As could be deduced from the cheerful humming and wide grin as she straightened up her private chambers in the castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle, the ruler of Equestria, was excited. She was more excited than she had been in quite a few years, possibly even since her former student had informed her that she was getting married.
The evening before, Spike had informed her that Celestia and Luna had finally returned from their nearly forty-year vacation (thirty-nine years and 8 months, to be precise; Twilight had been keeping track), and they wanted to see her again in the morning. Upon hearing the news, she immediately had Spike clear her schedule for the rest of the week so they could have a proper reunion. Barring the rising and setting of the sun and moon, she knew the systems she had in place would keep Equestria going without her just fine for a short time.
Twilight glanced at the clock again. It was already 7:30 in the morning, and while Spike said they hadn't given a time, she hoped that they showed up soon. She realized she had started pacing, and settled down on a cushion to meditate a bit.
After about twenty minutes, she heard a knock on the door, and immediately jumped to her feet. She then heard the voice she had missed so much, and felt her eyes begin to water a little.
"Twilight, are you in? Spike said tha–"
Celestia suddenly found herself surrounded by something large and purple, crushing her in a great hug and cutting off the rest of her sentence. Not to be outdone, after a few seconds she returned the hug in full force. "Twilight!" Celestia exclaimed into her neck. Thirty seconds later, Twilight still seemed unwilling to conclude the hug, so she continued, "I missed you too, Twilight, but we're still in the doorway and everypony can see us."
Twilight reluctantly withdrew and gestured for Celestia to follow, walking over to one of the cushions that were set up next to a round table, which had already been prepared with Celestia's favorite brand of tea, as well as some other supplements on the side. As they got comfortable, Celestia took in the sight of her former student, eyes wide and jaw dropped (though she would always claim in the years to come that her jaw was very much in place, thank you very much). Her gaze focused first on her slender legs, then up to her massive wings, and then up further, where she found having trouble focusing on a single sight. She eventually settled on her hair, flowing as if it was in an invisible breeze, with stars briefly sparkling before fading away. Before they left, Twilight had been slightly larger than the average mare, but still smaller than Cadance, let alone Luna and herself; now she was noticeably larger than even Celestia.
Celestia refocused her eyes on Twilight's face and said, "I... see that you've changed quite a bit since we've been gone. In the six years since you became an alicorn until your coronation, then the four additional years between then and Luna and I leaving, you hadn't grown an inch. We thought that you weren't going to go through any additional growth, but apparently that couldn't be further from the truth. What caused..." Celestia waved her hoof at Twilight, momentarily speechless. "...well, all this?"
Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, it surprised us as well. About five years after you two left, I started growing again. Equestria's best doctors and royal magicians think that my magic had been gradually growing ever since my ascension, and at some point my body became insufficient to hold it all, so it began growing to match my steadily increasing pool." Twilight gestured first to her legs and body, then higher up. "Some of the growth happened pretty gradually, while other parts of the growth happened a bit more suddenly. It caused quite the commotion in the papers for quite a while, but they got used to it after a few months."
Forcing herself to stop staring again, Celestia said, "Luna and I also went through significant extended growth due to being alicorns, but our experience was significantly different from yours, so we assumed that since you didn't show any signs of continued growth after ascending, you were already at your full alicorn stature."
Twilight shrugged. "Our best guess is that you and Luna already started off with your magic at sufficient levels to force your bodies to grow, so it just seemed like it was normal aging, with the specifics being because you were alicorns. My magic continued to grow past what yours did, which is why I'm even bigger than you now. This continued until eight years ago. My magic has stopped increasing, so they think I'm done growing for good, but you never know." Twilight's eyes gained a mischievous gleam. "Based on your old doctor's notes, I'm eight inches taller than you, so now I get to call you short!"
Twilight smirked and reached over to pat Celestia on the head, who batted it away while sticking her tongue out. After her successful defense, Celestia picked up her tea and took a sip. "I see that you remembered the type of tea I enjoy. Did you get this for me last night when you heard we had returned?" Twilight blushed, hiding her face with one wing, and Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"Ah... Well, I kind of panicked when I realized I hadn't prepared anything for us this morning. I know you don't like coffee, and I don't usually stock my chambers with tea. However, just when I was about to send for someone to check the kitchen stores, I found a lone package of your favorite tea in the back corner of my cupboard, hiding behind a half dozen packages of coffee." Twilight peeked one eye between her feathers.
Celestia exhaled. "I would hope you would know me better by now, Twilight. I wouldn't have cared if we didn't have anything at all and had to go to a walk-in restaurant for our meeting. I plan to stay in Equestria for at least a few decades, and I'll have plenty of time for my favorite tea."
Twilight relaxing, settling back onto her cushion. "Yeah, I know, but it's hard to completely throw off that part of me. It's been quite a while, and my memory isn't perfect; you and Luna have been gone for longer than I had been alive when you two left, after all." Twilight suddenly put a hoof to her face, thinking. "Now that I think about it, where's Luna? I was expecting her to have come with you."
Celestia let out an exasperated sigh. "Even though Luna changed her sleeping cycle to match a normal schedule after no longer being in charge of Equestria's dreams, she's still not a morning pony. On days like this where there's nothing urgent, I don't usually see her up until at least 10:00, and I thought it'd be nice to get some one-on-one time with you, so I let her sleep. After we finish up here, we can go down to the hotel and the three of us can go out together."
"That would be great," Twilight replied. "I've cleared the rest of my week, so at some point I think it'd be great of we met up with all of the girls and maybe even Discord. I'm sure Pinkie has heard the news by now and has a 'the former princesses have returned from their vacation' party already set up and waiting."
Celestia looked down, gazing sadly at her empty cup. Twilight rolled her eyes and levitated the pitcher of tea over. Celestia happily refilled her cup, prodding, "On that note, I've been wondering how the girls were doing. I'm sure that Discord is as eternally constant as ever, but the others have to be starting to get on in their years." She watched Twilight closely for a reaction to the topic, but didn't notice anything.
Twilight broke out into a huge grin. "Oh, they're doing great. Rainbow Dash finally retired from being Wonderbolt Captain last year. Applejack had been bugging her for years, saying she was getting too old to keep doing full Wonderbolt-level stunts, and it seems she finally relented. She refused to be idle, though, and is now a full time instructor at the Wonderbolt Academy. It seems all those years of paperwork and and organizing belligerent newbies helped her hone her attention span, and she's actually taken pretty well to teaching."
"I'm surprised that even Applejack managed to get Rainbow to slow down, even for a minute," Celestia said.
"Well, I imagine them being effectively married for almost three decades gave her a bit of a leg up." Twilight wiggled her eyebrows as if to say "if you know what I mean".
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What exactly do you mean by 'effectively' married?"
Twilight replied, laughing. "Everyone knows that they're a couple; they know it, we know it, even the public knows it. However, they've never officially tied the knot in a wedding, and every time someone asks, they always deny it or change the subject. They even live together at Applejack's house when Rainbow isn't out on Wonderbolts business."
"Applejack is still working the farm, to the surprise of no one. She's still chugging along as she always has, and given that she's an Apple, I don't see that changing any time soon, either. She has no kids of her own, but her nephew and niece seem to be on track to carry on her legacy."
"Rarity is now the third richest business pony in Equestria, with dozens of chains selling her clothing and the clothing of her assistants throughout Equestria. She's mostly retired by now, but she still takes the occasional personal request." Twilight frowned and bit her lip. "She never did find that romance she was looking for. She's had extended flings with a few suitors, but they never worked out. She and Spike dated for a while about 15 years ago, but the species difference was too great. Spike, being a dragon, instinctively courts much slower than ponies do, and the differences became too uncomfortable. They're still great friends, but Rarity never really tried again. She seems content enough, but I've always wondered if she's disappointed."
Twilight seemed lost in thought, so Celestia gave her a telekinetic poke, startling her back to attention. Twilight seemed to be fine, so Celestia said, "What about you? Did you found a special somepony over the years? I know you had an eye on that orange pegasus back before we left."
Twilight shrugged. "Yeah, I did, but my new duties of ruler of Equestria took up all my time back when my status was new. By the time things calmed down a bit and I actually had the free time to really pursue what I wanted, he'd changed jobs and moved away, and it didn't feel right to use my position to seek him out. I've had a few dates, and one pony that I actually went out with for about a year, but nothing too serious. I'm still interested, but I've got plenty of time to find a special somepony." Twilight's eyes lit up before she continued, "Oh, but I did find a wonderful student of my own about five years after you left. While it wasn't bad enough to justify government intervention, she didn't have the greatest home situation, so she spent more of her time with me than she did with her parents, so I started to think of her as my own. She's grown up and has her own family now, but she works in the palace as the head researcher at the Royal Institution of Magic."
Satisfied that Twilight was out of her funk, Celestia cued her to continue.
"Pinkie Pie got married to Cheese Sandwich, another skilled party planner, about thirty-five years ago. They had a little colt shortly after, who took over at Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville after the previous owners retired. He's not a party planner like his parents, simply a baker, but I hear he plans to spread his business to Canterlot soon, following in the footsteps of his Aunt Rarity."
"Fluttershy is still the same as ever, living at her animal sanctuary. She's got it set up with Discord so that there's a permanent portal between there and Discord's own personal dimension, so they've got essentially infinite space for her animals. The two of them got married about thirty years ago, but as far as I can tell it hasn't changed Discord a bit. I will say that he at least now runs his harebrained plans through Fluttershy first, ever since you know what happened." Twilight sighed exasperatingly. "He still pops in to annoy me at all times of the day, no matter where I am, of course. It's gotten to the point that petitioners sometimes seem disappointed when a day of court goes by and he hadn't made an appearance. They adopted a little unicorn about twenty years ago, and she was as wonderful to her as she is to her animals."
Twilight's eyes almost glowed. "Starlight is still running the School of Friendship. Sunburst retired about five years ago, but she's showing no signs of slowing down despite being about ten years older than the rest of my friends. The school is only about sixty percent pony now, which is a big difference from how it was at the start, if I do say so myself."
Sensing the end to a topic, Twilight and Celestia sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying each others' company. Eventually, Twilight said, "So yeah, they're all doing pretty great. I'm sure that we can all find some time to get together together while I'm off, and they'll all be happy to see you, even Discord. Anyway, I think that's enough about me. I've been burning with curiosity to learn about what you and Luna have been up to for the past decades."
Celestia's eye lit up. "Oh yes, it was wonderful, our first vacation ever that was longer than a couple weeks, and one where we didn't even have to keep an eye on the sun and moon, to boot. I imagine she'll want to talk about it herself, but Luna's really grateful that she's been given a break on patrolling dreams."
Twilight frowned. "Well, given all my other duties, I've sadly only been able to handle dreamwalking once a week, since I can't afford to mess up my sleep schedule more often that that. I can catch the real problem cases of ponies that have chronic nightmares or deep-seated worries, but my ponies are having many lesser nightmares that I can't all handle. I'm sorry if Luna was expecting more, but doing more on my own is beyond me. I tried to contact Luna in her dreams a couple times while you guys were away to get her advice, but apparently she's a really sound sleeper these days, so I never found her."
Celestia put a hoof to the base of her horn, thinking. "Well, I'm sure it's fine, but we can talk to Luna sometime and see what she says. If she feels it's a big enough issue, she might decide to pull partial dreamwalking duty from now on." Refocusing on Twilight, she said, "Regardless, I never heard of any irreversible problems from when no one was handling it for the thousand years she was gone, so I'm sure it can wait a bit longer. Back to my story!"
"The first year or so was spent exploring Equestria again, kind of like our small vacation before your coronation, but with us spending actual time in each city to find all the sights. I'm sure you're pretty familiar with the types of things we got up to; museums, theater, gambling parlors, and then the wilderness exploration. Luna especially loved the gambling in Las Pegasus; it was almost like she was nocturnal again. It's fortunate that we have quite the generous pension, or else Luna would have likely ended our vacation right then and there. Would you happen to know anything about that?" Celestia winked, and Twilight feigned mock innocence.
"After that, we expanded our roaming and spent a few years exploring our close allied nations. Before your time as the Princess of Friendship, the only countries we had diplomatic relations with were the hippogriffs and the griffons. However, the hippogriffs withdrew from politics when they came under threat by the Storm King, and the griffon government collapsed after the loss of the Idol of Boreas, so it had been a while since we had direct contact with either of their cultures. Even then, they've changed significantly, since the hippogriffs now having a significant seapony aspect to their culture, and the griffons are still rebuilding their nation. It was quite a while ago when we last were there, but they'd managed to create a council to run Griffonstone, and had been making good progress in rebuilding their infrastructure, based on what you said Rainbow and Pinkie reported. Visting the yaks and the dragons was even more eye-opening, since ponies have never had consistent interaction with their civilizations. Yaks have always been notoriously secluded, while dragons only ever came to Equestria to find a cave or mountain to store their treasure in. The changelings were the easiest to visit of our recent contacts, since Thorax is so incredibly friendly."
Twilight searched through the objects on the table before settling on some additional sugar for her tea. As she stirred, she said, "Well, our relations with the hippogriffs have been strong ever since the end of the Storm King, but Griffonstone is only just now starting to become strong enough to be interested in establishing diplomatic connections. Over the last decade, we've been seeing a lot of emigration by griffons who were born in Equestria, but wanted to travel back to Griffonstone to support a nation of their own, so they've started to reestablish multiple towns instead of just the one remnant city they've had for centuries." She offered Celestia some of her sugar, but she shook her head. "The dragons have changed a lot as well, ever since Ember became the Dragon Lord and dragon students started attending my school. We all owe a lot to Spike and his friendship with Ember for his influence there. We've also started relations with the Abyssinians to the south and the Diamond Dogs scattered around in countless underground colonies, but it's been slow going since they've been in a passive war with each other for centuries."
Celestia held up her hoof while as finished her current cup. After setting it down, she said, "Speaking of Spike, when we saw him last night, he seemed a bit smaller than I would have expected. While he was still taller than Luna and I, for a dragon of his age, I would have expected him to be two or three times as large. There isn't something wrong with him, is there? We had his egg for almost fifty years before you came along and managed to hatch it, and I'd hate to think that it somehow stunted his growth."
"You don't have to worry about that," Twilight replied. "About fifteen years ago, he was beginning to get large enough that traversing pony buildings was getting difficult. We knew the problem was only going to get worse, so I assigned the Royal Institute to develop some magic for me to cast on him that allows him to change from his actual form to a smaller one that is more convenient. We managed to get it so that Spike is in control of the transformation, which is fortunate. We'll have to renew it every twenty years or so to make sure it doesn't run out, but it's been quite useful so far. Spike's true form is actually quadrupedal now, and about fifteen feet long, so he wouldn't really have been able to do any of his work at the castle without it. We also offered it to Dragon Lord Ember so that our meetings don't have to be outside, and while she hasn't responded yet, I'm sure she'll eventually accept so she can more easily visit her friends."
She continued, "Anyway, I've noticed that you've mentioned visiting most of our major neighbors, but you're only something like five years into your story. I assume you must have done something else for the other years?"
Celestia grinned. "Oh, indeed. After visiting all the places we already knew about, we got to the real meat of the trip, what we had been looking forward to the most. We set out off into the unknown west, past every map that Equestria has ever made. We have no train stations that travel this way, and our airships are unable to travel even half this distance, so it's likely that only dedicated explorers have ever made this journey before us, and possibly none that returned afterwards.
Eventually, after countless miles of wilderness, we finally started to reach civilization again. We had apparently made it to..."
Celestia paused to slowly take a long sip of her tea. "Oh, come on! You're doing this on purpose," Twilight pouted.
"It's good to know you're still just as easy to mess with," Celestia smirked. "Anyway, we made it to the country of Zebrica, the homeland of the zebras."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Zebrica?! Zecora is the only zebra I've ever seen, and while she's mentioned the name, she's been quite reticent to give any details about where she had lived before settling near Ponyville. If it's that far away, she must have had a good reason to come all this way."
"Zecora is not the first zebra that I know to have come to our land, but they are very rare," Celestia said. "I can't say that our travels there revealed anything specifically regarding your friend, but the nation itself seemed to be in a good state, so it's likely to have been personal in nature. Anyway, as it turns out, Equestria is barely more than a legend itself in Zebrica, with the only scant information apparently being sourced from the occasional pony or griffon travelers that pass through. They are a fairly modern place, but I'd like to warn you of something in case you ever find Equestria and Zebrica coming into contact."
"Oh?"
Celestia nodded. "They are entirely unaware of Equestria, and Unicornia before it, being in control of the sun and the moon. They have a religion that is based on the sky and the movement of the sun and moon. As a result, they've assigned great significance to every event where we, well... lost control of them. It seems their civilization arose in the aftermath of Discord's original reign, so the sun and moon behaving unusually is seen as deeply ominous to them, even if every time since has been much shorter. We were careful not to tell them anything about what we used to do in fear of causing an issue, but you will likely not have that option should your nations become closer at some point in the future."
Twilight closed her eyes. "I see. I will have to be very careful to reveal this fact tactfully if it comes to that. It could be very bad if they feel their religion has been uprooted overnight. Worse, it's possible they might even try to worship us."
Twilight's eyes widened, then she shrunk in on herself and covered herself with her wings. "Does this mean that in that instance before my coronation when I was borrowing the sun and moon, that I precipitated a religious event halfway across the world?"
Celestia giggled, before reaching over to prod Twilight back to her sitting position. "Most likely, but I'm sure no one was hurt, nor was it something you could have predicted. Back to my story; while we were plenty capable of surviving in the wilderness on our own, our currency was worthless in Zebrica, so if we wanted to stay in their cities and towns, we needed to find a way to secure housing and food. Fortunately, our appearances were extremely striking to them, having rarely recorded pony encounters and never having seen one as large as us, so we were quite popular. We decided to settle down in Zebrica for a while, first in the wilderness town we first encountered, then later in the capitol, Zebat. I took on work as a public works construction worker, while Luna became a postmare."
"A construction worker and postmare? I know you couldn't do your old jobs there, by why those?" Twilight said.
Celestia replied, "Well, over the centuries, I've picked up quite a few different skills, either incidentally or because I found them useful as princess. The town we ended up in needed a lot of construction done, and my relative incredible lifting power made me incredibly good at it. As for Luna, she's had less time to pick up miscellaneous skills, but she's been interested in our postal system ever since she returned from the moon, and she thought it'd be an excellent choice for a temporary job."
"As it turned out, however, with my magic and earth pony strength, and Luna's ability to teleport long distances, we were a bit too out of the ordinary, so news eventually reached the capitol, resulting in Queen Zariah taking an interest and inviting us to live there. It seemed she wanted to learn more about the strange outsiders, and was willing to pay for our accommodations. We eventually accepted, and found ourselves given a large house to live in that was fairly close to the palace, and encouraged to enjoy all that the country could offer."
Celestia put her finished tea to the side, where Twilight picked it up and put it next to the sink for the staff to take care of later. She continued, "While we didn't give much specific info about ourselves, we told them that we came from a country called Equestria to the east, and over the years gave them much more concrete info about it than they had ever had before.
We lived there for about fifteen years, but Luna was growing bored again, and we wanted to move on before our lack of aging became obvious even to non-ponies, so we decided to continue our journeys to the west."
"After an even longer trip, we eventually reached Minos, the ancient country of the minotaur. It seems to be even older than Equestria, and of comparable size and nearly comparable prosperity, as well. However, when we arrived, they were in desperate peril."
"Wait, peril?" Twilight exclaimed. "What was happening?"
Celestia looked grim. "We only learned the details later, but it seems that about eighty years before our arrival, King Asterion's father was chosen over his uncle, Cretos, as the new ruler. Cretos was not pleased, and proceeded to steal the royal family's most powerful artifacts and go into hiding, where spent the intervening years learning to use them to become an incredibly powerful sorcerer. He was thought to have died by the current time, but it seems he used one of this artifacts and his newfound magical abilities to turn himself into a lich, and about a week before our arrival, he summoned a vast army of undead and attempted to conquer the nation."
Twilight put a hoof to her chest. "I... What did you two do?"
"As soon as we encountered a town, the devastation was obvious; it was almost destroyed down to the last by his armies, with only a few surviving stragglers that had been missed. We found some hiding citizens that we managed to coax into telling us what was going on. They pointed us in the direction of the capitol. When we arrived we could see it wasn't going well, with massive devastation on all sides, and any attempt to get civilians to safety ending with their deaths. We sought out the King, careful to present ourselves as not a threat."
"How did you do that?" Twilight's brow furrowed. "In such a situation, wasn't there a chance he'd have thought you to be one of his enemy's allies, or even a magical construct?"
"By a stroke of luck, it turned out that we had traveled so long and so far west from Zebrica that we had nearly circumnavigated the entire world, meaning that we were nearing the east edge of Equestria. As such, while our nations aren't close enough to be in contact, it seems that we are close enough for tales of Luna and I to reach them. As such, while they were shocked to see us, they did not immediately attack. We managed to arrange for a hasty audience with the King, where he explained the situation and requested our assistance. It seems that while their army was very well trained, the undead army assailing their capitol did not need to eat or sleep, meaning his effective forces were cut in half due to having to fight in shifts. In addition, their numbers were dwindling quickly, while every lost soldier was an additional enemy unless they could secure the body."
Twilight cut in, "It sounds like it was only a matter of time until the capitol fell. I know you two are powerful, but not enough to singlehandedly vanquish an undead army. I assume that if such a catastrophe had happened, you'd have ended your vacation early, so how?"
"Well, it turns out that they knew where Crete was; he had holed up in the ruins of an ancient castle in the northwest, but with the undead army bearing down on the capitol, they didn't have enough spare forces or the mobility to assault it and its formidable magical defenses. As such, he begged us to help, and we accepted."
"It was not difficult to reach; the undead had relatively few that could attack those flying high in the air, and the vast majority of his army was committed to the assault on the capitol. However, it was less easy to get in to the villain; in addition to the magical constructs and undead he had guarding him, the fortress was heavily booby trapped, and many of them could have seriously injured one of us if we set them off haphazardly. Progress was slow, but eventually we managed to reach his sanctum where he had been waiting for us, a seven-foot tall skeleton adorned in gold and platinum."
Twilight listened intently, completely entranced. Celestia idly wondered if any of Twilight's Daring Do books had anything like this.
"He was supremely confident, and believed that by raising me after his victory, he would have the power to conquer the world. Looking at him, we could immediately tell that he had little innate power, but was being greatly enhanced by his plethora of powerful artifacts. His power was nearly comparable to mine, but he was nearly invincible due to his enchantments. As such, direct victory was unlikely. I knew that the artifacts had to be nearby to enhance him, so I sent Luna to go find the artifacts while I kept him engaged in combat."
"Wait," Twilight interjected. "Wouldn't he have been wary of that exact scenario and stopped Luna from finding them? Surely he would have expected you to try that."
"It's true, but consider this: while general knowledge of Luna and I had spread to Minos, keep in mind that Crete had been in hiding since before Luna's return, so he did not know of her existence, unlike the rest of the nation. As such, he assumed that she was some kind of bodyguard or personal assistant that had been relying on me to get past the castle's traps, and as such, he believed that she would never have been able to make it safely to the artifacts alone. He was unable to defeat me in battle, but was relying on me tiring out while his artifacts kept him tireless and nearly invincible; as such, you can imagine his surprise when about thirty minutes later, his power suddenly faded and I instantly bound him against the wall."
"Luna quickly returned, but he refused to give in. He told us that even without his artifacts, his undead horde was still linked to him. If we imprisoned him, his undead horde would still wipe out the capital, and even if we killed him, his soul would return to his phylactery to eventually restore his body, and we would never be able to locate it before it was too late."
Celestia paused for dramatic effect, and Twilight leaned forward slightly in anticipation.
"If Luna had not been there, it would have turned out badly; even if we searched the entire country for the phylactery, or engaged the undead army ourselves from the safety of the air, their numbers were so great that much of the country would have been wiped out before he was stopped. Fortunately, since Luna was there, we had another option instead. We combined our magic and petrified his body with his soul still inside. With their master now imprisoned in stone, every undead in the country immediately collapsed. We brought Crete's petrified body back to King Asterion, and told him that he needed to place Crete's body in the safest place he had until his phylactery could be found. Three months later, his phylactery was found in an underground vault about twenty miles from his fortress and destroyed, ending his threat forever."
"To little surprise, we were suddenly the biggest celebrities in Minos, having appeared out of seemingly nowhere to assist them in their time of need. The King offered us many things, though we accepted none other than housing. Even then, Luna eventually managed to convince me to instead have us stay in Crete's old castle, just for the novelty. We barely used more than five percent of the rooms, but Luna had a great time exploring the sprawling labyrinth underneath and setting up her own booby trapped mazes for me to try to chase her through."
Celestia smiled, lost in her memories. Twilight managed to regain herself. "That is... wow. I'd have thought I'd be shocked to learn that you saved a country while on vacation, and I am, but a part of me is telling me that I should have expected something big to happen on an extended vacation by you two. I'm glad you two were in the right place to help."
"Yes, it was quite fortunate, almost too much so." Celestia's gaze darkened. "If something was behind us arriving right then, I would very much like to figure out what it was, but at this point it's unlikely we'll know." She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, cheerful again. "After that event, our time in Minos was comparatively unremarkable, and we spent our remaining years there until we decided to come back. King Minos was quite hospitable, and I get the feeling that because of our time there, he plans to send an envoy west to open up relations with you sometime in the near future. We learned much of their culture and history while there, so I'm sure we can be of help should that time come."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh, really? It sounds like I should get out my old notes; it's been decades since we've met with an entirely new nation, and I need to make sure I'm prepared. Maybe I'll inform those patrolling the eastern borders to keep a watch out to make sure that nothing unfortunate happens."
Celestia nodded. "That would probably be a good idea. Minos has no flight technology, so they'll likely be coming by caravan, so keep an eye on the ground," Celestia replied. "Speaking of Equestria, how has it been since we left? Hopefully there's been no more existential threats, though the fact that we never noticed anything unusual with the sun and moon is encouraging."
"Oh, nothing so grand, though there was one averted catastrophe about thirty years ago." Twilight nonchalantly added, "Did you know that Mount Canterlot is a dormant volcano?"
Celestia blinked, then glanced out the window towards the mountain just to double check. Returning to Twilight, she said, "Considering the city and mountain look just fine, mind elaborating?"
Twilight softly laughed at Celestia's reaction. "For years, the Geological Society of Equestria had been detecting a gradual increase in the number of tiny, imperceptible earthquakes that were originating deep in Mount Canterlot. To follow up, they managed to get a large number of magical sensors installed deep in the old gem mines. Immediately after the first set of measurements, they rushed to me in a panic, saying that they determined that the mountain was a formerly dormant volcano, and was likely to erupt in less than forty-eight hours. Naturally, we instantly started evacuating both Canterlot and all towns lying nearby, including Ponyville."
"It looked it was going to erupt with a still-significant minority of citizens in the danger radius, but unbeknownst to everycreature, Starlight's school had been holding an alumni reunion for former School of Friendship students, and six of the students there broke away from the evacuation and ventured down into the gem caves to try to find a way to delay it. Starlight was a bit panicked at the disappearance of several of her own, as you can guess."
Twilight finished off the last of her tea, and started putting everything away as she continued. "Going deeper than anycreature had ever gone, through fissures that had been opened up by the impending eruption, they found out that the cause of the eruption was an ancient fire elemental in the shape of a tortoise, called Chelone. Apparently, it was the source of the volcanic activity, having woken up after having slept for 60,000 years and displeased at finding its home invaded by outsiders."
"The six of them managed to calm Chelone down and convince it that we didn't mean any harm, halting the eruption, saving countless lives in Canterlot, as well as the infrastructure of Canterlot and several towns. It seems that it left Mount Canterlot to go deeper into the planet for other locales, so it shouldn't be any danger anymore." Twilight grinned proudly. "Next time you visit the throne room, you should check out the stained glass windows; their achievement has been captured in one."
Twilight opened her mouth to continue when there was a knock at the door and a vaguely familiar voice. "Princess, may I come in? I have one last report I'd like to give before you take off for the week."
Twilight opened the door with her telekinesis, and Celestia's eyes widened; standing in the doorway was a familiar purple mare. When her head turned, Celestia noticed some light glinting unusually off of her horn.
The mare's eyes widened as she took in the two of them. "Oh, Princess Celestia! Pardon my intrusion, I didn't know you had returned." She bowed, then faced Twilight again and said, "Luster Dawn and the other professors at the Royal Institute have finished their analysis regarding the new techniques, and they have concluded that with your help, it would be possible to dispel the spell you've had us working on safely, with no harm to those its attached to."
Twilight clapped her front hooves in excitement and replied, "Oh, I'm so glad, Captain. I think we can probably get started next week after I return, so you can report to Luster that she should try to get everything ready by then." The purple mare bowed and backed out of the room, closing the door.
Celestia glanced at Twilight. "Was that....?"
Twilight grinned again. "Yep! That was Captain Fizzlepop, the head of the Royal Guards for close to three decades now. After the coronation, she approached me and asked for a job in the guards, and she quickly rose up the ranks despite her handicap. With her as a visible reminder, we managed to allocate more funding towards the development of effective and natural-looking horn and wing prostheses. Shortly after she received the first fully capable horn prosthesis, she proved herself capable enough to take over for Shining Armor, who wanted to retire so he could spend more time with Cadance and Flurry." Twilight took a sip of her tea before continuing. "She's actually been hinting that she's thinking about retiring in a few years, so we're going to have to choose a new one. I think Lieutenant Gallus is looking quite promising, but we'll have to see what the field looks like when the time comes."
"I see. What was that research she mentioned?" Celestia smirked and said, "Well, assuming I'm still considered trustworthy enough to be let in on what Princess Twilight Sparkle herself is working on."
Twilight rolled her eyes and gave Celestia a light shove. "Stop joking around; of course I'm willing to tell you." Twilight took a deep breath to steady herself, turning serious. "I assume you remember Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow, who were turned to stone shortly before my coronation?" Celestia nodded.
"Well, for a few years now, I've been looking into setting them free." She glanced at Celestia, looking for a reaction, but Celestia just continued to sip at her tea, so she continued. "The three of them were imprisoned by a combination spell between you, Luna, and Discord, and as I'm sure you remember, it was some pretty powerful stuff. Discord is still holding a grudge against the three, so he's refusing to help free them, so I've been helping Luster and her team at the institute develop new spells to safely set them free. The prison is still powerful, so even with their breakthrough they can't cast it without me, but if everything goes well, I should be able to have them free soon."
"What will you do with them?", Celestia replied, watching Twilight closely. "I'm sure you know that it is unlikely that they will give up their plotting even if you set them free."
Twilight took a deep breath, then let it out. "Yes, I've been ruminating on that myself for quite a long time. They are unconscious within the stone, unable to see, hear, feel, or even think, meaning they'll be in the same state as before they were turned, when Chrysalis was swearing revenge yet again. As such, it will have to be handled delicately."
"Cozy Glow should be the easiest; she has no innate powers other than those of a young pegasus, and given her age, I think she will be the easiest to get to change. I searched quite thoroughly for her parents after my coronation, but was unable to find any sign of them; it turns out that even when she was signed up at the School of Friendship, the parents she listed as having enrolled her never existed. As such, I can only conclude that she was an orphan back then, let alone now. To that end, I've actually been speaking with Luster Dawn. While she is happily married, she has been unable to bear a child for reasons I won't go into here. As such, she's volunteered to adopt Cozy Glow upon her release and try to raise her into a loving family, with support from therapists and psychologists. I have faith in Luster to be the right pony for the job."
"I assume you have a different plan for the other two?" Celestia asked. "They can't be relied upon to mend their ways even with supervision."
Twilight shrugs. "Tirek and Chrysalis are more difficult, I agree. My current plan is to use a spell I finished last year that reduces a being's active magic to a level where they can only do minor telekinesis and weak cantrips, lasting until I, the caster, decide to remove it. Then, I'll let them roam as they please, and if they wish it, give them semi-permanent disguises new identities so they can start over fresh. They shouldn't be be strong enough to cause real havoc, and they'll likely be too weak to activate any artifacts even if they find any, so I'm hoping that if they get into mischief, the local police will be able to mete out more conventional punishments for any wrongdoing. Despite being unwilling to help with the actual freeing, Discord has agreed to check up on them periodically in his free time as a back up should I go through with the plan. I'm hoping they eventually realize that their revenge is unattainable and calm down."
Twilight stared gloomily at her cup. "It's not perfect, but I'm not sure what else I can do without resorting to some flavor of mind magic, putting them in Tartarus, or just leaving them in stone indefinitely. If my attempts fail and it goes badly somehow, I may have to do something more permanent again, but I hope it doesn't come to that."
Brooding, Twilight was briefly startled when she felt Celestia's wings envelop her, but then she melted into the embrace. She heard Celestia softly speak, "I know you're worried, both about whether you'll be able to help them, and about the possibility of your attempt getting someone innocent hurt, but just know that Luna and I will be here for anything you need. We don't plan on going anywhere again for quite a long time."
Eventually, Celestia released her, and they sat in contentment for a couple minutes. She glanced at the clock. "We've been here for quite a while. Would you like to retrieve Luna with me and go somewhere until lunch?" Celestia smiled mischievously. "If we hurry, we should be able to get back before she wakes up, and I think it'd be wonderful to see how she'll react if she woke up to your new look."
Twilight smiled. "Oh, that sounds wonderful. Spike told me where you two are staying, so I'll meet you there after I finish up here; just give me five minutes." Celestia nodded, then lit her horn and disappeared in a flash of light.
Twilight quickly cleaned up the remnants of the tea, making sure everything was neat. She checked the mirror to make sure she was still decent, and locked the door to her chambers. She then approached the window, spread her six great wings, then leapt out off her eight hooves, making sure not to bump its sides with any of her three heads.
