Canterlot High School
1 day later
0700 hours (7:00)
*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP,*
Morning started off noisily for Sunset Shimmer as she picked her head up from her pillow, rubbing her eyes so she could find her alarm clock. Once she tapped the button on the noisy contraption, she yawned and slowly got out of bed. Another tiresome morning and the rest of the day would most likely be the same, no word from Twilight and just more work to do, fortunately, she had decided to bring the book back home in case something came in the night, she was willing to risk a few hours of sleep to hear from her friend. So far, however, she'd not gotten a single thing from Princess Celestia or Twilight yet, maybe a little longer could suffice. For the moment, though, she had to get ready for school, after taking a stretch, she left her bedroom to get out of her pajamas and something nicer.
After almost 15 minutes had passed, all Sunset had to do was get her stuff and head out, once again, she entered the room and grabbed her backpack, as she went for the book, however, the sun symbol on it started to glow, as if her attempt to grab it was its queue. Sunset immediately picked the book up and started to open it, and making it to the page she was looking for, she saw what she hoped to see for some time, but it still gave her worry as she read.
"Dearest Sunset Shimmer: My dearest apologies for not getting to you so sooner, ever since I last sent you a message, a lot has happened. I'm sure you've been worried about Twilight and the rest of Equestria, so if it will take some of the stress away, we're all alright here, but.... all I can say is that a lot has changed, Twilight and her friends have changed a bit as well, so much that I don't believe a letter is enough to explain. I hope it doesn't bother any of your friends there, but I believe you must come back to Equestria for a day or so, there's so much that we must explain. Sincerely, Princess Celestia"
.....That letter didn't seem right, Sunset was assuming something was going to be up when she got a reply, but to be called back to her old home just to know what Twilight has been doing seemed very worrisome. She wondered what her friends would think about the message she was sent. Walking out of her room, she pulled out her phone and typed in Rainbow Dash's number, and waited for her voice to sound.
A moment of static later, a voice sounded. "Hello?"
"Ah, Rainbow, I'm glad you answered, I just checked my book and I finally got a reply!"
"Really?! I figured she'd answer at some point!" Dash said with excitement.
"Yeah, but something's off about the message." Sunset said worriedly.
"What about it? Twi's not hurt or anything, right?" Dash asked with worried curiosity.
"I.... I don't know, I think I'll have to show you once we get to school." Sunset replied.
"Uhh, OK, see you there!"
.......The School.......
When Sunset arrived, the school was already bustling, students and teachers were already going into the school and getting ready for the day. Surprisingly, she saw her friends, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight's human counterpart, and Rainbow Dash, all standing near the school doors and waving to passing students. She hurried through the field of students before finally reaching the six of them, Dash was the first to speak to her as she smiled. "Ah, hey Sunset, you're finally here, I called the girls to hear about this, hope ya don't mind."
"Not at all, Dash." Sunset said with a smile before she continued. "Now, about that message I wanted to show you all,"
"Oh yeah! I'm so excited to hear from Twilight, I wonder how she's doing." Pinkie yelped aloud.
"Yes, darling, what's Twilight been up to that's been keeping her away?" Rarity asked as well.
"Yeah, did she get hurt?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.
"Uhh, maybe you'd want to see for yourself." Sunset then pulled out the book, opened it to the page she saw the message on and handed it to Dash for the girls to see.
After a moment of reading, the girls' expressions changed from worry to surprise and confusion, and all of them looked to Sunset before Dash asked, "Wait, so Princess Celestia wants you to head back to your world?!" Dash asked with worry.
"Apparently, something must've happened there, and it must've been quite a big thing for the letter to say that." Sunset answered confusedly.
Fluttershy whimpered a little before she asked, "Does that mean we have to say good-bye?"
Sunset shook her head. "No, if it was that, I think she would've said to do that. She says she and Twilight need to talk to me about this, so I think I can come back to explain this."
"I can understand that." A familiar voice sounded behind the gang, before they all turned to face Principal Celestia, who was frowning over their discussion.
"Principal Celestia! I thought you were already ins-" Sunset said in surprise.
"About that, I had to have some coffee for the day, I was tired a bit too." She answered before she started up again. "If Twilight and my counterpart need you back in your world to tell of what's happened, then I won't hesitate to permit your departure. I do hope you return, though, no one here likes unofficial farewells."
Sunset stood in silence for a moment before she spoke up. "...Thank you, Principal, I intend to return and explain what's happened."
"Good, now, for the rest of you, say what you can, it's almost time for class." The girls nodded before Celestia continued on her way through the school doors.
"Well, getting permission was easy," Dash said as she turned to Sunset. "I.... I hope you try and be careful and I hope Twilight's not too worried for you." Dash said before Rarity spoke up.
"Just make sure to come back, darling, I intend to hear about what Twilight's been up to." Fluttershy then spoke up as well.
"..Just be careful, okay?" She said worriedly before Applejack spoke up.
"Ah'm sure she will, sugarcube. Ah hope you're able to see Twilight, tell her we're all worried about her."
"I will, I'll be back girls, just try to not worry over me too much." Sunset said before she looked to the nearby mirror and made her way to it, before stepping into it and disappearing, her friends waving until she vanished into the mirror.
"...Be careful, Sunset." Sci Twi said quietly to her now departed friend.....
-Equis System, 0750 hours-
The deafly sector of space that was Equis had soon lost it's silence as two blue colored portals opened up, flashing and glowing brightly as two ships exited from their maws, a small Constitution class cruiser and a star cruiser with parts varying between Odyssey and Yorktown classes, before both portals shrunk quickly and collapsed suddenly, leaving the two ships sitting in orbit over the planet. On the bridge of the Equestria, Twilight sat in her seat alongside Flash and Spike before Dash spoke up. "We've arrived at Equis, Twi."
"Good, Rarity, hail Wyatt, I need to speak to him." Twilight said as she smiled while Rarity tapped a few buttons on her console, a second later, Wyatt's face appeared on the viewscreen, of course, in his preferred Equine form for when he visited his friend's homeworld.
"What is it, Twilight?" Wyatt asked.
"So, you're wondering why we're here, right?" Twilight asked him back.
"From what Dash told me, it's about an old friend you met a while ago." He answered.
"That's right, you see, a mare I met some time ago named Sunset Shimmer has been quite worried about me ever since that incident with us and the Omicron, and I've been told to come here and to bring you along so we can explain to her what's happened recently." Twilight explained.
"Understood loud and clear, I'm always happy to help, Princess." Wyatt replied before Twilight smiled at him and she finished her talk.
"Good, I'll see you down at the Crystal Empire, I've sent the coordinates." The Admiral nodded before the channel cut and the view of Equis and its sun was on the screen again. She then looked to one of her officers and told him, "Lieutenant, tell Princess Celestia that we're on our way down now and that we'll be there very shortly."
"Yes, your Highness." The officer answered before Twilight, Flash and the others stood up and made their way to the turbolifts and on the way to the nearest transporter room.
In one of the turbolifts, Dash asked Twilight, "So, Twi, do you think Sunset might be angry a bit that you haven't spoke to her in a while?"
"I hope not, honestly, I believe she's more worried than angry if she is." Twilight said worriedly as they waited for the lift to reach it's destination.....
.......
On the stone concrete of the Crystal Empire, 14 beams of blue energy appeared in front of the castle before showing the forms of Princess Twilight and her friends, followed by Admiral Stone and his crew. The guards, seeing familiar faces, lowered their guard and instead bowed in respect to the purple alicorn and her friends. Following Twilight into the castle, the group made their way to the throne room, only to see the three other Princesses and Shining Armor, and behind them a silhouette of another pony. Twilight was the first to start the talking.
"Princess Celestia, we're here." She said as Celestia looked to them, Twilight's friends all bowing in respect before the Sun Princess spoke.
"Hello Twilight, it's good that you're all here, and I see you've brought your friends as well." She said with a smile before Wyatt saluted and spoke up.
"I would've come anyway, I'm always wanting to help out, as are my crew." Wyatt said as he looked back to his crewmates, then back to the Princesses.
"So, we're not too early or late, are we?" Rarity asked Celestia curiously.
Celestia smiled before she answered. "Actually, you've arrived just in time, as you can see." She looked behind her and motioned the silhouetted pony behind her to come forward, the pony was revealed to be an orange mare with green eyes and a mane and tail with yellow and red for the colors. She stood and looked at Twilight like it had been forever since they'd seen each other's faces, and for both of them, it actually felt like it.
The two stood in silence for a moment before Sunset broke the silence and spoke to her friend. "Hey Twilight.... It's been a while."
"Yeah, it has been." Twilight could see the sadness in Sunset's eyes, and a second after saying her sentence, the two joined together in a tight embrace. The two didn't let go for a moment but Sunset could be heard speaking to her.
"I've missed you, my friends have missed you." She said, tears welling in her eyes as she held her friend.
"I know, I'm sorry if I didn't get to you sooner. I.... went through some stuff with my friends." She said before the two finally separated, Twilight wiping Sunset's tears away before she spoke again. "I would've come to talk to you, but... there's a lot we need to discuss."
The Princess of Friendship motioned her hoof for Wyatt to come next to her. He looked to her and held his hoof out before introducing himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sunset, my name is Wyatt, Captain of the Federation starship Chestnut, these are my officers, Miolii, Kapor, Zarva, and Nelen Exil. Princess Twilight and Celestia wanted us to come here to help sort out everything."
The two shook hooves before Sunset said for everyone to hear, "Wow, I can see that there's a lot that I'm gonna be hearing today."
"Yep, I hope that's not an issue, a lot of stuff has happened over these past few months, so I think we'll need to talk." Sunset nodded at Twilight's statement before she noticed somepony else in the group, a familiar orange pegasus in royal guard armor standing next to Twilight's friends.
"F...Flash?" She said, pupils shrinking from fear as Flash slowly made her way to her. Back when she was in Equestria, she and Flash we're in a romantic relationship, but after a tense moment between her and Celestia, she stormed out and Flash and her had broken up. Now, here he was, the stallion that she had stormed out in front of, was he still angry with her? She couldn't be sure, she'd just have to wait for whatever would be coming to her.
To her surprise, Flash didn't have any kind of angry look in his eyes, rather a solemn face towards her as they looked at each other for a moment. Flash broke the silence after a few seconds. "...Hey, how've you been?" He said calmly.
Sunset tried to utter words, but couldn't even seem to breathe, just staring at him as still as a statue. Flash took a deep breath before he took a step towards her, holding out a hoof as he spoke again. "I'm not angry with you, Sunset, I don't think I'd be standing here if I was. I'm actually happy that you've changed, so, please, just one hug?"
His words seemed to snap Sunset out of her frozen stance and she looked down to her ex-boyfriend's hoof, and held it in hers before they were locked in an embrace for a moment, Sunset felt like a tightrope wrapping his whole body, behind his head, he could hear Sunset speaking into his ear. "I.... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for how I acted, I-I shouldn't have acted like that, I didn't unders-"
"It's alright, Sunset, I understand, you don't have to feel sad, everyone here understands, so don't cry on us, please." Sunset let the tight grip loose, but with her hooves still around Flash, she wiped her tears from her eyes again before she looked at him, a faint smile building on her muzzle as she spoke.
"...Thank you Flash." She sniffed a little before she spoke once again. "So, we're still friends right?" Flash nodded before Sunset's smile grew wide and she once again hugged him tightly, Twilight smiling as she saw and old wound being healed.
After a moment, the former couple separated before Sunset spoke up. "So, um.. about what we needed to talk about..."
"Yes, about that, I know some place where it'd be perfect, by the way, I've invited some of Twilight's friends over to meet you, if that's not a problem." Celestia said to Sunset.
"No, that's perfect, I can't wait to meet them." Sunset said with a smile before Celestia Spoke once more.
"Good, now, this way everyone." She said as she made her way into the castle interior, as did everyone else. Sunset and Twilight were trotting with each other along with Wyatt and Miolii, who they'd decided to chat with on their way to the conference room. For all that had happened while Sunset was in the human world, she had no idea what she'd be hearing when they started their talking......