Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath as she and Misty stood behind the front door of the schoolhouse, formerly the Crystal Tearoom.
"Are you sure about this, Sunset?" Misty asked softly.
Sunset offered her an encouraging smile.
"I am. The sooner the truth comes out, the sooner things get as close to back to normal as they can around here," Sunset told her.
The slightly shorter unicorn nodded and stood back as Sunset opened the door, and stepped out into the forest clearing, where nearly all of her current students were gathered, as she had told everypony she had an announcement to make, and wanted everypony there.
"Alright, thank you for coming, everypony," Sunset began, closing the door behind her, leaving Misty inside. "I know we've had quite the exciting few days here, and I hope you all have enjoyed the time to relax. To reiterate once again, I'm very proud of all of you for how bravely you defended Bridlewood. Now, I'd like to tell you all something you probably don't know about our opponent. This 'Opaline Arcana' is far older than I could have imagined; she's familiar with ancient Equestria, with Princess Twilight. My spell sent her right back to wherever she came from, and I intend to find out where that is. Hopefully, now that she knows we can defend ourselves, she will think twice about attacking our homes again. If she does come back, we will be ready. Because we will continue getting better and stronger every day. Because now we have taken something away from her, or rather, taken something back. Nearly twenty years ago, Opaline came into this forest clandestinely, and stole away one of Bridlewood's own. She was so young that she barely remembered her life before she was taken. She was raised on whatever lies she was told, and in that time, her only family succumbed to the grief of never knowing what had happened to her. Now, I have decided to take her in, and I'm hoping that we, all of us, can show her her home for the first time all over again. Bridlewood, please welcome home, Misty Brightdawn."
With that, Sunset lit up her horn, turned back towards the schoolhouse door, opened it, and Misty stepped out into the clearing.
The applause was slow at first as the unicorn stepped up to Sunset, and once they hugged, the applause and cheering grew throughout the whole gathered crowd, with several voices shouting words of encouragement at her.
"Welcome back, Misty!"
"You're finally home!"
Misty managed to keep her emotions under control as Sunset released her from the embrace, and they turned to face the crowd.
"Th-thank you, everypony. I wish I could say I remember some of you, but the truth is, I don't. But I am looking forward to getting to know as many of you as I can," Misty told the crowd.
"Alright, students. Let's enjoy one more day off, because then it's back to classes tomorrow morning!" Sunset told them.
As Misty began to mingle with Alphabittle and Onyx, the crowd began to disperse back throughout Bridlewood, and Sunny came up to Sunset with a familiar white pegasus, catching her before she went back inside.
"Well, this is a surprise, Zipp. It's great to see you again," Sunset greeted. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Zipp smirked as Sunny gave a soft smile.
"Isn't it obvious? Congrats on the new wings. Sunny gave me a call and said you might be interested in some flying lessons."