"Wrex."

"EDI."

"Twilight!"

The Krogan and the humanoid AI turned to look at Twilight Sparkle, who gave them a slightly strained smile. "Sorry. Ahem. I'm uh, Commander Twilight Sparkle," she said, saluting EDI. "It's an honor to meet you… Wrex has told me a lot about you and the rest of the crew of the Normandy and I just… well, it's an honor."

EDI seemed to study the ponies in the room, especially Twilight, before turning to Wrex. "I notice these aliens have Alliance Omnitools as well as Twilight here bearing the rank of Commander and an N7 armor mark."

A beat. The ponies looked at each other nervously as EDI leveled a deadpan look at Wrex. "What did I miss?"

"Ehehe, you're in for a good one, EDI," Wrex said with a grin. "But we need your help first. You see, a little filly was abducted by aliens, and we need to get her back."

EDI was about to say something, but she was interrupted by Derpy, who flew up to her, pleading, watery eyes wide and hopeful. "Please! Mr. Wrex said we could find my daughter!"

EDI blinked. "Wrex, being offline for some time might have affected my perception filters. I am receiving overwhelming information. It is all rose-colored."

"That's what they call a 'puppy-eye' attack." Wrex stated. "It's surprisingly effective."

"I see. I shall incorporate that into my cyber-defenses." EDI sated. She blinked. "Done." she turned to look at Derpy. "If your daughter was captured by a spacecraft, our options are limited." EDI stated.

"Maybe," Twilight said. "But the bottom line is we have to try. I detected a Mass Effect anomaly and recorded it in my Omnitool. I believe that if my admittedly limited equipment was able to sense that, your sensor should be able to pick on it—"

"—and extrapolate the current location of the craft." EDI completed, nodding. "That is correct… Commander."

Twilight's smile could have lit the room.

"What do you say, EDI?" Wrex chuckled. "How about we go pyjak hunting?"

"If I recall correctly, when the Normandy landed there was a massive field of energy wrapping around the planet, distorting time and space beyond what we have ever encountered. It was why everyone—"

"That should not be a problem, fair mechanical creature."

EDI turned her head curiously to the largest of the ponies.

Picking up on the unasked question, Luna smiled. "My sister and I have control over the space distortion that you speak of. With me on board your vessel, we shall encounter no hindrance."

"How—"

"Electromagnetic and mass-effect pulses tied to our dna and personal biotic abilities," Twilight interrupted. "That would be the easiest way to explain it, even if it's not accurate and functions more like a comparison."

"What would be the complicated, accurate, way to do so?"

"Magic," Wrex said.

EDI considered this for a moment. "Prepare for travel, we will depart within the hour."

"The girl is terribly confused," Dr. Kustron said to the others as they stepped out of the room. It had taken some hurried explanations and insurance, but the young woman, almost an exact copy of their daughter, had finally relented once she understood she was in a hospital. "Although the wave patterns don't match Sara's, exactly, they don't match any equivalent ones from any known alien species…" he hesitated. "The Mass Effect field around her when she arrived was off the charts for such a specific and small point of origin. It's possible that it might affected her in a different way than other biotics... same as how additional exposure has had effects on the potency of certain individual's powers."

Ellen gave him a glance. "That has always been theoretical, doctor. Even those cases that were studied where similar results happened, were not only astronomically rare, but also considerably less impactful on the subject. At most their biotics would be prodded a little… nothing to the extent of what you're proposing."

Dr. Kustron sighed. "Regardless, she's identical DNA-wise." He hesitated. "I called you because for all intents and purposes you are her next of kin."

Alec sighed. "I'll talk to her."

"In the end… Alec—dad, and the others," Sunset said, leaning against the side of the door Liam was kneeling in front, trying to force open. "...got to know me and I them. I was completely off my game, and initially I didn't want their help. I was terrified that I was no longer a unicorn, but, as I worked with mom, I started understanding how biotics worked and that enabled me to reconnect with my magic. While Scott and I didn't grow up together, and there were… a few fights… we had enough similarities to consider each other legitimate brother and sister in the end. A year later my mom fell sick and… well, the rest as they say is history."

"But… how and why did you arrive on Earth?" Vetra asked.

"Ah…" Sunset blushed. "That's not important, is it? I mean, the cool thing is that I was adopted by random strangers that put me in charge of thousands of lives the moment they were threatened. Yay?"

"Sunset…"

Sunset groaned at the look Vetra gave her. "Fine, fine… you see… I was the protege of a very important pony… Princess Celestia," she winced at Dinky's gasp of recognition. "...and I might have stormedoutofthecastlethroughamagicmirrorinordertoconquerthisuniverseandcomebackinglorybloodandfire."

Liam's omni-tool made a screeching noise as he lost his concentration and it carved a glowing scratch on the surface of the door. "Wait. What?"

"I had issues, okay?" Sunset threw her hands up in the air. "I never knew my parents! I wanted more out of life!"

"So you decided you wanted to go to another dimension and conquer it?"

"Only a little!"

Liam rolled his eyes and started working on the door again.

"Um… miss Sunset?" Dinky asked, scratching the floor with her hoof. "Um… you're not trying to conquer the universe, are you?"

"Sunset?" Vetra asked, frowning after a few moments of silence had passed. "Please tell me you're not trying to conquer the universe."

"It's not like she could, right?" Liam joked.

[The Pathfinder can control Remnant Tech with her mind,] SAM pointed out. [Her base of operations is the Remnant Capital with untapped potential for creating—or taking—life. It is theoretically possible that she could, if willin—]

"It was a phase!" Sunset shouted, making them all jump. "Okay? It was just a phase. I was an angry teen lashing out at the ponies that cared for me because I didn't get my way when I wanted. I realized my mistake, but it was too late to go back home, so I grew up. Alright?"

Liam gave her a steady look. "You saw the technology, thought you had lost your magic and realized you'd be killed if they caught you. Didn't you?"

Sunset crossed her arms, looked away and grumbled something unintelligible.

"Oh my, that's just adorable." Vetra laughed. "So you just decided to just give up and study archeology?"

"Well, yes…" Sunset sighed covering Dinky's eyes with one hand and, shooting the face of a batarian who had been waiting to ambush them behind the door. They made their way past the body before she put the little unicorn down. "At the time it was my only way to try and figure out how to go back home. If there was an ancient, magical mirror in Equestria that served as a portal, it had to have some node over here to work… and well, I got carried away with the whole Protean thing and then the war with Sovereign happened."

"So the Reapers and the Protheans stole your thunder."

"Hey, look, it's not my fault a giant, mechanical, space-squid took my MO and started turning people into zombies."

"This keeps getting better and better," Vetra muttered. "Your plan was to turn people into zombies? How?"

"Magic."

"Ah."

"It was a phase!"

"Uh-huh."

"I grew out of it!"

"Right."

"Argh!" Sunset growled and crushed the crates some mercenaries were using as cover with her magic. They were too stunned to even react before they were cut down by weaponfire. "You know what? Let's just get this over with."

"I can get behind that," Vetra said, giving Sunset a peck on the cheek. "And you're adorable when you get upset."

"Yep!" Liam spoke up, marching past them. "Can't wait to see everyone's faces when they hear your plans to control the universe in order to get revenge on a planet full of ponies."

"Dammit, Liam! I said it was a phase!"

Author's Notes:

Short chapter today mostly to gain momentum back into the writing.