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Sunburst’s door glowed with another unicorn’s magic as it opened wide open; stepping in first was Sunset Shimmer with a charismatic smirk. Unlike most of her former classmates back at the School of Magic, Vice-Headstallion Sunburst had been one of the few that Sunset actually remembered vaguely... for unflattering reasons, though. Celestia’s ex-student had been curious to know whether Sunburst managed to get through Magic School after all, but she didn’t feel it polite to ask.

“Hello, Sunburst!” Professor Shimmer casually used Sunburst’s desk to prop up her chin with one forehoof, while the other flipped her tousled hair to smooth it back like a boss; “Sorry to bother you, but we ladies have some magical artifacts that we’d like you to look over if you don’t mind. Trixie has reason to believe they might have been artificed by Star Swirl the Bearded himself!”

As she gestured Trixie to come on over with the chest, Sunset sniffed the air and caught the pleasant scent of allium flowers. “Hmmm, it smells nice in here, Sunburst. Are you using an air freshener, by any chance?”

“Oh?” A simple rise of the eye brow was all the visible reaction that Yanhua would get out of Empress Yuè. Rest assured however, even if she had been correct to anticipate something out of the ordinary, the royal qilin was not quite expecting this. ...Well, it wasn’t exactly out of the realm of possibility that a member of the Imperial Household would masquerade as a Long Sun. The Empress had seen the Serpent King himself shapeshift on one occasion.

With the option of choosing between a simplistic incense burner on her desk that appeared to have been well-worn and an ornate gold one shaped like a lotus flower shining just as bright as the day it was made, Empress Yuè reached for the latter... but did nothing with it for now other than put it in front of her. There was no need to make use of it yet.

Although her courtiers would have advised otherwise, the Empress decided out of curiosity to indulge Yanhua for the time being. “If you are not an equine,” she asked nonchalantly; “Then what are you?”

Never underestimate the power of ragging on her hometown’s giant rainbow billboard to make a glum Sunset Shimmer cheer up, if only by just a little. They weren’t deep guffaws, but the unicorn mare’s modest chuckles were quite real. However, what Twilight Sparkle would say next would rip the laughter right out of the amber unicorn’s soul.

.....................

.....Sunset Shimmer had a lot of information to process. Hope Hollow — the hometown she happily abandoned all those years ago — ended up sinking even lower than the mare could have possibly imagined. No matter how much ill will Sunset previously wished upon that town and everypony who lived there, not even they deserved the ghastly fate that was Perpetual Gloom. Although the sorceress supposed she still counted herself lucky for getting the heck out of dodge, already the what-ifs were bombarding her…

“-N-nah,” Sunset, who sounded as if gravel was caught in her throat, quickly cut off Twilight before she could finish her question; “...I-I-I’m sure nopony there would remember me, anyway. Still though...,” the amber unicorn mustered the courage to look Twilight in the eye, squeezing the other mare’s hoof as she did so; “Thank you for everything you and your friends did to help bring hope back to that place. It- it really means a lot.....”

Quickly moving to cusp Twilight’s head, Sunset further expressed her sincere gratitude by giving the alicorn a quick, chaste peck to the forehead. It was all over in an instant; the amber unicorn swiftly disengaged from Twi and proceeded to head off towards where Mage Meadowbrook’s characteristic healer’s mask was displayed. Assured that her buddy momentarily couldn’t see her face, Sunset felt secure enough to let out a depressed sigh, mulling over the unspoken ramifications of all those in her hometown she once knew rediscovering true happiness for themselves.....

Yeahhhh... Sunset Shimmer wasn’t really too keen on the idea of Trixie keeping the deck of enchanted playing cards to screw around with, but she supposed even big ponies liked playing with their beloved toys. Internally shrugging to herself, Sunset answered the other unicorn’s question about Sunburst as best she could; “Well, school is over for the day, so I can’t imagine Sunburst will be THAT busy. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a little interruption, especially if magic artifacts are involved.....”

Several hours had passed since today’s eventful morning court in the Imperial Palace concluded. After hosting the Peryton delegation in the palace gardens, Empress Yuè retired to her chambers to take care of various minor matters that needed to be attended to. Like going over tonight’s banquets with the Household Chef.

As far as private studies went, the Private Imperial Study— although cozy and cramped by lofty palace standards — exuded the same sense of grandeur and opulence that was expected to be found anywhere in an imperial residence. A window off to the side let in light and provided the room’s occupants with a glimpse of the gardens beyond. And at the end of the room was a modest but exquisitely-crafted desk, behind which sat the Empress in her serene glory.

Having sent for Yanhua several minutes ago, Empress Yuè was expecting her when the chef arrived. “Come Yanhua, have a seat.” The royal qilin gestured towards a cushioned stool... which of course was shorter than the chair the Empress herself sat it, ensuring the sovereign towered over those bidden to her study. Once Yanhua did as instructed, the attendant who brought the chef would close the door, leaving the two mares alone.

“You had questions over what to prepare for our guests, tonight?” Despite the simple question, Empress Yuè still believed from earlier that Yanhua had ulterior reasons for seeking her out. Only time would tell if the royal mare’s suspicions are correct.....

Trixie thought some of her Star Swirl memorabilia MIGHT be fake? ...No kidding......

If any of these artifacts were actually of Star Swirl’s making, Sunset Shimmer could only surmise that these must have come from the Bearded Sorcerer’s reject pile. Although Trixie’s claim of their power running low could have been playing a big role, Sunset just couldn’t imagine that such a wise wizard like Star Swirl was willing to stamp his cutie mark all over the most dangerous-to-use enchanted items she’s ever seen in action. Sadly, that was no exaggeration.

...Although Sunset kinda wished that alicorn-creating contraption hadn’t turned out to be a bust. Sigh, oh well.....

“Hey now Trixie,” the amber unicorn finally interjected; “You forget that before teaching Defense Against Dark Hearts, I was once Princess Celestia’s apprentice much like Twilight had been! I uhhh... MAY have never completed my training officially, heh heh, but I still know far more about magic than your run-of-the-mill Magic School graduate.” Ah, the perks of having a superior ability to blaze through arcane curriculum than other students. Sure, it eventually ended up biting Sunset in the butt, but all that knowledge still served her well to this day.

“First things first,” Miss Shimmer went to reinspect the case with the playing cards; “Did you ever have your collection authenticated by an actual expert? I mean, did they even HAVE playing cards a thousand years ago like ours today??? I’m sure if we brought your stuff to somebody like Sunburst, he could get you answers about how legit your stuff is.....”

Sunset Shimmer reached out to firmly accept the hoof offered by Tempest Shadow. “If friendship was easy,” she said with a warm smile; “It wouldn’t be worth fighting for.” It was true that Tempest proved herself difficult to deal with many times throughout this day. Nevertheless, the broken-horned unicorn had many things to offer that nopony else could precisely due to her rough edges.

And if Tempest Shadow of all ponies can find her place in Equestria one day, that would give Sunset hope that just perhaps... she could do the same. Not that she planned on leaving the Mirror World anytime soon, but with the specter of graduation looming... well, that’s a story for another time. Sorry, readers.

Sunset meanwhile stepped back to address the entire group; “We should probably head back now before everycreature starts wondering where all the best Iron Pony athletes went. Oh, and Yanhua; on the way, you have to fill me in on what’s the deal with... you know, EVERYTHING about what you are.....”

 *EXIT SUNSET*

Wagon decluttering, huh? Well, as Twilight always liked to say, a highly organized home is a highly organized... something or whatever, blah blah blah. Sunset Shimmer personally leaned more towards the “organized chaos” side of things, although not to the point of living as a complete slob. Anywho, without requiring any further prompting, Sunset began looking through the boxes that Trixie had piled onto her stage.

In due time, the amber unicorn stumbled onto Trixie’s box of stashed artifacts. Sunset Shimmer was indeed curious, but the manner in which they had been so casually left out in the open unsecured already did much to lower her expectations. After all, any relics of true power would likely have been locked up tight by their owner or much better hidden from straying eyes; preferably both.

Taking a quick peek inside the Artifacts box, Sunset’s initial appraisal of the items stashed inside was... in line with what she expected. That one set of magic cards looked disturbing and kinda cool, but all in all, everything appeared to match the stereotype of the infamous untested magic trinket bought in a Canterlot back alley at midnight. Sunset lit up her horn, causing every item to glow with a subtle reddish-rose shine.

Princess Celestia’s former apprentice was probing these artifacts further with magic, and the results largely confirmed her suspicions. Most of Trixie’s stash consisted of measly cantrip-grade items; while there were a few objects with greater power than the others, their magical signatures indicated nothing up to the level of mighty relics that Sunset has come across in her adventures such as the Time Twirler, or the Memory Stone.

“So I see you’re a collector of curios,” Sunset commented as she finished her inspection; “Do you use any of these in your performances?”

An unexpected bump to the flank jolted Sunset Shimmer back to reality, only to see Twilight back... and apparently without a care in the world. Mind you, this was the same mare who only minutes ago was awkwardly stammering a confession over in a back room, and before that was led away under the premise that a topic of paramount importance needed to be discussed. Sunset paid barely any attention to what her friend had to say about the Cauldron of Mage Meadowbrook; what she really wanted to do was get to the bottom of this mystery!

The amber unicorn waited for a pause in Twilight’s lecture, and then Sunset ambushed Twi with an innocent-enough question. “Sooo.....” she asked evasively; “What about this Hope Hollow business that Flash Magnus needed to tell you about?” Sunset reflexively looked away from the alicorn, hastily pouting a grumpy preemptive declaration of how OBVIOUSLY she was emotionally detached concerning that place; “N-not like I care about that dung heap, or anything.....”

As much as Sunset Shimmer wanted to roll her eyes as Trixie bragged about her heroics, it also provoked her to smirk. After all, Sunset had herself once been a pony who threw her weight around with her status and exceptional abilities. Plus, if Trixie really was that awful of a boaster, she wouldn’t be good friends with Headmare Glimmer, now would she? All things considered, Sunset was inclined to let Trixie enjoy her shining moment of past glory.

“I saw a bunch of smoke from my classroom window and I thought something might have caught on fire,” Professor Shimmer answered; “But that isn’t the case, thankfully.” Sunset knew enough about Trixie to know she could be a prideful mare, but just in case, she asked politely; “As long as I’m still out here, you need help with anything else?”

Princess Cadence didn’t attend balls so she could be pestered about the minutiae of royal governance. Maybe that sort of thing was up Twilight Sparkle’s (and Shining Armor’s) alley, but not Cadence’s. Despite her husband’s attempts to explain things, Count Squall insisted on throwing his... money around. If only spending big could solve every political matter.....

“It’s not just about money,” Cadence shook her head as if greatly burdened; “For one thing, there’s no such thing in colonization as unoccupied land. A whole slew of tribes, clans, and various oases of civilization lie between the Crystal Empire and the Crismarine Sea. We’d have to convince them all to let us claim all necessary lands as part of our dominion, and not all of them are going to be friendly. And even if we could somehow acquire all that territory, the fact of the matter is that there’s simply not enough crystal ponies to resettle ANYWHERE in meaningful numbers.”

As for the trains, all Friendship Express routes are managed by the Equestria Railway Agency, so you’ll have to petition Princess Twilight about that. Once she officially ascends to the Throne, of course!”

Cadence could see Applejack and Rainbow Dash walking towards them, giving her an excuse to get out of this conversation topic. “Now if you’ll excuse us,” the Crystal Princess offered a polite smile; “I see some old friends of ours coming our way.” Cadence was dead-set to avoid politics for the rest of the evening, even if that meant giving Swift Squall a wide berth.....

“APPLEJACK!!!” The princess scooped up the Avatar of Honesty with a deceptively bone-crushing hug; a reminder that alicorns possessed the innate strength of earth ponies. After letting go of AJ, Cadence answered; “She’s doing great! Flurry has become quite the chatterbox since you’ve seen her last. My little baby’s growing up fast! So what’s Zap Apple been up to?”

“The what now?” Cadence shook her head in momentary confusion, having paid only the barest attention to whatever topic Shiny and the gang were now going over as she finished up her main course; “O-oh yeah, I remember the letter you’re talking about, honey. What of it?”

Over on the periphery, a bright poof of magic flashed a short distance away from the stage. When it cleared a second later, in its place stood an amber unicorn. She was Sunset Shimmer; the instructor of the Defense Against Dark Hearts course at the School of Friendship. She had wrapped up class for the day not too long ago, and was just about to head home when she spotted from her window a bunch of suspicious billowing smoke.

Thinking it prudent to swiftly investigate, Sunset used a teleportation spell to instantly arrive at the scene from her classroom. As a seasoned apprentice of the arcane arts, she did so without a hitch. Although black fumes obscured most of the scene, Sunset could make out just enough props and symbols to recognize this was Counselor Trixie’s set-up. The friendship counselor and Miss Shimmer didn’t know each other all that other yet... notwithstanding Sunset’s peculiar adventures in the Mirror World, of course.

“Is everything alright there, Trixie?” Sunset called out while she attempted to scan for nearby bodies of water, just in case something actually was on fire.....

Sunset Shimmer ceased her illusion spell as Tempest Shadow spoke up again, this time about the insecurity she faced whenever offered friendship. She didn’t get to far before noticing that Feng and Hanabi had followed the two unicorns. Fortunately, things had calmed down enough for Tempest to be comfortable having them around, so she went back to describing her friendship difficulties.

Being the avatar of Empathy that she was, Sunset Shimmer could recognize that Tempest Shadow was in the beginning stages of accepting new acquaintances into her life. Although they both lived in different dimensions and barely knew one another, Sunset herself could feel a certain connection with Tempest she rarely felt with other non-Twilight ponies... save perhaps for the friendship apprentice — Starlight Glimmer — who surprise, surprise... ALSO shared a dark and troubled past.

.....Twi certainly seemed to attract the bad girls, didn’t she?

“I... actually have an idea about that.” Sunset chimed in optimistically; “I live in a different world from yours, and I guess you’re the sort of pony who moves around constantly. If I call in a favor or two however... I could get you a magic journal so we can keep in touch! It’s how I stay in contact with Princess Twilight whenever I’m not in Equestria.”

The amber unicorn sheepishly kicked the ground around her hoof; “But yeah, it’s not everyday I find a pony in Equestria I can relate to. It’d mean a lot to me Tempest if we could be pen-pals.....”

Like any good eavesdropper, Sunset Shimmer knew when to covertly scram, like when a conversation suddenly fell silent after a faint but audible gasp. By the time Twilight farewelled Flash Mangus and rounded the corner, Sunset would have been nowhere to be seen. In fact, the amber unicorn was currently approaching the entrance to the Mage Meadowbrook exhibit, although the Pillar of Healing was the furthest thing on Sunset’s mind.

The more Miss Shimmer dwelt on the words she believed she heard, the more she sensed that a whole lot of pieces weren’t lining up. For one thing, since when did Twi develop a thing for Magnus out of the blue? Sunset took great pride in her ability to read the Friendship Princess like a book, so there would have been obvious signs of a legit infatuation on Twi’s part. At the very least, Twi should have uncomfortably squirmed back when Magnus and Somnambula were doing their PDA-thing. And yet she didn’t

Removing that theory as an impossibility left Sunset with perhaps an even grimmer scenario; that Twilight had a different secret crush which she elected NOT to tell Sunset about, but rather to some random nopony. Okay, Magnus wasn’t exactly a nobody, but the point still stood. After everything Sunset and Twi had been through; after all of their journal-to-journal correspondences (which necessitated a replacement journal, for pony’s sake!) and all those interdimensional get-togethers, Sunset believed she could confide to Twilight about anything, and that Twi reciprocated those same feelings of intimate trust.

If anything, witnessing the evidence to the contrary was a far bigger blow to Sunset’s psyche than learning that Twilight had an anonymous secret crush. Twi could be a silly filly dabbling in the dating game all she liked and Sunset could have cared less (although she would have definitely watched Twi’s dating prospects like a protective mother Ursa Major, rejecting any and all suitors who betrayed even the vaguest hint of inadequacy). However, Sunset hoped her bookworm friend would have considered letting her in on whatever this matter of the heart was, instead of you know, Twi leaning on some ancient gigolo she barely knew?

Sunset pretended to take great interest in the cauldron of Mage Meadowbrook’s that was on display in the center of her exhibit, but a closer read of the unicorn's facial expressions indicated a forlorn pony.....

Okaaaay; Tempest was giving Sunset a real stinker-eye over trying to brush off the topic. In response, the amber unicorn could only blush and awkwardly avert her gaze. “Haha, you got me,” Sunset admitted defeat, but then she smirked; “But it’s actually worse than that! You ALSO get transformed into a bipedal form while you’re in their world! Don’t worry though, you get used to it after a while.”

It turned out that when it came to burning bridges to the past, Tempest Shadow was in a similar boat. Had anypony else been here with the Storm King’s former second-in-command, hearing how Tempest singled out her former friends for retribution would have been an obvious opportunity to cast judgement. But who was Sunset to cast judgement when she once zombified her classmates?

By this point, Sunset and Tempest had walked far enough to reach a large pond on Ponyville’s outskirts; the same one that laid adjacent to the School & Castle of Friendship. Of course, nobody was around because due to the Iron Pony festivities, although someone by now must surely be wondering where several of the competitors vanished off to... right?

“Why do I keep coming back to Equestria?” Sunset stopped at the shores of the pond to gaze into the crystal-clear waters; “.....I suppose I do it mainly for Twilight, I guess. D-don’t get me wrong; my friends on the other side are the best a girl can ask for! But Twi’s different; she made sure I got a second chance when anybody else would have thrown me to the timeberwolves. Princess Twilight helped me become the girl I am today, and I’ll always owe her a debt for that.”

“Plus, you know, they’re times when you need someone who just... gets you instinctively. My best friends; they’ll never understand what it feels like to be taken under the wing of a living legend... to have great expectations placed upon you, and fearing that you’ll end up letting everybody down. Twilight and I: we share that same background... we both know what it’s like to forsake friendship in order to live up to our potential. Sometimes when I’m going through rough patches, I remember how Twi’s able to overcome the worst things imaginable, and thinking about that gives me the inspiration to go on.”

Sunset Shimmer’s horn lit up, and her reflection in the still pond stedily turned into a mirror image of a lavender unicorn with the most heartwarming smile conjurable. “And I’ve got to admit: Twilight always has this way of greeting her friends as if you haven’t seen each other in years. Being around Twi is like... sitting next to a blazing fireplace all wrapped up in a cozy blanket.....” With the way Sunset sighed as she gazed upon the illusionary alicorn with half-lidded eyes, a pony well-versed in cliches might have accused her of swooning.....