//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Returning Home // by Sun Aura //------------------------------//                 Sunset tested out having hooves again. Even though she’d spent so long as a Human, it didn’t take long for instinct to kick in. The one thing she was glad for was having her horn all the time now. Her bag hadn't come with her, but she didn't worry too much. They were probably in hammerspace, until she needed them. Instead, she looked at her back.                  After Pinkie had mentioned some sort of ‘phantom wings’, Sunset had begun to wonder if she’d somehow ascended to an Alicorn. There were no wings, just lingering scars from where her Demon Form’s wings had torn through. She wasn’t too bothered by it, though no longer in the ‘if I had them I wouldn’t deserve it’ way. Still, she kept seeing orange and red out of the corner of her eye.                 “Spike’s meeting them at the train station,” Twilight said, breaking her out of her thoughts. “He said there’s a surprise in the Map room though.”                 “Lead the way,” Sunset agreed, following her out the room. “Is Starlight here?”                 “Not sure,” she answered. “When I left I had Rainbow and Applejack helping her move what little she had into the castle, so they should’ve been done Saturday afternoon. I’m pretty sure Pinkie kept her occupied yesterday. Tour of the town and all that.”                 “As only Pinkie can,” she said, rolling her eyes.                 Sunset tried to follow where they moved, though the twists and turns of Twilight’s castle were hard to keep track of. Oddly enough, she wasn’t exactly lost. Though she’d never been in the castle, she could tell which turn Twilight was going to take before she took it.                 Eventually, they reached the ‘Map Room’. In the center, was the Cutie Map that she’d been told about, surrounded by several thrones with very familiar marks in them. High above was a chandelier made of tree roots, the gemstones hanging off of it casting colored lights and a warm glow around the room.                 As breathtaking as it was, Sunset only focused on one thing. A very familiar bird sat on the arm of Twilight’s throne.                 “Mena!” Sunset exclaimed, rushing to the bird.                 The bird barely responded, acting aloof and ruffling her red and orange feathers.                 “Come on, girl,” Sunset smiled softly. “I’m sorry I left. You know me, rushing into things. I couldn’t come back for you. Besides, you really would’ve been miserable over there.”                 The bird let out a small squawk, tilting her head.                 “Seriously, there wasn’t any usable magic until this fall,” she said. “Who knows how that would’ve effected a Phoenix like you. Hm, it transformed me into a Human, maybe you would’ve made a nice canary.”                 The Phoenix squawked in annoyance.                 “See what I mean?” she laughed. “I’ll get you those treats you liked.”                 The Phoenix gave her a playful nip on the ear before hopping into the air. She picked up a scroll in her beak before dropping it in front of her. Sunset caught the scroll in her magic as the Phoenix settled onto her back. Inspecting the scroll, she saw a golden wax seal with the image of the Sun.                 “This is Celestia’s seal?” Sunset said, looking up to Twilight. “Did you tell her I was coming?”                 “Not exactly,” Twilight admitted. “I might’ve asked on the technicalities of, legally, if you were banished or not. Wouldn’t want to break any laws by bringing you home.”                 “I hadn’t even thought of that,” she frowned. “I did sort of do some crazy stuff. Since I’m here I’d assume it’s fine, but how?” “Well, you weren’t exactly ‘banished’ in the first place,” she explained. “You just ran away. And while using dark magic, turning into a demon, and hypnotizing a school full of students and staff is illegal here, there aren’t any laws on it in the other World, which is ‘out of our jurisdiction’. The only crime we could have a trial for is the theft of the Element of Magic, but since it legally belongs to me, I dropped the charges.”                 “Huh,” she said. “Do you want to read this or should I?”                 Twilight motioned for her to read it. Sunset nodded and tore of the seal.                 “Dear Sunset Shimmer,” she read. “From Twilight’s questions, and the fact that I can check when certain Guards take vacation time, I can assume you are coming back to Equestria. I know we have much to talk about, but I do not know if you want to see me yet, and I realize that I should not drop in suddenly. But should you like to talk, I’m only a letter away.                 “In the meantime, I feel I should return your Familiar. Philomena has been well taken care of these past few years, although you did miss her Rebirth last year. While I’m sure she will act annoyed with you, I’m happy to tell you that she flew circles around the room when I told her you would be returning.”                 “Aw, Mena!” Sunset teased the Phoenix. “You do care!”                 Philomena playfully nipped at her ear again.                 “So she’s yours?” Twilight asked.                 “Yeah,” Sunset said. “I left her behind when I jumped through the portal. Honestly, I was a bit worried something’d happen to her. Should’ve known Princess Celestia kept her. I guess she was hoping I’d come back.”                 “How do you even get a pet Phoenix?” she wondered, much to Philomena’s annoyance.                 “She’s not a pet, she’s a Familiar,” she corrected.                 “A Familiar?” she asked, avoiding Philomena’s glare.                 “Yeah?” she replied. “A Magical Companion, to help you through your studies. One you bond with. Usually they’re normal magical creatures, but they can be a sapient being, as long as they have strong magical abilities. Princess Celestia said that all her students got one. How’d you not know about it?”                 “Because I didn’t get one?” she answered, nervously ruffling her wings.                 “Wait, then what’s Spike?” she asked. “You said he became part of the family when you became Princess Celestia’s student?”                 “That’s a funny story,” she said.                 “Well, we’ve got time,” she shrugged.                 She decided to sit next to the throne, using it as a backrest. Twilight rolled her eyes and sat in her throne. Sunset then switched so that she was facing her and leaning against another one.                 “So, you know how some ponies steal Dragon eggs and Hatchlings, right?” Twilight began. “And how Celestia had Rescue Teams who go and get them back to their families?”                 “Yeah,” she nodded. “I remember when Fire Trail joined them.”                 “Well, they rescued Spike’s egg and brought it to Canterlot,” she said. “And, well, you know how one of the tests to get into the School for Gifted Unicorns is to hatch a Fire Salamander, right?”                 “Tell me they didn’t!” she laughed, despite groaning at the idea.                 “They somehow switched Spike’s egg with that,” she laughed. “And then I hatched him. One of the Rescue Team said that since I hatched him, he recognized my Magic as ‘Family’, so Mom and Dad adopted him.”                 “Huh,” she said, shifting to lead against the Map Table. “Unconventional, but that does meet Familiar qualifications. A Magical Companion with a Magical Bond to you which helps you through your studies.”                 “Uh, Sunset,” she frowned, staring at the Map Table.                 Sunset turned, looking over the top of the table. It seemed to be glitching, places switching around and Cutie Marks appearing everywhere. Sunset swore as she scrambled up to stare at it.                 “It doesn’t do that, right?” Sunset asked.                 “No,” Twilight answered. “Usually it would just have our Cutie Marks hovering over a place. I’ve never seen- wait, what the hell was that?!”                 “What the hell was what?” she wondered, scanning the Map.                 “I thought I saw another Cutie Mark,” she answered. “There it is again!”                 As they tried to get a good look at the other Cutie Mark, Philomena began squawking at them, and tapping Sunset’s head with her wing. She turned to look at her, only for the Phoenix to use her wing to point her in another direction.                 “Twilight, your throne!” Sunset exclaimed.                 Twilight turned in her seat, looking up at the chair back. Usually, her Cutie Mark sat at the top of her throne, just above her head. Now, the image flickered back and forth rapidly. One image was still Twilight’s Cutie Mark of a magenta Star. The other, was Sunset’s red and yellow Sun.                 “Oh, that explains it,” Twilight said.                 “Should I be concerned that you can somehow make sense out of this?” Sunset asked.                 “The Map, well the whole Castle really, is connected to the Elements of Harmony,” she explained. “It’s why my friends got thrones with their Cutie Marks, and why the Map picks us. But you’ve used the Element of Magic. Once incorrectly, at the Fall Formal, and twice at full power with the Battle of the Bands and the Friendship Games. I-I think the Map’s confused because there’s two Elements of Magic?”                 “That makes some sense,” she agreed, preparing a shield in case it exploded. “But haven’t Princesses Celestia and Luna been in here? They’ve used the Elements before too, so why didn’t it work for them?”                 “It might be because of what Starlight did,” she said. “She used the Map as a part of her Time Travel Spell. I think it might’ve overloaded it a bit with the alternate Timelines. See! Right there on the map looks to be Nightmare Moon’s castle! I think it’s a combination of you being Magic, and the alternate Timelines. I mean, there has to be at least one alternate Time when you became Princess of Friendship instead of me.”                 “Weird,” she shuddered. “So, how are we going to fix this? Usually I’d suggest a full system reset, but considering how one-of-a-kind this is, that sounds like a bad idea.”                 “Yeah,” she frowned. “We’d need to stabilize the Time it’s connected to. For now, we can’t really do much about it. I’d need to go over Starlight’s spell with her to see what all happened.”                 “Any way to stop it from doing that?” she wondered.                 “It does turn off,” she said. “It’s more of a ‘sleep mode’ but it won’t be projecting the map unless we’re Called somewhere. Which hopefully it won’t do until we fix it, because I can’t really solve a Friendship Problem in the Sombra Timeline.”                 She lit her horn, her magenta Magic wrapping around the Map. Soon it flickered out. The throne’s mark stabilized a bit as well, only blinking to the Sun every once in a while.                 Before Sunset could suggest anything, she heard voices in the hall leading to them. Remembering that Sunset was here for a purpose, and not just a vacation, they got up. Twilight headed to the doors to welcome them, while Sunset hid behind the throne.                 Thankfully, it was only three new voices that entered the room. She recognized Spike’s voice easy, and she remembered Shining Armor’s pretty well. Of course, that didn’t matter to her. She heard his voice as well.                 A part of her wanted to run again. She knew she could easily teleport herself back to the Portal Room and jump through. The other part of her was yelling at her. It said ‘if you could turn into a literal demon, face Canterlot High the next day, and then go on to face villains as bad as you to save the world, you can handle this.’ Philomena seemed to share the sentiment, smacking her wing against Sunset’s cheek.                 Sunset peeked her head out from behind the throne. He didn’t notice her at first, so she took a chance to look at him properly. She’d guessed what he’d look like, from her own memories and from seeing his Counterpart, but it didn’t prepare her.                 They were the same height now, which is to say ‘tall for a Unicorn’.  He was a pale yellow, lighter than Fluttershy even. His mane was styled similarly to her own, but in various oranges with a streak of silver curling around his ear. She couldn’t see his Cutie Mark from where she stood, but she knew it was a pair of crossed lances. She took in the differences too, though she’d expected them from his Counterpart. He had a pair of pink and blue earrings. Across his cheek was a scar that hadn’t been there when she left.                 He looked up, freezing when he saw her. She stared back at him, staring into eyes just like her own.                 “Hey, Lance,” Sunset said, giving a nervous smile. “I’m back?”