//------------------------------// // Chapter 2- Sunset... Sunset Shimmer. // Story: My immortal phoenix. // by Lieral //------------------------------// Chapter 2. The mirror glows in the dark apartment and Twilight cautiously approached it. “What… Is… This…? And how is this happening?” She asked to herself inspecting the mirror in amazement, the power supply has definitely been cut off, but exactly now the mirror is showing the image of a desert. “My machinery shouldn’t work without energy…” She thought trying to find an answer. But soon her curiosity gave way to a great happiness, doesn’t matter what exactly is happening, (Ok, that DOES matter, but she could give herself a break.) her mind was in frenzy, she gave a step forward to the mirror. “I NEED TO DO MORE TESTS!” Twilight exclaimed happily and started a search for her notepad, but the lack of light makes it a lot harder. “C’mon, c’mon, C’MON, WHERE ARE YOU?” A Spike barked and caught Twilight’s attention, the dog was holding the missing notepad with it’s mouth and his paw was above a pen. “Thank you, boy!” She took the notepad and the pen and turn back to the mirror. “Beginning annotations about visual findings...” She turned her gaze to the mirror. “Landscape: Desert. Smart life sign: Building wrecks and ... That's all? Interesting!” She wrote things down with a thirsty curiosity. Meanwhile, Spike tries to sniff the strange mirror and approaches without any care. It’s muzzle leaned against the mirror. “Spike, do you understand what’s going on here? We may have made a whole new discover… SPIKE DON’T TOUCH IT!” Twilight screamed surprised, but instead of hitting his muzzle the image flickered and his muzzle simply crossed the mirror. Spike barked in surprise and Twilight hold the dog up and stood breathing heavily. Spike trembled against her breast as she stared the mirror and then to the dog again. “Spike… Are you alright? You crossed it… I can’t believe it! This means even more tests!” She stated happily. The phone rang frightening Twilight, she turns her gaze to the cellphone with ferocity, but decided to ignore and turn back to the work. The energy came back and Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at the mirror but it still working. She gave a deep sigh in relieve, maybe the mirror and the gem just needed a push… But why the push was the light turning off? Now the phone started ringing too, she ignored it again and turned to the gem, Twilight touched it with her tremulous fingers, she felt something similar to a violent shockwave and retrieve her hand immediately. She looked at the mirror scared, but it still showing the same image. Twilight sighed in relieve. A voice came from her answering machine. “Twilight, we know you’re there. Answer or we will call your brother!” Twilight’s eyes widened and she answered the phone fast. “What’s wrong Rainbow?” She asked pretending to be natural. “What do you mean, ‘what's wrong?’ Don’t you notice this strange blackout?” Rainbow Dash asked, and Twilight could hear other voices in the background. “Blackout? I thought the light of my apartment went off because I caused a short circuit!” Twilight answered with a small laugh. “I and the girls were together when it started, but Fluttershy insisted in calling you, just to be sure you’re alright.” Rainbow said carefree, but a second voice came clearly from behind her. “It wasn’t Fluttershy’s idea, Rainbow was the first to take the phone and called you before all of us could even reach our phones!” Twilight laughed with Applejack’s comment and she could hear Rainbow lying and giving excuses. “Don’t worry girls, I’m fine! Like I said I thought I was the one causing it!” Twilight said wiping away a tear of laughter. “Thank you, dear,” A different voice came from the phone. ”But you really should go out more times! If you’re with us we won’t be so worried!” ‘Not fair Rarity… Not fair.’ Twilight thought to herself, the other girl knows how to hit the weak spot. If she said something like ’You should find a boyfriend, or you need to do more friends beside us,’ She will never listen, but when she said ‘they will be worried’ it hit a really weak spot. “Don’t worry Rarity, I will go out with you girls next time.” The lavender girl said smiling, she didn’t know if this is true or not, she will try it anyway… But experiments comes first. “Ok, darling. We will turn off now, but take care of yourself while we’re not with you.” Rarity said with humor and turn her phone off. Twilight sighed and turned back to the mirror and her eyes widened, the image has changed somehow. She still could see the desert and the wrecked buildings, but she’s seeing it all through a broken window, actually there’s no glass on it, just an open space in the wall. “What happened?” Twilight couldn’t help but ask. “Maybe when I touched it?” But unfortunately, that’s where the hypothesis end… There’s no visible reason to that change, and that makes her nervous. “It’s unstable…” She closed her eyes and groaned, her desire for knowledge is fighting with her desire for security. She wants to cross that mirror and see everything with her own eyes, but there’s no grant this is a habituated or hostile place. “But I want to see it!” Twilight made her decision. After locking Spike in her room, away from the mirror, she started with the preparations. “I wish Shining Armor never find out about it…” ………………………………… Twilight stared the mirror in front of her and took her schedule. “Water… Checked. Bags for collection of test material… Checked.” She put both of those in her bag. “Camera, gloves and cellphone for data gathering… Checked. And last but not least… Where’s that knife…?” She’s not even a little used to hand-to-hand combat, but she’s going to an unknown place without any kind of information, it’s always better to be prepared for everything. She found the knife laying on the table and attached it in her belt. Lifting her head, Twilight took a deep breath and tried to calm down her nerves without success, she closed her eyes and gathering all her courage she gave a step forward. Twilight went through the mirror at once, and as soon as she entered it, a very strong suctioning effect spread all over her body, she couldn’t see anything as her body whirled wildly for what seemed to be almost a minute of a discomforting sensation. Solid ground. Twilight fell from the mirror and stayed in the ground for some time, just breathing heavily and holding back a very insistent vomit, but she still holds it back. “Where am I…?” She sat and finally opened her eyes, despite the discomforting trip through the mirror her body didn’t took any sort of permanent damage. “Well, at least this is a good sign…” Lifting from the ground, Twilight finally observed the place she fell in. Apparently, she fell from a mirror exactly like the one she entered through, and now it reflects the image of her apartment. Looking around she could say she is in some kind of empty loft made of gray stones and too perfect to have been made naturally. Twilight smiled, despite the horrible conditions of the empty place this is definitely a smart life sign. “This place seems to be some kind of building, but is definitely not habituated…” She wrote it down and saw a big hole where someday should have stayed a window. Walking toward it she looked outside. The view is exactly like she has saw before, a desert with a lot of rumbles. But she still couldn’t see any kind of life there, just a lot of sand and a few buildings still standing. She took any kind of study material she could gather, sand, small stones and putted everything in different begs. Turning to the mirror she said: “Now, the second test…” Approaching the mirror she breathed heavily again, she remembered the uncomfortable feeling she felt crossing the mirror, but soon she gathers the courage to step forward again. Again, a very strong suctioning effect spread all over her body, but this time she could easily support it and she felt like it hasn’t passed more than 10 seconds now. With a trembling step she entered her apartment again. Twilight breathed relieved, that means it isn’t a just going travel, apparently, she can come and go as she please, since there’s no difference in the mirror. After she put everything she got in a decent place for future researches she wrote everything she could remember about her small trip to that strange place. With a big smile she watched the glowing mirror again, she doesn’t really know what exactly is that place, maybe is somewhere in this world, or maybe somewhere in another one, is it in the present? The past? Or maybe the future? The only information is that one day that place saw better days ‘I want to go there again...’ Twilight thought. Until this moment every test ended with success, she can go and back as she please and she even got some material for research, but Twilight wants more. She wants to immediately got back there and explore every corner of that place, but looking at the window she could say she didn’t have a lot of time. “I was sleeping until now, I can spend a night awake!” With this thought she decided to get back and study the environment. Honestly… What could go wrong? ………………………………… Twilight wasn’t even close of the title of ‘tallest girl she knows’, but trying to escape from a subterranean wormlike creature with a tripartite jaw and a maw containing black tentacles made her feel like a small insect fighting for her life. Everything started when she decided to explore the building she was in. Walking and observing each floor didn’t gave her any new information, so, she looked outside and saw a building exactly like the one she’s in a few meters of distance. Twilight stepped outside the building, the sun is glowing and heat waves coming from the sand immediately made the girl sweat. Walking with difficulty through the sand, she didn’t go far before she started feeling a great vibration in the dunes and her alarm sense made her stop. Soon after that the sand behind her seems to burst up as a really big monster appeared from the sand between her and the building with the mirror. Instantly all Twilight’s instincts said exactly the same thing: ‘Congratulations, you’re going to die!’. But despite it she started running away to the closer building, the sand made it a hard work, but before Twilight could even think about the difficulty of walking in the sand the creature opened its tripartite mouth and give a really loud cry that made the girl flinch for a second before she desperately resumes her scape plan. With its mouth now open, the monster used one of its tentacles to attack Twilight, but luckily to the girl, the monster missed and the tentacle hit the sand not really far from her, the sand flied like rain but she still didn’t slow down. With an unknown burst of strength Twilight run even faster than she thought she was capable of toward the building. When she was just a few meters away from her destiny she felt a strange thing holding her ankle and her heart almost stopped, instantly she understood her own situation. A black tentacle caught her and lift the girl up. Upside down being hold by just one leg Twilight finally looked carefully at her captor. It has scales and a red mane-like structure behind its head, and staring at it Twilight have a strange feeling, despite the bizarre appearance of the monster, it seems to be… Smiling… Or maybe this is just like the monster is when its nearly a fabulous lunch. Whatever is the reason it doesn’t matter now, Twilight closed her eyes and thought about everything she has left behind, how long will take the girls to notice her whereabouts? And Spike? The dog can’t leave the room without her. And when the girls find out her empty room? Will they try to cross the mirror too? Twilight opened her eyes. She knows the girls long enough to predict what they will do, once they notice her disappearing they will definitely try to come after her. And what if they come here to save her? They will perish by this creature too, and all because of her. That can’t happen. Twilight ignored the tears that poured from her eyes and started to think. Using her hand, she searched in her belt for the knife she brought with her and she found it fast enough to grab it and stab the monster’s tentacle. With another scream the monster let the girl fall and Twilight landed heavily in the sand, the air escaped completely from her lungs. The big monster stared Twilight for a second, the girl looked at it too, and she was really surprised to see what seems to be… Sadness? The monster opened its mouth again and attack. This time Twilight roll to the side avoiding being hit again, and again the monster looked at her with sad eyes. She stood up and stared the monster with a hand above her chest while still breathing heavily. The monster attacked one last time, but this time Twilight slipped on the sand as the monster approach. She covered her eyes and waited for her now inevitable destiny, die in a strange place without any trace of humanity. Her biggest sorrow is definitely the danger her friends will someday suffer because of her stupid actions. But suddenly a really big cry came from the monster followed by a great rain of sand. Twilight opened her eyes, and to her big surprise the monster is trembling on the sand, and above it, someone is standing. A girl with red and gold hair holding a gray hood stood victoriously upon the falling big monster. Twilight stared the girl with shock and surprise in her eyes. And unlike her, the girl with red hair kept an empty look in her face as she approached the lavender girl. “Y… You… Defeated it? How?” Twilight asked before she could even think about it, what if that girl didn’t speak her language? What if she decides to kill her instead of that huge monster? All those questions and more crossed her mind as the girl come closer. But instead of being aggressive, she simply offered her hand to Twilight so the girl could stand up again. Twilight accept the help and stood up with trembling legs, now that the immediate danger is gone all the craziness of her situation started to make her entire body tremble. “Defeat it?” The girl asked with a monotonous tone, she took off her gray hood and offered it to Twilight before she continued. “I simply putted the Tatzwurm to sleep!” “Tatzwurm? Is that the name of that thing that was trying to get rid of me?” Twilight asked taking the hood and observed the girl, she was entirely dressed with long trousers and a long-sleeved blouse that covered her entire arm to a pair of red gloves without the tips of its fingers, even if her clothes were all dirty. The girl smiled, but her eyes stayed empty as always. “The Tatzwurm wasn’t trying to get rid of you. It just got so pleased it wanted to play!” She answered turning to the fallen monster. “Huh? Pleased? To see… Me?” Twilight asked confused and looked at the monster that not long ago was pursuing her. “We thought everyone have disappeared from this world… But there’s someone out there that remembered us… Maybe that have made it happy.” She turned to the building Twilight was running to not long ago. Meanwhile Twilight started to think in the words that girl just said, could really that monster just wanted to… Play? She thought she saw a smile before, maybe… It was just that, a smile from a lonely child that finally found a friend. She turned to the girl that was almost in the building and started running after her. “WAIT,” Twilight shout, the girl stopped and turned to Twilight without changing her expression. Twilight finally reached her breathing heavily again, but she still gathers all her strength and asked. “My… My name is Twilight, what’s… What’s your name?” The red hair stared Twilight for a while, almost like she’s trying to remember something, but after some seconds she answered. “Sunset… Sunset Shimmer.”