Twilight stood still, her wings drooping. She had just had the fight of her life against an army of a thousand dragons. A thousand. A. Thousand. Dragons. She was having trouble coming to terms with this. She had almost forgotten how to calm down.
"You did it," said Celestia, making Twilight jump.
"I know," she breathed.
"You are one amazing pony."
"Am I?"
"You are."
"I really hope that doesn't happen again."
"What part? The battle against the dragons or the huge explosion caused by your magic?"
"All of it," Twilight panted, "my, my, magic is a pain sometimes, isn't it?"

The ponies around her were getting up, rubbing their sore eyes and looking at the purple alicorn who had created the blast of magic that drove the dragons away. It had never even been heard of before, and was unlikely to happen again. Among the ponies were Twilight's five best friends: Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They walked over, then sped up to a trot, then they galloped towards their friend, beaming. Celestia stepped to one side as they exchanged hugs and the other ponies gave a round of applause and whistled and whooped and cheered. It was a huge victory. Equestria didn't like upsetting their dragon neighbours, but the dragons had been trying to take the Crystal Heart and were destroying the Crystal Empire in the process. Mainly by eating as many gems as possible.

All the ponies except for the Main 6 and Celestia stayed to repair the damage caused by the dragons. However, Celestia and the Main Six had to find Starswirl and Spike. They were found in Princess Cadance's palace, which was miraculously still intact. Then they had to teleport to Twilight's palace to help Sunset. Twilight raced to the mirror portal and opened the glowing, vibrating journal next to it, fearing that Sunset was being attacked by the Sirens. She read aloud: "Hey Twilight, Dazzlings are coming home to Equestria." Everypony in the room gasped.
"Uh-oh," said Pinkie Pie.
"Please tell me that isn't as bad as it sounds," groaned Rainbow.
"Well," replied Fluttershy, "Sunset said they were reformed, that they had learned from their mistakes. I think she's right."
Celestia said to all of them, "I trust Sunset Shimmer's judgement. I was only a filly when the Sirens were banished, and I did not know their entire story. However, based on her previous letter, I think that she is correct." She turned to Twilight. "I have to go back to Canterlot to see Luna. Send a letter to Sunset in the journal and go through the portal." Twilight nodded and Celestia disappeared. Twilight scribbled a note to Sunset, told her friends to stay in case the Dazzlings were still dangerous, and placed the journal on the stand above the mirror. She ran through the glass and was suddenly in Canterlot High School's courtyard.

It was exactly the same as last time: the statue of a horse on its hind legs stood proud and tall behind her; the school building gleamed like new in front of her. She sat by the portal and waited until she heard Sunset's voice. She got up and went, "Boo!" from behind the statue. Sunset and the Dazzlings jumped and laughed.
"So, the famous Princess Twilight Sparkle," said Adagio, "we meet again. Apologies for the whole take-over-the-school thing, it was nothing personal."
"No problem," Twilight replied. "Time to return to Equestria." The Dazzlings came forward, but Sunset stayed where she was. "Sunset?"
"No," said Sunset.
"You're not banned from coming home, you know."
"No. I don't want to. I hurt too many people - I mean ponies - when I was there."
"If the Dazzlings and Discord the Draconequis can be forgiven, so can you."
"The Sirens had thousands of years to be forgiven in."
"I forgave Discord very quickly."
"No. I can't leave this world. It's just as fascinating as Equestria."
"Why not come on holiday here?"

Sunset had never, ever thought of this. A holiday? She'd never even imagined Twilight saying those words. A holiday. It wasn't permanent, so why not? Unless Twilight Sparkle stopped her from leaving...
She would never do that.
How do YOU know?!
Because she's my friend.
Princess Twilight Sparkle is famous. She has lots of friends.
Shut up and...
It's bad for your psyche to swear at yourself. It's bad for my psyche for you to exist.
"Well?" questioned Twilight, cutting off the argument in Sunset's head between herself and her demon.
"Sure, why not? Apologies, my demon persona and I were having a row."
"That can't be good."
"It speaks to me every day. It tried to take over while I was trapped in that other dimension with the Dazzlings-"
"You can use our names, you know," said Aria.
"And I had to fight it off with magic. I used more magic than I have ever used, even in Equestria."
"Ouch," the Dazzlings said together.
"Shut. Up. Demon. Not. Interested," Sunset said through gritted teeth.
"What did she say?" asked Twilight nervously.
"Something about a grand scheme to take over the world. Honestly, the only way that's happening is if I let it out. Which. Is. Not. Happening. Shut. Up. In. There."
"You should pay attention to what it says, whether it is out of the ordinary or not," said Adagio, "our inner dragons tell us a lot about ourselves. It could let something slip." She looked at the portal.
"Equestria, here we come!" Sonata squealed. The Dazzlings held hands and ran through the portal. Twilight nodded to Sunset and said, "When school finishes for summer, pop over for two weeks. Until then." Sunset watched her friend disappear through the portal.

In Equestria, the Dazzlings were getting very excited. Adagio Dazzle could not stop grinning, Aria Blaze was admiring her pony self in the mirror, and Sonata Dusk was jumping higher than Pinkie Pie and yelling, "Oh my gosh, I'm a pony, I'm a pony!"
Twilight coughed. They all stopped and looked at her. Twilight turned her head slightly. The Dazzlings turned their heads.

Celestia, Luna and Starswirl were there.
Starswirl spoke first. "Adagio, Aria, Sonata. My beautiful creations of love and hate. I owe you three an apology. I should not have tried to get rid of you. You can create friendship as well as destroy it. I should have let you do what you love. Apology accepted?" The three ponies ran up to Starswirl and hugged him.
"I think they've forgiven you," Celestia laughed. "You three are powerful, and will make a great asset to Equestria. There will always be a place for you in Equestria - as long as you keep those dragons under control. I've had enough of dragons for a few days, what with those thousand creatures descending on the Crystal Empire." She shook her head.
Adagio stopped hugging Starswirl, looked up and asked, "What do we do first?"
"Well," said Luna, "I could do with a hand when dream walking."
"And I think Equestria needs more love and friendship spread around," added Celestia.
"Plus, the Changelings now feed off love all the time and are allied with Equestria, so you could go and help them," said Twilight.
"Woah, woah, too much to do!" exclaimed Adagio.
"You could split up," Luna suggested.
"Yeah," murmured Aria, "we could. One of us could work throughout Equestria in the day, one of us could walk in dreams with Princess Luna, and one of us could work outside Equestria with the dragons and Changelings. Who's going where?"
"I would like to work in the day," said Adagio, her unicorn horn lighting up.
"Oh, oh, I could be with the Changelings and the dragons!" shouted Sonata. "I am a pegasus, after all."
"Maybe we can have shifts. One week, I work in the day, the next week I dreamwalk, then the next week I spend time with the Changelings and dragons."
"Brilliant," said Luna. She frowned for just a moment, then smiled. Still, Twilight noticed. She ignored it.
"So, we have a schedule to stick to," she began, "Sonata, this is your week outside Equestria. Aria, you can work with Luna this week. Adagio, I'll need your help here in Ponyville, and we might have to go to the Crystal Empire to help out there..."

Author's Note

Oh yeah, I forgot to credit SSPeanutButter for the whole Sunset's-demon-speaks-in-red concept. Thank you SSPeanutButter for including this in your story What The Left Hand Is Doing. For those of you who haven't read it, it's based after the Friendship Games and was written before Legend of Everfree came out. It's about Sci-Twi and the new voice in her head called Midnight Sparkle. I would absolutely 100% recommend it - it was hilarious in places!