//------------------------------//
// 7 - Together 
// Story: A Third Chance to Find a Family 
// by kitkataddel 
//------------------------------//

While the mystery woman shouted, Sunset found herself more focused on the folded pair of wings made of fire that was attached to her back, directly where two scars were streaked down next to her spine. Muttering various swears of suprise to herself, the ex-unicorn started to recognise the wings. "The phoenix flight spell..."

"What?" Twilight Sparkle, still panicking from the verbal attack on the house, was standing in the doorway, clutching the frame as if there was an earthquake.

"It's the phoenix flight spell. First piece of magic I ever mastered. It's what got me my cutie mark." Sunset found herself hovering with the wings at this point, delighted to be able to use magic properly again.

"Cutie mark? The symbol on your flank, right?" Sunset nodded, once again reminded of the lecture from yesterday, how Spike had helped left a great amount of tension on herself but also make her worry. A lot. And judging by the rather royal tone the person was using to scream at the house, Sunset's fears from her dream may have become realised. Nevertheless, Sunset gathered the various accepting feelings she had been using for the past couple of days to deal with the dramatic changes, and walked out, wearing the blood stained leather jacket, which the wings had phased through, just to make a point to the stranger, who continued to scream at the house, unrelenting in her verbal assualt.

"RETURN HER!"

"Sunset!" Velvet was almost cowering against a wall, next to a window that displayed the perculiar scene. "Do you know who... she... is..." The already pale woman turned even palier as she eyed to fire sprouting from Sunset's back.

"I'll explain the fire later. And no I don't know who she- wait." Sunset eyed the raging woman with careful examination, letting out a small exhale as she started to note the colour of hair, the way she moved, and the odd glow being given off. "No- it's- I-"

"Who, Sunset? Who is she?!"

"That's..." Struggling for composure at this point, Sunset made a decision, stiffening herself. "Get me out to the back yard." Seeing that Night Light was about to ask for an actual answer from his hiding spot, she made her objective clear. "Now."





"LET ME SEE MY SUN. I DEMAND IT!" 

'I wish it didn't have to come to this, but I traced her life force here. Judging from what I've been told, she needs me.' The woman, more frustrated than angry by this stage, started to stomp the ground, not caring for the other people in the neighborhood, who had either gone into hiding, or went somewhere to call the police, only to be met with static, with only a few select messages able to get through the mysterious field.

"CELESTIA!" The white skinned woman shot her head up to the source of her name. One Sunset Shimmer, complete with a pair of fiery wings and still glowing pony ears, even a horn made of light, stood upon the roof, looking down on the princess. "I am not going back to Equestria! I will not rot in one of your dungeons! And I don't care if I have to face a sun goddess to accomplish this, for I have earned my freedom!" With a yell of frustration, Sunset used her wings to her full advantage, grabbing Princess Celestia and rocketing them both up to the heavens, away from the only pair of eyes watching them. And the owner of the eyes was pink. Very pink.

The resulting fight lasted what seemed like a decade. Though, if one was able to see them past the clustered storm clouds that surrounded them, it would appear that they were caught in a loop: Sunset would dive at Celestia, who was now levitating, only to miss the target as Celestia teleported out of the way. A blast of fire was then directed at the Princess, who absorbed it in a shield, blasting it back at Sunset. She, in turn, absorbed the fireball with her wings, using the new energy to release a blinding light from her horn, only to charge at Celestia again, repeating their agressive dance.

Gradually, both sides started to sense something was up. Sunset noticed Celestia was only going on the offense when she had to, while Sunset was not putting that much fight into her attacks, rendering them useless, despite clearly having the power to form near-fatal attacks.  Changing from their routine, they both decided to test each other's power, firing a thick beam at their opponent at the exact same time. It met in between them, clashing as each attack struggled for control. Trying to put more power into the beam, they both came closer to each other, making the beams instify, before they both spluttered out of existence.

The two magical beings floated away from each other, almost mirroring their own movements. Seeing that they were both misunderstanding of the situation, they both asked each other for the same wish.

"STOP!"

All fighting tensions ceased, just as they had commanded. However, just as much tension was reintroduced as they engaged in silently looking at each, examining the contrasting appearances of the two.

Sunset was still wearing her jacket, symbolising many signs of the past. Bearing the scorch marks from her defeat at the fall formal, blood stains from her recent suicide attempt, two holes in the back of her jacket, caused by both the dark magic wings and her current phoenix wings. Light bandages were wrapped around her lower arms and hands, there to allow the scars to form properly. Her face was one of mixed emotion, but she was clearly in pain because of them, as she was crying fiercely. Her current magic potential was also apparant because of this, looking more and more like a phoenix - her hair had started to shine and flow, giving the effect of being on fire, and her wings were glowing tremendously, radiating heat at a great rate. But most noticable were her eyes, glowing, their colour shifting between a deep red and pure white. And there were the tears. They flowed from the heated pools, almost floating as they left Sunset's face. It appeared she was crying actual magma, both from the heat and the colour.

Princess Celestia, on the other hand, was still using a more stoic expression, attempting to remain calm, but the twitching of her face betrayed her conflicted emotions, though it was impossible to read exactly what emotions were fighting. She was in regal robe, reflecting her status of royalty. The white sheets that flowed about her whipped in the wind, while the crown she was wearing reflected the light her opponent was giving off, as if attempting the balance out the power between them. Her pastel hair freely shook, as the air wrapped around it, going in every direction possible, while still maintaining the sky-like look. Starting to grasp the reality of both parties, Celestia gave a signal in the form of a carefully placed nod, to which Sunset only looked down, almost in shame, and they then descended together, each avoiding eye contact, and remaining a steady distance apart.





"Are they still fighting?"

"Who was it?"

"Where are they now?"

By this stage, Cadance and Shining Armor had answered Night Light's frantic messages, which had gotten through during a momentary lapse in the srambling spell Celestia had cast, and arrived, along with a complete myriad of questions. Spike the dog had managed to sleep through the entire ordeal, but was now in a confused state, almost attmepting to drown out the noise with his barking.

"STOP!" Velvet's voice shook throught the household, silencing all. "Let's be at least slightly calm about this."

"Alright," The younger Twilight was already thinking up a way to go about this, about to present it to her family. "Let's recap. Again."

Night Light slowly crawled out of his cowering underneath the table, starting off the listing of recent events. "We took care of Sunset, who attempted suicide after being abandoned by her friends." Velvet had accidently let slip of the reasoning behind Sunset's injuries as they were preparing for Christmas, but they had agreed not to mention it to Sunset. Velvet had hoped not to to something like that, but with the pressure she was under, she had no choice.

"Sunset then claimed, and kind of proved she was from another dimension, where she was suppossedly a unicorn." Twilight spoke up next, thinking of herself as being the best one to take apart fact and fiction.

"She then proved that further by waking up the next day with wings made of fire, and horse ears on her head." Velvet was still recovering from witnessing actual magic, which was strange considering the scientists appeared to be hardly phased by it.

"Sunset then flew using those wings and grabbed the random woman who was shouting at the house and was dressed like some kind of greek goddess, flying above the clouds." Shining finished off, using the only piece of information he had been told since arriving.

"Okay, so we know Sunset is magical, and there's nothing wrong with that, she still a human. But..." Cadance then asked the question everyone was wanting to know. "what do we do with her?"

The silence that ensued was agonising. They were even ignorant to the thunder that erupted from above them, as the two equestrians were engaged in their immense battle, it sounded as if reality was being reassembled around them.

"I can answer that." A small voice spoke, seemingly emmitting from Spike, who looked just as confused as the humans, only he was barking at the hidden magic duel, only to stop, then sniffing the air in search of the new speaker. Who turned out to be himself. Again. "You accept her."





"Pinkie! Ya'll called us here, it's Christmas day, and yes, only two of us turned up, but what did you see?!"

"TherewasthisbrightlightandsomeonewaslevitatingandtheotherwaswingsandfireandstuffandIdidn'tknowwhattodosoIgotyoutocomehere'cosIthinkit'smagicandwedomagicalotbutIdunnoanymore'costhisisconfusingevenmoremeImeancanyouevenunderstandmerightnownoprobablynotIdon'tevenknowsocouldyouhelpmeandsomeonejustcutmeoffalre-."

"Darling, while I appreciate you are probably worried, could you please say words me and Applejack can understand?"

"Okay. Right. So there was these two people, there was one with wings, and it looked like she was on fire but not actually on fire, and she grabbed the other one up, the other one didn't have wings but could float, so it must be magic, and the other one was all royal looking and stuff! She was shouting at the house that she needed her son or something, but no one was answering until the fire one was on the roof. OOO! Do you think she's looking for Charles?!"

"Charl- nevermind. Do y'know what the other one said, if anything?"

"It began with a C... uh... I think- hey is that Twi-"

"You're talking about Celestia. Now... What. Did. You. Do?"