Prologue
Through the Looking Glass
It was finally time.
When Princess Celestia had taken her in all those years ago, she had been the happiest filly in Equestria. The first few years it had been great. Studying under the princess she learned all she could to be the best she could be.
And yet, she had always longed for more. Even now she couldn't exactly put her hoof on what it was she wanted, but she knew that she hadn't found it under Celestia.
Then, one day, the princess' lessons had changed. She had started stifling Sunset's progress. Sunset had asked why, but Celestia, ever the wise and mysterious ruler, had been unwilling to tell her. Sunset had been trained in politics, she was a good conversationalist, but she couldn't go up against the aeons of experience of the pony that had taught her all she knew. The princess was impressively skilled at dodging questions.
Over the last half year, they had argued more and more, both had said things they later regretted, but their relationship had deteriorated regardless. One month ago she had had enough. The fight on that day had been one too many.
She could still hear the princess' words.
"I'm worried, Sunset."
"About what?"
"About you."
"Why?"
And, like so many times before, Celestia had fallen silent. Sunset wasn't stupid. She had spent seven years training under one of the oldest and wisest beings in the world. She understood that the princess was afraid that Sunset might stoop to darkness, but she always refused to explain exactly how that would happen.
Celestia had lost her sister to darkness. To the dark magic that twisted and controlled her. But she had long since developed countermeasures. Ways to ensure she wouldn't suffer the same fate. And she had taught those to Sunset as well.
Even now, the question wouldn't let her go.I can't even use dark magic. How would I fall to darkness?
And so, she had decided to leave. To seek her luck elsewhere. She had spent the time since then researching for alternatives. Finally she had found one. And it was well within the realm of what she could manage. The day before, in the late evening, she had had the idea to look into magical artifacts, she had been looking at spells before.
That was why she was now here. As luck would have it, the artifact in question was stored in the Royal Treasuries of Canterlot. Others would have trouble getting in, even teleportation was blocked by the wards around not only the building, but also the individual vaults. She however, had, as part of her studies on wards and with the princess' blessing, studied the wards on the royal treasury. One would be hard pressed to find a more complete and sophisticated set of wards in all of Equestria.
She was one of maybe four or five ponies that could make their way into the vaults without the princess' express permission. Thanks to her knowledge of the wards she had managed to stroll in, without the protective magic stripping off her invisibility spell.
The spell itself was a tricky bit of magic. Illusions had never been her specialty and it had taken six years under the Princess' tutelage before she could reliably manage the feat. Casting it in such a way that the wards couldn't touch it had been foals' play in comparison. A minor charm to muffle her hooffalls rounded off the package.
Philomena, her loyal companion, the phoenix she had hatched and raised herself after dragons had stolen her egg, only to lose it on their travels, had simply flown over the guards' heads and through the tall gate, leaving them none the wiser.
There she stood now. Vault seven held the magical artifacts. Including the one she was here for. She was not here to steal. Quite the opposite, her plan was entirely based around using the artifact and leaving it where she had found it.
Philomena had perched herself on her withers, fading from view the moment her claws touched the invisible unicorn. All the while, Sunset was focused on her spellcraft.
It had taken her nearly five minutes of careful spellweaving. One mistake and the wards would keep her out and alert the guard. She could take them, of course, but she was already committing treason. She had no intention of adding assault and resisting arrest to that list. No. Better to go unnoticed. Carefully woven as it was, the spell whisked them both away, without a sound and with no flash of light, as was so common for a hasty teleport.
The teleport tore away her invisibility spell. No matter. They wouldn't need it anymore, regardless. She had closed her eyes for the teleport, so nothing could interrupt her focus. When she reopened them, she was greeted by a great collection of magical items. She had studied magic for the better part of her life, yet even she didn't know what half of them did. She could probably figure it out, given time, but time was pretty much the one thing she didn't have.
She had come well prepared. Her saddlebag held a pouch of gemstones, she had debated taking gold, but decided it would be too heavy. Bits were out as well, where she was going, they would simply be gold in an unusual form.
She had a few books as well. Most of them detailed advanced concepts of magic that would take her weeks to study, she had considered the option of ending up in a low magic environment, the book hadn't been clear on that, so she had brought a book on using magic despite that. And she had taken the magical journal. She thought it unlikely that she would wish to communicate with the princess, but it paid to be prepared.
She had no idea how much use anything else would be to her. She had considered taking along a gem that was enchanted to create a small fire when fed with a minute amount of magic, then she had remembered that she was taking along a phoenix and promptly discarded the idea. Normally a teleport spell would have been a drain on her reserves, but despite the complexity of bypassing the wards, she had really only teleported to the other side of a door. A distance so short, didn't even touch her deep well and her wide well had already recovered. The air was, after all, saturated with magic from all the artifacts around.
She had been in this vault before. She had even seen the artifact she had come for. Of course, she didn't understand its significance then, but she knew where she had to go. Unfortunately, the item in question was on the opposite end of the vault. And they only had a few minutes left.
She broke into a hasty gallop, racing through the lines of enchanted display cases that safely held the smaller artifacts. Finally she reached the place she had come for. Six display cases stood in lines of three to the left and right, flanking the path leading through the dimensional wing like trees lining a road. The artifacts in these cases were designed to view or communicate with alternate dimensions.
The one she had come for, was somewhat grander in scope. Standing on a shallow, two-layer pedestal at the opposite end of the small chamber, sat a tall, oval mirror. Its frame was a stylized horseshoe, its open side pointing down to form a large archway, sitting atop it was a smaller horseshoe facing the opposite direction, sitting on the larger one like a tuning fork. From her research, she knew that the parallel continued in its function. It acted as a tuning fork for the destination.
And Philomena had perched herself right atop it.
"Philomena, get down from there! We don't have time to recalibrate it."
It's a little known fact that Phoenixes, unlike other birds, have eyes they can move independently from their head. Philomena made full use of that ability to roll her eyes before taking off with an elegant flap of her wings, turning around above Sunset's head and gliding right into the portal.
Sunset mirrored the eye roll, Philomena was a bit of a brat sometimes, but she had the right idea, if she was guessing correctly, the portal would be closing in only a few minutes, at most.
With a final look back, Sunset stepped through the gate, and towards a whole new world.