It never truly ended; Princess Sparkle knew that much. The hostilities amongst the different species would always exist. It was basic logic: the very diversity of the species made them by definition unequal. How could a Gryphon who had to subsist on meat, be equal to a changeling who needed mostly love? Did you give the changeling meat it did not need, or expect the Gryphon to live on emotion? No, there would always be differences, and always conflict. That was the price of unity.

She placed her holopad on her nightstand, and emerged from bed with a flap of her wings. “On,” she commanded, the voice receptors on her night quarters picking her voice up and promptly routing the command to the room’s VI, “Andy,” who did as told and turned the chamber’s lights on.

Twilight continued to pace through her room, its archaic bookshelves and tables pristine as always. Her mind raced through the thoughts implanted into her head by the recent news: a cult that happened to be uncovered the day before, set around the pony Princesses. It was another of many to be discovered in recent years, this time strangely consisting only of ponies. Why ponies? Gryphons were always eager to recall their glory days, and the diamond dogs made ready malcontents, but this time it had just been ponies. Something about it wouldn't let her go, let her rest.

“You did not sleep during the night. Is everything alright? Is the cult still on your mind?” asked Andy, his warm voice causing Twilight’s ears to perk up as she walked. She approached the window.

“Yes...” Twilight groaned. “Any other news surrounding it?” She looked down through the window of her room, the view provided by the Citadel being too grand to be compared with the height of the antique Canterlot Castle.

“The cult has been virtually demolished, your highness, and most of its members have been apprehended,” Andy dictated.

“Most of them...?” Twilight asked, freezing in place. Andy’s holographic rendition appeared in front of her, towering over her, his arms behind his back.

“They fought back. The Colonial Guard was forced to-”

“Stop!” Twilight held her hoof up, sighing and turning around. “Why... The Humans wouldn’t want us to be killing each other.” She looked up at Andy, who stared back stoically at her. “Why is this happening, again?”

Andy waved his hand about. “The cultural shock provided to this dimension is still being felt. Humankind did not, by any means, intend this to happen. The problem lies in the other species, whose members, albeit a fraction of them, are still looking to revert everything back to its ‘original’ state.” He looked over to the window, onto the metallic city of Apex. “As the sole representative of Humankind, I can safely say that none of them wished for this to happen, and that in fact, an important fraction of them did, and likely still does, wish to go back to their dimension as well. The difference is, they adjusted to the shock and came up with a containment procedure which they all followed.” He looked back down at the Princess. “Truth be told, the main reason as to why they exiled themselves and have remained in stasis for so long, is that they are hoping for the other species to discover a way to safely traverse dimensions en masse, without the need of a pre-built portal, whilst also in reserve should a worldwide crisis sprout up.”

During all of Andy’s rant, Twilight had been looking through the window. The same conversation was shared between the two every single afternoon. The Princess refused to believe that after all the past years, Ponykind and the other species were still to be united in harmony, as per the Humans’ wishes. She knew, as they had known, that in order for New Earth to be united and in harmony once again, the younger species would have to achieve that themselves.

It was in their history. The Humans were a race shaped by conflict, and they knew that very well themselves. "Change must come from within" the saying went. That was one thing Twilight never really understood about humans: they strove for peace and knew how to achieve it, but in the end chose instead to tolerate that violence in themselves.

Nobody is perfect. She knew that much.

Twilight sighed, “Open the doors, Andy. I’m heading out.”