"So, do you believe her?"
Mother had just finished sharing everything that that Knight of the Sun terrorist had told her. It wasn't much, though. Simple words, hastily constructed. If even I could sense something was off about them...
"We doubt she's telling us everything, General. We also doubt she is Our niece."
My ears perked up at that. According to the reports, Discord had identified her as Sunset Shimmer, the daughter of then-Princess Celestia. Was he just pulling another prank on us? Was he trying to get us worked up into a fit chasing a ghost as Daybreaker's return approached? After all, it had been Mother's magic that had bound him to the castle's lower wings. What if he thought that Daybreaker's return to power might free him from his stone prison?
"Or, at least, the version of her We know."
"What do you mean?" I looked over to an aide that had trotted up with a report. Apparently, Sunset had attempted to slip out of her room for the second time moments ago, this time out the room's window. She might have actually gotten out of the castle this time, if Major Dash hadn't been running a patrol in the area.
"The Sunset Shimmer We knew never stood within the walls of Canterlot Castle. Before her disappearance, the royal family lived in the Castle of Two Sisters deep within what is now the Everfree Forest... Yet the Sunset Shimmer before Us now seems to have intimate knowledge of these halls. Not to mention, the Sunset Shimmer we knew was downright boastful of her intellect. The phrase 'I don't know' simply wasn't in her language. It was always 'I want to find out!' or 'Well, I have an idea that this might have happened.' We dare say, you might have liked her, dear Twilight." Mother's mouth curled up into the bright smile I believed came from remembering less stressful times. "We dare not imagine the trouble the two of you could have caused should either of you gotten an idea for a magical experiment."
"Is that it?"
Mother laughed again. "The fact that Sunset hated calling us 'Auntie', though the Miss Shimmer currently in the pupil's dormitory called me that within the first ten words she spoke in private, was enough reason for Us."
I nodded with a rather dejected sigh. It was bad enough that we had to prepare for the upcoming release of a power-crazed alicorn that wish to purify the realm. At least if this actually was Daybreaker's daughter in my old dorm room, maybe we could have used her to calm her mother's nerves. But an alien doppelgänger of her daughter here for who knows what purpose? It was simply too risky.
"So, what are we going to do about her?"
I watched as my mother's smile twisted, becoming a bit more feral and sending a chill down my withers. That smile always crushed any doubt in my mind that she had once been called a literal Nightmare.
"My dear child, We are going to sleep. After all, We must protect Our other realm, no?"