//------------------------------//
// As Friends and Family 
// Story: Never Alone 
// by SoloBrony 
//------------------------------//





DAMNIT!

"COZY!" I screamed after my friend the entire way through Limbo before being unceremoniously dropped on my rear onto a grassy hill. I barely had time to register I was back in my pony form – I honestly wasn't sure if arriving here this way would do that or not – before I was on my rear legs, reaching up for the pinprick of magic that was left of the portal.

It zapped me before poofing out of existence, sending my fetlocks into a frizz but accomplishing very little else.

Cozy's trapped over there with no help, with Sombra!

I grit my teeth and slammed a forehoof into the ground, and I forced myself to suck in a deep breath.

Okay, okay, remember: She was absorbing dark magic left and right over there, and she wouldn't have stayed if she didn't think she could win, right?

My breath hitched as I realized that was exactly the kind of thing she would do. Cozy cared about me, about her Mom, about a lot of ponies – but she hated herself. She had been getting better, but...

No, I can't think like that! Cozy knows how devastated we would be if we lost her, I made SURE of that! So I just need to trust her strategy – she can hold out until we get there to back her up!

With that, I whirled on my rear hooves and got my bearings. Ponyville was in front of me, but I had to run down a large hill and across the ravine to reach it.

Every second counts!

I concentrated energy in my horn and loosed a magical flare before I teleported to the bottom of the hill, then to the edge of the ravine, then across it. Three rapid-fire teleports in a row like that made me slightly dizzy – I am SO out-of-practice at this! – but it put me close enough to the School of Friendship for me to sprint the remaining distance. The front door opened so quickly it almost hit me in the face, and I saw Starlight looking at me with a forceful expression.

"Sunset, what's going on? I felt that flare you sent up and came running!"

I gasped for breath and laid my hooves on her shoulders. "Starlight, Cozy is trapped in the edge of limbo with Sombra! We need to gather everypony—" another gasp for breath, "—we can before the portal reopens!"

Starlight looked perplexed. "Wait, the edge of limbo? What's – no, wait, nevermind. You mean the portal in Twilight's castle?"

I shook my head, still panting. "It opens up on that hilltop!" I pointed in the right direction, and I suddenly felt Starlight's hooves around me. I blushed slightly, confused and frustrated.

"Starlight, what are you—?!"

Starlight's voice came out forcefully as her horn overcharged. "Hold on tight."

The world around us blurred heavily as we accelerated into superspeed. Ponyville zipped past, and I barely noticed that she ran straight across the ravine without even bothering to jump. We were back on the hilltop in moments, and Starlight let go of me and stepped back, breathing hard.

"Okay... Sunset... you have your journal?"

I balked, then realized I had been wearing my saddlebags this whole time. I was so panicked I didn't even realize!

I nodded and immediately set my bags aside, fishing out the journal that gave me a lifeline to Twilight. I glanced over at Starlight.

"Starlight, thank you so—MPH!"

Starlight had jammed my quill into my mouth with her magic, and sat down, rubbing her horn and still panting. "Less talking, more writing, Sunset!"

I irritably spat the quill out and used my magic to maneuver it across the page, quickly scribbling out a message to Twilight. I had just finished when the hilltop shook from an impact, and I glanced over to see Princess Luna staring at me with concern.

"Sunset?! Are you alright?! Where is my daughter?!"

I snapped the journal closed and nodded. "I'm okay, just tired, but Cozy is still trapped. We were flung into the edge of limbo by the portal for some reason, and then we were attacked by an army of dark magic shades. We managed to beat them, but then Cozy sensed Sombra coming and sent me here to get help!"

Luna recoiled, her wings flaring, and then slammed her forehooves down. Her eyes radiated fury. "Sombra?! Cozy is in another dimension, fighting Sombra?!"

I nodded wordlessly, setting my journal into my bag and turning around to face where the portal would reopen. "The portal should reopen any minute. Be ready, everypony, we have no idea what's going on over there!"

A loud blast alerted us to the fact that more ponies had teleported to where we were, and my heart leapt for joy when I realized that they were Twilight, Celestia, and Starswirl. Starlight began running down the situation for them while Luna approached me.

"Sunset, why did Cozy not follow you through the portal?!"

I shook my head. "She had to open it with dark magic. If she had left it that way, Sombra could have slipped right past her and into Equestria before I could warn anypony – and he would be a lot stronger, too, after absorbing all of that. The power from that army of shades was... it was a lot of magic."

Luna's face fell into anguish. "Cozy wielded dark magic again...?"

Celestia approached us, apparently having overheard, and set a hoof on Luna's shoulder. "Believe in her, sister. She's stronger than she realizes."

Luna nodded, and I did too, putting in, "Actually, she used a lot of dark magic over there. We didn't really have a whole lot of choice, with a whole army breathing down our necks. She was determined to protect us. But it didn't really seem to do much to her, at least, mentally."

Celestia grimaced at that. "But, physically...?"

I sighed and cast my head down. "The crystals spread all over her. I have no idea what a fight with Sombra will do to her..."

Starswirl marched up beside us and faced Luna, gently taking off his hat and lowering it to his barrel. "Whatever the case may be, even if she has become a new Pony of Shadows, we will bring her back. You have my word, Princess Luna."

I heard the sounds of more ponies arriving, and glanced back to see Twilight filling Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity in on the situation. I sighed in relief at that and watched the space in the air that I'd been kicked out of, doing my best to summon up some courage and energy after the long, long day.

A tense few seconds went by, and then Starlight poked me in the barrel. "Hey, Sunset? Why didn't you try to use the journal to contact Twilight while you were over there, anyway?"

I rolled my eyes at her playfully despite the situation. "I did try, while we were walking, but—"

All of us were immediately on guard as we heard the telltale hum of strong magic at work. The portal slowly opened again,  a swirling vortex of energy in the air a few feet above the ground, and all of us braced for the worst.

Wait, is that Cozy Glow?!

It was hard to tell for a second, with her new, dark crystal-pony wings and the hefty saddlebags she was carrying, but Cozy Glow hopped out of the portal. She glanced up at all of us with a smirk, seeming to be completely unsurprised, and gently set the saddlebags aside while all of us stared in silence.

Then she reared up on her hind legs, pumped one hoof into the air, and declared, "WE WON!"

I bolted for her, the tension flying out of my chest all at once, and slid into a hug with her that she reciprocated with laughter. Luna was on us next, and it wasn't even a second later that I felt the familiar warmth of Celestia's wings wrapped around all of us. I laughed uncontrollably, snuggling into the adorable, reckless, crazy, heroic filly I'd come to adore.

"What in Equestria were you thinking taking him on alone, Cozy?" I laughed again, snuggling into her. "You had us so worried!"

Cozy nodded into us, giggling. "I know, and I'm sorry about that. I didn't want to make any of you worry, but I thought this was the safest choice, honestly! And it worked out."

Luna shuddered, clutching her tighter. "I'm just so glad you're safe, sweetie. Sunset talked about you two fighting a dark army, about your using dark magic...!"

Cozy just nodded into us again as she spoke. "Yeah, I did use a lot of it. But things turned out alright! Mom, you really should have seen me out there! Sombra really didn't have a..." she paused, snickered, and continued after rolling her eyes, "a ghost of a chance, pffft."

I snorted at that, but didn't disengage. I noticed an unfamiliar touch, and glanced over to see that Pinkie had somehow burrowed into our group hug. Without even looking at her, Cozy just said, "A victory party would be great, Pinkie. Thanks."

Pinkie just gasped and began vibrating as her smile got wider and wider, but I decided not to worry about it and just held on for now. I let waves of relief wash over me with the simple thought,

My family is safe.

-

Cozy and I filled in everypony else about our day on the edge of limbo during our walk back to Ponyville. She got surprisingly animated and excited at various points, acting out various moments and flying around in short bursts to illustrate the battle. It didn't take long before Rainbow Dash got in on it with her, with the two of them doing goofy, slow-motion ouch-I-am-dead fight moments.

Cozy's laughter was a constant the whole way back to the crystal castle, where Pinkie Pie had declared the party would take place, because she had, quote, 'prepared it for every type of possible party in advance'. Once we got there, we saw what she meant as she unfurled banners (though one was apparently congratulating the sunlight for some reason – a typo, I guessed – and she took it down in a huge panic), blasted confetti everywhere, and served pie, cake, and Rainbow Dash's favorite fruit snacks within minutes.

Once we had all settled in, I leaned across the small table Pinkie had pulled aside for my family (My family, I still couldn't believe it!) and addressed Cozy.

"So that's where we split up... what happened afterwards?"

All ears were on Cozy, but to my surprise, she actually didn't respond with the same bombast and energy she had talked about the other events with. Instead, she hesitated and seemed to have a small argument in her head about it, tilting her head left and right. I noticed her wings shimmered various different colors as it went on, too.

Finally, she took a breath, held it for a moment, and let it out. "So... It started raining."

Rainbow Dash in particular leaned in closer, but Cozy grimaced and waved her off. "No, sorry, Dash, this isn't – I'm not trying to build suspense, I just don't know how to tell this one."

Dash frowned. "Aww." Then she perked up. "Well once you do tell us, I'll make a super awesome version of it to tell other ponies!"

Fluttershy smiled at that, setting a hoof on Rainbow's withers. "I think that's a lovely idea, Rainbow. I still think you should try being an author."

I noticed that Cozy stole the distraction to think some more, but once the chatter died down and eyes were back on her, she nodded.

"So, um, it started raining, and I drank a couple of potions to get ready – uh, the last stamina potion we had, and my Soulfire potion. Then I went out to confront Sombra and... Uh, and Cozy Glow."

Cozy cleared her throat to the silent, confused room, and continued on. "That Sombra wasn't real, because, well, our Sombra is dead. Both of them came from an alternate timeline, a 'dead' timeline... I realized that as soon as they got close. I could just feel it, with all of the magic I had at the time. Just before I left the... the timeline where I was the Dashing Savior, I had started to feel the same thing. It's hard to describe, just a sense that something is off. And... well, uh, Sombra had the Alicorn Amulet from that timeline on, so I—"

Luna, who had been sitting next to Cozy, wrapped a wing around her daughter with an expression of alarm. "Sombra with the alicorn amulet?! And another version of you?! Sweetie, you should not have..." Luna trailed off and took a stabilizing breath before she continued, while Cozy just frowned and kept her gaze down. "I realize you did what you felt was best in the moment, and I cannot argue your choice was... sound, given the outcome. But I wish you would not be so reckless."

Cozy nodded with a sigh. "I know, but I could sense how much dark magic he was carrying before he even got there. And it wasn't anywhere close to as much as I had absorbed from his army. I didn't really want a stronger-than-double Sombra marching on Equestria, and, well, I had been absorbing his dark-magic creations all day. I've studied Sombra, I knew his tactics, and I knew I could absorb his magic. I didn't expect another of me to show up, but I put the dots together just before they arrived, when I felt a second shade from a different timeline coming towards the portal. I mean, somepony had to explain how the portal magic worked, right? It was the same spell I used to nearly wipe out magic in Equestria."

Cozy snorted and smiled sadly up at us, and I saw Luna squeeze her a little tighter with her wing to reassure her, prompting a smile from me. Cozy took a moment and then continued. "So, uh, yeah. I applied the flash cut principle to Sombra – that is, I knew what his opening moves would be. First that nightmare Sunset and I went through, then a blast of dark magic. I knew I could absorb that, so I focused on charging through it before he could react. I shattered his amulet, and, uh... well, pretty much the rest of him, too." Cozy snorted at that. "First time I've used the Flying Hydra Punch in forever, but I had the magic to really make it happen again. While he was a smoke cloud, I got rid of the other me, and then Sombra and I squared off again."

Looks were exchanged when Cozy said she 'got rid of' herself, but she didn't break stride.

"We were at a stalemate, but since my magic was way stronger than his without the amulet, I decided to get into his head, the way he does to other ponies. Only, rather than just pull on his fears, I pulled on what he loved, and... I created a temporal distortion field. His memories drew out a pony he had loved, once, a long time ago – I pulled her out of a timeline where she had no future, basically – and... Uh, well, I decided to leave them there. Sombra didn't have enough dark magic to open the portal on his own, and was more interested in being with the pony I put him with than in fighting me, so I wasn't in any danger, so... yeah."

Cozy cleared her throat. "They're still there, on the edge of limbo. I actually was hoping we could rebuild Starswirl's fortress—" she nodded to Starswirl, who smiled and nodded back, though he had been distinctly uneasy since dark magic came up, "—and maybe... I don't know, involve them, somehow? They're only going to be around for a few more months, but it seems like the nice thing to do, to put Sombra in charge of the project, or something. It would be nice if the history books could remember anything nice about him before he fades away."

Looks were exchanged at that, and it was actually Starswirl who broke the uneasy silence. "So, you mean to say you showed him mercy, and now you wish for us to extend kindness to him, despite how dangerous he is?"

Cozy nodded, her expression a little confused. "Uh, yeah...? That's... kind of what we do, isn't it?" She glanced around for confirmation, and was greeted with many warm smiles. Starswirl, for his part, just leaned back out with a somewhat confused smile. "I see. Well, that's... quite pleasing to hear, is all."

Luna nosed Cozy slightly. "Sweetie, what happened to your shade?"

Cozy fidgeted. "I... tore open a portal to the aether, and I bucked her into it."

Shocked expressions and cringes went through all of us, myself included.

She... she did what?! To herself?!

My stomach dropped at imagining that scene for a second. Cozy coughed slightly and cracked a weak smile.

"I, uh, might have yelled 'good riddance' while I was at it. But, um, as soon as she went through, I... kinda saw her life flash before my eyes. Especially the ending. That's... part of why I decided to spare Sombra. I kinda realized how important those... ghosts, or shades, or whatever can be to a pony."

Luna clutched Cozy tighter, resting her head on Cozy's head. "Oh, sweetie...!"

Cozy laughed at that. "I'm fine, Mom. Really, it was just... I mean it was messed-up but now it's over. It just gave me a lot to think about."

Luna and I exchanged a look, but we decided to leave the recap off at that point. Soon enough everypony dispersed, and the party got into full swing. There were still misgivings hanging over everypony, but Pinkie didn't let that last long with her antics, especially once it was revealed that Cozy's saddlebags had somehow been laden down with fancy drinks for all of us.

I wanted to interrogate her on that, but Luna and Celestia seemed to think that this was the most natural thing in the world, so I was forced to just roll with it.

Why do I feel like there's some kind of weird cosmic joke being played on me right now?

Though my misgivings were admittedly subdued significantly when I discovered just how good the butter beer was.

It is absolutely unfair to bribe me into letting this slide with something this good. Who MADE this? I wish I could make something like this!

And with that I decided to just throw myself into enjoying the party with the Equestrian counterparts of my friends.

We were in the middle of watching Cozy re-enact her showdown with Sombra on a pinata – complete with making a giant rainbow crystal pillar emerge from the castle to launch her into the sky, much to the astonishment of all present – when Celestia approached me, snickering as Cozy flew down in a spiral pattern.

"She certainly seems to have come out of her experience stronger, hasn't she?"

I just shook my head in disbelief. "Those crystals... she could only summon dark magic crystals over there! I still don't understand what's happened to her."

Celestia just smiled and draped a wing over me. "It would seem our friend is recovering from her experiences. I suppose her showdown with Sombra had something to do with that, though if I had to guess," Celestia shot me a knowing look and smile, "I'd say your friendship was the bigger factor in all of this."

I scoffed, shaking my head and smiling. "I don't know about that, but... well, I'm happy for her! I can always ask her about it later. I'm just glad all of us are safe and we can enjoy a good time together."

Celestia nodded, and I felt a soothing tug from her wing. "It can be easy to let anxieties overwhelm us such that we forget to enjoy the good times. Dark times take enough from us as it is without us volunteering the rest of our lives to them."

I snickered at that. "In the human world there's a slang term for that. They call it 'letting something live rent-free in your head.' "

Celestia had to hold up a hoof to conceal a undignified bit of snickering as she screwed her eyes closed, and I felt my heart leap to make her happy. She glanced at me, her smile broken down into a relaxed grin.

"That's a good one! I'll need to remember that."

I grinned back at her. "This won't be another 'dunked on', will it? It took you a week to stop saying that."

Celestia rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I find something funny and it sticks with me! Like you've never made a bad joke. Hmph!" She tossed her head such that her massive mane crashed over my face for a moment, causing me to splutter momentarily as she pulled it away.

"Bleh! Heeey!" I laughed despite myself, and pulled in closer to her. "Alright, alright, I won't rip on you for that anymore, just don't give me another dose of that hair – you can't breathe in that stuff!"

Celestia snickered, then closed her eyes and turned her head away in a faux regal pose. "I'm sure I have no idea what you mean! My hair has a mind of its own, you know."

I blew a raspberry. "At least part of you does!"

Celestia's facade broke instantly, as her closed eyes screwed further shut as she laughed at that, wriggling against me. I felt warmth spread through me as she laughed, and I took a deep breath, relaxing. She cracked an eye open to look at me with a serene smile.

"What's on your mind, little sun?"

I remember when I disliked that nickname... seems like a lifetime ago.

I smiled back at her, my eyes drooping slightly from the butterbeer. "It's just nice."

She quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head, and I elaborated. "This. Having you as a mom. That's all."

Celestia's eyes widened ever-so-slightly at being called that, but her smile deepened, moving from 'serene' to 'warm' as she pulled in to rest her head on top of mine. We stayed like that, silent but happy, for a little while before she spoke again, pulling back to look at me.

"You'll be seeing a lot more of me, you know. If you want to."

My eyes widened in surprise and I couldn't help smiling at that. "Oh yeah? What's going on?"

"I'm moving here, to Ponyville."

I recoiled a bit in surprise. "I thought you loved Silver Shoals!"

Celestia snickered. "I do. But now I've got a niece living here with my sister, and a daughter who comes to visit here." Her eyes sparkled while my brain and heart did flips at her calling me her daughter to my face like that. "I've decided to take up residence in this castle, and begin teaching at Twilight's old school."

I blinked at that and cocked my head. "Oh? You're going to teach creatures about friendship?"

Celestia snickered at that. "Perhaps a bit, but I think we both know it's not my strongest area. No, I'm primarily taking over teaching magic classes; Twilight used to handle them in addition to her headmare duties, but she's no longer at the school."

I nodded as I followed the logic. "Starlight is still settling into her role, and the school's a lot bigger now than it was, and Trixie would be the next choice, but she's swamped, too..."

Celestia booped my snout, causing me to recoil slightly and faux glare at her as she chuckled. "Exactly. They need somepony skilled in magic to help out, and I felt like it was the perfect job for me. At least it won't be as strenuous as running my old school was."

I thought back to the School for Gifted Unicorns and took on a bit of a thousand-yard stare as I nodded. "Yeeaaah, that place could be... pretty rough."

So many uptight noble unicorn families...!

Celestia nodded and huffed. "So many uptight noble unicorn families! Honestly, I loved my students, but it was enough to make me want to retire sometimes."

I laughed, facehoofing. "Oh wow. Uh, ditto on the first part. I can't believe you said it, though."

Mom snorted. "I'm retired! I can speak all the truth to power I want now that I'm no longer the power."

I opened my eyes long enough to start an eyeroll, but immediately went back to a facehoof and laughter. "That's right, Mom! Stick it to the Man! Celestia: The Rebel! We just need to get you a black outfit and a chain to complete the 'look'!"

I expected to hear her laugh in turn, but when I glanced up, she was just smiling at me. I quirked my head. "What, something on my face?"

Celestia rolled her eyes. "You called me 'mom', you know."

Whoa, did I really?

I leaned back a little in surprise. "Oh, uh, huh. I didn't even notice."

Celestia grinned and gave me another squeeze. "I know."

I took a deep breath at that, watching as Starswirl and Cozy got into a heated, nerdy, overly-enthusiastic discussion about portal spells in the corner while Rainbow Dash and Luna played tug-of-war in midair.

"You know, I used to call you that. In my head, I mean."

Celestia nodded, and her expression slipped into a somewhat sadder smile as she watched the shenanigans in the party.

"I thought as much... you did say it to me once, back then. I had just discounted it as a slip of the tongue, back then. Several of my students had made that sort of mistake... and I suppose it was my own willing blindness that kept me from considering that, having no parents of your own, you wouldn't make that mistake for the same reasons."

As I listened to her, old memories of my life with her came back to the fore. Times where I had wished, so, desperately, to be where I was now.

Even if it meant pushing myself to the breaking point in my studies, defying her, or burning the whole kingdom down.

I scoffed and leaned into her. "Don't let the dark times live rent-free up there, Mom."

Celestia cracked a bit more of a genuine smile at the contact and my words, and sighed happily. "You're exactly right."

I looked over at Luna and Cozy, now having their own mother-daughter moment and talking in the corner while Rainbow Dash crooned over her victory and assisted Applejack in doing fancy rope tricks from the sky. I snickered to myself.

"We've got an odd family history, don't we?"

Celestia looked down at me with a bit slightly-worried grin. "Right?! Is it me?"

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Nope, you're the normal one."

Mom reeled back in faux shock and indignation. "Oooh, why you! I'll show you 'normal' when Nightmare Night gets here!"

I snorted. "Okay, but until then you're just stuck being the Princess of Being Normal. The 'Normie Princess', if you will."

Mom scoffed and huffed, turning her head away in indignation. "Well, perhaps if my daughter would let me see more of her online gaming presence than her city-builder streams, I wouldn't be such a dull normie, now would I?"

I started at that, and I actually frowned a bit. "Oh, uh... did you actually want to see the rest? I kinda thought you were just humoring me, to be honest."

Celestia snorted, though when she looked back at me I could see the glint in her eye. "I'll have you know that I made it to megalopolis in Skyline weeks ago. Why, I was so tired of waiting on you I started playing a new game on my own!"

A new game? A random game? Picked out by Celestia?! Oh no, what would she pick out?! She didn't pick out one of the games with the cute anime characters on it, did she?! Those are the the LAST ones I want her to see!

I cracked a smile so awkward I wasn't even sure it was a smile anymore. "Ooooh, yeah? What'd you play, then?"

Celestia took a sharp breath and looked down at me with the air of somepony who was annoyed, though the mischievous glint never left her eye. "Well, I admit there were many games on the storefront that looked quite approachable, with colorful... I think the term was 'anime' characters."

My heart was slowly coming to a stop. "Buuuuut...?"

Please for the love of my Mom let there be a 'but'!

"But Principal Celestia advised me that those were mostly smut, and advised that I, quote, 'play the hell out of Doom instead if I wanted to appreciate kids these days.' "

I froze on the spot, and felt my eye twitch involuntarily as I tried to imagine that. Celestia suppressed a snicker audibly and leaned down to whisper, "The modern remake, of course. The original looks older than I am!"

I couldn't hope to handle that. I bust out laughing, my eyes still wide open with shock, as I held a hoof up to my face to try to get it under control.

"Y-you... played... Doom?!"

"Indeed!" Celestia grinned at me. "What, did you think I was some poor, innocent foal whose eyes needed to be shielded from the anatomy of living creatures? Sunset, I've delivered foals."

I stopped at that like someone had thrown a full-sized car into the gears of my brain, though I was still giggling. "I-I never thought of it like that. But it's so violent!"

Celestia nodded, and gave me a light kiss on the top of my head, startling me. Her voice came to me softly.

"I don't think any less of you for enjoying it, though. I watched your stream on it before I got started, and it was an enormous help, actually. I'll admit, yes, the level of violence bothered me at first."

"At first?!"

Celestia smirked. "I got over it! It's like you said in your stream, eventually the shock value is gone and you just need to kill the demons."

I rubbed my face, still trying to comprehend this strange, brave new world I had somehow faceplanted into. At high speeds and without a parachute. "How far did you get...?"

"Oh, I beat it!" She said happily, giving me another little squeeze. "I wanted to play the, erm... I think it's called 'DLC?' But my counterpart didn't own it, and I was playing on her account, so."

Finally, my brain kicked back on and I noticed something she had said.

"Wait, you watched my stream of it? But I never linked you to that..."

Mom just shrugged, ruffling her feathers against me as she did so. "My counterpart watches your streams regularly. Surely you noticed she's a subscriber?"

I groaned. "Oh, right, duh. Oh good grief I can't believe you two did that."

Celestia looked at me in concern, her brows knitting together. "Sunset? Did I do something wrong?"

I started and shook my head vigorously. "No, no! It's just... really unusual for parents to take an interest in that sort of thing."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at that, perplexity writing itself all over her face. "In their children's... livelihoods and hobbies?"

I blinked a few times. "Uh... yeah."

Celestia cocked her head to the side. "Then what do they take interest in?"

I raised a hoof, I opened my mouth, I was clearly going to speak, but the database that was my brain had just returned a null list, and I was left standing there like a robot on shutdown for a few moments before I set my hoof down.

"Huh. Uh, not much, I guess. That never even occurred to me, though I guess I've heard my friends talk about it."

It didn't occur to me because I didn't have parents of my own...

Celestia blew a raspberry, which got a confused smile from me. "Well, as they say, buck that! I don't know what other parents are doing, and it sounds like you don't either, so, let's just do this our way. I actually like my daughter, thank-you-very-much, and I think your work is splendid."

My cheeks colored at that and I glanced away with a stupid grin plastered all over my face. Her praise always did that to me. "Well... thanks. It's honestly not much, compared to the big streamers out there, but I get by."

Celestia snorted. "Those streamers probably aren't earning straight As in every subject while studying magic and developing new magical technology in their off-time, or battling to save the world on a semi-regular basis, now are they?"

I started again. Oooohoo, she's been talking to the Principal alright. Now I have to double sweat my report cards. Despite that, I grinned. "Nope, I guess they aren't."

Mom nodded sagely. "Sometimes our work must suffer for us to have a life. A lesson I only recently learned, but a valuable one as it turns out."

I swatted her playfully with a giggle. "Mom, don't go implying they don't have any life!"

She just gave me side-eye, and I looked away snickering. "Okay, so maybe it's true, but you don't just say it, c'mon!"

We both snickered at that before Celestia fixed me with a side-eye again. She leaned in and whispered, "But you know, you do need a better microphone. The world can't appreciate your pretty voice!"

Both of us giggled at that, though I flushed heavily up my neck at the compliment. I looked over to see Cozy profusely hugging Pinkie and thanking her for something or other, while Luna had clearly had a bit of moonshine and was now tap-dancing in a fancy tuxedo outfit no-doubt provided by Pinkie Pie in case of tuxedo-related emergencies. It was a surreal sight, and both of us just watched in fascination for a little while, as did many of the other ponies.

I snapped my jaw shut and shook my head slightly. "I didn't know she could—"

Mom, I realized, was staring in a similarly transfixed state, mouth closed but eyes wide. "Nor I." She shook her head again. "Neither did I," she said by way of correction, which prompted a snicker from me.

The spell Luna's dance had over us was broken when Cozy approached her, saying something while struggling to keep her eyes open. Luna nodded to her, and picked her up, setting Cozy on her back and setting off for the door. I approached them with some alarm, and Mom finally retracted her wing from my back and walked alongside me. Luna held up a hoof at our approach, and spoke first.

"Cozy's simply exhausted. The events of the day forced her to utterly deplete her magic, and she is suffering severe backlash. Nothing unusual, worry not. I'll have her in bed momentarily."

I glanced between Mom and Luna in a bit of confusion. "But she seemed fine just a few minutes ago. Why is it only setting in now?"

Mom gestured towards the door and nodded to Luna. "Go ahead and get the little one to bed, Lulu. I'll explain it to Sunset."

Luna nodded gratefully, taking Cozy away from the party. Mom turned around to face me, her smile a little pained.

"Cozy's backlash is a bit unique. I discussed this with her earlier, and it was expected... Soulfire has a unique property to its backlash, which is that it causes the user's magic to continuously deplete until it's all gone. It isn't called 'soulfire' for nothing – it's rather like lighting a fuse, and can't be put out once lit. The user can initially feel fine, but the backlash gets worse continuously over the course of the day afterwards until they're forced to rest. Dark magic also has a delayed effect; when used deliberately and with abandon, as Cozy did, it can initially feel empowering – but the cost sets in some time after."

I winced at that, glancing away. "But she's fine, right?"

Mom nodded, setting a hoof on my shoulder with a smile. "She'll be just fine. In fact, the worst of it is already past, for her; she rested before coming here, so that she would have the strength to face us."

I recoiled at that. "What? But... when?! She didn't have the time to do that!"

Mom frowned slightly, and glanced up and away to consider something. "You need to ask Cozy about this, but... she has a special place she can go to rest, and time passes very differently there."

I stared at her flatly. "The same place where all of the drinks came from? That she goes to using a special business card?"

Mom brightened. "Oh, you know of it! That makes things much less awkward."

I groaned. "She keeps refusing to tell me anything about it, though!"

Mom snickered. "Well, I can't blame her. It's a strange conversation to have, and I suppose she felt you didn't need to deal with it at the time. But it's not my secret to share."

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. "Alright, I get how that can be. Especially when it comes to weird extradimensional magic secrets."

Mom nuzzled me. "I knew you would." As she drew me back, she rubbed at my chin with her hoof, still smiling. "And how are you, Sunset? It hasn't been an easy day for you, either."

I gave a sleepy shrug. "I mean, it's been exhausting. That's why I haven't done a lot here at the party. And... y'know, it was really terrifying for a while." I glanced away and kicked it around in my head. "Fighting those shades wasn't even as bad as just... worrying about them coming for us. The fight itself was mostly just, y'know, stay back and shoot, and Cozy's necklace kept me safe. But it was still a lot of stressful stuff in one day."

I chewed my lip slightly, my face falling a bit. "But the worst was when she kicked me through that portal. Not knowing if I could save her in time, worrying about her... that was awful."

Mom nodded sadly. "I'm sure she felt the same way about you, throughout the day."

I took a sharp breath, and nodded. "She did. I saw it. She was absolutely scared out of her wits on my behalf, trying to keep me safe."

Mom pulled me into a hug, holding me tight, and I hugged her back. It took me a bit to find my voice. "I'm fine, though, Mom. It wasn't the worst thing I've been through, and there were good parts to it. If nothing else, listening to Cozy trash-talk the shades was pretty funny, despite the situation."

Mom snickered at that, nuzzling me. "We're a tough family, alright."

I laughed at that. "I guess we are! Not many teenagers can say they took down an army."

Mom leaned back to look at me with a quirked eyebrow. "You aren't going to go try it again, are you?"

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Of course not! I much prefer my enemies to be the digital kind where I get extra lives, don't worry."

Mom just laughed and ruffled my mane. "And here I was worried you'd turn into another Cozy! Honestly, if Luna didn't believe in that filly so much, I'm sure she would be worried absolutely sick by now."

I smirked. "She wouldn't be the only one."

Mom nodded with a smirk of her own. "True enough."

We passed into smalltalk from there, complete with my promising to play more coop games with Celestia, until night fell and the party slowly dissolved. I ended up spending the night there in the castle, and just before I fell asleep, a feeling overtook me.

There, in a castle belonging to Twilight Sparkle, the girl who gave me a second chance and a new life. Under the same roof as Celestia, my actual mom now. It was back in Equestria, which I was no longer used to, and it wasn't the little studio apartment I had... but I felt truly home, for the first time in a long time.