//------------------------------// // Final Items of Business // Story: Return to Equestria // by StormLuna //------------------------------// Once they arrived in the throne room they sat down to discuss what to do with Adagio and Sunset, given that they had returned after their they had been gone for so long. The first to say anything was Twilight, "So Celestia, what are we going to do with these three?" Celestia asked, "These three?" Twilight replied, "Sunset, Adagio and Aria." Before Celestia could say anything Colgate said, "Regarding Aria, I have already taken her into my home, we had been up in Canterlot and I was helping her access her newfound magic and once she has a good enough grasp on it, I'm hiring her as my receptionist so she is taken care of." Adagio asked, "But won't she need proof of citizenship to apply for a job?" Celestia replied, "Aria's citizenship records are up in Canterlot Tower along with everypony else's records and don't worry, yours was right next to hers." Adagio asked, "So I won't have to worry about applying for citizenship or anything like that?" Celestia replied, "No, you won't. But I do want to know though, what are your plans now that you are back in Equestria? What do you plan to do with your life?" Adagio replied, "I'm not sure. You just dragged me back here and you expect me to already have plans? I don't even know anything about Equestria or how much it has changed since I was last here." Colgate interjected, "Celestia, since I took Aria in and have a job ready for her, I suppose I could do the same for Adagio" She gave Aria and Adagio a glare and continued, "assuming you two can put your past behind you and get along." Adagio asked, "Could my sister and I talk in the next room? We really need to work out our differences." Celestia replied, "Yes, you may." Adagio and Aria headed into the next room to talk. Once they got out of earshot of everypony Adagio glared at Aria and asked, "Was this your plan? Was it your plan to have Celestia go through the mirror and bring me back here?" Aria replied, "No Dagi, Celestia didn't even know about my history until Colgate took me to the palace to check on citizenship." Adagio asked, "How did she know you were one of the sirens Starswirl banished? Did you just go there and confess the whole truth hoping she wouldn't punish you?" Aria replied, "Actually it was Colgate who told me to tell her about my whole past. One thing I learned is that Celestia respects those who are honest and so does Colgate. But I will let you know something, I did tell Celestia about Twilight's misuse of that cursed mirror so I suppose I could say I'm partially responsible." Adagio sighed, "Well maybe this won't be so bad but we do have other issues to discuss, issues involving personal matters." Aria groaned, "Oh, I take it you're still upset over how I started treating you once you became a softy?" Adagio began, "It is much more than that. This involves everything, your putting Sonata down after she died, you killing her boyfriend, you driving her to suicide...." Aria interrupted, "I did not drive her to suicide. As I remember, the coroner said that Sonata just rolled over in her sleep and suffocated herself." Adagio snapped, "Yes that is what he said but that does not rule out suicide and you know you treated her like shit. You know you constantly belittled her and perhaps she just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe she wanted to get away from you and thought that death was the only way out." Aria could tell that this argument was going nowhere in a hurry and didn't feel like having a shouting match that would not be well received by either Colgate or Celestia. She sighed, "Dagi, we have been through a lot. We were banished to a horrid place for a thousand years, we lost our ability to sing and we lost our sister so I think we need to stop dwelling on everything because we can't go back and change things. We can only move forward and I don't know about you but I want to move forward and become a productive member of Equestria. I just want to wash my hooves of that horrid place we were stuck in." Adagio was not thrilled by this. She snapped, "So you want to wash your hooves of Sonata?" Aria replied, "I never said that. I said I wanted to wash my hooves of that place, NOT Sonata. Sonata was sent there with us too, remember?" She put her hoof over her face and continued, "Look, I'm going to admit, in our final months in the human world, I grew to despise you but I want to put that behind me. We are back in Equestria and I want a fresh start. My hate towards you was from that world and I want no part of it." Adagio snapped, "So you really think it will be easy for me to just forget how you treated me? You treated me worse than you ever did Sonata in the days leading up to when you came back here...." Aria interrupted, "Look Dagi, Colgate is offering to help you in the same way she helped me. Celestia has records of your citizenship so getting copies of that should be no problem and I bet that I could easily get her to take you in like she did me and convince her to help you access your unicorn magic." She put her hoof around Adagio and finished, "Sis, I simply want you to be able to assimilate into Equestria. I don't want you having to live in the Everfree Forest or in some homeless shelter in the big city. At least consider what I am suggesting, I think you owe yourself the opportunity you have." There was something about the last part of what Aria said that hit Adagio. It wasn't the words she said, but how she said it. She seemed like she actually cared about her well-being. She seemed like she was being the sister she was so long ago before they were banished. She put her hoof around Aria and replied, "Ok sis, we'll start from scratch. I know it won't be easy but we'll do it." Aria pulled Adagio close and continued, "We may be unicorns in this new Equestria but in our hearts we are still sirens and siren sisters are always there for one another." Her voice began to break as she continued, "And we lost our way in that world. We stopped acting like sirens, we began to act like humans." Adagio's voice too began to break, "I agree but no more. Let's put our sisterly bond first again." The two nodded and could feel that perhaps they were finally on the right path to not only making amends but becoming close sisters like they were in ancient times, in the times prior to their banishment. While Adagio and Aria were in the other room hashing things out, Celestia and Twilight began to discuss Sunset's future. There was an odd silence at first until Sunset broke it, "So now that it seems like Adagio's future is taken care of, what about mine." She cast her gaze at Celestia and asked, "So would you be willing to take me back into your school?" Celestia sighed, "I don't know Sunset. I remember how you were, I remember your impatience, I remember the scowls you would give me, I remember you talking about how you could become a princess just like me and the fact that you would just run off like that still bothers me." Sunset asked, "So is that a no?" Celestia replied, "I know everything you did in more recent times, stealing Twilight's crown, having control over a lot of those students in the human world, turning into a she-demon and most recently, those glares you gave me in your house and your anger over me destroying that mirror." She paused for a minute and her voice became a bit sad, "I'm sorry Sunset. As much as I think it would benefit you, I don't think I could trust you to......" Twilight interrupted, "Well I could always take her in and she could be my student." Sunset's ears perked up when she said this, "Really Twilight, you'd be willing to take me in as your student?" Twilight replied, "Of course! I already kind of had you as a friendship student in the human world but now you'll be here and I can help you out even more!" Sunset asked, "But what about Starlight?" Twilight replied, "Starlight graduated and now she's spending more time helping another pony with friendship and magic so you would be my number one focus." Sunset asked, "But where would I live?" Twilight replied, "I have no shortage of extra rooms here in the castle so you would live here. That way you'll always be available and we can do what normal friends do too." Sunset hugged Twilight, "That's great!" Before she could say anything else Aria and Adagio returned to the throne room with smiles on their faces. Colgate saw this and asked, "I take it you two resolved your differences? I take it you two can at least co-exist without constantly yelling at one another?" Aria replied, "Yes Colgate, we have." Adagio added, "We had a good talk and we realized that in the human world we forgot what made us so close back when we were sirens, sisterhood. We have decided to be true sisters again." Colgate gave them a smile and said, "Good." She got up, headed towards the door and continued, "Well Adagio, you'll move in with me, Aria and my sister Lyra." She gave them both a larger smile and continued, "Now let's go up to Canterlot and help Aria improve her magic and help you access yours." Both enthusiastically agreed and followed Colgate out the door. Celestia gave Twilight and Sunset a smile and said, "Well it looks like everything turned out just fine." Twilight gave her a smile and replied, "I guess it did." Celestia said, "Now there is one more thing I need to take care of, I need to clean up that mess in your chambers and lock it away somewhere that it will never be seen again." Twilight's face dropped when Celestia said this prompting her to continue, "I know how you are Twilight. I know you would find one way or another to fix it and given your intelligence, you would probably succeed." Both Twilight and Sunset sighed when Celestia headed up to remove not just the shattered mirror, but all the equipment Twilight had up there. Sunset sighed, "Well I guess this is truly the end of us seeing the human world again." Twilight replied, "I was hoping she wouldn't clean that up because I would have tried to fix it and together we could have fixed it." Sunset continued, "Well I guess maybe it just isn't meant to be. I can make friends here in Equestria and like it seems to be with Aria and Adagio, I can make my life better. With you by my side, anything is possible." Twilight gave her a smile and said, "Well since Celestia is up cleaning my room for me, how about we get you settled into yours?" Sunset put her hoof around her and replied, "You're too good to me Twilight, way too good." Sunset did know that she would miss her human friends but she did wind up forging close friendships with all of Twilight's friends and the friendship between her and Twilight grew closer than ever. For Aria and Adagio, things went better for them than they could have imagined. Both Aria and Adagio became good with magic and through extra studying, they began to learn the more advanced stuff. In the end Aria did become Colgate's receptionist and Colgate was able to get Adagio a job as a receptionist at the hospital. Most important for them though, the sisterly bond they had back when they were sirens returned.