"So yeah, that's pretty much what happened."

Celestia nodded and took a sip of her tea. "I see. And you have not punched our counterparts in the face this time?"

I shook my head. "Nope. She, ah, wanted to punch me again after I made her listen to that music, but she understood that it was for the greater good." I hope. "She'd rather listen to that than be brainwashed."

"As would we all." Celestia put her teacup back on her saucer and poured herself another cup. I quickly reheated my own tea with a spell. Never really being much of a tea drinker myself, I hadn't gone through five cups during the story like my marefriend.

"So..." Celestia put the teapot back down on the serving tray and gracefully lifted her cup for another sip of hot tea. "There is the matter of what is to be done now."

"Yeah, I guess so." I tried for another sip of the tea, but gave up on finishing the half empty cup. I set it down back on the table. "So it turned out that Sunset was working at a call center. That way she didn't have to risk running into someone from her school. She couldn't stand working at a fast food joint in case someone came up to the fearsome Sunset Shimmer flipping burgers and frying fries. She ha a little apartment about ten minutes away from the school. She walks to school every day so no one has to see the junker car she has."

"I see."

I grimaced when I didn't miss the pain in Celestia's eyes. I know she still cared for Sunset, and knowing that she went from a private tower in the castle to a run-down apartment where she probably lived paycheck-to-paycheck would hurt for sure. At least she wasn't starving to death or anything.

"I've set her and the Sirens up in my house there for the time being. Sonata told me that they would just mind control the staff of a hotel or something whenever they needed a place to stay, but that obviously isn't an option now. My house is pretty well stocked, so they shouldn't have any problems. That and, ah, I transferred a million dollars to Sunset's account. That should be more than enough to stay on her feet rather comfortably. She's not the type to just spend it all on caviar and diamonds either. She knows what it's for."

"Good. And what of the Sirens themselves?"

I shrugged. "Well, that's a big unknown for the time being. Obviously it's going to be a rough transition between powerful, immortal emotion eater to a simple mortal teenage girl with no powers." I give Celestia a wry grin. "It's going to be odd for them to start aging after two thousand years, but they'll get used to it. They have to."

"Indeed." Celestia drained her cup and stood up, prompting me to do the same. "So, you are leaving to finalize preparations for the Sirens' stay on that planet?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I still have one or two things left to do before I feel confident letting Sunset handle them. We kind of need to set some ground rules for the Sirens. It'll be alright, though. Sunset has that book. She can let us know if anything goes wrong over there, and we do have unlimited access to the portal now."

"Excellent. When will you leave?"

I smirked at the question. "No time like the present, right? I'm only going to be gone for a day at most. I should be back by dinner time."

"See that you are. I'd like to have dinner with you, if that is alright with you." Celestia gave me a sultry smile and ran her wing down my back, stopping in a rather interesting place. "Afterward we could... celebrate your success in the other world."

I grinned and gave Celestia a little plot tap. "I will be rather hungry later."

"Excellent. I shall see you then."

I pulled up to my house about an hour later and parked on my driveway next to Sunset's car. Seriously, I got the feeling that if I sneezed next to it I'd total the thing. She'd have to spend some of her new funds on a better car. I'd make sure of that.

I unlocked the door and stepped inside to see Sunset, Aria and Sonata sitting at the kitchen countertop. Sonata and Aria had empty plates in front of them, while Sunset was working on a sandwich. They all stopped whatever conversation they were having and looked up at me.

"Hey, Antares," Sunset said, setting her sandwich down on her plate. "How is everything?"

"I should be asking you that. No problems on your end?"

"Not really!" Sonata said happily. "I'm full! Like, I'm actually full! I don't want to eat any more food right now." Sonata stared down at her plate with wide eyes, as though doing so would reveal some great mystery. "I had three apples, two sandwiches, two sodas, six fruit rollups and a giant slice of cake and then the hunger pain went away!" She frowned and looked back at Sunset. "Is it going to come back?"

Sunset chuckled and picked her sandwich back up. "Yeah, but that's why you keep eating real food."

"Weird," Sonata whispered. "Even after we fed off of you two, there was still that hunger. I mean, it was better than normal, but still kind of uncomfortable. I haven't felt full like this in..." Sonata began counting on her fingers and mouthing numbers. "Ever!"

"It is kind of weird," Aria admitted, pushing her plate away. "Though I guess we can still feed off of other things, though." Aria smiled contentedly and leaned back in her chair. "This will not be the last time I have fried chicken, I promise you that."

Sonata shrugged. "Eh, maybe next time. Eating the flesh of other animals seems a bit weird."

"Blasphemy," I said in amusement, pulling a chair up and sitting opposite the three of them. "You should try it. Even if you don't like it at first, you could get used to it."

"I did," Sunset chimed in. "Once I had a bacon cheeseburger for the first time I knew I could never be a vegetarian again."

"See, there you go." My smile faded, and I leaned against the counter. "But let's put that aside for now. I'm here on business, unfortunately. If you could call Adagio over, that'd be great."

Instantly the smiles Aria and Sonata had evaporated. They exchanged a sad look. That wasn't good.

"Where is she?"

"Dunno," Aria mumbled. "Not like we can track her anymore, you know? We just kind of woke up this morning and she was gone. We wanted to go out after her, but, ah..." She shot an uneasy glance Sunset's way. Sunset glowered and crossed her arms.

"My Celestia damned car won't start."

"This is my surprised face," I deadpanned. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Okay, I'll look around town once we're done here. I'd rather have her back here, if for no other reason than I'm not sure how well she'd do out there alone."

"Maybe she just went for a walk," Sonata suggested.

"For five hours?" Aria said disbelievingly.

"Okay, so it's a long walk."

"Whatever the case, we'll find her. Until then..." I opened up my saddlebag and pulled out a few sheets of paper. "These are the basic rules you have to follow while you're on parole. It's pretty standard stuff. You have to attend school, you have to stay in town, you can't come back to Equestria, stuff like that. Sunset will be keeping in contact with us about your progress. In return you get room and board, plus whatever else you may need to make your transition smoother." I pulled out a pair of pens and slid them and the papers over to Aria and Sonata. "So if you could just read and sign--"

Sonata happily pulled the papers over to her and signed the last page without reading a single word before giving them back to me. "Okay! There you go!"

"Um..." I flipped to the last page to get a look at her signature. "Don't you want to read these first?"

"Eh."

"Um... okay." I put the papers back in my bag, while Aria rolled her eyes as she read the pages. After a few minutes she signed them too. "Alright, ladies, that's it on our end. If you need anything, anything at all, just let us know."

"A hot tub?" Sonata said hopefully.

"I..." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Have you seen the bathtub upstairs?"

"Yeah, of course, but it just looks like a hot tub. It isn't actually a hot tub."

"I'm leaving Sunset in charge of the finances." I gave Sunset a pointed look. "Just don't go crazy. It's gotta last you a little while."

"Don't worry. Since I'm not paying six times the rent of my old apartment on one month's mortgage for this place, I can't see us spending a lot."

"Except for maybe--"

"We'll see, Sonata."

"At any rate, I have to get back to my world. You have your way to contact us. Don't lose it. I'll go around town to see if I can't find Adagio. Maybe file a missing person report. You guys are legally only, what, sixteen? Seventeen? Not quite adults yet. The cops will pick her up and send her back. Let me know when they do."

"I'm eighteen in this world," Sunset pointed out. She grimaced and crossed her arms. "Which is so much better than being twenty five like I actually am."

"You'll get back there."

"Yeah, when I'm in my thirties."

"Anyway..." I gave the three of them a little two-fingered salute. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you again sometime."

"I'm sure Principal Celestia will be thrilled."

I brushed a strand of hair out of my face before pinning another picture to the large corkboard in front of me. I tied a red string around the thumbtack, then stepped back to look at the larger picture.

The larger picture.

If only I could figure that out.

I huffed and picked up a stack of notes from the table beside me for another look at them. Maybe I could see the pattern if I just...

Just what? Re-read them for the millionth time? The only thing I knew for certain was that something odd was going on at that school. Something I couldn't quite explain. Several energy pulses had come from there, but I couldn't figure out what kind of energy it was. If I could discover what it was, I could write up a report and get into Everton for sure! Whatever it was, it seemed to have something to do with those three Canadians, if my interviews with students there were any indication. They'd just show up out of nowhere.

Yeah, literally nowhere. There's no such place as Canada.

A story that didn't hold up to any scrutiny, appearing out of nowhere, and unknown energies showing up whenever they did made me rather suspicious. I put my notes down and picked up Spike, scratching him behind the ears the way he likes.

"I tell you, Spike, something's going on with them, and I'm going to find out what!"

Spike responded by yawning.

Boy, if what Celestia and I did last night was a football game, we'd have both been flagged for excessive celebration.

Or something. Look, I know that's a stupid analogy, but I was tired and stressed. I got the feeling that it was one of the last truly stress-free nights we'd have together in a long time.

I landed on the balcony of my room and opened the large double doors so I could walk in. The sun had just risen and I already wanted nothing more than to just crawl back into bed and hide under the covers for a week.

But nope, I'm a princess of Equestria. I can't do that. Blegh.

I was just about to go into my bathroom for a shower when I heard a knock on my door. Sigh. Guess that shower would have to wait. I slipped on my regalia and put on my best "alicorn-y" smile before opening the door.

"Ah, good morning, Tulip. How are you?"

"Very good, Your Majesty," Tulip replied, bowing low. "I have your schedule for the day, and a few items for you to look over."

"Good, good," I said, lighting up my horn and taking the thick manila folder she had floating next to her. "I will be down for breakfast in half an hour."

"Very good, Princess Antares. Is there anything special you'd like them to make?"

"Bacon. Lots of bacon."

Did I mention how awesome it was that my chefs had figured out how to make imitation meat? Because that was really awesome.

"Extra bacon it is."

"Excellent. Now if you'll excuse me..."

"Of course, Princess Antares," Tulip said, bowing again. "I will see you at court."

I closed the door to my room and made my way back to my bathroom. I idly flipped the folder open and took a quick glance at the mountain of paperwork inside. I stopped in my tracks when I saw the top paper. It was a report from one of my armor dealers. It said it was done. I just needed to come in for one last fitting to make sure. I slid the photo attached to the paper out of the paperclip and stared at it. Somehow looking at my armor made everything seem a bit more real.

We were going to war.

Author's Notes:

The war can be found in The Prince.

Up next, TD v EQG: Friendship Games! Gosh Principal Cinch will not be prepared for the Snarcastic powers of TD the Canadian!

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