Author's Note

Chapter might be rougher. I'll be going back over it for further edits, but wanted to get something out. I've been sick again and it has made writing harder these last few days.

Chapter 2.10: Reunion in Person

Sunset fluttered her eyes as she woke up. "Urgh, nothing like a non-restorative sleep."

"Did it work? Did you make contact?" Wendy asked hurriedly.

She shook her head to clear it, which turned out to be a painful mistake, and then struggled to stand up. "I don't know. I don't remember any dreams, which is promising, but I won't know until Luna gets to dig through my subconscious."

"This is the slowest spell I've ever encountered," Prince Shining Armor remarked as he dropped the shield. "That spell did pack a big kick, but my daughter cast it. She never does anything small, even when she was small and…Cadence… was holding her." He started sniffling.

Flurry Heart touched a hoof to her dad's side. "It's okay, Dad. We'll get her back. Why don't you find the photo album? You can show Charlotte the Younger's parents all the old family photos. I know you want to."

He sniffled again but smiled at her. "I do like showing off tiny pictures of tiny you and your mom."

Flurry patted him. "You go fetch them, okay?"

The alicorn smiled as she watched her father go but suddenly went wide-eyed and lifted a hoof to her mouth. "Do not bring the ones from between when I was eighteen and twenty!"

"I think you burned most of those!" he called back as he exited.

"What do you mean, most?!" Flurry asked in horror.

Sunset groaned as she tried to stretch her neck. "I need to go take a real nap now so I can find Luna. Can you direct me to a guest room? Your floor is clean, but I doubt it is comfortable, and my shoulder wouldn't appreciate me sleeping on crystal."

Shining Armor stepped back into the room. "That shoulder injury looks painful. Maybe you should have Flurry look at it before you go to bed. She did briefly try to be the Alicorn of Healing. It didn't work out, but she still learned a lot of healing spells."

"Dad…we don't talk about that period of my life," Flurry said through gritted teeth. Her eyes went wide again. "You didn't manage to save a photo of it, did you?" Her brow narrowed, and her horn ignited. "I'll burn it!"

Shining Armor cocked his head at her. "Honey, no one cares if you had some minor misadventures trying to be the Alicorn of Healing, then of War, then of Winter, then of Lust…well, that one guy you accidentally made unable to have foals might care about that last one, but he's getting lifetime medical reparations."

The princess turned bright red, and her eyes practically bulged. "Dad!"

"I'm scatting!" Shining Armor announced as he turned tail and didn't quite run out of the room.

"I'm not going to ask about your embarrassing trying-to-find-yourself years, we all have things from our college days we wish no one to find out about, but if you can dull the pain in my shoulder, I'd appreciate it," Sunset said as she lifted the attached leg slightly. "Makes it hard to sleep when it gets like this, and I generally suck at healing spells. I don't want the scar to go away; just a bit of numbing around the surrounding area for today. I don't have sensation in the scar; it's the connecting areas that hurt."

Flurry seemed to have calmed down during the explanation. "Very well, I can do some pain numbing. Just no discussions about my past quests to be the Alicorn of Something-Or-Other."

"You aren't?" Wendy asked.

"No, I am not," Flurry said flatly. "I'm very powerful, more powerful than any other mortal pony, but unlike the other alicorns, I am not an aspect of anything. I'm not immortal like other alicorns, although I should have an exceptionally long life. I am not an ascended being, just an exceedingly powerful pony."

"Oh, like Wild Growth?" Wendy asked.

Sunset resisted the urge to hiss. It was a bad idea to compare Wild Growth to Flurry Heart in Flurry Heart's presence. The princesses were all aware of Wild Growth's secret. Wild Growth had earned ascension, and although the earth pony cut herself off from her power, that power was still there and likely exceeded Flurry Heart's. The princess hearing the comparison while knowing that Wild Growth had succeeded and rejected being what Flurry Heart strived for and failed to achieve, had to leave a bad taste in her mouth, even if she had a reputation for being a kind and just monarch.

"Yes, like that," Flurry Heart answered with a forced nod. She lit her horn and looked at Sunset. "If you can turn your body so the shoulder is facing me, it will give me a clearer shot."

Not even willing to come down from her throne. Wendy must have really annoyed the princess. A little extra discomfort turning wasn't the end of the world.

Sunset turned and sat again. "I'm ready."

Flurry Heart let loose a blast from her horn, but it stuck with surprising gentleness. It felt almost like a steam bath with a light, almost champagne tingle. The soreness quickly faded away, and a short leg movement demonstrated that she hadn't lost any other sensation or control of her motor functions as was common in amateurs who tried such spells…Sunset included. Flurry Heart might not be the Alicorn of Healing, but she was no amateur healer. The princess was still one of the great living mages– at least within specific fields that reflected her past attempts to find a greater purpose. Despite what people liked to say, there was nothing wrong with being a master of many trades, but most people wanted to justify their mediocrity.

"That will last a day, but when it wears off, it will be more uncomfortable than normal for a few hours. There are trade-offs if I'm not truly fixing your shoulder," Flurry Heart informed her.

Sunset tested her leg and neck. They still were stiff but didn't hurt. "Understood. I'll keep my injury. Lots of lessons tied up in it I prefer to keep the reminder of. Thank you for your assistance with everything."

"How long before we find out if you made contact with Charlotte?" Wendy eagerly asked.

"It depends on if Luna is available right now," Sunset answered. "It takes a warden to dig that deep into my subconscious. If she isn't available, I'll have to try again later. I don't know what she's up to right now. She took off without much word. This isn't Earth; you can't just make a call to anyone anywhere. Equestria is still very primitive when it comes to long-range communication."

"It is true. I'm envious of how easy it is to get in touch with others quickly on your world," Flurry Heart confirmed. "We do have plans for an internet and cellular system of our own, one that will last without constant maintenance to the infrastructure, but Canternet won't be available for years yet."

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm sure it will be awe-inspiring, and I'm sure the ponies of Equestria won't use it exclusively for social media and instead use it for bettering their society, but I need to take my nap so I can see if I accomplished anything," Sunset said as she headed for the door.

Her exit abruptly stopped when a swirling gray disk appeared in the air, followed immediately by three falling individuals who came crashing down right where Sunset had been standing a moment before, a lucky break for her. One of them let off a yelp of pain in a very familiar voice.

"Or maybe there's no need," Sunset said once she recovered from her shock.

"My baby, Charlotte!" Wendy yelled as she hurried towards her daughter.

Sunset lit her horn and grasped the woman with her magic. "Don't rush in, fool! There are two unknown individuals with her we don't know the intentions of!"

"They're not going to hurt anybody. They're my friends!" Charlotte yelled, even though she hadn't gotten up.

"I think we will take her word for it for the moment," Flurry Heart said. "I'm on guard, Blessing. Between you and me, we should be alright. Check on your other self and her friends. Guards, summon reinforcements, just to be safe, and inform my father."

Sunset gave Charlotte's parents a withering look. "Stay where you are until I say it is okay to go to her. This is for her safety as much as yours. She's here, and you'll get your chance to be with her in a few moments. Just let me ensure she doesn't need immediate medical attention and that our other guests are friendly and not coercing her."

"You could be nicer about it," Charles muttered.

She sighed. At least the princess showed some sense. God help all these people and their rushing into things. Maybe she could be nicer. Lord knew she had been guilty of the same idiocy more than once. Heh, she likely would be guilty of it again at some point. She was such a hypocrite.

Heeding her own warnings, she approached cautiously, horn at the ready. The newcomers seemed a little dazed but recovering. It looked like a human and a horse. The horse was white and had a rainbow mane and tail. The presumably human woman had a ragged blue dress with rainbow trim. Something about the pair seemed familiar, but what eluded her at the moment. Charlotte had enough bandages tightly wrapped around her right arm to make a cast, and her right leg had bandages and a splint. The splint had broken during the fall, and she was gripping at her leg with her good arm.

"Charlotte is going to need your attention, princess," Sunset informed the alicorn. She didn't know why she bothered saying so; Flurry Heart had working eyes.

The horse was the first of the trio to recover, looking around the room in a way that suggested intelligence.

"Colorful miniature horses. She wasn't lying," the horse said in a very clear voice with a slightly cultured but shocked tone. She didn't appreciate being called a horse, but this equine couldn't be faulted for the unintended slur. It was unnerving hearing the animal speak, like a human listening to a gorilla.

The unfamiliar young woman sat up and gaped as she looked around. Her wide-open stare shifted to a massive grin and was quickly followed by an excited giggle. "People! She was telling the truth, Starlight! Charlotte, you-" The woman',s smile dropped as she looked at Charlotte's leg. "Your leg! Oh no, I hope it's just the splint."

She tried to go to Charlotte's aid, but Sunset was quick with her horn and pushed the woman and the horse to the side and encased them in a shield.

"My apologies, but I need you to keep your distance from her," Sunset said. "You don't seem hostile, and you do seem to care about Charlotte, so I have no desire to hurt you, but I need you to stay put while the princess tends to Charlotte's injuries. Once she is taken care of, we can attend to you."

The reaction was quick. The horse practically jumped to his hooves and lowered his head like a bull ready to charge. His lips drew back in a wicked sneer, revealing he possessed an imposing set of canine fangs that didn't belong in a horse's mouth. Even ponies of her daughter and grandfoals' tribe didn't have them anywhere near that pronounced. The woman was scrambling to her feet, though a little clumsily, and looked terrified and ready for battle.

"W-wait, stop!" Charlotte gasped out at the pair. "She's not talking about the Princess who hurt you!"

Flurry Heart blinked teleported between Charlotte and the two strangers, and spread her wings wide as she gazed upon the aliens. "I believe there has been a misunderstanding. I am Princess Flurry Heart, ruler of The Crystal Empire. I mean you no harm. Please, be at ease. I will take care of our friend. I am a healer."

The horse gaped at the princess. "Oh my….she's like an angel."

With his height, Sunset could see what was going on underneath him. It seemed Flurry Heart was horselike enough for this stallion.

The woman had gotten to her feet and looked uncertainly at the princess while still flicking worried glances at Charlotte.

"I tried my best to help her with her injuries. They seemed to be healing well, but I didn't realize we were going to drop like that. Please, help her. We don't mean her or anyone else harm. We just didn't want to be alone anymore. She helped us get away from where we were."

Flurry Heart nodded. "I shall. Please be patient as I deal with the patient. While I'm working, please answer Sunset Blessing's questions and submit to her examination. If you don't try to hurt her, she won't hurt you."

The woman looked at Sunset with a puzzled look. "You're Sunset Blessing? From how Charlotte had talked about you, I expected something more."

Sunset watched as Flurry started to attend to Charlotte for a few seconds and then glanced back at Wendy and Charles to confirm they weren't creeping forward. The two humans seemed focused on watching the princess work but did as they were told. Several more guards had entered, along with Shining Armor, and their attention was wholly fixed on the two aliens, but they were holding back for the time being.

Satisfied that everything was in order, she turned her attention back to Charlotte's supposed friends.

"∆Do you understand what I am saying?∆" she asked them, using Equestrian. Everyone had been using English, as was customary with formal Earth visitors, even if this was hardly a formal visit.

The two of them stared at her in confusion. She pursed her lips.

"You understand me when I talk like this, but not when I talk ∆like this∆?" she asked, beginning in English and ending in Equestrian.

"I think you're asking if I understand that other language; I don't. I understand English," the woman replied. The horse shook his head.

"Are you from Earth?" Sunset asked.

The woman shook her head. "No, I'm from Rainbow Land. I picked up the ability to speak English from Charlotte, but I guess my ability to learn languages is only working for that."

"I guess we didn't get enough magic for more," the horse commented.

A magic ability to learn languages. That wasn't shocking. There were frequently used spells that she had used many times on herself and others, which were used in international travel. The more intriguing part was them saying they didn't get enough magic for more.

"How do you get magic?" she asked.

The woman and horse looked at each other.

"Tell her," the horse instructed. "It isn't going to get any easier hiding it. Charlotte took it well. Maybe this miniature horse won't get upset either."

The woman frowned. "You seem much more trusting of these ponies than you were of Charlotte."

"Horses are noble creatures; humans are more questionable," the horse replied with a snort. "And anyway, if this is the Sunset Blessing that Charlotte spoke about, it is just a horse version of her."

The woman sighed and looked back at Sunset. "We're vampires. We get our magic from blood. I got some of Charlotte's blood on my hands while carrying her and treating her wounds, and we drank that. We didn't drink straight from her."

"I suppose that explains the horse's fangs and why you don't open your mouth very wide," Sunset replied. "Any signs of bite marks, Flurry Heart?"

"I am checking now that I heard that, but I haven't noticed anything thus far," Flurry Heart said. "Her leg is broken, it looks like it had previously been a fracture that was healing, but that fall turned it into a full break. I can mend it, but if she is somewhat malnourished, I could hurt her worse if I try healing it when the rest of her is already weakened. I'm casting a pain suppression spell and resetting the splint for now."

The woman hung her head. "Sorry, we didn't have much to feed her. Our world is close to dead. We did our best to help her."

"You said it is called Rainbow Land?" Sunset asked.

"It…was," the woman answered. "I'm Rainbow Brite, and this is Starlight. Charlotte told us there was a movie about us. Maybe you've heard of us too?"

Sunset groaned. "She's going through the entire Saturday morning lineup. Okay, Rainbow Brite. We'll need to run some tests on you– make sure your vampirism isn't contagious. We also need to confirm that you aren't going into some bloodlust-feeding frenzy. Since I'm already dealing with cartoon characters, I'm going to check a cartoonish solution and see if we can feed you synthetic blood. Lucky you didn't come here twenty years ago. We can make real blood now. The early attempts at it would have killed even normal humans."

"She's a good person. She's just lonely," Charlotte said, in a calmer voice. The pain suppression must have taken hold.

"I can believe she has good intentions, both of them, but I need to confirm she isn't going to lose control," Sunset replied with equal calm. "When you get to be my age, you learn to be careful."

"That's horseshit! You mess with things you don't understand all the time!" Charlotte snapped.

Sunset looked sideways at her. "Calm yourself, girl. You're right, I'm a hypocrite, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful. If they're not acting, I'm confident they want to be sure too."

"She's right, Charlotte," Rainbow said, rubbing her arm nervously. "We don't know if we can keep control. You're the first living person we'd seen in what had to have been years. We don't know how we will do around so many. We don't want to hurt anyone."

"Then we are in agreement," Sunset said. "Flurry Heart, I assume you have somewhere these two can be held and I can inspect them. They'll need to be able to receive guests. We can't test their control if they are never given access to temptation."

"Can't you unvamparize them with transformation magic?" Charlotte asked.

"Possible," Sunset said as she thought about it "I still need time to study them in order to do that. You focus on getting better. We've got a team trapped on a hostile world, and you're the only one who can get them back."

She looked at Rainbow Brite and Starlight again. Why must there always be complications?