Twilight listened carefully as - at her request - Sunset detailed her story. Starting with Sunset becoming Celestia's personal student and living at the castle, running through her mastering every magic that was presented to her, leading to seeing a possible future of herself as an alicorn in the mirror...and the obsession that developed as a result. She showed no judgement or disgust as Sunset described how she went against Celestia's decisions regarding her education, deliberately studying from forbidden scrolls. She heard out how she had been banished from the castle, her home...and how she fled through the mirror.

Finally, she spoke up. "So...what was your plan at that point?" Twilight asked curiously.

"I...didn't have a plan at that point," Sunset admitted. "I had some vague idea about gathering power here for some sort of confrontation...but that went out the window as soon as I arrived and saw what this world was like. I...basically had to start from scratch just to make sense of the world, and establish some sort of power base I could use to keep myself safe. I wasn't exactly the nicest filly growing up - between being Princess Celestia's personal student and...other things, I didn't exactly care for my fellow ponies-"

"Not to mention most of them reacted to your own inclinations towards shows of strength with fear?" Twilight interpreted. "As I understand, the sort of attitude you find appealing hasn't been prevalent in Equestria since Nightmare Moon's banishment."

"Born in the wrong era, I guess," Sunset admitted. "But yeah, basically. So I knew how to wrap a school structure around me, so...I did what I had to do to ensure I would stay at the top, untouchable." She crossed her arms, not quite meeting Twilight's eyes. "I'm not proud of what I had to do, but I did it. I don't know if you can understand that-"

"I'm Vice-President of the known universe, Captain of a galaxy spanning crew of zombie robot pirate ghosts, one of my BBBFFs can warp his personal reality by the power of belief, and I once rewrote the laws of causality to resurrect dead family members without destroying the space-time continuum," Twilight interrupted. "Oh, and I'm dating the universe's greatest known surviving supervillain. I well understand the concept of 'unpleasant necessities', Sunset..." Her voice trailed off as she stared at Sunset's flushed face. "I should stop talking about my exploits, shouldn't I?"

"Unless you happen to have a spare set of panties, yes," Sunset whimpered softly.

"Aphelion?" Twilight spoke up. Light appeared over Twilight's hand, and she handed the folded fabric to Sunset. "I'd suggest waiting to change until we're done though, just in case there's any more slips."

"Like asking who Aphelion is?" Sunset asked cautiously.

"She's my aunt, but she's also a starship with an artificial soul program upgraded with the energies of 117,000 Zoni giving her the ability to warp space and time at will, drastically increase her interior dimensions independent of her exterior dimensions, and a robot combat mode-"

"Your aunt is a Cybertronian TARDIS?" Sunset gasped out in shock.

"...maybe?" Twilight allowed. "I'm not familiar with those terms..."

"I am!" Nefarious called out through the communicator. "I've been accessing this world's information network while waiting for you to be ready to return. Not only is that a highly accurate description of Aphelion, if Sunset knows the terms it means she's a total geek like we are!"

Sunset buried her face in her hands. "Being hyper intelligent and having good taste doesn't make me a geek," she complained.

"Sure it does," Twilight corrected. "But there's nothing wrong with being a geek. Now, what was your plan with stealing my Element?"

Sunset blinked, momentarily confused about the sudden shift of subject. She was beginning to wonder if she actually could keep up with Twilight intellectually. "I've been studying the Elements whenever I hopped through the portal when it opened. It only opens every 30 moons on the Equestria side, but it's a bit more random on this side...probably because the Sun and Moon aren't under the control of anybody, and the portal opens any time the Earth, Moon, and Sun are in the same position relative to each other as the 'once every 30 Moons' position on the other side...which is quite random, but also quite frequent. So...I'm a lot younger than I should be, not even including appearances."

"Magically, I'd scan you to be about my age," Twilight offered as she deactivated her HUD. "So...your plan?"

"When separated from each other dimensionally, the Elements can be activated independently," Sunset explained. "I figured I would have enough connection with the Element of Magic for it to unlock my potential if I activated it on this side, which in theory should have triggered an alicorn transformation."

"Bad idea," Twilight warned. "While it might have been successful, the sheer amount of magic that would have released - especially in a human body not adapted to magic - would not only have destabilized this world's energy fields, but also overwhelmed your psyche. In all likelihood, it would have triggered a Nightmare transformation, which would have burned out your reserves until you were left a husk...or at least burned out the alicorn aspect if it weren't stopped. The Elements were designed to work together specifically to stabilize such transformations."

"...Nightmare transformation?" Sunset asked nervously. "Like...Nightmare Moon?"

Twilight nodded. "As I understand it, all alicorns have a darker aspect of themselves, representative of all their darkest impulses, worst fears, and hungers. Luna's was Nightmare Moon, driven primarily by her loneliness and jealousy of her sister." She looked away. "Mine, called Dark Star, is driven by rage and fear, against anyone who tries to take me away from my family. It's...part of my separation anxiety issues. I'm still learning to deal with those."

Sunset blinked a few times, then swallowed convulsively. "So...it's a good thing you stopped me, then?" she asked nervously.

"Definitely," Twilight confirmed. "I don't have access to the Elements over here, so if you underwent a Nightmare transformation, I'd have to hope lethal damage caused a reversion and not death...or at least a reversion in addition to death, I could probably have fixed the latter..."

"Is it too late to surrender to you utterly and completely?" Sunset asked hopefully.

"Only if I get to watch!" Nefarious called out through the comms.

"Nefarious!" Twilight snapped irritably. "She meant as a criminal for capture-"

"I could go either way," Sunset offered eagerly.

Twilight blinked several times. "...okay, I'm going to offer you two choices. First, I place you under arrest, go retrieve my Element, and bring you back to Celestia to face whatever punishment she chooses to lay on you."

Sunset swallowed convulsively. "What's...my second option?"

"I take you on as my student," Twilight continued. "I give you a communicator that can reach me through dimensions, and you stay here studying Friendship, magic, and science. I take my element back to Equestria, and provide you with the resources you'll need to deal with any other magical entities that might have passed through the portal to here from Equestria. Celestia mentioned something about Starswirl in regard to it, so there could be some old threats he dumped here."

Sunset blinked. "So...a delinquent/criminal, or super techno-mage paladin?" she asked in disbelief. "Way to make the choice difficult."

"Two important provisos about that second choice," Twilight cautioned. "First, everything you did to make yourself 'secure' here? If it involved damaging relationships or anything like that...you undo it and make it right, whatever the consequences."

Sunset winced. "Yeah...that's going to be-"

"I leave you leeway on determining how best to go about doing it," Twilight allowed. "Feel free to be political about it."

"Alright," Sunset allowed. "Sounds reasonable..."

"Second, it'll mean working for me, not Celestia," Twilight pointed out. "You won't be Celestia's student anymore, you'll be mine. I doubt if I'll ever end up going against Celestia in any sort of pitched battle...but politically we're likely to butt heads a lot in the future. You'll have to be on my side for that, not Celestia's."

Sunset sighed softly. "I...I think I can live with that."

Twilight smiled warmly. "Alright." She handed over what looked like a cell phone. "Here's the commlink. We'll talk as you get settled, and I'll send the tech through to you as you need it. For now, I'm going to go get my crown back."

"How do you intend to do that?" Sunset asked curiously. "it's currently in the display case as the crown for Fall Formal Princess. Going to try to win it?"

"Like I have time or patience for that!" Twilight countered dismissively. "I'm debating between finding the Principal and claiming that it's actually a family heirloom that accidentally got swapped with the actual crown - I assume that's the fake you left when you swiped it?" When Sunset nodded, Twilight continued. "Anyway, either a direct swap like that, or just smashing the glass, taking my crown, and threatening to blast anyone who gets in my way as I head back to the portal. Which do you think would be best?"

"Smash and blast!" Nefarious screamed out eagerly. "Smash and blast!"

"...as much as I'd love to see you do that," Sunset allowed, "that...wouldn't exactly help me manage to fix things here if everyone thought my 'girlfriend' was a violent gun-toting maniac."

Twilight pouted. "I'm not..." She paused in thought. "...that violent..."

Sunset stared blankly.

"I could do the smash and grab?" Nefarious suggested. "That would justify Sunset gathering the local equivalents of your friends into a secret 'defense force' so Harmony power could be utilized."

"Well, I did see the human version of Fluttershy," Twilight admitted.

Sunset winced. "The other Element Bearers - your friends - wouldn't happen to be Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, would they?"

"I take it part of what you'll be fixing is their friendship?" Twilight interpreted firmly.

"...yeah..."

"Go for it, Nefarious," Twilight ordered. "Sunset can claim she barely managed to get the crown back from your attack, and she can use that as an excuse for a change in character as she goes about making things right...and then recruit them into that 'defense force'. Just make sure not to go back through the portal-"

"Already have a teleport set up!" Nefarious confirmed. "It'll self destruct after I go through! And I've got guns ready!"

"...Nefarious-"

"I'll make sure not to kill anyone!" Nefarious promised. "Just collateral damage!"

"But if you're taking the Element back-" Sunset began.

Smirking, Twilight handed over the actual Fall Formal crown. "Good luck, Sunset. If you do well, Nefarious and I will be sure to 'reward' you." She licked her lips suggestively.

"...don't suppose Aphelion could send me a few wet wipes, too?" Sunset whimpered.

Twilight smiled as she stepped out of the mirror as an alicorn once more, the Element of Magic upon her head. "Mission accomplished," she spoke up happily.

"So I see," Celestia observed as Twilight's friends and family crowded around her eagerly. "And...how is Sunset?"

Twilight frowned. "Before I answer that, I have a question to ask." Once silence fell, she continued. "At one point, Sunset had a slip and almost called you 'Mom'. Is that biological or legal?"

Celestia winced. "That's...complicated."

"Simplify it," Twilight demanded coldly.

"As far as Sunset knows, I adopted her," Celestia explained. "It's...better for her she doesn't know the other half of it...mostly because of how awkward explaining her true parentage would be." Seeing Twilight's gaze not letting up, Celestia sighed. "After Luna's banishment, I was...incredibly lonely. There was...one who was there with me, and...at my request, she temporarily became a he to comfort me. The result was...unexpected."

"So you had a child with someone who was normally female," Twilight concluded as others around gasped in shock. "I guess some would think that's a scandal, but I don't see why-"

"It was Philomena."

Rarity and Fluttershy both promptly fainted.

"Since she recognized your request, I presume she's fully cognizant and capable of giving consent?" Twilight clarified. At Celestia's confused nod, she shrugged. "Fair enough. What does that have to do with Sunset calling you Mom being complicated?"

"The resulting child was half pony, half phoenix," Celestia explained. "They lived a normal life as a normal pony until they died...at which point they underwent a burning day, and was reborn as a new pony. No old memories, completely new genetic code...but the same magic. This has happened to them several times. They've been unicorn, pegasus, earth pony...stallion, mare..." She lowered her head. "Only just recently did I track down her latest incarnation, and take her in as my personal student. Sunset never questioned why Philomena was so fond of her."

"...talk about a doozy," Pinkie Pie admitted, stunned.

"So I ask again," Celestia continued carefully. "How is Sunset?"

"Your daughter's hot," Twilight offered bluntly.

"Are you trying to give me a nervous breakdown?" Celestia whimpered softly.