The intercom message Max made, calling for Princess Twilight was unfortunately not received, as the speakers were still undergoing repairs. Unaware of this fact, Sunset waited patiently for Princess Twilight to arrive at the castle, although both Max and Sour Sweet were growing rather annoyed at waiting around for so long. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle had just finished reconciling with the rest of her friends even after the entire disaster her coronation was. Falling off the balcony, ponies drinking mushy applesauce, and everything seemingly made to look like a huge mess. Despite this, Twilight and her friends laughed things off and were still mostly just happy they were able to share this entire experience together, even more so after Starlight finally revealed the surprise present she had secretly been working on. A book containing all sorts of memories from the past Twilight could now always look back on, no matter how much things would change from this point forward.
Starlight's present gave Twilight the inspiration to maintain her relationship with her friends despite now living in different places. She had just given out her first royal decree to establish the council of friendship, where everyone would be expected to meet with each other once a moon. Both Celestia and Luna commended Twilight and her friends for figuring out how to maintain their friendships on their own, before Celestia gave Twilight her final words of wisdom and a goodbye, as she and Luna were ready to depart for their retirement.
"You're leaving?" Twilight said, still sad to see that her mentors were finally leaving after ruling Equestria for so long.
"We hope you'll come and visit us in Silver Shoals." Luna replied, letting Twilight know where to find them during their retirement.
"But now it's time for you to rule on your own." Celestia said to Twilight, as all her friends teared up in joy. "You're all more than capable."
"Thank you for everything." Twilight said, happy and grateful for everything she's learned ever since she became Celestia's pupil. She ran up to hug Celestia before everyone else joined in.
As they had all finished hugging, Celestia and Luna went off to pick up their luggage before heading off to Silver Shoals. Twilight looked back at her friends for a moment, seeing the first 5 friends she made ever since she was sent to Ponyville, as well as Spike and Starlight. Although she had a blast sharing the same memories with them all a few minutes earlier, she couldn't help but think something was amiss.
"It's good to see you were all able to share this memory with me..." Twilight began, trying to shake this strange feeling. "...But why do I somehow get the feeling somepony's missing?"
Everypony and Spike initially looked at each other in confusion, before Starlight suddenly remembered a crucial detail from earlier today.
"Wait a minute, Twilight." Starlight began. "You might be onto something. Even though we saw most of our friends and family here at the coronation, this whole time, I also couldn't help but feel like somepony in particular was noticeably absent. Where's Sunset?"
Twilight gasped upon being reminded of her human friend. "Sunset! I got a message from her earlier today that confirmed she was going to come! Where could she possibly be!?"
"Sunset?" Applejack asked curiously. "As in, Sunset Shimmer? That unicorn who stole your crown and forced ya' to go into that other strange lil' world?"
"That's her." Spike validated. "Twilight actually wrote to her earlier today regarding when the coronation was going to take place. She wrote back saying she'd come."
"Did she actually ditch you by refusing to show up!?" Rainbow Dash said with annoyance. "I thought you told us she's changed since then!"
"Now now, Rainbow." Twilight said, trying to calm her pegasus friend down. "Let's not jump to any conclusions. I did give Sunset a personal invitation a little late, and she's not really as familiar with Equestria compared to the other world. She also mentioned she was curious at exploring more of Equestria if there was enough time. Maybe something came up, or she got lost somewhere along the way?"
"I have a feeling that could be a possibility." Starlight confirmed. "Earlier while you all were coming out of Twilight's castle to catch the train, it seems you barely missed Sunset, who just arrived through the mirror. I didn't talk much with her, but she did clarify that she was adamant on coming to the coronation, and that she'd enjoy taking the long way, to perhaps explore Equestria for a bit."
"You don't think... something bad happened to Sunset along the way, right?" Fluttershy asked with concern.
As Twilight and her friends were coming up with ideas or theories as to where Sunset had been, Pinkie's tail suddenly twitched a bit, before she got a sudden feeling to answer this mystery.
"That's funny." Pinkie said ironically. "According to my Pinkie Sense, Sunset Shimmer is actually pretty close by. Right around... in there!" Pinkie pointed at the castle where Sour Sweet and Max Steele had just apprehended the aforementioned unicorn.
"In the Main Castle?" Rarity inquired. "But darling, what would she be doing in there when the coronation's out here?"
"Only one way to find out." Twilight said, knowing not to question Pinkie Sense after her past experiences with doubting it. "Please stay behind a bit longer, everyone. Since we're all here at the moment, it would mean a lot to me for you all to meet Sunset more properly. I have a feeling I'm going to have to sort something out." All of Twilight's friends nodded in agreement, before Twilight quickly flew over to the castle.
In the castle, Sour Sweet had finally ran out of patience, and spoke up. "All right, we've waited for about 15 minutes now, Princess Twilight's clearly not coming! So why don't you just go ahead and throw her in the dungeon, Pops?"
Max was leaning more toward doing just that, but still didn't feel right at breaking his promise in giving Sunset a fair chance. As Max was about to give in and escort Sunset down the halls, the doors burst open, as Twilight rushed in to see the two castle guards with a cuffed Sunset.
"Hey! What's going on in here!?" Twilight demanded an explanation.
"Oh, you wouldn't believe it, Princess Twilight." Sour Sweet began in a saddened voice, before beginning to fabricate a story. "We just apprehended this slimy unicorn who tried to rob the castle of its valuable gems!"
"Slimy unicorn, what are you talking about, Sour Sweet!?" Twilight huffed, not even buying her story for a second. "Do you have any idea who this is? This is Sunset Shimmer! A really good friend of mine who agreed to take a temporary vacation from her hometown just for me! I personally invited her to this coronation, and you two have her in hoofcuffs!?"
Both Max and Sour Sweet looked at each other in shock for a moment, before Sunset spoke up. "Twilight, I know you wrote to me in the journal earlier about how you notified all the guards about me showing up, but it didn't sound like to me that you let... him know." She turned her head toward Max, as she was unable to point with her hooves due to the cuffs. "He was guarding this castle's main entrance and refused to let me in, or thought my name sounded familiar."
Twilight looked at the stallion, and realized her own mistake. "...Oh. You're right, Sunset. I must've been so focused on my dilemma with my friends about moving away, that I forgot to inform Mr. Steele about it."
Max Steele placed his hoof on his face, rather surprised at this whole thing being a huge misunderstanding. "I'm so sorry, Princess. I really had no idea I was supposed to let this Sunset mare in." He apologized, as he quickly removed the cuffs from Sunset.
"No worries, Mr. Steele, we all make mistakes." Twilight said to the stallion before turning back to Sunset. "I only told the palace guards about you, and to let you in whenever you showed up. Speaking of..." Twilight then turned to Sour Sweet and gave her an angry look. "Why couldn't you clear things up with Mr. Steele? I know for a fact I definitely told you about Sunset, Sour Sweet!"
Sour Sweet looked nervous at first, unable to answer, until she noticed another one of the palace guards coming around the corner, holding what looked like a saddlebag.
"Oh, hey there, Princess!" The guard addressed Twilight. "While looking around for the intruder, I found this saddlebag in a broom closet. Should this be collected as evidence?"
"Cadet, call the search off!"Max ordered the guard. "Not only have we found the intruder in question, but it turns out this was a whole misunderstanding!"
"That's right." Sunset said in approval, before just then realizing she didn't have her saddlebag strapped onto her anymore, and was thankful that one of the guards found it through the search. "Also, that's my saddlebag. Could you please give it to me?"
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, and with both Max and Twilight allowing this action to be taken, the guard went on to put the saddlebag next to Sunset on the floor, before going off to inform the other guards about the search being over. As Sunset reached for her saddlebag, Sour Sweet snatched it. She wanted to play off her fabricated story in one last final attempt.
"Wait, look in her saddlebag!" Sour Sweet interjected. "Why do you think she hid this in the closet!? I bet it's full of valuable stuff, like..." She went through the saddlebag, much to Sunset's disapproval, before finding the tansies Sunset had brought for Twilight. "Aha! Why do you have a bouquet of tansies in here!?"
"TANSIES!? THOSE ATTRACT LADYBUGS!!!" Twilight exclaimed out of pure reaction, before noticing a few crawling around the bouquet itself. "GAH!!!! GIMME THOSE!!!!!" Twilight grabbed the bouquet from Sour Sweet and teleported the flowers away to a place far from Canterlot. Without even thinking, the flowers got sent to Fluttershy's animal sanctuary.
Upon seeing this, Sour Sweet did a subtle smirk, before thinking she could use this as dirt against Sunset. "I guess that confirms this so-called-friend of yours was trying to intentionally poison your coronation by spreading ladybugs everywhere."
Although traumatized at the mere sight of ladybugs a moment ago, Twilight continued to stand her ground on defending her friend whom she knew was better than that. "Well, Sour Sweet. With how dishonest you've been, especially since you still haven't given me an explanation on why you didn't let Mr. Steele know about Sunset, I'm inclined to believe you put those tansies in Sunset's saddlebag to set her up!"
Despite feeling like Sour Sweet deserved all this karma that just came around, Sunset still felt the need to come clean and admit to her own mistake. "Actually, Twilight? She didn't, I was the one who bought those myself. From what I just saw there, I had no idea you disliked tansies, and more specifically, ladybugs. I got the idea from when you wrote to me about how you generally like yellow flowers, and I was just trying to find you a present on such short notice as a coronation gift." As Sunset now realized how much of a disaster bringing the tansies to the coronation would've truly been, she lowered her head and started tearing up. "I'm really sorry things didn't work out, and that I would've ruined your coronation by getting those flowers."
Twilight only put her hoof on Sunset's chin and continued the conversation in a proud tone, happy about Sunset's honesty and willingness to not let her own mistakes come at the expense of others. "Don't be, Sunset. In fact, you're right, now that I recall, I really never told you about my hatred for ladybugs. And I think it's really sweet of you that you tried to get me a present, despite the fact I invited you to my coronation on such short notice. Plus, let's just say, the coronation didn't exactly go according to plan. If anything, it was a total disaster, but the hiccups certainly made the event a whole lot more memorable for everyone."
"Thanks, Twilight." Sunset smiled at the princess, happy she was able to see the good in her, despite making a huge mistake herself.
"Speaking of mistakes..." Twilight turned her head toward Sour Sweet and began speaking in a more unfriendly tone. "You've got some serious explaining to do now, Sour Sweet. Why did you make all these accusations toward Sunset and not let Mr. Steele know about her, despite the fact I specifically told all you palace guards? What did you have to gain from doing all this?"
Sour Sweet simply kept quiet along with an anxious expression, before Sunset spoke up for her. "I think I know, Twilight. Mr. Steele here promised a bonus for the guard who would catch me first, so she made that a priority by also tricking me into getting cuffed."
Both Twilight and Sunset looked at Sour Sweet in disgust, before the guard finally spoke up for herself. "Errr, hey. Everypony makes mistakes, right?" She reiterated in a sweet tone.
"Yeah, that's right." Twilight said, before becoming more blunt. "But the difference here is, unlike Max and Sunset who owned up to their mistakes, you tried to lie about it and cheat at the expense of others. You know what, I've heard enough at this point. I've been hearing reports about a certain palace guard who likes to abuse their authority, and I'm glad this whole situation finally let me see who it was for myself. Sour Sweet, you are handing in your badge and armor, and for lying to a princess, you are also going to be the pony spending time in the dungeon!"
Sour Sweet only made a face of annoyance, and showed no signs of remorse for her little scheme. Max Steele then spoke up. "What about me, Princess? I also contributed in making Sunset miss your coronation, I'm ready to face the music myself."
"Well, it was actually my fault for not letting you know about Sunset coming over, but as for the decision to let you go or not, I'll leave that choice up to Sunset." Twilight said firmly. "I know her well enough to trust her opinion on matters like this."
Although Sunset herself wasn't happy with what happened back at the castle entrance, she still kept in mind he wasn't aware of her being expected, and was simply doing his job as a security guard. Plus, unlike Sour Sweet, he let her go from her cuffs as soon as he realized his mistake.
"I'll forgive him this time, since I know he was being honest about everything." Sunset said empathetically. "But for the record, sir? Maybe in the future, you could not just jump to conclusions about ponies you've never met as intruders, or better yet, clingy fans of Princess Twilight? Back in my hometown, a good friend taught me one valuable lesson. Security is an art, it cannot be rushed." Sunset reiterated the same words said by the Human Max, which she was forced to hear for three weeks during that time loop.
"Huh. I really like that, I'm gonna start saying that more often." Max said. "And thank you for also being so understanding about this whole mess, and I promise to be more careful from this point forward. Now I can definitely understand why you and Princess Twilight are friends."
"Well, she did learn her friendship skills from somewhere, after all." Twilight said jokingly as Sunset chuckled with her. "Now please, Mr. Steele. Take Sour Sweet to the Canterlot Dungeon."
"Affirmative, Princess." Max agreed, as he finally put the hoofcuffs on Sour Sweet and started walking her over to the dungeon.
As Max and Sour Sweet left the room, Twilight turned back to Sunset, now feeling sympathy for everything Sunset seemingly just went through. "I'm really sorry again, Sunset. This was all my fault, I should've double checked in making sure all the guards knew you were coming, and sent you an invitation sooner."
"Don't worry at all, Twilight. As long as I'm here now, it's the perfect opportunity to see you rule like an actual princess, and maybe meet some of your friends." Sunset said with initial hope. "Well, assuming they're still here, that is."
"Most of the coronation guests had already gone home, but my closest friends are still here. Come on, I can introduce you to them." Twilight said happily. Sunset nodded her head and picked up her saddlebag before trotting out together to the main square where Twilight's friends were still waiting.