Pinkie Pie had had enough.
She’d given Discord plenty of time to get her friends to safety, and she couldn’t think of a good reason to think he hadn’t succeeded—it was a really, really simple task, after all. Sure, he hadn’t returned yet, but there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for that: he was goofing off and doing his own thing again. And why should she have expected otherwise? This was Discord, after all. Doing his own thing was his entire “thing.”
Pinkie glanced down at the floor of the gym and saw that Penumbra and her Shadowbolts were still in a stalemate with the students of Canterlot High. She still couldn’t believe that Discord had the nerve to call Penny his “friend.” He doesn’t know the first thing about friendship. Friends don’t leave friends behind like this. Clearly, the draconequus was due for another tongue-lashing when this was all over, but first, Pinkie had a she-demon to take down.
As she returned her attention to dodging Sunset Shimmer’s attacks, Pinkie analyzed the situation. Okay, pro: Sunset doesn’t seem to be shooting too many balls of explodey magic at the students, so they should be pretty safe as long as I stay in the air. Plus, I knocked off the Element of Magic, so that should mean that Sunset’s magic reserves will drain faster. Con: Everybody’s still brainwashed. I guess the hard part of neuromancy is casting the spell in the first place, and keeping it going is easy. This was certainly a major problem, but as a ball of mana grazed one of her wings, Pinkie thought of a bigger one. This demonic form seems to be a lot better at using magic than her human form. Indeed, as she thought about it further, Pinkie realized that Sunset might not actually need the Element of Magic anymore, though Pinkie certainly didn’t want her to get it back. There was no more time for lollygagging; she needed to get aggressive.
When one has the nigh-unlimited resources of imagination at one’s disposal, one has many and various options for smiting one’s enemies, even when those enemies are power-mad, trance-inducing she-devils. Pinkie, however, was still committed to keeping the residual effects of magic to a minimum, so she went with the simplest method she could think of: She bum-rushed Sunset Shimmer as fast as she could and body-checked her into the ceiling of the gymnasium. This seemed to leave Sunset looking a bit dazed, though relatively unharmed. This was good; after all, Pinkie didn’t actually want to hurt her opponent any more than necessary, so knocking her unconscious would be the ideal way to end this. Before Sunset could fully recover, Pinkie had already slammed her into a wall. She was moments away from bucking her into the floor when suddenly—
“Pinkie, stop!”
For a brief moment, Pinkie thought that Sunset was perhaps pleading for mercy, but the cry was, in fact, Penumbra’s, and when Pinkie followed her friends extended finger to the stage, she saw what prompted it. Principal Celestia stood with one arm wrapped around her sister and the other holding a sharp-looking serving fork near Luna’s jugular vein.
Sunset Shimmer regained her composure and let out a laugh. “This, I believe, is the part where I win,” she said confidently, “because if I lose, we all get to see the contents of one of the Vice Principal’s major arteries.”
“What?” Pinkie exclaimed. “You didn’t give an order like that!”
“You seriously think that neuromancy requires orders to be verbalized?” Sunset said. “As soon as I realized that Luna was resistant, I sent out the instructions to have her killed if it looked like you were about to defeat me.”
It was around this point that Pinkie began to wish that she’d taken Penumbra’s initial suggestion of just stealing the tiara a bit more seriously. Sure, she’d anticipated that her friends might be taken hostage, but somehow, the possibility that other potential hostages might be around had slipped her mind. “But... that’s so pointless and violent!” Pinkie said. “You... you can’t really mean that!”
“Why wouldn’t I?” the she-demon growled. “I’ve no use for a human whose mind I can’t control.” Sunset flashed a toothy grin. “I see that Equestria’s princesses are still overly sentimental. This woman is of no importance, yet your immediate reaction is to stop what you’re doing to try to save her. Equestria will never be truly safe until someone pragmatic is in charge.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well, I suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree,” Sunset said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She turned her attention to the floor below. “Someone get me my tiara!”
The mind-controlled students responded with some shuffling around as some of them abandoned their attempts to get past the Shadowbolts surrounding Penumbra to start scanning the floor for the errant crown. Within seconds, someone was holding the tiara aloft in the air and Sunset began her descent to retrieve it. Pinkie realized that she had only a few seconds to make a choice: attack Sunset again and risk harm to Luna, or allow her to regain control of a powerful artifact and possibly escalate the conflict. For a moment, the sheer magnitude of the decision froze her in place... but only for a moment. After all, she was a princess, a genuine authority figure, and with authority there came the need to make tough choices. Pinkie Pie, the Princess of Spirit, steeled her resolve... just in time for her decision to be rendered completely irrelevant.
Sunset was less than halfway to her minion when a red blur streaked across the length of the gymnasium, knocking the tiara out of the student’s hand and back into the crowd. Sunset turned to see where the projectile had come from, and saw a tall, well-dressed man standing in the now-open door of one of the gym’s supply closets, leaning against a large wheeled container filled with dodgeballs with a cocksure grin on his face.
“Last I checked, that tiara belonged to somepony else,” Discord said as he casually pulled another ball out of the container and began to spin it on his index finger.
Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but Discord’s second ball smacked her in the face before any words could emerge.
“Conversation over,” Discord said, chucking yet another ball towards Celestia and knocking the serving fork out of her hand. “Dodgeball now!” He whipped the wheeled container out of the closet and began pushing it towards the center of the room, pausing briefly to chuck a dodgeball at any student who appeared to be on the verge of getting the upper hand on one of Penny’s Shadowbolts. Soon enough, he’d reached his best friend.
“No eggnog?” Penumbra asked.
Discord chuckled as he lobbed a dodgeball towards Celestia, who had managed to find another sharp object to menace her sister with. “Oh, goodness, no. This situation isn’t quite that bleak yet.”
“So, what took you?” Penumbra asked as she reached into the basket for a sphere of her own to throw.
“Convincing the girls to stay away turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated,” Discord said as he slammed a ball into the sternum of a burly-looking jock, “as evidenced by the fact that I failed completely.”
“What?!” Penumbra said, stunned. “They’re here?”
“Why do you think I’ve been making such a commotion?” Discord said as he reached out and caught a dodgeball that had been hurtling towards his head. “They needed a distraction to get back inside unnoticed, so I’ve provided one.”
It was then that Penumbra spotted Rainbow Dash making her way around the edge of the gym. She was fairly certain that she would have picked out the others as well, but she decided to avoid looking for them, lest Sunset notice who she was staring at. “I presume they have a plan?”
“Of course. They’re going to get the tiara to Twilight Sparkle.”
“What? Is she—” Penumbra cut herself off. “Who am I kidding? Of course she’s here.”
———————
When Sunset Shimmer noticed that the fog machine had reactivated, she initially assumed that Penumbra was preparing to create more golems. She managed to divert her attention away from Pinkie, who was still fighting her (albeit with somewhat less intensity than before), in order to shout a new command to her troops. “Somebody turn that thing off!” She pointed towards the offending machine... and was stunned to see Rarity crouched by the device, refilling a reservoir with fluid. “Never mind! Grab h—”
Sunset couldn’t finish the order because Pinkie had flown up behind her and muffled her with one of her forehooves. “Rarity!” the pony princess called out. “What on earth are you doing here?”
“Is it not obvious? We’re helping you!” Rarity called back before scooping up a stray dodgeball and pelting a student who was closing in on her position.
“We?” Pinkie repeated, bemused.
Any confusion was cleared up seconds later. “Got it!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she picked up a curved object from the ground.
Sunset managed to tear herself away from Pinkie’s grasp. “Bring me that tiara!” she shouted.
The students began to converge on Rainbow Dash, who retreated towards one of the corners of the gym. However, when it seemed that they were nearly upon her, she tossed the tiara across the gym, just under the surface of the haze and into the waiting hands of Applejack, who twirled it around on her finger like a gunslinger from an old Western.
The students changed their focus, moving away from Rainbow Dash and towards their new target, but just as they were about to reach her, Applejack shouted, “Go long, Rainbow!” and hurled the tiara towards a relatively isolated part of the gym. For her part, Rainbow Dash was no longer encumbered by the crowd’s attempt to close in on her, and was able to break away from the few stragglers and sprint to where the tiara was headed with ease.
The two of them continued this back-and-forth several more times, until Sunset Shimmer managed to dodge out of the way of one of Pinkie’s attacks in time to intercept the object of her desire. “Finally!” she shouted as she held her prize aloft. “Now nothing can... stop... me?”
Now that it was no longer shrouded by artificial fog or whizzing through the air, Sunset realized that the tiara in her hands wasn’t the Element of Magic. In fact, it wasn’t even a tiara at all. “A horseshoe?!” she exclaimed in astonishment.
“It’s amazing what you can find in a gym’s equipment closet,” Discord said as he took a brief break from pummelling his opposition.
“Huh...” Pinkie said as she hovered near the gym’s ceiling. “I thought people would’ve played that game with human shoes in this world. Weird.”
“But why go to all this trouble?” Sunset said. “Unless...” The she-demon’s eyes widened as she suddenly realized what was going on. “Where’s the quiet one?!”
“I’ve got it!” Fluttershy suddenly cried as she rose from beneath one of the catering tables with the real Element of Magic in her hands and started racing towards the gym’s rear exit.
“Don’t let her escape!” Sunset shouted.
“Oh, she ain’t tryin’ to escape,” Applejack said with a smirk.
For a brief second, Sunset seemed to be confused. Then, when she looked at the doorway a second time, she saw Fluttershy handing the Element to the last person she wanted to see. “Twilight Sparkle,” Sunset said, and this time, there wasn’t even a hint of astonishment in her voice. She held out a hand, and her forces ceased their assault, save for a few in the center who were tasked with countering the occasional cheap shot that Discord tried to fire off during the lull.
Twilight Sparkle’s hands were shaking as she took the tiara from Fluttershy and rested it awkwardly on her brow. “I once respected you, Sunset,” she said to the hovering... thing that used to be her next-door neighbor. “I trusted your opinion when you said that trying to make friends my own age was a waste of time. But now... now it’s obvious that you didn’t want me to have friends! You were worried I’d be able to use this thing like the Twilight from your world, so you tried to convince me I was better off as a loner! Well, guess what? It didn’t work.”
Sunset’s mouth twisted into a snarl as she suddenly whirled around and fired off a beam of orange mind-warping magic towards Rarity, who had been attempting to make her way towards Twilight around the edge of the gym. Her aim was true, and if the glow was any indication, the spell was powerful, but it dissipated moments away from impact.
“All right, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she arrived at the college student’s side. “That must be the friendship magic stuff. You can totally do this!”
Applejack arrived seconds later, followed by Rarity. “Thank you very much, darling,” Rarity said as she took her place beside her friends. “Now, let us rid ourselves of this nuisance, shall we?”
Sunset Shimmer merely scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh. Without any magic training, you’re going to need five others to make that thing do anything even remotely offensive. You’re one short.”
“You must be really bad at math,” Pinkie said as she landed in by Twilight’s side and folded her wings. “She’s got everyone here she needs.” Pinkie Pie had finally realized what Discord must have been up to during his absence, and though she still wasn’t sure if it was worth the risk, she had to admit that this was quite possibly the only option left before she’d be forced to deal with Sunset the messy way.
“How do I do this?” Twilight asked nervously.
“Don’t worry,” Pinkie replied. “Friendship magic isn’t like the formal magic Sunset uses; it’s more about emotions than theories, so it’s super-intuitive. The five of us just need to concentrate on our friendship with you, and give you all the positive energy we can, then you just take all that energy and focus on undoing all the damage she’s done.”
A sudden flash of light brought everyone’s attention back to Sunset, who apparently had taken a page from Discord’s book and attempted a cheap shot of her own during the brief conference.
“C’mon, Twi,” Applejack urged, “take her out before she does something drastic.”
“Right,” Twilight said with a nervous nod. She took a few deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the friendship she’d cultivated with the girls—and the talking pony—by her side. The jewel in the tiara began to glow. New appendages that resembled pony ears and tails suddenly appeared on Twilight and her human friends. The jewel’s glow increased as Twilight began to focus her thoughts.
Sunset looked like a wild animal staring rapidly approaching headlights, unsure whether to try and dodge or to charge forward in a last-ditch attack. Discord chucked his last dodgeball at a nearby student and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Here we go...” he said gleefully.
The glow of the jewel was now so bright that Twilight could see it filtered through her eyelids. Time to end this, she thought to herself. With all the willpower she could muster, she “pushed” the energy towards Sunset. The jewel brightened... and then it flickered and suddenly returned to its normal state, like burnt-out incandescent light bulb.
It took a few moments before everyone realized what happened. A wave of relief washed over Sunset’s face, which was almost immediately replaced by a victorious grin and a sickening cackle. However, if she had any sort of villainous bon mot at the ready, she didn’t get the chance to make it, as Pinkie Pie had already taken flight and slammed her against the ceiling.
Discord allowed himself a second of confusion before teleporting by Luna’s side to attempt to wrest her from the clutches of her mind-controlled sister. The Shadowbolts resumed their fight with the student body as Penumbra prepared her mind to create more golems to join them from the extra fog Rarity had released into the room. The rest of Twilight’s friends looked at each other, bewildered. The magic had definitely been real—they still had the ears and tails to prove it—but none of them had any idea why it their plan hadn’t worked.
For her part, Twilight’s first thought was to give up and run away. The plan had been completely ludicrous from its inception; there could hardly be a novice with less experience in the field of magic than she had. Clearly, the logical thing to do was to get this thing as far away from Sunset as possible, so that she couldn’t use it to make the situation even worse. “We did everything we were supposed to,” she thought to herself, in an effort to justify what felt like an act of cowardice, rather than sensibility. “Pinkie found this world’s version of all her friends, didn’t she?”
“No... she didn’t,” Surprise suddenly answered from within Twilight’s mind. “I mean, she found all of her friends, but she didn’t find all of Twilight’s. She never got in touch with this world’s Pinkie Pie.”
“Oh, come on,” Twilight said. “We have no idea where our world’s Pinkie Pie could be, and even if we did, there’s no time for me to form a real friendship with her.”
Surprise let out an oddly comforting giggle. “You don’t need to worry about that. After all, I’m already your friend, aren’t I?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t Discord say there was a reason why Pinkie reminds you of me? Well, the reason has to be that I am Pinkie.”
“But... but you’re a part of me! How can you possibly count as a separate friend?”
Surprise, however, didn’t waste any time trying to come up with an answer. “Pinkie just said that friendship magic was intuitive, didn’t she? Well, I have access to your intuition, and it says that I’m right. Come on, try again, and this time, imagine that I’m doing the same thing all the other girls are doing. Throw in the ears and tail, if it helps.”
“But...”
“But you’re scared,” Surprise said in her most reassuring tone. “I know. But your friends won’t give up on you. They haven’t run away yet, after all.”
Twilight looked around and saw that her imaginary friend had been right. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy—they were all surrounding her, waiting to learn what she wanted to do next.
“Okay, Surprise,” Twilight thought, allowing herself a sliver of a smile. “I’ll give it another go.”
“Atta girl!”
Twilight took another deep breath and addressed her friends. “Let’s try again,” she said.
“Right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Just give us a few seconds to get Pinkie’s attention—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Twilight said. “At least, I’m pretty sure it won’t.”
“What are you talking about, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, concerned.
“I... well, let’s just say I have a theory I want to test out.”
“Well, if you think it’s worthwhile, I see no reason why we shouldn’t make a second attempt,” Rarity said.
“Anythin’ we oughta be doin’ differently?” Applejack asked.
“No,” Twilight said. “I’m pretty sure the problem was on my end. Just do what you did last time, and everything should work out.”
“You sound really confident,” Rainbow Dash said
“Yeah...” Twilight said. “I do, don’t I? Anyway, let’s get this done now, while Pinkie has Sunset distracted.”
For whatever reason, the second attempt felt... better than the first. This time, Twilight sensed the energy from her friends much more clearly, and when she began to imagine Surprise joining in, the sensation blossomed into an almost euphoric feeling. It was as though Twilight felt weightless, and as she cracked open an eyelid, she realized it was because she and her friends were now floating above the ground. As Twilight opened her eyes fully, she managed to make eye contact with Pinkie Pie, who smiled broadly and abandoned her fight with Sunset to assist Discord with freeing Luna. Penumbra, meanwhile, released a smile of her own as she broke off her preparations to make more Shadowbolts, instead having her existing golems clear a path towards Discord and Pinkie, mostly to make sure she didn’t get in the way.
Sunset turned towards Twilight and her friends just in time to see a beam of rainbow-colored magic rushing towards her from the tiara’s jewel. It pinned her against the wall as the colors increased in intensity and began blurring together into a pure white. The students on the floor suddenly stopped their attacks, turning their heads back and forth between their ostensible leader and the silhouettes of five teenage girls, whose features were now almost indistinguishable in the glare that was rapidly engulfing the entire gym.
In the midst of all this activity, hardly anybody noticed a sixth silhouette of a girl with a rather familiar curly hairstyle in the second or two before the light became so bright that it overwhelmed everything else in the room. Pinkie Pie, Penumbra, and Discord, however, were hardly mere “anybodies,” and in the last moment before everything went white, the three of them shared a knowing grin.
———————
It worked.
Once the omnipresent glare had subsided, not only was everyone back in their right minds, but Sunset Shimmer had passed out on the floor, which meant that she wasn’t able to use whatever magic reserves she had left to fire off some last-ditch spell. Of course, there were plenty of questions that needed to be answered, such as “What the heck just happened?” and “What is a talking pink horse doing here?”
Once she was ungagged, Vice Principal Luna was able to answer the first question reasonably well enough, particularly since most of the student body did actually remember what had happened; they just wouldn’t have believed their memories if some sort of authority figure hadn’t backed them up. Pinkie, meanwhile, had an even clearer reason for why she was still in her pony form: her dress had been destroyed, and all of her experience told her that humans had fewer problems with nudity when the unclothed being wasn’t a fellow human. The presence of a magical pony also made it much easier to accept the idea that Pinkie and Penumbra were from a completely different world altogether, as was Sunset.
Once the students had accepted that they hadn’t had some sort of collective hallucination, there was a half-hearted attempt to kick-start the festivities again, but even Pinkie Pie could tell that Sunset had knocked all the wind out of the Fall Formal. Thus, her night ended in Celestia’s office, as she explained everything that had gone on in far greater detail. One thing was certain, though: Sunset had to return to Equestria. For one thing, Celestia knew from experience that it didn’t take much magic to be an effective neuromancer in a world that didn’t believe in it. Similarly, without a widespread belief in magic, it would be nearly impossible for them to prove that Sunset had actually done anything illegal, even though it was obvious that she’d wronged many people.
Thus it was that the following day, Sunset stood under the watchful eyes of Discord and Penumbra as Pinkie Pie tapped out her signal on the statue where she’d entered this world. They hadn’t been able to find any handcuffs to keep her restrained, so they’d made do with zip ties, but Sunset seemed to have more or less accepted her fate, though her attitude was still one of haughty defiance.
Of course, the four Equestrians weren’t the only ones present; as soon as she finished tapping out the rhythm of her favorite song, Pinkie turned around to talk to the human friends she’d made. Even though none of them had really gotten much sleep the previous night, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all looked remarkably alert, which was probably a lingering effect of the friendship magic. Individually, they’d all said their goodbyes several times over, but one more collective goodbye for the road couldn’t hurt. “It’s been a blast getting to know all of you,” Pinkie said with a smile. “I promise to get in touch once I find a reliable way to communicate. Who knows? I may even be able to properly visit someday. This seems like it would be a nice place when you aren’t trying to deal with evil magicians.”
“I think I speak for all of us when I say that we’re glad you came, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said.
Pinkie’s grin widened. “Group hug!” This six girls immediately embraced in a lump, along with Discord and Penumbra.
“Oof! Why the hell are you getting me involved with this stupidity?” Sunset Shimmer asked grumpily as she ineffectively tried to squirm away from the group.
“Because we aren’t dumb enough to let you out of our sight for any reason,” Penumbra replied.
“Actually, before you go, there is one thing that’s kind of been bugging me,” Rainbow Dash said as the hug finally disintegrated. “Discord, Last night, you mentioned someone called Surprise while you were rushing through your explanation of this Everquest place. Who is that?”
Discord couldn’t help but smirk; the three Equestrians had briefly discussed how to bring up this topic, but this was far more convenient than anything they’d come up with. “Well,” he said as he shifted his weight slightly, “I could answer that, but I’d say that Twilight could give you a much more thorough explanation.”
“Me?” Twilight said, looking around as if there was another Twilight present that Discord might be referring to. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Somehow, Discord’s smirk managed to become even cheekier. “Is that so? Well, then maybe you can explain why Pinkie Pie seemed so familiar to you, then.”
“Oh, well... I can’t really put my finger on it, now that you mention it, but I guess she vaguely reminds me of someone, but I can’t tell who.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. “You don’t have to tell us who, because from your reaction last night, it’s pretty obvious that it’s this Surprise person.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, still obviously confused.
“Well, Discord was all like, ‘Pinkie reminds you of Surprise, right?’ and you were all like, ‘OMG WTF?!’ and then Discord went on to the next thing because he didn’t have time to actually explain to the rest of us what the heck he was talking about.”
“I... I guess that is what happened, now that I think of it,” Twilight admitted, “But I have no idea why. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone named Surprise.”
The conversation was interrupted by a giggle from the other side of the statue. “Just because you’ve never met me,” said a voice that sounded almost identical to Pinkie’s, “doesn’t mean you don’t know me.”
Intrigued, Twilight followed the voice around the statue until she saw a white-skinned girl with a messy blonde hairdo leaning against the plinth with a huge smile on her face.
“Hiya, Twilight. I bet you never expected to see me here. Or to see me at all, for that matter.”
Twilight fell to her knees as she realized who the girl before her was. “Surprise? Is it really you?”
“Yepperoonie,” the girl said, “though technically, my full name is Surprise Party. Pinkie told me it’s really important for an imaginary friend to add something to their own identity when they leave their creator’s head.”
Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie. “You were the other Twilight’s imaginary friend?”
“Bingo,” Pinkie said. “She actually named me Surprise, too.”
“Wait,” Twilight said as she looked between the two girls, who could have been palette swaps of each other, “if Surprise is this world’s version of you, why didn’t she name herself Pinkie Pie?”
“Because I wanted to be different,” Surprise said with a shrug. “Besides, I was in your head for a lot longer than she was in her Twilight’s head, so you had more time to polish my personality. It’s only natural that we wouldn’t be exactly the same.”
It was at this point that Sunset suddenly interjected. “You’re a thoughtform?!” she said to Pinkie, her voice full of equal parts exasperation and disbelief. “But... but that goes against all the known rules of magic! You have to be lying!”
“Oh, for crying out loud, why would she start bluffing now?” Penumbra said with a sneer.
“Besides, you didn’t really think that all the rules of magic are actually known, did you?” Discord added.
Sunset looked like she wanted to say something further, but all that came out of her mouth was a high-pitched creaking noise.
“In any case,” Penumbra said, “it looks like the portal is open, and it seems that Twilight and her new... or rather, her old friend have quite a bit to talk about. We should really be going.”
Pinkie agreed, and after a final round of hugs and goodbyes, Penumbra and Discord disintegrated into a mist which flowed into Pinkie’s voluminous hairdo. “C’mon, Sunset,” Pinkie said, tugging on her captive’s arm. “Princess Celestia wants to talk to you.”
———————
The first thing that Pinkie noticed upon emerging back in the Archives was the crowd of guards surrounding her, or rather, surrounding Sunset Shimmer. Apparently, when her clothing had sublimated in the portal’s ether, the zip ties that had been binding her arms disappeared along with them, and she’d immediately tried to make a break for freedom. Then again, even if she’d managed to slip past the guards, Sunset probably wouldn’t have been able to get far, as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were also present, and they immediately surrounded Sunset in a magical field that prevented her from teleporting away.
The next thing Pinkie noticed was that none of her friends were present, though this could perhaps be explained by the lit torches on the wall and the darkness outside the room’s windows. Still, there was no point in speculating, mostly because it was easier to just ask for more information. “Hiya, Celestia! Hey, Luna! Where’s everypony else?”
“They returned to Ponyville when it became clear that you were going to take more than a few hours to retrieve the Element of Magic,” Luna said. “You, uh, do have it with you, correct?”
“You betcha!” Pinkie replied as she reached into her mane and pulled out the tiara.
“Excellent,” Luna said as she took the Element and looked it over. “We shall send word to Twilight at once. I know she’ll be quite glad to have this returned. Now then, is Penumbra alright?”
“I’m fine,” Penumbra said as she coalesced beside Pinkie. “I, er, just wanted to make sure there were no unexpected complications from the return trip.”
“Of course,” Luna said, nodding solemnly. “Now, if I am not mistaken, my sister appears anxious to speak with your... guest.”
“It is good to see you again, Sunset, though I wish it was under better circumstances,” Princess Celestia said, stepping forward
Sunset remained silent, letting her icy glare do all of her talking.
“Much has changed since you left,” Celestia continued. “The threats we faced then turned out to be more... complicated than expected.” She briefly made eye contact with Penumbra before returning her attention to Sunset, who remained silent.
“Given the circumstances behind your exile, I am willing to listen to your explanations for your actions,” Celestia went on. “If you truly regret your past mistakes, I am also willing to consider granting you some degree of absolution and forgiveness.”
Sunset stared Celestia directly in the eye. “I might be willing to take you up on that, if I had done anything that needed to be forgiven.”
Penumbra let out a loud groan and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s a load of crap.”
“We’ll let the courts decide that,” Celestia said somberly. “Guards, outfit Ms. Shimmer with a magic inhibitor and take her into custody.”
“The stuff she did on the other side of the mirror alone is probably worth several years in Tartarus,” Penumbra said as Sunset Shimmer was led out of the room.
Luna scowled a bit at this remark. “One should not speak so lightly of Tartarus. That place is reserved to those who can’t be safely housed in the normal prison system.”
“Well, given that we brought her back here specifically because she’d still be a huge threat if she was in a human prison, it might be something to keep in mind.”
“Human?” Luna asked quizzically.
“We’ll explain it all later,” Pinkie said. “But for now, you only need to know two things. First, these humans are really susceptible to magic, which is why Sunset was trying to brainwash an army for herself with neuromancy. And second... well...” Pinkie paused and looked around sheepishly her fellow princesses. She knew what she needed to say, but actually admitting it was turning out to be somewhat difficult. She bit her lower lip for a second or two before she managed to finally speak: “If it wasn’t for Discord, things could have been much worse.”
“Discord?!” Celestia said, shocked.
“Oh, come on!” Discord said as he popped into reality on top of a nearby bookshelf, pouting with his arms crossed over his chest. “You knew I was saving my reveal for the most dramatic moment possible. You could have at least tried to goad Celestia into saying that she missed me!”
Pinkie let out a sigh. “I know that the timing could be better, but I wanted to apologize in front of some other ponies.”
“Apologize?” Discord asked warily.
“Yeah...” Pinkie said. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said you’d reformed. I should have trusted Penumbra when she told me I needed to give you a chance. Last night, I assumed you were just goofing off when we needed your help, but I was wrong. More importantly, you didn’t just prove your good intentions last night; you also proved your good judgment. You may have been in favor of just using brute force at first, but you also were the only one who recognized when it wasn’t going to be effective anymore, and you tried to convince Penumbra and me to try something else. Plus, you were also the one who actually figured out how to defeat Sunset, and you did what needed to be done to make sure it happened. I was judging you based entirely on how you treated ponies in the past, and even though I’ve given others in the same position the benefit of the doubt, and that was wrong.”
Oddly enough, Discord didn’t have a rejoinder at the ready. Instead, he stared at Pinkie in quizzical silence for several uncomfortable seconds.
Pinkie let out a sigh. “I guess what I’m saying is... I’m willing to put the past behind me, because... well...”
Penumbra rolled her eyes and jumped into the conversation. “Quit stalling and just say it, Pinkie.”
“I think I’d like to be your friend,” Pinkie blurted out. “That is, if you’re willing to give me a chance.”
Discord broke into a smile. “Indeed I am. Apology accepted. Now then, since none of your other friends are here, what say the three of us pop back to Ponyville and salvage what’s left of my prank before word leaks out?”
Pinkie looked at Penumbra for a few moments before showing a grin of her own. “Let’s do it.”