Spliced was about to walk with the blue coated mare when she hesitated and looked at the other Pure pony, the one whose nose she broke. It was very foolish of her to do something like that and it would be only proper decorum to fix it.

“Excuse me,” Spliced said as she walked up the white mare with their guards pointing spears at her. It was so quaint she had to stop herself from laughing; even she might be able to take over and she didn’t know how to fight. “I broke your nose before. If you will let me,” she continued as she put a hoof on her mouth to steady it and the other hoof on the nose. “On three, I push it back into place.”

“Wait, I-” the mare began and Spliced found herself getting annoyed. The last thing she wanted to deal with was a spoiled rich mare that felt she knew better. Still Spliced kept a smile on her face.

“Ready?” she asked. “One-”

CRACK

“Gah!” the princess shouted in front of her, jumping backwards and prancing on the spot.

Everypony reacted immediately; the Third guards pointed their antique weapons directly at her, the other princess was attending to her sister and Spliced was trying to figure out what exactly she had done wrong.

With the guards shouting angrily at her, Spliced took a few steps backwards even though she knew that she was in no danger as if they killed her, she would just come back to life. Spliced was wondering if this Princess Celestia was one of those precious fragile aristocratic types and she had seriously bungled her future here.

“Please everypony,” the mare said, tilting her head upright and pushed past her sister and their guards. “I believe miss Spliced Genome here was merely trying to help me.” She flashed Spliced a smile that actually made her feel relieved before she gestured towards the other princess. “May I introduce my sister, Princess Luna.”

Spliced looked at the mare who was a dead ringer for the other mare she knew on the moon and saw a number of differences, namely Luna was actually in colour opposed to being completely transparent. Like her sister, Luna had a holographic mane with stars instead of a multi-coloured eyesore. Instead of gold, her sister was wearing shoes of what looked like crystal and her crown and chest piece were made of dark material.

“Nice to meet you properly, Princess Luna,” Spliced said, dipping her head as she thought it was what one was supposed to do with aristocrats.

“Likewise, Spliced Genome,” the princess said in the same cautious tone as her sister.

“Now that we know each other’s names,” Princess Celestia said while rubbing her snout. “How about we get to know each other over some food? I am sure you must be hungry, after all you’ve been through.”

Spliced wasn’t hungry at the moment but at the prospect at eating real food made her mouth water and her stomach rumble.

This cause the white mare to chuckle, and gesture with a wing. “Please follow us, we can ask the cooks to throw something together for you.”

Sitting at their table in Luna and her private kitchen, Celestia watched and noticed how the new alicorn ate with gusto. It wasn’t as if she was eating to refill her magic pools but as if she had not been able to eat for a long time.

“How are you doing with your zucchini pie?” Luna asked as the mare continued to fill her face, taking bites of everything as quick as she could. Celestia was surprised that she hadn’t choked yet in how fast she was putting food in her mouth but then again, every alicorn had their tricks.

“So good,” she muttered, thumping her chest and swallowing. “I haven’t eaten that good in so long.”

“Yes, I suppose four hundred years is a long time,” Luna said, causing the mare to freeze for a moment before nodding her head.

“Yes, four hundred years is a lon-” her eyes went wide as a pony named Batty brought in a steaming hot plate of spaghetti and placed it down in front of her. Spliced’s eye twitched before she picked up the plate with her turquoise magic, walked over to the window and then threw it like a discus clear out into the night sky.

Spliced let out a happy sigh before turning around and gave the Diarchs a mixture of a surprised and sheepish look. “No offense intended… but with all due respect, I’ve been living on mostly freeze-dried spaghetti and one or two other things for as long as I’ve been up there, and I honestly can’t stand even the thought of it anymore. I used to hate cheese sandwiches and coleslaw but I managed to bounce the other way for them.”

“That’s understandable,” Celestia told her. “As alicorns, we need variety for our lives less we get a bit squirrely at times.”

“Ali what now?” Spliced asked, tilting her head.

“Alicorns,” Luna told her as she took a slice of pumpkin pie for herself. “It is what we call our tribe in this dimension of reality.”

“Ah, I see,” Spliced nodded her head. “Where I am from, we,” she gestured towards her and her sister. “We are called Pure ponies and they,” she tilted her head towards the few servants milling around. “Are called Thirds…” she trailed off, no doubt aware of what she was about say would be viewed poorly.

“Due to the fact they only posses a third of what a pure pony has?” Celestia asked, cutting into the matter directly.

“Yes, and there is, or was, debate on the exact difference between the two,” Spliced said, sitting up straighter and more focused. “While some focus heavily on the sociological aspects of hippology, I tend to focus on the more biological aspects. And to be honest, there are major differences.”

“Really?” Celestia asked sharply, raising an eyebrow.

“Well of course,” Spliced said with a roll of her eyes. “Thirds with wings are generally born without a carbuncle and the part of the brain that controls the muscles for wing control is completely dormant.” She paused, taking a sip of her tea before breaking out in a smile. “As well as the fact Thirds are generally born without the particular keratin that makes up a horn or the bones that form with a wing or both,” Spliced added with a giggle.

Celestia turned to share a look with Luna who nodded her head.

“Now onto a bit more personal matters, miss Genome,” Luna said, moving the conversation forwards. “You said you were trapped on your moon for four hundred years. Care to explain the reason why?”

“Ah yes,” the mare paused again, look nervous before trying to hide it. “Well, I was placed there due to my actions in the war.”

“War?” Celestia asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Yes,” Spliced nodded her head. “The Thirds of Equuis, the coreworld, began to rebel against the Pures, demanding equality, fair treatment and all that. I was approached by them to aid them, which I did. Eventually, the rebels were defeated and tried for war crimes. For my actions, they made me immortal and sentenced me to the moon for a thousand years.”

“Made you immortal?” Celestia asked while digesting the rest of Spliced’s admission.

“Yes and as crazy as it sounds, they made me incapable of dying,” the mare said while holding a knife and before Celestia or Luna could react, she stabbed herself in the back of her neck and fell forwards into her plate. Celestia and Luna moved to check on the mare when she shot up and shook her face clear of all the food on it. “I have been coming back quicker over the years, but yes, they turned me immortal, somehow, to ensure that I would be able to serve my full sentence.”

“Perhaps a powerful spell?” Luna ventured, tilting her head.

“Spell? As in magic?” Spliced said with derision in her voice. “I can see your world is not to the same technological level as mine but surely you have moved past the trend to call things magic.”

“Your horn lit up before and you moved stuff around, what do you call that?” Luna pressed.

“Thaumatology, of course,” Spliced rolling her eyes. “And it is all based in very complex quantum physics that is still being debated and discovered.” She paused, frowning at her plate. “Or was or still is, I don’t know the current situation since I’ve been away for so long.”

“Well then, may I ask you a question," Luna asked as she walked over to the balcony and Celestia saw what her sister was planning. Smirking to herself, Celestia followed her sister to the balcony. “You see the moon out there, correct?”

“Yes...” Spliced said in the middle of them while tilting her upwards.

“How does it move?” Luna inquired with a hint of amusement in her tone.

“Well as anypony knows, it moves due its gravitational orbit around the planet,” Spliced replied before snorting, rolling her eyes. “Although I suppose in less enlightened times, I suppose it could be viewed as all sorts of things, including ma-” Spliced fell silent as Luna flew forwards and began to lower her moon with Celestia flying next to her sister to raise her sun. As they landed on the balcony, Spliced’s jaw was still hanging low with a look of complete stupefaction on her face. It took Spliced a few tries before she could manage to speak, with the mare shaking her head. “Oh-kay, I am going to do my best to repress that… that just happened. I-I… No.” She whimpered, shaking her head. “I think I need to sit down or something.”

“We have a room prepared for you,” Celestia said as she guided the mare back into the room. “Raven Inkwell, can you lead our guest to her chambers?”

“Of course,” the mare said, nodding her head as she led the other mare away so Luna and Celestia could talk in private.

Once the door was closed, both sisters traded careful looks between each other.

“So sister, what do you think of our ‘guest’?” Celestia asked, lifting an apple in the air.

“Unique,” Luna said diplomatically. “I doubt she is a tribalist but rather uncaring about the differences between tribes.”

“Which brings us to her status of being a war criminal in a race war,” Celestia said. “I do not doubt anypony would lie about such crimes but I find her indifference to be an indicator she did not join out of morality but for another reason.”

“She clearly has no proper experience with magic but she somehow managed to travel to our dimension, our reality,” Luna paused as she looked to the ground, no doubt tracking her moon. “I have searched the area I found her but I have yet to find anything. Either she has a powerful ally or something else is in play.”

“So on top of being a war criminal that was deemed dangerous enough to banish away for a thousand years and whatever she did was heinous enough to warrant her pony’s government to grant her immortality so she would serve each year of her sentence, she has some other source wishing to ensure her tenure here,” Celestia said. “So what should we do with her?”

Luna gave her a long look before replying. “I have a feeling what you would say, sister.” Luna waited for Celestia to nod her head before continuing. “While this mare is a clear danger to our ponies, we should also remember what our nation is built on; friendship, harmony and second chances. You would point out in the past that we had three would be world conquerors and threats that have managed to reform due to being given second chances. There was the other mare from the moon whom you entrusted to your former student and she managed to help her find her way again. There was the mad avatar of chaos whom you saw good in and entrusted to the mare who embodies kindness and managed to create the bonds of friendship with him, seeding his eventual turn to the side of good. Then there was the mare who had misguided ideas of equality and threatened the stability of the foundation of how we defined our world. Instead of slaying the fiend, your former student, now our equal, instead chose to use her words and explain matters. Said mare is now her student and has grown by leaps and bounds. With three would-be destroyers our world, how can we not try to do the same for this mare.” Luna paused and looked at Celestia. “Did I miss anything?”

“Beyond my closing statements, no,” Celestia said. “And what you would say is how dangerous it would be to have a completely unknown mare with an ally that can block your magic loose in the world, near Twilight and the Crystal Mirror. You would add in the fact that this mare comes from a more advanced world than ours and could very well and try to conquer our world with her knowledge. That letting a mare who admitted to being a war criminal freely outside our walls is a greater mistake than letting Discord out on purpose on the chance he could be redeemed. That we should hold her as long as possible until we can find the means that brought her and send her back to her own people so we can defend ours.”

“Indeed sister, those are my thoughts on the matter,” Luna said, tipping her head forwards. “I propose that we investigate further; I will enter her dreams to see what else I can learn and we will convene in the afternoon to decide on what exactly we should do about Spliced Genome.”

“Agreed sister,” Celestia said as she stood up and began to walk towards the doors before pausing and turned back to give her sister a hug goodnight with Luna returning the gesture. “Be safe and sleep well, Luna.”

“And to you as well, Celestia,” Luna replied, giving her sister a nuzzle before the mares left the room.