As Twilight turned, she found her friends - they were her friends, she had relived her time with them - staring at her in amazement. "T-Twi?" Applejack finally spoke up. "Is...is that really you?"
Twilight smiled softly. "More or less," she confirmed. "I am Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn who befriended you all and went on all those adventures together." She flexed her wings. "I admit, these are new...I guess. Lot of other things are new, too-"
"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!" Rainbow squealed, dashing up to Twilight's side as she examined her spread wings. "Look at these babies! When did you find time to get them this strong? And how'd you get armor to fit the individual feathers? Heck, where'd you get this futurey armor?" She started flapping all around Twilight, trying to look at her from all angles.
"Goodness, darling, you look just like a Princess!" Rarity crowed eagerly. "Admittedly, a sci-fi warrior princess..."
"That's because she is a Princess," Celestia spoke up, trying to once more get a hoof-hold on the situation. "Things are just...more complicated than anticipated." She stepped forward, looking Twilight over carefully, looking to see if this was indeed the same filly she'd helped raised, taught, and fished out of dozens of book forts over the years.
"Princess?" Twilight asked, rather nonplussed. "Really?"
"Tis true," Luna confirmed. "You have achieved apotheosis through creating new magic derived from Friendship in completing Starswirl's last spell. The energy reaction catalyzed the alicorn potential within you, triggering your ascension to the Astral Plane." She glanced towards Celestia. "Sister hastened there to guide you through the ascension process, to gentle it. However, something appears to have interfered with that, and the magic she was going to use to guide you back. Any ideas what it was, sister?"
"I'll tell you later," Celestia whispered quietly, hoping to avoid humiliation on top of confusion and possible catastrophe.
"Umm...Twilight?" Fluttershy asked quietly. "Uh...who's the adorable kitty? And...why did you call him Dad?"
Before Twilight could answer, Pinkie spoke up. "Oh, that's Ratchet! He's a Lombax superhero and raised Twilight from infancy after she showed up on Veldin as an infant alicorn somehow. They've saved the entire universe together several times."
"How can you possibly know-" Clank began.
"Hey, I know you!" Ratchet spoke up suddenly, pointing at Pinkie. "When I was in that drug induced hallucination back on that medical outpost, I wound up here and you told me I wasn't supposed to be here yet! But you were smaller then!"
Pinkie giggled happily. "Yeppers! Daddy told me all about your adventures together on his visits, so I knew you weren't supposed to be here back then." She idly batted at her mane with one hoof, shaking loose a charm that had on it what Ratchet and Twilight recognized as a properly processed sewer crystal.
Twilight's eyes popped wide. "You're the daughter the Plumber told me to say hi to when next I saw you?" she gasped out. She then blinked, running over things in her mind. "You know in hindsight, that explains so much...one way or the other."
"Wait, I was right about saying she looked like a 'sci-fi warrior princess'?" Rarity asked in surprise.
"Warrior Vice President, actually," Qwark spoke up as he staggered over. "Greetings. I am Captain Qwark, President of the known universe, many time hero of many galaxies, and Twilight's BBBFF." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out an apple. "Bah-weep-graaaaagnah wheep nini bong!" he proclaimed as he offered the apple to Applejack. Twilight promptly facehooved.
Applejack managed a small smirk. "Well, shucks. An apple from another world..." She reached under her stetson and pulled out a Sweet Apple Acres apple. "Uh...what you said," she stated as they swapped apples, each digging in.
"See!" Qwark proclaimed to Clank around a mouthful of apple. "Told you the universal greeting always worked, Mom! Ooh, this is tasty!" He proceeded to devour the apple rather messily, making Applejack chuckle as she enjoyed hers, saving the seeds for later investigation.
"...Mom?" Luna asked carefully, glancing between Qwark, Clank, and Twilight.
"We're a very strange family," Ratchet allowed. "And it's a very long story."
"Reunion-ascension-coronation-storytelling Party-Sleepover-Celebration-Royal-Bonanza!" Pinkie proclaimed eagerly, leaping into the air surrounded by a burst of confetti. "Wow, I'm gonna need a huge banner for all those words...and a giant cake. Better go multi-layer sheet. Glad Dad told me their favorite flavors!" With that, she dashed off.
Twilight glanced towards the Golden Oak Library. "As much as I'd like to, I don't think there's room in there for all of us...unless I started tweaking its internal spatial dimensions. Looks like I could add some of Aphelion's tech, has the right anchors..." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "SPIKE!"
Spike came running out of the library. "Twilight!" he called out worriedly, coming to a halt a few feet from her, staring at her in awe. "T-Twilight? Is...is it really-"
"Spike, take a memo," Twilight spoke up, completely in the zone. "I'm going to need a half ton of copper wire, 20 pounds of high grade mana crystals, three ounces of acornite..." She continued to list off esoteric ingredients and item requirements as she stared at the library.
Spike simply smiled. "Yeah, it's you," he confirmed warmly, rushing forward to hug her around one leg.
She returned the embrace with a wing. "It's good to see you too, Spike," she replied, nuzzling his head. "Oh, better add three etheric generators to that list-oh wait, I'm going to have to invent those. Tech here's not up to that level..."
Chuckling, Spike whipped out scroll and quill, rapidly filling out the entire list.
"Or we could hold this here shindig at mah barn," Applejack suggested. "Got room fer everyone there."
"I suppose I can hold off on breaking reality to give myself more space until after everyone's filled in on pertinent details," Twilight allowed.
"Did I hear someone mention breaking reality?" Discord asked suddenly, unrolling from a nearby tire swing. "I hope no one's infringing on my-" He froze as he took in Twilight's changed appearance and the presence of Ratchet, Clank, and Twilight. Grinning widely, he snapped his talons, pulling Aphelion out of the ether from the moon. "Oh Celestia, all this and it isn't even my birthday!"
"Hey Aunt Aphelion!" Twilight spoke up happily. "How's adjustment to the environment?"
"Smoothed along quite well after the chaos flux brought me here without adapting to the atmospheric envelope," Aphelion responded happily as she finished her repairs.
"And...this is?" Luna asked curiously.
"Aphelion was my Dad's ship," Ratchet explained. "She was a prototype of what would have been a series of ships with an Artificial Soul program, meant to enable them to think like an organic at robotic speeds. It was meant to breach the gap between organic and synthetic life, by creating an AI machine that could have instinctive, gut reactions."
"And then Twilight super-repaired and upgraded her by bombarding her with the energies of 117,000 Zoni," Qwark added happily. "She's so cool now! She can even transform into a super robot form!"
Celestia groaned, rubbing her forehead. "So in addition to Twilight now having access to Lombax tech and Zoni Magitech, Discord's going to sit back and enjoy the show and you just told me she's accompanied by the equivalent of a man-made god. I love her to death as my student, but I know her! Anything else you'd care to enlighten me to before I suffer a nervous breakdown?"
"She has this other form called Dark Star she calls her Nightmare that comes out when she suffers sufficient emotional trauma," Qwark offered helpfully. "Like when she gets zapped by a ray meant to reduce aggressive impulses except the battery's in backwards, or when she's been tortured by science, or if she gets angry enough about someone restricting knowledge..."
"She quantumnly entangled her brain with herself once to resurrect three dead family members, and in the process created an ontological paradox that repaired the space-time rift the Great Clock was created to contain," Clank added impishly.
Celestia blinked several times. "...Applejack?"
"Uh...yeah, Princess?" Applejack asked nervously.
"How much for all the reserve cider on your farm? I feel I will need it tonight."
Applejack stared, eyes wide. "Uh..."
"Oh, just put it on my tab, Granny knows I'm good for it."