Celestia tried to think back on the events that led to herself and her sister becoming the rulers of Equestria. She remembered the scowl Platinum had given her when she'd said that Luna would rule by her side, and she definitely remembered the screaming argument they'd had over it. Not even the centuries that had passed since that night could bring her to look back on it with even the slightest hint of nostalgia.

Still though, Platinum had looked upon her with pride at their coronation, even if that feeling never made it so far as to be granted to Luna as well. Alicorns had been crowned as the rulers of the fledgling nation of Equestria, and the future had been secured, as well as the peace between unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi.

The memory had since soured for Celestia. The only thing that had been secured for Platinum was her legacy. A legacy built on lies, abduction, and the cruel imprisonment of a mare that deserved no such treatment for any reason. At the very least Celestia could be glad Platinum granted mercy to both Luna and Faust by separating them and adopting Luna as her own as she had done with Celestia, even if the reasons for doing so had been very different.

Celestia tried to put these thoughts aside, but it was proving difficult to do so. It felt like her entire childhood had been poisoned by the revelation that Platinum wasn't her real mother, and had stolen her away from the alicorn Faust as soon as she was born. All so Platinum could maintain some semblance of control over Equestria after she died.

She wished she could do as Luna did and not care, even if she doubted just how genuine Luna was in her assertions. As they say, the lady doth protest too much.

"Your highness?"

Celestia blinked as she gathered her bearings, then looked down at her assistant Raven, who seemed troubled by Celestia's lack of attentiveness. A piece of parchment hovered in the air between them. Another document awaiting the royal signature. The amount of those seemed to have doubled, if not trebled, since Mareitania had been released from the clutches of its previous rulers.

"Apologies Raven."

"I can come back later if you wish?"

"No, that won't be necessary." Celestia skimmed through the document, picked up the important parts she needed to know, signed it, then moved onto the next. She wasn't sure why the overthrow of another nation had resulted in such an increase in paperwork, especially since she thought she'd hammered out most of it during the time she spent in the country after the end of the civil war.

Celestia frowned in confusion at the next document held before her. It was a complaint from one of the merchant ships involved in trading with Mareitania. Apparently they'd been receiving a less than friendly reception in Neigh Orleans if the heavily armed soldiers keeping watch on them were any indication. The other indication was that they were banned from travelling beyond the docks themselves.

"These two are similar to that," Raven said as she helpfully held up two more documents for Celestia.

"Hmmm..." One complaint could have been ignored as the captain of a particular ship being touchy. Two could be a coincidence, but three might be enough to cause concern when there's not been a problem until now.

"Seems the world revolves around Mareitania at the moment," Celestia muttered to herself. "Didn't the Griffonian ambassador want to meet with me over concerns she had about Mareitania?" Raven nodded. "Did she say about anything specific?"

"No your highness," Raven replied. "She refused to discuss it with anypony but yourself. Do you think these letters and what she wants might be related?"

"I hope not, but perhaps it wouldn't hurt to bump her meeting up the schedule."

"How far up?"

Celestia turned to one of the guards that flanked the dais upon which her throne rested. "Could you locate the Griffonian ambassador and inform her I'd like to see her immediately."

"Ah, that far up," Raven said as the guard saluted and raced off to fulfil his princess's command. "If you're seeing the ambassador now, would you like to reschedule this for later?"

"I think that rather depends on what the ambassador has to say. We'll keep going until she arrives."

Celestia sighed internally as Raven nodded and presented the next document for show. While she was still pleased that Mareitania was now a free country, it didn't seem to come without a massive raft of troubles. The native pegasi of Mareitania had elected to leave the country enmass after the way they were treated there, meaning that a massive project had to be created for Equestrian pegasi to work in Mareitania. That should've been the end of the issue, but the problems only ramped up from there as the curious and friendly pegasi of Equestria had an unpleasant introduction to the rather bigoted ponies of Mareitania. Six pegasi were beaten half to death in the first fortnight for going where they weren't welcome, and the solution of keeping the pegasi confined to the newly made city of New Pegasopolis was hardly the best reaction to a problem that shouldn't exist at all.

The other end of that problem was the Mareitanian pegasi, who weren't integrating into Equestrian society. Admittedly some of them had barely been in the country for more than three months, and Celestia certainly wasn't expecting instant results, but they weren't even trying to integrate into Cloudsdale where the population was almost exclusively pegasi. Being reluctant to mix with unicorns, and especially earth ponies, was something Celestia could understand, but other pegasi? Not so much.

Celestia scribbled her name onto the bottom of yet another document, and resigned herself to the fact that none of this was going to fix itself any time soon.

"You know, Princess Twilight is coming to Canterlot today," Raven said, cutting into Celestia's already errant thoughts. "Perhaps you could ask her to take a look at some of these?"

Celestia shook her head, "She's here to see Trixie and the rest of her friends. I really don't want to disturb her from that."

"If you say so."

Celestia smiled, appreciating that Raven only wished to lighten her work load a little. She was about to speak her reply when the doors of the throne room swung open, granting access to two guards and a silvery griffon hen, whose youthful appearance belied the wit, intelligence, and brutal cunning that lay below. It was a brutal cunning that Celestia could run circles around, mostly due to age and experience, but it was there nonetheless.

"Thank you for agreeing to come on such short notice ambassador Deetra."

The griffon hen, Deetra, closed the distance to throne and bowed deeply, "Thank you for finally taking my concerns over Mareitania seriously, your highness."

"That depends. While I take all concerns over Mareitania seriously, you haven't in fact given us the slightest bit of detail as to what your concerns are."

"That's because they're rather sensitive your highness, and should be for the ears of a princess alone. Which is why I would prefer for your assistant to be out of the room."

Celestia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, taking the request for Raven to leave with the usual grace she gave the griffon's dramatic nature. Rather than make an issue of it, she smiled and nodded for Raven to depart. "I am all ears ambassador," she said once it was just her, the ambassador, and a half dozen guards that didn't count for some reason Celestia had never understood.

The griffon eyes bored into Celestia for a few long seconds, but there were no cracks in Celestia's expression she could exploit. Instead she did the next best thing, and rather bluntly said "Mareitania is building up its military strength."

Celestia took the revelation with a significant pinch of salt. "Oh? Last I heard they were downsizing their army. What makes you think that they're increasing it in size?" Celestia enjoyed the small twitch her complete lack of concern caused in the ambassador.

"We have reports-"

"Reports from whom?"

"From our intelligence services-"

"Your spies you mean." Celestia matched the glare she received from the griffon with a cool stare.

"You cannot bring a new player onto the geopolitical map and expect other nations to not be curious, Princess. Regardless of what the source of our information is, I have no reason to doubt their assertions that Maretania is building up the size of their army as we speak."

"Mmhmm... And you're sure this isn't their response to the large number of griffons crowding their skies? The first griffons they encountered made it very clear what their intentions for the country were."

"Just as Princess Luna made it clear that Mareitania was still under Equestrian protection," the ambassador said back smugly.

"Those claims you made of Princess Luna being in Mareitania are wholly unsubstantiated."

"Yes, and I do hope she enjoyed the five months she spent in Las Pegasus with the Wonderbolts." Celestia let the griffon have that one since the entire thing about Luna's lengthy absence seemed to have become a running joke where others were concerned. "That is besides the point though. The fact remains that Mareitania is building up its military strength, and we wish to know why."

"First off ambassador," Celestia said sternly, "you have provided no proof at all of what you're claiming. And secondly, I do not rule Mareitania, so even if what you're saying is true, it has nothing to do with me, so I cannot say at all why they would do what they are apparently doing as I do not know."

"Then you are unaware that yesterday morning they were gathering up all the weather pegasi you sent to their country in Stalliongrad, and loading them onto a train to return here?"

"Excuse me? What reason would I have to believe that?"

"I'm sure you'll believe it once you hear the news yourself. If the train bringing your pegasi back departed yesterday, they should have made it back to Vanhoover by now, meaning that, as the pegasus flies, you should be hearing about it soon." The ambassador smiled as Celestia's famous composure slipped a little. "Keeping an eye on your neighbours sometimes pays off."

"There are hundreds of miles between Griffonia and Mareitania ambassador, so I doubt that you really count as neighbours. Also, you would have had to receive the news yourself only recently, meaning the news would have been delivered directly to you instead of to the Empire. Celestia's expression grew stern, "You've been warned about having uninvited griffons coming here Deetra."

The ambassador bowed apologetically, "My apologies for the breach in etiquette, but as it involved ponies of your nation, it was deemed important enough to come straight to me so I could warn you."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at the griffon before her, "Which you weren't going to do. You're here now because I asked you to be, not the other way around."

"Actually, I was on my way here when your guard found me." The ambassador looked to her left as the shadow of a pegasus flashed over the stained glass windows on the west side of the throne room. She smiled as she saw Celestia do the same. Only the Royal and Night guard were permitted to fly that close to the castle, and both of them knew the routes they took, and when. The pegasus that just passed was not a scheduled patrol. "A little late, but still within expectations."

"Mind your tone ambassador."

"Apologies your highness. Perhaps we should wait and see what they have to say."

"Perhaps we should." An uncomfortable minute passed in the throne room as they waited. Normally Celestia would've engaged in small talk, but her mood sucked away her desire to do so. Even the ambassador was reluctant to say anything further as Celestia brooded upon her throne. Thankfully the awkward silence ended as Raven re-entered the throne room.

"Sorry to disturb you your highness, but we've received an urgent message from Vanhoover."

Celestia eyed the ambassador as the griffon sat and fluffed her chest in a show of pride. "Of course Raven, send him in." They waited again as Raven fetched the pony with the message. Thankfully it was a much shorter wait as Celestia wasn't sure how much longer she could put up with the smugness that radiated from the ambassador.

The guard ran up to the throne and saluted crisply, "Sorry to disturb you your highness, but I bring urgent news from Vanhoover."

"The pegasi have all been sent back from Mareitania?"

The guard blinked, "How..?" He shook his head, "Yes your highness, all but one of the pegasi were returned."

"All but one? Why keep one?"

"Maybe they missed them your highness."

"Perhaps." Celestia smiled at the guard, "Thank you for the message. Please, inform Raven of everything, then go rest." Celestia held her smile as the guard saluted and left, but not without showing the slump his exhaustion left in his posture. Then she turned to the ambassador, who had swapped her smug demeanour for a thoughtful one.

"Why would they miss only one? Or was it intentional?"

"I don't know," Celestia admitted, "but rest assured that it, as well as your other claims, will be investigated fully. Thank you for bringing this to my attention ambassador."

The ambassador bowed deeply, "I am at your service your highness. If you require the services of our nation, do not hesitate to ask," she added before turning and leaving, a slight bounce to her step.

Celestia frowned deeply as soon as the griffon was out of sight, "Raven, has Princess Twilight arrived in Canterlot yet?"

"Her train should be arriving in the next hour I believe."

"Good. Send some guards to meet her at the station and inform her that I need to see her here before she goes to see her friends. And have somepony wake my sister too. The three of us have some matters to discuss. Oh, and cancel my appointments for the rest of the day."

Twilight's heart felt heavy in her chest as she made her way through the corridors of Canterlot hospital. That didn't make a huge amount of difference to her though, as it was a sensation she'd grown all too familiar with in the last six months. What had been discussed with Celestia and Luna after she was practically dragged in front of them was just another kick to it while it was down.

Still, she didn't want to focus on that. Today was supposed to be happy as it was the first time she and her friends were all going to be together since their return from Mareitania. No doubt there was going to be some heavy topics discussed, but she still wanted some positivity to take place before she ruined it all.

"Come on Trixie, you can share one nugget."

"No, they're my nuggies! Hooves off!"

"Really Trixie? Nuggies?"

"Yes nuggies. My nuggies. With a delicious cheesy centre. You live in Canterlot Fleur, so I'm sure you can find somewhere that sells nuggies, meaning you don't have to nick mine!"

"You're eating off the kids menu!"

"Because the adult menu sucks. Seriously, who calls celery dips a meal?"

"They're a starter Trixie."

Twilight stood outside the door to Trixie's room, listening to the fairly good-natured argument taking place within. She took a deep breath, put on a smile, and pushed the door open. "Hi guys."

"Oh hey Twilight!" Trixie said happily in greeting. "Want a nugget?"

"No thanks, you know I don't like cheese."

Fleur gawped at Trixie, "You what? Twilight gets offered one, but not me?"

Trixie nodded and gave Fleur a humourless smile, "That's because Twilight's been to see me more than once in the last six months, not forgetting that you actually live in Canterlot."

Fleur almost choked on her next words, "I-I'm a busy mare Trixie-"

"You come to the hospital for the filly's treatment every week!"

"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" the filly shouted as Fleur glowed with embarrassment. "And if you must know, her therapist said to distance herself from reminders of what happened in Mareitania, since being constantly reminded of it really wasn't helping anything."

"Really?" Trixie grinned suddenly, "I know I'm hot stuff Fleur, but I'm not a poker."

"Really Trixie? Really?" Fleur growled and flexed her hooves as the rest of them tried to pretend that hadn't happened.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Trixie grinned sheepishly and nudged her dinner tray towards Fleur, "Nugget?" She frowned as Fleur took two and passed one to the filly, then frowned deeper as she realised something. "How have you been avoiding reminders when you live with one of them?"

"With great difficulty," Fleur replied with her mouth full.

Octavia looked up at Twilight and smiled, "So where did those guards drag you off to from the station?"

"Canterlot castle. Celestia had something she wanted to talk to me about. I promise I'll tell you all later, but I'd rather hear how you're all doing first."

"The honest answer, or the ones we tell other ponies?" Octavia asked cautiously.

"The honest answer."

"Then truthfully," Octavia swallowed, "not great, but you know that already."

"I don't," Fleur said, turning her chair towards Octavia. "What's up?"

"Well... That's just it; I'm not entirely sure. I'm doing a lot better than I was, but there's just something stopping me from getting fully comfortable. I mean Summer and Vinyl have been wonderful," she gave the blue pegasus Summer a smile, "but everypony else..." Octavia shook her head ruefully, "I was performing at a concert around a month ago, and was mingling once it was over, as you do, when somepony said something about their troublesome neighbours. Without really thinking I said I knew somewhere they could hide the bodies if they got too much. I mean, I know my sense of humour's taken a turn for the morbid since getting back, but they looked at me like I suggested cannibalising foals." Octavia sighed and rested her head on a hoof, "Nopony here seems to understand."

"I know what you mean," said Fleur in agreement. "When I first got back all everypony wanted to know was 'where have you been Fleur?' and 'what's under the bandage Fleur?' and of course I didn't want them to know. Eventually their pestering me about it got too much, and I finally told the press what happened, mostly, and..." Fleur growled a sigh, "I might as well have told them that I add a new scar every time I murder a pony." Fleur hung her head, "It made me feel like it was my fault it happened. Ponies in Equestria just don't know how to treat this kind of thing. Even the filly's been having trouble."

"Oh?"

The filly nodded and sighed, "Yeah. I'm not surprised about ponies giving me shit for having no wings when I tell them my name's Swift Wings, but some of the other kids at school are complete assholes about it. They kept teasing me, and wanting to know why I thought I was a pegasus when I 'clearly' wasn't, and where I got the scars from, and blah blah blah, so I told them everything. And I mean everything."

"What happened?" Twilight asked after a moment of silence.

The filly pulled a face and shrugged, "They didn't get it, at all. They said I had to be making it up, then teased me about being an orphan of all the stupid things to focus on. On the bright side though, I've gotten pretty good at fighting. There's nothing more satisfying than beating the snot out of colts bigger than you."

"I'm so proud," Fleur cheered, giving the filly a hug. "Thankfully, the treatment for regrowing her wings is going great, so hopefully some of the teasing will stop once they're fully back."

"How is the treatment going?" Summer asked, her interest piqued.

The filly jumped up and slid the bandages around her middle up, showing the short stumps of her growing wings, "Pretty good I think. It'll still be months until they grow back fully, and more until I can fly, but there aren't enough healing devices around yet, so I'm lucky to get in once a week as it is."

Summer ran a hoof over one of the stumps, "That's great. They don't have many healing devices in Ponyville hospital yet, so I don't really have an idea on how fast they work for regrowing limbs. Especially if they're only treating you once a week."

"Eh, it's fine." The filly shrugged and pulled her bandages back into place. "I'm used to having no wings, so I'm not bothered. The only thing I can't get used to is how much it itches. It's enough to drive me nuts sometimes." The filly jumped back into her chair and grinned at Summer, "I guess things are going well at Ponyville hospital then?"

"Oh yes! Everypony there's been so nice, and I'm learning so much. Really Twilight, I can't thank you and Luna enough for getting me a placement in there."

Twilight waved it off with a hoof, "It's the least we could do. You're too good to force you through years of medical school and maybe fail because you're behind in terms of literacy. A practical education was a much better idea, if a little unorthodox."

Summer's smile shrank, "I know I'm still not great at writing, but I am getting better. Nurse Redheart trusts me enough to do some of the simpler paperwork on my own now, and Octavia and Vinyl are still teaching me at home too."

"Not just us though, is it," Octavia said slyly, giving Summer a nudge and making her blush. "I'll tell them if you don't."

Summer squirmed in her seat, "I've met somepony."

Fleur sat up, her eyes sparkling with interest, "Ooh, and who is the lucky stallion?"

"Mare."

"Right, mare. Sorry."

"'s okay. Her name's Nightglider, and she's a pegasus, and she's... Well, she's wonderful. We met a couple of months ago, and I think it's going really well."

"Eee!" Fleur squealed excitedly, "I'm so happy for you! At least one of us is having a great life after Mareitania."

Summer's gaze dropped to the floor, "I haven't told her yet, about what happened to me. About what I was forced to be."

"Why not?" Fleur asked softly.

"Because I'm scared to. What if she thinks I'm a-a- a whore or something! Or if she thinks I'm disgusting because I had sex with stallions, even though I didn't want to! What if she leaves me? I-I don't want to lose her!"

"The best I can say there is tell her. Unless you're willing to lie to her for the rest of your life, the only thing you can do is tell her. If she really loves you she'll understand, and it won't change her feelings for you at all."

"I know," Summer sniffled, "but I'm still scared."

"Just...don't hide things from her. It'll only get worse if you do." Fleur smiled as Summer nodded. "Still, I'm really happy for you Summer."

"Thanks," Summer croaked as she wiped her eyes free of the tears that had arrived there.

"So," Trixie said with a huff, "is nopony going to ask how I am?"

"You've had a six month vacation, sat here eating 'nuggies,'" Octavia said with a bemused grin.

"Only because they won't let me leave! I'm sick of being here, but they won't release Trixie until her treatment is finished, but it's never going to be finished because they refuse to believe me!"

Octavia sat up and shared a look with Fleur, "What do you mean they refuse to believe you?"

"They seem to think that me falling to dark magic is a result of me refusing to come to terms with the death of my parents. They don't believe me when I tell them how they died, and they don't believe me when I tell them of what I did during the war. They accuse me of having delusions about what really happened, and that I'm trying to make myself out as a monster because of the guilt I feel over not being there when they died. I've had three letters, one from Celestia and two from Luna, confirming the events I'm recounting for each of the doctors I've had so far, and now they're trying to get me to express my regret for all I did under the influence of dark magic, and that once I realise that regret, I'll start to get better. No mention at all of helping me with the complete breakdown I suffered after failing to avenge my family."

Octavia cleared her throat politely after Trixie's outburst, "And why don't you just do what they asked?"

Trixie gave Twilight a fleeting glance and hugged herself. "Because the only thing I regret about my dark magic is how it ended. Maybe some of my methods could've used some work too, but otherwise I don't regret having the strength to help us win the war in Mareitania. I don't even really want to use it again, but they're all stuck on making me want to regret it all, and then say sorry to the ponies I killed. We were soldiers in a war, and we did what we had to."

"I thought you just said you wanted to stop using dark magic?" Twilight said, confused over what Trixie was trying to say.

"And I do! But that doesn't mean I have to totally regret using it, or make phoney apologies to dead ponies for killing them, especially when they were on the opposite side in a war!" Trixie kicked the leg of her bed and sat back with a huff. "Let's just change the subject before I get angry. Angrier. Apparently that interferes with my treatment or something. How about you tell us what's up with you Twilight?"

"Me? Oh, I'm fine."

"You're a terrible liar Twilight," said Fleur. "Still a terrible liar that is."

Twilight sighed and closed her eyes, "Fine. I've been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, but that's really not the problem." Twilight realised what she just said, "Okay, it's certainly a problem, but the real thing that's getting me down is my friends in Ponyville. They just...refuse to accept what I did in Mareitania. I told them everything, or at least the things not about any of you, and the looks on their faces... Fluttershy didn't speak to me for a week afterwards, and she only spoke to me when she did because I went looking for her. Applejack said I had to be lying about some of it, and now refuses to talk about it at all. Rainbow was the most interested, but even after telling her some of the tamer stories, she soon stopped asking. Rarity pretends it didn't happen, and keeps giving me little gifts to make me feel better, and Pinkie..." Twilight hugged herself, "Even though she tries to be cheerful around me, every time I look in her eyes all I can see is how sad she is because she can't make me smile like I used to."

Fleur pressed a hoof to Twilight's side, "You told them about when you died?"

"Yeah. Heh, they asked me if I was okay, like dying was no more severe than catching a cold. Then I showed them Swordy, and they just seemed confused as to why I would keep it."

"What about Spike?" Trixie asked.

"I think he's taking it worse than all of them. He wants to help me, but when I have nightmares, and wake up screaming because I've had nightmares, or I can feel the blade that killed me, there's nothing he can do, and it hurts him. More than once I've had to comfort him because he's so distraught over it." Twilight rubbed her tears away before they started to fall, "I think the short answer is that no, I'm really not okay."

"And you're still friends with these ponies?" Trixie asked dismissively.

"Of course I am Trixie! Those ponies are everything to me, just as all my friends are. We're still friends even if we are going through a bit of a rough patch, and things will get better. They just need to stop thinking that we can go back to the way things used to be, because we can't. I can't."

A heavy atmosphere settled in the room as each pony reflected on their issues. "A fine bunch of messes we are," Trixie said after a while.

"At least we have each other and our loved ones to get us through it," said Fleur. She meant it to be uplifting, but the looks on Twilight and Trixie's faces informed her she missed the mark. "So," she said to try and change the subject instead, "I've heard interesting things about your niece's crystalling Twilight."

Twilight snorted into a giggle, "Yeah, you could say that. I didn't even know the Crystal Heart could be broken, let alone from a foal screaming."

"An alicorn foal," Octavia reminded them, like Twilight could possibly have forgotten. "I'm sure their screams count for more than most foal's."

"Hold on," said Trixie, "let me get this straight. Your niece screamed and broke the Crystal Heart."

"Yep. Completely shattered it."

"Isn't the Crystal Heart meant to keep the frozen north at bay?"

"How do you know that?" Octavia asked suspiciously.

"I read about it in a magazine once, not long after the Crystal Empire came back. My point is, why isn't the Crystal Empire a giant crystal popsicle?"

"I took the heart I got from Caverndown up with me. I was hoping Cadence would help me understand it better, but in the end it found use as a temporary replacement until we could fix the proper one. It's not as powerful as the proper Crystal Heart by a long way, so we still had to fix it pretty quick. Thankfully a pony called Sunburst came forward with some pretty good ideas on how to do it."

Trixie grinned at Twilight, "You mean you couldn't?"

"The spell book I needed was destroyed, and I also then had a massive panic attack at the thought of thousands of crystal ponies dying. Especially those from Caverndown, considering I played a fairly significant part in destroying their first home. I was still pretty rough after only having been back for a couple of months at that point. I'd probably keep my head a little better now."

"Uh-huh. So what's the news on Mareitania these days?"

Twilight grimaced as the conversation suddenly swung onto the topic of Mareitania. "You can find out soon enough," she replied cryptically.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Twilight bit her lip, the words she was about to say not really being something she wanted to say. Ever. "Mareitania sent all the pegasi back this morning."

"What?" Fleur said loudly, shocked at the news. "Why? How are they getting their weather?"

"We don't know, but that's not all. Apparently they've been restricting the merchant ships to the docks, and not letting them stay once their business was concluded. I'm talking about fully armed soldiers keeping them under control. Speaking of which, the ambassador from the Griffon Empire has said that Mareitania is building up their military strength, when they were previously decreasing it."

Fleur sat back and covered her face with a hoof, "What the hell are they thinking? Have Daybreak and the others gone mad or something?"

"That's what Celestia wants us to go find out." Twilight said the words quietly, like she didn't want them to be said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Fleur shouted. "Why the hell is she asking us to go?!"

"Because we're the big heroes of Mareitania," said Trixie. "Isn't that right Twilight."

"More or less. It won't be a long visit; a couple of weeks at most. Long enough to find out what's going on." Fleur groaned into her hooves as the filly stared blankly at the wall. Octavia and Summer both looked ill. The only one with even a hint of a smile, was Trixie.

"Well this is a fine to-do. I wish I could come with you, but alas I'm confined here, with my nuggies."

"Actually I've already given written permission to the hospital allowing you out for the trip to Mareitania."

"Shit."

"Maybe permanently, if it goes well and you're on your best behaviour."

Trixie groaned loudly, "Well, now I am both intrigued and mortified. Good effort Twilight; fuck you so much."

"Please Twilight," Fleur begged, "tell me you aren't serious."

"I thought you wanted to go back?" Octavia said to Fleur.

"Under my own terms! Not because things are going to shit! Again. Already. Not to mention the massive issues Trixie's probably going to have with seeing High Rock again."

Trixie looked shiftily from side to side, "Yeah. Those."

"Part of her terms will be to keep her inhibitor on at all times," Twilight said quickly, making Trixie groan in annoyance.

"You are really selling this to me Twilight."

"I'm sorry okay. Believe me, the thought of going back isn't something that fills me with joy either. If we had an embassy in the country we could ask them, but the parliament voted against letting us have one. Which now I think about it..."

"When are we leaving?" Octavia asked, her words sounding flat and toneless. Summer was staring at the floor beside her, the occasional quiver running through her.

"A few days time."

"And if they don't let us in?"

Twilight shrugged, "Hopefully that won't be a problem."

Author's Notes:

Originally I was going to ship Sugarbelle with Summer, but then season 7 happened...