The group of seven ponies began to pick themselves up after that rainbow blast. "Oh wow, these necklaces are pretty." Fluttershy said.

"I must say, they fit us quite nicely." Rarity stated.

"I'm not usually one for accessorizing, but I think I can make an exception for this." Rainbow Dash said.

That was when the sun finally rose and in popped Princess Celestia. "Well done Twilight & Sunset. Seems I was right to trust you." Celestia said.

"I had a feeling you wanted us to make friends in Ponyville for a reason." Sunset said. "I've known you long enough to know you wouldn't say something like that without a motive."

"The motive behind this one, isn't for my own personal benifit." Celestia said, as she walked over to a an alicorn who almost looked young. "It's been far too long, my sister."

"Wait, did we just uncorrupt the pony that became Nightmare Moon?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'd have to say we did." Sunset said.

"Thank Faust too." Alli had suddenly appeared. "Also, hi Sunset."

"Alli, your here?" Sunset asked.

"Of course I'd come here." Alli said as she suddenly ran over to the alicorn who was purified. "Been far too long, Lulu."

"E-empress Alli?" The blue alicorn asked.

"Lulu?" Rainbow Dash was confused.

"Her proper title is Princess Luna, and Empress Alli here was Luna's only real friend prior to her becoming Nightmare Moon." Celestia said.

"A little basic, but yeah; that is why I'm able to call Celestia 'Tia' and Luna 'Lulu'." Alli said. "And seriously Tia, you can just call me Alli; you don't have to stand on ceremony with me."

"I'm surprised you managed to not get reborn for a thousand years, Alli." Luna said.

"Sometimes being the Empress of Digital Capital has it's perks, such as not getting reborn." Alli said.

"Reborn? Am I the only one whose wondering what that means?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"For once, I'm just as clueless as you are dear." Rarity said.

"Ah right. You don't know." Alli said. "See, Digimon can't age physically. In fact, we don't have an age limit on how old we can be. And most of the time, when a Digimon is wounded, it's never serious."

"There are times when a Digimon becomes so severely wounded, that their body vanishes, and it causes their consciousness to be reborn into a Digi-Egg; the form all Digimon take when they first come into the Digital World." Celestia added on.

Alli nodded. "Thing is though, when that happens, the memories of that Digimon when they get reborn like that...they get erased. Only a few memories from their old life get carried over, such as the name they were given when they were first born." She explained. "But things like the names of any friends they had in their previous life, or the life they lead during it, those types of things are lost forever."

"And some Digimon suffer a total memory erasure. It's rare, but it happens." Celestia said.

"So yeah, Digimon don't die like most creatures on Equees. Even if there's a fate worse than death essentially for us." Alli said.

Just then, the sound of wings flapping brought the ponies attention to a newcomer: A new digimon. "Ah, I was hoping I'd get to see you here." The digimon said. This one was flying with leaf wings and was mostly pink.

"Valarie!" Alli suddenly said. "It's so good to see you again~"

The digimon giggled as she flew over to Alli, and pet the black gato like a cat; Alli even purred like a proper cat too. "It's very good to see you've been doing well. Honestly, I should visit you more often."

"I'd never turn down an invitation to see you again." Alli said. "As far as I'm concerned, your always welcomed at the castle."

"I may just move in then~" Valarie joked.

"I wouldn't even complain about it either~" Alli joked back.

"Can some pony give me context here?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Ah, my apologies." Valarie said. "You see, Alli's biological mother was a digimon no one liked. As soon as Alli's Digi-Egg was made by the one who is Alli's Biological mother, I took the egg and fled the castle."

"Valarie practically raised me like her own child. And as far as I'm concerned, Valarie is my real mother." Alli said.

"So, what happened to Alli's bio-mom then?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"When she was cornered, she struck a deal with me." Alli said. "It basically makes it so in exchange for her agreeing to leave me alone, I have to visit her once a year and the day I have to visit her was non-nogiciable."

"Speaking of, that day is in a few weeks from now; a few days after the Grand Gallaping Gala if I'm not mistaken." Valarie said.

"Ugh. I was hoping you wouldn't remind me." Alli said. "But what can I do? If I don't keep up the deal, I'd hate to see what that witch would do to me and my sister."

"Ah yes, I've met with Marina a few times now. I was wondering if it'd be okay if I started treating your sister like my own child too." Valarie said.

"Go for it. Then Marina will know why I love you so." Alli said. "As if you would need permission from me."

"She's your sister, and your the empress." Valarie said.

"Yeah. But your basically my real mom." Alli said.

Valarie giggled at that. "Speaking of things, I doubt that Twilight over there would want to leave her new friends so soon."

"How did you know?!" Twilight was shocked to say the least.

"That's Valarie for you~" Alli teased.

Valarie giggled with Celestia joining in. "Well, if that's the case, I think I know the best course of action." Celestia said. "I think it'd be best if you sent me reports on the things you learn in regard to friendship for as long as you stay in Ponyville."

"I...think I'd like to move too." Sunset said. "From what I can tell, Ponyville is a high traffic area."

"Ah. I see. I understand." Celestia said. "This is about Sunburst isn't it?"

"Whose Sunburst?" Twilight asked.

"Well, I do have a biological half-brother. His name is Sunburst. And about two weeks before we met Twilight...he went missing. Not a single pony has heard from him since then." Sunset said.

"The royal guard searched everywhere in the castle, but they could not find him." Celestia said.

"Yeah. And judging by how Ponyville appears to be a high traffic area compared to Canterlot, eventually some pony will come through who will know something." Sunset said.

"Sounds like a good enough reason for me." Applejack said.

"Guess we're both going to move to Ponyville then." Twilight said.

Author's Note

At the time of writing this update, it is currently December 18th, 2024. Christmas is exactly seven days in the future at the time of making this. That means that for me at least, there are only three days left before I take that week off during the week of Christmas.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that I live in America where we celebrate the holiday of Christmas on December 25th. While not every household celebrates the holiday of Christmas here in America, I am still taking the week away for various reasons outside of celebrating Christmas.