//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Recovery 
// by Soufriere 
//------------------------------//


~Four Days Before The CHS Fall Formal~


Sunset Shimmer stepped out of the magic mirror into which she had banished herself a decade earlier… Perhaps the correct phrasing for her action would be ‘attempted to walk out of the mirror but promptly tripped over herself, falling down the small platform flat onto her face’.

“Oww,” Sunset groaned as she rubbed her forehead. She felt a bony protrusion. Her horn. She took stock of the rest of her body: hooves, golden fur, and a tail the same dual tone as her mane. Yep, she was back in Equestria and a Unicorn again. Once her brain adjusted to this new/old reality, she slowly rose to examine her surroundings. The magic mirror – that damnable thing that facilitated her fall from grace – was still there on its purple podium. But surrounding it (and her) was a large room she had never seen before.

There did not appear to be any ponies around, guard or otherwise. Lucky. Still, best not to make too much noise.

She carefully, quietly, slowly turned in a tight circle, examining as best she could, which was not much considering the only light in the room was the afterglow from the magic mirror. No worries; she could cast a simple lighting spell and use her horn as a beacon. Hopefully. It had been so long – at least on her end; she could not be sure what the equivalent passage of time in Equestria had been – that Sunset was more than a little concerned about her magic abilities being rusty. Fortunately, she managed to pull off that basic spell without anything going wrong. Lighting accomplished, she continued her observations.

A cursory glance at the walls showed them to be crystalline. Yet she knew this could not be the crystal caverns within Mount Equus; as a filly, she often snuck in there to explore. Those ancient caves had many things, but a ten-foot-tall dormer window wasn’t among them. Clearly the mirror had been moved during Sunset’s time inside it. Or Celestia decided to redecorate Canterlot Royal Palace. No, the first option was far more plausible.

Peering out the window, Sunset expected to see the familiar grounds of the palace with its impeccably manicured hedges and stately fountains. Instead, she saw (as much as one can in near-dark) a dimly-lit stone street flanked by buildings made out of crystal. Obviously this was in the middle of a city rather than on its edge.

This led Sunset to ask aloud the pertinent question: “Where the buck am I?”

As luck would have it, Sunset found a door along the wall perpendicular to the window. She worried that it would groan, as doors can, alerting any guards in the area. However, it moved without a sound, allowing Sunset to continue to escape detection. Well-oiled hinges! She decided then and there that the maintenance staff in charge of upkeep for this unusual building deserved a raise for such diligence and attention to detail.

Sunset poked her head out the door and found herself on the outer ring of a circular hallway. The walls were, of course, crystalline. The floor was marble, but it was so polished it may as well have been glass. To her left, just barely within sight, she could see stairs leading up to something. To her right, somewhat closer, were stairs leading down. The hallway had a few other doors along each side, but none as large as the one in whose threshold she stood.

Her brief look out that window told her she was not on a ground floor, so right would be the proper direction to go in order to leave, but her instinct told her to wait. She returned to the window, taking a closer look below. Sure enough, armoured guards patrolled the street immediately beneath her. However, their armour was of a style Sunset had never seen except perhaps in her history books a lifetime ago. Their coats and armour twinkled under the sparse light from the firefly street-lamps. Clearly they had been hired to guard someone, but it was not Celestia.

As Sunset processed all this new information, she noticed the sky quickly beginning to lighten. The time of day seemed to correspond more or less on either side of the mirror. Fortuitous for her, as day meant the guards might thin out somewhat. Less fortuitous was that just as she prepared to leave, she heard hooves clacking on the floor outside the room, approaching her. They came from the left, upstairs, so chances were they belonged to whoever lived in the building.

Sunset could not trust that her rusty magic would protect her in the event of a skirmish, so her eyes darted around the room searching for a place to hide. Annoyingly, the place was totally bare save for the magic mirror. However, it was set against one of the walls such that anyone coming in through the door could only see its front: that inverted purple horseshoe. Sunset quickly hopped behind the mirror, huddling up against its back to make herself as inconspicuous as possible. Because its gate was open, it put out a small measure of heat. This gave Sunset a bit of comfort as she waited for the interloper to go away.

However, whichever pony whose hoofsteps had been so loudly clacking down the hall stopped in front of the mirror room and entered. Sunset shut her eyes and braced herself as the steps came ever closer, stopping a few feet in front of the mirror.

“Good morning,” spoke a female voice in a slightly wistful tone. It sounded extremely familiar to Sunset, but she could not quite put a name or face to it.

The voice continued. “Thought I’d let you know that today’s a big day, for me and for Equestria. I wish you could be here with me to see it. Even if you were never interested in being friends, I still want to believ—”

“Hey!” called a male voice (which sounded significantly less familiar) from the hall, “Aren’t you ready yet? We have to get to the train station!”

“Coming, dear!” the female said as sweetly as she could, but with an undercurrent of irritation. She spoke again, but this time more quietly, to the mirror.

“I don’t know why I keep visiting this mirror every day. You can’t hear me, and I know deep down you’re not coming back. I guess it’s just more wishful thinking that my voice will eventually reach you. I even ‘requisitioned’ this mirror from Celestia’s chamber against her wishes when I moved out, hoping you might… I don’t know. Maybe you’d feel more comfortable and willing to return if you knew you wouldn’t pop out in the middle of Canterlot Palace. Silly, I know. But…” she sighed. “I’m going to keep hoping I’ll see you again. I wish I could talk longer but, like I said, today is busy. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back, okay? Goodbye for now… Sunny.”

Sunset, smiling to herself and holding back a tear, waited until all was completely silent before venturing out to explore and learn about this so-called big day…