Years Thereafter

"SHINING ARMOR AND CADENCE HAD A BABY?!" Twilight yells out in surprise, having just heard about her niece for the first time from her friends during one of their weekly meetups.

"YEOWCH. Twilight, watch the yelling! Your voice is insanely loud now!" Rainbow Dash says with a grunt as she rubs her ear with a hoof. Everypony else winced a little bit at Twilight's surprised voice. They had gotten used to Twilight's looks, but that didn't make their ears any more prepared for how intense her voice could get now.

Spike is the first to fully recover from the sudden outburst, although he dropped some pancakes on the way in from the sheer surprise. "Oofh... Yeah. Flurry Heart, she should be like. A year and a half old by now or so. We even had a Crystalling party. Flurry Heart destroyed the crystal heart, so there was this massive storm. The heart got fixed thanks to some timely intervention from Luna, though."

Pinkie Pie chimes in, devouring an entire stack of pancakes with one singular gulp. "Mmmmm. So yeah! Everything should be fine now! Probably. More razzleberry pancakes!" She says excitedly before rushing to the kitchen to make the next batch of pancakes.

Twilight sighs and holds her head in her hooves, momentarily distressed by the idea of missing that much of her niece's life. It only lasts a moment, however, as she realizes the obvious. "Wait, why am I upset? I can just go visit!" Twilight nods.

"True, you haven't seen your brother since you got back. Betcha, he misses ya." Applejack says after a moment.

"That's not entirely true. I saw Shining Armor the night I came back, but uh, only for like an hour," Twilight says with a sigh. "I really should have talked with him again, but uh."

"You completely forgot," Spike says flatly.

"Eyup. Completely." Twilight says with an embarrassed expression. "In my defense, I blame Discord."

Fluttershy tilts her head. "Why Discord? Did he get in the way?"

Twilight laughs slightly. "Heh. No, that's just an old way of saying, 'I have no excuse.' It's uh. I guess it's a bit of an old joke by now." Twilight exhales a little bit, rubbing her own forehead slightly. She's a bit upset with herself for forgetting to check in on her brother of all ponies.

"Well, I don't think any of us are gonna be busy for a bit. I'm still on leave from the Wonderbolts cuz of my last crash. We could all go to the Crystal Empire together!" Rainbow says after a moment. "We could even bring along Starlight. I think the pony that helped out Luna was Sunburst."

Hearing that name breaks Sunset out of her pancake-induced stupor, perking her ears and head. "Wait, really?! I was planning on hunting him down, but that'd be an excellent place for Starlight to start. Making amends with her first buddy would be great!"

Twilight flatly stares at Sunset. "Sunset, I don't mean to be a downer, but you realize you're Celestia's daughter now. Your mom will not want you to go to the Crystal Empire without at least an escort there."

Sunset stares back. "You seriously saying I'd be safer with a guard than you?"

Twilight takes a moment before blinking in a slight stupor. Twilight finally answers Sunset in the only way she can think of now. "Yesn't. Mainly because we've LITERALLY never gone to the Crystal Empire without something going horrendously wrong."

Rarity blinks. "Oh my, I dear, believe Twilight is right." She says after a moment of thinking. "What about that first summit you had as a Princess? I believe it was mostly calm, no?"

Sunset raises her hoof in response to that, sighing lightly. "I stole her Element of Harmony and almost caused the world to explode." She says after a moment, idly munching her pancakes with a shrug. "That was a mess of a few days, honestly. Massively so. Yeah, yeah, I get your point. I'll talk with Mom."

Twilight taps her hoof to her chin. "Yeesh, that place is cursed." She says after a moment, the rest of the group nodding in agreement, even Sunset. "Where is Starlight anyways?"

Sunset tilts her head. "Well, she's already friends with the rest of us, so I told her to go out to eat and introduce herself to the other ponies in the town. She needs to figure out social norms before we can start making thick-and-thin friendships. You know, so she doesn't instantly jump to awkwardly mind-controlling like... say, Applejack or Rainbow Dash."

"That'd be appreciated. Ah'd rather not be brainwashed if'n all possible." Applejack says with a nod.

Twilight nods. "Well, this will be a good time for you to get some Equestrian History work done, too. You've fallen behind on those lessons." She says with a nod. "You're Celestia's Daughter now, Sunset, so I've gotta be extra extra hard on you so you can really live up to it."

Sunset coughs and gasps as she chokes on her drink. "Ajfghf. That's... That's some HUGE hoofshoes to fill, and you know exactly why Twilight." She says through gritted teeth as she flaps her new wings. "I don't even know how to fly yet."

Twilight blinks. "Mmm... Point taken. Uh. Rainbow Dash?" She tilts her head at her friend.

Rainbow Dash smiles. "Well, of course, I can teach her how to fly! I'm not gonna leave her hanging. Although, you sure Twilight? You said you were just as good as I am when it came to flyin' now." She says with a twinkle in her eyes. "We should teach her together."

Twilight shrugs. "Sure. Why not? Sides, she should learn the tricks for flying with the longer wings Alicorns get anyway. And yes, then we can race again."

Rainbow Dash smiles and pumps her hoof. "YES! What's the score right now?" She asks excitedly.

Twilight rolls her eyes. "80 to 85. Your favor. Pretty good, too! Course, that was me in my smaller disguised form. You aren't gonna beat me at full size." She says with a teasing voice towards Rainbow, giggling a little bit.

Rainbow Dash smirks, "I'll take that bet, though. I've wanted to race you since we found out about this!" She smiles excitedly.

Sunset sighs. "I'm not gonna get good lessons, am I?" With a rub of her own temples, Sunset groans out quietly.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash blink in tandem as they look over to Sunset. Twilight speaking first. "You think we can't teach and have a race? Trust me, Sunset, you'll be doing a lot of falling. So we'll be pretty close to the ground at first."

Rainbow Dash nods, tapping her chin. "Since we'll be in the Crystal Empire, the snow will break your fall better than one of those super dangerous winter clouds they have up there. Those things hurt if you don't know how to land on them properly. If it weren't for that, we'd be using clouds to catch your fall."

Sunset blinks, thinking for a moment before smiling sheepishly. "Oh, uh... maybe. Uh. Oh! I can fly with magic! So, there is no need. Yeah!" She nods quickly. "I've done enough extreme sports to know that breaking a leg as a pony is gonna suck WAY more than breaking one as a human."

Spike blinks and taps his chin. "Pretty sure they both suck." He says as he itches his side, nibbling on his food. "Either way, I'd hope you two figure it out cuz once I get my wings, I'd really rather not crash a billion times."

Twilight sighs, tilting her head and wondering how to word this correctly. "Uh... There's no way Rainbow and I can teach you how to fly properly, Spike. Once you get your wings, we'll probably have to head to the dragon lands and figure out the details, but pretty sure scaled wings like dragons work way differently from a pony's feathered wings."

Rarity perks up instantly. "Of course! We could ask Ember!" She says with a smile and nods quickly. "Spikey and Ember are on pretty good terms after he helped her win the gauntlet of fire last year!"

Twilight blinks in confusion, asking for details about everything that happened. It takes Twilight a moment, but she gets the gist. "So you won, but you gave it to Ember?"

Spike nods. "Yep! It worked out well, too. She and I worked together and steamrolled the rest of the competition. Garble and his gang stood like... No chance. Which was hilarious." He laughs a little bit in his reminiscing.

Twilight smiles. "Well, that's very good of you, Spike. I'm proud of you." She says with a bright smile. "I'll see if I can't make a trip to the dragon lands. Speaking with this new Dragon Lord would be a good idea, too..." She then blinks and takes a deep breath. "Wait, no. no... I'm not doing that stuff anymore. Just a trip should be fine. Yeah." She exhales gently and calms herself down.

"One thing at a time, though, first visiting my brother. Everypony good for the day after tomorrow?" Twilight says after a moment. Everypony else nods in response, and the chatter dies down in place of delicious pancakes.

A pair of ponies are inside Canterlot Castle, having a relatively civil conversation, until one suddenly yells out in response to a request from the first. "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Celestia tells Sunset, who winces from the second loud voice she's heard today.

"Firstly. OW. What is with you and Grandma YELLING SO LOUD?!" Sunset says with a wince, rubbing her ear with a hoof. "Inside voices! Ever heard of them, Mom?!"

Celestia sighs and takes a deep breath. "Sorry, sweetie, give me a moment." Celestia then takes another deep breath, recentering herself after a moment.

Celestia then opens her eyes and exhales. "Better. Anyways, the answer is still no." She says it in a dulcet tone, levitating her quill to continue working on her reports for the night.

Sunset sputters in surprise, "I feel like I know better than to ask, but WHY not?!" she asks, completely confused by Celestia's veto of her plans. "The others will be there, not to mention Twilight, Cadence, and Shining Armor."

Celestia leans on her hoof, looking towards Sunset from her study desk. "Sunset, literally every time they go to the Empire, something horrific almost happens. It's not that I don't trust Mother to protect you... Actually, no, that is exactly what I don't trust. Mother is a fantastic fighter, capable of defeating entire armies. Meaning she's not exactly good at keeping collateral damage to a minimum. Nor can she solve things peacefully like when she was the Princess of Friendship."

Sunset rolls her eyes. "Mom, you still get hyper-awkward around Grandma whenever you see her. Are you sure you aren't overreacting a bit?"

Celestia sighs a little and rubs her own forehead. "It's just a little awkward, alright? Mother is mother, valid, but I still taught her when she was just a filly. It makes things all... strange. But no. I'm not overreacting. If you want to go, either I go with you, OR you and Starlight go separately another day."

Sunset blinks and stares for a moment. "Sure. We go tomorrow then! See you then!" She then heads out of the room. Celestia blinking.

"Wait, what?" Celestia says as Sunset calls her bluff. That was... a blow to her pride, to say the least.

"Ohohohoooo~ Seems like thou hath been bested by your daughter, Sister!" Luna says with a grin on her face.

"I suppose I will handle tomorrow's work. You enjoy a family day with Mother and Sunset." Luna says with a smile. "Perhaps after this, you won't be so tense around Mother and trying to find ways of taking control of the conversation. I swear it looks like you two are playing mental chess whenever you run into each other. It's quite frustrating to see."

Celestia groans and slams her head on her desk. "Ugh. I guess so. I should prepare my disguise, then. I'd prefer not to draw eyes everywhere we go." she sighs as she stands up and heads to her room, leaving some work unfinished.

"You do realize you'll be going with Mother, right Sister? I doubt you'll draw any eyes with her waltzing around without a disguise." Luna says as Celestia opens the door to leave.

Celestia blinks, completely mentally stalling for a moment. "Oh, right. That's true. I haven't been out just for a walk in the city in so long. Uh."

Luna tilts her head, trying to figure out why her sister is mentally fried, before getting a grin on her face. "You have NO idea how to be normal anymore, do you? Mother was the same way for a while. Should I be worried about a second coming of Daybreaker at this rate? Maybe you can call yourself Eternal Daybreaker?" Luna says with a slight chuckle, quickly adding on. "I'm just teasing, of course."

Celestia sighed a little bit, giving Luna a little bit of a smirk. "Teasing your older sister? Very bold, Luna. Perhaps I should tell Moth- ahem, Twilight, why you still went to Nightmare Moon, even with all her warnings. Instead of the official story that we pegged all on me."

Luna sputters and coughs a little bit as she drops the vase she was levitating to get a closer look at, causing it to crash and crumble on the floor... Again. "AH, uh. No no. That's very fine. Yes. We can certainly just uhm. OH, look at the time! It's time to go to sleep for the day! Er, I mean, I need to get ready for uh. Yeah!" She then runs off quickly. "It was still partially your fault!" She says in the distance.

Celestia sighs and rolls her eyes, shaking her head quietly before scoffing as she walks towards her room. "Eternal Daybreaker. That is just way too much. Seriously, Daybreaker is cool enough. Right?" She says to a random guard.

The guard is too confused to respond, so he nods.

"So, that's why Mom is here," Sunset says with a very nervous smile as she motions to the undisguised, yet still vacation mode, Celestia behind her. Celestia is simply wearing a straw hat, sunglasses, and an explorer's vest, with no proper disguise on herself.

"Twilight," Celestia says with a stare that can only be described as 'cold.'

"Celestia," Twilight responds with a loving smile that strikes the inner filly inside of Celestia.

The others stare as Celestia coughs and heaves momentarily, composing herself just as quickly. "Ahem. I uh. Ugh." she grimaces, trying to find the right words before bluntly saying. "I am coming along because I do not want your group's awful luck with the Crystal Empire to hurt my daughter."

Celestia opened her eyes, having closed them while sputtering and coughing. She fully expected to see the element bearers and her mother be upset with her. Instead, however, the group was mumbling before Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"Yep, that checks. At least we'll have two Alicorns here when things go south."

"Eyup, Ah'll feel a lot more safe then." Applejack agrees quickly, giving a nod to Celestia and Sunset. "Hopefully, we can all enjoy ahourselves before then, though."

The newest addition to the group, Starlight, however, was staring. "Wait, we're gonna be traveling with CELESTIA?! How are you all not freaking out?! We're literally traveling with the presiding ruler of the country, and you're talking with her like she's your old buddy from your hometown!"

Everypony in the group stares at one another before tilting their heads. "Because she is our friend," Fluttershy says after a moment, smiling softly.

That simple statement alone was enough to fry Starlight's brain. Even though she knew about Twilight's stint in the past, she was the only one in the group who didn't know the whole truth. Wallflower mostly kept that a secret. So, a revelation of this size was still enough to erode her brain.

"Oops. I think we broke Starlight." Sunset says as she helps guide her student into the train with a wing. "I'll uh... handle this. Sorry, everypony!" She says with a giggle before giving Celestia and Twilight a small hug, following her stunned student inside.

The rest of the group pours onto the train after Sunset and Starlight, splitting off to sit in their seats. Twilight sighed as she sat down at the only seat she could fit in without her disguise.

This means Celestia is sitting there, too, resulting in a very awkward silence, only punctuated by the conversations between the other ponies in the train car.

"So. I see you've chosen to only cover up your scars?" Celestia says after almost half an hour of silence. Twilight had idly been watching out the window the entire ride, keeping silent.

"Hm? Of course! I wouldn't want to spook my niece." Twilight says with a tilt of her head. "It's the first time I'm getting to meet her. Oh, but no magic. Rarity helped with some makeup, and I'm making sure to keep things on the table. I'll tell her when she's a bit older."

"Flurry Heart is certainly a personality. She couldn't control her magic very well until after the Crystaling happened. Even then, we could only partially repair the Crystal Heart." Celestia says, shifting in her uncomfortable seat. Usually, she would take a chariot, but the suddenness of the outing meant she couldn't free up any to ride on.

"Hm. The dark magic inside of it was purified, so I'm not too worried about any of it leaking out. I want this trip to go well, so let's put our effort into making sure we don't end up stressed." Twilight says with a gentle smile.

Celestia coughs a bit as the awkward silence covers the pair again, quietly mumbling before looking up. "Have you told them yet?"

Twilight closes her eyes a little bit, wincing. "A little. Although, I lost my temper before I could tell them everything. The right moment just hasn't come up. Especially about that one detail."

Celestia grimaced slightly as a strange feeling rose in her chest. "It's almost been a year, Twilight," she said after a moment, unaware of her sharpened gaze and mild pout. However, Twilight's gaze was still pointed towards the window, seemingly indifferent and unchanged. Celestia could never read her mother's expressions, and that certainly had not changed with age.

"I know," Twilight says after a moment. "I just need to find the will and want to do it." She says quietly towards Celestia. "I also just want to enjoy life as a 'Twilight' for a little longer. Not to mention I am... uh"

"Not that Twilight anymore? Is there something wrong with that?" Celestia says with a raised eyebrow.

"I. Don't actually know." Twilight says after a long moment of thinking.

Celestia winces a little bit, sitting back against the rest of her seat. She doesn't really understand why, but that... hurts to hear. Still, she takes a small breath, looking towards the oncoming snow and the Crystal Empire rapidly approaching them.

Finally, the train stops, sliding into the station with a loud hiss. Quickly, the conductor runs out of the train and opens the train car for Celestia and Twilight, rolling out the red carpet for them and their friends.

The Crystal Empire's aesthetics are as Twilight remembers them. While some snow makes it into the city, it is warm and comfortable otherwise. "This place got so much bigger." Twilight mumbles, unable to remember how the Empire used to look. To her, it was just so much bigger than it ever was.

"Oh, right! This is your first time here since you came back." Spike says excitedly. "Has this place changed much since back in the day?"

"Oh yeah. It's way bigger... yeesh." Twilight says as she looks around the city for a moment. "But enough of that. Spike, did you remember to send the letter to Cadence and Shining? I sorta half expected them to meet us here."

"Yeah, I did... that's kinda weird. You think the chaos started early?" Spike says with a tilt of his head.

Almost immediately, the rest of the group begins to look around. Starlight and Sunset are slightly confused by their reaction, although after nothing happens, everypony seems to calm down. "Yeesh, you'd almost think you're all traumatized by this place." Sunset says after the group seemingly calms down.

"Less traumatized and more... wary, darling. Contrary to our earlier confidence, we do tend to attract trouble whenever we're in the Empire." Rarity responds with a wave of her hoof.

"It's uh. Kinda inconvenient when we're actually trying to take a vacation. So we're bein extra careful bout this all." Applejack chimes in after a moment.

Twilight taps her hoof to her chin. "Guess we can just make our way to the castle ourselves. Then we can split up. Everypony knows what they wanna do?"

Rarity smiles, "Absolutely! Me, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are going to explore the Crystal Glades. Apparently, the gemstones there glisten in a special way that would look wonderful on my dresses!"

Rainbow Dash nods. "Applejack and I just wanna come along cuz we heard it looks cool. Cadence recommended it as a cool exploration spot last time we were here."

Fluttershy chimes in as the group continues to move toward the Crystaline Castle. "I'm planning on vising Glitter Drops. Apparently, she needs help with a Ursa Minor. Since she's on a nice nature preserve, I thought I could see all the cute winter critters and help her, too!"

Pinkie Pie bounces along the road before sliding and holding up a suitcase that is literally vibrating with its contents. "I just wanna see Flurry! I got her so much stuff for this visit! Toys, snacks, and more Toys!" she says excitedly.

Sunset nudges Starlight a bit. "Starlight and I are gonna meet with Sunburst, her old friend. See if we can't help them reconnect. "Baby steps, of course, but it's an important place to start."

In response, Starlight nods, and Twilight and Celestia are proud of Sunset's growth, which shows on their faces.

"Great! I'll see if I can't tag along with anypony else, but I do wanna spend time with Cadence and Shining, so that comes first." Twilight says with a nod, everypony looking at Celestia next, who blinks in confusion from the stares. It does take her a moment, but she does figure out the silent question.

"Oh, hm. Honestly, I didn't think this far ahead. I suppose I'll stick in the castle for now. I want to research the Crystal Heart and see if I can finish repairing it," Celestia says after a moment as she looks at the cracked artifact spinning on its magical pedestal. Twilight and the others stare at it for a moment as well.

"That would be prudent, actually." Rarity says. "Poor thing looks like it's struggling to function."

Twilight squints a little bit. "I can't touch that thing anyway. I don't want to find out if it remembers me." She says with a weak chuckle, much to the confusion of most of the group, to which Twilight says. "I'll tell you all about it tonight. That one is a LONG story."

With that, the group approaches the castle's large doors. The guards look at each other before standing aside. As Twilight approaches the slowly opening doors, her ears twitch as she hears something.

With that tiny warning from Twilight, a massive yellow laser is fired through the crack in the door. With a shift of her head, Twilight avoids the laser with minimal movement. Celestia quickly puts a shield around herself and the other ponies, which causes the laser to bounce up and off into the sky.

"SHINING WHERE IS FLURRY'S WHAMMY?!" Cadence yells out from inside, the group peeking in, only to see an utter mess of the room. Cadence is trying to catch Flurry, who is inside a yellow bubble of magic, flying around and searching for her toy. Wherever the bubble touches, it ends up causing the spot to burn or get singed, a testament to the baby alicorn's magic. Shining Armor is buried under a small pile of rubble, one hoof sticking out of it, just twitching.

After a moment, the pile of rubble gets burst back by a surge of defensive magic, Shining Armor staggering in a daze, having taken a full-force blast of Flurry's magic to his shield earlier. "Wha whoa... I'm alright. Cadence, we were supposed to meet Twilight and her friends about half an hour ago! Where is that toy?!"

After more searching, the married duo noticed that everything had calmed down. Twilight giggles as she boops Flurry Heart on the nose, having quickly found the doll with some of her magic. "The doll was underneath the rubble, by the way," Twilight says to Cadence and Shining with a smile.

Shining blinks. "Wait, huh? But that means it would have had to be in the barrier with m- TWILY!" He says as he quickly gives Twilight a hug. Twilight giggled a little bit as she returned the hug back.

"Nice to see you again BBBFF." Twilight says with a smile, carefully passing the now comfortable Flurry to Cadence, who, to her credit, is only mostly stunned by Twilight's appearance. She hasn't seen Twilight since disappearing, having been too busy to visit. Well, she wasn't there in Canterlot when Twilight returned.

"Is that really you, Twilight?" Cadence says after a moment, holding onto Flurry with one hoof as she looks over the tall, regal-looking alicorn.

Twilight smiles, nodding to Cadence. "I'd do our usual greeting, but uhm, I don't wanna ruin your floor, " she says with a gentle tilt of her head. "Sorry for taking so long to visit. I've just been readjusting to the era, I guess."

Cadence smiles and quickly hugs Twilight with a wing. "That's fine, Twilight. You know you're always welcome here. Your friends included- And Celestia." She blinks twice. "And the thief too? Wow, you have a lot of friends now."

Sunset winces and is about to speak before Celestia takes a half-threatening smile and tells Cadence in a reasonably cold tone, "Cadence dear, that's my daughter and Twilight's student you're talking about. Also, an Alicorn."

Cadence coughs a little bit in surprise and looks at Sunset. "You're Sunset Shimmer?! I'm actually really sorry about that. Your wings really blend in with your coat, and uh... Sorry. I'm more than happy to let bygones go anyways."

Sunset smiles a little as she raises a wing. "Oh, yeah, I keep them to the side, but I still haven't really figured out how to use them. I only got them two days ago. Rainbow Dash is gonna help me out with that tomorrow. Today, though, my student and I have some stuff to do. Mind if we drop off our stuff in a spare room?"

Cadence giggles. "Ever efficient, I can tell Twilight was your teacher. Sure, if you all want, we can have dinner together tonight. I'm sure you all have different things you want to do for your short vacation."

With that, the group disperses.

Twilight is happily playing and easily keeping Flurry Heart happy and busy, which results in Cadence and Shining Armor getting some much-needed relaxation for the first time. Twilight smiles as she happily shakes a little bear and has it dance, twirl, and play around in front of Flurry, keeping the filly engaged with cute noises and never letting her out of sight. That is until Cadence speaks up.

"Wow, Twilight, you're a natural at this," Cadence says with an impressed tone. "I haven't seen Flurry this engaged with anypony, not even her foal sitter! Or her father."

"Hey, I try pretty hard to keep her engaged! I'm just not that good at it yet." Shining says with a huff, puffing out his chest. "I'll get it down, and you can finally sleep eight hours a night."

"Eh, she's a mom. She's gonna wake up anyways," Twilight says with a matter-of-fact voice. She then gently levitates Flurry, putting the now tired-out and sleepy filly into a bundle of blankets and soft pillows. Even the bundle of joy had an energy limit... which was around four straight hours of uninterrupted, intense playtime.

"You two need a break, though, that's for sure," Twilight says as she finally sits down on a cushion, stretching her legs slightly and exhaling a shallow breath as she takes a relaxed pose. "You two look exhausted beyond exhausted."

"Not as Exhausted as Celestia is going to be if she plans on pouring over that many books," Cadence says with a yawn as she looks over to Celestia, who is currently sitting at Cadence's desk with several stacks of books.

"My mother made me pour over 50 books in a single night once because I broke a vase. This should be fine," Celestia says flatly, yawning gently as she reads through a book. Unfortunately, she has slowed down dramatically since the first book and is barely through her fifth. She squints her eyes and furrows her forehead before faceplanting her head into the open book. "Ugh. So many words. It's like reading through case law but somehow even more boring."

Cadence hums a bit in thought, leaning on Shining Armor. "Probably content fatigue. At least with work, you're getting new things every time... Hopefully. But all your books are just about the Crystal Heart over and over. Considering we don't know how it was made, it's probably pretty repetitive... Also, wow, you never talk about the Queen like ever. Are you opening up about your past Auntie?"

Celestia closes the book in front of her and shrugs. "Depends on some factors I have no control over. But you're right, my brain feels like mush." She then shifts over and sits on another cushion, finally laying down after gathering more cushions to rest on. "Ugh. Stupid inverted dark magic artifact thing."

Twilight also settles down in a cushion bed of her making, relaxing near the fire. "I'm actually surprised there isn't anypony that's just studied magic theory to the point where they've figured out a possible method to fix it. Shame we didn't bring Moondancer along. She might have known something. But she's busy with the rest of that friend group at Rainbow Falls. Especially since the Crystal Heart is going to likely break in a few days at this rate."

The rest of the group stares at Twilight with extremely panicked expressions, Twilight looking around in confusion. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

Celestia stands up and puts her hooves on Twilight's shoulders. "What do you mean the Crystal Heart will break in a few days?"

Twilight blinks as she looks at the group. "I thought you'd... It's literally falling apart every minute. Luna used the artifact rejuvenation spell or Spell of Relic Reconstitution, albeit still weaker but useful. It's like a bandaid for something that runs off of dark prism inversion for dark magic. Now, how you'd actually fix it... Honestly, I have no idea. The Crystal Heart hates me, so even if I did know, I'd probably make it worse."

Celestia rubs her forehead and groans. "What does that even mean?!" She says with a groan before flumping on her back onto the cushions behind her. "Stupid ancient magic. Stupid confusion theorums." She grumbles out with an exasperated huff.

Cadence and Shining Armor are surprised, not because of hearing that the Crystal Heart will break, but more about Celestia's... personality. Typically, she's so uptight and perfect, but something seems to have completely lowered her guard almost entirely. Cadence chimes in after a moment, saying, "I've never seen you this lively before, Celestia. You're completely relaxed."

Celestia perks up and blushes a little. "Ah, yes, well, It is technically my vacation. So... A little relaxation goes a long way, I suppose." Celestia fumbles over her words and sighs. "This is so stupid. Just. Call me when dinner is ready, I need some air." She says before leaving the room.

Twilight sighs a bit, the room in awkward silence for a while. "Hopefully, the others are enjoying themselves," Twilight mumbles quietly.

"Sooo. This seems a little... trial by fire ish, don't you think, Sunset?" Starlight says after a moment. "Kinda still a bit awkward, and it's tough to just talk to ponies in the right way and uh... Do you think Sunburst will even remember me? He's probably a super important pony and stuff by now!"

Sunset hums a bit. "Mmm. No spoilers, but I think you two will have more in common than you think. Just keep an open mind, okay? There aren't any steps or a list to follow. You gotta really feel it. Open yourself up and stuff."

Sunset and Starlight approach the small crystalline home, knocking on the door. Almost instantly, a book appears in the doorway after the door swings open. Sunburst reads down at the page momentarily before looking up from his book and adjusting his glasses. "Oh hey! Uhh. What can I do for you two?" The observant pony blinks, noticing Sunset's wings and horn after a moment. "Erm, your majesty?"

Sunset laughs dryly for a moment. "Just. Sunset. Side, I'm just here for... emotional support. So uh. You got this Sunburst." She nods.

Starlight blinks and actually pouts, saying to her teacher with a betrayed-sounding voice, "I thought you were supposed to be emotional support for me!"

Sunset giggles, "You know I'm here for you, Starlight. Now act like I'm not here," she says as she motions between the two. "Yeesh, I feel like I'm playing matchmaker for some reason, " she giggles.

Starlight and Sunburst blush, but the observant magus blinks. "Wait, Starlight?" He then looks his fellow unicorn over closely. "It is you! Wow! How are you doing? I never expected to see you out here! Oh, both of you can come in if you like."

Starlight takes a step back from the sudden excitement from her usually more mellow friend. Or at least as far as she can remember from foalhood. "Oh! Sure, as long as you aren't too busy with like. I dunno, wizard stuff?"

Sunburst shakes his head. "Magic theory mostly, being an important wizard takes... talent I don't really have. How about you?"

Starlight blinks and shifts in place. "Uh... I mean. I'm Princess Sunset's student?" She says with a smile and a shrug.

Sunburst tilts his head. "I wasn't even aware that Queen Twilight's student was taking a student of her own."

Sunset sputters after a moment. "Wait, how did you? That's like a state secret!"

Sunburst tilts his head before grabbing a book from a shelf. "Mysteries of Magic first edition, Twilight wrote it herself under her current pen name, Mare Mysterious. I'm guessing she didn't expect anypony to have books from that time anymore. Don't worry, though. I'm pretty sure there are only six of these books in existence. If it's that much of a secret, I'll be more than glad to."

Sunset groans and rubs her forehead. "Grandma is 100% more than likely to erase your memory. Just keep it a secret between us three," Sunset says with a furrowed brow.

Almost simultaneously, Starlight and Sunburst blink, stare at each other, and then look back at Sunset. "GRANDMA?!"

Sunset blinks, immediately having her mistake slapped right in her face. Sunset takes a deep breath as she gets a one-thousand-yard stare aimed at the ceiling, slipping into her more... human vocabulary for a moment as she says, "Oh, for ****'s sake... Well. This got derailed. I really hope the others are having a better time."

"Wow. This place is beautiful!" Rarity says as she and the other two slide past the brush into a clearing in the nearby snowy forest. Crystalline ice formations reflect the light between themselves, causing a wonderful assortment of colors as the prismatic effects of the ice split the light in all directions.

Rainbow Dash swiftly lands from above, gently crunching the snow below her hooves. "Alright, let's get the fancy ice you wanted. I'm surprised Maud knew about ice stuff as much as she did rocks."

Rarity smiles. "Well, I did need something specific for the next set of outfits. So, she did have to do some extensive research. Although, apparently, the ice formations do share similar qualities to gemstones."

Applejack blinks. "Ah, I have no idea what that means, sugar cube. But if ya need the fancy ice, I got yer back." She then positions herself near the trunk of the tree. Rarity levitates a few baskets underneath each strand of three gemstones. Applejack quickly bucked the tree and knocked down several solid pieces of chilling ice. As the baskets fill up, they begin to leak a cold mist out of them, which Rainbow Dash uses to package each of the baskets up in a fluffy, portable cloud.

"There we go! Thank you both so much." Rarity says as she uses magic to carefully move each cloud basket to the side. "Phew. Moments like these make me wish we had brought everypony else along. This place is lovely."

Rainbow Dash and Applejack sit down in the soft snow. As the group sits back after only fifteen minutes of work, they all stare at the frozen pond, Rainbow Dash stretching her neck. "You think Twilight is ever gonna... Ya know, finally, tell us about the entire Queen stuff?"

Rarity sighs a little bit. "It's been almost a year now, and no real signs of it, aside from that one time on the mountain. Unfortunately, we seemed to have scared Twilight out of it."

Rainbow Dash chuckles weakly, shuddering as she remembers how terrified she felt that day. "I really don't wanna think about that. I don't usually get scared, but whatever Twilight did made me feel like I would die. Or worse."

Applejack runs her hoof through the snow. "Yah, that was rougher than a rodeo. Haven't felt like that in a long time. Still, she clearly didn't mean anythin by it. So nothin by it. Now... Uh. Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash blinks. "Oh, right. I had nothing to add but! Today, I hit a breakthrough. So!" She grabs a scroll from her pack, pulls it out, and rolls it out in front of the group, which is full of notes and ideas titled 'Big Secret Snooping.' "So we all know that Princess Celestia and Luna didn't tell us everything about Twilight's time in the past. Applejack's ability to see through lies set off that entire conversation. So, I've been snooping as the soon-to-be vice-captain of the Wonderbolts."

"And you really didn't have much last we heard, correct? Unfortunately, my contacts haven't heard anything either. The appearance of Wallflower is the only thing I've heard of." Rarity says with a tap of her chin. "Fallen noble house from ancient history, I believe."

Applejack then chimes in, pointing at a few notes on her section of the scroll. "Ah, haven't gotten anythin out of Twi or Spike. Twi is basically impossible to press. She just slips out of it before ah can ask anything concrete. On the other hoof, Spike doesn't talk to me much anymore... wow, that actually kinda hurts to hear that out loud."

Rainbow Dash nods. "Well, I figured somethin' out myself!" She then coughs a little bit. "Something. Although... It's a bit of a stretch. You know how awkward Celestia and Twilight were on the train ride back, right? Our old guess about them dating or something when Twilight was in the past is way out the window. That was not that kind of awkwardness."

Applejack hms. "Makes sense, Celestia seemed way more relaxed than you'd expect from something like that."

Rainbow Dash taps her chin. "It actually reminded me more of my parents and me. Erm... you'll be fine if I talk about this?" Rainbow says as she looks towards Applejack, who pulls the brim of her hat down.

Applejack says after a moment. "Ya can continue. Ah'm an adult. If I needta take a step away, ah'l do it."

Rainbow Dash nods, resting her wing on Applejack's back. "In that case. Ahem... So, I had a rebellious phase during my teenage years, especially after getting my cutie mark. I ignored everything my parents told me to do and just did the opposite. I never got into any big trouble because of it, of course. I didn't go THAT far. But I did really disappoint them sometimes. I barely finished school, didn't go to any advanced schooling or stuck through the extra years. After all, 'the Wonderbolts only require you to finish primary school,' I told them. But, even to this day, whenever I go home, there's just a different air. Like a soft fuzzy feeling from just being near somepony you know will always love you no matter what, even if you mess up."

Applejack twitches a little bit, and Rainbow Dash stammers for a moment. "Anyways, getting to the point. I think Twilight might be Celestia and probably Luna's mom. I don't know if it's adoptive or genetic, but probably adoptive if I had to guess. Erm... Mostly because of how Twilight talks about them and their dynamics. According to Spike, aside from him, Celestia and Luna were two of the first two ponies she went to see when she got back, on the same level as her mom and dad!"

Applejack sighed as she adjusted her hat for a moment again, the action making her feel just a bit better. "Actually, that does make sense. Why'd she go visit Celestia and Luna so quick? Hm... That does kinda give us a clue. But parent? Come on, Twi bein a mom?"

Rarity blinks and looks at Applejack and Rainbow Dash, realizing something. "Flurry Heart." With that, the other two ponies perk up and quickly catch on. "That's why she could handle Flurry Heart so well."

The trio sits in silence as they look down at the scroll laid out in front of them. Rainbow Dash blinked. "Holy buck, Twilight is Celestia's mom."

Rarity stares for a moment. "Now, now, that's just all speculation... but that would mean Twilight is Sunset's grandma, too. Oh. She must be so disappointed in Celestia and Luna for the entire Nightmare Moon debacle."

Applejack takes a deep breath. "... If she doesn't come out about this stuff ah'm gonna confront her about it."

Rainbow Dash perks up. "Woah, wait. She probably has her reasons for this Applejack! Not to mention, can you imagine how our lives would change if that came out?! It wouldn't be good either! Ponies already think I only got into the Wonderbolts because of Twilight in the first place!"

Rarity nods softly. "You are the youngest flier to ever join Rainbow Dash. Still, I agree with Rainbow, Applejack darling. We cannot simply out our friend because she's keeping some secrets from us."

Applejack sighs. "It's not cuz of the secret. Think about it for a second. Not from our perspective. But from Celestia's. Just for a bit. Think about how awkward it musta been. Think about how she might feel with her mother keepin this stuff a secret fer so long."

Rainbow Dash takes a while to process it, but Rarity's brow quickly furrows. "She must feel awful. Like her mother isn't proud enough to claim her... Hm. Well, that convinced me. Celestia is Sunset's mother. We should do everything we can to help her out as if she were one of our friends."

Rainbow Dash blinks. "Woah, that's a bit too fast to change your mind, don't you think? I barely broke free from that stigma..." Rainbow Dash grumbles slightly before feeling a hoof on her shoulder. Looking towards Applejack, she sighs and nods. "Fine. But only because I want to stop talking to Twilight's fake side so much. I wanna get to know the real her again." She says with a rub of her own shoulder. "Even if the real her is somepony completely different."

"Ah'm pretty done with dealin with the fake Twi, too. She's tryin' too hard." Applejack says with a nod.

Rarity sighs. "Oh... very well then. Honestly, this will be good regardless. How much could Twilight have changed after all?"

Fluttershy and Pinkie finally arrive at the nature preserve. Pinkie Pie decided to come along once she realized Twilight wanted to spend time with Flurry. So she had nothing to do except join Fluttershy on her adventure! "Sooooo, who me meeting!" Pinkie says excitedly, hopping in place and making her imprint on the snow with each hop deeper and larger.

Fluttershy smiles and pushes her mane to the side a little bit. "Glitter Drops. She and I met at the Critter and Friends convention a month ago."

Pinkie Pie nods. "Oh, right! Look at you, so much more confident and stuff, going to conventions all aloneeee." She nudges Fluttershy, who blushes a little bit in embarrassment.

Fluttershy giggles softly. "Only a little bit. But Rainbow Dash teases me that the shy part in my name doesn't fit anymore. Only really, really big crowds can get me frozen like the old days."

Pinkie Pie nods and quickly knocks on the lodge's door. "Friendship Deliveryyyyy!" She says happily. "And good for you, Flutterbrave~! Flutternotshy... I dunno. Just stick with Fluttershy. It's a good name! Besides, Best Pony 2011 can't change her name that quickly!"

With that in the air, the door opens, revealing Glitter Drops, who tilts her head. "Fluttershy! Thanks for coming! Come in, both of you!"

Fluttershy smiles and nods. "Thank you, this is Pinkie Pie. She came along to help out while we're out tracking the Ursa Minor."

Pinkie nods. "I'm great with critters! I take care of Gummy every day! Alsooo, I have to make sure there are no spoilers."

Fluttershy looks at Pinkie in confusion before shaking her head and looking back at Glitter Drops. "I'm surprised you asked for help, though Glitter Drops. I thought you could handle a Ursa Minor with your magic?"

Glitter Drops shudders a little bit. "M-maybe. But Ursa Minors sorta make me freeze up. It's why this one has been terrorizing the area for so long."

Fluttershy tilts her head. "Whatever for? They're just cute little cubs!"

Glitter Drops and sighs. "Well... When I was a filly-"

Pinkie Pie quickly appears over the foreground of the scene mid-way through Glitter Drop's sentence. "WOAH, WOAH! That's like. Super spoilers for the next chapter! Besides, this one has sorta gone on long enough, and introducing Fizzy to the story like this seems REALLY lame."

The Writer responds after a momentary lapse of clarity due to being argued with a fictional character in the story. "Hey, it's not lame. Flashbacks are like... Core components to writing!"

Pinkie huffs as the ponies behind her continue to wordlessly talk. "No, no! She's important to this story! Besides, the next chapter is gonna be like... Five parts long, so we can't be introducing her like this! Vetoed!"

The Writer, unable to wrangle in Pinkie, relents and moves on to the next part. "That's what I thought~." The Writer covers Pinkie Pie in ice cream as punishment. "YAY!"

The group met up for dinner, with every pony silently sitting in the large crystal hall and munching down their food. The air is tense with anticipation of any possible thing going wrong, as for half the group, the day has been utterly exhausting.

Twilight breaks the silence first, with her visibly exuding confidence and insurmountable poise. "So Starlight, you said that your friend had an idea on how to properly fix the Crystal Heart? Do you think it'll work?"

Starlight jerks up and talks stiffly after a moment. "Y-yeah! Uh. He's REALLY good with magic theory, and apparently, just completing a proper Crystalling with Flurry and the relic reconstitution spell between Sunset and Cadence would work. We could probably do it tomorrow and have the rest of the week to relax in the fully warm Empire. He didn't want to try it with Luna and Celestia since, in his own words, 'Their magic could possibly make the Heart pop like a balloon.' So he was just gonna be careful."

Twilight nods twice. "Well, that's good. Hopefully, this means we can avoid the usual chaos and just have a relaxing time."

"It's hard to relax with you around, ya know," Celestia says curtly. Fork idly stabbing her food.

Twilight blinks. "Wha? Where'd that come from?"

Celestia blinks with confusion at herself and sighs as she drops her fork into her food. "No idea. Sorry, today has just been a lot for me. I think I was doing hardcore research way too long without practice."

Spike tilts his head. "Ohhh yeah, I remember how crankly Twilight got when relearning all the modern spells."

Twilight huffs. "Modern magic is just so... Boring." She grumbles a bit, everypony loosening up with a slight giggle.

Celestia idly stares down at her food, almost as if trying to make it delicious or appetizing. But nothing, a voice ringing in her head softly.

"I knew you wouldn't stay away forever." The voice says softly, weak but still dangerous and venomous. "You never come here because I am here. You avoid the Empire because you never want to hear the truth. But now I have all the time in the world."

Celestia grimaces as she looks around at the chatting table, everypony is having a good time, to a degree. Celestia can tell Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are planning something. She can tell that Sunset is stressed out about something. So many thoughts, observations, and ideas ring through her mind. "And yet you can't bring yourself to look at your mother's face. You still don't want to clear the air; you're afraid of what she might pick and that she might leave you again."

"This place is far too happy, far too excited. Far too pure for you. Mother would only be like this because she's disappointed in you. You failed as a leader. You failed as a sister. After all, the first thing she did when she saw you again was scold you, was it not? Not scold your sister, not scold you both. Just. YOU." The buried voice says.

"You may have defeated me, and you may have defeated my sister. There may be no chance of either of us coming back. But we will always be looming; we will always be there to crush your spirit. Your sister's spirit is indomitable, but yours has grown wearing and fragile. Was isolation that hard? Do you want Mommy to pat you on the back and tell you it was all okay?"

Celestia takes a deep breath. She wishes she could throw herself into her mom's arms and let out the 1000 years of loneliness, but that's not what a Princess does.

"Your sister is getting all the love again. And you get none."

Celestia takes a deep breath and sighs. She feels so vulnerable and naked without her regalia, but she doesn't need it at the dinner table here. But that vulnerability was the perfect size for that one sentence to press into her. "... Twilight."

Twilight tilts her head at Celestia. "Yes, Celestia?"

Celestia hoped that the chatter in the background would cover up her words, and it usually would, had it been anypony else in the entire world talking. No, everypony would hear it, regardless of whether they were speaking or not. After all, it was Celestia who was talking. Always perfect, Celestia.

"Are you... Proud of me? Like actually? Did I do a good job?" Celestia says, in a very soft tone of voice. One that a child would take when giving their report card to their parent, or asking about a painting they had drawn.

Typically, Twilight would have brushed it off, saying something like, 'This... Probably isn't the place for that.' or something along those lines. Celestia was fully expecting that. After all, at this point, everything was still salvageable. Twilight could continue playing her role in the lie and get away with it.

But Twilight knew that look on Celestia's face. She'd seen it before. She knew her daughter, and even if she was older, even if she was more mature, she could still understand how she felt. While yes, a public dinner was probably a terrible place for it, Twilight had largely avoided her daughters for the past year, and that had caught up to her just as much as it did to them.

Twilight promised herself to never make that mistake again. She would never discount or ignore the feelings that Celestia or Luna might feel again. Memories of seeing both of them in the hospital flash in her mind and reinforce her mental decision. No matter what, she had to answer this question now.

Twilight smiles and nods, giggling a little bit. "Of course I am. You did a great job."

With that bit of validation, the shadowy voice and presence in Celestia's heart faded away, the alicorn hugging her mother's side. Uncaring about the secret at this point.

Twilight sighs and rests a wing over the back of her daughter. "Well... That's that then." She says to herself as she looks at the other staring ponies.

"I planned a whole speech for this, but that doesn't feel right. So, while I have everypony's attention and my daughter is busy getting out 1000s of years of pent-up stress and emotion, lemme just say a few things. Shining, Cadence, being a parent is really hard, and you'll mess up and stumble, and with an alicorn daughter, you'll probably make her feel pretty awful sometimes. Just make sure to have each other's back. I know this because I've messed up a lot myself." Twilight says to the group, keeping them quiet with her mere change in tone of voice, sounding much more... Present and full, her tone neither allowing murmurs nor speech.

"So. Let me just... Reintroduce myself to everypony. Ahem. Hi. I'm Twilight Sparkle, Queen of Equestria and Celestia and Luna's Mother. Adopted. But I still love them just as much as I'd love my own."

And with that, the room explodes into an intense cacophony of voices.