Early the next morning

Twilight sat up in bed gasping for air, soaked in sweat, had anyone seen her, they would have seen her eyes wide open, pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

It took her several moments to get her bearings and get her breathing under control. Closing her eyes, she brought her left hand to her forehead, the cool metal of the prosthesis cooling her burning skin.

'Been awhile since I have had that one.' Twilight thought as she rubbed the point where flesh ended and alloy began. Reaching down and flipping the covers back she climbed out of bed, jumping slightly as lightning flashed outside the window.

Looking at the clock, she saw the amber numbers telling her it was just past three A.M. 'No sense in trying to go back to bed now.' She thought with a sigh.

Quietly exiting the master bedroom, she moved through the hall to the kitchen.

Continuing to move quietly through the kitchen,Twilight started making coffee. Once the machine began to brew, she headed to the living room and grabbed her tablet.

Powering the device up, she walked back to the kitchen and turned the light on from the rangehood. Leaning against the counter, Twilight opened up the novel that she had been reading.

A few pages later, Twilight was pouring her first cup of coffee, she heard one of the bedroom doors open followed by accented mumbling.

Smiling, she pulled another mug from the cabinet and filled it just as the farmmare stumbled into the room.

Wordlessly, she handed AJ the mug. Grabbing her mug and tablet, she took a sip to hide her smile.

Once the mare had a cup of coffee in her system she was a bit more coherent.

"Feelin' a bit better AJ?" Twilight asked.

"A bit more alive than I was. Thanks for the coffee." The blonde replied.

"Not a problem. I don't drink it too often, but I had a bad night." Twilight replied.

"How so?" Applejack asked.

"The job I did when I was in the Army gave my subconscious plenty of fuels for nightmares. Doesn't happen often, and most of the time I don't wake up, but this was one of the harder ones." Twilight responded.

"Do you want to talk about it?" The other mare asked quietly.

Twilight thought for a moment before replying. "Not really, but I would be telling you and the others when you noticed anyways." She said as she moved towards the switch for the overhead lights. "Watch your eyes, gonna turn on the big light." The alicorn warned.

Once Twilight turned on the light, she heard a startled gasp behind her.

Without turning around, Twilight began her tale.

"My last mission on active duty was a routine one. Go out, find a nice spot to watch this valley the insurgents were using to move arms and taking out any that we could see that had any weapons. My partner Archer and I had only been in position for a few hours when we heard an explosion go off. We listened and after the blast we heard fifty cal fire. The sound of the Ma Duece is distinct, so we called it in and moved to support. There was a friendly convoy at the bottom of the valley. Bad guys were pouring fire down on them from the opposing side of the valley from us. We set up and I started putting rounds down range. Fortunately, I was subconsciously using my Pegasus magic to augment my firing ability and all of my rounds went exactly where I wanted them to go every time." Twilight's horn glowed as she took a sip of her coffee as a picture floated into the room before it was set down in front of Applejack.

"I'm the one on the left. The one on the right is Archer. He was my spotter. Anyways, I'm putting fire down to try and get some of the heat off the convoy when the side of the mountain about a hundred feet below us explodes. Turns out the bastards had a mortar team with them. Just as I was swinging my rifle to get a bead on them they launched another round. I got sighted in center of mass on the guy loading the tube and fired. Turns out, I made a billion to one shot. My anti-material round, which has a small explosive charge in the tip, hit the mortar round just as the guy dropped it into the tube. Three for one kill. Then the mortar they launched landed behind us. Due to our positioning, I got the worst of the shrapnel. We figure a rock got launched and slammed into my arm just above my elbow. Turned the bone in that location to powder. Woke up a couple of months later in a hospital in Germany with a stump, another consciousness in my head, and access to a slowly recharging mana pool." Twilight finished with a shrug. "Over the next few months I designed and commissioned the part that is directly attached to the stump and the arm was produced after I finished designing the runic arrays that allow me to use it like my original arm. Hurt like a son of bitch when they attached the arm the first time." She added as she rubbed her arm again.

"Ah can see why ya'd have nightmares." Applejack replied.

Twilight was about to reply when a pair of arms surrounded her.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to do something to protect you Twily."

"Not a thing you could have done Shiny. You were a thousand miles away with your own Princess and empire to worry about. I wouldn't have blamed you then and I don't blame you now. Even Celestia was taken by Discord." Twilight said as she relaxed into her brother's embrace. She hadn't realized that she missed the comfort of a sibling until this moment.

Shining sighed with relief. "Thank you Twily, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear that."

"So I was wondering. Who exactly sent you after me? I know you said said Luna last night, but…" Twilight trailed off.

Shining was the one to reply.

"Princess Luna was the one who was able to locate you and set up a spell that transported us here. Granted her aim was a little off, but for shooting blind I guess we were lucky to wind up on the same continent, much less within a hundred miles of each other."

Twilight laughed. "Everything considered, yeah it was pretty damn good." Then she sobered. "How did the others handle my disappearance?"

Applejack sighed. "We were all wrecks. I knew that you were smart and would have done something to try and survive as well as getting back home. That and I trusted the Princesses would find a solution. Fluttershy was a big help. She was able to keep her head and helped to keep our spirits up. Rarity and Spike threw themselves into their work when they weren't with us. Rarity started supplying uniforms for the Guard once recruitment picked up. Pinkie, well she had a period where her mane was flat and she was kind of crabby honestly, but then she perked right up. Dunno if she knew you were okay or she just got tired of moping about. Dash was in a funk for the longest. Then one day, Princess Luna came by to check up on us. Her and Dash took off and flew around for a while. They came back and went to Dash's house for a little while longer. Then Luna went to Spike to get our Elemental regalia." Applejack explained.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Why did she want those?"

Applejack reached into her shirt and pulled out a necklace made of gold that had the main stars of her cutie mark. "Ta make us these. All six of us have one, Cadence and Shining Armour, your folks, Princess Celestia and Luna, the Crusaders, the Cakes, Big Mac, Granny Smith, Zecora and few others in Ponyville and Canterlot." Applejack explained.

Twilight reached out with her right hand and glanced at AJ, silently asking for permission. Applejack nodded and Twilight cupped the pendant in her hand.

When her hand made contact, she gasped as the harmonious energy that existed in the metal coursed through her once more. But on top of that, just as strong as the faded harmony, was something else. Something that Twilight had only felt on a couple of occasions, left there by the maker of the pendant.

"Who did you say made this?" Twilight asked, her voice rough with emotion.

"Princess Luna and Rainbow Dash. Turns out Luna is a Master Blacksmith and Dash is a fair hand at the forge herself, once she got some experience. Took them the better part of three months to get the design right and to find enough gems of the quality they wanted. I have never seen Dash look as happy as she was when she brought them home to us. She moved up to the Castle to learn how to be a proper blacksmith from Princess Luna." Applejack replied.

Twilight gave a watery laugh as she wiped a few tears from her eyes.

"You okay ma'am?" Flash inquired.

Twilight nodded as she got her emotions under control. "Yeah, just a little liquid pride leaking out." She said causing everyone to laugh.