Equestria - Canterlot Castle Throne Room - an hour after Sunset went into the mirror
Celestia’s POV
“WHAT!?!” Screamed a very distressed and angry mother, Sunset's adoptive mother to be exact. Her name was Mural Dreamer, though most ponies just call her Dream. She had a brown mane and tail, her coat was peach and her eyes purple, she also had a cutie mark of a question mark due to her inquisitive nature. She was wearing a heart-shaped locket necklace, I had found out that a picture of Sunset, Dream and her…marefriend(?)…bodyguard(?)……somepony who's always following her around, she was in there too all the same. Speaking of the mare, she was quite a shy one when not around Dream. She had a black mane with two braids on both of the sides of her head and a white coat, always wore glasses with the lenses colored purple (oddly enough, purple was Dream's favorite color), and her cutie mark was a black belt (so her being a bodyguard isn't unreasonable to think). Though for some reason they never told me her name. Sunset always either called her 'aunt', 'other mom' or 'Ms.', never her actual name. Dream always called her 'dear', 'sweetheart' (which was pretty common for her to call somepony that) or Rose (apparently she only actually likes being called 'Rose' by Dream, but won't mind if somepony close to Dream calls her that). Speaking of Rose, I don’t see her anywhere.
“Ahem!” Dream said in agitation, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Oh! Sorry! I was in deep thought.” I say, a little embarrassed.
“About my little Sunny’s whereabouts I hope.” She grumbled.
“I was wondering where Rose was.” I say. Seeing her anger flare, I quickly say: “I mean it would be bad if we have two missing ponies on our hooves. Plus I don’t think Rose has the social skills necessary to go about on her own.”
“Hmph, I’ll have you know that my Rose can surpass all expectations when she puts her mind to it, I assure you that she won’t have an issue getting things done!” She stated firmly. ‘…Maybe Dream is Rose’s mother?…No, I already checked every orphanage and hospital in Equestria to see if that was the case, none of them had any records of somepony with Rose’s description.’
“Yes, you’re quite right, I apologize if I came off as if I was belittling her.” I finally said, hoping to calm her down, it thankfully seemed to work.
“Apology accepted, I’m sorry if I was out of place, your majesty.” She returned the apology with a bow and frown, I waved a hoof.
“It quite alright, I did just tell you your daughter was missing. Also there’s no need with the formalities while it’s just us, calling me ‘Celestia’ is fine, as I’ve said before.” I assure her, she smiles at that before standing up.
"Well to answer your question, she's doing a little research on something Sunset mentioned off hoofedly, something about Monsters. Now about my daughter, what could have possibly been the reason for her disappearance? Well, you will be quite happy to hear that I've thought up two very sound theories." She said with a confident smile.
"Oh? Do tell." I urged her, she lost her smile and gained a frown.
"She was either foulnapped by one or more of the nobles, or they hired somepony to do it!" She stated with a growl. My heart dropped at that, she's made it very clear how jealous she felt the nobles were at Sunset. Granted they actually were pretty jealous, but none of them are stupid enough to do something like this, not after I had bluffed that I would send anypony who did something like this to Mt. Ebott. I hated lying to them, but after the multiple attempts at foulnapping my protégés in the past, I had to put my hoof down.
"What could possibly make you think that? And I require tangible proof of their involvement, or the name or names of those who could provide me with said proof, and no your gut feeling doesn't count as proof." I told her, already knowing that she'd try that. She sighed.
"The proof will be in the pudding." She said, as if I didn't just say that gut feelings don't count as valid proof.
"what did I just say!?" I asked in exasperation. "We've had this type of conversation many times before, you can't use belief to justify breaching into other ponies' privacy in order to get them in trouble!" As sad as it is to admit, I've had this very same conversation with the very nobles she's accusing, word for word. 'Ugh, the moment I've raised a proper pupil that takes my lessons to heart, I'm giving him or her the throne so I can finally retire!' I mentally groaned to myself, feeling a headache starting to form, and reminding myself that I needed to find a new pupil.
"You're right…I guess…." She finally conceded, for now at least. "But I will find out what happened to her, even if I have to search all of Equestria or beyond this country!" She says with a smile. The concerning part about that is, I know her well enough that I knew she could and will actually pull that off.
"I'm sure you will, I'll let you know if I find anything." I say with a smile, hiding my guilt. 'I wish I could actually inform you about the mirror, but I know very well what you'd do if I told you.'
"Thank you…Celesta, thank you for being up front with me about this. Other rulers would just cover this up and leave the parent or parents in the dark, I'm glad you're not like those heartless creatures. I'll take my leave now, I have a lot of ground to cover, I'm not gonna lose another loved one if I can help it." She says before leaving me to my thoughts.
'……I'm sorry…I can't let you throw yourself in danger for somepony who might already be long gone, especially if Discord's journal was right about those bloodthirsty creatures in that world. It's better to let trained professionals handle something like this, I hope they find something on her whereabouts soon.' I think to myself.
Human world - abandoned building - right after Dream left Celesta
Cold Traffic’s POV
"Alright everypony, remember are mission: find and retrieve the brat, then wipe her memories of the mirror and this world. Has anypony found any leads?" I asked my squad. One of them nods his head, he was normally in the regular guard as a cover in order to see if there was any potential traitors, but every now and then he'd join in on search and rescue operations.
"Yes, but not much. We found residue of minor communication magic in a school library, nothing bigger then something a child would play with. We also found some strands of red and yellow hair next to drops of dust. Though what at the time seemed strange, now makes sense, the dust had magic residue on it. We managed to contain some of the communication magic residue in a gem before it completely faded, and what we found on it is rather worrying." He said before activating the gem and playing the recording.
"Anyway, to answer your questions. My name is Manny, though I doubt you'll believe what I am, it's pretty out there." A young male voice, now identified as 'Manny', apparently answered.
"Try me." I hear Sunset say.
"I'm a Monster, a creature made mostly out of magic and some mass." Manny answers before sighing for some reason.
"…What were the names of the King and Queen of Monsters?" Sunset suddenly asked.
"…Asgore and Toriel Dreemurr?" Manny responds.
"…Well you got the Dreemurr part right, and it doesn't say that name in any of the books I've read here. Alright, we can talk face to face. Don't do anything stupid alright? I'll buck you into next week if you do!" She threatened with a growl.
The recording stops, unfortunately my agitation doesn't. Out of every creature she could have came into contact with, of course it had to be a MONSTER! I better get a raise for this, Celesta (literally) knows what those freaks can do.
"Unfortunately that's all we could salvage, like I said, it's not much." The stallion says somberly.
"It's enough, I've tracked targets on much less then this. Alright, the mission has changed a bit: Find the Monster, restrain him, then we get the brat and finish the job. Any questions?" I looked to them for any questions they might have, one of them raised a…hand, much to my annoyance. "What?"
"What do we do about the Monster? If we pick a fight with him, he's most likely to follow us and find out the location of the portal, if he doesn't already know about it. We can't risk him following us back to Equestria." He points out the admittedly rational concern. 'I hadn't even considered that possibility.' I think in minor shock, but hid it well.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who considered that possibility." I flat out lied. "We can't exactly take him with us, we aren't prepared for transporting something like him at the moment, so the answer is simple."
"What is it?" The same guy from before asked.
"We kill him." I answered with a grin.