After a very productive day of studying magic and improving her skills, Aria and Colgate wake up on Monday ready themselves for what would be one of the most important days in Aria's life, her meeting with Princess Celestia where she not only would reveal her past, but would seek Equestrian citizenship.
Before they would head to the palace though, they would head down to the lobby to have some breakfast. While the breakfast Colgate served her was amazing, the buffet the hotel had was beyond amazing to Aria. She quickly grabbed herself a large serving of eggs, bacon, hash browns and naturally, a large glass of cider.
Colgate saw this and asked, "I take it you like what you see?"
Aria replied, "You know Colgate, ever since I've been back and met you, I've had the best meals in my life!"
Colgate asked, "Hmmm....I would have thought you had plenty of good meals in the human world."
Aria replied, "I will admit, I saw a few good meals but still, nothing like this!" She began to head towards a table and continued, "Enough about that though, let's eat and then head to the palace."
Colgate gave her a smile and the two sat down to eat. Despite being fairly nervous, Aria was downing her meal very quickly. This shocked Colgate because whenever she was nervous, she would normally have problems eating.
Once they were finished eating they headed to the palace and were greeted by two guards. One asked, "Halt, who goes there?"
The other added, "State your business."
Colgate replied, "My name is Dr. M. Colgate. At one time I was in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. The unicorn with me is Aria Blaze and both of us need to speak to the princess."
The guard said, "Well follow me and I will see if she will see you."
They followed the guard towards the throne room and while it was completely foreign to Aria, Colgate remembered the layout of the palace very well. When they approached the entrance to the throne room the guard continued, "You two stay here, I will see if Celestia will see you or not."
The two nodded as the guard headed towards the throne where Celestia was sitting. He continued, "Your Majesty, there are two unicorns here who wish to speak to you."
Celestia asked, "What are the names of these unicorns?"
The guard replied, "One of them identifies herself as Dr. M. Colgate and the other goes by the name of Aria Blaze."
The name Dr. M. Colgate was very familiar to Celestia so she replied, "Dr. Colgate was one of my students in the past so I will see them."
The guard grabbed the two unicorns and led them towards the throne. The first to say anything was Celestia, "Colgate, it has been so long! How have you been?"
Colgate replied, "Things have been going quite well, how about yourself?"
Celestia said, "Well, princess life can be stressful. I've dealt with foreign dignitaries, I have been teaching students, handling the sun like always and the most important thing, having plenty of cake!" Celestia looked back towards the dining hall and continued, How about you two join me for some cake and we can talk."
Colgate asked, "Do you have any sugar free? You know how I am when it comes to sweets."
Celestia replied, "I know, I know, the dentist in you won't have it so I'll see what I can do."
The two headed back to the dining hall where they were immediately greeted by one of the chefs. He asked, "Your mid-morning cake I take it?"
Celestia replied, "Well make that two servings" she pointed at Colgate and continued, "and if it is at all possible, I need a slice of sugar free because she is a dentist and won't eat sugar."
The chef nodded and headed back to fix their treats. Celestia cast her gaze at Colgate and asked, "Colgate, so what brings you here and who is this with you?"
Colgate replied, "The pony with me is named Aria Blaze and has a major problem and something that she must reveal to you."
Celestia had a look of curiosity on her face as she said, "Alright Aria, tell me what it is you wish to tell me."
Aria began, Your Majesty, I know this may sound odd to you and I have a feeling it may anger you but this concerns my history."
Celestia became very curious and replied, "Alright, I'm listening."
Aria continued, "Long ago, my sisters and I caused much strife here in Equestria. We were sirens and I was one of the three that Starswirl the Bearded banished from Equestria through a mirror."
Celestia at first thought that Aria was joking but then realized that Colgate would not bring a pony before her to tell tall tales. She raised her brow and said, "Seriously, you were a siren? How can that be, you are a unicorn."
Colgate interrupted, "Your Majesty, I think I know why that is but just let her tell you everything. When she told me it was a lot to take in but I assure you, what she is going to tell you is the truth."
Celestia replied, "Alright Aria, please continue."
Aria continued, "Like I said, my sisters and I caused a lot of hate in Equestria with our singing until we were banished by Starswirl. He wound up banishing us to the world of humans. Before he cast us through some mirror I remember him telling us that we would never cause anyone any kind of problems there and for hundreds and hundreds of years, we did not until we decided to enroll in a school in that world."
Celestia said, "I see, please continue."
Aria continued, "This school was known as Canterlot High School."
Celestia's ears perked up as she knew about the place since it was where Sunset Shimmer came from when she stole Twilight's crown. With a curious look on her face she asked, "What happened there?"
Aria continued, "Well, as you know sirens draw power off of hatred that we generate from our singing. When Starswirl banished us we managed to hold onto our red pendants that gave us that power. When we got there something seemed strange about the place. With most people in that world, we couldn't gather much hate but there, our singing generated a great amount of it and we were able to start manipulating the other students there and even get them under our power."
Celestia asked, "Oh, and what happened next?"
Aria continued, "It seemed like we were going to have that whole school under our power and eventually we wanted to go on to take the whole world but it was Twilight Sparkle and a group of friends there that had some sort of counter-spell song that they used and with the aid of this girl known as Sunset Shimmer, was able to defeat us and shatter our pendants."
Celestia asked, "Oh, and what happened once those pendants were shattered?"
Aria continued, "Well my sisters and I lost our singing abilities along with our ability to cause problems. After that, we became regular teenage girls trying to get through school and life in general."
Celestia asked, "Aria, I want you to sing me a song that you and your sisters sang to cause problems in that world."
Aria protested, "But I sound horrible!"
Celestia requested, "Aria, I need to know if what you say is true. Please, sing me a song."
Aria sighed, "Well, here I go
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under our spell
Blindsided by the beat
Clapping your hands, stomping your feet
You didn't know that you fellOh-whoa-oh-oh-oh
Now you've fallen under our spell
Oh-whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh
We've got the music, makes you move it
Got the song that makes you lose it
We say "jump", you say "how high?"
Put your hands up to the skyWe've got the music, makes you move it
Got the song that makes you lose it
We say "jump", you say "how high?"
Put your hands up to the skyOh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under our spell
Listen to the sound of my voice
Oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh
Soon you'll find you don't have a choice
Oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh
Captured in the web of my song
Oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh
Soon you'll all be singing along
Oh, whoa, oh
We've got the music, makes you move it
Got the song that makes you lose it
We say "jump", you say "how high?"
Put your hands up to the skyWe've got the music, makes you move it
Got the song that makes you lose it
We say "jump", you say "how high?"
Put your hands up to the skyOh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under our spell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under our spell"
When Celestia heard this, she thought Aria sounded alright but given that nothing happened with them, that she posed no threat. She said, "Well, the lyrics are catchy but I don't think you'll be brainwashing anypony with it. Now back to where you were."
Aria continued, "Ok, like I said we became regular teenage girls trying to get through the life of a typical teenage girl. We had school to deal with and after what happened with the whole song and brainwashing a lot of students, no one really liked us."
Celestia replied, "Well that is sad that no one liked you."
Aria continued, "Eventually people got to where they would tolerate us but we did have one friend, Sunset Shimmer."
Celestia asked, "This Sunset Shimmer, what did she look like?"
Aria replied, "Well she had yellow and red hair, it kind of resembled how bacon looks when it is cooked."
Celestia chuckled, "That is what a lot of my students always said when she was my protege, some of them called her bacon mare." She became more serious and continued, "Ok, enough about that. I want to know why you came back to Equestria after being banished and much more importantly, how you got back. Starswirl assumed after he banished you three that you would never be able to return."
Aria continued, "Well, Princess Twilight Sparkle visits the human world sometimes and recently she went there to attend the graduation of Sunset and this other girl named Applejack. As for why I came home, my sister Adagio just couldn't put up with one another anymore and I always wanted to be able to come home. I knew where that portal was and when she showed up, I knew I could come home."
Celestia became very angry, "What? Twilight is just traveling back and forth with that thing? She isn't keeping me informed when she is using it? Doesn't she know how dangerous that is?"
Aria replied, "I wouldn't know but when I returned to Equestria, I noticed that she had that thing hooked up to a lot of different devices."
Colgate added, "I might be wrong but I think she has fixed that thing to where she can open it whenever she wants rather than waiting for it to open every thirty moons like I learned it does in my obscure pony history class."
Celestia pounded her hoof on the table and noticed that Aria shied back. She said, "I'm sorry about the angry outburst. I am upset that Twilight would just use that thing like it is a toy and come and go as she......"
Celestia would be interrupted by the chef when he brought in three slices of cake. He said, "Your cake your Majesty."
Celestia licked her chops and her mood became much more cheerful, "Thank you." She pointed her hoof at Colgate and continued, "And remember, she's the one that wants sugar free."
The chef nodded and gave the other two their cake. Celestia asked, "Besides you admitting to being one of the sirens, I'm sure you want to discuss something else as well."
Aria replied, "That is true your Majesty."
Celestia said, "Alright, but first thing is first, we are going to have our cake and I have one huge rule when it comes to cake, no serious discussions! I want to enjoy my cake and I want my guests to enjoy theirs!"
At this point, everything seemed to be going alright and given that Celestia seemed to not have any negative reaction to her past, she thought everything would be fine. Naturally she wanted to move on to the citizenship issue but knew that bringing that up now would be a bad idea, especially given Celestia's stance on what is to be discussed while she is having cake.
After what seemed to be a good discussion over Aria's past and a casual discussion over cake, the three wanted to get back to business. Celestia asked, "Alright, where were we? Oh yes, you had shared you history with me and said you want to talk to me about something else."
Aria asked, "That is correct your Majesty."
Celestia replied, "What else do you wish to discuss?"
Aria asked, "Given that you did not have any negative reaction about my past, the first thing I would like to know is if you are going to wind up banishing me again?"
Celestia gave her a smile, "Goodness no! You don't have any powers that would allow you to cause anypony any harm, you seem friendly and I am going to be honest, I never expected anypony with your history to come to me and not only admit your past, but to go into such detail about it so no, I will not be banishing you anywhere."
Colgate nudged Aria and said, "Aria, ask her about what I brought you up here for."
Aria asked, "Princess Celestia, I do have another thing to ask you. I want to become a productive citizen of Equestria and to apply for a job, I have to be a citizen and have an ID number but I don't have one of those."
Colgate added, "She wants to be my receptionist but I'm not going to hire somepony without proper identification."
Celestia replied, "I can understand that." She turned to Aria and continued, "Follow me. I may be pretty old but I think that back in the day that sirens were Equestrian citizens and had the same rights as ponies and had ID numbers."
The two followed Celestia into a wing of the palace that not even Colgate knew existed. After a long ten minute walk the three arrived in a dimly lit room that looked like it was not entered very often. Celestia asked, "Aria, do you remember how long ago it was when you were banished?"
Aria replied, "It had to be at least a thousand years ago."
While she was not sure exactly where it would be, she headed into the earlier birth records and began her long, arduous search. After nearly two hours of digging through folders she pulled out a folder with Aria's name on it. She returned it to her and said, "I think I found it."
Aria opened it and sure enough, there was a record of her. In the folder was her birth certificate, a copy of her Equestrian Citizenship Card and a picture taken not too long after she was born. Colgate saw this and said, "Awwww....you were such an adorable little thing!"
Celestia put her hoof around Aria and added, "I'm betting she was the most adorable baby siren!"
Aria said, "I was not adorable! I'm sure Sonata was but I was not adorable!" Aria wanted to get away from them talking about her being adorable so she asked, "Princess Celestia, I'm wondering if I could get a copy of my birth certificate and get a new ID card because I doubt my originals are still around after being gone for so long."
Celestia replied, "Of course you can." She then became more serious, "After we get that done I want the three of us to pay Twilight a visit."
Colgate asked, "Why all three of us?"
Celestia replied, "You'll find out when we get there."
Aria was not only relieved but she was happy, she was the happiest she could remember ever being. She was happy because finally she could start over, she could live like every other citizen, she would have the proper documents to be able to apply for jobs and luckily for her, Colgate was more than ready to hire her.