at home. Highschool politics truly were a far more pleasant affair than dealing with nobles at the royal court, despite - or perhaps because of - the small impact they would ultimately have.

The principals were watching from the edge of the stage as the hall slowly filled with students. After about half an hour, Principal Celestia looked to her sister, who gave an encouraging nod before standing up tall and stepping forward towards the microphone.

"Dear students and faculty of Canterlot High, welcome to our annual Fall Formal Dance, I remind you that the Princess of this year’s Fall Formal will be announced two hours from now. Until then, enjoy the celebrations. With special thanks to Pinkie Pie and the Planning Committee as well as everyone who helped prepare this hall after our ... setback earlier today, I hereby declare the dance open."

As the music started and the students began to dance, Celestia stepped back from the microphone and off the stage so that the first of the few student bands that would provide live music this evening could start setting up. When she turned she saw Luna giving her a sly smirk. "A little formal for a school dance, wouldn't you say."

"I can't help it, I enjoy a bit of ceremony every once in a while. The paperwork already takes up way too much of this job, if there are a few glamorous moments here and there we might as well make them count."

"Fair enough. You always did like these kinds of things."

"Enough!"

The six friends turned to Photo Finish who had just taken their pictures in various costumes, poses, and situations.

"Zhet. Whaz. Everythink. I cannot top zis work.

"I GO!"

As she went, only the camera was left behind spinning in mid air, leaving Photo's assistant, who had introduced herself as Pixel Pizzaz, to catch it before it could hit the floor.

As Rarity loudly wondered if this meant she could keep the wings that had been her latest costume, much to Twilight's amusement, the friends shared another laugh before returning to the party at large.

For a while most of them took part in the dancing with the exception of Fluttershy who was not to big a fan of dancing in public and Twilight who was quite happy being able to walk on two legs and thought dancing might be pushing it a little.

For some time the two remained silent before Fluttershy softly spoke up. "You know, I actually haven't seen Sunset Shimmer yet."

"Huh. Now that you mention it, neither have I." She focused for a second. "No, I can't sense her. Maybe she isn't here yet. Of course it might also just be my empathy getting swamped with all the emotions from the party."

"Well, I'm sure she will show up. It's not like her to give up so easily."

"It's still an hour before they'll officially announce who won. Maybe she won't turn up much earlier than that."

"Maybe ..." As the two settled into an uneasy silence, Pinkie appeared from somewhere, perhaps summoned by their less than optimal party mood, to pull them back into the celebrations.

Over the course of the dance, a number of memorable things happened, chief among them the time Applejack and Applebloom unintentionally challenged Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to a dance-off of sorts. Somehow Applebloom and Scootaloo ended up being the winners of that contest and were given an "Emergency Trophy in the event of an epic Dance-Off" by Pinkie, which made Twilight chuckle once more, remembering the one time she drove herself crazy by going back in time.

Before long, however, the time had come that Flash Sentry's band finished their current song and The Principal Celestia took the stage once more.

"First off, I want to say how wonderful everything looks tonight. You all did a magnificent job pulling things together after the unfortunate events of earlier. And now, without further ado, I'd like to announce the winner of this year's Fall Formal crown. The Princess of this year's Fall Formal is ... Twilight Sparkle"

To the applause of the students Twilight walked up to the stage and took the steps up with ease before stopping in front of the principal. The moment the Element of Harmony touched her brow, a familiar spark of magic touched her mind, as if the Element remembered its bearer. She turned towards the students and gave a wide smile.

A moment passed but then she felt a strong wave of anger from somewhere outside the school.

Sunset. She knows I'm an empath. She's using that to call me. Clever.

She stepped down from the stage and turned towards her friends.

"Girls, we have something to take care of. She's here."

Duel at Sunset

It took only a few moments before all five girls and Spike had understood what she meant. As they left the gym towards the school's main entrance, the students parted before them, confused by the sudden shift in tone. As they approached the main entrance only Twilight knew that students and faculty alike were following them, their curiosity and apprehension easily noticeable with her empathy.

As the doors of the main entrance swung open, Sunset opened her eyes and looked up. She had been concentrating on her emotions to summon Twilight and it had worked as she planned. She was leaning on one side of the portal frame with Snips and Snails standing behind her, their arms crossed in a pose the girls assumed was supposed to be intimidating. Needless to say it had no such effect.

"I see you have your crown back, Queen Twilight Sparkle." At Sunset's words, Twilight and her friends narrowed their eyes while the confused glances shared by Snips and Snails went wholly ignored.

"I do indeed, Sunset."

"Good, now hand it over!" At those words Sunset grabbed behind her and pulled out a Hammer half the size of her own body. She raised it up and brought it in position to strike the portal. "Or you will never see Equestria again."

As her new friends and even Spike gasped in horror, Twilight simply raised a confused Eyebrow. Does she not know how portals work? That's a hammer not a bomb, the guard can safely dispatch of it. After a short moment she crossed her arms and raised her voice to answer. "No."

"You'll never see your friends again."

"Yes I will. Hitting the portal with the hammer will just send the hammer to Equestria. And the Yevruun Vruningee can handle a hammer, trust me."

Five voices from behind her and three from before her simultaneously answered. "Who?" Only Spike remained silent, a knowing smirk on his lips.

"The Queens’ Guard, sorry I lapse into vespid at times."

Twilight couldn't help but roll her eyes at the various 'ahhh' noises from behind her and the two loud 'ohh's from before her. She started slowly approaching Sunset, her friends following behind her. "You don't have to do this Sunset, I know you're lonely but what you're trying to do will not make it better. Revenge will not help you."

Sunset looked like she was considering the offer, carefully watching out to keep her emotions in check. She gave a short nod of her head prompting Snips and Snails to walk off to the sides.

Twilight's new friends stood beside her as she stretched out her hand, focused on Sunset as they were they failed to notice the two boys circling around to stand behind them.

As soon as they had reached their positions, Sunset gained a victorious smirk. "Now!"

At her command, Snails, the taller one of the two, grabbed the crown off Twilight's head and before the girls could react threw it over to Snips who was standing a few meters away, ready to receive it. As he caught it, Sunset dropped all pretense and let her emotions flow freely. The tidal wave of hate and anger momentarily dazed Twilight.

Unaffected by that and thanks to the fast reactions of a trained athlete, Rainbow was the first to realize what had happened, she sprinted towards Snips, cutting him off. Reacting quickly he threw the Element off to Snails who barely caught it, before seeing Applejack headed towards him. The rest of the girls, save for Twilight, now reacting and joining in, he quickly tried to pass it back to Snips but Rainbow caught it before it could ever reach him.

Sunset was now joining in, determined to get the crown she saw as her own. As Rainbow saw her coming she quickly threw it towards Fluttershy. The timid girl was no friend of sports, but over the near decade they had been friends Rainbow had roped her into enough of her more athletic ventures that the two had become a well trained team. With practiced ease she caught the crown before panicking, when she saw both Snips and Snails running towards her. She threw the crown away from them and somehow Pinkie was there to catch it, but Sunset was hot on her heels. Despite Sunset's proximity Pinkie managed to pass the crown to Rarity who promptly tried to pass it on to Rainbow. Snips managed to intercept the throw and gave the crown on to Snails, who - in turn - tried to pass it on to Sunset.

"ENOUGH!"

The crown stopped mid-throw, the air around it softly rippling from the psychic power. Twilight, with Spike's help had found back to her feet. Her friends had seen a short display of her power, but marveled at it nonetheless. Sunset, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. She stared at the crown, slack jawed.

What? How? She doesn't have magic. She can't. But it's ... How is this possible?! As panic started to suffocate her other emotions, she saw a soft smile play across Twilight's lips. "How?!"

"Well, to speak in the words of, well I suppose she'd be my grandmother now, 'It's good to be the Queen.'"

As Sunset was still dumbfounded over what she perceived to be magic, Snips and Snails recovered from their shock. Focused on Sunset as they were, Twilight's friends noticed to late, as Snails ran up, jumped and ripped the crown from Twilight's psychic hold. Snapped out of her mental lock-up, Sunset watched him throw the crown to Snips, who then threw it to her. With a victorious smirk, she caught it.

"Be that as it may, it's time to end this game." As the Crown touched Sunset's brow Twilight could sense how the wild magic flooded her opponent. As it amplified her emotions tenfold, all other thoughts were wiped from Sunset's mind by one, not of hate or anger, but of pure, unbridled, panicked fear: This is wrong.

The thought and the emotion behind it were so stark upon her mind that Twilight read it without even trying to. Then it was wiped away as a wave of magic traveled across Sunset's body.

A pillar of bluish-white light, so bright the others had to shield their eyes, rose up around the girl as she was lifted off her feet. A wave of fire, the same color traveled across her body, as her eyes widened in panic, Turning her skin a deep red. Her hands morphed into claws and her boots changed into ones emblazoned with a fire motif, her clothing was replaced by a short red dress. She pressed her eyes closed as tears of panicked fear, ran down her cheeks. Then the wave of fire ran across her face, evaporating them. Her hair raised up on it's own, floating upwards, held back only by the crown that sat firmly on her head. When the wave of fire had washed over her head completely, her ears now long and pointy, standing off to the sides, she opened her eyes, now black with blue irises, and let out a manic cackle spreading the leathery wings she now possessed.

She raised her hands and twin beams of black and blue shot over the girls beneath her. When they turned they saw that the beams had hit Snips and Snails who were now transforming much like Sunset, but taking on the colors of blue and orange instead.

A number of gasps and screams of panic could be heard as students ran back into the school. Unbeknownst to all of them, everyone who had been attending the Fall Formal Dance had now gathered in the school’s entry hall, some even opening the doors and stepping outside to get a better view, but were now quickly retreating inside.

Despite the short distraction all eyes refocused on Sunset who now raised her voice. "I've had to jump through so many hoops tonight just to get my hands on this crown, and it really should have been mine all along." She let out a feral growl as she pointed a clawed finger at the school's front facade. "But let's let bygones be bygones. I am your princess now, and you will be loyal ... to me!" At her last words, she balled her hand into a fist and it began to glow a light teal. The facade of the main entrance suddenly crumbled into a large ball of rubble, before being deposited to the side with a simple flick of Sunset's wrist.

Sunset's eyes glowed a bright blue and rings formed around the heads of students and teachers alike, before closing in on them. As soon as the rings made contact, their eyes grew vacant before glowing a pale teal. Twilight could sense their emotions and personalities falling away, not gone, but sealed behind this mind control.

Sunset turned back towards the five girls and spoke up once more, pointing at Snips and Snails. "Round them up and bring them to the portal."She turned back to Twilight and her friends. "Spoiler alert: I was bluffing when I said I was going to destroy the portal. I don't want to rule this pathetic little high school; I want Equestria! And with my own little teenage army behind me, I am going to get it!"

"No, you're not!" Twilight had recovered from her shock and was standing in front of the portal, her arms crossed in defiance."

"Oh, please! What exactly do you think you're going to do to stop me? I have magic, and you have nothing!"

Well, I could inform her that I have a direct link to Equestria and a brother who can cast a Shimmershield spell powerful enough to protect all of Canterlot for days on end. But it’s painfully obvious that she isn't thinking straight. As Twilight was busy with her musings the other five stepped up behind her and Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"She has us!"

Sunset released another malicious cackle. "Gee, the gang really is all back together again. Now step aside! Twilight has tried to interfere with my plans one too many times already! She needs to be dealt with!" A single beam of cyan light shot from the crown towards them and they hugged each other in shock, while Sunset was coiling up in manic laughter. All of them had their eyes closed so none of them saw how the beam, the moment it hit them, created a field of magenta magic around them before turning magenta itself, a spark of orange dancing across all of it. Sunset looked back at them and recoiled in shock. "What?"

Twilight took only a moment to realize what had happened. "The magic contained in my Element was able to unite with those that helped create it! You tried using an Element of Harmony to destroy true friendship, obviously that wouldn’t work."

Twilight and her friends started floating upwards and they, too, now started to change. Their ears retracted into their heads as new pairs of furred pony ears grew atop their heads to replace them, their hair lengthened immensely bound together at hip height so it resembled tails, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy grew feathery wings on their backs. Twilight's changes however didn't end there, she felt her hands and feet develop holes, a new strange force within them, and she felt her tongue rub across the fangs that had once more returned. As the transformations reached a close, Twilight looked to Sunset, her blood red gossamer wings buzzing threateningly behind her. "Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty and Magic. Together with the crown they create a magic more powerful than you can imagine, but it is one that you cannot control alone."

Her eyes narrowed as her friends floated behind her, their eyes closing as they instinctively pointed one finger each at her back. Small points of orange, pink, blue, purple and red forming from them before expanding into beams that converged in the point between her wings.

"The magic of Friendship!"

Mirroring her friends she pointed a single finger at Sunset. A point of pure, white light formed at it's tip before expanding in a brilliant, rainbow colored beam, causing her to smile at the familiar sight. The beam wrapped around Sunset forming a whirlwind of Rainbow Light.

"No! What is happening?!"

As Sunset was sucked into the whirlwind of color Twilight calmly continued speaking. "Here and in Equestria, it is the only magic that can truly unite us all!"

Three more beams suddenly erupted from the storm of magic enclosing Sunset, the first two, large powerful beams struck, Snips and Snails, enclosing them in similar, if smaller, whirlwinds. The third was thinner, more focused, as it struck Flash Sentry's forehead the light disappeared from his eyes, he blinked and after a short moment he seemed fine. from there the beam split into two hitting more students before splitting again. It continued on like that until all the students and faculty had been freed.

When Twilight and her friends, touched the ground again, they stood before a large crater. At the bottom of it covered in bruises and scratches, kneeled Sunset Shimmer.

"You will never rule in Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you've shown everyone who you really are. You've shown them what is in your heart."

Only now did Twilight notice that the girl before her was shaking from her own sobs. "I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know there was another way."

Twilight kneeled down and reached out a hand. She could feel the girl's sorrow, fear and loneliness. After only a second, Sunset took her hand and Twilight quietly continued, as she helped her out of the crater. "The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria. It's everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours."

Twilight could feel Sunset's mounting despair. "But ... But all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don't know the first thing about friendship."

Twilight simply smiled at her before pointing at the five girls behind her with a sweeping motion. "I bet they can teach you."

"Those are my girls! Woo-hoo!" Spike's words of joy finally broke the lingering tension.

"Did that dog just talk? Huh, weird." One of the students said incredulously.

Spike turned to him. "Seriously? The talking dog is the weird thing about all this?"

Aftermath

At Spike's incredulous reaction, what remained of the tension there once was, was finally shattered and everyone broke down into various levels of laughter, chuckles and giggles. Even the recently devastated Sunset and the ever stoic Vice-Principal cracked small smiles.

After catching herself, Principal Celestia walked over to the side of the crater and picked up the Element of Magic that had come to rest there. Cautious, after seeing how it had reacted to Sunset, she walked over to Twilight and gave her the crown for the second time this evening. "I believe this belongs to you. A true princess in any world leads not by forcing others to bow before her, but by inspiring others to stand with her. We have all seen that you are capable of just that. I hope you see it too, Princess Twilight."

Twilight gave a soft smile. "I do." And the same goes for a queen, I'd say. The gathered crowd cheered, her friends most of all, before retreating back to the gym to leave Sunset, Snips and Snails, under Luna's ever watchful gaze, to clean up the mess they had made.

Some time later, the party in the gym was once more in full swing, with many students dancing, enjoying food and drink, simply chatting with friends or getting their picture taken, now that Photo Finish and Pixel Pizzaz had returned to their setup.

A few students were looking at the six girls who saved them and their strange transformations. Rarity was reveling in the attention while Pinkie didn't even seem to notice. Applejack seemed mostly indifferent towards it, happily answering questions when asked and generally being as approachable as ever. Rainbow and Fluttershy meanwhile, were flying a short distance under the tall ceiling of the gym, still somewhat unsteady on their new wings, although at least Rainbow seemed to quickly be getting the hang of it.

Both of them turned around, more or less completely, as they heard a deep humming sound. They saw Twilight casually flying up to them, a sandwich floating beside her. She gave them a friendly smile before, to their surprise, turning upside-down in mid air and attaching her feet to the ceiling. After she was sure they were properly secured, she looked to her friends, seeing their dumbstruck expressions.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. At home I can walk on walls and ceilings, the magic here must have replicated that somehow." I really wish I had the time to figure out how. At her friend's continued staring she gave an amused giggle before continuing. "Don't worry about it, it's a changeling thing."

"Okay, that's awesome. But you said you were a shapeshifter. If you can do ..." Rainbow gestured at Twilight's feet that were still attached to the ceiling while she took a bite out of her sandwich, "that, does that mean you can shapeshift now too?"

At her inquisitive glance, Twilight grew thoughtful. "I didn't even think to check, hold on." A moment later a wave of magenta fire with a few small motes of orange washed over her and once it had passed, what Rainbow saw hanging from the ceiling above seemed to be an exact copy of herself. She was only further stunned when the copy perfectly mimicked her own voice. "Huh, seems like I can."

While Rainbow was dumbstruck at that, the short shock at seeing the magical fire was enough to pull Fluttershy from her stunned silence. "Wow, that's amazing, Twilight." She let out a short eep, as another wave of fire washed across the counterfeit Rainbow Dash to reveal Twilight once more. Now that she looked at her newest friend more closely she took note of the holes in her hands and legs. While she looked at Twilight’s legs she also noticed the rippling of air around the hem of Twilight's skirt and suddenly understood why it refused to follow the call of gravity. She smiled at solving that mystery but chose not to comment on it. "Say Twilight, why do you have holes?"

Twilight gave an exasperated smile, "I have no idea, and that bothers me to no end. It's just something changelings have, I guess. As for why, I honestly don't know." Having eaten her food and seeing Fluttershy's confused glance, she detached herself from the ceiling and flew over to embrace her shy friend in a mid-air hug.

Though surprised by this, Fluttershy only took a moment to reciprocate. Twilight relished the freely given love for a short moment before releasing the girl, not wanting to seem clingy. She gave a final smile before turning around and calmly flying back to the floor.

Rainbow finally broke her stunned silence. "So she can fly, she can shapeshift, she can walk on walls, and she feeds on love. Did I forget anything?"

"She lays eggs?" Fluttershy carefully piped in.

"Right, that too." Rainbow shuddered momentarliy at the implications. "She's a strange girl. But she's a good friend." With a smile she turned back to Fluttershy to continue practicing.

Back on the floor, Twilight had landed right next to Rarity who looked up to her as she approached, nearby students respectfully stepping aside to give their princess room to land. "Ah there you are darling, I was wondering where you were. I suppose I forgot to watch the skies as it were."

"I guess you wouldn't be used to having people with wings around."

"Certainly not, darling. That being said, I must say your wings a simply stunning. The way they catch the light is just magnificent. I might even make a dress or two in that visual style."

Twilight calmly listened to her gushing, a soft smile on her lips as she was once more reminded of how closely this Rarity mimicked her counterpart.

Some time later Twilight walked back towards the entry hall, seeing Sunset, Snips and Snails still working away at cleaning up. She approached the Vice Principal who turned towards her the moment she heard her approach.

"Twilight Sparkle, how is the party going?"

"Quite well, everyone is having fun as far as I can tell." Luna gave a pleased nod before Twilight continued. "Say, could I borrow Sunset Shimmer for a moment?"

Luna gave the matter a moment’s thought. "Certainly, you know where to find me."

Sunset looked up and Twilight indicated for her to follow as she stepped out of the hole in the facade and took flight for a moment to get over the crater. Sunset hurried to follow, jumping over the debris and sidestepping the crater. When she caught up, Twilight was casually walking towards the statue that held the portal.

They walked in silence for a short moment, Sunset still too caught up with her internal struggle to get herself to speak and Twilight content to give her all the time she needed.

"Why are you doing this?" Sunset finally asked. "Why are you being so nice to me after everything I did?"

Twilight took to the air and sat down on the edge of the statue's socket, which they had reached by now. "You are responsible for the lives you save." she finally said, quietly.

"Who did you get that wisdom from?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you really need to ask?"

"Princess Celestia, right." Sunset deadpanned. "Nevermind."

The two former pupils of the Princess shared a goodhearted laugh.

After a moment Twilight spoke up quietly. "You feel it too, don't you?"

Sunset sighed and nodded. "Yes, there is magic in this world now."

"Yes, I don't have my horn so I can't sense too much, but even without it I can tell that the leylines nearby are activating."

"I know. I feel the same thing. I wasn't even sure if this world had leylines before."

"It seems like it does. Maybe it had magic at some point or maybe the leyline network here always was dormant. But whatever the case, one fact remains."

"Yes, there is magic in this world now."

"Exactly. And I will have to go back, so they will need you. You're the only one here with an understanding of how magic works. They will need you to help them."

"I will do what I can. It's the least I can do, especially after today."

"They will forgive you, with time."

"That's not what I'm worried about. I don't know if I can forgive myself."

"I can't tell you about that. But it will get easier."

Sunset took a moment to contemplate. "What if your magic hadn't stopped me?"

"I still could have taken control of your mind and stopped you that way."

Sunset nearly fell off of the statue at that news. She only managed to catch herself because Twilight quickly used a bit of telekinesis to arrest her momentum. "You can do that?!" she sputtered.

"Yes, all changeling queens can do that. I just normally choose not to."

"Wow. You are so much better suited to have that kind of power than I am."

"That may have been true a few hours ago. Now ..." She jumped down from the statue and landed softly in the grass below, before turning around and giving her former rival a soft smile. "I'm not so sure."

"Thanks Twilight." Sunset dropped down beside her and they both started walking back towards the school. They continued talking about the two worlds the entire way, both learning numerous interesting things about how the worlds were different and about what had happened in Equestria since Sunset had left. When they reached the inside, after completing a full lap around the school building, they found to their surprise that Luna, Snips and Snails were gone.

It only took a moment however before Luna returned. As she saw the vacant hall she raised an eyebrow. "I see the two of them have left without my authorisation. Detention then. Too bad ... " She grew a sly smirk. "I was just about to release the three of you."

At Sunset's disbelieving stare she chuckled slightly. "What? Did you think we would let you fix this on your own? Aside from that being entirely against school policy I'm also fairly certain that would violate child labour laws. Go ahead, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset kept staring at her for a few moments longer but then shrugged and turned to leave.

While Twilight and Luna watched her go, they heard a voice from behind them. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

They both recognized the voice and turned to see Principal Celestia approaching them.

Twilight gained a soft smile. "I think she will be, given time."

"That's good." Celestia let out a soft sigh "Though I am kinda worried how we're gonna explain that to the insurance companies."

Twilight's eyes lit up at those words. A few quick exchanges over the hive mind later she spoke up. "I may have a solution for that."

The principals turned towards her, confusion clear on their faces.

"Come, I'll explain."

She walked off towards the statue once more and the two women soon followed her.

"As I assume you know by now, I come from another world." The principals had suspected as much after hearing talk about 'Portals' and 'Equestria', so they simply gave noises of vague agreement, prompting her to continue.

"Sunset informed me of a certain, shall we say, discrepancy between our worlds."

The two older women exchanged confused glances once more as the trio arrived at the portal.

"Stand back." Twilight warned. A moment later the portal glowed for a short second before a single, quite sizeable ingot of metal landed on the lawn.

Twilight picked up the heavy object. Before turning around to face them once more. As she did the two women gasped in shock. After a moment of stunned silence Celestia spoke up. "Is that ... gold?"

"It is. Sunset informed me that the value of precious metals is quite significantly higher this side of the portal. Since the damage to your school was caused by an Equestrian citizen with an artifact belonging to the Equestrian people. It seems only fair that the Equestrian government should compensate you for it."

"We cannot accept that." Came the principal's stunned reply.

"You can. Just keep it safe. We wouldn't want it to be stolen like the Fall Formal Crown, right?" She grew contemplative for a moment. "That reminds me" She telekinetically opened her backpack and pulled out the actual Fall Formal Crown. "I believe this is yours." She hovered it over to Luna who took it, still shocked, leaving her equally shocked Sister to hold the heavy gold ingot.

"Now if you don't mind I only have about half an hour before I have to leave. And the party is still going strong."

Farewells

What little time was left passed all too fast and soon enough Twilight, Spike and their new friends, now including Sunset, had gathered by the portal back to Equestria.

"I know we've only been friends for a short while, but I will miss all of you." Twilight gave her newest friends a said smile.

"As will we, darling" At Rarity's words all six came together in a crushing group hug. Twilight happily took in the flavours of their love, before long however they separated and Twilight turned to leave, Spike in tow.

Before she could take three steps towards the portal however, she turned once more to face her latest friend. "Oh, and Sunset,"

The girl had been staring at her feet for some time now, but looked up at Twilight's words.

"I mainly focused on telling the girls about changelings, so there are quite some things they don't know about Equestria. Tell them, okay?"

Hearing that Sunset finally gave a small smile. "I promise."

Twilight turned towards the five others once more. "Take good care of her."

"Will do, sugarcube."

At that, Twilight finally turned to the portal. With Spike right behind her, she stepped through what appeared to be solid stone. Mere moments later girl and dog alike had disappeared without a trace.

High above them, the moon moved along its path. As it reached a position in the exact center between four stars that formed the corner points of a square, a silver shimmer passed across it. At the same time, the shimmer passed across the portal's surface rendering the stone inert once more, as Pinkie soon found out. She walked headfirst into the stone and tumbled back to the ground before getting back up to the collective giggles of her friends.

The moment the portal closed, all five of them changed back, their ears and hair returning to normal. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy lost their wings, which was especially unfortunate for the prior as she had been hovering in mid-air and now plummeted back to the ground.

Back in Equestra, the tree princesses along with, the five element bearers, Gilded Shield and Shining Armor, who had become friends with the Queen's Guard over the last few days, were waiting anxiously before the portal. Just as Luna was giving a worried glance towards her moon, the portal gave a soft sound like something breaching the surface of a lake, and Queen Twilight emerged, soon followed by Spike, the portal sealing behind them.

The queen heard various shouts of 'Twilight' from her friends before being, for the second time in one minute, enveloped in a crushing group hug. After they had separated, she saw the three princesses, giving her kind smiles and Shining Armor bearing a relieved expression. Then her gaze fell upon the lone Queen's Guard in the room.

The drone quickly got up.

After a few minutes the ponies and changelings separated to find their beds or, in Luna's and Gilded's cases, to return to their posts.

After three days the symposium was completed and the time had come for the gathered Royals to depart. Princess Celestia and Queen Twilight had met, once more, in the throne room of the Crystal Spire.

"I can't believe you're letting me take the mirror back to Stripped Gear."

"Why not, Twilight? You are more connected to the world on it's other side than I am."

Through the window they watched a group of unicorns and changelings telekinetically carry the mirror into a shuttle. Before long the shuttle took off to deliver the mirror to the cargo bay of the Column of Spring. As they watched the doors to the room opened and a pegasus poked his head in. The strange thing was that he was wearing the armor of the Royal Guards of Canterlot, rather than that of the Crystal Guards that were a common sight in the empire.

"Ah, Swift Winds, I was wondering when you'd arrive" Celestia gave a soft smile as the Guard bowed.

"My apologies, your Highness, I underestimated the Frozen North." Princess and Queen alike shuddered at the sight of ice crystals in his fur and icicles clinging to his feathers. A golden glow came off of Celestia's horn as she weaved a heating spell to melt the ice away.

Swift Winds tried to suppress a relieved sigh as the ice left his coat and wings. Most pegasi were used to cold temperatures, especially ones raised in Cloudsdale like himself, but the frozen north was a different thing entirely. Now that he could comfortably move his wings again, he reached into his saddlebags and pulled out a book. Thanks to the enchantments on the saddlebags, royal couriers were equipped with, it had been unaffected by the harsh weather. "The artifact you asked for, your Highness."

Celestia smiled and nodded, as her horn lit up, telekinetically taking the book from his grip. Having effectively been dismissed, Swift Winds left back through the doors he had come through. Celestia smiled and held the book out to Twilight. "This is for you. Don't read it now. You will know when the time comes. Don't read it all, only the glowing pages."

Despite the cryptic words, Twilight soon took the book in her own magenta/orange telekinesis. "I guess the time has come for us to return home."

"It would seem that way. The royal chariot is being prepared as we speak."

"Say, how did you stop the chariot from freezing solid when you came here?"

"The same spell I just used to help poor Swift get thawed up."

"I suppose I should have guessed that. Say, why don't we take you, your sister, Swift Winds and the chariot along in the Column of Spring, at least until we leave the frozen north, then you could have a more comfortable journey."

"Oh Twilight, that would be wonderful, thank you."

So it came that, half an hour later, the princesses, the element bearers, and Swift Wind stood with Twilight on the bridge of the Q-ship waving out of the window at Shining Armor and Princess Cadence who waved back as they watched the ship lazily turn towards the south and not too long after, disappear behind one of the mountains that surrounded the small city state.

Two hours later the five five element bearers that were still ponies and Spike, had returned to the ground, standing on Ponyville Town Square while the Column of Spring had resumed it's position above the Golden Oak Library. Rainbow Dash had a small suitcase with her that held a number of belongings she had brought back from her extended stay in Stripped Gear, as such she had elected to accompany the others in a Shuttle, rather than fly down under her own power.

She, Rarity and Applejack were especially glad to be back as they were happily greeted by the crusaders, while Roseluck gave her Queen her greetings over the link.

All too soon the time had come and the friends watched as the Q-ship turned to face south before going under full steam and heading in the direction of the Macintosh-Hills that formed the border between Equestria and the Cresnox Jungle. They waved after the giant construct of brass and steel until long arms extended from the ship, the crystals at their ends pulsing a soft orange and, with a final ripple of the air, the Column of Spring faded from view.

"Soo," Rainbow Dash started with a sly smile towards Scootaloo, "where did the tree sap come from this time?"

"How did you find out about that?" After a moment Scootaloo gave an exasperated sigh as she saw her Mother walk up behind Rainbow Dash, "Right ... hivemind."

Author's Note

And like so EQG 1 comes to an end. But EQG didn't end here, and AQP won't either.

Watch as Sunset makes good on her promise, in 'A Queen's Perspective - Explaining Equestria'.

Until then, thank you all for reading this story and for all the supprt you have been giving it.

A Diplomatic Visit

"So Sugarcube, when were y'all sayin' they'd come?" Applejack asked, righting her hat upon her head as she lead the small group of ponies and one dragon towards the single changeling standing in Ponyville's Town Square alongside three fillies.

Roseluck, who, up to this point, had been gazing up at the sky, a hole filled hoof above her eyes so as to not be blinded by the sun, turned around upon hearing her voice. "Ah there you are. I was just about to send Scootaloo off to look for you." She turned to the three fillies who had been waiting alongside her. "Do you three want to wait until they've left or do you want to go ahead to the house now?"

"About that, darling," Rarity chimed in, a look of concern clear across her features. "are you certain you're okay with watching the crusaders while were in the Crystal Empire? They're sweet fillies, but they can be, well ... a hoofful."

"Hey! We're not that bad, sis!" the indignant voice of Sweetie Belle piped up from beside the changeling.

"Ah dunno, Sweets. We do have a bit of a track record."

"Yeah, our crusading does tend to attract disaster ... and tree sap. But there is no way I'm leaving here before Rainbow Dash shows up." Scootaloo piped in enthusiastically. "How much longer, mom?"

At these words rose turned her gaze back upwards. "Oh don't worry, dear. They're here already. And Rainbow can't wait to see you again."

"They're here? Where? Where?!" Pinkie almost shouted, her constant bouncing somehow not affecting her speech at all.

"Right there Pinkie." Rose pointed a hoof at the sky above the Golden Oak Library.

"I don't see noth- ... -in, uhh." Applejack's comment died on her lips as the air above the library-tree warped, revealing the large brass-colored form of an airship hovering in midair.

"Stripped Gear's airships can cloak, remember? The Column of Spring is going to transport you and the queen to the Crystal Empire." Just as Rose turned away from the airship to face the five friends, a prismatic blur shot out from it's top cargo bay, landing behind her seconds later.

"Hey Girls!" Rainbow jovially approached her friends. "Hey Scoots," she added towards the orange blur that had been standing next to Rose a second earlier, stretching out a hoof which was immediately bumped by the enthusiastic filly.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" Scootallo greeted her idol quickly followed by the rest of the Crusaders and the other 4 Element Bearers plus Spike. With Rainbow distracting everyone only Roseluck noticed the shuttle approaching them from the airship until it's engines roared out to slow it's descent as it pulled in to land.

As the hatch opened it revealed a changeling of tall stature, lavender coat, long, purple mane with a small stripe of orange and deep red gossamer wings. As soon as she had pried Pinkie Pie of her neck, who had somehow managed to hug her before the hatch had even fully opened, it was revealed that she had deep purple eyes with slitted, reptilian pupils.

"My Queen" Rose bowed deeply as soon as Twilight had pacified the enthusiastic baker.

"Now Rose you know that I'm not a queen yet."

"Of course, but your development is complete. Technicalities aside you are a queen in all but title, sister." Rose pointed out as she rose from her bow.

"Well, I suppose." Twilight nodded before turning towards her friends while the CMCs bounded past her to investigate the shuttle. "Hi Girls, it's been too long" she greeted happily only to find herself embraced in a group hug. While she jovially caught up with her friends she quickly messaged the shuttle pilot to keep watch to make sure the CMCs wouldn't hurt themselves in exploring the shuttle.

"Gotta say, Twi, them airships o' yours sure are somethin'." Applejack remarked as the spires of the Crystal Empire came into view.

"Indeed." Rarity agreed "The train would have taken all day and this ship, well, it's been barely two hours, hasn't it?"

The five ponies and one dragon had joined Twilight in coming to the bridge after she had told them they would be reaching the empire soon. Applejack, Rarity and Spike, still new to the sensations of flying, were intently looking out of the large windows in the Q-ship's bridge while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were casually chatting with Twilight who had sat down in the small throne behind the captain's chair. Pinkie was bounding all over the bridge, seemingly more interested in the airship itself than the sensation of flying.

"One hour and 53 minutes actually. We'll be there before we reach two hours." Twilight pointed out while silently placating the annoyed bridge crew by sending them resigned pragmatism over the hive mind. She was well used to Pinkie’s antics, after all.

a drone in the cargo bay notified the young royal.

After sending the engineer her thanks Twilight turned to her friends. "Come girls, we should get to the shuttle." She rose from the throne and quickly left the bridge followed by her friends.

"Her Majesty, Queen Twilight Sparkle." A golden coated pegasus guardspony announced to the sound of a horn fanfare the moment Twilight opened the door to the throne room.

"Twilight!" Princess Cadance gleefully greeted her sister in law "It's been far too long"

"True, I really need to visit more often. The Jungle is just so far away."

"I’m so glad you could come, Twilight," Princess Celestia spoke up, "the same goes for your friends, of course."

"Great to see you again, Twily," Shining Armor joined the greetings, hugging his sister but ending up in a somewhat awkward position, unused to hugging somepony taller than him. "Oh my, looks like you're the big sibling now."

"It's good either way, Shiny" Twilight slowly said, getting a bit dizzy from all the love she was receiving.

"Twilight Sparkle," Princess Luna piped in as everypony started gathering around to talk properly, "how are things in the jungle?"

"Luna!" Twilight exclaimed happily, "Things have been quiet recently, at least in our area. Some smaller conflicts between other queens but nothing that would affect us."

"Say, Princess Cadence," Spike spoke up from his position on Twilight's back, "why were all the crystal ponies looking at me so much?"

"Well Spike, it seems that they were quite impressed by your actions to save the Crystal Heart earlier this year." Cadence explained jovially, "You seem to have become somewhat of a national hero in the empire."

"Oh, so that's why. Sweet."

"Nice going, Spike." Rainbow winked.

In the early morning hours of the next day, a hooded figure was sneaking through the hallways of the Crystal Spire. Avoiding the guards, the intruder slowly made their way to the room Queen Twilight Sparkle and Spike were bedding in for the night. The tall double door to the chamber lit up a greenish blue and opened with a soft creak. A pair of cyan eyes glanced across the room: the basket where Spike was sound asleep, the bed where the large form of the changeling queen was hidden beneath the covers, and the bedside table where the gleaming magenta crystal and golden tiara of the element of magic were glistening in the moonlight that came shining through the window.

A malicious smile danced across a muzzle of golden yellow and the horn poking out from the hood lit up once more as a saddlebag hidden under the unicorn's hood opened and a second tiara was revealed, looking very similar to the first but made of brass and glass instead of gold and raw, crystallized magic. The glow of the unicorn's magic engulfed the Element of Harmony and quickly replaced it with the tiara that had been brought along.

Satisfied, the unicorn turned to leave, narrowly avoiding detection as Spike turned in his sleep and moved his tail where their hoof would have been a second later. Softly releasing a breath that had been held in a moment of panic, the hooded intruder sidestepped the dragon's tail and quietly trotted out of the room.

At the ceiling of the chamber a grey furred form with an orange mane pinged her sleeping queen, light blue glowing eyes still pinned to the door the unicorn had left open to avoid waking the room's occupants with a creak or the bang of a door falling shut faster than intended.

As soon as Twilight Sparkle stirred under her covers the repeated pings over the hive mind were replaced with a coherent message.

Before the last echoes of the message had left the back of her mind, Twilight Sparkle was wide awake, sitting upright in bed staring at the open door where the hooded figure could be seen turning a corner.

Twilight rose from her bed and flew out of the room followed by the drone, a quick sound muffling spell hiding the buzz of their gossamer wings. Turning her head, Twilight gave her a kind nod before speaking to the local hive mind. she quickly added. Gilded's snicker went unheard in the muffling spell.

Sunset Shimmer was rather happy with the situation. She had successfully replaced the Element of Magic with the stolen Fall Formal crown without being detected. Why the two looked so similar she couldn't begin to guess, but she decided to simply add it to the long list of strange parallels between Equestria and her current home. The little dragon had almost ruined everything but she had managed to sidestep him at the last moment. Crisis averted.

She turned from the last staircase and into another crystal hallway that looked exactly like all the others. Sparing a glance at the tiara that was still floating beside her she studied the intricate details of the gold and the otherworldly sheen of the central gem. She turned her head back forward as she approached her destination.

Turning a corner through a door, Sunset only had a second to stare up at the large mirror that held the portal to another world before she was pulled from her thoughts as a powerful magical aura wrested control over the Element from her. To add insult to injury the same aura also pulled away her cloak, leaving her extremely recognizable combination of coat, mane and cutiemark visible for all to see.

"Not so fast."

Following Gilded's command three of the small squad of changeling guards that had been assigned to escort Twilight to the summit had followed the trail of open doors the mysterious intruder had left in their wake. They easily found the room with the large mirror standing on a pedestal at the center of the back wall. At Twilight's command they had attached themselves to the ceiling, waiting in ambush.

Now, Twilight and Gilded joined by two more sentry drones were flying close behind the unicorn that had the Element of Magic still floating alongside her. As she turned to enter the room with the portal, momentarily stopping to gaze at the crystalline frame and reflective surface, beautifully framed by Luna's night sky in the windows behind it, Twilight landed behind her, the guards following her lead. With a strong pulse of telekinesis she took the Element from the unicorn’s magic aura and removed the dark grey cloak to reveal an amber unicorn mare with a wavy mane of the same color with strands of bright crimson and a cutie mark of a stylized sun half in yellow half in red with the center colors swapped.

"Not so fast." she announced, quickly cutting out the muffling spell, as the mare spun around. "Who are you? And why are you trying to steal my crown?"

The panic on the unicorn's face was quickly replaced, first with bright hot anger, then with cold hate. With a pulse of telekinesis she pulled the element away from Twilight, underestimating her own strength and pulling to fast. As she tried to stop the tiara from flying into the mirror behind her, Twilights aura wrapped back around it interfering with hers as they fought for control over the headdress. In their struggle neither mare could stop the artifact from flying in a high arc across the room and leaving nothing but a soft ripple as it flew into the mirror.

Whirling back around to face the mirror, Sunset saw three more drones like the ones behind the Changeling Queen landing between her and the mirror, their wings threateningly buzzing and horns trained at her, glowing orange. Behind them Sunset saw a band of orange growing on the horizon. With a final gaze at the mirror she closed her eyes and focused.

Everypony else in the room and Twilight at the door were blinded a second later by the sunrise rebounding between the reflective walls of the castle before the enchantments to suppress that very effect could react. They heard a crackle of magic, a deep whooshing sound, and by the time they could see again, the mysterious unicorn was gone.