A few days later, Twilight goes to visit Star Streak and sees that he has a thriving kingdom of his own. "Hello, Star Streak," says Twilight to the male alicorn.
"Oh, hi Twilight!" replies Star Streak flying up and over to her and embracing her in a hug.
"How's it going here? I see you have several unicorns and pegasi to rule over here," replies Twilight.
"It's going great! Most of them are studying on how to gain alicorn status," responds Star Streak.
"That's great!" replies Twilight. "I'm glad you found a way to revive your kind."
"Me too," replies Star Streak. He then takes Twilight on a tour of his new kingdom which he deemed Unitea.
After an hour time, the tour finally comes to an end and Star Streak thanks Twilight for the visit before she flies off back towards Equestria. He hopes the two kingdoms will have a strong allied bond in the near future. A few minutes later, Twilight lands back on the balcony of her palace and sees a few flames below. "Oh no!" she says as she flies down to see what the fire is. Once she lands, she sees that it's only a ceremonial bonfire. She breathes a sigh of relief. "What's with the ceremonial bonfire?" Twilight asks.
"It's a way we celebrate Fuera, our god of fire," says the Empress. "It's tradition to celebrate her on this day for it's the day of the Festival of Flames for us."
"Oh," replies Twilight. "Please tell me more."
"Okay, sure," replies the Empress turning to face Twilight. "Fuera was the creator of our little kingdom. From fire and sand and dust she created our small kingdom. Every year, we celebrate the day she created our kingdom. Today is that day so we celebrate to honor the goddess who created us all."
"That's cool," replies Twilight. In her head, on the other hand, she mumbles 'that sounds a whole lot like Celestia', but she wasn't going to let the Empress know that. "What else did Fuera do?"
"She protected us from thunderstorms and lightning strikes, prevented famine, and helped with weather in general. She also gave us the gift of light, magic, and most importantly, fire. She then blessed us with a special plant: the fire berry. It's the national plant." She shows Twilight a fire berry seedling. "See. This is the only one we managed to save from our now destroyed home."
"Yes, I do," replies Twilight. "We'll make sure it grows up big and strong. I promise."
"Thank you," replies the Empress. "Now won't you come join the festivities." Twilight nods and joins in the traditional singing of the songs of the Empress and her ponies. They sing songs about Fuera's deeds, her goodness, and the song of their creation and the creation of their land. Once they're done with the songs, they all take a sip of the ceremonial horn berry liquor, which is a combination of honey, fire oil, which grows from the fire berry plant, and the nectar of the crystal tree. As she drinks her portion, Twilight's face winces up a little bit but she doesn't let them see. She swallows the drink then excuses herself back to her castle. For her, that was the most interesting experience of her life, moreso than facing off against villains in fact. She doesn't know what to think about what she just witnessed, did, and heard. She really and truly doesn't.
Once she's back at the castle, she retreats to the library where she is soon joined by Cadence. "Hey Twilight," says Cadence with a smile, "how's your day been?"
"It's been interesting, to say the least," replies Twilight.
"That's nice," replies Cadence with a smile. "What'd you do?"
"Celebrated the Festival of Flames with the Empress and before that visiting Star Streak, Celestia and Luna's baby brother and his fledgling kingdom of Unitea," replies Twilight.
Twilight and Cadence then spend the rest of the evening together before finally going to separate rooms around midnight. Cadence goes to check on Flurry Heart while Twilight goes off to do some late night reading in her bedroom. Shining, meanwhile, in his bedroom, is busy reading his comic books as he holds onto his Gladiator Pony plush from his childhood. A few minutes later, Cadence comes in and he smiles as she gets into bed beside him and turns out the light. Meanwhile back in her bedroom, Twilight does the same. It's been a long day for all of them. As for the Empress and her unicorns, they're still outside celebrating their Festival of Flames well into the next day.