“Sunset!” Twilight screamed, her voice loud enough to carry over the roar of the helicopter.

Sunset looked up from where she sat with Rainbow Dash, finishing off the last of the PBR. It was still disgusting.

Twilight hopped down from the helicopter, then sprinted across the platform, tears in her eyes. Without even stopping to say hello, she threw herself at Sunset, wrapping her arms around and holding like she never wanted to let go. “I’m, so, so sorry!”

“Hey, Twilight. It’s been a while.” Sunset smiled, and patted her on the head.

“I don’t know what I was thinking!” Twilight sniffed, and buried her face into Sunset’s jacket. “I worked so hard to make everything safe, wanted it to be perfect, something that wouldn’t go wrong for you! But I never even thought about hostile aquatic life. There was still room left in the budget, I could have come up with some beanis based defense systems, and this could have all been avoided.”

Sunset sighed, then disentangled herself from Twilight, and stood up, pulling Twilight up with her. “Hey. Everyone’s alive and well. Besides, you really did have some cool stuff down there. I would’ve loved to see more in a less life-threatening setting.”

Twilight took off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. “Really?”

“Honest. And hey, all’s well that ends well, right?” Sunset frowned, then glanced down at the ocean. “Well, you might be a couple billion in the hole.”

“I’m not worried about the money. Just that you guys are okay.” Twilight took a deep breath, and shuddered.

“Shouldn’t you be, Miss Sparkle?”

Sunset turned to see a tall, imposing woman standing behind Twilight, her arms crossed. The setting sun perfectly caught her silhouette, lending her an aura of dominant radiance.

“Hi, Mom!” SkAIstar called out, popping up to her feet and waving.

The woman—Queen Novo, presumably—blinked, confusion crossing her face. “Skystar? I thought I told you to stay home. How did you get here?”

SkAIstar bit her lip, and fidgeted a bit. “I’m, um, her AI copy. Sorry, I wasn’t sure what to do, so I followed them up in the escape pod.”

Queen Novo stared long and hard at the electronic facsimile of her daughter, her gaze cold enough to freeze even the hottest passions. Finally, her eyebrow twitched, and she spun on her heels. “Come then. I’ll have to figure out what to do with you. Miss Sparkle? Finish up your business here quickly. We have much to discuss regarding the future of Beanis Inc.”

Twilight winced.

SkAIstar pumped her fist into the air, gave everyone a quick hug and said her goodbyes, then followed after her mother(?).

“So,” Twilight said, twirling one finger in the air. “Um, this is going to be tricky to negotiate. I don’t suppose you could give me a hand? We could catch up along the way!”

Sunset sighed, and rested her hands behind the back of her head. “Sorry, Twilight. But I gave that up a long time ago. After everything I’ve been through, I want to get back to the mainland, and take a nice, long shower. Plus, there’s still a little baby I’ve been dying to meet, so.”

“O-okay.” Twilight closed her eyes, but steeled herself, and managed a smile. “But, we can talk later, right? Maybe get dinner? You’re… really back?”

“Yeah, I’m back.” Sunset grinned, and clapped Twilight on the shoulder. “I still love traveling, mind you. But I’m not going to run away anymore.”

Twilight nodded. “Good. Thanks. I’d better get going then. I’ll send you the details!” Twilight waved, then took off running back towards Queen Novo.

Sunset turned back to Rainbow Dash. “You ready to get back home?”

Rainbow Dash stared off towards the mainland. “I thought I was going to die down there. One minute, I wasn’t sure I ever really wanted this. Now, I just really want to see Fluttershy and Fizzlepop again.” She sniffed, then stood up.

“Let’s not keep them waiting then, huh?” Sunset grinned. “I really want to meet the little bastard too, you know.”

Something told Sunset that from now on, the future was going to be bright.

Author's Note

Parts of the core premise and structure of this story ~~blatantly ripped off~~ inspired by Ever 17, a visual novel that I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who's ever actually read.

A big thanks to r5h for providing the setup in Blood Dome, and all the others in the BCU server who helped to preread and edit.

Cover art by Chris the Blue