"But it can't be the Summer Sun Celebration today!" Twilight Sparkle argued. "That's still a week away!"
"We told you already!" Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. "If you still think it's last week, then how do you explain Princess Luna being here?"
"Hmph," Twilight Sparkle said.
The ponies were on the train, riding to Ponyville. They would arrive late for the all-night party, which had Pinkie Pie somewhat distraught.
"Perhaps we should try a different approach," Princess Celestia said. "Twilight, what is the last thing you remember?"
"Well...last night, Trixie came to Ponyville," Twilight said, nodding her head towards Trixie. "And then you showed up, Princess, and we, uh...I got mad at you. And...I...I met with Nightmare Moon in the woods."
Twilight's friends gasped. "Did she attack you?" Rarity asked. "Is that how you ended up in the hospital?"
"I ended up in the hospital?" Twilight asked. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember."
At this, Scootaloo could no longer contain herself. "That's where you promised to be my big sister!" she said, bursting forward and grabbing Twilight's hooves. "You have to remember! You just have to!"
"Your...sister?" Twilight asked, paling slightly.
Princess Celestia closed her eyes, thinking deeply. "Perhaps it is for the best that you and my sister can't remember what happened," she said. "Many bad things happened when the nightmare powers controlled you."
"Huh," Applejack said. "I knew there was somethin' weird about Twi after she got injured. She wasn't acting like her usual self."
"I figured she was acting weird 'cause she was in the hospital," Rainbow Dash said. "If I had a broken wing, I'd probably act weird myself."
Pinkie Pie waved her arm in the air, like she was answering a question in school. "Ooooo, maybe it was because of that evil glowy necklace thingy she was wearing that nopony noticed, except I totally noticed it, and I'm a pony!"
"What?" everypony asked.
"Are you saying that you knew my sister was turning evil?" Shining Armor asked with some anger in his voice. "Why didn't you do anything about it?!"
"Twilight said the necklace was a gift from the princess, so I thought it was okay!" Pinkie said. "It was black and red, and it had wings and a horn on it, and—"
"The Alicorn Amulet!" Princess Luna said.
"That's it!" Twilight said. "Nightmare Moon told me to get the Alicorn Amulet! So I went to Canterlot and I...I...uh..."
"Yes?" Princess Celestia asked.
"...I think I stole it," Twilight said softly.
"Oh, dear," Fluttershy said.
"And that would be the night we had those...incidents in Canterlot," Celestia said. "Very well. I suppose that explains some things."
"You're not going to punish her, right?" Shining Armor asked. "It wasn't her fault, and she already got arrested for it!"
"I got arrested?!" Twilight shouted. She flared her wings so quickly that one of her feathers fell loose.
"Mom said you were protecting me, like a good big sister," Scootaloo said. "Please remember it. Please!"
Scootaloo looked like she was about to cry. Before Trixie could step in, Twilight reassuringly patted Scootaloo on the head with her wing. "Don't be sad, Scootaloo," Twilight said. "We can still play pretend sisters if you want to."
"It wasn't pretend! It was real!" Scootaloo said adamantly. "You even taught me the BSBFF song!"
Shining Armor's jaw dropped. "You taught her our song?" he asked. "Twiley! How could you?"
"I don't remember!" Twilight said, grabbing her forehead. She groaned and aggressively rubbed the spot where her horn had been. "I'm trying, but all I can see is the color white!"
Princess Celestia stood up. "We can discuss things later," she said. "Twilight has just been through a terrible ordeal, and the last thing she needs right now is more pressure."
The other ponies nodded, although some of them were reluctant to agree. Twilight was their friend, and they didn't want to upset her.
Mayor Mare was about to pull her hair out. "Where is she?" she asked. "It shouldn't be taking this long!"
Spike scratched his stomach. "Her letter said she'd be here soon," he said. "I'm sure she—"
"That was fifteen minutes ago!" Mayor Mare half-shouted. "We can't have the Summer Sun Celebration without the Princess! Not to mention the fact that all of our volunteers are gone, too!"
Spike shrugged. "Everypony here seems to be having a good time. I wouldn't worry."
Mayor Mare kept fretting for a while, until Twilight flew through the door of the City Hall building. Coming to a quick stop next to the Mayor, Twilight said, "Don't worry! I'm here!"
"Twilight! You're back!" Spike said. He hugged her leg affectionately. "How'd it go? Did the elements work okay?"
"Yes! Nightmare Moon is gone forever!" Twilight said, smiling. She turned to the mayor. "The Princesses are just now leaving the train station. They'll be here soon."
Mayor Mare was flabbergasted. "You—you're still alive? How did you—public execution—insane asylum—the Princesses?"
"Sorry for not being here to help this past week," Twilight said. "But I'm here now! Let's make this the best Summer Sun Celebration ever!"
"Yeah!" Spike said.
Mayor Mare tried her best not to fall over. "I need a drink," she muttered. "Where's Berry Punch?"
Twilight flew to the small stage, where a podium had been set up for Princess Celestia's use. "Hello, everypony!" Twilight said as loudly as she could. "Can I interrupt for a just a second? We have some very special guests tonight!"
There were some gasps from the crowd, as Twilight was recognized by the townsfolk. Whispers flew around the room, faster than Rainbow Dash during the Running of the Leaves. "Isn't that Twilight Sparkle?" "Where's her horn?" "Didn't she get sent to the moon?"
"As you all know, Princess Celestia is going to attend tonight's party," Twilight said. "But she's not the only Princess who's on her way! As a special surprise, Princess Cadance and Princess Scootaloo are coming!"
Twilight paused to cough. She wasn't yet used to the idea of Scootaloo being a princess.
"But that's not all! Princess Luna is also coming! She's Princess Celestia's sister, so let's make her feel welcome, okay?"
Twilight left the podium. The loud whispering had turned to open murmuring. Bon Bon, remembering the stories about Princess Luna from Nightmare Night, ran home to get some candy in order to avoid being eaten up.
The princesses arrived with the other ponies, four minutes later. It was hard to tell who was getting the most attention. Princess Cadance was getting a fair share of well-wishers, since this was her first time in Ponyville. Princess Celestia was always popular, and everypony wanted to meet the new Princess Luna. But perhaps Scootaloo got the most attention, because she was almost a textbook definition of "hometown hero".
A group of ponies, mostly school children, flocked around Scootaloo and asked questions. "What's it like in Canterlot?" "Where did you get your crown?" "Is it true that princesses don't have to go to school?"
Scootaloo held up a hoof for silence, a technique that Princess Cadance taught her. "Being a princess is fine and all that, but I'm not gonna let it change who I am," Scootaloo said. "I'm more excited about this!"
Scootaloo turned and showed off her cutie mark. Some ponies gasped, while others made appreciative remarks. "I've never seen a cutie mark like that before!" "That's really cool-looking!" "It looks kinda like your mom's cutie mark! Is that on purpose?"
"Does this mean I have to become a princess before I get my cutie mark?" Applebloom asked, worried.
"I sure hope not!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Princess Cadance says my cutie mark is a type of love magic," Scootaloo said proudly. "It means my special talent is believing in other ponies!"
The children kept asking Scootaloo questions, except for Diamond Tiara. Diamond was practically frothing at the mouth, over the fact that Scootaloo became a princess and received a cutie mark. Meanwhile, Cheerilee walked over to congratulate Trixie.
"I take it that the mission in Canterlot was a success," Cheerilee said. "I'm glad you figured out how to get the Elements of Harmony working."
"Yes, it turned out that we didn't need you in the battle after all," Trixie said. "Still, thank you for all your help. I doubt we could have done it without you."
"It was my pleasure," Cheerilee said graciously. Secretly, she was glad that she wasn't needed to fight Nightmare Moon. "So, what's going to happen now that your work here is complete?"
"I want to see if Scootaloo and I can live here permanently," Trixie said. "Even if she was born in Canterlot, this is her home town. I certainly wouldn't mind raising her here."
"I'm sure the other children would like that," Cheerilee agreed.
"What is this strange contraption?" Princess Luna asked, frowning at the peculiar sphere which hovered before her.
"It's called a balloon," Princess Celestia said, laughing slightly. "You've got a lot of catching up to do, my dear sister. The world has changed greatly in the past thousand years."
"We can see that plainly," Luna said, tapping the balloon with her horn. "Pray tell, what purpose does this buhloun serve? It appears—"
The balloon popped, and Luna gave a small shriek of terror. She stepped backwards and almost hit the pink pony who had been approaching.
"Oooo! Princesses! Princesses!" Pinkie Pie said, jumping up and down. "You have to meet my family! They came all this way, just to meet you!"
"We have killed the buhloun!" Princess Luna exclaimed.
Celestia shook her head slightly. "My sister and I would be glad to meet your family, Pinkie," she said.
"Yay!" Pinkie Pie said. She bounced away to get her family, while Luna turned to her sister.
"Sister, am I mistaken, or does that pink pony have buhlouns for a cutie mark?" Luna asked.
"She does," Celestia said. "It indicates that Pinkie Pie enjoys parties."
"Most peculiar..." Luna said to herself.
It was not long, before Pinkie Pie returned with two older ponies. They both looked rather dignified and old-fashioned.
"My mom and dad are Cloudy and Igneous!" Pinkie said. "Well, not really. Those are just their names! They're rock farmers!"
"It is a pleasure to meet your royal highnesses," Mr. Pie said, shaking Celestia's hoof.
"You two certainly raised an...interesting daughter," Princess Celestia said, smiling.
"I congratulate you on your return from the moon," Mrs. Pie said, bowing to Luna.
"THOU ART TOO KIND, O TILLER OF THE ROCK!" Princess Luna said loudly. "THE PLEASURE IS OURS!"
Mr. Pie fell over in pain, as it felt like his eardrums exploded. Celestia smiled apologetically. "I forgot to warn you about the Royal Canterlot Voice..."
Meanwhile, Rarity found an opportunity to take Shining Armor aside for a bit. She took him to a corner, where they wouldn't be overheard. "Shining...is there anything going on between you and Princess Cadance?"
"Whu-what?" Shining asked.
"I've seen the way you look at her," Rarity said. "...You think she's pretty, don't you?"
"Well, I...uh..."
Rarity leaned forward, holding her horn dangerously close to Shining Armor's throat. "Is that why you didn't contact me, after leaving Ponyville? You were too busy with the Princess of Love?"
"No!" Shining Armor said. "I...I asked the captain for a transfer here, but Princess Celestia gave me a new assignment! You can ask her yourself, if you don't believe me!"
"Hmmmm..." Rarity said. "And you didn't tell me this, why?"
"I...I guess I didn't write because I was embarrassed," Shining Armor said. "I mean, you saw Princess Celestia chew me out, and then there was the mess with my sister...but mostly, I was embarrassed because I never worked things out with you."
Rarity relaxed her aggressive stance a bit. "What do you mean, we never worked things out? I thought it was perfectly clear that we enjoy spending time together."
"That's just it!" Shining said. "We like each other, but are we friends, or are we dating, or what? I didn't want to ask, because I was afraid of losing you."
Rarity put her hoof on Shining's leg. "Shining...I like you, too, but we live in different towns. It would never work."
A manly tear found its way down Shining's cheek. "Ruh...Rare..."
Rarity's lips trembled. "Shuh...Shine..."
The two of them stared into each other's eyes for a moment, before passionately embracing. "You're the most beautiful mare I've ever met, and I want to be yours forever!" Shining said.
"Darling, I need you with me always!" Rarity said. "I don't care what Mother thinks of you!"
Across the room, Princess Cadance smiled at the kissing lovers. It was another job well done. She turned and found herself face-to-face with an angry Twilight.
Twilight narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I saw that, Cadance," she said. "You cast some sort of spell on my brother."
"Who, me?" Cadance said. "No, your brother and his marefriend decided to patch things up on their own! Look how much they love each other!"
"...She's not his marefriend," Twilight said. "They haven't even had a first date yet."
Cadance paled and said an unprincess-like word.
Fluttershy wasn't feeling very well. She didn't like being in a room filled with other ponies, even if it was for a party. Spotting her friends in a group nearby, Fluttershy decided to walk over.
"So y'all are Pinkie Pie's sisters?" Applejack asked.
"That's right," the gray mare said. "I'm Marble, and these are Keystone and Limestone."
"Um...excuse me," Fluttershy whispered.
Rainbow Dash thought about that for a second. "Your parents named you after types of pie?"
"Types of rock, actually," Marble said. "Our parents are rock farmers."
"I love your mane!" Limestone said. "It's so bright and colorful!"
"Hello?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Rainbow Dash said.
Fluttershy's soft blue eyes drooped, as she realized nopony had noticed her. They're too busy talking to the new ponies, she thought sadly.
The shy pony walked away from the others, and she decide to hide backstage with her bird choir. She cautiously made her way around the side of the room, and she snuck behind the curtain. To her surprise, a lavender pegasus was sitting there, softly crying.
"Oh! Twilight!" Fluttershy said. "I...I didn't think anypony would be back here!"
"Oh...hey, Fluttershy," Twilight said, wiping away a few tears. "Is everypony avoiding you, too?"
"Well, not exactly..." Fluttershy said. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Twilight sniffed. "This'll probably sound stupid, but nopony wants to talk to me. They all seem...scared of me. And I know why."
"You do?"
"I...I think I'm starting to remember what happened last week," Twilight said. "I...I hurt a lot of ponies, didn't I?"
"That wasn't you," Fluttershy said. "That was Nasty Twilight. You would never do anything like—"
"But I did," Twilight argued. "I yelled at the princess and went after the Alicorn Amulet. That was all my fault. I can't blame Nightmare Moon for that."
Fluttershy wanted to hold Twilight and tell her everything would be fine, the same way Fluttershy calmed down one of her animals after a nightmare. She didn't think it would be appropriate to pet Twilight on the head, though, so she kept her distance.
"Um...I don't know if this helps, but...I was scared tonight," Fluttershy said. "Like, more scared than I've been in my whole life! I'm not brave like Rainbow Dash. But I...I went anyway, because I wanted to help you. We all did."
"But you had no idea if the Elements of Harmony would work on me," Twilight argued. "You just got lucky."
"We had to try, even if it didn't work," Fluttershy said. "You're our friend, and we love you. That...that's more important than fighting evil scary alicorns."
Twilight half-smiled. "You really are the Element of Kindness, aren't you, Fluttershy?"
"I...I don't know..." the butter-yellow pegasus said, playing with her hair. "I just try to be nice to everypony and help my friends. I don't think that's anything special."
"Well, you're special to me," Twilight said. The two of them shared a hug together, before going back to the party.
Around midnight, Princess Celestia managed to find Twilight and tap her on the shoulder.
"Princess?" Twilight asked.
"These long nights can be quite tiring," Celestia said. "I think I'll go outside and stretch my wings for a bit. Would you care to join me?"
"I...um..." Twilight said. She looked around a bit, before nodding quietly.
The two of them left the building together. Outside, the full moon cast a soft glow upon the main fountain in town. Celestia walked with Twilight a few moments before speaking.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to you alone yet," Celestia said. "How are you feeling after your ordeal?"
"I'm doing better, but I still don't feel well," Twilight said. "I wish I could remember everything instead of just bits and pieces."
"So you're starting to remember things?" Celestia asked.
"I remember destroying the Alicorn Amulet," Twilight said. "And I think I remember agreeing to be Scootaloo's big sister, but I'm not sure."
"She'll be glad to hear it," Celestia said. The large alicorn spread out her wings and flew into the air. Twilight followed at her side.
"You...you don't blame me for what happened, do you?" Twilight asked.
"Of course not, my little pony," Celestia said. "If anything bad happened, it was my own fault. I should have been better prepared, and I should have been honest with you from the beginning."
"...I'm sorry I yelled at you," Twilight said. "And I'm sorry I wrote those mean things about you on the side of Canterlot Castle."
"What about the unkind things you did to Blueblood?"
"...I don't think I'm sorry for that," Twilight said honestly.
Celestia laughed. "Twilight, if you forgive me, than I forgive you, and all is well. There is absolutely nothing to worry about."
"...Thanks," Twilight said. "That means a lot to me."
"But I didn't ask you out here, so we could talk about the past," Celestia said. "I want to talk about the future. We need to decide what you're going to do, now that your mission in Ponyville is complete."
"My...mission?"
"Nightmare Moon is defeated, thanks to your hard work," Princess Celestia said. "What will you do now, Twilight? Return to the university?"
Twilight scowled, as she thought about going back to her previous job at the unicorn school. "No way," she said. "I...I think I'll stay here in Ponyville. I can still be the town librarian, right?"
"You can certainly do that," Celestia said. "But your family lives in Canterlot."
"I know, but...all my friends live here," Twilight said. "You're always talking about the power of friendship and...I think I understand it now. Friends might even be better than books!"
Celestia smiled. "I never thought I'd hear a pony with a book cutie mark say something like that. You've certainly grown up a lot, since the day we first met in the gardens." Twilight blushed slightly at this, remembering how Celestia first met her while she was crying about being lost.
The two of them continued to fly over Ponyville, for over fifteen minutes, until they were interrupted by Rainbow Dash. "There you are! Everypony's looking for you two!"
"They are?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, the Mayor was yelling about how we couldn't raise the sun without the princess," Rainbow said.
"I suppose I should have told her where I was going," Princess Celestia said. "Very well. Let us return to the City Hall."
The three pegasi flew back to the City Hall building, where a small crowd was waiting for the two of them. The Elements of Harmony were there, along with Spike and Shining Armor. A frazzled-looking Mayor Mare, who had an empty bottle in her hooves, sighed with relief to see that the guest of honor had returned.
Twilight stepped forward, but Celestia blocked her with a wing. She turned to look quizzically at Celestia who smiled and leaned forward.
"Not all of your friends live in Ponyville," Celestia said, nuzzling Twilight softly. "If you ever need to come back to the capital for any reason, I'll have a room available for you."
"Thanks, Princess," Twilight said. "And don't worry. The next time I become an alicorn, I'll do it the normal way, through hard work and helping other ponies!"
Celestia laughed. "I'll be looking forward to it."
Twilight turned to her friends, who had almost literally saved her life. Grinning widely, Twilight scooped up Scootaloo in her hooves. "Come on, Little Sis, we've got a party to enjoy!"
"Yay!" Scootaloo said.
End of Part One