Princess Luna was just finishing up her latest set of paperwork when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” she called, eager for a distraction.

A moment later, she got it when a beaming Celestia walked into the room, accompanied by a pair of hovering equines she had only heard of from stories, and she gave her sister a look.

“Celestia,” she asked as calmly as she could. “I am glad to see you back. But why are there a pair of sirens - presumably two of the ones you went to take care of - following you?”

“Luna, I’d like you to meet Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk,” Celestia said. “The new Lady of Hatred and her companion.”

“That implies you know where the old one is,” Luna said with a raised eyebrow. “What happened to them?”

“According to your sister, the same thing that happened to Chrysalis,” Aria said. “She abused her powers and lost them for it. I got the job when Discord decided I was a better fit.”

“And I’ve already contacted Cadance, so she’ll be coming to see us as soon as possible,” Celestia added. “It would be helpful for both to better understand their Duties and Roles together as you know that Love and Hatred rarely have such to work together.”

Luna nodded. “So I see.” She stood up and walked over to examine the pair before looking at her sister. “You have yet to tell me what happened to her or where she is now.”

Celestia sighed. “Luna, I’ve told you what happened to Sunset Shimmer. It would seem that our old teacher banished three sirens to the same land, where they would have been left powerless.”

“And he was almost right,” Aria spoke up. “We barely had access to our normal magic even before all of this - we fed a little, but not nearly what we were used to.”

“I don’t know how much of that was actually us and how much was what Adagio was carrying around,” Sonata contributed.

“At any rate, when Sunset arrived, she managed to enroll herself in a local high school,” Celestia continued. “After Twilight went there and managed to bring her around, she began working to redeem herself. Unfortunately, their display of Equestrian magic caught the attention of the sirens. They transferred in just a short while ago, and began working their own magic.”

“Until Adagio got us all caught and we ended up with a rainbow blast to the faces,” Sonata said. She made a face. “That was not fun. I’ve had fun. That wasn’t it.”

“After that,” Celestia said, “These two realized they’d been manipulated by their leader, and she exposed her true status as Lady of Hatred to them as she was explaining herself. Then Discord arrived, took away her Power, and gave it to Aria when he decided she’d do a better job.”

“As for our former leader, she’s still back there,” Aria said, waving a hoof. “Principal Celestia gave her detention for the rest of the year.”

Luna had been listening carefully, but at the words “Principal Celestia”, she looked startled. “Who‽”

“It would seem that many of this world’s residents have Others over there,” Celestia said. “Our counterparts are in charge of Canterlot High School, where Sunset attends. I did not see a version of Twilight, but her friends - and their families - have counterparts, and I saw a few others I recognized.”

Luna shook her head. “Others. It figures.”

“So, she’s stuck there, and we’re back here so Aria can be what Adagio was supposed to be,” Sonata said. She turned to Celestia. “Um… can I go have some tacos now?”

Celestia smiled. “I’ll show you to the kitchen,” she said. “Our meat Chef Guston will be very happy to have another individual present who appreciates his cooking.”

“Yay!” Sonata happily followed her out of the room.

When the two had gone, Aria sighed and facehooved. “I love my sister, I really do, but she’s such a ditz sometimes,” she said.

Luna nodded. “Sisters can indeed have their differences,” she said. “I know from experience.”

“Right.” Aria looked around. “How long has it been here since we got sent away, anyway?” she asked. “I don’t want to have to be dealing with that Starswirl guy again. ‘Course, I can’t blame him for wanting to get rid of Adagio - she was a total stranger, and Sonata and I were such fools to listen to her when she came out of nowhere, spouting off all this talk about getting us a feast like we’d never seen before.”

“Regrettably, Starswirl himself, along with his companions, disappeared while facing another threat over a thousand years ago,” Luna said. “Death did not claim him, we know that much. They simply vanished, and to where we have no idea.”

“Right.” She said before looking at Luna again. “What about the other sirens, what happened to them?”

“You are the first sirens we have encountered in a very long time Aria,” Luna said, summoning a map of the world. “We do not know where in the Equuis seas your kind claims home to be. Perhaps you can help us reach out to them.”

“I can try,” she replied. Then she looked at two spots and squinted at one of them. “Hey, wasn’t that old Squirk’s territory?”

“It was,” Luna said. “The merlions imprisoned him and laid claim to that area. They, the local seaponies and mermares all live in peace now.”

“Good.” At Luna’s startled expression, she clarified. “Squirk hated our people, and we hated him back. He tried to conquer us once, but we threw him out. Literally, we levitated him out of the waters over our main city and threw him over the horizon.”

“I see.”

There had been some startled reactions when a few changelings saw the siren pair floating through the castle (apparently the two races were aware of one another, but had historically avoided interacting if they possibly could), but Celestia had cleared things up quickly. It had been a marked change to how the world had been before the last year; before there had only been ponies that had roamed these halls but now there were species of almost every nation who had taken it upon themselves to reaffirm their ties to one another. There were wolves talking to minotaurs about their fishing boats while changelings were discussing opening businesses with the harpies and even establishing a potential hive or two in their islands, a small delegation of hippogriffs (some of whom were transformed seaponies from Seaquestria) meeting with their griffon cousins to discuss the two groups working to rebuild both their nations, and even some Abyssinians - one of the few races Twilight had not officially met yet - meeting with ponies about their own businesses.

The Cuanmiztl Kingdom delegation had arrived as well, and a few of them had joined in that talk, though they were eager to see the return of their treasures. Celestia had personally promised them that she would send a few ponies she knew (namely, Rainbow Dash) to speak with one of the main individuals responsible, being friendly acquaintances with her, and that she had her guards out hunting for Caballeron and his associates as well. She still expected to see Daring and Ahuizotl (the Cuanmiztl Kingdom representatives had yet to give her his actual name) showing up soon to settle the whole matter of her books; now that he had the backing of his people, he was seeking some sort of compensation. She wasn’t exactly sure of what he planned to ask for, considering how Queen Scolopidia, who had made her close friendship with Vinyl and Octiava official and her hive was now Equestria’s second changeling hive, reacted to the news with a knowing smirk similar to when the changelings and Cadance had been watching Luna and Pharynx begin to date before making it official.

Celestia hadn’t seen anywhere near this many races in one place since the last Convocation of Creatures (or “International Gathering” as some insisted on calling it) at Mount Metazoa and it warmed her heart to see such unity unfolding.

But now, a day after their return from the world of Canterlot High, Princess Cadance had finally arrived to meet the two sirens.

“So that’s what happened,” Aria concluded when she finished telling her story to her Opposite. They were sitting in a small, cozy room with Celestia attending briefly before she had to go oversee Daring and Teomitl, his name finally given, meeting. While the pair could move through the air on their own, they had been given special magical water to help them contact their own people. “We’re here, she’s there, and you’re… well, you and I are supposed to work together. I’m not sure how though.”

“I didn’t know either when I first started,” Cadance replied warmly. “I had to learn as I went along. I had thought it meant at first doing my best to personally oversee that all the relationships went well but I quickly realized that was impossible as I could not be everywhere and I was just a little filly.” That drew some giggles from Sonata with her sister smirking too. “While Aunt Celestia and Luna’s Powers are more flashy and dramatic, ours is much more subtle. I am the ruler of the Crystal Empire which has the Crystal Heart as you know. It helps me reach towards my ponies to see how they feel but I also have my own agents that I do my best to help guide as well as have them to help others.”

“What kind of agents?” Aria asked, taking a taco off the plate that Guston had made for them. Along with the increased presence of people who ate his meals, the griffon chef had taken a shine to Sonata and had made sure that both sirens had whatever meal they wanted, though he had gone through the blue-coloured one first.

“Believe it or not, matchmakers are not my core supply of agents, despite what many might think,” Cadance said. “Though there are a few whom I support publicly as to throw off my political enemies - Refined Heart, for one, might be a little nosey, but otherwise she has done a very good job of helping couples since before I was born. Most of my agents are counselors, both for couples as well as individuals, to make sure their relationships with their special someone as well as their friends and families are good and healthy. I have also been in talk with most of the changelings who have agreed to help me in my work to keep a better eye on the matter. I am sure you can see how you can help as well.”

Aria nodded carefully. “Discord said, when I asked him before taking on this Role, that part of my Duties involved helping people channel anger and other negative emotions in a healthy way so they wouldn’t let it control them,” she said. “So counselors of a different type would be under my calling.”

“Exactly,” Cadance said. “There is a lot of material you will need to learn first but learning how to deal with one’s anger and other rougher emotions is something that my counselors do struggle with their patients, which I do admit is partly my fault as I do not have the best experience in it. The closest I had was when I met Prismia and she tried to drain the love from everypony in the village I grew up in because she was jealous of what they had. I reversed her spell and helped her feel their love, which is part of what she wanted all along, but it took a long time before she really got over the jealousy she’d felt.” She sighed. “And then there’s what I had to deal with when Chrysalis imprisoned me, but seeing her stripped of her power and being turned into a donkey under arrest for the rest of her life does help.”

“Have you ever gone into a rage cage?” Aria asked with Celestia and Cadance both raising an eyebrow at that.

“Care to explain what they are?” Cadance asked her Opposite.

“It’s this thing where a person goes into a mostly confined place and just lets out all their anger,” Sonata said. “They scream and curse and pound on the walls and floor until they feel all better. Sweatier and tireder, but better. I met this one old guy who put padding on the inside of his closet and used that to do it - he called it a Fuss Closet instead of a rage cage, but it was the same thing, really. He let Aria use it because she was in one of those really bad moods of hers. And he had this funny sign on the inside of the door that summed it all up.”

“Oh?” Cadance asked.

Sonata nodded. “‘To fuss is human; to rant, divine!’” she quoted, earning chuckles from the two alicorns.

“There are also those other variants where they stack it with a ton of breakable stuff that they let you just smash up as another way to vent your anger out against useless stuff instead of another person,” Aria said with her sister nodding her head. “A lot more healthy than doing it against someone who would hit back. There’s another variant with a rubber dummy like they have at the gym to beat up on too.”

“And once you’ve got all your frustrations worked out, you can calm down and think about stuff, try to work past whatever you were angry at!” Sonata said brightly.

“Our guards actually have that last version in their training areas,” Celestia said thoughtfully.

“But you have given me a lot to think about Aria,” Cadance said. “If you would like, you can accompany me back home in the Crystal Empire so we can start your education in what you need to know so we can both work together to help others.”

“I’d like that,” Aria said, extending a hoof. The two shook, and Cadance smiled.

“Me too, right?” Sonata asked with her sister sighing.

“Yes, of course you can come,” Cadance said with a giggle. “There was never any question about it. I would never dream of splitting you up from your sister.”

“Eeeee!” Sonata squealed happily. Aria rolled her eyes, but was smiling as she did it.

“Hope your chefs are as good with meat as the one here,” she said. “Sirens in general are mostly meat-eaters. We can stomach other things, but meat is the big thing.”

“Pegasi, or former pegasi in my case, tend to have a taste for fish too,” Cadance said. “I made sure we hired a griffon chef right away.”

“Also with warmer ties with the Packlands now, more choices in meat products are available in Equestria and the Crystal Empire in general,” Celestia added as she rose. “I am heartened to see such strong ties form but I need to attend another meeting right now.”

“It’s okay!” Sonata said cheerfully. “We didn’t live in a palace, but I used to be friends with some of the sirens who did, and they said our queen used to have to always run off and do things all over the place too.”

Celestia gave the trio another smile before heading off to the other meeting room and did her best not to sigh.

The room was not that large as to subtly encourage each side to be closer, and hopefully work closer in the end, but the fact that both sides were at opposite ends made the distance seem larger than it was.

On one end was Daring Do with a pony in a business suit, no doubt her lawyer and on the other side was Teomitl with an ahuizotl, no doubt his lawyer too, by his side and the Cuanmiztl Kingdom’s representative on the other side. Standing at the far wall was a score of changeling guards mixed with rune wolves to downplay Equestria’s part in the meeting giving steady looks at the Cuanmiztlian guards who were standing slightly ready as if they expected things to escalate.

Stepping up to her own spot, Celestia cleared her throat to catch their attention. “Lady, gentlebeings,” she said. “I do hope you were not waiting long for me to arrive but now that I am here, let us begin.”

At her end, Daring was looking somewhat abashed, while Teomitl had something of a… well, Celestia wasn’t quite sure what to call the expression he had. His lawyer, on the other hoof, was looking very serious. “Your royal highness Princess Celestia,” he said. “We are here to discuss the complaints our people, and my client in particular, have brought against Miss Do.” He held up a scroll. “Malicious vandalism and destruction of historic sites. Theft of cultural artifacts. Repeated mockery of the treasure guardian Teomitl and his sacred duty. Repeated misrepresentation of him in your works, which is categorized as malicious slander.” He gave Daring a narrowed look. “Miss Do, how do you answer these charges?”

“Look, I-” Daring began to answer before her lawyer coughed loudly.

“What my client here means to say is that she is completely apologetic for her actions against your historical sites and will be doing her part to help fund projects in restoring them,” the lawyer paused to catch their breath.

“It would have helped if he’d just told me what he was really doing there in the first place,” Daring grumbled. “All I got were death threats!”

“As IF an Equestrian would believe the word of someone who wasn’t one,” Teomitl snapped before holding all three hands up as both lawyers seemed ready to tear into him. “Sorry, that was completely uncalled for but seriously, would you have believed me back then Daring?”

“If you’d tried, maybe I would have,” she said. “But you attacked me right off! Of course I was suspicious after that!” She sighed. “At any rate, I still have all your stuff, and now that I know the truth, I’d be glad to give it all back.”

“That was a guaranteed event Daring,” Teomitl said. “Though the crux of the matter is your books. Now while I am not completely pleased about my depiction in them, I cannot be dishonest to say they are terrible nor they are without merit.” He clasped all three hands together. “I am aware of how many youths you have got to start reading and my lawyer here has a proposition for you and your lawyer to look over.” He said with his lawyer sighing before sliding a paper across the table.

“I’ll make sure my publishers add a new disclaimer to all future printings of my old stuff so that people know that your depiction in them is not an accurate portrayal of how actual ahuizotls behave, and was partly based on a bad first impression that colored my personal views.” She gave him a look before picking up the paper. “Though Caballeron’s is right on the money,” she said as she began to read the letter before doing a double-take and read it again before handing it over to her lawyer. “Are you serious about this?”

“Of course I am,” he said with a shrug and a smirk on his face. “Like I said, you are a good writer and those who read your work should not be deprived of that due to a miscommunication. For equal rights to all future profits off your series along with equal representation to my contributions, I will help you explore some of the more distant temples and artifacts of my people and others across the world. You do not need to stop what you are doing per se, just that I accompany you now and show you a bit of my world so you can give your readers a better story. What do you say?”

“I say you’ve got a deal,” Daring said as she accepted the papers back from her lawyer. With a quick flourish, she signed the contract, then hoofed it over. “Oh, and I think it’s only fair to warn you…”

“Yes?”

“I like and appreciate my fans, but some of them are a little more… obsessive about certain topics than others, and once they start seeing your name on the front as co-writer, you’re likely to start getting fan mail from them too.” Daring shrugged. “Would you believe how many letters I get from people asking why I haven’t confessed my undying love for Caballeron?”

Had Teomitl been drinking, he would have done a spit-take. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Daring said. “They call it ‘Foe Yay’ and claim that our mutual dislike is actually a secret, burning love for one another.” She rolled her eyes. “No matter how many times I write back that my character can’t stand the guy - and I mean every word of it - there are still those who respond that I’m just in denial.”

Teomital groaned. “And you think I’ll have to deal with that sort of thing too?”

“Would you believe I get letters like that shipping the two of us too?”

The ahuizotl stared. “You’re serious.”

“Absolutely,” Daring confirmed. “But they’re not all like that. I do get some that are well-thought out and have meaningful questions. Like the one I got once from this little filly asking why the guards that we ran into from time to time didn’t trap Caballeron and arrest him for everything he did, because her big brother was in the guard and she knew if he’d gone after Caballeron, the guy would have been in jail long ago.”

Celestia suddenly raised a hoof. “Was that letter, by any chance, signed ‘T. Sparkle’?”

“It was, actually.” Daring turned to look at her. “How did…” Then she stopped, thought, and sighed. “Of course. That was from Princess Twilight, wasn’t it?”

“Long before she was a Princess, but yes,” Celestia said. “She showed it to me before she sent it to you.”

“Heh.” Daring smiled. “That was actually one of the better thought-out ones I got back then. I still have it hanging on my wall.”

“I’m sure she’d be happy to hear that,” Celestia said. “And she still has your reply, too.”

Daring smiled again.

“What did you say to her?” Teomitl asked curiously.

“I told her the truth, that the guards always did their best, but he was trickier than they realized and had had a lot of experience in escaping,” Daring said. “Also that the narrative reason was because it made for a more exciting story if I had a couple of recurring villains besides… well, you.”

Teomitl nodded. “Sound logic.”

Looking up at the gates of Yakyakistan, Twilight nodded. “Here goes nothing.”

Then she knocked.

No response.

She knocked again.

Still no response.

“Maybe nobody’s home?” Spike suggested.

“These doors are too well maintained for this place to be completely empty,” Twilight told him. Reaching up, she was about to knock again, when a smaller door flew open.

“Yaks not want company! Go away!” the yak bellowed before slamming the door in her face.

Twilight frowned. “Well that was rude.” She knocked again. “Look, I’m not going away! I need to talk to your leader!”

“GO AWAY!” the yak’s voice came again. “Yaks not hear from outside in thousand years, yaks not want to hear from outside! Yaks want their privacy!”

“Yaks going to be in big trouble if they don’t open up and take me to their leader,” Twilight shot back.

“If puny pony not go away, yaks smash!” the yak responded.

“Well, I can’t say I didn’t warn him,” Twilight mused. “Yaks are supposed to respect strength though, so here goes.”

Then she concentrated her Earth pony magic in her rear hooves, turned around, and let out a buck that would have made Applejack proud, sending the door flying.

Trotting in, she found herself surrounded by angry-looking yaks. There was even a small one, with a green blanket on her back and some red decorations in her braids, present.

“Puny pony break in yak’s door? Yaks smash!” one of them bellowed.

“‘Puny pony’ not in the mood for any of yaks’ roadapples,” Twilight shot back, snorting hotly in their faces. “Now, do as I said and take me to your leader!”

Just then, there was a low rumbling, and then another yak, taller than the rest, muscled his way through the crowd. “Make way for yak Prince Rutherford!” he bellowed.

The other yaks muttered, but did as he said. He was soon directly in Twilight’s face, and snorted at her. “What puny pony want? Yaks not heard from ponies since short pony princess attack taller pony princess!”

“Really?” Twilight blinked in surprise but kept her posture. “But… they told me they tried to reach all of you last fall. None of you answered. And some of us are not happy; we could have really used your help!”

“Pony lie!” the yak prince roared. “Weak ponies not contact mighty yaks! No one contact yaks! Not in a thousand years!”

“Then… you didn’t get the Dragon Lord’s message either?” Twilight asked. “He sent it… a couple of weeks ago now, I think. He said he was going to, anyway.”

The yak stared at her, nostrils opening and closing angrily. Then he stomped over to the yak who’d been guarding the door. “Sentry! Where is Dragon Lord message!”

“Yak not know what Prince talking about,” the sentry stammered. “Yak not get any message-”

“Sentry lie!” the yak prince roared. “Where. Is. Message‽”

Meekly, the yak sentry trotted away to a building near the gate, and came back with a stack of letters. “Yak so sorry, yak was just following orders! Yak sentries not supposed to let anyone or anything in to disturb yak prince!”

“Yak more disturbed now than anything!” Rutherford roared. “Yak dismissed from duty. Yaks must find new sentry, who will do job right!” He then began shuffling through the letters until he found the one he wanted. “Hmm… Dragon Lord did send letter,” he mused. “Yaks will have to send one back. Tell him of delayed delivery because yak sentry not do job right!”

Then he began checking the letters. “Junk… junk… yaks may have already won ten thousand bits… junk…” As he scanned them, he looked suspiciously at Twilight. “What ponies want with yaks anyway?” he asked. “Yaks not bother ponies, why ponies bother yaks?”

“Because we want answers,” Twilight said. “But now I think I have them. Princess Celestia tried to get your help for the war effort!”

“War effort‽ What war‽” he shouted louder than he had been talking so far with other yaks also shouting loudly.

“The one with the Storm King,” Twilight said. “To stop him from taking over the world. But you didn’t answer us!”

Rutherford let out an angry snort. “Yaks not hear of war! Is war going on still?”

“No, it ended last winter,” Twilight said. “He’s dead.”

“Yaks miss war‽” Rutherford looked even angrier. “Yaks love good war! Yaks love smash!”

“Well, if you want…” Twilight looked around at all the snow. “I saw him - I fought him. I could use my magic, turn a lot of this snow into snow sculptures of him, and you could smash those.”

Rutherford’s lips turned upward into a grin. “Yak like that idea,” he said. “Yaks! Move back! Let pony make Storm King sculptures! Then, yaks smash!”

The other yaks were grinning too as they backed up. When she had enough room, Twilight lit up her horn and began shaping the snow.

Soon, there were over a hundred sculptures of the Storm King in front of them, and Rutherford nodded approvingly. “Yaks thank pony,” he said. “Now yaks smash!”

And with a lot of yelling, the yaks charged and began stomping all over the place.

Several hours and even more snow sculptures later, the yaks were satisfied, and Rutherford began checking the mail again, finally finding the letter from Princess Celestia.

“Yaks must make amends,” he announced. “Yaks not want to miss war for all the yovidaphones in Yakyakistan! But yaks miss out because of overzealous yak sentry!” He turned and fumed towards the gate. “Yaks want know what else yaks missed out on!”

“Well, Princess Luna’s back… and back to herself.”

The yaks exchanged looks and muttered to one another.

“The Crystal Empire is back…”

The muttering was even louder.

“And, I guess you didn’t hear we had two new princesses?” Twilight spread her wings.

Rutherford was so startled his eyes became visible through his bangs for a moment. “Yaks really not hear of this!”

“Also, Discord’s back and helping us out.”

There was a loud high-pitched scream from the back of the herd of yaks, and the others looked in its direction, revealing a skinnier yak who let out a nervous giggle. “Heh-heh… carry on,” he said.

Snorting in disgust, Rutherford looked at Twilight. “Yaks clearly have lots to catch up on,” he said. “Yaks want know everything!”

“And I want to know everything about your people,” Twilight said. She held out a hoof. “Will you teach me?”

Rutherford smiled. “Yak be honored,” he said.

Once she’d brought Spike in (and earned further muttering from the yaks), Twilight followed Prince Rutherford to the yak’s fire pit and began listening to him, and telling her own stories when prompted.

Finally, as night began to fall, she was led to a mud sleeping hut (as Rutherford had explained, the yaks had special huts for almost every purpose), and laid down, Spike at her side.

Yaks interesting to listen to, she thought sleepily before dozing off.