> Remnant's Twilight Rose
>  by Ghost Alvasa
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Departure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The land of Equestria. This world is one filled with hope, love, and harmony. But it is not perfect. For the past year and a half, evils of the past have begun to return, their seals being weakened and broken. It has only been through the friendship and power of six mares that these evils have been defeated. These mares are referred to as the Mane Six or the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

These six mares were the embodiment of their respective elements as well as the embodiment of friendship. They could never be broken apart. At least, that’s what everyone thought. That was until they got invited to a wedding in the royal city of Canterlot.

It was here, that the brother of the element of magic was to be wed to the princess of love, however, magic could tell something was wrong with her old foalsitter. She was mean, more so than any she had met before, and she didn’t believe it was simply stress. It is only after seeing her brother having some kind of spell cast on him by the mare, that she realized that this princess was an imposter. 

Unfortunately, in her panic-induced state, worried for her brother above all else, she made the mistake of not gathering evidence, and merely accused the mare of her evil. With but some crocodile tears, the elements of harmony, her own brother, and her mentor turned on Magic, officially breaking the mare.

“She has been completely stressed out because it's really important to her that our big day be perfect! Something that obviously wasn’t important to you! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and comfort my bride. And you can forget about being my best mare. In fact, if I were you, I wouldn’t show up to the wedding at all.” With that, the captain of the guard, Shining Armor, walked out of the hall, leaving his little sister.

That moment continued to torment the young unicorn's mind, even an hour after she had been left alone. She wasn’t intent on moving from her spot until a pegasus guard by the name of Flash Sentry all but picked her up and lead her back to her room. 

“You can’t beat yourself up like this miss Sparkle. If it is any consolation, I have been worried about the princess as well. I may not know her as well as you, but when we met, she was not like that mare.” The guard says before leaving her. 

His words did little to alleviate her broken and shattered heart. Not only has she potentially ruined her former brother's wedding, but not even a second after being thrown out of his life, her fri- former friends had left her alone. Even her mentor, the wise and beautiful princess Celestia, had abandoned her. The solar diarchs words, words spoken so cold a wendigo would cringe, continued to torment her worse than any other evil she’d faced.

You have a lot to think about.

The young mare simply laid on her bed, back to the door, unresponsive to the world around her, even as two orbs of energy appear near the door. These orbs, a shining white and gold, and a twisted purple and black seemed to spin like heads, before looking towards the bed where the young unicorn lay. 

‘She is hurt brother. I have never felt this much negativity in a single creature.’

‘Indeed brother. And that is saying quite a lot coming from you. Should we intervene?’ 

The two orbs of energy seem to converse with one another, unnoticed by the mare. After a minute, the dark orb seems to nod before fading away, followed by its opposite a moment later. 

Deep in the Canterlot magic vault, the two orbs appear in a flash, the numerous magic seals failing to work for even a nanosecond against them. They look around the room before the orb of light finds an odd looking mirror on a pedestal. Atop the pedestal, is the symbol for the Element of Magic, a six-pointed star. 

The two orbs go to the mirror, and their essence seems to merge with the energy in the mirror, the symbol on top changing from a star to two axes crossing another with plants growing in a circle at the bottom of the handles. The duo nod before leaving again, but not before making sure the magic in the room would be useless against the mare they intend to save from heartache.

Within the room of Twilight Sparkle, the mare continues to merely stare at the wall, unable to will her body to do anything else. She had failed. She had failed so spectacularly that she wouldn’t be surprised if her whole family disowned her and she was banished without a second thought. 

She continued to merely lay there, intent of staying there forever when she hears something.

“Twilight.”

She lifts her head off of her pillow and slowly traces her eyes over the room. These rooms were made to be almost soundproof, so the noise could only come from one of three places. Her front door, her window, or her mind.

“Great, now I’m hearing voices.” She says with a sniffle, wiping her muzzle and eyes with a tissue. She looks around a second time before laying her head against the pillows again.

“Twilight.”

As soon as she rests her head against the pillow, a new voice, sounding more aggressive than the first speaks. This was odd, there was nopony there. She was alone in her room, wasn’t she?

“H-Hello?” She says cautiously, getting out of her bed and to her hooves. “Is somepony there?” 

“Twilight. Follow.”

Looking to her double doors, Twilight sees a small amount of light bleeding through the cracks at the bottom, the one on the left being gold and the one on right side is dark purple. Confused and curious, she went to the doors and opened them up, finding an empty hallway. 

“Huh?” She looks around in confusion before her eyes seem a small purple orb floating at the end of the hall. As soon as she left her room, the ball floated around the corner.

‘What the hay?’ At first, she planned on going to look for a guard, but then thought against is as she thinks Celestia informed the guards to ignore her now. Shaking her head, she listens to the voice from before and follows after the orb.

As she turned the corner she saw the orb go around, she sees a different orb, this one being a gold and white before it turns down another corridor. She raises a brow but continues to follow the orbs. 

At the end of each corridor, one of the orbs would be visible before floating down another hallway, clearly leading her somewhere. Twilight was so invested in following these odd orbs, she ignored everything around, even as the guards looked to her with confusion. 

She continued to follow the orbs, making note of the directions they were leading her, and realizing they are leading her to the Starswirl Tower, where the vault of magic was kept. She lived in the castle for many years, so she knew where she was heading now. Though, she was confused why these little orbs would be leading her there.

Still, despite her caution, she continued on, even as she saw the orbs open the doors to the lower levels where she has never been before. With only a moment's hesitation, she followed them still, walking down several levels before finding the two orbs floating before a large metal and crystal door.

“Why did you bring me here? This leads to the vault where the princess keeps some of the more powerful artifacts. Only an Alicorn can open them.” Twilight questions, not even trying to keep the venom from her voice as she mentioned her former mentor. The two orbs simply float up, towards where one of the locks are before glowing, Twilight sensing the magic around the door beginning to fade rapidly.

She looks with wide eyes as the door slowly begins to open, the candles lighting the room flickering a moment as the air rushes past them.

“You were saying?” The orb of darkness says, and if it had a face Twilight imagines it would be sporting a smirk at her reaction. The two orbs enter the room, closely followed by Twilight, the mare looking around the locked room in awe, seeing artifacts she believed to be only myths like a couple Alicorn amulets and dark magic tomes.

“To answer your questions, however, my brother and I are here to help you, my child.” Says the orb of light, the duo hovering next to an odd mirror on a pedestal, the symbol of two axes crossed against each other on the top. She looks at the mirror with curiosity, having never sensed the kind of magic emanating from it.

“Help me?”

“That is right Twilight. My brother and I have sensed your emotions, all the negativity you have been bottling up, even before this….incident. It isn’t healthy, and the fact that no one stood by you, only makes it worse.” The orb of light says with remorse.

“Were it permitted, I would find your so-called ‘friends’ and rip them a new one.” Twilight hears the orb takes a breath. “But this world is not our to tamper with. However, there is nothing stopping us from giving advice.”

“This world? Wait a minute. Are you saying that you two are from another world?” The mare asks in shocked confusion.

“Indeed. My brother and I are gods of our own realm, of light and darkness respectively. We spend most of our free time wandering the realms, waiting to be called upon in our world when the time is right. I believe that this world is where you would be happier.” The orb of light says, floating in front of the mirror.

“You-you want me to leave Equestria?” Twilight asks in shock.

“This isn’t an order or anything of the sort. We are merely telling you that this is an option. I have seen your memories, and those of your ‘friends’, even the princesses. You are too good for this world.”

“This world always seems to make you do the hard things for your friends and your country, while the moment you have your own problem, they brush you off. It sickens me and I am a god of darkness for void’s sake!”

Twilight looks between the two orbs, shocked at the reveal of their divinity, but even more shocked at what they are implying. She can’t just leave Equestria, the world in which she was born and raised….can she? 

Twilight sits down on her haunches and does the unthinkable, she thinks long and hard about this choice given to her. If she were to leave, who would truly miss her? 

The other elements have proven without a shred of a doubt they don’t care about her, her mind going back to the incident with the Gala tickets, each of her former friends wanting to go for their own selfish reasons. She then remembers all the problems of their she herself fixed, but comes up blank for a single problem of hers they have fixed in the year and a half she has known them, even making her problem worse in regards to the event dubbed ‘Lesson Zero’.

Her mind drifts to her FBBBFF, Former Big Brother Best Friend Forever, realizing she meant so little to him, he probably forgot she even existed. It would explain why she only found out about his wedding from an invite a day prior, her parents probably had to remind him of Twilight’s existence. The more she thought about it, the less upset she became that she might have ruined this event.

Her mind leaves her blood family, and to the mare that used to make so much to her, the solar princess, Celestia. That mare was the reason she wanted to learn all she could about magic. When she saw her as a filly, watching her raise the sun itself, the giant celestial body only being moved by her for the last thousand years, it was an inspiration.

But the more she thought about it, the more she began to think Celestia saw her not as a student and friend, but as a tool and even a weapon. The Summer Sunset celebration a year and a half ago only adding to this fire of thought. Celestia knew that her sister would be freed and sent Twilight to that town to make friends with the other element bearers, but if she knew, why didn't she tell her?

And who is to say that Celestia didn’t force the mares to be there in the first place. She clearly knew who it was, so she knew they would have to be in that town for the celebration. For the first time in her life, Twilight questioned how many strings the solar princess was pulling. How many lives has she manipulated to get the six of them to that point? 

She began to growl the more she thought about it, picturing Celestia with a chess board representing all the ponies that could have been the elements, her friends and herself were nothing more than literal pawns in her game. Who’s to say they were the first, just how many pawns has she let be destroy, killed, and captured for her to find the six of them?

As she thought about all the things she has done for the pri- that mare, her mind landed on three individuals. Spike, Night Light, and Twilight Velvet.

The young drake was still a child, even by pony standards, only having turned twelve a month ago. He only left with the other because of peer pressure and fear of rejection. He would miss her.

Her parents had told her once that they had tried to visit her in the castle numerous times, but the princess had stopped them with some excuse, like she was in the middle of practicing her magic or that she was taking care of Spike. This fact just made her anger for the solar diarch grow. Her parents had wanted to visit many times, but they could not argue with the princess. They would miss her as much as before.

But as she tries and tries to think of anyone else, she comes up blank. Sure, there were many in Ponyville that she would consider her friends, or at least close acquaintances, but none would truly miss her. They were all content to go about things in their normal lives, Twilight only having changed maybe one or two lives, like how she helped Lyra and Bon Bon come out to the world about their relationship.

She blinks her eyes a few times, not having realized she was crying, a puddle had formed at her hooves. She wipes her face with a hoof, looking back to the mirror. She had figured out from the way the orbs, the gods, spoke that this was a portal to their world. A new world. A fresh start.

Getting to her hooves and earning the attention of the two gods, a couple questions form in her mind.

“How long was I sitting here for?” She questions first, stretching her numb legs.

“About an hour and a half. I have never seen any creature sit in one spot and think about something so intently before, not even in schools.” The God of Darkness says, his brother nodding.

“So, if I enter that world, what will happen to me?” Twilight asks, looking over the mirror.

“If you go through it, your body will change to that of a species that will suit the world's design. You will no longer be a quadrupedal unicorn pony. What you do with yourself afterwards, that will entirely be up to you.” The God of Light states. 

Twilight nods before looking towards the orbs again with puppy dog eyes. “Will, I ever see you two again?” That seemed to catch the duo off guard as they looked to one another, before nodding, their glow becoming brighter, to the point Twilight has to look away. 

Once the glows begin to die down, Twilight is met with an odd sight. The orbs have changed, now taking on the silhouettes of ponies, Alicorns to be precise. They didn’t have any true details, merely taking the forms of Alicorns. The duo walked towards the young mare and wrap their new wings around her in a hug.

“In our time as gods, we have met many who worship and many defy us. But you are the third, that see us as anypony else. As we said before, you are really too good for this world, my child.” 

“I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but it was great to meet you nonetheless, Twilight Sparkle. We may never truly meet again, but know we will always watch over you, for you have earned our respect with your purity.”

Twilight smiles as she allows herself to be enveloped by the gods before her, enjoying their protective wings around her, before they step back, releasing their young friend, and begin to vanish. In but ten seconds, there was no trace either of them was ever there. Twilight wipes her eyes again and looks to the portal mirror, the image of the axes almost looking like a sign of safety.

Steeling her resolve, and taking a deep breath, the unicorn mare Twilight Sparkle walks forward, through the portal mirror. Unknown to her and the gods, this was going to be a new beginning in more ways than one.
> Chapter 1: Patch of Roses
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world of Remnant. A world of war and chaos, as well as peace and order. This world is not perfect, but it is a testament to balance. The four kingdoms, Vale, Atlas, Vacuo and Mistral, stand tall in their respective continents, powerhouses of the world. It is in the kingdom of Vale, on the small island of Patch, where the story continues.

It was a standard Saturday morning as far as this island was concerned. It was around ten in the morning, and on this little island, a small house was about to have an unexpected visitor.

The two-story house was picturesque, peaceful, the kind of place someone would want to raise a family in. And that is what it served as. A home for a family.

“Come on daddy! I want to get to the lake before it gets too hot!” The voice of a young girl breaks the peaceful silence of the area. A second later the door to the house opens, revealing the source of the voice. A young girl who looks to be around seven years old, her blond hair tied into a pair of pigtails, wearing a red t-shirt and blue overalls. This young girl, was Yang Xiao Long.

“Alright Yang, just hold your horses. I know you wanted to go fishing for a while, but you need to be patient.” The voice of a man replies. A couple moment later, a tall man with blond hair walks out of the house with several pieces of fishing equipment. His right arm was exposed, showing his black tattoo, his tan cargo pants filled with hooks and bait. This man was Yang’s father, Taiyang Xiao Long.

Behind the man, hidden beneath a red cap and hood, was another girl, looking to be two years younger than Yang. She was struggling somewhat to carry the box of fishing tackles, barely managing to keep her balance on her feet. She walks forward a bit, before bumping into Tai, and falling to the ground, her hood falling back to reveal her red and black hair and silver eyes. This young girl was Tai’s second daughter and Yang’s little sister, Ruby Rose.

“Aw! I almost had it!” The silver eyed girl whines as she picks the box back up.

“Hey, relax sweetie. You don’t need to carry the box if you don’t want to.” Tai says, loading the gear into a small cart for the trio.

“No, I got it, daddy.” The young girl says, bringing the box over to her father. Tai smiles at his daughter wanting to help, rubbing her head.

“That’s my girl.” He says with a laugh, taking the box and placing it into the cart. “So, are we all set for our fishing trip?” 

“Yup!” Both girls say together. Tai nods and begins to head out with the wagon, his daughters right behind him. They walk for a couple of minutes before arriving at a large lake, the water filled with plenty of fish and underwater plant life. Nearby are some blueberry bushes and apple trees, lovingly cultivated by Tai, his friends and family.

Walking over to the pier on the side of the lake, Tai began to take out all the supplies he brought while Yang sat by the water and Ruby wandered around. 

“Ruby! Please stay in sight sweetheart!” Tai calls to his younger daughter. 

“Ok, daddy!” Ruby calls back, going over to some of the berry bushes. Tai smiles and shakes his head at his youngest daughters antics. As Tai gets everything set up for himself and his daughters, he allows himself to relax against the pier, looking up at the sky as a few clouds go by. He can hear his daughter laugh a little as she watches some fish go by in the water in front of her.

The peace the two enjoyed was broken, however, when they hear Ruby yelling. “DADDY! YANG!” The two blonds jump to their feet and notice Ruby is not in view.

“Ruby! Ruby where are you?!” Tai yells for his daughter, Yang quickly going to him.

“Over by the apple trees!” The duo quickly heads over to where Ruby’s voice came from, Tai mentally preparing himself for a fight against a monster. The two of them arrive at the trees and Tai sees his daughter hiding behind a tree, looking at something.

“Ruby! Are you-” the little girl quickly shushes her sister, pointing to an area ahead of them. The three humans look past the tree Ruby is hiding against, and look towards one of the trees ahead of them. It took a second for Tai and Yang to process what they were seeing.

At the bottom of one of the trees in front of them, was what looked like a little girl. She looked to be around the same age as Yang, her skin a light tan like Tai and her long purple hair with blue and pink highlights held in a ponytail. She was wearing a light blue blouse and a silver skirt with the symbol of a six-pointed star on the side and a pair of light purple boots. But what caught the family’s attention, was a pair of purple animal ears on the top of the girls head.

‘A Faunus girl? What is she doing here in Patch? And where are her parents?’ Tai questions himself. He motions for Yang and Ruby to stay where they are, the two sisters nodding, before he carefully walks over to the young girl. She was clearly unconscious, but the question was if she was hurt.

Once he is within arms reach, he carefully turns the girl over and onto her back. He goes over her small frame carefully, making sure he checks all the major parts of her body with the care one would expect from a father. After checking for a pulse and her breathing, the only possible injury Tai could find was a small bump on the center of her forehead, likely from falling or something. 

“I-Is she ok?” Tai turns to find both his daughter next to him and looking at the girl, Ruby having asked the question. 

“Looks like it. She might have hit her head if this bump is any indication, but other than that, I think she’s fine.” He says to his daughters before picking up the unconscious child in his arms. 

“Yang, head back to the pier and pack everything up. Looks like we’re going to have to go fishing another time.” The blond girl nods before taking her sister by the hand and heading back to the pier. He looks to the little girl in his arms and sighs.

“What happened to you kid?” 

 One-hour later….

The three humans and their new addition made it back to their house without any troubles. Tai had put the little Faunus on his bed, going over her body more closely with a first aid kit, seeing she’s just like his daughter Yang in terms of weight and height, so she was healthy at least. She also lacked any physical injuries aside from a couple scraps on her knees. 

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find anything that would identify her. No ID or even a name tag on her clothes. She was a real enigma to Tai.

He leaves the sleeping girl to rest after a bit and went into the kitchen to make some food for when the Faunus girl wakes up. 

“Daddy?” Tai turns from chopping tomatoes as Ruby walks in with concern in her eyes. “Is that girl going to be ok?” Tai couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face as he sees Ruby’s worry for someone she has never even met before. 

“I think she is going to be just fine Ruby. Once she wakes up, we’ll get in contact with her parents and get her home.” He says, before putting the cheese, tomato and lettuce sandwich on a tray with a glass of milk, and then getting an idea.

“Hey, sweetheart. Why don’t you take that girl some lunch? I am sure she would want to meet the one who found her.” He says with a smile, handing the tray to his daughter. With a smile, Ruby nods and takes the tray from her father, carefully heading up the stairs to her father's room. 

Walking into her father's room, carefully holding the tray in her hands, she sees the girl still sleeping on the bed. Ruby placed the tray on the nightstand and climbs up the chair next to the bed to get a better look at the girl. Ruby had never met a faunus before, aside from one of her dad's huntsman friends. 

Ruby felt her eyes being drawn up to the girl purple ears, their look reminding her of a horse, or maybe a pony. She nods to herself that a pony sounded better with the way the girls hair is. Quickly looking to the door, then to the girls face, Ruby climbs up to the bed and sits next to her.

‘I think I wanna….touch them.’ Looking to the girls face again, Ruby carefully brings her hands up and rubs the girl's ears. They felt almost like velvet, despite the purple fur on them. She pulls back and looks to the girls face again. She gasps slightly as she sees the girl's eyes fluttering a bit and realizes something. Ruby runs to the doorframe.

“Daddy! Yang! She’s waking up!” The response was instant, Yang running out of her room and Tai from the kitchen towards the bedroom. The trio make they way to the bed as the girl groans and rubs her face a bit before opening her eyes, showing a deep purple just like Yang. 

“Where..?” Blinking her eyes a couple times, the girl begins to sit up, groaning in discomfort.

“Take it, easy kid. I have no idea how long you’ve been out for.” Tai says, placing a hand on her back. The girl looks to Tai, and soon gains a confused expression, one that didn’t change as she saw Ruby and Yang.

“W-who are you?” She asks, scooting away a bit. Tai sees she is scared and sits down in the chair, Ruby sitting in his lap.

“It’s ok, your safe. My name is Taiyang Xiao Long. These are my daughters, Ruby Rose, and Yang Xiao Long.” He introduces, the two girls waving to their new addition.

“Hi!” Yang says with a smile, Ruby just nods with her own smile.

“Um, hi.” The girl responds quietly. 

“So, what’s your name sweetheart?” Tai asks calmly. The girl pauses for a second, placing a hand on her head.

“T-Twilight. I think?” She says timidly. The trio look to her in confusion, and with worry as well in Tai’s case.

“You think? So, you don’t know for sure?” Tai questions, ‘Twilight’ scooting back and wrapping her arms around herself a bit. He sees the fear in her eyes and takes a breath. “Easy kiddo. You’re not in trouble. I just want to know what happened so we can find your family.”

The girl nods and closes her eyes for a second, before scrunching her eyes shut in an effort. “I-I don’t remember.” She says quietly, beginning to breathe heavily.

Twilight feels something against her hand and looks to see Yang holding her hand and looking to her with worry filled eyes. She hears some movement and sees Ruby bringing over a tray with a sandwich and a glass of milk on it. Ruby is careful as she places the tray on the bed next to Twilight.

“Maybe you should eat first?” Ruby asks, slightly unsure. Twilight nods after a second, picking up the sandwich and taking a bite, a smile appearing on her face as she eats. The trio smile as well at seeing Twilight happily eating. Once she finishes the sandwich and milk, thanking them for the food, she sighs and lays her back against the bed board in thought.

“So, you said you don’t remember what happened to you, what do you remember?” Tai asks, carefully taking a seat on the bed next to the faunus. Twilight flinches for a second as Tai takes a seat before taking a breath and trying to remember. 

“I-I know my first name is Twilight. All I remember other than that is some man saying ‘we may never truly meet again, but we will always be watching over you.’ Other than that, nothing.” Twilight begins to sniffle a bit, for some reason the man's words making her sad. 

Tai looks to the sniffling child in worry and sadness. If a man said something like that to a child, it is safe to assume that man was her father, and he and likely her other parent are no longer of this world. Before any could react, Ruby jumps onto the bed and hugs the faunus girl tightly. 

“Please don’t cry. I don’t like it when people cry.” Ruby says in sadness and with her own tears in her eyes. Twilight sniffles again and wraps her arms around the little girl in front of her. Yang soon joins the hug as well, keeping her arms firmly around the purple eared girl. Tai smiles as he sees his daughters doing what they can to make a stranger happy like this.

“Twilight,” Tai begins, getting all three of the girls' attention, “I am sorry first off. I am sorry you lost your memory. But know I will be making some calls with some contacts of mine to see if we can find any of your family. Until then, you’re more than welcome to stay here.”

Twilight looks to the man in surprise at his decision. “I….do...don't want to be a bother, Mr.Xiao Long.” She begins, only for Tai to place a finger on her lips.

“Don’t even try Twilight. You won’t be a bother. Besides, these two could use a new friend.” He says with a smile, motioning to his daughter that are looking to Twilight expectantly. Twilight looks to them, unsure, before sighing and nodding.

“Ok.” “Yay!” Twilight is quickly brought in for another hug by the two girls, this one filled with happiness. Despite herself, Twilight smiles again and hugs them back. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all. 

 One-week later….

Twilight had adjusted well as a member of the Xiao Long-Rose household. She would awaken along with Yang in the early morning to try and make Tai some breakfast. Unfortunately, Yang tended to overcook the food while Twilight could barely make scrambled eggs properly. Despite this, the two seven-year-olds worked together and made a relatively simple breakfast of some scrambled eggs, fruit and coffee for the patriarch of the house after a week of practice. 

The duo was proud of themselves for their job well done. Once they finished setting up the table for Tai, Twilight would make some cereal for herself and the other two girls, while Yang went up to wake her father and sister. 

Despite herself, however, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of Yang. She had a loving father and an adorable little sister, while Twilight couldn’t even remember the faces of anyone she might be related to. All she could remember was that man’s voice and her first name. She couldn’t even remember her last name, so that has just make it harder for Tai to find her family.

With a sigh, Twilight sits at the table and begins to munch on her food, even as she hears the family trio coming down the stairs. She barely glances at them as she eats her cereal.

“Twilight? Are you ok?” Twilight looks up from her bowl at Ruby who asks that.

“I’m fine Ruby, just a little tired.” She says, the trio looking unconvinced. The three of them sit at their seats and begin to eat their food in silence, the three humans glancing at the faunus from time to time. Once they all finish up, Tai begins to clean up the dishes.

“Twilight, me and the girls are going to be heading into town later to do some shopping. Do you want to come with us?” Tai asks, the faunus reading a book on the couch. The girl shrugs after a second, placing the book away.

“Ok. Maybe we could find someone who knows me.” She responds, heading to the door and placing her boots on. Even though she says she is fine, Tai could tell that the loss of her memory is really bothering, so he was planning on heading over to their family doctor to ask for a second opinion. 

The other two quickly grab their shoes and Ruby’s cape and the four of them head out of the house and towards the nearby town.

Later….

Twilight was looking around the new town with wonderment, making sure to stay close to Taiyang all the while. She couldn’t remember, but she was pretty sure she had never seen machines like the cars and hologram screens. She wanted so bad to find a book about these machines and pick them apart. 

She kept her curiosity to herself, however, as she continued to follow after the three humans. They had already stopped by the school Tai worked at, Signal. Twilight was plenty curious as well about what being a ‘huntress’ or ‘huntsman’ meant. They continued to walk the street for another couple of minutes before arriving at a three-story building with a red and blue cross on the sides of the doors.

Checking the sign up front, Twilight saw that it read ‘Vale Local Pharmacy and Clinic’. So they were going to the doctors. Curious, Twilight thought maybe Tai wanted to get her checked out to see if maybe they can restore her memory. The four of them enter and Tai heads up to the front desk and asks for someone named Dr. Blush. 

Twilight couldn’t tell how long the four of them were sitting around for, Twilight having brought a book with her, before they heard someone calling for the Xiao Long-Rose family. Twilight put her book away and saw a woman with a pale complexion, short magenta hair, and deep green eyes.

“Tai, good to see you again! Hello, my little firecracker and flower.” She says, hugging the trio. 

“Hi, Aunty Blush,” Ruby says with a smile, the doctor rubbing her head before noticing Twilight standing behind Tai. 

“Oh, who is the little one?” The woman asks, crouching to be on eye level with Twilight, the girl hiding behind Tai despite herself. 

“This is Twilight. She’s the reason we’ve come over today.” Tai explains, patting the little faunus head. Dr. Blush nods and motions for the four of them to follow her, entering an examination room. 

“Twilight dear, why don’t you have a seat on the bed.” Blush asks, grabbing a clipboard. The young faunus nods and jumps up and onto the examination bed, while Ruby and Yang sit in some of the chairs nearby. “Now then, how about you four bring me up to speed on what’s hurting this little faunus.”

“That’s kinda the thing Megan. Twilight has amnesia. Ruby found her in the apple orchard on our island a week ago and she can’t remember anything before waking up in my bed. Well...aside from something some guy said.” Tai says, the doctor looking to the young girl in shock and worry. The faunus in question began to wrap her arms around herself as all the attention is on her.

“Oh, you poor dear. So, you brought her here to see if maybe I can find her in the system, and notify her family, right?” Megan asks, Tai nodding. The doctor nods before heading over to a drawer and taking out several examination tools and needles. Ruby yelps and hides behind her father as she sees the needle. Twilight was unfazed.

“Alright dear. We need to go over a few tests. Is that ok with you?” She says softly. Twilights response was to roll up her sleeve and offer her arm. Dr. Blush smiles at the little girl's bravery. 

They spent the next half hour going over some tests on Twilight, recording her DNA into the system, and coming up blank on any matches, even similarities, so it became apparent that her parents likely lived in one of the towns doting the continent outside the kingdom. 

After that revelation, Megan Blush and Taiyang began to fill in some health and citizenship sheets for Twilight, making her an official resident of Vale as the ones from outside the kingdom need to get certification.

After that and some basic reflex tests, Megan decided to have Twilight take an MRI scan to see if something is wrong with her brain or skull that caused her memory loss. Twilight was amazed by the machine and after Megan’s explanation, she asked if there was an owners manual she could read, earning a laugh from the two adults.

It took about forty-five minutes for Twilight to go through the scan, and the results were not that encouraging. Her brain and skull looked completely normal, no damage, no change in thought patterns, the only oddity was part of her skull that is slightly elevated, almost like a horn in the center of her forehead.

With that in mind, Megan theorized that her memory loss was caused by emotional trauma, likely from whatever happened to her parents. Twilight was saddened that her memory loss couldn’t be fixed by medicine or anything, and it will only take time for them to come back. 

After they got everything sorted out with Megan, the group of four headed out of the clinic and towards the academy again, so Twilight can get a proper passport and her papers. It didn’t take all that long considering Tai worked there. While the four of them were leaving the school, Twilight couldn’t help but let her mind wander to where she came from. She is going to have to do a lot of research to find her home.

“Hey, don’t look so down Twilight. I promise we are going to find you a home in no time.” Tai says, noticing the girls sad expression. Twilight tries, and fails, to smile at Tai’s encouragement. The human just sighs and looks ahead of them as they head to the grocery store. 

The two human girls didn’t like how their new friend was looking, so once their group arrived at the general store, they immediately dragged her to the toy section to look around. Twilight rolled her eyes but joined the two of them without a fuss. No matter what, Tai couldn’t be more proud of how his daughters were acting around Twilight.

‘Maybe I should talk to Qrow about my idea. I am sure he would agree.’ He thinks to himself, grabbing the groceries while the girls wander around the toy section. The two humans walked around, looking at all the toys on the shelves with a smile. Twilight liked the selection as well, seeing a bunch of stuffed animals and board games, but nothing really caught her eye. 

Twilight went to the next isle past the toys, and found something that made her eyes widen with glee. An entire isle filled with books. A large smile split across the young faunus face as she began to go through the isle, reading the titles of the books before finding one that caught her eye.

“The Saint Reaper?” That seemed like an oxymoron in Twilight’s mind. Picking up the book, it has the cover of some woman standing before a group of people, facing a large group of black monsters, a mask covering her face and two scythes in her hands. Below the title was a statement saying ‘based on a true event’. 

“Whatcha got there, kid?” Twilight yelps and turns, finding a man in his late twenties with black hair and sideburns and hazel eyes. Twilight shows the man the cover, a smile crossing his face.

“Nice choice. That was a pretty significant event a while ago. Who would have thought that the Grimm Reaper would- oops, no spoilers.” He smiles warmly at his own joke, Twilight giggling a little. 

“Twilight! Where are you?” The duo turns to see Tai looking around with his daughters, finding Twilight with the book in her arms. 

“Tai! Good to see you again.” The man says, clapping the man on the back. 

“Tukson! How are things with the store?” The human asks, Twilight walking up to them.

“So far so good. I finally got the place organized and we should be ready to open in a week or two.” Tukson answers with pride. Twilight looks to the other two girls inquisitively, the duo shrugging in response. Twilight turns her attention to Tukson, silently asking what he is talking about. With a smile, Tukson takes a card out of his pocket and hands it to the young faunus.

“Tukson’s Book Trade, home to every book under the sun. What do you think?” He asks somewhat dramatically. Twilight looks to him with wide eyes and then to Tai.

“Mr.Xiao Long, can we go to his store when it opens? Pleeeeaaaseee?” She begs, giving big eyes. Tai smiles at her plea.

“Mmmmaybeee, but only if you are good.” He says with a smirk. Twilight squees at his response, hugging his waist. 

“Thank you thank you thank you!” The two adults smile at her excitement, Yang and Ruby surprised that a bookstore was all it took to make her happy. 

“So Tai, I have all my groceries, and it looks like you do too, so how about you introduce me to this little one properly on the way out?” Tukson says, heading to the registers. The four others follow after him, Tai beginning to speak again.

“Tukson, this is Twilight. Ruby found her unconscious in the apple orchard on our island a week ago and….well, she has amnesia. We took her to the doctors and found she is perfectly healthy, but her family is likely from one of the villages outside of the kingdom, so it won’t be easy to find her family.” 

“Damn, I’m sorry to hear that. I can’t imagine how that must be like.” The large man says in remorse.

“Yeah.” Twilight replies simply, still clutching the book. Tukson looks to her in sadness, before a smile breaks across his face.

“Hey, how about this? When you and Tai come over to the store when it opens, I’ll give you a discount on three books, how’s that sound?” He says with a smile. Twilight looks to the man in shock before smiling wide, a smile that was infectious as Ruby and Yang smile as well.

“Thank you Mr.Tukson!” Twilight responds as the group all arrive at the registers. Tai and Tukson pay for their respective groceries and Twilight’s book before they separate. Twilight couldn’t stop smiling as she clutched her book, excited to get home and read.

That thought made her stop for a moment and glance at Tai and his daughters ahead of her. ‘Home. Is….is my home….with them?’
> Chapter 2: Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Five days later….

Life in the Xiao Long-Rose household was a bit of a routine, one that didn’t mind the addition of a faunus. Now that they made one successful breakfast themselves, Yang and Twilight asked Tai to teach them how to cook. The trio would wake up before Ruby and the adult would teach the two seven-year-olds how to make several receipts, like French toast, waffles and fruit salads.

Twilight took notes about what she was taught, while Yang relied mostly on memory, and taking glances at the faunus notes when she thought she wasn’t looking. Twilight knew though, but she didn’t mind the girl using her notes. Not that she’d ever say it, it was funny to see Yang trying to look at her notes.

After breakfast, the group would separate for a while to do some chores or play in Ruby’s case. Yang and Tai would do the laundry while Twilight would water the plants, then the family would get together to clean up the living room and relax until lunch. 

Twilight was fully invested in the book she got from the store. It told the tale of a family that would visit a church every Sunday that was on the outskirts of their village. One day a huge horde of Grimm attacked the town and everyone was forced to take refuge in the church. Unfortunately, because of the concentration of negative emotions, the Grimm headed there almost immediately. The family that went there every week began to pray for a miracle, for a hero.

And that is exactly what they got. Just before the Grimm managed to break down the door, the crowd heard fighting and gunshots. Looking out the window, the youngest of the family saw a woman with a dark blue cloak, a skull mask wielding two scythes, tearing the Grimm to pieces. 

The people knew who it was, a legend among the huntsman and huntresses. The Grimm Reaper. The family watched on and continued to pray for the woman’s safety, to give her strength. It seemed to work, as the horde was no match for the legend of a huntress. Once the whole horde was dealt with and the sun came up, the villagers began to go back to their homes and began to repair their village.

They didn’t all get out unscathed, a dozen lives were lost in the attack. The families were heartbroken. A week passed, and the village all went to the church to pray to the gods and hope their fallen friends and family would make it a better life. 

Imagine their shock, when the Grimm Reaper herself arrived and joined the village in their prayer. 

Twilight was moved by the efforts and spirit of the Grimm Reaper, of the strength of the family. It made her happy and made her wish she would get the chance to meet the Huntress one day. Then she thought about the family, their connection and strength, their faith, even in the face of calamity. She wondered if her family was like that.

There was a sudden knocking at the door, breaking Twilight out of her reading trance. Tai and Yang were in the kitchen making lunch while Ruby was playing upstairs, so it was up to her to get the door. Getting off the couch and heading to the door, Twilight opened it up to reveal a new human. 

He had slick-backed black hair, a grey outfit with a short red cape and dark red eyes. He was clearly confused when he saw Twilight, a brow raised at her appearance. 

“Who are you?” He asks bluntly, his voice slightly slurred.

“Twilight. Who are you?” She asked while she innocently tilts of her head. Before he can respond, a certain five-year-old walks around the corner and sees the man before smiling wide.

“Uncle Qrow!” Ruby runs up for a hug, Qrow lifting her up with a smile.

“Hey squirt, you’ve grown a bit since I saw you.” He says with a smile, rubbing her head. Twilight was surprised, Yang and Ruby had mentioned their uncle before, but she didn’t know what he looked like. She steps back to let the Huntsman in.

“Qrow! Perfect timing, we just made lunch.” Tai says, coming around the corner with some soup. Qrow smiles again and carries his niece into the kitchen with him, Twilight close behind. 

“So that is the faunus you told me about a couple days ago? I can see why you like her.” The man says, leaning back in his seat. 

“Very funny Qrow. Seriously though, thanks for stopping by today.” The other adult says, handing out bowls of tomato soup for everyone. They all begin to eat in relative silence, Tai and Qrow glancing to the three girls. 

“So, you said you needed me to babysit them for a couple hours?” Qrow says suddenly, the three girls looking to the adults in surprise. 

“Yeah, I have a few things I need to take care of at the school and Megan is busy. I hope you don’t mind.” 

“Tai if I minded I would have told you over the scroll,” Qrow says with a chuckle. Tai smiles and grabs a suitcase from his room. 

“Alright, I’ll be back around 8. Make sure they actually have a proper meal before they get ready for bed Qrow. And no getting drunk before I get home.” Tai says the last past as Qrow is about to take out his flask. 

The Huntsman smiles as his brother-in-law leaves, before remembering he is now stuck with three little girls, one of who has never met him before. He smiles and takes the dishes to the sink to wash.

“Alright. Who wants to hear a story?” 


Signal Academy


One hour later


Tai entered the academy with a sigh, heading towards his classroom. He hoped that the papers he asked for were there. It was difficult three days for him, convincing the orphanages and the court of his plan, but he was determined to go through with it. 

Arriving at his office, he is surprised to see someone at his desk. Checking again, he sees it's his old friend, Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck. 

“Bart? What are you doing here?” Tai sees his friend looking over a small stack of papers.

“Ah Tai, good to see you. I was coming over to tell you about my transfer to Beacon when I saw these sheets coming out of your fax machine. Are you serious?”

“Y-yeah, after I got all the sheets filled out with Megan, I decided she wasn’t going to the orphanage. I’ve heard about how faunus are treated there and I can’t stand the thought.” Tai grabs the forms from his friend, organizing them properly. Tai can hear his friend sigh at his response.

“Well, it’s not like I can stop you, but I hope you know what you are getting yourself into. Having two daughters is one thing, but adding a third might be too much, even for you.” The man sighs as he takes a seat in at his desk, looking over the adoption form. 

“Well, at the very least she’ll have a family until she is old enough to go looking for her blood relatives. If I don’t find them first.” With that, Tai began to fill out the info in the adoption forms. It was going to be a long day for him.

As he was filling out the sheets, he couldn’t help but wonder more about this mysterious faunus Ruby found. She seemed like a completely normal girl, no grudges, no hatred, just purity, and curiosity. But what was it that lead to her appearing on Patch? What happened to her parents? And what kind of event could cause her so much emotional trauma for her to lose her memory?

That last one made Tai very worried. If Twilight was to regain her memory, she would undoubtedly remember the cause for her memory loss. Tai had met quite a few human and faunus that have gone through some serious events suffering from things like PTSD and depression. He didn’t want that for Twilight.

Despite this, however, he was determined to give that little girl a home, and if her memories do return, as a father he will be there with her every step of the way. He broke out of his mental rambling and saw that almost all of the info on the sheets have been filled out. All that was needed was Twilight’s signature in a few places and a witness signature. 

Tai smiles and places the forms into his suitcase before looking into a filing cabinet and taking out some exam sheets and assignments he needed to grade for his students. He was a teacher after all. 


3 hours later….


Tai released a large sigh as he finished grading the last of the exams and assignments. He regretted leaving them for the weekend, but he was able to finish them in the end. He was glad too, most of his students did really well on the tests, so he had to plan something for them on Monday.

He gets up from his chair and stretches his back and arms, glad he was able to finish all of his work early. Checking his scroll, he saw it was a little after four, so he still had time to run by the courthouse to set up a meeting with him and Twilight for later in the week then to some stores to get stuff for Twilight. 

Walking out of his classroom and towards the exit, Tai began to think about how his current daughters would react to the decision for him to adopt Twilight. He could tell Yang and Ruby really liked her as a friend already, and Twilight seemed to like them as well, so he thinks they would go nuts if Twilight accepts and they all become sisters.

‘Summer, I wonder how you would react if you were here. Heh, you’d probably have told me to adopt her on day one.’ He smiles as he thinks of his deceased lover and Ruby’s mother. She was always the pure one, wanting to help anyone, anywhere. 

Of course, his mind wanders to his first love, Raven. He frowns and thinks about how she would react to Twilight and her situation. Raven wasn’t cold, but she wasn’t all that empathetic at the same time. 

He sighs again and focuses on the task at hand, arriving at the courthouse early. Just a few more things to do, and he can get home to his daughters, the three of them.


Xiao Long-Rose Household


Two hours later….


Qrow sighs as he finished making some spaghetti for himself, his nieces and their ‘friend’, the trio of girls playing a board game in the living room. He spent the first couple hours here telling them about some of his latest missions, leaving out some key details that weren’t entirely appropriate for kids. After his stories, and explaining some things about Huntsman to Twilight, he dug out a board game for the trio to play while he attempted to make dinner.

Unfortunately, his Semblance made it a little hard not to overcook the noodles or burn the sauce. Still, he managed, with some difficulty making the vegetarian substitute meatballs for Twilight. Apparently, Yang tried to give Twilight a ham and cheese sandwich a week ago and she spent the next hour sick in the washroom.

Once he finally finished making the sauce and noodles for the four of them and Tai, he carefully set up the table and walked to the living room where the girls were.

“Alright girls, dinner is ready. Twilight, I made some substitute meatballs for you, so you don’t need to worry about getting sick or something.” The trio smile and head to the washrooms to wash up before eating. Qrow chuckles at the manners Tai had instilled in his daughters and Twilight.

The Huntsman heads to the table and takes out his flask, pouring some of its contents into his cup of coffee. He closes his eyes and lets his mind wander, coming back to the reason he is really here. 

A couple of days ago Tai called while Qrow was on his way back to report to Professor Ozpin and told him about Twilight and his plan to adopt her. At first, Qrow thought maybe he was in a drunk hallucination again, but after making sure he was sober, he was shocked that Tai was serious.

At first, Qrow didn’t think it was a good idea. Sure, Tai was legitimate dad of the year material, but it didn’t mean he hasn’t struggled with raising Yang and Ruby, especially after Summer died. Tai was adamant though and wanted Qrow’s support since Qrow would become Twilight’s uncle if she was adopted.

Qrow came over to babysit, so he could learn about Twilight and see if maybe she was faking or something. But it seemed he was just being paranoid. When she was asking her questions, there was only curiosity and a need to learn in her eyes, eyes that shined with determination and untapped potential. 

In a way, Twilight reminded him of Yang. Both of them have lost a lot, more than any kid should, but the both of them wouldn’t let it rule them. Yang strived to be a great big sister and eldest daughter with hopes of one day finding her mother. Twilight wanted to learn all she could, do all she could, so she could one day find her blood family. 

A smile wormed its way onto Qrow’s face as he thought about it. He sighs and opens his eyes as he hears the girls coming down the stairs and towards the kitchen. He saw how happy Ruby, Yang, and Twilight were around each other, even though they only met a couple weeks ago.

‘Yeah, that girl is a perfect addition to this family.’ With that thought, Qrow grabbed the girls plates and set them down for them to eat, making sure to grab some paper towels just in case they make a mess. He allows himself a little smile as the trio ate with satisfied smiles. Looks like he got lucky for once. 

The four of them eat in relative silence, the trio of girls not taking a second to talk and just eating. Qrow was actually surprised how quiet they were being, considering how whenever he visited before, his nieces were a little loud and excitable. He began to worry a bit before Yang broke the silence.

“You sure you didn’t cheat?” She questions Twilight with a raised brow.

“For the last time Yang, I won that card match fair and square. Maybe someone should read the instructions to the game before jumping in.” The faunus counters, Ruby just looking back and forth between them.

“Sure, if you want to be an egghead about it,” Yang comments with a grin. Twilight just looks to her with a deadpan expression before flicking one of her meatballs at the blond, the food landing in her hair. Ruby and Qrow look to the duo in shock and slowly begin to scoot back as Yang’s eye begins to twitch.

“You….” Yang's eyes suddenly turn from purple to red as Twilight begins to get how bad she messed up.

“Uh oh.” 

“TWILIGHT!” Yang rushes over the table and towards the faunus, the girl yelping and ducking under the table before running away, Yang in hot pursuit. 

“Yang stop!” Qrow shouts, going to follow the two girls before falling over Twilight's chair. He looks up as Ruby is hiding behind the wall and Yang is chasing Twilight around the living room.

“GET BACK HERE TWILIGHT!” The enraged blond yells. The pony faunus screams and continues to run away from the girl. Yang jumps over the couch and catches the girl off guard, Twilight falling on her back.

“STOP!” Twilight screams, and suddenly her hand lights up with some kind of lavender aura, Yang being covered and stopping in mid-air. Everyone freezes in shock, Yang’s eyes going back to normal as she tries to move. Ruby and Qrow look to Twilight in shock, but for different reasons.

Twilight looks to her glowing hand in shock, then to Yang, who is equally shocked. Twilight raises her hand again, the aura seeming to move a bit as the meatball and sauce in Yang’s hair is picked out and placed in the trash. Yang is then gently placed on the couch, all three of the humans looking to Twilight in shock.

Twilight smiles before feeling a little tired, tipping to her side. Yang rushes forward again and catches the girl before she can hit the ground. 

“Twilight! Are you ok? Twilight!” Yang says in worry for her friend. Qrow quickly rushes over to the two kids and checks the faunus pulse, finding her to be ok. 

“It’s ok. I think she just passed out from using….I think that was her Semblance.” Qrow says, gently picking up Twilight and laying her on the couch. Tears begin to form in Yang’s eyes as she looks to her friend.

“Hey, relax firecracker. I am sure Twilight will be fine. But if you want, you can keep an eye on her while Ruby and I clean up in the kitchen.” Qrow says, patting in nieces head. Yang nods and grabs a small beanbag chair, sitting in front of the faunus. Qrow motions for Ruby to follow, the duo heading back into the kitchen to clean up from dinner. 

The two humans work in silence for a while, Ruby drying the dishes as Qrow washes them. Qrow glances to his youngest niece a couple times, seeing her glance over to the living room to check on Yang and Twilight. 

“Hey, squirt.” Ruby looks to her uncle. “How do you feel about Twilight?” Ruby pauses for a second, thinking.

“I dunno. I like her I think. She is really smart and nice like Yang. Hey uncle Qrow? Do you think dad will let Twilight stay here?” Ruby asks with puppy dog eyes. Qrow tries to resist, but relents and brings Ruby close.

“Ruby, I need you to promise you will stay quiet about what I am going to tell you,” Qrow says in seriousness. The young human nods and zips her lips. “Twilight is going to be staying here for a while….because your dad is planning to adopt her.” 

Ruby goes wide-eyed and covers her mouth to stop herself from screaming. ‘Daddy is going to adopt her!? I am going to get another big sister?!?’ 

Qrow almost seems to hear Ruby’s thought as he smiles to her. “Yeah, your dad has really connected with that faunus. And honestly, I think she would make a great addition to this family. Just remember, it is Twilights choice in the end.” Qrow says. Ruby nods with a large smile as she gets back to drying the dishes. Qrow chuckles at his niece's smile. 

‘Tai, you are lucky to have those two.’


The Next Day….


Twilight yawned loudly as she made her way down the stairs with Ruby and Yang behind her. After she woke up from her fainting spell yesterday, Yang wouldn’t stop apologizing. Twilight apologized as well for making her that mad in the first place and made a mental note to never mess with Yang’s hair. Tai made it home soon after and they were forced to tell him what happened. While he was disappointed that Yang lost her temper like that, he was proud of them both for apologizing to one another. He was silently proud as well when Qrow told him about Twilight’s Semblance.

After that the girls went to sleep while Tai and Qrow began to go over the adoption forms together, Qrow volunteering to be the witness for Twilight’s signature. Tai was surprised about how Qrow compared Twilight to Yang, but the more he thought about it, the more he agreed with him.

Right now Tai and Qrow were in the kitchen, Qrow reading the morning paper and Tai making some pancakes for all of them. The trio of girls were awoken by the sweet smell of their breakfast, so they quickly washed their hand and made their way to the kitchen.

“Morning girls. Sleep well?” Tai asks, finishing another pancake. 

“Morning daddy/Tai.” The trio says, Twilight stopping herself as she almost calls him dad as well, unnoticed by all the girls, but not by the men. Qrow smiles behind his newspaper, glancing to Tai who is also smiling. 

“So, who wants orange juice and who wants milk?” Tai asks, bringing over the small stacks for the girls. Twilight and Yang ask for the juice while Ruby gets milk. The five of them all eat in relative silence for a while before Tai breaks it.

“So girls. We all need to have a talk after breakfast, ok?” Yang and Twilight look to one another in worry and gulp while Ruby struggles not to smile and Qrow grins behind his mug of coffee.

“S-sure dad,” Yang says nervously, eating her breakfast at a slower rate. The others don’t mind and continue their silent meal. Once finished, Qrow takes all the dishes to the sink before returning a second later while Tai runs up to his office and grabs his suitcase. 

The two seven-year-olds are worried, then confused when Tai returns with his suitcase in hand, placing it on the table. The two girls look to Qrow who is silently grinning, then to Ruby who is almost vibrating in her seat, clearly excited. 

“Twilight.” The faunus snaps her attention to Tai as he takes out some sheets of paper. “I know we have talked about finding your family, but it has not been an easy feat. If your family is from one of the villages dotting the area outside the kingdom, it makes it difficult to find any who are related to you.” 

The girl lowers her head and nods, understanding it was an impossible task. She feels as Tai places a hand on her shoulder. 

“I know it is not something you wanted to hear, but I can’t just ask my friends to look for your blood family without any clues as to where to look. However,” Twilight looks to him as he offers a warm smile, “just because your parents are gone, and you don’t remember your blood family, doesn’t mean you can’t have a family.”

He gets up and brings the forms to Twilight, keeping their contents hidden from her. He places them on the table, along with a pen.

“You are still a child, and normally you would be placed into an orphanage in town, eventually being adopted. But I think we could skip the middle bit.” He finished with a grin, flipping over the papers and showing their contents. 

Twilight grabbed the sheets from the table and read through them, her eyes widening with every sentence and checkbox. She reaches a blank spot at the bottom, one asking for the child’s signature. She looks to Tai with wide, teary eyes, Tai smiling warmly.

“Twilight the faunus, I would like to adopt you as my third daughter. All I need is a few signatures.” He says with a smile. Yang’s jaw drops to the table while Ruby squeals and hugs her uncle tightly. 

Twilight looks back to the forms in her shaking hands, placing them on the table and looking to the pen, before speaking up.

“Rose.” The humans look to her with confusion, Ruby especially. “I-if I sign this, c-can my name b-be, Twilight Rose?”

The four humans are surprised at her request before Ruby lets go of her uncle and hugs Twilight tightly. Tai looks to her with another warm smile, merely holding out the pen for her and nodding. Twilight smiles wide and scoots closer to the table, before finding all the spots she needs to sign on the sheets, and signing ‘Twilight Rose’ with a smile.

“That’s it. Now I just need to send it to the courthouse, and it's done.” Tai says, taking all the forms and neatly placing them back in his suitcase. He looks to Twilight with another smile, seeing Ruby trying to hug the life out of her. 

Yang smiles and hugs Twilight as well, letting the faunus cry her happy tears into her shoulder. The trio of girls separates after a minute, the three of them wiping their eyes. Tai walks up and kneels to Twilight, before bringing her in for a hug himself. 

“Welcome home Twilight.”

“Thanks….dad.”
> Chapter 3: The Huntress and her Student
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Meanwhile in Anima’s wilds


A Huntress in a black hooded leather trench coat was tracking through the woods. She’d been hired to do reconnaissance on a pack of Grimm that had appeared recently. On her back, she carried a double-edged longsword while at her side was a large six-shot dust revolver. The two weapons were of her own design from when she was younger. They could be used in tandem or they could be combined into a six-shot longbow for long range sniping. She had just turned twenty-five last week and this would be her last job before she could move to Vale.

She’d been hired to track down a pack of Geists by the local’s of the areas neighboring towns. She didn’t like it as Geists aren’t supposed to be social Grimm. Apparently, they hadn’t even been seen in this area until a few months ago. Not long ago, a small and upcoming settlement known as Kuroyuri was attacked by a Nuckelavee. She’d sworn as soon as she could afford to she’d move out of Anima. Sure, jobs were plentiful but there was no way to keep a steady pay coming in. There just weren’t enough high paying jobs to where someone would have a steady enough income to not have to go out and hunt Grimm for the next few meals.

“For crying out loud. After this job is done, I‘m moving to Vale and I’m getting a desk job. Even if I end up at one of the local island schools. At least then I won’t have to hunt Grimm as often,” said the figure as she threw her hands up and then crossed her arms, pouting. “At least this negativity I’m spewing out should attract any nearby Grimm. Hopefully one of them is a Geist from that supposed pack. Then I could wound it enough to get it to lead me to the pack if it exists.”

She kept trekking through the woods for what seemed like hours. Not much goes on out here when you don’t have Grimm in front of you. People would hunt for only two reasons, Grimm or because they need food. You’d end up facing one or the other and usually both if you’re not expecting it. She’d only been a huntress for four or five years now and she was fed up with it. That’s why she took this job though. So she could get the last bit of the money she needed, but not have to do any major work other than simple recon.

Geists weren’t anything to handle as far as Grimm go if you could take them out with long-range weaponry. It was their ability to form bodies from practically anything made them extremely hard to deal with, even in simple recon operations such as this. ‘It usually took teams to take down just one of these things. If there really is a pack of them out here, then they could pose a real threat to any settlement or even the larger towns.’ She thought as she walked along.

*CRACK.*

“Seems I got hit with the lucky stick,” she whispers to herself as she ducks behind a tree. She readied her revolver with an electric shot. She peered out from her hiding spot to get a look at what had made the noise. As she did she sees a lone Beowolf. It was fairly young as it had hardly any of the bone armor that forms with age.

“Guess I didn’t get hit hard enough. Still, it looks like I’m heading in the right direction,” she says as she starts to see other young Beowolves. These were probably the most common type of Grimm out here. They were like cockroaches. Easy to deal with if you knew how to deal with them but extremely numerous as their packs usually consisted of up to ten or more members.

“You guess must be gathering from the fear being put out from the wake of that Geist pack I’ve been tracking,” she says stepping out from the tree where she’d been hiding. The nearest Beowolf noticed her movement and started to snarl and growl at her as she approached.

No telling how many of these guys are out here and she couldn’t just leave a whole pack of Beowolves to roam free. Especially, if there is a pack of Geists out here. She quickly loaded her revolver with more rounds. She hated close combat, but that doesn’t mean she can’t handle herself in a close quarters fight.

The Beowolf turned to completely face me still snarling the whole time. It decided it would charge at her. As it came at her she held out her gun as she put her free hand on her sword. Waiting for just the right moment and when it was about four feet in front of her, she fired a round at the Grimm. Her shot landed dead center in the Grimm’s head, she then drew her sword and cut it in half, right down the middle. The two pieces land on either side of her and then started to flutter into the wind as pieces of ash do from a campfire.

“At least I can relieve some of this boredom from this long walk I’ve been on for the past few hours,” said the figure as she started to sprint to the other Beowolfs. She held up her revolver and fired off a few more shots hitting the Grimm in the head, chest, and arms. She then proceeded to slice them apart with her sword wanting to preserve what ammo she had with her.


A few hours later…


The huntress had cleared the area of the Beowolves and was now taking a little break to fix herself something to eat. She never cooked anything out in the field as a simple campfire would attract any number of the area’s local bandit tribes. She was busy munching on an apple for the time being.

“There has to be something going on out here if all these Beowolves are headed the same direction. This had to be the fourth pack I’ve taken down since I started out a couple of days ago,” she says, standing up and throwing the apple core off to the side. The figure raised her hands up to stretch before she continued on her mission. As she did so, she saw smoke off in the distance rising into the sky.

“Great. Just what I needed, a village under siege. I really hope there are survivors and not bandits or more Grimm. The last thing I need right now is bandits or that pack of Geists,” the hooded huntress says as she makes a dash in the direction she’d seen the smoke coming from.

The huntress made it to where the smoke had been coming from around an hour after she’d first spotted it. The source was a small town with buildings that had all but burned down to little more than charcoal. There were bodies of the town’s patrons lying all around. Some were crushed, some burnt, and others just unrecognizable. 

“Gods. What in the world did this?” the huntress said as she walked through the remains of the buildings. ‘There was no way this was bandits. Not even they could do anything like this. It was without a doubt Grimm, but not one I’ve ever seen before. This much damage and all of these corpses. It looks as if some of them were just rammed with something.’ Thought the huntress as she knelt down to examined one of the more damaged bodies.

“HEY! IS ANYONE STILL ALIVE?! PLEASE, SOMEONE, ANSWER ME!” shouted the hooded woman. It looked as if the town had been completely silenced from the Grimm attack. That’s when she heard a faint cry for help from behind her a little ways away.

“Someone… help… me… PLEASE!” cried a young boy.

The Huntress quickly found the boy partially buried under a still smoldering building. He was clutching what seemed to be some sort of mask. A family heirloom no doubt. She quickly started throwing the remains of the charred building off of the youth. Finally able to get a better look at the boy she guessed his age to be around seven years old. The Huntress sighed in relief to find someone still alive here. The good news was that the boy was alive, barely, but alive.

“Who… are...you?” said the boy weakly as the huntress put carried him in her arms to one of the still intact buildings.

“Don’t worry kid. I’m a huntress with the Anima Huntsman Core. Let’s see if we can’t find someplace to set up camp where you can get some rest. While you’re resting I’m going to find some medicine and food for you. Then you can tell me what happened,” the huntress said as she placed the boy down on a bed in the building. She looked at the kid before her. He’d been severely wound on the right side of his face and on the right side of his body were multiple first and second-degree burns, maybe a few third degrees too. 

She turned to leave to go and look for some form of medical supplies if any survived the fire. That’s when the boy spoke again.

“Please… the... Geists… are… they… gone?” asked the boy with all the strength he could muster as he held onto the mask in his grasp for dear life.

‘So, there is a pack of Geists out here. I’ve got to get this kid on his feet and back to town as soon as I can. Then I have to get back to headquarters to get the Huntsman to take out the pack before another town is destroyed.’ thought the Huntress as she turned back to the boy.

She knelt down to the kid and spoke softly while laying him back down on the bed. “The Grimm are all gone. Now I’ve gotta find you some bandages so I can treat your wounds so they won’t get infected on our way back to Anima.” 

She laid the boy back down and went out to see if the town’s doctor’s office had survived or at least the local vet’s office. Either one would have the supplies she needs to treat the young boy’s wounds. The Huntress ended up going all over the town to find all the medical supplies she could get her hands on. There wasn’t a whole lot to collect as most of the buildings had already burned to the ground. With the supplies she managed to find in a satchel, the Huntress made her way back to the boy who was sitting up in the bed staring at the mask in his possession. The Huntress spoke as easily as she could.

“Is that something that belongs to your family?” she asked. “Yes, it’s been passed down in my family for years. It always went to the head of the family and now that’s me. Seeing as how I’m the only one left,” said the boy as tears started to fall from his eyes. “Ah, it burns,” whimpered the child as his tears hit his burns.

“Let’s treat your injuries. Then we can get some food in our bellies and some rest,” said the huntress as she took out a few bandages from the satchel. “I’m going to use my semblance to sterilize and cauterize those wounds of yours. You should know beforehand that even if I didn’t do this you’d still have serious scarring. This way it won’t get infected and you won’t have to deal with it getting worse.”

“If it keeps me alive so I can get my revenge on those monsters that destroyed my town, friends, and family then I don’t care,” the boy says with a scowl.

The huntress snapped her fingers and a small spark ignited from her glove that quickly spread green flames across the young boy's body. In a brief moment of pain, the child winced as the flames steadily covered his wounds like a blanket. Once the task was done the huntress started to bandage the boy’s wounds. Afterward, the two shared a meal as the huntress explained she been hired to do reconnaissance on Grimm of the area to determine if the rumors of Geist pack were true. 

Remembering what he’d asked her earlier, the boy looked to the fire in the fireplace and then to the Huntress. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything in his current state but he’d decided to as soon as he was better he was going to learn how to become a Huntsman. This way he could kill every last Grimm.

“Miss. I know we just met and we’re total strangers, but would you be willing to teach me how to be a Huntsman when I get out of the hospital?” asked the mummy of a boy. 

“Look kid. I’m taking you to the hospital and then I’m going to the Huntsman Association in Anima so I can report and confirm that there’s a pack of Geists out here and collect my pay. Then I’m going to have to stick around while we organize a small army of Huntsman and Huntress so we can take down said pack,” the still hooded Huntress explain to her new companion. 

“I don’t even know if I’ll be coming back from that mission and the gods know if I do, I won’t be sticking around Anima for very long afterward. I’ll finally have enough money to move to Vale and live off of to where I can look for a part-time job at one the local place to supplement my income while still being a Huntress part-time.”

“Please take me on as your student. I need the skills to hunt down the Grimm and I owe you for saving my life,”  the boy says jumping to the floor on to his knees as he bows his head. The huntress stays silent for a moment, before the boy changes, and she sees a younger version of herself where he is.

‘I can’t just abandon him like I was. I know what’s it’s like to be here alone and then you have the orphanages too. Odds are he’d end up in a good one if I took him to Anima and gave him a recommendation, but I don’t have very much pull either, being a low-level Huntsman Graduate. The people of this land take their debts very seriously too. He’s not going to let this go after what’s happened to him. I guess I can give him an ultimatum.’ the hooded Huntress thought as she looked to the young boy. ‘He’ll be discriminated against like I was, even though he’s human, thanks to the scars he’s going to have. I can’t let that happened.’

“Look, kid, I’m going to take you to the hospital in Mistal and then give my report. While I’m still in town I come by and see you and get to know you as a person. Then I’ll decide if I want to take you on as my student if I come back from helping out on the Geist hunt. We’re going to need all the Huntsmen and Huntresses from the city, academy, and the surrounding towns to take on a whole pack of those things. I doubt I’ll even make it back at all,” the huntress explained as she now looked into the fire.

“But you’re a huntress. You fight Grimm for a living and to keep people safe, right?” said the boy as he looked up to the hooded woman.

“Kid, I’m not going to sugar coat this. I’ve only been a Huntress for four or five years and I’m only one because I didn’t really have much of a choice growing up as an orphan after I ran away from my own teacher. Not long after I ran, I expected her to come after me, but she never did so I tried to live on my own but soon found that I couldn’t. Not unless I wanted to die in the wilds. So I went to Mistral, a ten-year-old girl who’d never had to fight to survive in a world were that meant everything to everyone just to get by on a regular basis.” she says while looking at the child that reminded her of herself.

“I ended up in an orphanage there and went to the local battle school and learned the basics of fighting, weapons, and Grimm. Eventually, I made it up Mistral’s Haven Academy and was placed on the usual team of four until we graduated. Those were some of the best years I had since I came here. Anyway, after we graduated we went our separate ways as most young adults do and I’ve been scraping by ever since. My point is, kid, I’m not a Huntress by choice but because I have to be. Meaning, I’m the last person that you should want as a teacher, let alone to be around,” sighed the huntress.

“I’ll accept your terms Ms. Huntress, and if by the time you come back from your mission and still don’t want to teach me than I won’t pursue the topic any further,” said the boy as he bowed his head again.

“What’s your name?” asked the hooded Huntress. “My name is Aeon Crim. Last of the House of Purpur.” answered the young boy.

The Huntress stood up and pulled down her hood allowing her golden and fire red striped hair fall down to her shoulder out from under the hood while also exposing a pair of amber furred pony ears and cyan eyes.

(She looks something like this)




“It’s nice to meet you Aeon, my name is Sunset Shimmer.” said the faunus Huntress to the boy in front of her. “And if I come back in a few weeks you best prepare yourself for quite a few grueling years of training.”

The boy could only cry tears of joy at this phrase.

“Thank you so much.”
> Chapter 4 Unlikely Heros
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Canterlot Castle


 5 minutes before Twilight leaves


A pegasus guard by the name of Bladed Wind was patrolling the halls of the castle, glancing down each hall he passed, looking for anyone who would be causing trouble. What most didn’t know, was this guard, wasn’t even a pony. 

Bladed Wind was, in fact, a changeling by the name of Thorax. He was one of only a dozen changelings posted in the castle. His orders were to keep an eye on the residents of the castle to make sure none of them get too nosy. Unfortunately, he and his teammates failed, as according to their queen, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle had become suspicious and even confronted her about being a fake. They were lucky the ponies were so gullible.

But Thorax was worried. Not for her queen or the planned invasion, but for the ponies and Twilight in particular. See Thorax was different from most changelings. He didn’t want to just steal love to survive, he wanted to earn love so he could live. He wanted to have friends and to learn everything the hive couldn’t teach. 

And he wasn’t the only one. Even though almost every other changeling would never try to question their queen and would simply follow the leader, Thorax had actually found another who shares his thoughts. 

She was a gatherer named Aphid, and she too wanted to know what it was really like to have real friends. She had taken the form of a unique pony for many years, and made many friends, but none knew what she really was. And she hated that. She wanted friends who knew the real her, not some disguise she has to put on.

And she had that. After some effort, she managed to separate herself from the hive mind, and with the help of Twilight Sparkle, came out to her now marefriend Bon Bon. Her form of Lyra Heartstrings was perfectly merged into her society, so after some true one-on-one conversations, she agreed to help Thorax with his own departure from the hive. 

He still couldn’t help but be worried, however. Even though Aphid had developed the Hive Mind Break spell, she had only used it once, and on herself. Then there was how Twilight was faring. Thorax had used the Hive Mind and saw the queens memories, and saw how broken and alone the mare had looked after being abandoned by her ‘friends’. It actually made Thorax mad that they just abandoned her like that.

Thorax shook his head and focused forward again, finding himself patrolling the guest wings of the castle. He didn’t find it all that odd, considering he was just randomly trotting around the halls, so it was a chance for him to arrive here. He was just about to pass the hall and go down another when he hears a door opening.

Turning around and hiding behind the corner, he sees Twilight Sparkle, her eyes red and puffy from crying, but she turned and looked down the other end of the hall. Following her gaze, Thorax sees….nothing. Yet, the mare clearly sees something, as she leaves her room and goes down the hall.

Thorax is about to follow, before remembering he is currently in the form of a pegasus guard. Not very inconspicuous. With a quick thought and a burst of green fire, the form of Bladed Wind changes to that of a small dragonfly that quickly and quietly follows Twilight from above.

Thorax was confused as he followed the mare. He would see her looking to the end of the hallways, seemingly, following something, yet there was nothing there. The guards the duo would pass were equally confused, but not curious enough to follow her.

Thorax began to get worried as he saw they had arrived at the Starswirl Magic Tower and then shocked when the locked doors to the basement vault were open, seemingly by themselves. Thorax was barely even able to get over his shock when he rushed through the closing door to the vault.

He was as silent as a breeze as they reached the bottom of the stairs and before the vault doors. When Twilight asked why she was lead down, however, Thorax was shocked when two balls of energy appeared and began to glow by one of the locks to the door, before they slowly swung open. 

“You were saying?” Thorax almost yelped when a dark, almost sinister voice sounded out of nowhere. Twilight entered the room on the ground while Thorax remained hidden on the roof, quickly and quietly changing into the form of a spider.

Thorax remained quiet as he hears a second, gentler voice explain what they have planned. He was shocked that he was hearing the voices of literal gods that were not Alicorns.

Thorax watched the young mare as she sat down on her haunches and thought about the offer these gods were giving her. A chance to leave this world and start anew? Thorax would take that chance immediately. But he became worried as he sensed the tempest of emotions coming off of the mare, she was clearly thinking very hard about this. 

Thorax lost track of time as he relaxed on the ceiling of the vault, just watching the storm of emotions within the mare when she seemed to come to a decision. She stopped crying and asked the gods her questions, but the results of the last one caught Thorax off guard.

He saw two spots in front of Twilight begin to glow brightly, causing the cave-dwelling insectoid to cover his eyes. Once the light died down, he was shocked when he saw the forms of two Alicorns in the room, hugging Twilight with their wings. He was shocked that Twilight was able to gain the gods respect with nothing but her purity. In a way, Thorax agreed with the duo.

Unfortunately, his admiration was cut short, when Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic itself, walked into the mirror and vanished.

“Oh buck.” He quickly jumps down from the roof and changes into his true form, a black, chitin covered pony with insect wings and green bug eyes, holes littering his limbs. He looks over the mirror with worry, noting the symbol on the top. He cautiously raises a hoof and presses it against the mirror, feeling as it sinks in, almost like the glass is made of water.

He pulls back and looks to the door, feeling around with his magic and seeing the seals around the room were overloaded with magic to the point of being useless. 

“This is bad. I have to warn Aphid!” With that thought in mind, Thorax changed again, into the form of a rainbow-haired pegasus with blue fur. Now in the form of Rainbow Dash, he zoomed out of the vault faster than most could track. It looked like he would need to start their plan early.

He quickly flew out of the castle and towards a cave on the side of the mountain, changing to his true form and flying through the cavern. He was lucky that his natural eyes have night vision, so he was able to zoom around the interlocking caverns of the mountain, looking for the area they set up for meeting up. 

After a couple minutes of flying through the tunnels, he arrives in the area he was supposed to meet up with the disguised changeling, a small underground pond. He landed on the edge of the pond, panting from worried filled adrenaline, and went over to take a quick drink. 

“Thorax?” The changeling yelps and nearly falls into the water as his name is called. He quickly turned around to regard the origin of the voice, a mint green unicorn mare with golden eyes and a platinum blond, almost silver mane. She was wearing a yellow bridesmaids dress, the outfit luckily not looking messed up from being foalnapped. 

“Aphid! I told you not to sneak up on me like that!” Responded the frightened insectoid. The mare rolls her eyes and she trots up to him.

“And I told you to call me Lyra whenever I am in my pony form. Anyways, what’s going on? We weren’t supposed to meet up until later.” 

“We have a situation. We need to get the princess and the bridesmaids out of here.” Thorax says with worry.

“What are you talking about? Sure things may seem bad, but I am sure Twilight and her friends can-”

“Twilights gone.”

Lyra stops her sentence and looks to Thorax with wide, worried eyes. “What?” She questions quietly. 

Rather than answer, Thorax lays his horn against the mares own. Even though she is no longer a part of the hive mind, Thorax is still able to use their connection as changelings to do things like transfer memories or information, it just requires direct contact. He focuses and transfers the info he gained from the queen's memories, as well as what he saw in the vault. 

Lyra looks to Thorax in silence for a moment, before lighting her horn, and carefully taking off her dress, laying it on a stone nearby, and letting herself be covered by her flames and changing to her original form. Unlike Thorax, her eyes were still gold and something unique to her, her wings were also golden and look almost crystalline.

She places her hooves together, inhaling calmly, before snapping her eyes open and screaming, sending out a magic beam and destroying a boulder in front of her.

“THEY DID BUCKING WHAT?!?!” Her voice echoes around the cavern, the stalactites and stalagmites shaking and Thorax covering his ears in pain.

‘Is this what the Royal Canterlot Voice sounds like?’ Thorax questions as the echo of Aphids voice die down, in both the cave and Thorax’s ears. He glances to the enraged changeling, seeing her magic begin to fizzle out, panting from the magic usage.

“Are you done?” Thorax asked in caution. Aphid snaps her head to look at her friend, her face one of anger.

“For now, but when I get my fangs on those five they will wish they never heard of me.” Aphid hisses out. She takes a deep breath before turning back into Lyra and placing her dress over her back.

“Alright, come on. I know where the others are located. Chrysalis placed them under mind control to act as guards for Cadence and anypony that tries to save her. I should be able to snap them out of it, then we can get the princess.” Lyra says, heading down one of the tunnels, Thorax close behind.

The two changelings trot down the tunnels in silence for a while, Lyra thinking about how she is going to help, and Thorax about where Twilight disappeared to. They continue to trot, lost in their thoughts, before Lyra stops and motions for Thorax to be quiet. The duo glance around a turn, seeing the other two bridesmaids, Minuette and Twinkleshine. They both were just looking around the area like sentinels, their eyes glowing green and lacking emotion. 

Lyra points to Minuette then to herself, saying she will release the mare. Thorax looks to her in confusion before Lyra lights up her horn and places it against Thorax’s. He feels like someone ripped out his soul for a second, and the white noise of the hive mind is silenced. Then a new spell formula is transferred to his mind, one he knew right away as the Hive Mind Break spell. It could also be used to release the mares from the mind control.

He blinks a couple times before nodding to Lyra and changing into a black and green centipede the size of a teenage colt. Lyra shivers a second before turning into a mint green snake. The duo nod to each other before they both slither/crawl towards the controlled mares. 

Minuette looks over just in time to see Thorax seconds before he crawls around her and restrains her hoofs. The mare tries to scream, but Thorax cuts her off by snapping his pincers on her horn, his fangs acting like his horn and casting the spell. 

Lyra did something similar by wrapping her body around the mare and then locking eyes with her, using a snake's natural hypnosis to keep her still. While Twinkleshine is hypnotized by Lyra, she uses her magic to make her horn appear and laying it against the mare's forehead. 

The two mares eyes begin to change from the sickly green, and back to their normal colors. Once they both are back to normal, they shake their heads and realize they have a snake and giant centipede around them.

“AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!” They scream together, Lyra and Thorax letting them go from pain at being screamed at point blank.

“Sssstop! That isss too loud!” Lyra yells, the two mares looking to the snake in shock.

“Y-you can talk?!” Minuette yells in shock.

“Of course she can talk, Why wouldn’t she be able to talk?” Thorax states with sarcasm. The two mares turn to the centipede in shock.

“Y-you’re a centipede and snake, those two creatures are not supposed to be able to talk!” Twinkle states. The duo looks to one another and sighs to themselves. 

“You never told anyone else, did you?” The centipede asks the snake.

“N-no. Ssshe was the only one who knows.” The snake states, confusing the two ponies before them. Thorax sighs again and looks to the mares.

“Listen, this is going to sound odd, but I need you two to promise you won’t freak out and attack us while we explain something.” He asks, confusing the duo.

“Better idea! Pinkie Promissse. Please.” The snake requests. Again the duo is confused, but nod nonetheless and go through the motions.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” 

The duo takes a breath and nod, before they are covered by green fire, and return to their original forms. The mares go wide-eyed as they see the creatures before them and begin to stutter. 

“Y-y-you a-a,” Twinkle can’t finish her sentence as Thorax places his hoof on her lips.

“My name is Thorax. And this is my friend Aphid. Though, you had already met her before this.” The mares raise brows and turn to the female changeling before Minuette sees her golden eyes and the dress on the ground nearby. Her eyes widen again and she takes a step back.

“L-Lyra?” Twinkle looks to her friend in shock, then to the changeling who is shyly nodding her head, before changing into her pony form.

“Y-yeah. It’s me.” She says sheepishly. The duo looks to the unicorn in shock, before looking to one another.

“You say you’re Lyra, but how do we tell for certain?” Twinkle questions with a suspicious glare. Lyra thinks for a moment, before thinking of something. A song, one she would sing to herself about a certain….fascination of hers.

(Insert the Anthropology song)

Lyra takes a breath and shapeshifters back to her regular pony form, smiling as she finished her song. She looks to the trio of quadrupeds, the mares looking to one another with a deadpan look and Thorax with a dropped jaw.

“Yup. You’re Lyra alright.” Minuette states, trotting up and hugging the mare. Lyra smiles and hugs back, nuzzling into her friend's neck, happy to feel the flow of friendships love still directed at her. 

“Thanks, Minuette, glad to know you still think of me as your friend.”

“Oh? And how can you tell I don’t reject you?” Minuette says coyly. Lyra rolls her eyes and changes her mint-green horn into her black one.

“Changeling. I can literally see your emotions.” She states, pointing to her horn. Minuette blushes a little at not knowing that. She looks to Thorax who was looking to her and her friends with surprise, shocked that those two didn’t try to ostracize the mare.

“So, does Bon Bon know?” Twinkle asks.

“Of course. She was the only one who knew aside from Thorax and now you two. I actually showed her my true form the same night I told her about my crush on her. I really owe Twilight for giving me the courage to come out to her.” Lyra suddenly frowns as she thinks about Twilight. That mare was hurting more than she would be if Bonny rejected her. 

“Ly? What’s wrong?” Minuette questions, noticing Thorax frowning as well. The duo explains what happened to Twilight, the two mares shocked and disgusted by the other Element bearers.

“Those traitors! When I get my hooves on them I’ll, I’ll!” Minuette cuts herself off with a growl, stomping over to the wall nearby and blasting it with her magic, only leaving a small scorch mark.

“Don’t worry, we can tear those five to shreds later. For now, we need to find the princess and get back to the castle before the wedding gets underway.” Lyra states, lighting up her horn to scan the tunnels and locate a large source of love. After a minute or two, she finds what she is looking for. 

“Found her. She is a ways down the tunnels, so everyone, stay close.” Lyra states, taking the lead of the four friends.

“Hey, Lyra? How are we going to convince her we’re not changelings? I mean, for you two that would be lying since you are changelings, but how do we make her trust us?” Twinkle questions after a while. The two changelings pause for a moment, trying to think of how they are going to convince the princess of love they are friends, not foes. After a minute, Thorax seems to come up with something. 

“Why not have Lyra take the form of Twilight and do their greeting dance?” He suggests, the mares looking confused.

“Greeting dance?” They question. 

“It’s something Twilight and Cadence used to do every time they say saw one another when they were younger. At least, according to Twilight when she arrived here. It was actually the first clue Twilight gained that the Cadence in the castle is a fake.” Thorax explained, quickly sharing the memories with Lyra. The mare sees them, then blushes brightly.

“No way no how! That is way too embarrassing! How can Twilight be ok with doing that as a grown mare?” 

“Well, we really don’t have much of a choice. Even if we can convince her we are her friends, she will want to know about Twilight and considering she is missing, it would be best for her to remain ignorant to that fact for the time being.” Thorax points out before turning ahead, sensing they are close. Lyra sigh and nods, turning around another tunnel and stopping before a wall. 

“This is it. She is behind this wall.” Lyra states before taking a breath and changing into the form of Twilight. She looks over how disguised coat for a second before turning to the others. Thorax nods and changes as well, into his form of Bladed Wind.

The duo focuses their magic, Thorax recreating his horn, and send a powerful blast of magic at the wall, shattering it to pieces. They all hear a loud, yet weak yelp as the dust begins to settle. The four ponies carefully walk into the new cavern, Lyra and Minuette lighting up their horns to provide light for the other two. 

The four of them look around for a moment before Thorax found the princess in question hiding behind a boulder. Her pink coat was spotted with dirt and grim, her three toned mane was frayed and a mess and her eyes were clenched shut in fear, tears streaming down the sides of her face.

“Girls! I found her!” He calls to the others, Cadence looking up in fear, only to turn to confusion as she sees a guard she’s never met before.

“Who?”

“Cadence!” The princesses eyes widen and she looks past the boulder just in time for the disguised Lyra to tackle her into a hug. 

“Twilight?!” The mare asks in shock as the smaller mare lets her go.

“Yes! Yes, it's me!” She says with a teary smile, bringing in for another hug. “I was so worried! I thought that you in the castle was acting odd, so I did some investigating and found out about her being a fake. I talked with Bladed Wind and we made our way down here.” 

“Wait, how do you even know about this place? I thought these old mines were considered myths?” Cadence questions.

“Before I joined the guard I used to fly around the mountain to relax. I found an entrance on the side of the mountain and made my way in, where I found the tunnels.” Wind answers calmly, helping to keep Cadence up right. She turns and nodded in thanks, before seeing Minuette and Twinkleshine coming over as well. 

“Are you two ok?” Cadence asks the mares in worry.

“Yes, your highness. Twilight and Bladed Wind found us earlier and Twilight managed to break the spell that was controlling us.” Twinkle responds, standing beside ‘Twilight’. Cadence looks between all of them with a critical eye, stepping back a bit.

“How do I know you four are actually my friends and not some changelings?” She questions with fear. They all look to one another before ‘Twilight’ walks up to her. She stares at Cadence in silence for a moment before crouching slightly. Cadence smiles at this and crouches as well.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” 

Cadence and ‘Twilight’ smile wide at their dance, though Aphid was groaning internally in embarrassment, of that foalish dance. The other three are struggling not to laugh at the duo. Cadence smiles and hugs ‘Twilight’ again.

“Yup, your Twily alright.” She states, and Aphid can’t help but feel guilty for tricking the princess. She actually pushed the stream of love from Cadence back, not wanting to absorb the love meant for Twilight that was directed at her. She began to feel a little funny at that, a being that needs love to survive, refusing it as it was meant for someone else. The duo separate and turn to the three others.

“Alright. If you two are done with your reunion, we have a wedding to crash.” Bladed Wind states, turning to go down the tunnel. The four mares follow the pegasus in silence, Cadence leaning on Aphid for support, the disguised changeling lost in thought. Thought about her friend, the one who gave her the strength to come out to her love.

‘Twilight. Wherever you are, please be ok.’
> Chapter 5: Battle and Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


One hour Later


Canterlot Castle Main Hall


Princess Celestia smiled wide as the room was now fully decorated and the friends and families of her niece and soon-to-be nephew took their seats. This was a historic day, one that would forever cement itself in the history books. 

Though, she couldn’t help the nagging feeling of dread in her mind, a feeling being felt in multitudes by the five mares beside her. At first, they felt nothing but anger, but then, sometime later, it almost felt like someone walked over their graves. 

And all of them had a bad feeling they knew what it was coming from. After their argument with Twilight, the remainder of the elements began to think about what happened and began to panic as they thought they may have just severed the connections of the elements. So they returned to the hall to talk to Twilight. When they didn’t find her there, they checked her room, finding nothing by used tissues and a messed up bed. When that didn’t work, they looked in the library, even asking the librarian if she’d seen Twilight, with no results.

Worry and fear began to grip the hearts of the elements and Spike, worry they hurt their friend beyond repair and fear of what she may do to herself. Unfortunately, they were forced to stop their search as the wedding was going to be getting underway soon.

So, with deep regret in their hearts, the five elements and Spike changed into their outfits and returned to the main hall for the wedding. The mares all forced smiles on their faces at the entrance of the crowd, while Spike almost hid behind the pillow holding two rings, his mind wandering to how Cadence has been acting all day.

‘I have seen Cadence stressed before when she foalsat me and Twilight. Most of the time she would just lock herself in a room to calm down, mostly with a bath. I have heard that wedding stress is the worst there is, but I feel like I am missing something.’ Spike tries to sort out his thoughts and figure out what he is missing, even as the music begins and the CMC walk in, spreading flowers on the carpet.

Celestia smiles and barely stops some proud tears from falling from her eyes as she sees her niece in her wedding dress walking up the aisle. The solar princess glanced at Shining Armor, seeing his excited and proud smile. Though, she barely stops a frown as she sees the empty spot where the mare of honor would be. 

After the remainder of the elements returned to the wedding hall, they had told their princess about their failure to find Twilight. Celestia was no longer mad at her student, now she was just worried. Perhaps she was too hard on her, after all, Twilight had plenty to be stressed about as well. Now, Celestia was beginning to draw parallels to Twilight and her sister a thousand years ago.

‘Oh Twilight. When the wedding is over, I am going to talk to you. I shouldn’t have just dismissed you the way I did.’ The solar Alicorn focuses her attention again and clears her throat as Cadence made it to the raised platform.

“Mares and Gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to join these two ponies in holy matrimony….” 

The rest of her speech was cut off as there was the growing sound of hoofsteps approaching the door. Celestia pauses for a second, thinking somepony is just running a little late. After a couple of seconds, there was a light knocking at the door. 

“What the heck?” Rainbow questions. Barely a second passes before the doors are all but blasted open, smoke covering the entrance. The gathered audience glared at the door, angered at whoever would dare interrupt this momentous occasion, only for it to turn to confusion as the perpetrators become visible. 

A familiar unicorn mare, her violet coat covered in dirt and her mane frayed. Her eyes were narrowed in anger as soon as she saw her so-called friends, causing them to flinch. Next to her was a grey pegasus guard, his black mane poking out of his helmet. He was also angry, though it was directed at the ‘bride’. 

“Twilight! What is the meaning of this?” Celestia demands. Twilight turns to her with an air of defiance, a glare directed at the solar diarch, the mare shocked at the look on her students face. In that instant, she began to get scared as that was a face she had seen before. The same face that was once on her sister and then her previous student.

“The meaning? I am just putting an end to this farce!” The mare declares, much to the dismay of the crowd and her friends.

“What is wrong with you?! Why are you so intent on ruining my big day?!” The bride cries out in sadness and outrage.

“Because it isn’t your day!”

The crowd is confused by a new voice before Twilight and the guard steps aside, revealing a dirty and tired looking Cadence standing behind them, her face stuck in a scowl at the imposter before her.

“It’s mine!” 

The crowd gathered in the hall looked back and forth between the two Cadences,  completely lost. The Cadence on the platform looks to the dirty one in shock.

“Impossible! How did you get past my bridesmaids?!” The clean Cadence demands.

“She didn’t. We brought her here.” Two other ponies walk up to stand next to the Alicorn, their dress still on, yet looking dirty. The duo looks to the shocked alicorn with glares.

“Ok what? How are there two of them?” Spike questions, putting the pillow down.

“She’s a changeling. They take the form of those you love and literally steal that energy from you.” The guard declares. The Alicorn on the platform remains shocked for a second, before beginning to laugh.

“Well then. It looks like I don’t need to hide anymore.” She says before being covered by green flames. Her dress, pink fur, and three-toned mane begin to burn away, leaving behind pitch black chitin and a thin, flat green mane. Her eyes change from a soft blue to a slitted green, and a pair of fangs become visible from the sides of her muzzle. 

“And to think, I was starting to believe that I could get away with this without any trouble. Looks like I underestimated you Ms.Sparkle.” The large changeling says. Unnoticed by all but her, the lavender mare flinches, seeming to disagree. The large insectoid raises a brow before smirking.

“Or, maybe I overestimated you. Now then, time to do what I should have done before.” Before any could react, Chrysalis teleports in front of the princess of love, her horn glowing to send a blast of magic.

“Cadence!” The pink mare is suddenly pushed aside, barely able to take a glance at the lavender unicorn before said mare was blasted into the wall, the crystal of the room cracking along with the sound of cracks emanating from the mare. There was stunned silence that followed, as everyone in the room tried to process what just happened. The were further stunned, when green flames appeared around the unicorn before climbing up, leaving behind black chitin and gold wings before she fell to the ground.

“APHID!” The pegasus guard and two mares rush past the equally stunned queen and to their friends' side, worry emanating from the three of them. After a minute or two, the mane five and Spike shook their heads and regained their senses.

“What the heck is even happening right now?!” Rainbow yells, snapping everyone out of their stunned trances, the guests running away in panic, except for Twilight’s parents, who are still in shocked confusion. Though, one mare went towards the downed changelings with tear in her eyes. 

“Lyly!” The three other ponies turn and see a certain earth pony with a blue and pink mane and a beige coat. Bon Bon slides to a stop next to the downed changeling in worry. She sees several large cracks over the changeling's chitin, green blood slowly oozing out of the wounds. 

“Bon Bon get away from that thing!” Rainbow yells to the mare, flying over even as Celestia and Chrysalis begin to fight.

“This thing is Lyra, you idiot!” The earth pony shouts to the pegasus, the rest of the elements stopping as they come over.

“Say what?” Aj asks in confusion.

“Lyra never really existed. She was a ponysona Aphid took on the fit into society. She cut herself off from the hive mind three years ago and just recently came out to Bon Bon.” The guard says, lifting the unconscious changelings head and letting it rest in the earth ponies lap, said mare crying and holding her marefriend’s head both carefully, and for dear life.

“And you know this how?” Rarity asks, glancing to the battle between the princess and queen. Rather than answer, the guard becomes covered in green flames and turns into his original form of Thorax.

“Because she did the same thing for me.” 

The five mares and drake backpedal as they see the second changeling, before glancing to Cadence, who is equally confused.

“Wait. If...she was in disguise then….where’s the real Twilight?” The princess asks, fear beginning to take hold of her heart. The changeling looks to her with an expression of sorrow and regret.

“She ran away.” 

Before any could question, they hear a loud shout of pain and turn just in time to see Celestia being blasted across the ground, her horn having several cracks in it after a lost beam struggle with the now maniacally laughing changeling queen.

“Incredible! Shining Armors love has made me even more powerful than Celestia!” The cackling queen declared. The mane five, Spike, Cadence, Thorax and Twilight’s parents ran to the downed Alicorn.

“Go….get the element….find Twilight.” The mare struggles to say.

“That won’t work. Twilight left hours ago, she could be anywhere.” Thorax states, much to the dismay of everypony nearby. The hurt Alicorn looks to the changeling with a glare, then soon changed into a look of regret when she sees his serious look. 

“HEADS UP!” Thorax barely manages to raise a shield with his magic, barely holding off a blast from the queen. The group all turned to look at the smirking queen.

“Ah, Thorax. I was wondering where you went. To think you could cut yourself off from the hive mind so easily, I should have been paying more attention to something like you.” The queen says as there is the sound of shattering glass as the barrier outside breaks.

“Your Highness, don’t you realize what you're doing?! By attacking Canterlot so openly, you have made our kind public enemy number one should the invasion fail! You’ve sent every changeling that follows you to the gallows! Stop this before it is too late!” He pleads. Bon Bon and her friends look to Thorax with fear as they realize that Lyra has been put in danger as well, now that her true form has been revealed.

“HA! You think I will fail? Please! I have already won! The Elements of Harmony are useless now that that pathetic mare is out of the picture. To think, all it took was some admittedly poor acting and a few crocodile tears and the Elements would break themselves apart!” 

The mane five looked down in shame and fear as they realized they just helped in an invasion of their home, and just lost a dear friend in the process. They didn’t have long to mourn though when they hear a different voice beginning to laugh.

“You know….when Thorax showed me what you did….I was kinda hoping he was exaggerating.” All eyes turn to the now conscious Aphid as she tries to stand, despite her marefriend and her own body’s protests. 

“But it looks like he wasn’t. Hehe, you know, in a way, I owe Twilight my life. If she didn’t give me the courage to reveal myself to Bonny, I would have probably left, then starved, out of guilt of taking her love.” The changeling glares at her former queen, causing the royal to flinch at her intensity. Suddenly the crack in Aphid’s chitin begin to close and her wounds begin to disappear. 

“I love Twilight like she was a sister because of what she did, so I am going to find her, and bring her back. But first, I am going to make sure you don’t ruin our chance to find her in the first place!”  

The queen is stunned by what she is seeing. This lone gatherer is using her own energy, her own love for her friends, to heal her body and give her strength. She then saw three other streams of love directed at her coming from Bon Bon, Twinkleshine and Minuette, giving her even more power.

The mane five and Spike are stunned by the determination of the changeling before them. They all look to one another and nod, running out of the hall to get the elements. Even if Twilight isn’t around, each element by themselves could be used.

Thorax and Cadence are also shocked at all the love that is being directed at Aphid, the alicorn easily able to see the flow with her magic. She wipes her eyes from the tears after hearing about Twilight and gains a determined expression. Getting to her hooves, she looks to her two new changeling friends.

“You changeling can convert love into pure magic power, right?” She asks Thorax, the male changeling nodding. She nods as well before looking to Shining. Before Chrysalis can react, the alicorn runs up to her fiancé and uses her magic, breaking the control placed on him. 

“Huh..wha….is the wedding over?” He mumbles before hearing screams from outside the hall. Glancing to the window, he sees as a multitude of changeling either cover themselves in green flames and dive bomb areas or round ponies up together and cover them in their resin to keep them in place. 

“What the Tartarus?!” He yells, before noticing the large changeling queen fending off a multitude of magic blasts from another, smaller changeling.

“Your spell Shining! Use your shield spell!” His fiancé says urgently. The stallion nods and tries to focus his magic, but it isn’t long before the spell falls apart, his magic drained to being nearly empty.

“It’s no good, I’m out of magic power.”

That statement felt like a nail of dread being plunged into the young Alicorns heart. She could’ve used her own magic and love to give him strength, but she was equally drained from using her magic to keep herself alive for the month she was trapped under the mountain.

There was another blast and the couple turns just in time to see both Thorax and Aphid skidding along the ground until they are next to the royal couple. The duo looks tired from the fight, but they have determined glares on their muzzles.

“I must say I am impressed. You two are actually lasting longer than Celestia. Not bad.” The queen says with a menacing smirk. She barely looked effected, just an odd, near invisible burn on her chitin and a slight increase in her breath. 

“I don’t care how long it takes, we will stop you, and I will find Twilight!” Aphid yells in determination, some tears appearing in her eyes. Thorax nods as well before turning to the royal couple. Suddenly, an idea pops into his head.

“Aphid! I have an idea!” The changeling says before laying his horn on his friends. The female looks to her friend in shock, before nodding. The duo takes a deep breath, and an odd glow begins to emanate from their chests. Before any could react, the duo turns and send beams of love magic at the two engaged ponies. They can’t react in time and the beams hit them, but instead of feeling hurt, they feel stronger. 

“WHAT!?!” The queen yells in shock. She can’t believe what she is seeing. The two changelings before her are changing all the love they have absorbed into magic power, and transferring it to the ponies behind them. 

The two ponies in question feel as the magic is being directed into them, making them stronger and refilling their magic. They begin to worry when they remember that changelings feed off love, so they are giving the duo the very thing they need to live. 

Once the light from the magic transfer dies down, the ponies and changeling look to where the two other changelings were, only to find what looks like two pinkish-white cocoons. There is a confused silence before the two cocoons begin to shake and glow. 

After a couple seconds, and another bright flash, the gathered creatures look to where Thorax and Aphid were, only to find two creatures they have never seen before. They looked like a cross between a reindeer and a changeling, minus the holes in their limbs. 

The larger one, easily a few inches taller than the changeling queen, a duo of green chitin covering his body, three white gem like protrusion on his chest and a pair of large orange antlers atop his head. A pair of purple insect wings covered on his back as he stood tall, his bug-like purple eyes locked on the queen before him. 

Next to him was another of his kind, a mare by the looks of it. She was as tall as Princess Luna, her chitin a calming mint green, with a large curved horn like some unicorns. On her back were a pair of golden wings similar to that of a dragonfly, her own golden eyes glaring at the queen with incredible intensity.

The other creatures all look in shock at the duo before them, barely noting as six changeling drones fly in with the captured mane five and Spike until the mare blinks a couple times and rubs her head.

“Urg, note to self, never listen to Thorax about a crazy plan without a bottle of aspirin nearby.” She mutters, everyone stunned by the voice.

“L-Lyly?” Bon Bon asks cautiously. The mare looks to the earth pony with a raised brow.

“Yeah? Is something wrong Bonny?” The creature known as Aphid asks. Rather than answer, Bon Bon just gestures to the changelings’ body with a dropped jaw. Confused, Aphid looks at her hoof, only to freeze as she realizes her chitin is mint green and not black. She was sure she didn’t shapeshift after sending her energy to the royal couple but….wait.

Aphid suddenly feels her stomach as her eyes widen, Thorax snapping out of his glaring trance and looking over his own new body. 

“Guys.” Everyone looks to Aphid as a small smile begins to split her face. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Impossible! A changelings hunger is insatiable! How dare you say such obvious lies?!” Chrysalis demands. All eyes quickly turn to AppleJack, even those of the other changelings. She just raised a brow from her position stuck on the floor.

“She’s tellin the truth.” She says, trying and failing to shrug. The other changelings in the room begins to back away from the transformed duo as Aphid gains an evil smirk. Chrysalis grit her teeth in anger.

“How dare you try to oppose me!” The large changeling launches a powerful beam of magic at the duo, Aphid, and Thorax lighting their horns and sending their own beams to stop it. At they do just that, much to the shock of the changelings and ponies.

“Hey princess! Anytime now!” Aphid yells, glancing at Cadence and Shining. The two ponies shake their heads and look to one another, nodding. They lay their horns against one another, their magic flowing around them as Shining begins to cast the spell.

“NO! Stop them!” The enraged queen orders her drone. Five of the six changeling rush towards the royal couple, only for a magic shield to be raised around them. The changeling look toward the two ponies that have been just off to the side for the past while, Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle’s parents; Twilight Velvet and Night Light.

“I won’t let you insects harm my son and future daughter-in-law!” The mare shouts, blasting a couple of the changeling away from her son while her husband uses his magic to release the captured elements. The only changeling that didn’t immediately try to attack the soon-to-be-married couple just hissed and flew out the window, seeming to know they were beaten. 

Despite putting more magic into the beam than before, the queen couldn’t overpower Thorax and Aphid, no matter how hard she tried. Suddenly, they all feel a surge of magic behind them, the three insectoids looking to see the royal couple rising into the air as magic covers them, a pink bubble beginning to form. The magic spell then burst forward, sending every invading changeling away. If one was to listen closely, they would hear the queen scream as she was being sent away.

“NNNOOOOOO!!!!!”

“I told you this was a dumb idea, your highness!”

“Shut up Kevin!”

Once the magic began to die down, the ponies in the throne room looked to the married couple as they begin to hover back to the ground, Cadence’s coat and mane now cleaned and placed back into their proper position.

There was almost an awkward couple seconds of silence before a certain transformed changeling yelled out.

“WOOOHOOO!!” All creatures present begin to cheer after Aphids less than graceful shout, everyone happy to have been able to win.

“Aw yeah! We are awesome!” Rainbow cheers, flying around the room. The other members of the Elements cheer as well, Pinkie, in particular, bouncing around the room like a pink ball. Though, there was three that were not celebrating like the rest of the ponies.

The Elements calm down and go over Princess Celestia, helping the Alicorn to her hooves. 

“Thank you, girls, but I am fine.” The princess says, cringing and rubbing her head below her horn.

“You are. But Twilight isn’t.” All eyes turn to Thorax, Night Light and Velvet, the ponies flanking the changeling. The trio looking to the princess and elements with disappointment. The happiness in the room is drained away as they remember their missing friend. Cadence walks down from the raised stage and to her new friend.

“Thorax, you said she ran away. Do you know where she went?” The former foalsitter asks with worry, the parents looking to the large changeling with pleading eyes. The changeling sighs and nods.

“Sorta. I followed her after the falling out between her and her former friends. She left her room and seemed to be following something only she could see. It led her to the Starswirl Tower, and they unlocked the vault. She came across some kind of mirror portal-”

The rest of Thorax’s sentence was cut off as Princess Celestia flies out of the room at such a speed that even Rainbow could barely follow her. Everyone looks to one another in worry before the large group rushes after the solar princess.

Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria and controller of the sun, was terrified. Just as she thought earlier, the past was repeating itself.

‘No, not again. I can’t lose another one.’ She repeats in her mind a few times as she bolts towards the tower vault. Arriving at the entrance, she goes to use her magic to unlock the doors, only to find almost all of her enchantments overloaded and gone. Fear gripped her heart like a vice as she rushed down the stairs to the vault, finding the doors wide open.

“No.” Quickly rushing into the room, Celestia uses her magic again and finds an inventory spell still active, shown not a single item has been taken or otherwise vanished. Once she is sure everything is still there, she takes a shaky breath and walks near the back of the room, where a certain mirror stood on a pedestal.

Looking over the mirror, she shudders as she sees the symbol on the top has once again changed from that of the Element of Magic star to that of a duo of axes crossing over themselves. Just like all those years ago. 

The fear in her heart had become almost suffocating as she slowly walked up to the mirror, hoping, praying against everything she heard and seen, that she could save her student. That she hadn’t again failed as she had so many years ago.

Her prayers and hopes were dashed, however, when she laid her hoof against the hard reflective surface of the glass mirror. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she tries to light her magic, and force the portal to open. Nothing happened.

“No. No no no no. Not again.” The princess tries harder to force the portal open, even as her horn begins to burn and tears freely fall from her face. But nothing happened. 

The mare opened her eyes and gazed at her reflection on the mirror, the burned area around her horn, the bloodshot red eyes from her tears, her once-flowing mane falling as through the constant wind had finally stopped. She was a mess. It was the same way she looked when Sunset Shimmer left as well. The same way she looked when she had to seal her sister on the moon.

Celestia had failed yet again.
> Chapter 6: Returning Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Two weeks after the Departing on the Geist Hunt


It had been a long and hard battle with the Geist pack. The group that Sunset had left with had numbered around a hundred Huntsman and Huntress, tops. The group she returned with numbered around half that. The Geist pack number in the twenties, with some of the larger Geists being as tall as a Nuckelavee when they weren’t possessing stones or trees. The Alpha had to easily be two feet taller than those and then in its possessed from it was easily as tall as a four-story building. 

As soon as she got off the transport in Mistral Sunset’s mind was on one thing, Aeon. She had promised the boy she’d rescued that she would be his train if she made it back to the city and she had. He was the only reason that had kept her fighting in the Geist Hunt. She didn’t know why but something was telling her that she needed to live and make it back to him. Aeon had no one left in this world and she wanted to fix that. Whether it was out of compassion, the promise she made to him, or because she didn’t want him to end up in a similar situation that she been through. Sunset just knew that he needed her, but she had yet to realize how much she needs him as well.

Sunset headed straight to the hospital to find which foster home that Aeon had been placed in. Aura made healing wounds like his fairly quick. So his stay in the hospital outlasted her own stay in the city by about a day. Sunset had only four days before she had to set out on the hunt making Aeon hospital stay a total of five. In the time he was there Sunset had been true to her word and visited him every single day. She even stayed the whole time the visiting hour would permit her too. She even stayed overnight the first night she’d brought him to Mistral’s Shining Hope Hospital. 

Sunset walked up to the nurse at the front desk her leather trench flowing behind her. She waited for the nurse to finish her call before she asked about Aeon.

“Ms. Shimmer it’s been a while. If you’re here to see young Aeon, I’m sorry to say that he was discharged the day after you departed for your last mission,” said the nurse. 

“Actually, Nurse Lavender the Doctor told me that’s what was going to happen before I left. I came by hoping you could tell me where I could go to see him. I made a promise to him before I left and seeing as I survived my encounter I intended to keep my promise,” Sunset says as she leans on to the desk with pleading eyes.

“I take it you’re referring to the Geist Hunt. Terribly sorry about to hear we lost so many. Now let’s see where Mr. Crim was sent after his discharge,” Nurse Lavender says as she types on her screen. “Ah, here we are. He was sent to, Tusk’s Home for Children. I do hope he’s faring well. The poor boy was incredibly upset and scared when you left. That home is well known for supporting orphans that have lost their families to the Grimm. Though, it’s more well known for taking in faunus than humans.”

“That’s because I recommended he go there. That was the orphanage that raised me when I was a fill/ child. With Aeon’s body being severely scarred like it was, I thought it would be best for him to be somewhere more accepting of appearances. Besides, Mr. Tusk was my teacher and surrogate father while I went to school here in Mistral, so I knew Aeon would be in good hands even if I didn’t come back,” said Sunset as she pulled her hood up. “Thank you for your help, Nurse Lavender.”

“Anytime dear and do tell Mr. Crim hello for me,” said the nurse as she returned to her other duties.

“Good thing Papa Tusk took Aeon in. I was really worried that he’d end up somewhere…” Sunset whispered to herself as she left the hospital. “Stopping that train of thought right now. I know. I’ll stop by the market and pick up some ingredients for some stew for the kids at Papa Tusk’s. It has been a while since my last visit. I only spoke to him via scroll to see if he would look after Aeon’s name on the lists when it came out.”

Sunset continued to talk to herself as she walked down the street to Mistral’s outdoor vendor’s market. She spent the next few hours going through the market and get the ingredients for her vegetable and beef stew. While she mainly stuck to a diet of fruits and vegetables she had also learned to cook meat dishes while at the orphanage. It was so everyone would have some from food that they could have. After she the ingredients Sunset headed over to her apartment to drop off her weapons and take a much-needed shower. ‘Home sweet home’ she thought as she walked through the door.

Sunset walked into her apartment and looked around. It was a simple one bedroom apartment. She could have afforded a bigger one if she’d really wanted to, but there was no point as she lived by herself. She never had anyone over other than one or two of her old teammates from time to time. She had all the amenities she needs to get through daily life when she wasn’t on missions. A table, a couch that unfolds into a one person sleeper for guest and a wall mounted display screen for local news and the like. Her bedroom setup was a single twin bed in the middle of the room with a bookshelf next to with a few books and stories that Sunset would read and read to the children at the orphan when she visits in her spare time. Sunset also had a makeshift workbench setup for doing maintenance on her weapons. She also had a full bath and kitchen for herself complete with chairs and a table, which is where she put her groceries, keys, scroll, and here weapons for the time being. 

Now that she had set her extras down Sunset was off to the bathroom to take a long hot shower to take some of the stress away. Sunsets thoughts quickly turned to Aeon and her situation with him. Sunset was still planning on going to Vale after all. In fact. when she checked her messages earlier one of the more well-known school had called her. It would seem fate had dealy her a great opportunity. One of the teachers at Signal Academy had recently accepted a position at Beacon and Signal was looking to for someone to fill his spot in the upcoming weeks. The pay was more than enough for two people to live off of while still not having to take missions as often as she did here. 

‘I’m going to have to become Aeon’s legal guardian in order to get him to stay with me let alone move to Vale’ Sunset thought as she walked out of the bathroom drying her hair. ‘I’m going have to stay here a little while longer than I had originally planned in order to get all off the necessary paperwork signed and sent into the agency.’

“Enough of that for now,” Sunset said as she got dressed.

She put on a long sleeved dark purple top with a gold and red sun that resembles a yin and yang symbol on it. Her pants were made of a black denim material while she wore a pair of black boots with a light purple flame pattern on the front then gradually fades into a bright golden orange. She wore a pair of red dust infused dust that allowed her to utilize her semblance, Fire Weaving if needed. Once Sunset was fully dressed she put her leather trench coat back on and quickly followed by equipping her sword to her back and her revolver to her side. Once all of the usuals were in place Sunset put her scroll in her pocket and picked up the ingredients for the stew and quickly headed to the orphanage while locking the door behind her.


Tusk’s Home for Children


	There was a young boy covered in bandages across the right side of his body and face that had been staring at a Scottish claymore that was hanging on the wall in the office of the head of the orphanage he’d been staying at. He had singed white forward spike and oxblood colored eyes. He was wearing a grey short sleeve shirt with a red snowflake design on it with black cargo shorts and black open-toed ninja sandals. It was Aeon Crim.

It was his turn to mop the upstairs of the home. The weapon had caught his attention when he moved into the office while he was doing the chore. He couldn’t help but feel a familiar vibe coming from the weapon hanging on the wall before him. Aeon then noticed there was a smaller sword hanging next to the claymore. The smaller of the two blades had what appeared to be a serrated blade on one side and a straight edge on the other.

“Hey, there lad. So this is what been holdin ya up,” said a thick-accented male voice from behind the be causing Aeon to quickly turn.

“I’m sorry for taking so long to finishing mopping Mr.Tusk. I sword these weapons here while I was mopping your office and couldn’t help myself,” Aeon says as he looked to the head of the orphanage, Oleander Tusk.

Oleander Tusk is an older boar faunus and a former soldier of the Mistral army. His facial features consisted of forest green eyes and a bluish-white buzz cut that connected to thick chops around his face. The most notable of these would be the large tusks the protruded from his bottom jaw. Tusk’s outfits usually were made up of a white long sleeve button down shirt with black suspenders that held up a pair of khaki pants and a pair of black marching boots.

Oleander was a kind-hearted man that grew up on the outskirts of Anima’s wild’s. He was always to busy with the military and thus never married. He saw the orphaned children that had lost their parents during the Grimm attacks during his time of duty and want often wished to do what he could for them. Using his savings and petition he started the orphanage for those children who had nowhere else to go. Tusk would raise many of the orphans to as his own, which is how he got to be called Papa Tusk by many of them. He was also known to train many of the children in his home to become to go on and become accomplished Huntsmen and Huntresses.

“It quite alright lad. I thought these two might have caught your eye when you didn't come down after fifteen minutes,” said Tusk with a chuckle. “What are there names? And what can they do?” asked Aeon as he turned back to the blades.

“I call the claymore ‘Offence’ and the sword breaker “Defence’. As for what they do, lad, they helped keep me alive in the military and the helped me train a lot of the little one that came here before you. Before you ask they’re simple dust blades. Other than being able to connect at the pommels they have no other special properties,” laughed Tusk as he muffled Aeon’s hair a bit.
“Does that mean you’re Ms.Shimmer’s teacher?” asked the curious youth.

“I like to think she does. Sunset Shimmer. She was a different child. Always wanting to learn but always wanting to be left by the other kids. If she thought they had nothing to new to teach her then she’d interact with them. Once she got into Haven Academy she opened up a lot more, thank the gods. She still more or less a social outcast these days but that's more or less thanks to being a Huntress and coming by here to check on me and the young ones here,” Tusk smiled as he looked to a picture of a laughing Sunset, her teammates, and the kids she grew up with on their graduation day.

“Now finish up the mopping and then you can go play outside with the others while some of the older kids help me fix supper for you lot,” Tusk says as he walks out of the room.

Aeon looked back to the pair of weapons hanging on the wall and smiled softly. I knew why the claymore looked familiar. It was because his teacher had modeled one of her own after it. He went about his work all while smiling as he did it. ‘When she comes back then I can start learning how to be a true Huntsman.’ Aeon thought as he went about finishing his work and then went to play with some of the other children. 

Most of the children in the orphanage were faunus like Sunset had said they would be but there were quite a few humans as well. It didn’t matter what race you were to them. Everyone got along fairly well with each other. It was only the ones that liked to cause trouble you had to watch out for and even then it was mainly the pranks and prank wars that were the bain of Papa Tusk’s existence. This part of his time in the home was one that Aeon enjoyed immensely. Somehow it helped him cope with the loss of his town, if not just a little bit at a time. Tusk really didn’t mind the pranks as long as the children kept it on themselves and not him and outside the house.


A few hours later…


	Sunset Shimmer was standing outside the front gate that leads to the home where she had spent her youth after she arrived in the world. It wasn’t a fancy orphanage but it was well kept as every that lived here helped maintain it while they lived here. The orphans were assigned various chores that would rotate every week so that no one would have the same job and help teach them various skills for later on in life. This was also to help them interact with one another this way if one person didn’t know what to they could simply ask another.

Sunset’s favorite time for chores was when she was on any form of kitchen duty. Even when she was simply helping with the dishes after a meal. She didn’t really understand why she enjoyed working in the kitchen so much but it was the only other place she felt truly at one with her surrounds other than when she was training. 

Sunset opened the gate and walked down the pathway to the medium size two-story home’s door and proceeded to knock. She heard the shuffle of feet from behind the door while someone called out.

“Someone go see who’s at the door, please. If it’s someone to see me show them to the kitchen please,” said a rough Scottish accent that Sunset knew well.

‘Looks like I got here just in time’ thought Sunset as the shuffling grows louder as she heard a young girl’s voice. “I got it, Papa Tusk.”

The door opened to reveal a twelve-year-old human girl in a green T-shirt and blue jean with short blonde hair and aquamarine eyes and began to speak. This was Liliana Pendragon or Lily to those who knew her best.

“Hello. What can do for yo- Big sister Sunset!” shouted the girl as she jumped to Sunset’s side as she flung the door open.

“Hey there Lily, how have you been? Sorry, I would have called but I wanted to surprise all of and I just got back today,” Sunset said as she walked with Lily to the kitchen “How’s Aeon adjusting?”

“I’ve been great, big sis. I’ve been passing all my classes in school and Aeon’s been settling in great. He had a bit of trouble the first couple of days because he thought the others would make fun of those bandages he wears to hide his scars. He was still really friendly with everyone and after a few of us told him our stories he opened up. I still feel really bad though. We’ve all lost a lot here but we’ve at least have family or friends out there, but Aeon has no one left,” says Lily as she looked to the floor.

“That’s not true, Lily,” Sunset says as they enter the kitchen. “Aeon has me. I’m going to adopt him and he’s going to come and live with me while I teach how to be a Huntsman.”

“So like what you do when you come and visit us here,” Lily says tilting her head.

“Not exactly the same thing Lass,” said Tusk as he walked over to Sunset and gave her a bear hug. “Sunset is going to be more like Aeon’s new mom slash mentor rather than a big sister like she is with you lot. Good to have ya home lassy. How was the hunt for chaos causing Giests?”

“We managed to take them down but we last around have of the group we started out with,” Sunset says setting down the bag she’d brought. “Enough of this depressing stuff. I bought ingredients for beef stew. Want to help me make it Lily? We can give Papa a break to go have some of that sludge he calls coffee and catches up on his reading.”

“YEA! I’ll go get my apron from my room real quick,” exclaimed Lily as she ran out of the kitchen.

“Hey now, no running in the house. Sunset these kids really do think of you as their big sister,” said Tusk with a sad sigh. “I know and believe me, that’s what I’m going to miss the most when I move to Vale,” said Sunset wit ha frown as she paused from unpacking her ingredients to recompose herself.

“Then why are you moving. You should stay here and get a job as a school teacher and take over the orphanage from me when I can’t run it anymore. I don’t see why you’re so set on moving when you have those here that look to you for guidance.” huffed the boar faunus.

“Originally, it was selfishness Papa. I just wanted to stop from having to hunt the Grimm to get by every 6 or seven days. Now, its because I think it would be best for Aeon. I’ll be able to provide a much better lifestyle and be there for him when he needs me instead of hunting all the time. I also think it would help if he wasn’t so close to the Grimm. They aren’t as plentiful in Vale as they are here in Anima,” Sunset said as she put her weapons in the closest in the hallway and tied up her hair.

“So you already have a plan in motion, ay lass. That does give the old heart ah mine some ease. So what is your plan for your future with the lad?” asked Tusk looking at the younger kids playing in the yard, with Aeon among them.

“I know you’ve heard of the island of Patch’s Signal Academy. Well, their teacher history and combat instructor Bartholomew Oobleck recently took a job at Beacon and they were looking for someone to take his old spot as soon as possible,” said Sunset as she started to prep here ingredients for the pot.

“Ah, ya always did have a preference for books and combat more than most lass. How long is it gonna take ya to get everything packed up at that apartment of yours? Can’t be very long as you were never one to have very many possessions. Except for your books and weapons of course,” laughed Tusk as Sunset’s face flushed a bit from embarrassment know it was all true.

Sunset put a large pot of water on the stove a let the fire and turned to Tusk while she turned her head down as her gaze stayed on the older faunus she considered her father. She then took in a deep breath and let it out in a long exhale. Sunset then looked Tusk straight in the eye and he then knew what she was about to say was completely serious.

“Tusk do you think you have enough pull in the adoption system to help push Aeon’s papers through in a few days?” asked Sunset as she looked her father dead in the eye.

“Thought ya might ask me for something along those lines lass,” Tusk said getting up and fixing his evening cup of coffee. “Look, Sunset, I will do what I can but it will still take a few days since your going about this the long way. I don’t see why you don’t just get the papers from city hall and do it outright.”

Lily came back into the room in her pink apron as Sunset pulled a knife from the knife block and started to peel the potatoes. “Here Lily, you can start on the carrots. Just toss them in the pot as you go. I’ll get to the meat in a minute. And thank you, Papa. Now, you go up to your office and pull out one of those old books. We’ll call you when supper is ready.”

“Okay,” said Tusk as both Lily and Sunset shewed him out of the kitchen. “Both of you lasses are worse than a Goliath on a rampage when it comes to a kitchen.”

Lily and Sunset spent the next couple of hours cutting vegetables and throw them in the pot along with seasoning and browning the meat. Sunset was a lot closer to Lily then the others as Sunset was there when Lily arrived as a baby. It wasn’t that no one wanted to adopt her it and it wasn’t that she didn’t get along with most of those who tried to. Lily was raised in the orphan and it was what she considered her home so much so that she would often run away from her foster families. She did try and stay with them but she just found it too hard to stay away from the orphanage. In the end, Tusk had her name taken off the adoption list. That’s why Sunset wanted to cook alone with Lily though. She wanted to tell Lily what was going to happen after she adopted Aeon. As she Lily started to cry and ask why she said she/ be a better sister if Sunset stayed. That she wouldn’t run away from her next family the tried to adopt her. Sunset then told her that had nothing to do with her and that she needed to be the new big sister of the orphans that were here and were to come.

It was true the Sunset didn’t want to truly leave but she also knew if she didn’t she would never grow as a person and neither would Lily or Aeon for that matter. When Sunset had finished calming Lily down the stew had finished. The set the table for the other, Tusk and themselves. Lily went and told the little ones that it was time to wash up for supper while Sunset went upstairs to fetch Tusk from his office. She found the older Huntsman doing maintenance on his weapons. Sunset told Tusk that supper was ready and everyone was gathering in the dining room, Tusk then put his weapons back on the wall and followed Sunset down the stairs.


Dinner Table


Everyone came inside and washed their hands and immediately came to the table. Lily, who looked as if she’d been crying, had said they were going to beef stew and a surprise for supper. Of course, everyone knew something big was going to go down if there was a surprise involved. It usually meant that someone was going to be adopted but it could mean a few other things to. Everyone just knew that something in their daily lives was fixing to change again. With everyone now gathered at the table, they were all looking around curious as there was still an empty seat and Papa Tusk and Lily were both sitting at their spots at the table, but most importantly they were wondering where the stew was. Before anyone could ask a woman with hair that looked as if it were made of flames came through the kitchen door carrying a large pot as she then set on the table.

“Sunset’s home!” yelled everyone but Tusk, Lily, and Aeon, who couldn’t help but start to cry at the sight of his teacher.

“Hello everyone, I wanted to come by and make stew for everyone once I got back. And I needed to come by and check on my student,” Sunset says with a smile as she looked to Aeon who was drying his eyes. “Guys, I have so big news and I need to tell all of you but first you have to promise you won’t get mad, sad, or start to crying. But first, let’s all have some stew”

“We promise,” the children said in a unified but hesitant tone.

The surrogate family sat and ate their supper together. Everyone was quiet except for Sunset and Tusk. Every now and then Sunset would be asked for the details about one of her missions by one of the younger children and she would answer with a short tail of its happening. Aeon would pay attention to this part of supper in great detail. He would often start to ask a specific question about the fighting parts. This lead to time passing rather quickly for the family. The next thing they knew they’d already emptied the stew pot. Sunset stood up and started to give her family the news.

Once Sunset had finished giving here news to her family she took in a long breath and then exhaled as she now looked to the faces before her that were doing there best to hold back tears. She knew they were too young to understand why she was doing this. The only reason they knew that was good enough for them was that it was for Aeon. He was going to be a family with Sunset and that was good enough for them. They were going to miss her and Aeon all the more though. 

Once everyone had finished asking their own questions Tusk had them help clean the dining room. Then, he had them start to get ready for bed as they all had school in the morning, except for, Aeon as he’d never been registered for it and there was no point now that Sunset was back. Sunset pulled Aeon of to the side so she could explain in more detail what her plan was.

“Listen, Aeon, I’m going to adopt you and become your legal guardian. I’m not trying to replace your mom in any way and I never will. I don’t care how you see me in this. That’s up to you. Whether you see me solely as your teacher, your big sister, or as your new mom it’s all up to you, but I intend to be there for you no matter what. If you decide you don’t want to be a Huntsman then I won’t stop you, but I still be there for you okay,” Sunset says as she was kneeling in front of the young boy she’d found only three weeks ago who was constantly wiping away his tears to sear the face of the Huntress in front of him.

Sunset had only known Aeon for roughly a month and she already cared for him deeply. The next thing he knew she was holding him tightly while telling him it was going to be alright. The hours passed into the later hours of the night while Sunset stayed to tuck the children in. She took some more time to explain to Aeon some more while he was in bed.

“One more week here in Mistral while I get the paperwork done for your adoption Aeon. I’ll be coming by here after I get done with the business and packing up my stuff at my apartment in town. Then we’re heading to an island called Patch. I was able to get a teaching job at one of the more well-known schools of there. It called Signal Academy. I’ll be around for you a lot more than if we stayed here and I’ll make more money so we can live in a bigger place than the one I have now. That’s enough for tonight okay, Aeon. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night,” Sunset said as she kissed his forehead. The boy looked up to her with the moonlight gleaming of his red eyes causing them to glow.

“Goodnight Sunset,” said Aeon as she left the room and then he drifted to sleep.

Sunset left to through front door stopping by the closest to get her weapons. She was followed close behind by Tusk. She turned to her father who immediately embraced her. Tusk started to speak to her softly.

“I’m so proud of you Sunset. You’ve come so far from the little girl that wandered into the city from the wilds,” Tusk says as he releases her from his embrace looking into her into cyan eyes while tears started to form in them. “I know Aeon is going to be in good hands.”

“Thank you, Papa. It means the world to me to hear you say that.  But, please keep an eye on him. I know you already have an idea of what he’s been through Papa. He may not let it show but he’s really hurting right now,” Sunset said drying her eyes.

“I have an idea is right Sunset,” Tusk said as he stepped out of the house closing the door behind him. He then sat down in the nearest chair and looked to his daughter. “But at the same time, I don’t. The poor lad has been through something even worse than a battle, though. He had everything, his whole world, taken from him and I think you're the only person in this whole damn city maybe even this whole damn world, that has any understanding of it. I don’t know how or why I know this, but I just do. Chalk it up to a father’s intuition, I guess. I know you’re worried about the lad Sunset but you he’s in a good place right now. ” 

“Do you think he could come and stay with me one night this week before I have it all packed up for the move? I know I’m not supposed to ask for things like that but it would mean a lot to me if we could try it out at least,” Sunset asked with bated breath.

“I don’t see why not lass. Aeon doesn’t attend school so the lad isn’t on a set schedule like the other kids. But it can’t be more than a day. I don’t want the brass coming around here asking any more questions than they already are. They’re already all over this place as is because it an orphanage run by a faunus that takes in both faunus and humans,” Tusk says as he gets up from his seat and gives Sunset one more hug before bidding her goodnight and heading back into the house.


Sunset’s Apartment


Sunset arrived home and shed her coat weapons, boots, and weapons. Leaving them all on the floor. She then headed to the bedroom and threw herself down on to her bed. She was completely worn out. She still managed to roll over on to her back so she could look at the ceiling so she could think while she didn’t suffocate from burying her face in the blankets.

‘I’m going to be there for Aeon. Even if he decides he doesn’t want to be a Huntsman anymore. I would be lying to myself if I said I wanted that life for him.’

“Aeon, please don’t hold it all in,” Sunset said as she turned over and drifted off to sleep.
> Chapter 7: Departure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A few days later


It was noon and Sunset was shopping in the outdoor market but this time she had Aeon with her. The young boy was reluctant to come to town at first but she was able to convince him to say that she would be right there with him the whole time. As he came out of the house he was wearing the mask Sunset had found him with that night she saved him. Sunset was able to convince Aeon not to wear it but he was still insistent on bringing it with him. So Sunset had him carry it in a backpack. With the mask with him in the backpack, Aeon walked out of the house holding on to Sunset’s hand with a scared looked on his face. His grip tightened a bit and Sunset looked to the boy with a smile.

“It’s okay Aeon. I know it’s scary going into a big city when you’ve spent most of your life in a small town. Remember that I’ll be right here next to you the whole time. We’re not going too far into Mistral, only to the market. I’ve got to buy some food so I can fix you something to eat if your going to spend the night with me,” Sunset says as she smiled as the young boy next to her and as he heard this his face lit up with a smile from ear to ear.

“Really Ms. Sunset. Mr. Tusk is going to let me spend the night at your house?” asked Aeon wanting some reassurance. 

“Yes he is, but you need to understand this is a one-time thing until a can finalize your adoption papers Aeon. I live in a one bedroom apartment and I’m in the middle of packing up for our move to Patch. So there are a lot of boxes out right now. You’ll have to sleep on the fold out tonight,” explain Sunset as the duo walked through the market.

They picked up a few things here and there before the made their back to Sunset’s apartment. Once they got there Sunset unlocks the door and Aeon immediately rushed in. She went to the kitchen and set down the food she bought. Luckily Sunset hadn’t taken down her large monitor in the living room. She turned it on and ley Aeon watch while she prep their supper. He wanted to have spaghetti luckily for Sunset she excelled at making it. 

Once Sunset had finished making their supper she brought Aeon a bowl and the sat on the couch and enjoyed spaghetti while they watched TV. There wasn’t a whole lot on to watch. The usual dribble and evening shows. The news reported arising in White Fang protests. Some of the White Fang’s most recent activity had been getting violent and was giving the faunus a pretty bad wrap. Sunset had always had a problem because of being a faunus but it got really bad for her when the White Fang started their protests. Discrimination had always been the great issues in this world growing up and that’sone of the main reasons she wanted Aeon to be sent to her childhood home.

After a few hours of watching TV Sunset took the dishes washed them and placed them in the wrack to dry. After this, she told Aeon to go and take a hot bath or shower, whichever he preferred. Sunset decided to do some maintenance on her weapons as she hadn’t done it since she returned from her mission earlier in the week. She sat at her desk while Aeon was in the bathroom and began taking apart her revolver to clean it. It was long before Aeon was finished bathing and standing in the doorway wondering what his teacher was doing. He walked over to her noticing she was where a pair of red glasses with a variety of small tools laid out in front of her. Sunset was so focused on the weapon he thought she didn’t notice him so Aeon went to tap her shoulder when he got a sudden surprise.

“Hey there Aeon, all bathing,” Sunset says as she continued to clean the gun causing the youth to jump back. “How’d you do that Ms. Sunset? I thought you were focused on your gun,” he said as he walked up the side of the desk.

“I am focused on cleaning my gun but that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of what’s going on around me, Aeon. As a Huntress, I must constantly be aware of what going on around me, even when I’m doing something else altogether. I, in particular, must be as I'm using a type of sniping weapon,” Sunset says as she puts down the reassembled revolver turning to face the boy as she got up smiling at him while tilting her head slightly. “Now, how about some ice cream.”

“Yes please,” Aeon says as he threw his hands in the air. 

Sunset fixed them both a bowl of chocolate ice cream setting them on the counter for a moment when she noticed Aeon backpack open with his mask in it. That’s when she got a little curious about it. ‘I wonder what the story behind this thing is. It looks like a Grimm but several the have been fused together.’ She thought of picking it up and bringing it with her to the living area where Aeon sat waiting. Sunset gave Aeon his ice cream and sat next to him setting the mask on the coffee table. Before she could even as Aeon opened his mouth.

“The mask has been passed down in my family for generations. Apparently, it was given to the original head of the Crim family when they were forced to leave the continent of Atlas to come here to Anima. You’ll notice that it looks like several Grimm that were fused together. That’s because it represents my family’s semblance,” explained Aeon as he looked at the artifact.

“What do you mean Aeon? A single Semblance can’t belong to one family,” Sunset said as she ate some of her ice cream.

“Mine was. Our semblance is or was summoning the spirits of those who have fallen to aid use in battle. We used a dark summoning to does so and it was frowned upon by every one of the times. My ancestors were called demon worshippers because their summons looked exactly like the Grimm. Apparently, they were originally a branch family the Schnee household. It all started when one of the house’s semblance took on the aspects of darkness from one of the children of the time’s parent's semblance being as strong as the Schnee’s. Their semblance’s fused together and the Head of the Schnee family of the times had the family take on the mother’s last name of Crim to keep the Schnee name intacted,” Aeon paused as he looked to the mask.

“But that didn’t stop people from finding out about the dark summoners. They were kept a secret until the family had become too large to stay in the dark. Then when people found out they thought to was the Crims that were bring the Grimm into the world,” Sunset looked over to the mask as she now realized it was a brand of disownment.

“Yep, the house of Crim left Atlas to come here where people can live far away from one another and not be bothered but still close enough to lend a hand. My family lived in that town… peacefully… for… generations… we never… bothered anyone… SNIFF,” Aeon continued to speak but had begun to sniffle as tears formed in his eyes.

“Why? Why… did they have… to take my family… and my friends… away from me? Why was ...SNIFF… I the only...left? The Grimm… they should’ve killed me… too. Sunset why… was… I … left… alone… in this… world?” cried the young boy who had only worn a smile for the past two weeks as the tears streamed like waterfalls down his face.

Sunset pulled Aeon into a warm hug. This is all she could do right now as she could give him the answers to the questions he was asking. Sunset knew that only Aeon could get those answers for himself in time. It had been that way for her when she arrived in this world and this was how her father helped her when she asked similar questions after she came to the city from the wilds. So, in turn, Sunset answered the one she could answer for Aeon.

“I can tell you this Aeon,” Sunset said as she stroked the crying boys head as she held him close. “You aren’t alone in this world. I’m right here and I’ll always be here for you from now on. Whether it be as your teacher, your friend, or just someone to listen to. I won’t leave you alone ever. Also, it’s okay to cry to let others know how you feel. Don’t hold it in, ever. The same thing if you ever see a Grimm in front of you. Once you’ve been trained enough think on how to take it down but if you like just go nuts on it.”

Sunset started to sing the lullaby to Aeon that Tusk had sung to her many a night as she continued to hold him and stroke his head. Aeon, in turn, held tightly on to Sunset as he continued to cry.

“Come stop your crying
It will be alright
Just take my hand
And hold it tight
I will protect you
From all around you
I will be here
Don't you cry
For one so small,
You seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
Keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry
'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart
Always
Why can't they understand the way we feel
They just don't trust what they can't explain
I know we're different, but deep inside us
We're not that different at all
And you'll be in my heart
Yes you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
Don't listen to them
'Cause what do they know
We need each other, to have, to hold
They'll see in time, I know
When destiny calls you, you must be strong
I may not be with you
But you got to hold on
They'll see in time, I know
We'll show them together
'Cause you'll be in my heart
Believe me, you'll be in my heart
I'll be there from this day on
Now and forever more
You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart
Always
Always I'll be with you
I'll be there for you always
Always and always
Just look over your shoulder
Just look over your shoulder
Just look over your shoulder
I'll be there
Always”

By the Sunset finished her song  Aeon had cried himself to sleep in her arms. He had a small smile on his face. As leaned her head back and looked at the ceiling sleep began to take as well. Sunset said one last thing as she drifted off.

“Sweet dreams little my crimson light.” 


Three Days Later…


Sunset was walking down the street to Tusk’s Orphanage with the happiest smile and her face that she’d had in years. She had just come from city hall with Aeon’s finalized adoption papers. She couldn’t wait to show Aeon in person to give him the good news. Tusk had told Sunset the Aeon had become much more open with the other children since he came back from spending the night at her place. She didn’t tell her father why because there was no need. He was always like that, able to read others.

While she was walking down the street Sunset couldn’t help humming the lullaby she’d sung to Aeon the other night. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t see where she was going as she kept reading the papers in her hand the Sunset ran into a group of human  Huntsmen right outside the orphanage.

OOMF

“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” said Sunset as she bumped into the group. 

“What do we have boys? A little animal coming home to the petting zoo” said laugh the man laughing that Sunset walked into.

“I said I was sorry and don’t call me an animal or my father’s home a petting zoo again or you’ll regret it. Now move out of the way I have something very important to do,” huffed Sunset as she started to walk past the group of men when one of the caught her by the arm.

“I don’t remember the boss saying you could leave yet,” said the man as he shoved Sunset back causing her to drop the adoption papers. The one called the boss picked them up and looked them over and scoffed at then looked to Sunset in anger. 

“Give those back there very important,” growled Sunset in an angry tone. “Why is an animal like you, even being allowed to adopt a kid in the first place? Let alone a human?” said he waving the papers slightly as he flicks his wrist back and forth.

“I said give them back,” said Sunset as she took out her revolver. 

“Or what you’ll shoot us,” laughed one of the other men pulling out a pair of his own bladed handguns with a smile. “Go ahead little horse girl. You’ll only give us all the more reason to burn down this filthy petting zoo. Oh, wait you said this was your father’s place.”

BANG!

Without a second thought, Sunset shot the bastard in the face with a stunning shot. The group was in utter shock as the didn’t believe she would do it.

“I said not to call my childhood home a petting zoo. Now give me back those forms or you’ll get a lot more than just a stun shot to the face,” Sunset said as she pulled her sword off her back.

“Um, boss I think we should listen to her,” said one of the three Huntsman still standing.

“Why should we? She’s just a little animal with a sword and pistol by her side. What ya gonna do next go courting us?” Laughed the boss of the group.

Sunset snorted as she was now thoroughly pissed off. She pressed a button on the hilt of her sword and connected it to the muzzle of her revolver. The blade of the sword split apart and revealed an inner string inside the sword that was connected to the revolver at the cocking mechanism. The handle moved from the base of the gun to the very back of it and extended slightly allowing the cocking piece and hammer to be pulled back further for more powerful and longer ranged shots. Sunset pulls back on the hammer string and prepared to fire at the now visibly shocked boss.

“This is bad boss. I think we’ve pissed off Helios,” said one of the others as they helped their stunned partner, he noticed the emblem on Sunset shirt when she armed her bow.

“Helios. As is in Mistral’s Archer of the Sun, Helios,” the leader said as he looked to the golden and amber sun symbol on Sunset’s chest, he then started to back up in fear.

“Hey pervert my eyes are up here,” Sunset says to get the boss’s attention off her chest. “And if you and your friends don’t want to end up full of holes in the next ten seconds, then I suggest you give me back my papers and leave. You better tell any of your buddies that might get the same ideas to target this place that they’ll be met with much worse than treatment than you did.”

“Yes’mam,” said boss as he gave the forms back. “ Why would any of the others meet with worse fates.”

“Because my father is Oleander Tusk, The Sword Eater. And he hates guys like you four, coming around threatening his home and messing with his kids. Now, leave and don’t come back. Ever,” Sunset says in an ominous tone.

The three mobile Huntsman wasted no time in picking up the still paralyzed comrade and quickly sped off. Sunset disassembled her bow changing it back into her sword and revolver putting both back in their respective holsters. Sunset took in a deep breath in and looked down to the adoption papers and then back down the street. 

‘Assholes probably hired by the local bigwigs again. They’re lucky I got here before here before Papa saw them. Enough of this, I’m in too good a mood for something like a few random ass hats to ruin it. I can’t wait to see the look on Aeon’s face.’

Sunset opened the gate and went up to the house with Aeon’s adoption papers in hand and knocked on there door to her childhood home.

“Coming,” said a familiar voice. In a minute the door opened to reveal Lily. “Hey big sis, you came back again, awesome. Do you wanna help me fix supper today?”

“I’m sorry Lily but I need to see Aeon right away. Then I’ll help you cook okay,” Sunset said in a somewhat sadden tone. She had just realized this would be her last chance to fix supper for her little brothers, little sisters and her father for what could be a long time.

“Okay but then you have to help me in the kitchen,” Lily demanded. Sunset came into the house and put her weapons in the hallway closet then followed close behind Lily. “Aeon, Big Sis is here and she needs to see you right away. Hurry up so me and her can get started on supper. He’ll be down in a minute Sis.”

“Thanks, Lily,” Sunset says smiling at the younger Huntress.

“He was probably with Papa again. Aeon loves listening to his story and techniques. I remember when I was like that. Have to say, since Aeon came back from your house he’s been a lot more expressive than just being happy all the time. It was really scary how he would just smile. Please, Sis, be good to him. I know you two have a lot in common but still do everything you can and more. You were always a greater big sister to me. but I think now you should try to be a mom to my little brother. Promise me you’ll try,” said Lily as she stopped to look at Sunset noticing the papers she was trying to hide under her coat before turning and entering the kitchen.

In a few minutes, Aeon was racing down the stairs. When he reached the base he then jumped into Sunset’s embrace with a smile. She, in turn, would then affectionately nuzzled his face with a smile. Sunset them knelt down to show Aeon his finalized adoption papers officially making her legal guardian. Aeon was overjoyed with the act that he would now be living with Sunset but he couldn’t help but ask when they were moving to Patch. That’s when Sunset’s ears flattened in sadness as she realized they had to leave the next day if she was going to still have the job she was promised.

“I know this is rushed Aeon but we’ll be leaving tomorrow morning if I’m to keep the job I’ve got lined up at Signal. This will be the last supper we have with everyone for probably for a very long time. So be sure and make lots of good memories. Okay,” Sunset says as she sees tears start to form in the corners of Aeons face but before she could dry them he did that for her.

“Okay Sunset and once we get to Patch I can call everyone here and give them our address and number so we can keep in touch. So please don’t cry cause if you cry then I’ll cry and if I cry then everyone else will cry too,” Aeon said with a warm and comforting smile across his face.

“Okay, Aeon. Now go play with the others while I help Lily in the kitchen,” Sunset says getting back on her feet as Aeon run out the front door to find the other children.

“I don’t know what you did Sunset, but the lad seems much brighter since comin back from his time with you lass,” said Tusk as he came downstairs from his study. “Ya helpin Lily with supper I heard. Hope you two make something good. Why don’t ya spend your last night here with us? I know the little ones and me extremely happy. After supper, we can throw a couple back and swap stories from your hunts.”

“I’d like that and I’ve already heard all of your stories Papa. But I still love to hear you tell them and I’ll only drink with you after the little ones have gone to bed,” Sunset said as she walked toward the Kitchen.

“That’s a deal then lass,” Tusk said as he returned to his study to do some paperwork.

Everyone sat down for supper as they had for the past few days but the children could all tell that something was off from the feel of the stale air that was around them. Aeon hadn’t told any of them that his adoption had been finalized as he thought it wasn’t his place to say so. Everyone remained silent as the ate their portion of supper until Lily spoke up and told the table that Sunset had finally adopted Aeon causing the children to rejoice d and congratulate their siblings but the soon realized that if Aeons paperwork was finished that he and Sunset would be leaving in the next few days. This thought caused most of the younger kids to start to cry and that’s when Tusk broke the rest of the news. He said that Sunset and Aeon would be leaving first thing in the morning after breakfast but that Sunset was going to spend the night with everyone tonight. This soon caused the whole room to erupt in joy.

Soon after the little ones were all tucked away in their beds Sunset found herself in her father’s study. He’d already pour to glasses of Scotch, his preference, for the two of them. The father and daughter sat and exchanged their stories for a few hours until the subject changed to tomorrow.

“I’m going to be there for Papa. Like you were there for me,” Sunset said as she finished off her Scotch.

“I’m sure you will lass. Now off to bed with ya. You and your charge have a long trip tomorrow.” Tusk said with a smile. “Goodnight Sunset.”


Next Morning… 


Everyone had woke up early and Tusk even let the whole house stay home from school so the could spend time with Sunset and Aeon before they left to catch their transport to the island of Patch. Tusk made the entire house pancakes, something that the kids highly loved about him, for breakfast that morning. Sunset sat next to Aeon while everyone was served their portions. Once breakfast was done, the whole house was out the door and headed to the Transport Station. Lily stayed silent the whole way there but Sunset could tell that she was giving something some serious thought.

“Okay, Lily, what's on your mind?” Sunset asked with concern.

“I was just wondering why you just adopted Aeon and not any of the other kids, or me…” Lily says while looking down in envy and sadness as tears start to flow from her eyes.

“Oh, Lily. I’m so so sorry,” Sunset says taking Lily in a deep warming embrace. “I know it would’ve made a lot more sense to you if I would've adopted one of the others or you but where I come from we hold true to our promises and I promised Aeon I would be his teacher if I came back when I found him.”

“BUT WHY ARE YOU STILL LEAVING?” Lily shouts as she pulls out of Sunsets grips. “IT’S NOT FAIR. YOU JUST MET AEON BUT YOU HELPED RAISE ME AND THE OTHERS!”

“Lily, listen to me, please. I’m doing this partially because of my promise but also because it’s something that I need to do for Aeon and myself. I don’t see him, in the same way, I see all of you. Which is why I adopted him. I’m leaving because I need to get him away from the reminders of what happened in his village. Aeon saw a lot more than any of the others saw who were an attack. I didn’t adopt you because I need you here to take over as everyone's big sister,” Sunset explained to her little sister with a quiver of sorrow as her voice cracked as their family watched in sadness as the final came to realize the older sister that had helped look after them their whole lives was leaving. 
She took Lily in her arms again and gave her another warm embrace as the tears rolled off their faces. In the next moment, Sunset found herself pinned to the ground by every one of her siblings. The all buried their face in her coat with the grip that could rival an Ursa. Sunset returned the affection by holding them all as they started to take turns hugging her neck and getting their own nuzzles.

“I promise that I’ll come and see all of you whenever I’m in the city on a job. You all better listen to Lily because she’s in charge when Papa Tusk isn’t around. Understand.” Sunset states wave her finger to the little ones.

“Yes, big sis Sunset!” the group said in unison. “We love you and please take care of Aeon.”

The group of children then tackled their brother that they’d only known for around two weeks. Try as he might Aeon couldn’t escape their hold on him while Tusk and Sunset only standby laughing at the sight of the children on the floor.

“Come now little ones, Aeon and Sunset have a flight to catch and we can’t keep them waiting any longer than we already have,” Tusk says pulling Aeon up from the floor. “You’ll always have a home to come back to here lad. If Sunset gives you any trouble just give Ole Tusk here a call on the scroll and I’ll straighten her out.”

“Yes sir,” answered Aeon as he did his best to hold back his tears.

“Hey, no more sadness Aeon. I know you’ll miss everyone but we can still keep in touch. I’ll even bring you by so you can stay with them when I’m on missions that will allow you to tag along here in Mistral,” Sunset says putting a hand on Aeon head. “Tusk is right though, we need to get going or we’ll miss our transport..”

Sunset took Aeon’s and the duo walked off to the boarding terminal while waving good-bye to their family. They were off to see what was in store for them in the Kingdom of Vale to see what awaits them.
> Chapter 8:Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


One week since arriving in Patch


It was Friday afternoon and Sunset and Aeon were in her new classroom, busy setting things up before her students came in on Monday. Things had been going rather well for the two of them since arriving in Patch. The people around the town were very friendly and easy to get along with and there were actually quite a few faunus amongst the populace of the town. One of whom was the owner of the local bookstore, Tukson. 

Sunset was especially impressed with the collection of books in his store and the two had struck a strong friendship from the start. What surprised her was when he mentioned that there was another young pony faunus girl that had a love of books too. Sunset was very eager to meet this girl as she hoped that she and Aeon could be friends, as they were apparently around the same age.

Aeon had been very open with the people of the island since they first arrived but he was still a child and had a tendency to be shy to the people at first, but instead of just hiding behind Sunset, he had taken to wearing his family’s mask. This was partially to hide due to his shyness and partially to hide the scars on the right side of his face. Aeon had been coming with Sunset to Signal as she couldn’t leave him at their home alone and she wanted to keep him close to spend time with him. So, she thought, what better to spend time together way than to have him come and help her at the school. 

He was really excited to come and see the young Huntsmen and Huntresses. Aeon would often get lucky and catch one of the students out in the halls ditching a class they didn’t want to take or the occasional teacher on their break to bombard them with his questions. They were all too happy to talk with the young boy on their favorite subjects, their weapons, and fighting styles. When it came to the Grimm though, its when Aeon got the scary serious about his questions. 

If Aeon wasn’t with Sunset in her classroom or talking to a teacher or student, you could find him in the library reading up on being a huntsman or sleeping in the break room. It took a couple of days, but everyone soon got used to the masked and bandaged boy of Patch. Some of the kids of the island were less than nice about his looks and started to call Aeon the Masked Mummy. He simply put up with it until one of the boys got up the courage to try and get physical when he punched Aeon in the face knocking his mask off. He only looked at the other boy and try to walk away but that’s when the other kid made a huge mistake.

“SCARFACE!” laughed the child.

Without a second thought, Aeon walked over to the other boy and proceeded to beat the living hell out of the kid who called him the name. Aeon was raised in the wilds of Anima where he and his village had to fend for themselves so he was already much physically stronger than your average seven-year-old boy. Sunset soon put a stop to the beat down but not before Aeon gave the other boy two black eyes, a broken nose, and several missing teeth. She didn’t blame him for the way he reacted be she still punished him accordingly by having him sit at a desk and right lines in her classroom. This is what he was doing now while waiting with Sunset to meet up with a couple of the school’s other more popular combat instructors. They were also brothers apparently, or rather in-laws at least.

It was around one or two when the brothers walked one had blonde messy hair and the other had a salt and pepper slicked back hair.

‘They can’t be much older than me.’  Sunset thought as they entered the classroom.

But, what really surprised Sunset was the fact that they were accompanied by a trio of young girls, two who looked to looked to around Aeons age and the other who looked to be about two years younger. One was noticeably a young pony faunus much to Sunset’s shock. One of the two humans had long blonde hair and the other had short black hairs with red highlights. 

Then the blonde headed brother steps forward and introduced himself followed by the other.

“Hello my name’s Taiyang Xiao Long,” said the young Huntsmen stretching out his hand. 

“Name’s Qrow Branwen,” said the other aloofly, nudging Tai to the side, much to his annoyance.

“And these are my daughters,” interjected Tai as he motioned to the girls for them to introduce themselves.

“Hi, my name’s Yang,” said the oldest of the trio with a bright and sunny smile. Her hair was done up in a pair of pigtails, and she just screamed confidence.

“Um, my name is Twilight. It’s nice to meet you two.” The faunus says with a bow, clearly a little shy.

“Hi there, my names Ruby.” The youngest girl says, her hood being pulled down by Twilight, showing her pure silver eyes.

“Nice to meet all of you. My name’s Sunset Shimmer and the one over at the desk writing lines is my personal student slash adopted charge Aeon Crim. He got into a little altercation in town with one of the local boys and is being punished for it,”  Sunset says looking over to Aeon as he put his head down in shame.

“What happened?” asked shyly Ruby.

“Oh, the boy called Aeon a bad name after knocking his mask off his face. Then Aeon proceeded to beat the living snot out of the boy.,” Sunset explained.

“HAHAHA! Good on ya kid” laughed Qrow.

“Qrow!” snapped Tai.

“What?” Qrow simply shrugged.

“Hey, I know him. He’s the boy that everyone’s been calling the Masked Mummy. I heard about that fight from some of the kids around town,” said Yang as she rushed over to Aeon. “Everyone hates Rook Noir because of his bullying. I still can’t believe what you did to him.”

“Was he really in that bad of shape after the beating?” asked Tai nervously looking at the masked kid.

“Aeon is very kind and sweet. But he has a tendency to blow up on certain subjects such as his scars. That's why he hides them under bandages and his mask. The mask is a family heirloom so it means a lot to him. He lost his whole village to Geist pack about a month ago when I found him,” Sunset explained in a low whisper as the two other girls ran over to join their older sister.

“I heard about that. They were looking for every able-bodied Huntsman and Huntress they could find. They even came here recruiting. Wait, you're from Mistral and use a longsword and revolver that combine into a longbow for long range sniping,” Qrow said with a little quiver in his voice. “What the heck are you doing here in Patch?!”

“Qrow are you okay?” asked Tai in concern as it takes a lot to normally get his brother in law this flustered.

“Tai this chick is currently one of Mistral’s top Huntresses. The Archer of the Sun, Helios. Why are you here, seriously?!” yelled Qrow. “Wait are you on some kind of undercover op for the area?”

“Shhh. Please keep the Helios stuff between us three. I’m not on some sort of job here. I came to teach and to give Aeon a chance at a better life,” Sunset said as she glanced at the children then smiled as Aeon had removed his mask to let the girls see his face.

“Seriously? You want to give the kid a new life? I guess that would work here in Patch, but he will find out sooner or later. You should tell him before too much time passes, else he will feel betrayed.” Qrow points out as he watches his nieces fuss over Aeons scars, much to his embarrassment.

“Aeon knows why I brought him here. I told him the truth before we left Anima but I left it up to him to choose what path he wants to take. I’ll tell him who I was when he’s a little older and able to understand titles. If anything, he’ll still want to be a Huntsman even more after I tell him who I am,” Sunset said, looking to the children as Aeon explained the meaning of his mask. She then looks to Twilight and got a feeling of familiarity from her.

“Tai, can I ask you a personal question?” asked Sunset as she looked to the young blonde Huntsman. 

“Uh, sure Sunset,” answered Tai in a half sure tone.

“I’m not trying to pry or be offensive but I can tell that Twilight and Yang are around the same age but Twilight isn’t from your loins. Is Twilight adopted like Aeon?” Sunset asked as her ears shifted downward.

“Yeah, Twilight is adopted. We found her in the woods about a little over a month or so ago when me, Ruby and Yang were on our way to the lake for a family outing,” Tai explained, scratching the back of his head as he looked to Qrow for help while his brother-in-law only gave him the ‘I wasn’t there for most of it’ look. “She has amnesia from whatever event caused her to be there. So I decided to adopt her seeing as how her options were limited and she wouldn’t be able to look for her birth parents until she was older. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. I just have this feeling…” Sunset trailed off and paused, looking at the children as they laughed at Aeon describing his fight. “It’s almost like a lost connection or something. Like we come from the same place. I don’t know how to describe it. Maybe it’s a faunus thing.”

“Maybe it’s a pony thing,” snorted Qrow. “Sorry, I’m not anti-faunus. I meant it the most serious way I could but I still laughed. Seriously though, pony faunus are amongst some of the rare breeds of faunus out there. That goes double for their semblences too. I’ve heard some of you ponies are so strong you can easily take on some of the larger Grimm packs by yourselves.”

Qrow looked over to his nieces as saw that Yang and Aeon were now talking alone while Twilight and Ruby had made their way to Sunsets bookshelves. ‘Something tells me these four are going to be very good friends.’ Qrow thought as he turned his gaze back to the older pony faunus.

“We might have to keep an eye on Yang and Aeon,” commented Qrow as he motioned to the duo with a nod.

“Why Qrow? They seem to be getting along just fine to me. Even better it seems they are almost in sync with each other…” Tai was saying when he looked over to see Aeon and Yang clap handshaking with sinister-looking grins on their faces.

“I’m guessing Yang has a pretty similar attitude to Aeon and that there are certain things that people do to set her off,” Added Sunset as she shook her head. “Those two are going to cause a lot of trouble around the island when either one runs into any type of issue involving themselves, each other, Ruby, Twilight, both of them, or the other three of the group. Am I getting what your thinking fellas?”

“Nailed it Helios. As usual. “ Qrow chuckled before a dagger whizzed by his head and stuck in the wall off to the side just behind Tai's head. Qrow looks to Sunset out of the corner of his eye to see her tossing a couple of the same type of dagger in the air and catch it in her fingers only to throw them up again.

“Say it again. I dare you,” Sunset said as she twirled the remaining daggers while beams of death flew from her eyes at Qrow. Tai just looks between his brother, the dagger and the faunus a couple times before sighing with a smile.

‘Oh boy, this is going to be one wild ride.’


Two Years Later….


“Get back here Noir! You think you can steal Twi’s favorite book and not have us find out about it. She’s Yang’s sister and one of my best friends!” yelled a running angry masked boy. “Face me now coward, and I’ll be merciful or face me and Yang later and be nothing but a bloody pile of meat on the ground.” 

“Just try it Scar Face! You can’t beat-” the boy was cut off by a fist to the gut by a blond ten-year-old after turning the corner, dropping the book he was waving at Aeon.

“What was that about stealing one of my little sister's favorite books?” Yang questions fiercely. 

“He snuck into Sunset’s classroom and stole the Grim Reaper book that Twi lent me while Sunset and I were at the auditorium sparring a bit. Sunset had a staff meeting to go to so I went to the classroom to wait and saw jerkface here trying to sneak out with the book,” huffed Aeon as he grit his teeth revealing a very angry face as he took off his mask. “I think he was going to burn it to try and get back at me for ignoring his threats.”

“Not was idiots,” Said the bully get to feet as he pulled a small red dust crystal from his back pocket and crushed it just enough to for cracks to form.

“I am going to burn it,” Noir said chunking the cracked crystal at the book causing it to shatter and explode catching the book that had been on the ground to catch on fire. “Ignore me will ya. Your two are going to be in the gang and listen to me or I’ll go to your houses and do them what I just did to that book. HaHaHa!”

“You… bastard!” yelled Aeon and Yang as they lept on Noir and proceeded to break his face, again.

In the last two years, Aeon and Yang had gained a reputation for being the ones who defended the younger kids around Patch from bullies, like Noir. They’d gained a lot of names but some o the more prominent ones were The Crimson Duo and The Crimson Dragons. Of course, this caused Tai, Qrow, and Sunset to see a lot of each other outside of work. So much so that their families had pretty much merged together. 

Not all things had been great for Aeon and Sunset though. Around a month or so after they had settled in, they got word from Tusk that the Orphanage had been burn down by a group of Huntsman. Luckily the kids were all away in school and Tusk had been in town to meet up with an old war buddy. It turns out this buddy was none other than the Patch’s local bookstore owner Tukson. They found this out when he and Sunset were telling each other of their past adventures and current events in their lives..

As for the fate of Tusk and the orphans they had a little bit of a guiding light. Tukson, Sunset, Qrow, and Tai were able to pull some string to bring Tusk, Lily and the other older kids that were too old to be put back into the system to Patch. 

When it came time to introduce Tai and Qrow, things were more of a total silence from shock and admiration of who Sunset’s Dad and teacher was. Tusk had more than a vast reputation from his days on the Mistral Elites as the Sword Eater and for what he gave it up to do. They didn’t know whether to ask for his autograph or to grovel and say ‘We are not worthy’. Tusk chose his own option of bear hugging the young Huntsman brothers as a thank you for their help in gratitude and a warning to not play with Sunset’s heart while also cracking a few ribs in the process.

When it came time for everyone to meet up, Lily had mixed feeling on coming to Patch and seeing Sunset. Lily wanted to see her big sister but she was still hurt over the fact that Sunset had adopted Aeon, who’d she’d only known for a little over a month, over her, who she helped raise from a baby. If Lily had to say she saw Sunset as more of her mother than her big sister. Still, even though she’d been hurt by Sunset’s actions Lily still kept her promise to the best of her abilities and looked of the little one while she could. Lily was still helping to look after the kids that had come with her and Tusk to Patch when they let her anyway. 

Tusk had been keeping an eye on Lily to make sure she keeps up her grades in school while also training her personally. Thanks to her prowess Lily was able to get accepted into Signal without a recommendation but that didn’t mean Tusk didn’t give it to his daughter. 

Sunset ended up being one of her teacher which meant that Lily would have to face her feelings eventually. After about a year she couldn’t help it anymore and challenged Sunset to a duel after school. Lily knew she had no chance of beating Sunset but she still knew this was the best way for her to convey how she felt to Sunset. After all, fighting was when Huntsmen and Huntresses were truly at home and able to understand the world.

Sunset had Qrow and Tai reserve an empty arena after school for her and Lily to face each other. Sunset knew something like this was going to happen between the two of them since Lily’s arrival in Patch but she was expecting it sooner rather than two years later. Sunset had always trusted and loved Lily and she’d seriously hurt Lily when she adopted Aeon over her and also just up and left her behind. Sunset had pretty much just abandoned everyone at the orphanage with what she had done and she knew it. That place had been her home and the little one had loved her and she left behind. 

All for a young boy she’d barely known at the time. Sunset didn’t regret her decision to adopt Aeon then and she still doesn’t know but she did and does regret the state of things she left things behind at the orphanage. She started to think about this while she walked to the arena. So much so she didn’t notice Qrow walking beside her.

“Let me guess?” asked Qrow causing Sunset to jump a bit. “Sorry, thought you knew I was next to you. You must have been given everything that’s caused this some serious thought if you didn’t even notice my presence Sunset.”

“What do you want Qrow? I was trying to do some thinking on things before my match with Lily,” Sunset scoffed as she didn’t want to deal with Qrows antics.

“Oh, I can tell. You’re having the post-decision regrets and judging from the way your acting, you’re having some serious guilt about it. Look, I know you blame for a lot of the happens of what went down after you left but look at the life you had after you came here. Yes, you should have done a few things differently like take a couple of the younger orphans with you. I can tell you how I see things if you’re willing to listen, Sunset,” Qrow said stopping to look at their reflections in a trophy case.

“Sure, it can’t possibly make me feel any worse than I do now,” Sunset says as her ears flip down while looking away from her own reflection, not wanting to look herself in the eye.

“I think you made the right call. You wanted to give that kid a better life and you took him away from the things that would remind him of what he lost. Sure, if you would have stayed he would have had a larger family to support him but he still would lose many of those family members. I also think it was the right call to leave Lily in charge when you left. Yes, she was hurt by it and I understand you and Oleander are the closest things she has to blood family. She was and still is young and she’ll come to understand why you left her to take care of the others in time. You wanted to teach Lily the responsibility of not only being the one in charge but also the weight of what comes with it,” Qrow said with a soft grin looking to the Huntress.

“How is it you knew exactly what I tried to do Qrow?” Sunset asked in suspicion with one eyebrow cocked up.

“That’s my one of my secrets Helios, Now don’t you have a match with that Huntress in-training you call a little sister,” Qrow said as Sunset beamed annoyance at him from using her panhandle.


Arena B After School


Sunset entered the arena with her gun and sword already drawn. As she did her eyes came to rest on her little sister. Lily wasn’t so small any more as she was just below Sunsets shoulder in height. Her battle grab consisted of a candy apple red, long sleeve blouse the had a chest plate adorned with gold roses. Her sleeves were tucked into a set of sturdy but lightweight armored gauntlets that ran halfway up her arm that resembled lions claws. Her pants were the same color as her shirt with golden rose vine running down the legs as they ran into light brown boots that were loose and sturdy, yet light enough to allow graceful movements. 

Lily’s weapon of choice was a little more on the unusual side though. She chose to use a lance that doubled as a dust rifle. There was a revolver in the lance that allowed Lily to change to different types of dust for either the lance or rifle in tandem. As a bonus feature, Lily also incorporated a secondary broadsword into the lance’s build for close quarters combat.

“I hardly recognized you in your gear Lily,” Sunset said as she smiled at her little sister who scowled back, but Sunset also saw a gleam of joy in her eye that came from hearing this statement.

“Why Sunset? Why did you take Aeon and just leave me and the others BEHIND?!” Liliana roared as she lunged at Sunset with the tip of her lance headed straight for the older Huntress.

Sunset barely frowned as she brought her own sword up and parried the thrust from Lily, raising her revolver level with the young girls face a moment later. Lily, managed to shift her weight and spun to the side, dodging a duo of shots from her older sisters gun. 

“That is something I have been asking myself for a while now,” Sunset says before going on the offensive, slashing and thrusting her sword at Lily, the young human not expecting the speed of the attacks. She barely manages to dodge and block with her lance before she is forced to take out her second sword and tries to go back on the offensive. “But here’s my question for you Liliana. Why did you wait so long to confront me about it and let these feelings build up?”

“I thought you cared about us, about Papa, the little one and about me! You were more than just a big sister to me Sunset. You helped raise me from when I was just a baby. I CAME TO SEE YOU AS MY MOTHER!” Lily yelled with tears in her eyes. “But you just threw it all away. Everyone that meant you meant something to all for one little boy that you just so happened to find on one of your mission. I understand why you took him away with you. But you didn’t have to go and leave.”

“Lily-,” Sunset started to say but was cut off as Lily brought her lance and start to shoot lightning dust round at Sunset. Sunset used her more agility to keep from being hit. As soon as Lily stopped firing Sunset took a breath and recomposed herself in order to speak again.

“Liliana Pendragon, stop acting. like a six-year-old brat this instant,” without even realizing it Sunset had made her way straight to Lily even in the oncoming shots from Lily’s rifle and was now staring straight at the muzzle of her older sister revolver. Lily didn’t struggle as she knew the match was over at this point. 

Then Sunset spoke in a stern soft tone, “I didn’t bring you with me for the very reason you just said, Liliana. The little ones needed someone to look after them as I couldn’t always do it. As a Huntress, I put myself in danger everytime I go out into the field. What would you have done and how would you have acted if I didn’t come back one day from a mission back then and even now?”

“But this is different you chose to leave and you took someone with you,” cried Lily staring into Sunset stern damp gaze.

“Lily, I love you as if you were my own flesh and blood. But I left because I couldn’t do certain things for the very reasons I left. I loved the orphanage and I loved those of you that lived there, but my time there was over. It was your turn to step up and become everyone’s big sister even more than you already were. First and foremost, as huntresses, we are in charge of protecting the lives of others over our own. That is the very first lesson Papa ever taught me. And do you know how and where I learned this lesson first hand?” asked Sunset as she lowered her firearm.

“The orphanage,” answered Lily coming to a realization that Sunset had actually entrusted their family to her and that Sunset wasn’t abandoning them but trying to teach her to be a Huntress like she’d always done.

“Yes, Lily. It was our home, Papa, and caring for you and the little ones that taught me how to be the Huntress I am now. I know it wasn’t fair to all of you to just up and leave but I never abandoned any of you. If I could’ve I would’ve taken you all with me, Even Papa. But I thought it was the right time for you to start your journey to become the Huntress I know you can be. Even this experience will help you,” Sunset says throwing her weapons down, inviting Lily to her embrace. 

“It’s true, I wanted to give Aeon a chance at a life away from the reminders of what he lost but that doesn’t mean I ever abandoned any of my family. I promised myself I would never abandon anyone ever again. Not after I abandoned my old teacher. Even If I am not around, I’ll never abandon you.”

Lily then released her hold on her weapons letting them fall to the ground and threw herself into Sunset grasp and started to sob uncontrollably letting a flood of two years worth of anger, sadness, and fear of abandonment wash away. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry big sister please don’t be mad at me, I’m sorry,” Lily cried out in tears of sadness as she begged for her sister’s forgiveness.

The gathered crowd of orphans, students and huntsman smiled and joined their own groups for some hugs, the Rose-Xiao Long girls all together, while their father, uncle, and friends were getting crushed by Oleander. Aeon looked to his adopted guardian and teacher and smiled that she made up with her sister.

Sunset smiled and lowered the two of them to their knees, hugging her sister, rubbing her head and gently shushing her as she used to when she was a child. In an odd way, Sunset now understood how her old teacher felt when she was a little filly. Sunset just closed her eyes and continued to hold her sister, enjoying the slightly nostalgic feeling behind it. 

Lily stopped her endless tirade of apologies and merely enjoyed the feeling of her sister's arms around her, as well as an odd new feeling, like that of a feather pillow. Lily risked a small glance at Sunset, and barely stopped herself from gasping.

Lily could swear a pair of translucent, orange wings were coming out from behind Sunset and wrapped around her.
> Chapter 9: Time Marches On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Progress report,” Celestia states bluntly, looking over a group of six unicorns and two Pegasi, each with ashamed looks on their faces. One of them, a green coated and white-maned stallion named Hard Cover stepped forward. 

“Unfortunately your highness, we have looked at almost every book in the archives, the public, and restricted sections as well, but the only mention about the mirror portal was in the two books written by Starswirl the Bearded that you gave us. I am sorry princess, but there is not much else we can do.” He explains remorsefully. 

The princess nodded and placed a gentle smile on her face, looking towards her little ponies. 

“Even in spite of this, less than stellar news, you have my thanks, my little ponies. You will be compensated for this endeavor. You’re dismissed.” She says, each of the ponies bowing and leaving the library. The princess waits a few moments before teleporting to her room. 

There was a full minute that passed in silence as Celestia cast a soundproofing spell over her already sound dampening room, removed her regalia and took a deep breath before all but blowing up with a scream of rage and despair.

It had been just over six months since the changeling invasion. Six months since Canterlot was nearly taken over by love sapping insectoid. Six months since the Elements of Harmony were put in jeopardy because of their own ambitions. Six months since the wedding of the century was interrupted.

Six months since Twilight Sparkle ran away.

After learning of the seriousness of the events, and waking up her sister who somehow slept through the Invasion, Celestia immediately went to work to restore order and a sense of safety to her ponies. All the while promising answers to a certain group of ponies, changelings and a dragon.

It took a whole 24 hours before Canterlot was brought back to some measure of its original peace, and even then it was strained with the paranoia of shapeshifters that may still lurk among the populace. Celestia had brought the remaining element bearers, Spike, Shining Armor, Cadence, Night Light, Twilight Velvet, Bon Bon, and the changelings into the throne room and explained just what the plan was from then on.

“So how do we open the portal?” Rainbow asks bluntly, the ponies looking worried at the faces of despair on the royal sisters' faces.

“We can’t.” Luna answer, just as bluntly. 

“WHAT?!” Several voices sound out, only for them to be silenced by a shoe-clad hoof slamming on the ground. Rather than say anything, Celestia steps up and unfurls her wings, gaining all attention drawn to her and begins to explain.

“You see my little ponies, that mirror portal is something our old mentor, Starswirl the bearded, created as an experiment to look into the past and future. The results were not what he was expected, as the mirror allows one to travel to one of four different worlds.”

“Four? I thought the portal could only allow access to two worlds?” Thorax questions, still in his Bladed Wind disguise. 

“It was only discovered after the first few years of the portal's creation. You see, the portal was set to a time limit by Starswirl. The portal would only stay open for three days and would open every thirty moons. As you saw, there is a symbol on the top of the mirror, that actually changes every time they open.” 

Celestia lite her horn and summons four different images into the air. One of them was familiar to all present, the six-pointed star of magic. That caused many to flinch in shame.

“The first is one you all should recognize. Starswirl believed that going through the portal when this symbol was present, would take you to an alternate version of Equestria. The other three, however, would bring you to an entirely different world altogether.” 

That caused everypony present to do a double take and take a good look at the symbols as Celestia pointed them out. The first was the image of two green axes, crossing each other, with plants along the bottom and wrapping into a circle. The second was a simple circle with the top part being red and the bottom being white, with a line through it and another circle in the center. The third and final symbol was of a yellow circle inside a gear, with three black triangles within it, another circle at the center.

“That one. That’s the symbol that was on the mirror when Twilight left.” Thorax states, looking at the symbol of the axes. Celestia and Luna frown at that piece of information.

“That’s was I was afraid of.” The solar diarch mumbles.

“What do you mean princess? Is that world dangerous?” Fluttershy question in worry.

“We don’t know. Starswirl may have created the portal, but since he discovered they led to different worlds, he never actually entered any of them for fear of merging our worlds. What we can tell you, however, is that the mirror actually rotates through the symbols, and thus, the worlds every time it opens.” Luna explains. It took a moment before somepony understood what it meant.

“You mean, if we want to get Twilight back, we have to wait until the mirror goes through these other worlds?!” Lyra yells, barely held back by Bon Bon. Even though she was in her unicorn form, Lyra was still as large as Princess Luna for some reason. 

“Unfortunately, yes. We cannot rewind the rotation of the mirror, and our old teacher never really told us much about how it works in the first place. We only know that the rotation goes from the star to the axes, to the orb, to the hazard symbols and then back to the star.” Celestia explains. 

“Ok so, we just have to wait for the mirror to return to the axes. So, just how long are thirty moons? A month?” Spike asks with some hope in his eyes. Hope that was dashed when he saw the princesses shaking their head.

“It means, every thirty full moons.” There was a stunned silence as the realization hit everyone present. After a couple of seconds, Twilight Velvet stepped forward, a seemingly calm look on her face. But if one was to look closer, they could see her shaking on the spot. 

“You mean to tell me, that the only way to see my daughter. Is to wait. For the portal to rotate through the worlds. Until it reaches the one with the axes in 10 YEARS?!?!” Velvet screams at the top of her lungs, everyone, even the princesses, flinching from the intensity of a mother.

Velvet just stood there, panting from her scream, the guards outside the door popping their heads in, eyes wide. The duo glance to the princesses, who subtly shake their heads. 

“No.” Everyone looked to Celestia again, slightly confused, even Luna. They saw her determined, yet shamed look. “I have failed Twilight for not listening to her when I should have given her the benefit of the doubt. I will bring her back.” 

Everyone raised a brow, some confused, some skeptical, but all worried. 

“What are you talking about, princess?” Lyra questions.

“Starswirl left two books about the portal in our old library back in the castle of the two sisters. I think he may have left enough information for us to rotate the world selection. It won’t be easy, but I will be having some of the best ponies I know of researching, not just those two books, but the entire library and archives to find a way.”

The princess looked to the window, watching her sun as it lays in the sky. 

‘I will find you Twilight. I swear on my magic I will.’

So she started the endeavor, bringing in several members of her personal research team and professors from her school to research both the two books she brought from the old castle, as well as the libraries contents with the hopes of finding a way to alter the mirrors next portal destination.

And yet, time and time again, the princess is left empty hoofed. No matter what book they checked, what spell they experimented with, what theory they thought of, nothing stuck. It had been like this for the six months, just one disappointing failure after the other.

The Element bearers and the changeling-earth pony couple went back to Ponyville after the first month, much to their dismay. The princess had actually not checked on them in a couple of months now, spending every second of her free time trying to figure out just how the portal mirror works. She was not in the best state of mind to try and talk to the bearers, however, especially now.

After Celestia had collapsed on a couch and cried for about five minutes, her sister, niece, future nephew and Thorax ran in, seeing her on the couch near the door, tears continuing to fall from her eyes.

“Auntie Tia, please stop crying,” Cadence says laying down next to Celestia while draping her wing over her aunt. “I know you’re doing everything you possibly can to get Twilight back from the other side of the mirror portal. Shining has been doing everything he can too.”

“It wasn’t just you that drove Twilight to run away Princess. I’m every bit as guilty and even more so as we’d been around Cadence for years and never noticed the change in attitude when Twily did.” Shining Armor said lowering his head in sadness and guilt. “I’m going to every place Starswirl has ever been or visited to see if I can find any information on the portal. Cadence postponed the wedding until we get my sister home safely. I won’t rest until my sister is back home, I swear it on my life.”

“If I’d been there perhaps I would've been able to stop her. I’m so sorry Sister. I know you're doing everything in your power to get your student back and I shall as well. But perhaps you should step back and take a break at least until the Elements return from retrieving Starswirl’s journals. You won’t be able to focus on helping Twilight if you aren’t thinking clearly and I know you haven’t been sleeping more than maybe an hour every few days,” Luna says trying here best to support her sister.

“I’m sorry, all of you. I am so sorry, I just….I miss her. I don’t want to accept that I failed for a third time.” She says, sniffling and wiping her tears away. Her last statement earned raised brows from Shining, Luna, and Thorax, but a frown from Cadence.

“You’re talking about Sunset, aren’t you.” She questions, Celestia visibly tensing and slowly nodding. 

“Sunset? Why does that name sound familiar?” Shining wonders with a raised brow. 

“It should Shiny. Sunset Shimmer. She was Auntie Tia’s student before Twilight and she’d be around our age now. She was a really sweet pony but she was also a little bit of a loner and somewhat impatient when it came to certain things like magic. When she didn’t get to study the magic that she wanted and wasn’t getting anywhere near the results she desired, Sunset abandoned her studies under Auntie to pursue her own goals but I don’t know anymore. I’d always assumed she left Equestria to go off and wander the world in pursuit of any magical knowledge she found interesting to herself,” Cadence looked to her aunt, the mare in tears once more at the thought of Sunset. 

“Now I’m guessing she didn’t just leave Equestria but our world altogether. It actually explains why I never received any letters from her. We weren’t particularly close but we were close enough that I’d say we were friends in some manner of the word,” Cadence looked back to her fiance in sorrow. 

“Wait, wasn’t she the amber unicorn filly with the gold and red striped mane, with a half red and half gold sun like cutie mark similar yours Princess Celestia,” Shining said coming to the realization of who Sunset was. “I do remember seeing her around the castle during my day as a palace guard. Are you saying she went through that mirror portal thing as Twilight did.”

“Yes, Captain. Twilight followed Sunset’s example and went through the portal, but I fear for it was for different yet similar reasons. While it was Sunset that went through as a way to get more power, what I suspect now for my attention, or perhaps a fresh start. I fear Twilight only went through the portal to escape the abandonment and betrayal she felt when she thought her friends, family, and teacher turned their backs on her,” Celestia explained, drying her eyes.

“I can’t say I’m completely surprised for some of the reason why Sunset left Princess,” Thorax said in disappointment. “Like Twilight, Sunset probably only ever tried to get the best result to try and earn your respect while you would only ever barely praise her and give her the slightest bit of attention. They were your personal student after all. Did you ever take the time of day to look in on them and actually try and teach them something besides just giving them a lesson and letting them figure stuff out on their own?”

When the princess didn’t answer and lowered her head, the changeling just shook his head with a sigh.

“You know how much Sunset and Twilight respected and loved you, and yet you didn’t try to get too close to them. Why? They were basically your daughters, if Sunset is anything like Twilight, that mare placing you on a pedestal barely above her own mother.” Thorax question, the other curious as well.

“I was afraid.” Celestia begins, glancing to her sister. “I was afraid I would make the same mistake I made with Luna. That I would get too close and end up failing them with it mattered most. I guess it didn’t matter anyway, since it still happened. I was ignorant and arrogant to the pain and loss of those closest to me until it was already too late.” 

“Sister, you can’t keep blaming yourself for that. My fall into Nightmare Moon was more so my own fault than yours. I was the one who was jealous, I was the one who didn’t see how much ponies actually rely on me. I was the one who tried to plunge the world into teternal night when that would have been a death sentence for all of our little ponies. You merely did as any ruler would have done.”

Celestia just sniffles, and brings her sister in for a hug, holding her tightly almost looking afraid Luna would vanish at any instant. She was so engrossed in holding her baby sister, she didn’t notice Thorax lighting his horns and casting a sleep spell on the solar Alicorn. 

“Get some rest princess. We’ll talk more later.” He says softly as the large mare goes limp in her sister's hooves. Luna is gentle as she levitates the exhausted mare into her bed, giving her a small kiss on the head and covering her before all of them leave the room.

“She is a serious wreck,” Thorax states bluntly, looking to the closed door with worry.

“You can’t exactly blame her. As you said, Twilight and Sunset were basically her daughters, so she probably feels worse than any of us.” Shining says, heading down the hall with the others. 

“I would love to say that is probably an overstatement, but you’re right. I could see it, while you and the girls are like a cabin in size of guilt, Celestia is basically the castle in size.” Thorax says with a sigh, rubbing his tired eyes with a hoof. 

“Hey, we been meaning to ask, but how are things with getting more reformed changeling to come by?” Luna asks.

“Urg, it's slow going, especially with a bunch of bureaucratic ponies demanding their heads to be mounted on the castle gates. No joke, that was something that was requested.” Cadence says in annoyance, nodding to a duo of guards that she knew were actually changelings in disguise. 

“It especially doesn’t help that I can’t contact any who may have been separated from the Chrysalis hive mind by the love wave. I may be the equivalent to a changeling king, but if I haven’t met the changelings, it's kind of a moot point.” Thorax says in exasperation, shaking his head.

“Damn, sorry dude,” Shining says, patting the large changeling on the shoulder. Even though there is still a small part of him that was wary of changelings, it was minuscule compared to the strength of the friendship he had forged with Thorax over the months.

“Yes well, at the very least I am glad we have been able to find who we have. Though, Pharynx could still stand to take some lessons on relaxation.” Cadence says with a slight grimace.

“Sorry, my brother is beyond stubborn when it comes to his job in the hives military as a Gatherer. The fact he even showed up looking for me was shocking in and of itself.” Thorax says, glancing at the training yard far below them, seeing a speck of black and purple chitin going against four ponies.

“You know, is a weird way, I kinda respect him. He got cut off from the hive, and his first reaction wasn’t to return, but to look for you. That shows how protective of you he is, even if he is a prick at times.” Shining says, wincing as he sees Pharynx dodge a spear thrust from a pegasus and buck said stallion in the gut. 

“We do not know what thou art speaking about. We’ve found Sir Pharynx to be an excellent addition to the guard and a great sparring partner.” Luna says, grinning at the changeling's moves and his directions of the guards.

“And you would say that.” Cadence and Thorax mumble. 

“How has Spike been Cadence? I was really surprised when he became your personal assistant. Did he ask you for the position?” Thorax asked in curiosity.

“He’s been doing well given the circumstances and it was me that asked him to come and live with me. I couldn’t stand the thought of my little brother staying in that Library in Ponyville by himself. Sure, Twilight’s friends said they’d be more than happy to have him move in with one of them but I thought it would be better if he came back here to Canterlot. As for being my personal assistant he kind of took that duty on his own.” Cadence explained as Shining went to try and calm down Pharynx.

“What do you mean he took the duty on his own?” Thorax asked in confusion.

“Young Spike took it upon himself to help Cadence, Thorax. No pony asked him to do so in any way. We think it's partially due to his time as Twilight’s assistant. He’s used to the work but Spike is also trying to distract himself from Twilight’s absence. He’s very smart and mature for one of his age and has helped us with many of the affairs of your kingdom. But at the end of the day, Spike is still a baby dragon and he needs the support of someone who understands him. Thus why Cadance asked him to return to Canterlot and stay with her in the first place. She did look after Twilight and Spike when they were younger as you will remember,” Luna added with a somber tone.

“If that is so why don’t we have Spike become an ambassador to the changelings. He’ll be distracted at times with his work but the job will also require him to interact with many others and make friends,” Thorax suggested. “I know the little guy has got to feel extremely lonely being the only one of his kind but also there aren’t a whole lot of others here to understand his loss.”

“He’s should be in my room now and if he’s not there, then let’s go check the library,” Cadence looked to the others with a half smile. “I often find him there during the day either reshelving books, helping the librarian, or doing research on political affairs. Other than me and the librarian, Proof Reader, Spike really doesn’t socialize much at all, besides his meeting for drawing up paperwork.” The group came to her room. 

“He does go outside every now and then but it’s mainly to go to the gardens to sit with the animals or to go to Donut Joe’s. I often hear him sneak off at night to go somewhere and when he comes back his eyes are always red from crying. Thorax, Auntie Luna. I think it would be best if I was appointed ambassador to the Changelings along with Spike. If you don’t mind.”

Both leaders looked at one another then t the Princess of Love and nodded in agreement.
> RTRCh 10-Regrets and Long
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville had become much quieter with the absence of its Librarian and her number one assistant. Since Spike had left two months prior there had been no one left to man the library, meaning there was nopony living in the library which in turn meant there was no one to check out the books, reshelf, or even clean the interior of the library. Mayor Mare was left with no other option but to close and lock up the once well-kept building. It now lay silent, dim, and longing for the mare that once called it home.

It was dark by the time everyone had returned to Ponyville. Thorax and Aphid had left for the Changeling Domain with Cadence, Bon Bon, and Spike from Canterlot Castle when everyone was going their separate ways. Once the others arrived at the Ponyville train station they said their goodbyes and hugged one anothers’ necks and then went in their own ways. 

Rarity and Pinkie headed into town and talked while they tried to enjoy each other’s company. Applejack and Fluttershy both headed to their homes towards the outskirts of town. Rainbow Dash, as the only one of the group left with no one to chat with on her way home, was left all to herself on the flight back to her cloud house.


Rarity & Pinkie


“Do you think Twilight is alright Rarity?” Pinkie trudged along.

“I don’t know Pinkie but I certainly hope so,” Rarity looked down to the ground. “We really should’ve at least heard why she’d started acting like the way she did.”

“I know Twilight can go crazy sometimes but it’s usually for good reasons,” Pinkie stated as her mane deflated a little bit. “Ponyville’s just not the same with Twilight gone.”

“Not to mention my dear little Spikey-Wikey,” a little tear fell from Rarity's eye. “With both of them gone the library was closed and I really miss Spike’s help, not to mention his company.”

“Yeah, I miss getting to try out new dragon recipes with him,” Pinkie mane deflated a little more. 

They soon arrived at Sugarcube Corner. The friends gave each other a warm hug before breaking apart. 

Rarity looked up the street to the empty library and remembered the first time Twilight came into her shop with her horrible mane and Spike waddling right next to her.

“Pinkie, do… do you think Twilight will come back to us… or does she even want to after the way we treated her?” Rarity’s eyes could no longer hold back the tears of sadness that had built up in her heart from her trying to keep herself composed. 

Pinkie remained silent for a while, a shock for most that passed by, and looked to the slightly cloudy sky. 

“I am not sure Rarity. I want to say yes, and that we’ll be able to throw a big reunion party when she gets back, but I can’t.” Pinkie’s mane was nearly flat by this point, worrying her friend before it bounced back to its fluffy self. But Pinkie wasn’t smiling like normal, she had a determined glare on her face.

“But, I will be sure to support her from now on, no matter what she chooses. Whether it's to come back and return as Celestia’s student, or to stay where she is. I just hope she made some new, and maybe better friends wherever she is.” That shocked the fashionista, having never heard such a mature declaration from the party pony. She wiped her eyes and nodded.

“Yes, then that’s what I’ll do too. And who knows? Perhaps Twilight would visit us with her new friends. Oh! Perhaps she could even have found a special somepony!” Pinkie jumped up with joy, happy she managed to cheer up her friend, even a little. 

The duo parted ways, Rarity heading to her boutique, intent on spending some quality time with her younger sister before anything else.

Pinkie sighed to herself as she walked into the silent Sugarcube Corner. The cakes were on their way to Trottingham with the foals to visit some family, leaving Pinkie alone. She saw the note on the fridge saying it was up to her if she wanted to open it or not. 

The pink party pony made her way up to her room in silence, not hopping or bouncing, simply walking. She was silent as she closed the door behind her and made her way to her bed.

Her frown never left her face as she just sat on the edge of her bed, holding Gummy, the normally unaware alligators actually moving its eyes to Pinkie in concern. The mare simply smiled softly to her reptilian friend, petting him between the eyes. 

“I know Gummy. I can only give myself a day or two. But after that, it’s back to who I am. I am not letting this go, and I’ll keep it locked up in my heart and head until Twilight comes back.” Her smile began to grow. “And then, when she’s back I’ll throw my greatest party ever!” She suddenly yawned, checking the clock and seeing she had been sitting there for a while and it was nearly dark out. 

“First, food then bed.” She placed Gummy in his bed before hopping down. “After that, I’ll get everything ready tomorrow, and begin planning my ‘Welcome Back to Equestria and Sorry We Were Such Meanie Pants’ party!”

Pinkie smiled to herself, but not one of joy, but one of determination. She glanced at her mirror as she left, seeing her reflection smiling back at her before she yawned and left the room to grab a bite before bed. 

Had she been a little more focused, she would have noticed her reflection’s hair was flat, yet her eyes were the same, her smile warm and full of reassurance before it raised a brow.

“Hmm, I wonder if Ruby and the others would like an invite.”


Rainbow Dash


The prismatic mare flew in silence, going so slow that even Derpy could catch up, not paying much attention to anything as she flew to her cloud home. She unlocked the door and silence was all that greeted. Her house was never a lively one despite the residence, but now it just seemed to be a deafening silence.

She frowned as she made her way to her room, actively avoiding her own reflection as she passed her trophy case and the pictures on the wall. She barely reacted as she picked up her trusted companion Tank, letting the tortoise rest on her back.

She didn’t talk at all as she entered her room, placing her friend on his bed near the foot of her bed before she crawled under the covers. Her face was still blank, but one could see clear as day the pain in her eyes. 

“Some Element of Loyalty I was aye Tank,” Rainbow sighed as the Tortoise stared at the lump under the blankets. “I should have stuck up for Twi more. At least I could have supported her or gone to watch what was going on with her.”

Tank slowly tilted his head and blinked his eyes. Soon he climbed up to Rainbow, grabbing the blanket with his mouth and pulled back to reveal the weeping speedster. She was so wrapped in her sorrow she didn’t even realize her blanket was off. The tortoise made his way back to his owner’s side and sadly looked on with a wayward blink then walked up to her head and gave her a slowly comforting nuzzle.

“You’re right big guy,” Rainbow looked at her pet. “Instead of moping around, I need to be out in the field helping the girls and others. Especially Spike and Princess Cadence. I wonder if she’ll let me join the guard and be her personal guard once I make it through basic training?” She tilted her head while Tank did in the opposite direction.

“I know buddy but the Wonderbolts thing…” she sighed. “It just doesn’t feel right to try and be apart of them anymore.” Tank slowly closed his eyes and then nodded. “Yea. First thing tomorrow I’m going down to the Guard stations here in town.”

She turned off her light and snuggled up next to her endearing tortoise. “Night Tank, sweet dreams buddy,” Tank licked her again. “Love you too man.” Rainbow nuzzled the tortoise and soon fell asleep.


Rarity


There was a click in the lock and the door to Caresoul Beautique opened inward with the sound of an overhead bell. Entering the luxurious shop was its owner and founder the Element of Generosity, Rarity. She entered her shop/home and closed and locked the door behind her then swiftly turned on the lights. 

Looking around the empty shop she let out a saddened sigh then went over to her sewing machine. She wanted to work on something but turned off the lights to her workspace and went into the kitchen and put on a kettle of tea.

“Who am I kidding? I’ve been so distraught over losing Twilight I haven’t made a single thing in weeks, not even a handkerchief.” She muttered, reaching for a tissue as her eyes watered, causing her mascara to run. 

Tossing the makeup and tear-stained paper in the trash bin Rarity went to check on Opalescence, her cat. Rarity was so torn up about Twilight she was worried she’d neglect Sweetie so she had the young filly move back in with their parents, temporarily the filly hoped.

“Merow...” came the droll of an extremely fluffy white cat upon a posh red sofa.

“There you are Opal dear,” Rarity trotted over to the cat, who had actually become much more affectionate with her owner since Twilight’s departure. “Are you hungry?” The cat simply gave a half-eye lidded blink and jumped down from the couch going over to its food dish and placing a paw in it. “Let me get you some tuna then,” Rarity chided happily as she levitated the cat onto her back and the bowl in her magic as she entered the kitchen once more. “Hmmhmhmmm…” she hummed as she set Opal on the floor and the bowl in front of the Feline.

Fetching a slice of tune from her fridge Rarity took a pan from her cabinet and turned a second fire on her stove after. It didn’t take her long before the skillet was hot and she places the tuna in it and cooked her animal companion her meal. After serving Opal Rarity tossed the skillet in her sink and then fixed her a cup of hot Honey, ginger root, and daisy tea. Sitting at the table while Opal continuously munched her dinner, Rarity looked out the large window overlooking the sleeping Ponyville, she sipped her tea.

The only real joy she’d had the passage weeks was when she was with her friends either helping in any way she could, even just a little something like holding the door or just fixing Opal a hearty meal. Rarity especially found helping Cheerilee at the schoolhouse very enjoyable.

“Some Element of Generosity I’ve turned out to be,” Rarity sighed. “I used to help ponies with clothing or a simple hand out yet now… I don’t even raise of for anypony unless asked to, except for you my little Opalescence.”

“Meroew…” The cat looked up licking its lips.

“Perhaps you’re right,” Rarity stood. up. “I did things because I wanted to help ponies be better but what good is it if they’re just going to ask for help and we ignore it. Twilight asked us and I did absolutely nothing but turn her away instead for a wedding,” She slammed a hoof down and then got up and trotted over to her workbench and grabbed a quill with her magic. “I need to get to work and start helping those who really need it in Equestria,” she scribbled. “Starting with Equestria’s youth. Not just the foals that have families but instead those who need families....” Rarity tapped her chin then sipped her tea again. “And they’ll need education, with a steady hoof to guide them. Hmmm…”

Opal joined her owner at her workspace and tilted her head as she looked at the design on the canvas. The cat was confused by what the fashionista was drawing, it wasn’t a dress at all but what looked like some kind of blueprint and list of sorts.

“It will take some much-needed funding.” Rarity looked at Opal. “I can use the proceeds from my dress lines to cover most of the costs but I will still need some help. Especially, with staffing and boarding. But with the right ponies I think we can pull it off, and luckily to get started, I know just the stallion and mare to ask…”

Rarity got up and walked over to her bookshelf and pulled out a messaging journal. She teared up a bit when she remembered it was Twilight who gave it to her to keep in touch with her contacts in Canterlot but took a breath and steadied herself. 

Opal again looked over the designs for a large building, an orphanage, and a school. The name read Twilight of the Future in big bold lavender letters above the building.

Opal twisted her head around as she heard Rarity speak aloud as she wrote, “Hello, Fancy, Fleur. Sorry to bother you both at this hour but I was hoping you two would help me out with a little project I’ve just come up with… Oh, you’ll be in Ponyville tomorrow, excellent… Tea at my shop no later than ten?… Sounds perfect... See you both then. Cheers darlings…” She wrote in her book.

There was a thump and the sound of sliding a book into its spot on a bookcase before Rarity walked back in and levitated the cat onto her back. “Come now Opal it’s time for sleep. A lady needs her rest if she is to look her best for her visiting guests,” She stopped for a moment and giggled. “My, why I sounded just like Zecora for a moment there...”

She looked over at her desk, "I do hope you're happy wherever it is you ended up Twilight. I also hope I can see you again someday so I can say…" A tear rolled down her cheek and hit the floor. "I'm so very sorry." She trotted off to bed.


Fluttershy


The usual ambiance of scurrying critters on the floor or flapping wings through the air was very noticeably absent around a certain cottage on the edge of town. The normally lively villa was quiet as its smallest occupant, and the atmosphere was an almost suffocating air of depression.

Angel Bunny frowned to himself as he jumped towards his master's bedroom, looking through the open door at the sad mass on the bed. For once, his frown wasn’t from annoyance or irritation, but genuine sadness and worry.

The bunny sighed to himself as he hopped closer, seeing his master all but catatonic on her bed, not even reacting as several of her animal friends surrounded her and muttered reassurances in their native tongues.

Fluttershy didn’t appear to hear them, just laying on her side facing the wall in an unblinking gaze, as though to look through it. Angel’s eyes softened as he took in his master and friend's face. It was simply empty, lacking the usual kindness.

Something needed to be done. Angel could sense her dark emotions from a mile away, and knew she needed a different form of comfort. Angel hopped down the stairs and hopped up to a window, grinning softly as he saw several robins returning from their mission.

Everypony knew that Angel and a few other animals in Fluttershy’s care were far more intelligent than wild animals, but few realized just how smart. 

After Fluttershy returned home and several birds saw the aura of sadness around the mare, Angel got together with a couple of other animals, and wrote a letter. Angel said what was to be written, Harry the bear wrote it, and several robins led by Mr.Red delivered the letter to its intended destination.

Angel kept vigilance at the window, nodding with a salute to several birds that returned to their homes. Now, all that he could do was wait.

He luckily didn’t have to wait long, just a few hours. The sun had long since set and the moon and stars lighting up the sky when the bunny saw a familiar mass quickly flying towards the cottage. Now normally Angel would just barely tolerate the pony in question, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Hey, Angel, open up! I’m here.” The bunny nodded towards a serpent nearby, who slithered over and moved the doorknob. Angel hopped over and landed on the ponies outstretched hoof.

“Hey Angel. I got here as soon as I could. Mom and dad should be here sometime tomorrow. Now, where’s my big sis?” Zephyr Breeze questioned with a serious frown. Angel jumped on his wither and pointed towards the stairs. 

The lanky stallion marched up the stairs towards his big sister's room, nodding to several animals that he saw. Once there, he gently knocked on the doorframe, alerting the yellow and pink mass and animals on the bed of his presence. 

“Hey, Fluttershy.” That was all he said as he made his way to the bed. The mare finally reacted as she turned her head to her brother.

“What are you doing here Zeph?” The quiet mare questioned. That set a frown on the stallion's face. His sister hadn’t called him Zeph in years, ever since he became an annoyance to her. He knew she was annoyed by him, but unfortunately, he has a bad case of hoof-in-mouth syndrome 

“Angel here sent me and the folks a letter saying you needed some help.” He answered softly, sitting beside his sister's prone form. Several animals all moved about to make room. “I just finished this semester at hair school, so I had free time to pop by first.” The pegasus’s smile diminished as he saw his sister turn back to the wall. 

“Why are you here?” She repeated, her voice a blank mass.

“Because I am your brother. And I worry about you.” She turned to him and saw his serious frown. “Sis, this isn’t you.”

“And what the hell do you know about it?” She frowned. Zephyr noted the ease in which his sister just swore.

“Angel wrote about what happened.” His answer was enough for the mare to fully turn to him and her bunny, who was nodding. “Apparently some of your bird friends were keeping an eye on you when you didn’t return when you were supposed to.”

“Then you know why I am like this.” She glared, but the stallion was unaffected.

“Yes, I do. That doesn’t mean I like it.” He frowned and glared back. “Sis you need to stop blaming yourself! This isn’t right, you have a responsibility to take care of yourself and others!” 

“And we saw how well that went!” The usually quiet mare yelled, startling several of her animal friends. “I made Twilight run away to another world! I made her feel miserable and unwanted and useless!” She didn’t even react as tears were falling from her own eyes. “I made her feel alone when I should have made her feel welcome! I made her so sad she decided to leave us all! I’m not some Element of Kindness, I am an Element of Anger! I can’t even-”

Everything was blank for a moment before Fluttershy noticed she was looking at the wall and then felt the stinging in her cheek. She couldn’t compute what just happened for a second. Her brother just slapped her.

“SNAP OUT OF IT!” She jumped at her brother's yell and now noticed the tears falling from his own eyes. “JUST STOP IT! I HATE SEEING YOU LIKE THIS FLUTTERSHY!” He tried wiping his own eyes. “This isn’t the big sis I go to when I had a nightmare and mom and dad were busy! This isn’t the loving mare that takes care of all the animals living nearby! This isn’t the mare who could soothe a manticore when others would fight it!”

Fluttershy took half a step back from her brother, feeling her legs hit the bed. She then jumped a bit as she felt her brother wrap her in his forelegs and wings, tears still falling on her shoulder.

“Stop it. Please. I can’t stand seeing my big sister hurt herself like this.” He sobbed, holding her tight even as Fluttershy grabbed him back. Before long the two were sobbing against one another, both apologizing to each other. 

Angel and several animals all just watched from the doorway, some leaving to their burrows, while some decided to stay. Angel himself was just nodding to the others as they watched the two Pegasi comforted one another. 

With a determined nod, Angel, a family of otters, Mr.Red the Robin, and Mike the rat hopped onto the bed, catching the pony's attention. Angel just pointed to Zephyr and then to the otters, more specifically the young pup that had been born a few weeks back, who was, despite the young age, reaching to the yellow mare. Fluttershy was a little shocked, normally otters didn’t like their young doing anything without them. 

Zephyr led his sister onto her bed, watching as her animal friends all surrounded her, the little otter pup resting on her chest, being the most important. 

“As I said before, you have a unique responsibility.” Fluttershy took her eyes away from the otter pup to her baby brother. “You don’t just care for your animal friends, but also for their young when they are busy. You have always been like that, even when you lived up in Cloudsdale with us. Always taking care of me when you could.”

Fluttershy just looked down, watching the pup on her chest as it nuzzled into her fur and silently slept. Zephyr smiled to himself as he saw his sister adjust herself as the animals surround her. 

Angel turned to the lanky stallion with a nod, one Zephyr returned as he turned to the door, walking down the stairs to sleep on the couch. 

Fluttershy’s eyes began to droop, her energy drained from all the emotions she unleashed in the past few minutes. As her eyes began to fall, she remembered the time she was a little filly helping her brother learn to read.

‘I almost forgot how much fun it was to teach him.’ Fluttershy thought on this for a bit. “Mmmm… teaching…”


Applejack


The distracted farm pony finally finished the last-minute chores she was assigned after she got home, and was just wandering the field, no real destination in mind, just letting her hooves take her where they wanted. 

Her mind was abuzz with questions, so many questions that she could barely keep up with herself. Questions like if she was who she wanted to be, how could she have been tricked so easily, how is it she couldn’t see through that faker's lies. 

She couldn’t answer any of them. She just kept wandering, wondering what she could have done, what she should have done, but was all but stumped on anything. Her mind was a maze, and she was trapped.

Applejack wasn’t sure how long she was wandering for, but eventually, she stopped. 

Painfully.

With a yelp, she walked right into a tree trunk, making her fall onto her rump, rubbing her head as her hat fell off. With a grumbled curse, she placed her father's hat back where it should be, before looking at what she bumped into.

She immediately frowned sadly as she looked up.

Before her was her parents' memorial tree. A twisting combination of an apple and pear tree, with both fruits hanging off the branches, all ripe for consumption. 

Applejack just sat there for a moment, looking at her parents' last present to the world after her sister, but now, as she was older since she hadn’t been here in years, she began to question.

“Why is an apple tree wrapped around a pear tree?” She questioned. “Ma and Pa were apples to the core….weren’t they?”

Now she wasn’t so sure. Her failure at seeing through that fakes illusion made her question things. Things she had never thought of before. 

“I know Pa was an only child according to Goldie Delicious, but I never actually asked about Ma.” Now that she was thinking objectively, she didn’t actually know a lot about her parents' past. She knew the reason why, it made Granny Smith upset to talk about her son and daughter-in-law. 

“But, why would there be a pear tree here?” She muttered, looking at the piece of fruit that would always make her grandmother upset. With a curious frown, she walked up and grabbed one of the lower hanging fruits, looking it over and cleaning it off of her coat. 

With a shrug, she took a bite, and just sat there, eating. 

‘Why would pears make Granny so upset? She’s fine with oranges and all the other fruits, but pears always make her sad and angry. Why is that?’ She mentally questioned, absentmindedly munching on her sweet fruit treat. She had to admit to herself, it was way sweeter than any apple she’s had before, and not in a bad way.

After a minute or so of questioning herself, she finished the pear, and then, another thought popped into her mind. 

“Who were Ma’s parents?”

There was a tree limb snap not far away, just off to the side on the other side of an old broken fence line. Applejack looked over to see an elderly pony, probably around Granny’s age. He was at least a head taller than Granny with a scrunchy silvery short mane and a long scrunchy silvery tail. His coat was that of a light amber but what caught Applejack’s attention was his cutie mark, it was a single large green pear. 

The stallion looked so lonely as he was just sitting there on the ground staring at the trees in the distance. It looked like he was crying. Applejack looked around to make sure no pony was watching before she went over and crossed the fence, a fence that granny had warned every pony in the Apple family to stay away from but Applejack couldn’t let the old stallion be, lest timberwolves attack and the fact she didn't want to really be alone herself right now.

She gently trotted over and softly spoke up, “Aaa… excuse me, sir, what are ya doin out here so late? No pony is supposed to come over here ya know it's private property.”

“Ah know,” he replied not looking away. “I own the land after all. More importantly, what are ya doin out this far little filly?”

“Ah’ve had a lot on mah mind as of late and thought a walk could help me sort through some of it,” She sadly replied. “Though not much came of it being alone ah guess,” she rubbed the back of her head. “Proudly ya mind if I sat with ya a spell?”

“Not at all youngin,” His gaze never faltered. 

“Thank ya,” Applejack came over and sat down. “So where ya from?”

“Ponyville but I moved mah family out to Vanhoover a few years ago and have been there ever since,” he sighed. “Had some bad times with some of the local folks and a fallen out with em. I came back to so down and see if Ah could make amends, perhaps even reconnect with mah family ah left behind. We lived here on this land harvesten pears for a livin. All those trees out there are pear trees. Ya won’t find a sweeter fruit than them except perhaps the apples from the apple family next door.”

“Wait, ya were a pear farmer here on this property, right next tah the Apples?!” Applejack said in shock. ‘Ah think Ah’m startin to understand why Granny hates pears so much.’ “So ah… ya left cause of problems with your neighbors the Apples then.”

“Eeeeeyep,” He noted. “The Pears and Apples had been feuding for some time before ah got involved and Ah just got wrapped up in the nonsense and didn’t ask why. Then, mah girl Pear Butter met the Apple’s boy Bright Mac and ya may be able to guess the rest.”

Applejack’s eyes widened and then looked back to her property and to her parents' trees, an apple and pear tree. “They fell in love with each other didn’t they?”

“Eeeeeeyep,” He nodded. “In all honesty Ah’d had enough of the feud and wanted the Pears to better themselves by distancing us from the Apples but when the time came,” he looked over to the Apple property. “Ah found my girl had married the boy in secret. When it came time ta move Ah gave her a choice…” He looked down in shame.

“One family for the other,” Applejack looked back at the stallion.

“Mhmm…” he gave another solemn nod. “Ah wanted to come and say Ah’m sorry for what Ah did. It wasn’t fair tah make mah Buttercup choose either side of her family. Ah’m pretty sure she was so torn about it. Ah wanted to come by but Ah can’t muster the strength ta even go near the property. This is the closest Ah’ve been. Ah’m pretty sure old Smith would blast me with her grandpapi’s minotaur blunderbuss if she saw me comin.”

“Sounds about right,” Applejack muttered, making the old stallion flinch before she sighed. “At least, maybe when ah was still a filly, but now, I don’t think that would happen.”

“What do ya mean?”

“Granny, she doesn’t get as angry about pears as she used ta.” She explained. “Nowadays, when every Granny sees somethin to do with pears, she just gets this sad, almost nostalgic look in her eyes.” 

“Huh, guess the time is startin to catch up with both of us.” The stallion said, looking towards the wrapped-together trees. “How long have they….?”

“Bout eight or nine years.” She answered immediately. “It was only six months after Applebloom was born. They just got on a train to Vanhoover and never came back. Apparently, it derailed over a crevasse, and….well....you can guess what happened.”

“Ah, ah see.” He muttered, wiping his watering eyes. After a moment to breath he turned back to Applejack. “Ya know, yer father would be proud that yer keepin his hat. Little Pear Butter too.” 

“Heh, maybe.” She took off her hat, looking at it fondly before frowning. “But, I still wanna know more. I barely even knew ma parents past, and Granny ain’t going to tell me.” She then narrowed her eyes, placing the hat back on. “But, ah guess ah got a lead now.” 

“Heh, suppose ya do.” He smiled, knowing she put it all together. “Ifn’ ya’ll find yerself in Vanhoover, just tell anyone Grandpear is takin care of ya. The Pears are pretty well connected.” 

“Ah don’t doubt that. Maybe it’s time I get out a bit more. I know there are more ponies like me, those that lost their family, but some may still be out there.” She nodded with a fire in her eyes, for a moment, Grandpear could swear in her place was another mare with a messy orange mane with yellow flowers, straw coat, and a preserve jar for a Cutie Mark. “Sides, I wanna know exactly what happened to Ma a and Pa.” She smiled as she quickly hopped the fence, but turned before she could runoff. 

“If ya even feel like reconnectin with us, ah know Applebloom would love to meet her grandpa.” Grandpear just smiled, chuckling a bit.

“Maybe, but not tonight. Ya’ll have things to do I reckon.” He shook his head with a smile. “Maybe some other time. For now, get going ya silly filly.” AJ just laughed a little, grabbing a couple of pears for the road.

“See ya later Grandpear!” The stallion smiled and waved his granddaughter away, the mare running back to the house. He took another moment to look at the tree his darling little filly and her husband made.

‘Pear Butter, you and Bright Mac would be so proud of the mare yer daughter has become.’


Later….


Applejack walked into her house with a determined gate, her muzzle pulled into a thin line. She made sure the pears she brought stayed on her back out of sight before she made her way into the kitchen. She allowed a small smile to appear on her face as Winona ran up and around her a couple of times.

“Hey girl, can ya’ll grab ma sister for me, we need to have a family talk.” The little collie gave an affirmative bark and ran upstairs. AJ sighed before making her way to the living room, where her grandmother was sewing some patches onto one of Big Mac’s overalls. 

“Ah, Applejack, had a nice walk?” The older mare questioned with a small smile, one that turned into a worried frown as her grandfilly didn’t reply and just sat in front of her. “Applejack?”

“Granny, we need to talk.” In that moment, the other occupants of the farm entered, the large stallion that was Big Mac frowning at his sister's serious frown, while the youngest was tilting her head curiously.

“Everythin alright sis?” Big Mac questioned. Applejack sighed loudly, deciding to tackle things head-on. 

“Granny.” The older mare looked worried, a look that only multiplied when her grandfilly took out a couple of pears from behind her. “How come ya’ll have never told us that Ma was a Pear?”

The silence that entered the building was deafening. Even Winona went silent, somehow understanding the gravity of the situation. 

Granny Smith’s face was pulled into a saddened grimace, her eyes full of pain and guilt, yet her granddaughter’s face didn’t shift. Big Mac and Applebloom looked with wide eyes at Granny and AJ, the former with worry, the latter with curiosity.

“Wait, Ma was a Pear?” AB questioned. “Weird.”

“Well Granny? Ah’m waitin.” Was all AJ said, her muzzle like stone as she stared at her grandmare. 

“Ah….ah…” Granny Smith looked ready to cry, but she just took a breath. “How did you?”

“Ah ran into Grandpear.” Granny Smith’s eyes shot open wide. “He’s been wantin to reconnect with us, but could never let himself past the old fences.” 

“Heh, the old mush brain.” The older mare muttered, before sighing. “Ah’m sorry fer never sayin nothin, but it just….hurts, so much to think about ma son and my daughter-in-law. Those two coulda broke up decades worth of feudin between the Apple’s and Pear’s but before anything could happen, the Pears up and moved to Vanhoover.”

“So, we’re half pear?” Mac questioned softly. 

“Eeyup. Yer mother, Pear Butter, everypony just called her Buttercup, and her Cutie Mark was a preserved jar, but nopony could really tell the difference between apple butter and pear butter.” Granny explained, noticing the frown on her grandkids. 

“Ah don’t really remember much about Ma and Pa now that ah think about it,” Applebloom added, a frown on her face.

“After yer parents….well, after they disappeared, ah just couldn’t bear to see them. It hurt so much, knowing how much they could have helped the family when they left.” She sighed sadly. 

“They were plannin on reconnecting with Grandpear, weren’t they?” AJ stated more than questioned. 

“Eeyup. The train they left on never made it though. Guess I blamed the Pear’s for that too.”

“The official report said they had fallen into a crevasse, didn’t it?” Mac added, but AJ frowned.

“But they never found anythin.” They turned to her. “It’s blurry, but I remember the guards in charge talking about how they couldn’t even find the passenger coach, let alone the ponies on it. They just found the engine without anypony controlling it.”

“You’re right youngin but at the same time they never found any signs that anypony was ever on board cept for a fully loaded luggage car,” Granny confirmed. “A lot of ponies went missin that day and no bodies were ever found, not even along the tracks back to the station.”

“Ah wanna know what happened to Ma and Pa Granny,” Aj looked at her grandmother sternly. “Ah wanna know about Ma’s kin and what they’re like. Ah want the honest truth about what happened ta that train.”

“What are ya thinkin about doin Aj?” Mac looked at his little sister.

“Ah know you're the element of Honesty Aj but don’t ya think this is takin it a bit far,” Ab tilted her head. “Ah wanna know too but…”

“Applebloom, let your sister finish,” the elder of the group cut in. “Aj say your piece.”

“Thank ya granny. Ah was played for a fool by a lousy bug in a disguise spell. Ah’m goin up to Vanhoover ta meet and reconnect with the Pears,” Aj stated whole-heartedly. “Ah’m gonna go tah school and learn how tah better mahself at spotten the truth and figurin stuff out. Ah’m gonna lookin in to Ma and Pa’s disappearances as well as any other pony on that train or that comes lookin for help.”

“Private Investigator,” Mac sighed. “What about the farm?”

“Ah’m sorry Mac but you’ll have tah call in some favors from the family,” Aj looked to her older brother and then to Granny then to Applebloom. “We lost Ma and Pa and for all we know they could still be out there somewhere. Ah lost Twilight and Ah may not get her back either and it was because Ah couldn’t figure out the truth. Ah am doin this, not just for mahself but for ya’ll and every pony else that needs the truth,” she stomped her front hoof down.

The other three ponies were silent, frowns on their faces, before Applebloom walked up, and smiled before hugging her sister. 

“Be sure to visit then.” The other two looked with wide eyes. “Ah wanna know what happened to ma and pa too, but I know there isn’t much ah can do. I know ya’ll can do it!” 

Applejack teared up, bringing her little sister into a deep hug, proud of how much faith AB has in her. She felt a large hoof on her shoulder, and saw her brother nodding with a smile.

“Eeyup.” Was all he said, before hugging her as well. AJ looked to her grandmare, who had a blank smile on her face, before sighing and smiling to them, tearing up.

“Ya don’t know how much ya’ll are reminding me of yer parents right now.” She stood up shakily and walked over to the kitchen. She pulls out a large book that had several train times on it. “The next train to Vanhoover is in two days at noon. Plenty of time to get ya’ll all packed up.” 

“Granny.” Applejack smiled and grabbed grandmare tight, her siblings joining in as well. 

Sometime later Applejack was going through her closet, her hair was down and her hat was hanging on the bed. She grabbed the few fancy clothes she owned, as well as a couple of extra clothes for the seasons. 

She had grabbed an extra snow coat out from the back, before seeing a box sitting on the bottom of the closet. Raising a brow, she grabbed it and opened it up, her eyes widening at what is inside.

Taking it out, Applejack grabbed a large purple hat with a black belt on it, a purple bodysuit, a black cape, and black boot wrapping for her hooves.

“Mare-do-well.” She remembered when she and the others used this costume to teach Rainbow humility. Looking to the side, she saw her reflection. Her silky blond hair was a wavy mess out of its normal ponytail, and her bright eyes were slightly hidden behind her mane. 

Not looking away from her reflection, she placed the hat and cape on, looking at herself again. With a small frown, she reached into one of her drawers and took out an apple-shaped clip that Rarity made her when they were young fillies. She replaced the clip holding the cape with the apple one and looked at herself. Adjusting everything for a second, she looked back at herself.

Her eyes widened as she saw herself. She looked good. New. Her long blonde hair had a slight glint from the low light, her deep emerald eyes seeming to glow underneath the large hat. Unlike her father's hat she normally wears, the purple and black contrasted her mane and coat in a new, unique, eye-catching way. 

With a small smile, she allowed herself to feel a bit of vanity at her own beauty. She wasn’t like Rarity, her rough personality contrasted herself right now, but for a moment, the thought that since she was starting over as somepony new, she would need a new look.

Looking at her father's hat on the bed, she knew that maybe it was time to pass it on. It did look a lot better on her sister's head anyways. 

“Mare-Do-Well was a mysterious hero.” She looked at her reflection. “Maybe its’ time to bring her out of hiding, and into the forefront of the investigation.”

With a determined smile, she packed up her new outfit, and went to bed, looking out at Luna’s moon with a new fire in her soul.

‘Ma, Pa, Twilight, and everypony else that went missin, ah’ll find you. Ah promise.’
> Friendship and Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Signal Academy 


12:30pm


Opening up her locker and placing her books in for the moment, a certain nine year old grabbed her lunch bag and prepped for her break between classes. Her purple ears shifted slightly, subconsciously taking in all the voices of her classmates as they go between their classes and their lunch spots. She quickly glances down to herself, adjusting her dark blue blouse and black skirt before nodding and locking her locker. 

“Hey Twily?” The faunus turn and spots a shorter eight year old, her silver eyes staring up at her from behind her red hood.

“Ruby, what have we told you about hiding behind your hood?” The faunus scolds playfully, pulling back her sisters hood. “So, what’s up Rubes?” 

“Um, since Aeon and Yang are in detention again, would it be ok if I ate lunch with you?” The young human questions, Twilight blinking a couple of times as she realized something.

“Uh, sure thing Ruby. Actually this is a good chance for me to properly introduce you to my friends. Can’t believe I never really introduced you to them before.” Twilight mutters the last part quietly before smiling to her younger sister and leading her out of the building, towards a small cluster of trees near the park where a group of kids were sitting, eating and chatting.

“Hey Twilight! Hurry up!” The two girls turn and move out of the way as a boy Twilight’s age rush past them towards the group they were heading towards.

“Tate, be careful!” Twilight calls, only for said boy to trip on a root and land face first before one of the girls sitting against the tree.

“Muy bien Tate. You just can’t calm down can you.” One of the girls, a snake faunus with red hair, says with a giggle, her accent making her voice sound all the smoother. Her hair had black and white stripes in them, her orange eyes with slit pupils filled with amusement at her friends misfortune.

“Come on Carmen, where’s the fun in being calm?” The boy retorted, brushing off the grass from his dark brown skin and forest green hair, his own pale green eyes glaring slightly at the faunus.

Giggling again, Carmen turns to their new addition, Twilight walking up with a smile as Ruby stands next to her.

“Hey guys, I hope you don’t mind, but my little sister wanted to eat with us, and I figured this would be a good chance to introduce you guys.” Twilight says with a slight grin.

“Bout time Twi. I was wondering when you would introduce us to your family.” The girls and Tate all look towards one of the trees, spotting another girls dangling by her knees on one of the branches.

“Mel, what are you doing?” Carmen questions.

“What? I am just ‘hanging’ around.” She says dramatically, earning several groans. 

“I swear you are as bad as my sister.” Twilight mutters before the human shifts her weight, flipping off the branch and landing before her friends. She smiles warmly and turns her attention to the youngest addition of the group.

“Hi there, you must be Ruby. I am Mellow Hearts, but everyone calls me Mel, nice to meet you.” She says, shaking the younger girls hand, her fluffy, pale pink hair bouncing with her shaking. She leans back up and glances around with her bright yellow eyes, looking for something.

“Oh, there they are!” All eyes turn back to the building as a trio consisting of two boys, one human and one faunus, and a human girl come out and go towards them. Before long the whole group is together on a blanket, Ruby looking over them all with a smile.

“Well, I think we should get introductions out of the way first si?” Carmen says, turning to Ruby. “My name is Carmen Marciano, is great to meet you chica.”

“Hey there squirt, names Vio Lupus, nice to finally meet one of Twi’s sisters.” The faunus boy says, his ponytailed dark grey hair glinting somewhat in the sun, his own violet eyes showing a tint of mischief. Ruby smiles to him, glancing towards his silver wolf ears, noting the difference between them and her sisters and then glancing to his visible canines.

“Hi there Ruby, I am Tate Clover, it’s totally awesome to meet you kiddo.” Tate says excitedly, getting closer to Ruby’s face before being placed in a side-headlock and pulled back by the other human boy.

“Try to chill out a bit cus, don’t need you to freak her out. Sorry about my cousin, the dolt is too excitable sometimes. Names Matthew Choc, but you can call me Mat. Nice to meet you Ruby.” The last boy says, his own brown eyes filled with look of authority one would not expect for an 11 year old. His hair was as dark a green as his cousins.

Ruby turned to the last member of this group, a girl with navy blue hair held in a bun, her tan skin contrasting her pure white eyes, making them look like they were glowing. The girl smiles and gently lifts a hand over to Ruby, gently feeling her face.

“Um, why are you touching my face?” Ruby questions as the girl squints her eyes and squishes Ruby’s cheeks together before giggling.

“Sorry little Ruby, I was just getting a feel for how you look.” The girl replies, Ruby raising a brow and glancing to her sister.

“Ruby, this is Ali Star, she’s been blind since her birth, so she uses her hands to create images in her head about how the world looks. She is actually a great artist!” Twilight praises, the blind human blushing.

“Oh stop it Twilight. I am not that great.” Ali says modestly, digging into her lunch bag and taking out a sandwich. The others all follow suit, grabbing their respective lunches and beginning to eat in companionable silence.

“So, you guys wanna hang out after school? My dad said I could have some friends over for game night.” Vio asks, taking a large chunk out of his ham sandwich.

“Mat and I are in, our parents were going out anyways so we could use the time to distract ourselves.” Tate says, munching on some apple slices.

“Sorry, my mom wants me home so I can study for some tests next week. Maybe next time.” Mel says, munching on a blueberry muffin.

“What about you Twilight?.....Twilight?” The group turn to the pony faunus, who had been distracting herself with drawing in a sketchpad, having the odd bite of food between sketches.

“Oh boy here we go. She is going into one of her sketch and study modes again.” Ruby states, shaking her head. She had seen this many times before, her adopted sister was a genius and very studious girl, reading whenever she gets the chance. And lately, Ruby had noticed Twilight spends quite a bit of time drawing in her sketchbook, but she wouldn’t show them to anyone.

Ruby glances over to Twilight’s friends, and get worried as she sees a mischievous smirk grow on Vio’s face. Quietly, like a silent wind, the wolf faunus stalks forwards, towards his distracted prey. 

Once he is close enough, he quickly reaches over Twilight’s shoulder and swipes her sketchpad from her.

“Hey!” The pony looks back to her friend in a slight panic as Vio smiles and opens the book, about to tease the girl, only to pause as he sees the pictures.

“What the?” He mutters. In the page he was looking at, appeared to be several circles of different designs and colours, each followed by what looked to be some kind of advanced mathematical equation. 

Sitting down and flipping the page, he shows the others all the different circles and equations, meanwhile Twilight is silently covering her blushing face.

“Twilight, what exactly are these?” Carmen questions, looking at one circle that was red and orange with motif of fire throughout it. Twilight sighs and shakes her head.

“To be perfectly honest I have no idea.” All eyes shoot to Twilight as she says that, Ali catching the book as it falls from Carmen’s grip.

“Say what? How can you not know what they are? You’re the one drawing them!” Mel says.

“That’s the thing! These weird circles and equations just keep popping into my head! I don’t know what they are, what they are supposed to do, or even how I am knowing them. It just….pops in and I draw it out before it fades.” 

The group all look to the pony faunus with some skepticism and a little worry, some turning their eyes back to the book.

“Do...do you think these have a relation to your memories?” Ruby questions. Twilight just shrugs, her friends confused for a second before Ali pipes up.

“Oh yeah, I forgot you were suffering from amnesia.” She says, the others all remembering how Twilight mentioned that. Mat takes the booklet and looks over the circles a little closer.

“Hmm….hey, does anyone else think these look a bit like glyphs, like from the Schnee family?” He questions, the others looking at the circles.

“A little, but from what I read about the Schnees their glyphs don’t have this level of detail in them.” Carmen points out.

“Hmmm, maybe you’re from a forgot branch of the Schnee family? Like Aeon?” Ruby suggests. Her sister again shrugs, taking the booklet back and continuing her latest sketch.

“Maybe, but if that was the case then my blood test from all those years ago would have at least brought up a similarity to the Schnees, but it didn’t bring up anyone. I am not sure if these are glyphs or not but….I feel like they are important.” Twilight says, looking over the sketch carefully, adding little details here and there before writing the equation. 

Her friends all look to one another and shrug, going back to their food. Before long it was time for all of them to head back to class. But before they all left, Twilight caught all their attentions with small flash cards.

“Oh yeah, here. I wanted to invite you guys over to our place next week for my birthday.” She says, handing her friends their invitations.

“Alright! You know I’m in Twilight. I already have the perfect present idea in mind.” Ali says in excitement, the others all cheering in excitement. With that, the eight students dispersed, each heading to their next class, all excited for the party next week.


One Week Later


Rose-Xiao Long Household


“Happy Birthday Twilight!” Came the several voiced announcement as Twilight blows out the ten candles on her cake. The crowd in the house all clap and cheer for the now ten year old faunus. She smiles and allows herself to look over her friends and family as Tai cuts the cake and Qrow hands out the slices.

Her friends and siblings were all sitting around the living room, Tate, Mat, Yang and Aeon playing some kind of fighting game on the holoscreen while Carmen, Ali, Ruby, Mel and Vio watched with excitement.

Her Aunty Sunset was talking with Tukson about getting some new books for her classroom, the book owner becoming almost like a second uncle to the young pony girl, as seen by the photo of her he kept in his wallet.

Papa Tusk and Lily were in the kitchen, cleaning up some of the plates from their lunch with smiles. Twilight really liked Lily, despite her less than ideal introduction, and the two had become about as close as cousins. 

The pony faunus finished her slice of red velvet cake before making her way over to her friends, taking a seat on the recliner beside her younger sister and then taking out her sketchbook from her school bag. Twilight split her attention between drawing a new formula that popped into her head that morning, and watching her sister and Aeon utterly dominate her two male friends. It was funny, considering the amount of confidence the two cousins had in their skills, only to be completely outmatched by the Crimson Duo.

Twilight and the girls giggled a little as the end screen of the match popped up, the two human boys having lost the match without even getting Yang or Aeon to a quarter health. Twilight and Carmen particularly liked the looks of disbelief of their friends faces as they stared at the screen. 

“Next time, try and remember to dodge.” Yang states with a smirk, high-fiving her partner. The two humans just groaned in defeat, Tate falling on his back in annoyance.

“How?! How are you two so good?!” Tate questions. Aeon just shrugs.

“Don’t know what to tell you Tate, Yang and I are just a great team.” He says simply, getting up and stretching. This was one of the few times Aeon had forgone his mask and bandages, knowing that this family and friends were ones he could let his guard down around.

“Hmph, whatever.” Tate begrudgingly says. The others laugh a little at his annoyance. Twilight smiled before glancing from her sketchbook to Aeon, remembering what Ali and Ruby mentioned a week prior. Getting up from her seat, she walks over to Aeon, sketchbook in hand.

“Hey Aeon? Can I talk to you about something?” She asks, the red eyed boy nodding and following his friend upstairs to her room. Sunset noticed the two kids leaving and was curious about what Twilight wanted to talk about. She hadn’t missed the amount of time her surrogate niece was drawing on her free time, and was curious about what it was.

Silently following the duo, Sunset hid just out of sight behind the door to the girls shared room, listening in closely.

“So, what’s up Twi?” Aeon questions, taking a seat on the faunus’ bed.

“You know that I’ve been drawing a lot lately, right?” She pulled out her sketchbook. “It’s mainly been a lot these strange glyphs. They seem so familiar to me but I don’t recognize any of them. I was hoping you could take a look at them and see if you could tell me if any of them mean anything to you since your family uses glyphs.”

Aeon nodded his head. “Sure Twi. Let’s have a look.” Twilight handed him the sketchbook and he opened it and started to slowly flip through the pages. He carefully examined every sketch and the glyphs they contained. Aeon noticed that the sketches not only contained glyphs but many alphanumerical formulas as well. “Hm.” he scratches his head with one hand. He did recognize some of the symbols as ancient writings he’d studying from his family’s history but most of it was foreign to him. Aeon closed the book and handed it back to Twilight.

“Well, did you see anything you know about?” Twilight eager to know as always.

“Sorry Twi. I did recognize a few as ancient symbols found in some of my family history but most of it is out of my league,” Aeon sighed as he wasn’t a bigger help. He then got an idea. “Let’s take it to Sunset. She’s an expert on ancient stuff like this. She is the top history teacher at Signal after all.”

“You won’t have to go far.” The duo turn to the door as Sunset makes herself known, leaning on the doorframe with a grin. 

“Oh, hey Aunt Sunny. Do you think you can take a look at these? I assume you had been listening in since I started.” Twilight says, flicking her ears to accentuate the point. Laughing a little, Sunset nods and takes a seat next to her charge, taking the sketchbook from his hands.

“Alright, let’s see what we got here.” Sunset mutters, looking at the image. Barely a second passed though, before Sunset froze, eyes wide. The two kids shared a concerned glance as Sunset looks at the next image, then the next, and then the next. Before long Sunset had silently looked through all the drawings and formulas.

“Well? Do you know what they are?” Aeon questions with a little worry, Sunset shaking her head after a second.

“Maybe. A lot of these glyph and formulas look familiar to me, but I can’t put my finger on it.” She turns her attention to her niece. “Twily, would it be ok for me to take this back with me? I have some more materials back at my place that might be able to help me pinpoint where I have seen these before.”

“Sure,” Twilight happily smile at her aunt. “If I come up with anymore of them I’ll bring them right to you Aunty.”

“Hey, Sunset, are we still going to head down to the lake with everyone soon? I’m getting a little antsy to show off Rip and Tear,” Aeon excited over the fact he’d get to display his new finished weapon that his adoptive mother and surrogate sister had helped him design.

“Of course Aeon. How about you and Twi go down and get everyone ready. I’ll be down in a sec and we can all go.” Sunset replies.

The duo nod and head out the room and down the stairs, the kids all grabbing their gear for a swimming trip. Sunset smiled as they left, before frowning and opening the booklet again.

She looked carefully at the glyphs draw there, they were way too similar to ones she had seen before. She thought maybe it was a huge coincidence, but the formulas next to them all but confirmed her suspicions.

“This one is for teleportation, this is a kinetic blast, this one is a mortified cloud walking spell. There’s no doubt about it. I guess I am not the only one to come through that mirror.” She mutters to herself, before sighing and closing the booklet, placing it in her purse as she headed out to the others.

‘Twilight is an Equestrian, there is no doubt on that. The question now is, what caused and allowed her to come here?’ 


Some Time Later….


Patched Crater Lake


“Cannon Ball!” The children all laugh and guard themselves as Vio jumps into the lake, splashing almost everyone as he hits the water and resurfaces. The wolf faunus shook his hair and laughed as he dodged a splash from his friends. 

On the beach, the adults, Lily, Yang and Twilight, were all enjoying the sun, Yang smiling and joking with her dad while the others actively tuned out the back and forth of ‘hilarious’ puns and jokes.

Twilight was talking with Tukson about possibly helping at his store when she is older, and the older faunus said she would be paid handsomely in new books. Sunset barely stopped herself from losing it at seeing Twilight’s eyes brighten at the thought. 

Twi smiled and watched her friends and Ruby all playing in the water, adjusting her frilly blue two-piece. This was the first time in quite a while that Twi had been able to just relax and hang out with those she cares about.

Tusk and Tukson began talking to one another about some new manuals and history books from Vacuo that were about to arrive. Sunset took out her scroll, messaging some of the other teachers at Signal about some things. The older bookstore owner then opened his scroll and scowled before saying he had to leave. It was sad, but Twilight nodded, giving her faunus uncle a hug before he left.

Ruby laughed as Aeon gave her a piggyback, the duo play-fighting against Carmen and Tate, who were doing the same thing. The others were just relaxing in the small dingy they had brought with them.

With a small yell, Ruby managed to push Carmen off balance, the snake faunus taking her human mount with her as they fell into the water. The silver-eyed girl cheered and received a high five from the boy carrying her. 

“No fair, you shouldn’t be that strong!” Carmen stated, shaking the water from her hair and inadvertently hitting Tate in the face. 

“Ha! That’s what you get for thinking scythes are overrated!” Ruby cheered, arms above her head. 

“I am sure Qrow appreciates the defence Ruby.” Aeon added, adjusting himself to let Ruby off his shoulders. “So, how much longer until your dad and Qrow let you start designing your weapon?”

“Not long. Dad and uncle Qrow wanted me to wait until after midterms so I can focus my free time on it.” The girl responded, wading in the water. 

“Yeah that makes sense. It took me forever before I got the basics for Rip and Tear down. Then again, considering how much of a weapons geek you are, it shouldn’t take you too long.” Aeon said with a smirk. Ruby blushed at the title and retaliated with a strong splash. With that, the splash fights were back on.

“Those kids.” Sunset whispered to herself with a smile, enjoying watching her charge and nieces friends all playing together. 

“Agreed. They really needed this I think.” Qrow piped up, giving his friend and fellow teacher a water bottle. “I have noticed some of Twi’s friends have been stressed with studying lately. You really don’t pull any punches with assignments.”

“Why would I?” The pony faunus questioned with a grin. “If I could handle it as a kid, they shouldn't have any complaints.”

“Not all of us are prodigies Aunt Sunny.” Twi piped up, smiling as she added some details to the sword in her sketchbook. 

Sunset pouted then she and Qrow glanced over their nieces shoulder, seeing the very detail and well designed sketch. It looked to be a falchion with a curved pommel. The blade was a little longer than normal, about 43 inches to accommodate the shifting parts. The tip had an odd hook design. Near the guard were several small, nearly unnoticeable notches that were written to catch opponents' weapons and the blade had a six pointed star guard. 

The other side of the sheet showed the weapon in gun mode, showing a ten round, stripper clip fed bolt action rifle. Sunset noticed the calculations on the side, showing what this lacked in fire rate, it was meant to make up for in muzzle velocity and stopping power. Qrow slowly nodded in appreciation at the design, mentally noting a couple points to improve upon.

Right now it was a basic sketch without any real personalization like colour or designs, but it was clear it was nearly completed. Sunset and Qrow smirked as they noticed a bunch of the lines being in red, courtesy of a certain hood wearing girl. 

Twi tapped her chin for a second, before smiling and adding some more details to the weapons blade. 

“Just so you know Twi I wasn’t a prodigy either,” Sunset’s caught Twilight off guard as she bent over. “I had to work very hard to earn my place. Pop Tusk pushed me hard everyday to be better and we didn’t have all the amenities that you kids have now. No matter what you can’t get by on talent alone or skill alone, you still have work for it. Look at Aeon,” She motioned to her adopted son. “He may seem like a prodigy but that’s only because I make him practice his glyphs and exercises everyday. He found out that he’s better as a support hunterman due to his semblance and chose to be a long range fighter similar to me. The weapon is based on mine.”

“Well not everyone's trainer slash dad was war hero either Sunny,” Qrow snickered. “You had a pretty good teacher in Oleander. I can’t tell ya how many stories I’ve heard about the old man. Always wondered what happened to after he left the military, never thought he’d be running an orphanage.”

“You have a point Qrow.,” Sunset stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. “Papa did push those of us that wanted to be huntsmen and hunteresses pretty hard. But look at the results. Lily is the top of her class.”

“Because she has you and Tusk to back her up in training,” Qrow deadpanned.

“....Touché.” Was the reluctant reply as Sunset, sipped her water. 

“Hey! What’s that?” The adults turned to the water and the kids began to swim back to shore. Ruby was the farthest out with Aeon, pointing out to the large river that fed to the ocean. 

The adults paled as they saw a large mass of black just under the water, coming upstream. They turned whiter than a Schnee as it glowed red.

“RUBY, AEON GET OUT OF THERE!” Sunset screamed, grabbing her weapon along with Qrow.

The duo looked to one another in worry, but they didn’t need to do much as there was a large splash from the water, a wave throwing the duo through the water to the shore. Yang and Twilight ran to them and quickly dragged the coughing duo away from the water. 

The kids and huntsman looked to the water in fear as the mass in the middle of the lake swam around before breaching the water and beginning to tower over them. 

A Grimm, one not normally seen near Patch or Vale’s oceans was looking down at the party with hunger in its eyes.

The Grimm was a large serpent, with white bone-plated fins on its back and a large black body with a fanned red tail fin and fin webbing behind its mask. It’s face was covered by a narrow bone mask with angled horns like a bull. Along its serpentine body was several marks that alternately glowed red from tail fin to head. Even halfway out of the water, it still towered over a story above the humans and faunus below.

“What the hell is a Mameleu doing here!? They normally live near the Vacuo side of the Sea of Souls!” Lily yelled, keeping the kids behind herself. 



“I guess this one decided to shake things up!” Tai replied, grabbing Ruby and running to the kids. 

The Grimm let out a hissing bellow, making its scales glow in agitation. Sunset, Qrow, Tusk and Lily grabbed their weapons as it dove back underwater.

“Tai! Grab the kids and get back to the house! We’ll handle this thing!” Sunset yelled. The blond wanted to argue, but knew he wasn’t much help here. He focused on hand-to-hand, not a good match against an aquatic Grimm, especially one this size. 

“Come on kids!” Tai ordered, carrying his youngest and dragging an upset Yang. Twilight and Aeon stayed in the back, making sure their friends didn’t stray. Tusk watched as the man and the children ran away, before sighing with a grin.

“Well, looks like we are going to have some fun now. So how about it!”


With Tai


“Daddy we can’t just leave them!” A struggling Yang yelled as she was dragged by her father. The others were all beside or slightly behind the huntsman, keeping an eye out and flinching at some of the gunshots from behind. 

“We don’t have a choice Yang. I hate it just as much as you, but we’d only get in the way right now. Leave it to the others.” Aeon told his surrogate cousin, a scowl on his scarred face as he stayed near the back to make sure Twilight's friends didn’t fall behind or wander off.

Ruby was oddly silent, just keeping her face hidden behind her bangs and nuzzling into her fathers neck. Tai was worried at that, knowing how much she looked up to her aunt and uncles. 

The group had made it, maybe ⅓ of the way back, when a loud growl echoed through the clearing they were in. The group all paused, Twilight’s friends having looks of fear on their faces, while Twilight, Aeon and Yang were scowling. 

Tai gently passed his youngest to his eldest, and raised his fists, keeping his eyes on the forest around them. Twilight, Yang and Aeon surrounded their friends in a triangle formation, looking around in worry. 

A slight shift from a nearby bush was all the warning needed as Tai began his sidestep and right hook, nailing a young Beowolf in the back of the head with enough force to break its neck. 

He didn’t get to pat himself on the back as several more Grimm slowly made their way out of the surrounding forest. They were all very young Beowolves, barely any having the bone plating synonymous with age.

“Yang, get back to the house. Run and don’t look back!” 

“What, dad we won’t leave you!” Was the indignant reply, even as she clutched her younger sister to her chest.

“That wasn’t a request Yang!” Tai ducked a clumsy claw attack and nailed a shot to the grimms chest, several ribs breaking under his fists. “I’ll be fine! You need to take care of the others!” 

“But-” Yang was cut off by her faunus sister grabbing her shoulder. 

“You better come home safe dad! Or we won’t forgive you!” Twilight yelled, turning her sister and pushing the blond ahead of her. Tai just smirked at his daughters before turning his attention to the Beowolf pack he was against.


Back with the Huntsman


“Damnit, this beast has tough armor!” Tusk yelled, slashing and failing to go through the grimms scales. He jumped back as it wiggled around, trying to slash the huntsman with its bladed back scales. 

Sunset launched several shots at the Grimms head and between its scales, but it kept moving around so they just bounced off the plating on its body. She growled and kept firing, keeping its attention away from her father and towards herself. 

“This is not going great!” Lily yelled, jumping away from its tail as it tried to swipe at her, and stabbed at the same spot she had been stabbing for a while, slowly making cracks in the scales. 

Qrow had managed to get onto its back, and was slowly making his way up the Grimm towards its head. It was slow going since the thing kept moving and he could barely penetrate its scales to use his sword to keep him steady. 

Lily jumped back and rotated the revolver in her Lance before firing several Ice Dust rounds, making some chunks of ice appear on the grimms body. It just hissed and shook the chunks off though, turning its head to Lily, who immediately paled. “Oops.”

“Lily Run!” Sunset screamed, firing her weapon at the grimms head till it ran out, but the Grimm didn’t even pay attention to her, the bullet not making a scratch on its hard skull plating. 

The Mameleu hissed loudly before lashing its body fully out of the water and towards the young huntress-in-training. Lily stepped back several steps before noticing something on the grimms head. 

The Mameleu released a pained bellow as Qrow unfurled his weapon into its scythe mode and stabbed at its right eye, holding onto its horn for balance. The Grimm veered off course, missing impaling Lily on its horn, but she was still bat away by its tail as it turned back to the water. Lily went flying into the trees, the branches and leaves breaking her flight and a fair portion of her aura.

“Lily! Lily, are you ok!?” Tusk yelled, catching Qrow as he jumped from the pained Grimm.

“I-I’m Alive!” Was the pained reply from the trees. Sunset checked her scroll and saw Lily’s aura was already in the orange, another hit lit that and she’s toast. Qrow, Tusk and herself were in the green, barely, but this Grimm is no joke. 

Sunset was about to try and talk to the guys, before there was a ping from her scroll. She checked it again, and paled as she saw that Tai’s aura appeared in the monitor again, meaning he is under attack.

“Shit, the kids!” That got Qrow and Tusk’s attention.

“What, what’s going on Sunset?!” Qrow demanded.

“Tai, he’s under attack!” That was all that she could say before the Mameleu burst out of the water again, bellowing in pain and anger. They saw it’s scales beginning to glow a bright red, as well as the back of its mouth.

“Shit, Scatter!” Right after Tusk yelled that the Grimm released a stream of red plasma, scorching the ground and cutting through several trees as the hunters dodged around it. Qrow jumped around the trees, Tusk ducked behind some rocks, and Sunset twisted around the bolt, her own flame semblance keeping her from being scorched.

The Grimm stopped breathing the plasma and roared again, but Sunset paused as she could see something in its mouth. It was hard to tell, but in the dark abyss that was the Mameleu mouth, parts of its mouth, just behind its gums and around its tongue, it was glowing red and smoking.

“It’s burned?” She muttered to herself as the hunters met back up. Her eyes lit up as she saw the Grimm go into the water, and kept its mouth open for the water to enter. “So that’s it.” The other three turned to her. “It’s not immune to its own plasma breath. It’s insides are unprotected! So that means…”

“We have to hit it on the inside. Easier said than done.” Qrow grumbled, retracting his scythe into its gun mode. Sunset grabbed her revolver and swapped out her regular bullets for some Fire Dust Explosive rounds. Lily changed her own ammo to a special Steam Dust compound she had recently started to use. 

“We just need to get its attention. If I can get close, I could light it up with my Semblance.” Sunset stated, watching as the Grimm rose up out of the water again and let out an annoyed hiss.

“And how exactly are you planning on getting close?” Tusk asked with a stern glare. 

“Don’t worry about it papa. I’ve got this.” Sunset said with a smile. Tusk kept his glare for a few moments before sighing as the Grimm hissed louder, clearly agitated at the group.

“Well, let’s do this.” Lily stated, aiming her weapon at the grimms fins. Several shots later, and the Grimm was roaring in pained anger as a burst of steam burned its right ear fins. It dunked its head underwater before charging at the group.

Qrow grabbed Lily, said huntress-in-training, releasing an indignant yelp, and jumped towards the rocky outcropping nearby, leading the Grimm with them. 

Tusk managed to run up and boosted himself onto the grimms back, holding onto one of its rear fins with the notches in his sword. He slowly made his way up the grimms back, notching his weapon on its fins for support as it chased Qrow and Lily.

Sunset managed to get into a nearby tree and combined her weapons, looking down the scope of her bow as the Grimm slithered around. She saw as Lily and Qrow ran out of the nearby stone outcropping, the Grimm bursting through a second later. She could see it heading her direction, Qrow and Lily leading it while occasionally firing a pot shot, with Tusk now managing to get to its head. 

With a deep breath, Sunset fired the round, leaving a quick trail of fire as it impacted the grimms head, creating an explosion that sent its head to the side. It roared again, looking around for the source of the attack, when another shot hit it right under the jaw, one of its ‘soft’ spots, causing some Grimm ‘blood’ to pour from the wound. 

It bellowed again before it saw a glint from one of the trees and another shot landed just on the edge of its good left eye. It bellowed in anger and it changed its course and began to slither to the trees. 

Sunset crouched on her branch, watching as the Grimm came closer and closer. Qrow and Lily began to yell in worry, when Sunset saw the Grimm was close enough.

“Now Papa!” The Grimm let out a confused hiss as it just now noticed Tusk on its muzzle, before said huntsman hooked his weapon into the grimms jaw and pulled, forcing the Mameleu to open up wide.

Sunset jumped, firmly planting herself in the grimms mouth, looking around for a second as she saw the small areas that are still burned. Her eyes widened as she heard an odd gurgling sound, before noticing a red glow down the grimms throat. 

Without wasting any more time, Sunset grabbed a large Burn Dust crystal and tossed it down the grimms throat. She could hear a hiss make its way through the grimms throat, but ignored it as she planted her feet on the grimms teeth.

“Sayonara Bakemono!” Sunset yelled, some of her Mistralean side coming up. With a quick snap of her finger, the air began to become hazy before quickly bursting into orange and yellow flames. 

The Grimm roared as its mouth caught fire, the energy in its throat imploding as it was detonated too soon along with that dust crystal. Sunset winced as the explosion sent her flying, crashing through a couple trees before one finally stopped her, at the cost of the rest of her aura. Everything went black.

“-set! Sunset! Sunset!” Blearily, the faunus managed to open her eyes, seeing her father, sister and friend looking at her with varying looks of worry. She groaned as she felt her body protesting at the small act of breathing, her back howling in pain.

“How long?” She muttered, coughing some blood up. ‘Well, that’s a fractured rib.’ She thought to herself.

“About two minutes. I was about to have Qrow carry you.” Tusk answered, heaving his sword onto his back before grabbing Sunsets own weapons. Lily managed to help the injured woman onto the man's back. 

“How’s Tai?” She questioned, barely able to wrap her arms and legs around Qrow. 

“The meter from his scroll shows he’s still in the green. I don’t think it was anything too serious he ran into.” Lily answered as they made their way through the forest. Sunset sighed in relief. She went to rest, before suddenly stiffening. 

“Sunset? What’s-” Qrow couldn’t finish as they all felt something. Something strong was pressing down on them, an unknown pressure. They could hear a loud crackle of electricity. They watched the sky, and Sunset paled as she saw purple bolts of electricity and a pale pink mist and aura lighting up the sky. 

“What the hell?” Qrow muttered. He couldn’t say more before Sunset grabbed his head.

“Run! Now! We need to hurry!” The trio listened on instinct, but still cast a glance at Sunset, who was pale as a ghost. She saw their looks, and spoke one word.

“Twilight.”


Tai


“Gods can you just give it a rest already?!” The man yelled, nailing another beowolf in the face before rolling to the left to avoid another’s pounce. 

He took stock of his area, seeing this was not going to end soon. What he thought was a small pack of maybe a dozen or two Grimm, turned out to be several dozen strong, most young, but plenty of experienced ones mixed. 

At the very least, he was holding them all back from the kids. The pack was more focused on the older huntsman than thinking of running after several kids that should have made it back to the house by now. 

He was glad for that, but that still didn’t help him when he was surrounded. He actually stopped counting how many grimms he’s killed in the past twenty minutes, but he knew it was way too many. How did this many Grimm get here at once?

He shook his head, trying to get back into the game. He scowled as the Grimm howled to the air, many crouching in preparation to leap. 

He lowered himself slightly, arm pulled back. And then all of a sudden, it stopped. He blinked as all the Grimm suddenly straightened up, looking past him. He didn’t dare turn his attention away, but he knew something was wrong. Grimm don't act like this unless there was a stronger mass of negative emotion, or one of those relics old man Oz told him about. 

Then he felt it. A huge wave of energy that seemed to go through him, making his spine shiver and his fists tighten. He barely reacted as all the Grimm suddenly ran past him, completely ignoring him. 

He didn’t have a chance to react as he turned to where they were running, and saw several bolts of electricity fly into the sky. Except, they were purple. And there was an odd, pale pink mist surrounding the area it was coming from. 

“What is this?” Tai muttered, frozen in his spot as he watched the spectacle through the trees. He wasn’t sure how long he was standing there, but he was broken out by a hand on his shoulder. 

“Tai, snap out of it! Come on!” Tai shook his head and began to run, being gently pushed by his brother-in-law. He turned and saw clear signs of panic on Sunset’s face. And wow, she must have been hurt if Qrow was carrying her. 

“What is going on?! What was that pulse?!” Tai questioned as they ran. 

“It’s Twilight.” Was all Sunset said before Tai suddenly ran faster, passing the others. If one of his daughters was the cause, that just meant he needed to be there first.


With the kids…


Earlier…


“Stay close guys. Don’t wander off.” Aeon stated, looking around the foliage. Twilight stood next to him, keeping an eye out behind them. 

The group of kids was about ¾ of the way to the house, and so far they hadn’t encountered any Grimm aside from the ones Tai stayed behind to take care off. But that didn’t mean they were safe, not until they could get to the house. 

Yang was at the head of the group, clutching Ruby’s hand in her own as she led the way to the house. Tate and Mathew stuck close to one another, Carmen and Vio kept their eyes, ears and noses open as they glanced around the forest surrounding them. Mel kept a firm hand on Ali as they two girls stayed close to one another, not wanting to be separated. 

The group was mostly silent as they made their way through the forest, trying to keep happy thoughts in their minds to ward off any negative emotions that could lead the Grimm to them. 

Aeon was finding it especially hard to keep his feelings in check as his hate for the Grimm was seriously getting to him. “Damn it…” he said as the children quietly moved along. “If I had my sword I could do something instead of just run and hide. Lily and Sunset are always fighting for me.” Aeon’s eyes glowed slightly.

“Be careful everyone, we’re nearly there.” Twilight said, checking her map on her scroll. The others nodded and frowned, still looking around. Tate looked past his friends, seeing that they were coming up on another small clearing. He motioned forwards, staying close to his cousin. 

“Yang?” The blond looked to her youngest sister, who was just pointing a shaking finger at what looked like a white rock. The others were confused, but Carmen tensed as she recognized what it was. 

Then the rock moved. The kids all jumped as the round mass of white unfurled and stood on four legs, making them all realize what it was. A Grimm normally found in the arid mountains of Vacuo.



A medium-size grimm was in front of the group. It's body was almost completely white covered with thick boney armor with red eye-like highlights around its head. This was a grimm a pangolin and would give even the most experienced of hunters a hard time due to its armor and defensive and offensive abilities. Such as its ability to roll into a ball and roll around rapidly or to attack.

Yang's eyes shrank in fear as she recalled the events of the past and it attracted the Grimm. The dark creature raised up on its hind legs and readied to pounce on the girls. The blonde closed her eyes and readied to take it but instead the pangolin was sent in a tree trunk and stuck to it via its bony plates. It moved its head around, visibly confused at what just happened.

Yang looked over to see Aeon clutching his left side and breathing heavily through his teeth, the look of hate and rage in his glowing eyes. Yang looked down to see that he'd brought his dust gauntlet and used it to knock the grimm back.

"Yang," Aeon growled. "Take the others and get to the house.  I'll hold it until the adults can come." 

"But…"

"Please," He pleaded. "My mother, my sister, and my grandfather are all out there fighting to keep us safe. I can't lose my family again, just go and don't look back." Aeon held his arm sneering st the trapped Grimm through his anger and pai. "I couldn't do anything last time, but I can now and I really don't want you guys here to see this. You and the others don't have enough experience fighting grimm yet or have your weapons. At least with my Gauntlet I can use my semblence better. NOW GO!"

Twilight and Ruby were visibly distraught, both keying in on 'Lose my family again', and at his harsh command, along with the others who looked beyond worried, but Yang just frowned, knowing he was right.

"You better come back couz," Yang demanded as she took the others and ran.

The pangolin managed to free itself but at the cost of some of its armor. It locked on to Aeon and rolling into a ball then charged at the huntsman-to-be.

"Wanna play dodgeball aye," Aeon smirked, dodging the creature. "Fine, I'll play and here's my ball!" He gritted his teeth in pain as he slammed his palm on the ground and a spinning white circular glyph appeared then turned black with the crackle of red electricity. Soon a boarbatusk appeared. All would have mistook it for a wild grimm head they come up now but this was Aeon creations, the first grimm he slew under Sunset's training. "Attack!"


With the Kids…


“Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!” Tate and his cousins muttered to themselves. The kids ended up getting their second wind as Aeon stayed behind, running at a near full tilt back to the house.

“Oh this is so bad!” The snake faunus muttered as she kept a firm hand on her blind friend.

“Carmen calm down, you’re not doing us any favours by freaking out!” Twilight stated, again staying in the back to keep an eye on things. Out of all of them, Twilight and Yang were the ones who seemed to be the most calm and serious. Mostly because only their family were training to be huntsmen. 

“I am just stating the obvious!” Carmen yelled, before she felt a hand on her cheek. She looked and saw that Ali was wiping her eyes, which she didn’t even notice was tearing up. Though she couldn’t see it, Ali’s action forced a large blush on the snake faunus face.

Twilight allowed the barest of smirks to appear on her face as she saw her fellow Faunus reaction, before narrowing her eyes and turning around. She then paled as she heard several branch’s breaking behind her.

“Crap, step on it!” She screamed just as several Beowolves and Creeps burst from the trees behind them. The kids all yelled in fear and ran even faster. The howl of the lead Grimm, an alpha Creep, sent shivers down their spines, but they didn’t stop running. 

“They're gaining on us!” Mel needlessly pointed out, her bright yellow eyes turning bloodshot. The others weren’t much better, at this point Carmen was all but carrying Ali and Vio had to keep pushing Matt and Tate. Mel was barely keeping ahead of the boys, but even her gymnastic athleticism was starting to run out.

Then, it happened.

Twilight paled as she saw her little sister trip, then scream as a sickening crack echoed in her head. Time slowed as Twilight caught up, seeing Ruby’s foot was twisted in a hole that was hidden under a root, the blood staining her shoes making it clear something had broken through her skin. 

The others all paused for a second to assess the situation, but that was all the time that was needed for the grimm to catch up. Twilight turned so fast her neck nearly cracked as the lead most Creep let out what could be considered a victory howl as it suddenly pounced towards them. 

Time stopped for Twilight as she looked up towards the pouncing grimm. She was farthest back, so it was going straight to herself. She could jump out of the way, but then it would just land on either one of her friends or her caught sister. 

‘No. Please....I don’t want this! I can’t...I can’t lose them! I can’t lose my only family!’ She thought to herself as time seemed to slowly speed up. Were anyone to look at her, they would have seen Twilight’s eyes begin to glow a second before her chest did.

‘No. I won’t let this happen!’ The pinkish-purple glow on her chest began to spread, covering her torso before continuing and focusing on her head and hand. Pale pink miasma and purple bolts of aura began to appear in her clenched fist as she pulled back. 

“Twilight!” Was what she heard as time finally picked up. The grimm had barely a moment to release a confused growl, before Twilight’s glowing fist impacted its head. 

“DIE!” With that scream a beam of purple energy blast from her hand, through the grimm and several others behind it before stopping and carving out a swirl pattern on a tree.

Everything froze, the kids, Ruby trying to get out of the hole, the grimm breaking through the forest, even the wind seemed to pause in shock at what just happened. 

The kids all blinked, their eyes adjusting to the bright light emanating from the pony faunus. Ruby blinked her tears away, trying to ignore the pain in her foot as she stared in awe at her adopted sister. Yang wasn’t that much better off.

‘She unlocked her aura herself!? Dad and Uncle Qrow said that is nearly impossible to happen! Normally someone needs to help ‘kick start’ it before it can be used. Unlocking it by oneself is dangerous.’ Yang thought to herself. 

“Whoa.” That was what came out of the kids mouths as they stared in awe at their friend.

Their awe soon turned to fear however, when they finally took notice of Twilight as a whole. Something was clearly wrong.

Her body was twitching, mostly her hands and neck, an odd spark of purple aura flying across her body at random. The pinkish miasma or mist was emanating from her body, making her look like she was a steamer. But the scariest thing was her eyes. 

They were, to put it simply, inverted. The sclera around her eyes had turned a bright purple, while her iris and pupils turned glowing white, like she was blind. 

Even more alarming though, was that Twilight’s face was stuck in an expression of immense pain. 

Her mouth was open wide in a silent scream as suddenly, the miasma and lightning aura around her all but exploded. Each of the kids felt something pass through them, like a wave as the surroundings were suddenly covered by pale pink fog.


(Like this scene)

The grimm seemed to deem this a moment of weakness and all began to pounce. They didn’t get within six feet though, before being blasted by either a seemingly random bolt of purple aura or hit by flying rocks and branches, or Twilight herself lifting her arms and sending the grimm flying with a beam of aura.

The kids began to panic again as not only were the grimm attacking more aggressively, but several rocks and branches, even a couple fallen trees had been covered by a purple aura not unlike the one making up Twilight’s attacks and began to float and fly around, converging on Twilight and making a twister of rubble. 

“What is happening?!?” Vio and Carmen yelled, their faunus instincts telling them to run as far away as possible right now.

“I think Twilight’s lost control of herself!” Ali yelled, though she couldn’t see, she could hear and sense what was going on. 

“Didn’t she say her Semblance was some kind of telekinesis? What’s with the lightning and mist and freaking energy beams?!” Tate questioned before ducking under a very large rock that nearly beaned him in the head. 

“Well what the hell do we do?!” Mellow screamed, acting the exact opposite of her name right now. 

Little Ruby was left speechless, be it in fear, worry, awe or horror, one couldn’t tell. The physical pain she felt in her foot and on her arms was pushed to the side as she saw the expression on her adopted sister. She couldn’t look away. Tears appeared in her eyes as Twilight’s appearance overlapped with a woman in a white hood. 

‘Daddy, Uncle Qrow, Aunt Sunny, HELP!’ 


Aeon 


Aeon was sitting under the tree where the boy had pinned the Pangolin the first time with his punch. He was tired and completely drained from his fight with the heavily armored grimm and from using his semblance to fully summon his boarbatusk. He was now too exhausted to even move as he felt the pain in his arm from his early blow fully setting in. There was no doubt in his mind that his arm was broken in a few places or at the very least fractured in several places. All in all, it was a hollow victory for the boy as he’d managed to protect his family this time.

After his fight with the Pangolin, Aeon had planned to rush to the others at the house but felt his adrenaline wearing and soon he collapsed under the tree and not long after that his boarbatusk faded back to whence it’d come.

Aeon’s was starting to fade from the conscious plain into the dream realm but was suddenly pulled back to the waking world as he heard a loud roar. In front of him stood two very large Ursa.

“Hehe…” he weakly chuckled. “So this is it aye…. eaten by grimm just like my folks, just like my friends, like my entire village…” He reminisced about his old home and his time there then his thoughts shifted to when Sunset pulled out of the rubble. To Tusk’s orphanage and meeting his big sister Lily for the first tIme. “She was the first big sister I ever had,” He sniffled as tears of sorrow and joy started to flow for the first time in many years for the boy. His thoughts this time turned to meeting his new cousins and how Sunset told him about how she garnered the name Helios for being the best sniper in all of Anima. “I didn’t know if I should’ve been mad or happy when she told me,” he smirked slightly as the Ursa steadily moved in. “I wish we had more… time…” he closed his eyes.

*BANG!*

“Aeon… I’m here!” he heard someone calling him, someone familiar.

RAOOOWWWWWWRRRRR! 

An Ursa roared at something.

*BANG! BANG!*

THUD…


Sunset, Lily, Tai, Qrow & Tusk


Sunset, Lily and the others all raced to get to the kids. Once they’d seen the purple clouds they’d known something was wrong. Soon they came upon some downed trees. Sunset’s Aura has slowly begun to come back, so the pain in her ribs was already healed, but she was still tired.

Tusk quickly examined the area, “Pangolin, it fought a boarbatusk here? Why’d they fight though? Grimm usually gang up when there’s humans around.” He was perplexed. Then they saw a pair of ursa going for a nearby tree.

Sunset’s color faded slightly while her eyes shrank in fear after hearing the details of the carnage from her father, “You guys go on. We’ll stay here and look for anyone,” Qrow and Tai nodded and went ahead.

Lily pulled up her scope and looked to see the form of her little brother battered, bloody, and bruised. 

Without a second thought Lily cocked her rifle lance then fired a shot straight in one of the grimm, killing the beast instantly. She then turned to her surrogate mother, “It’s Aeon. He’s over there,” She pointed to the tree while the remaining Uras looked from Aeon to the other then back to the boy and kept moving for him.

Sunset’s heart sank at the mention of her son, “Lily, you stay here. Your aura won’t last if you take too many more, lay down cover fire after I get him.” The young huntress nodded and readyed herself, not bringing up Sunset’s own aura level, while Sunset readied her sword and revolver. Immediately Sunset rushed in while Lily shot a few shots to get the grimm’s attention. “Aeon.. I’m here!” Sunset called out as she aimed her revolver and used her last two shots in the gun to blow off the Ursa front right forearm.

“You’re not gonna touch him!” Sunset yelled in a maternal rage as she came in and sliced the Ursa to shreds. She quickly ran over to Aeon and held him tight as he cried into his shoulder, “Oh my boy… my poor sweet brave boy…” she cried and then she felt his shallow breathing, “ Aeon…” she said somewhat raspily. Sunset tapped his face lightly, “Come on Aeon wake up… Please... I need you to wake up!”

Lily quickly came to her mother’s side and looked over her to see the boy she called her little brother. “Is… is he…”

“Mmmm…” Aeon groaned as he somewhat opened his eyes. “Sunset…” he wearily looked at his adoptive mother. “Mom!” he threw his good arm around his mother then saw his sister. “Lily! I thought I’d never see you guys again!”

“Shhhhh…. It’s alright Aeon, I’m here and so is Lily and papa,” she looked up at the sky and purple clouds and then felt a familiar static in the air. Her eyes widened with acknowledgement. ‘Magic. Oh no, Twilight!’ She gently let go of Aeon, confusing the boy. She turned to Lily and Tusk. “Papa, Lily, you two stay with him. I’ll go on and clear the path and meet up with the others”

“What else are you planning girl?” Tusk had raised Sunset so he knew when she was scheming.

“Honestly papa… I don’t know… But I do know that I’m the only one here who can save Twilly,” Sunset pleaded with her father in all honesty.

“We’ll keep Aeon safe,” Liy thumps her chest. “Go save her Mom…”

Sunset let a tear roll down her face in a bit of joy at being called mother instead of sister, as the wind blew her hair back. “Thank you Lily,” she said, picking up her weapons and then holstering her revolver. “Aunt Sunny’s coming Twilly just hang on until I get there!” She took off running.


Elsewhere…


“Wha-what the hell is this?!” Tai muttered to himself as he and Qrow finally made it close to the area the kids were at. But that didn’t explain anything as he saw what looked like a cyclone of debris, grimm body parts, mist and lightning swirling around.

“Tai!” The blond turned to his old teammate, who was pointing to a tree nearby. He followed his finger and saw a familiar red hood peeking out from under the roots.

“Kids!” His call and subsequent rush towards the hood made his eldest pop her head out from under the burrow they were in.

“Dad! Uncle Qrow!” Yang called out, frantically waving her family over. Qrow and Tai managed to avoid the flying debris as they made their way over, seeing the kids all huddled under the tree in an old animal burrow barely big enough to fit them all. 

“Is everyone alright?” Qrow demanded, blocking any flying debris as Tai helped the kids out and behind some trees for cover.

“Mostly. I think Ruby broke something in her foot.” Tai looked to his eldest in worry before turning to the girl in the red hood, who just kept watching the violent act of nature her sister is causing.

“Ruby?” Qrow and Tai both visibly flinched at the look in Ruby’s eyes. She was scared, scratch that, terrified. 

“Daddy we have to help Twilight!” The silver eyed girl yelled, trying to stand only to cry out in pain and fall into her fathers arms. 

“Ruby you can’t even stand right now. You can’t do anything.” Vio stated, helping his friend's sister into her fathers arms. 

“But-” 

“No buts Ruby! You are not going to Twilight. Not until we can figure out how to calm her down.” Tai commanded, placing Ruby onto Yang’s Back before turning to Qrow. The former bandit kept his eyes on the swirling mess before him, flinching at the odd bolt of electricity that would strike nearby. “Qrow. Is...is Twilight-”

“No.” Qrow glanced at the kids, who were too distracted by Twilight to listen. “Twilight isn’t a Maiden, this is....something else. Even when Amber gained her powers, they never went out of control unless she lost her temper something fierce.

Plus, look at her eyes.” Tai forced his eyes to take in his adopted daughter's face. He wanted to run in and help at seeing the pain clear on her expression, but stopped himself. “Maidens always have a kind of fire coming out of their eyes that correspond with their eye color. Twilight doesn’t.” 

“Then if she isn’t a maiden, what is going on?!” Tai demanded, only earning a worried shrug.

“I don’t know.” 

Sunset came running up nearby and her eyes widened as she saw her niece. “This can’t be,” she was in awe as she looked at Twilight. “I’ve been here since I came through that portal and was reduced to her age and I’ve never had access to my magic. This settles that there was indeed magic in this world at one point but it’s been reduced to nearly nothing,” She said as she dodged debris. Sunset saw the others huddled down nearby. “I’m the only one who can reach Twilight here without being torn apart or affected in some negative way by her wild magic.” She sheathed her sword on her back and dashed toward the little pony Faunus.

Tai and Qrow both saw something moving out of the corner of their eyes and looked over to see Sunset making a mad dash for Twilight.

“Is she nuts?” Qrow freaked. “She may be trained by Oleander but not even she can deal with something like this.”

“I don’t know Qrow but Sunset is currently the only option we have to save Twilight,” Tai pointed out. “Let Sunset try and get to our girl. She seems to be doing alright to me.”

“Dad is Aunt Sunset going to save Twilight?”Asked the little silver eyed girl on Yang’s back.

“Yes Ruby,” he did his best to keep up a strong front. But his thoughts were filled with fear. ‘Please don’t make me a liar Sunset.’

Sunset maneuvered her body in a couple of uncomfortable ways to avoid the flying debris that just got thicker and thicker as she got closer to her kneeling niece. Her ribs ached as she bent to the side to avoid a log as big as she was. Sunset shielded her eyes as she saw Twilight staring ahead at her, but not seeing her.

“Twilight!” She tried to call out. “Twilight you have to stop!” Twilight clearly didn’t hear Sunset as she just yelled, more magical lightning being sent flying around, several bolts just barely passing by Sunsets head. 

Sunset frowned, feeling her newly regenerated but low aura close to breaking from all the hits she was getting from pebbles, sticks and other debris. With a determined grimace, Sunset pushed her way into the cyclone surrounding Twilight. She glared ahead as she felt cuts in her clothes and on her skin, feeling her minimal aura focus on healing instead of guarding as she made her way closer. Even as a rock hit the side of her head and blood flowed over her eye, she didn’t stop moving.

Twilight suddenly screamed louder as several bolts went straight to Sunset. The former unicorn barely stopped her own scream as she felt her skin being burned and one thin bolt going straight through her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, Sunset managed to raise her head, only a few feet away from the unseeing Twilight. 

‘She looks….so scared.’ Despite all the pain she was in, Sunset allowed a small smile to appear on her face. ‘She really is just like me. In so many ways.’

“It’s ok now, Twilight. I promise you.” Sunset stumbled and fell to her knees, resting her body against Twilight. As she made contact, everything stopped. The wind. The bolts of magic. All the debris that had been picked up just stayed floating in the air, surrounded by a purple aura. Twilight’s eyes were wide in surprise as she felt Sunsets warm body against her.

“You don’t need to fight anymore.” Sunset gently wrapped her arms around her niece and pulled her in closer. “It’s over now. You don’t have to be scared anymore. It’s ok. You and the others are safe now.”

It started as a hitch in her throat, before water gathered in her eyes as they flickered back to normal, and before long, Twilight clutched Sunset’s shirt and began bawling into Sunset’s chest, all the floating objects falling to the floor as the two former unicorns embraced each other. Sunset smiled despite herself, clutching the crying faunus close to herself. 

Tai, Qrow and the kids all watched from the sidelines, awed at the older faunus ability to calm down the little girl. The children all smiled and began to cheer as it was finally over.

Near the treeline, Lily, Tusk and Aeon smiled as they saw Sunset hugging Twilight tight, Aeon in particular looking almost proud of his adoptive mom. 

Lily wiped her eyes as some tears began to fall, before she sensed….something. Something familiar. Looking back to Sunset, her eyes widened, along with everyone else, but her smile just widened.

Sunset lightly patted the weak and resting girl's head, rubbing her back in comfort as the young girl began to nod off. Seeing something off to the side though, her brows scrunched up as she looked. Her breath caught in her throat at what she saw. 

Sprouting from her back, and gently wrapping around the two former unicorns, looked like wings of aural fire.