Amethyst was brought a salad and another sandwich, this one with daisy, daffodil and dandelion. The purple mare smiled in approval at the taste. She was brought a small glass of red wine and gave Celestia a humble thanks in response. It was shortly after this that Luna entered the dining hall for her breakfast.
"Tia, who might this new unicorn be? We recognize Amethyst, but not her companion."
"Luna, I would like to introduce Stephanie Galaxy Sparkle to you --"
"LUNA!! It's been so long!" she cried as she nearly galloped to the Alicorn, hugging her very tightly.
"Stephanie Galaxy Sparkle? As in Twilight Sparkle? We request that thee refrain from such displays of affection upon our royal person," she stated, using her magic to extricate the unicorn from her vise-like grip.
"I'm sorry, Luna, but it's been about six years since I last saw you!"
"Verily, We hath never seen thee before, Stephanie Galaxy Sparkle."
"Princess Luna, Galaxy -- as she prefers to be called -- is my daughter. She has traveled from her universe to this one, backwards through time, I might add. She is from a timeline twenty years in the future from the one I left behind, one I'm hoping to return to before too much longer," Amethyst explained.
"Thou were telling us about thy foals -- we didst not expect to see them fully matured," Luna mused, a quizzical expression on her face.
"EJ is still in the other timeline -- I wanted to be with my mama, Luna. It makes me so happy to see you again! You were such a wonderful mentor to me! You have no idea what I went through after you were killed!"
"Galaxy, please explain to us what thou means by these words," the night princess implored.
"About six years ago or so, the Griffon and Minotaur kingdoms united to attack Equestria. We fought them back and won, but the price paid was very high in ponies' lives and money spent fighting. You were killed by a sneak attack from a griffon -- I don't know how it happened, but he must have gotten a very lucky shot," the librarian stated sadly, a tear trickling down her cheek as she recalled the incident. "I sometimes wake up screaming at the memory when it invades my dreams."
"Rest assured, Galaxy, we shall prevent thee from experiencing such horrors in thy dreams in future nights," she offered almost stoically, wrapping a wing around the mare. "We are pleased to know thou were our student. We shall be happy to accept thee along with thy mother as our students!"
"Luna, I believe it is time for us to perform our duties," the solar princess stated solemnly. "Amethyst, Galaxy, Luna shall return shortly to assist you with your studies." The Royal Sisters trotted from the dining hall, leaving mother and daughter alone for a short while.
"Mama, I know you told me some of your past -- but I had no idea it was that painful for you! I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"Discord took both you and EJ out of my arms shortly after I gave birth to you. The pain of that memory is still so fresh --" the purple mare began, tears starting to well up in her eyes again.
"Mama, please don't cry! I'm still here and if you want EJ, I can bring him as well! I'm sure he'd be welcome here as well!" the librarian said warmly, wrapping a foreleg around her mother's withers. "I'll help you find your way back! I promise!"
"I know, Galaxy. There's a part of me that wishes to stay here in this timeline, though -- and I would like to return to Ponyville and meet up with Twilight and the others. I would like to rebuild those friendships --"
"Amethyst Shadow, Stephanie Galaxy Sparkle!" Luna exclaimed as she returned to the dining hall.
"Luna, please call me Galaxy -- I don't like being called by my full name." Her words were tinged with a hint of resentment.
"Our apologies, Galaxy -- we were unawares of this fact. Amethyst, thou were not finished with thy story last night. We wishes for thou to regale us with the rest of thine tale. The fact that thou were a human at one time piques our curiosity and we would have thou tell us what life was like as a human."
"I'd like to know about that too, mama! It sounds really fascinating!" Galaxy exclaimed almost excitedly.
"I spent more than 47 years as a human," she stated, then began to inform her daughter and new tutor as much as she could remember from those years. She talked about her education, her work history, her favorite music, video games she enjoyed playing, and other pastimes with which she occupied her spare time. She talked about relationships she had and regrets over mistakes she made. Luna expressed an interest in the video games, distracting the purple mare from continuing her tale.
"Well, it's easier for me to show you rather than tell you about them," she explained. Using her magic, she reached into a pocket dimension and brought forth a television, game console, the needed adapters and controllers, and a portable power source. This display elicited stunned surprise from both Luna and Galaxy. Using more magic, Amethyst connected everything together and turned it all on, having put Grand Theft Auto III into the console. The game began playing the opening cut scene, which baffled the two spectators. Amethyst then proceeded to play, using her telekinesis to manipulate the controller, which in turn guided the main character of Claude Speed around.
"What is the purpose of this game?" asked Luna.
"Well, there are these hidden packages scattered around the city -- picking them up gives you a small amount of money. It's been a long time since I last played this game, so I don't remember exactly where all those packages are. There are a lot of other tasks to perform in this game," she explained as she used Claude to drive a car into the showroom of EZ Credit Auto Sales and steal the Banshee which sat inside the showroom.
"What is he doing now?" asked Galaxy.
"This car, called a Banshee, is one of the fastest cars in the game. If you're trying to get around the city quickly, this is the easiest of the fast cars to get, not to mention its great handling."
"Handling?"
"That's the term used to describe how well the car rides around turns," she said as she used the car to perform a unique stunt jump.
"Why does the screen go in slow-motion like that?"
"That's one of the unique stunt jumps -- any time you perform any of them, the screen goes into a slow-motion view until the jump is finished," she stated, giggling a little as the car flipped onto its roof. She tried to push the exit button as quickly as she could, but Claude was unable to get out of the burning car quickly enough and was killed by the explosion, only to land at the hospital on his feet once again. She cursed her luck.
"Mama! Language!" her daughter chided.
"I hate it when that happens -- now I have to get his weapons back," the mare grumbled. Luna was watching with very keen interest and expressed a desire to play the game. Amethyst offered the Alicorn the controller so she could experiment with it. "Okay, the top button of these four here -- the one with the triangle on it -- you push that for him to get into or out of a car. It also allows him to jump when he's on foot," she explained.
"Verily, this is most unusual," she commented.