//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Other Side of the Mirror: Volume I // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Chapter 1 Year 1002 of the 4th Age The rivers of Cant’r Laht flowed strongly through the city, on their way to Onon’r Laht far below. Their canals, carved long ago, were enchanted to never erode, no matter how virulent the river was. Spring had sprung quite suddenly upon the mountain city, and the snowmelt from the higher slopes of the Titan’s Horn joined with the spring water to make the waterways nearly jump their banks. The gardens of the noble estates scattered throughout the city were in bloom, and gates had been thrown open to show off the magnificent flora—though entering for a closer look was discouraged by guards posted in clear view. These gardens provided a spectacle for the more aesthetically conscious of the Brave Companions as they trotted through Cant’r Laht. After being separated for several days across the former Kingdom of Los Pegasus, the friends were reunited again, each with the partial relic they’d set out to find. Twilight had elected to open a portal to a road outside the city rather than within the Castle or its grounds, so they were able to enjoy a walk into the capital of the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht. Nothing coherent could be heard from the Lodge of Sorceresses as they passed by, but there were certainly raised voices within, cloaked by a spell of silence around the structure to prevent eavesdropping on private business. The Lodge was becoming more adamant than normal that something had to be done to reign in Celestia. It had been a constant agenda of the Lodge since its inception over a thousand years earlier; but the reappearance of Celestia’s alicorn sister, the ascension of two of her apprentices into alicornhood, and the establishment of Cant’r Laht as a sovereign kingdom with indisputable succession had all put greater pressure on the Lodge to make good on their word. However, the impetus for this aggressive discussion was also its biggest obstacle. The Lodge had never had a chance of standing against Celestia before; how could they now, when the ancient sorceress was backed by three other alicorns and a charter that the Lodge’s members had themselves signed and agreed to? It was a hopeless situation for them, but that wouldn’t stop them from stewing and shouting in relative secrecy. The same banner flew over Cant’r Laht Castle as it had over Celestia’s dominions for centuries, despite her current joint rule with her sister: a golden sun upon a field of crimson. Twilight Sparkle wondered if it would ever be changed, but it really wasn’t her place to ask. Celestia and Luna may be co-regents, but Twilight knew the bulk of ruling still fell upon her mentor’s shoulders. It wasn’t that Luna wasn’t allotted equal responsibility or upholding it on purpose; however, she had been away for over a thousand years, and been given only a few to adjust. There were many things about the modern world she didn’t understand. No wonder she’d rather travel across Equestria and beyond seeking out the Children of the Night—the cult dedicated to her worship that had grown up in her absence—and correcting them on their belief in her godhood. Today, The Brave Companions had come here to help Luna. “Hello, Raven,” Twilight greeted Celestia’s page, who stood outside of the castle’s throne room. “Are the regents ready to meet with us?” “One moment,” Raven said, and the guards stationed at the doors cracked one open to let her peek through. “Go on in.” The throne room had been cleared of supplicants in preparation for the Brave Companions’ visit. Their hooftsteps echoed in the vast, empty chamber as they made their way to the twin thrones at the room’s head. Celestia was seated in one, Luna standing next to her as they conversed. Upon her throne, with a golden circlet upon her head and a gold-and-crimson dress wrapped around her, Celestia looked imposing, regal … and brittle. Now that Twilight Sparkle knew the truth about her teacher, she could not ignore it. While still the most powerful sorceress in the world (unless that title now passed to Luna), she had fallen far since the height of her power, and her body was experiencing the decay that sorcery had so long held at bay. The youth and vigor that Celestia appeared to display were a lie, no more than tricks accomplished by medication, makeup, and sorcerous glamour. The years had not been kind to Celestia, but neither had they spared her younger sister. What long years of ruling had done to Celestia, long years of banishment as Nightmare Moon had done to Luna, though not to an equal extent. Luna was in better condition than her sister and might now prove to be the stronger sorceress, if the pair ever consented to a test of their magical potential. To do so, though, would be to expose how far the gap between the sisters and the sorceresses of Cant’r Laht had closed—a dangerous scenario. Luna, Twilight could tell, was not as afflicted as the young alicorn’s mentor, but she too had entered the downward spiral that was killing Celestia. The pressure of raising the sun on Celestia and the pressure of raising the moon and arranging the stars on Luna could do naught but contribute to that decay, hence why the Brave Companions had come. “Your Royal Highnesses,” Twilight addressed the ancient alicorn sisters as the Brave Companions approached the throne. “We have brought the Stellaetrix.” One by one, the Brave Companions revealed the parts of Nostracom the Wise’s lost relic. Reaching into her saddlebags, Rainbow Dash removed the third that she and Fluttershy had retrieved from the Westerlands’ swamps, most of the mud and monster blood now removed from it. Twilight Sparkle held forth the piece that had been buried with Leonorus, one of the founding members of Applewood Tower. Applejack presented the third she and Pinkamena had found in a fishing village outside of Los Pegasus, watched over by a cult devoted to Luna. Together, the three parts made a disk studded with diamonds and would allow a sorceress with merely average ability to manipulate the night sky. “Ye have mine thanks,” Luna said as she accepted the Stellaetrix, and one of her captains swooped down from the darkness near the ceiling of the throne room, giving the Brave Companions a start. Those bat-like immortal guards were always startling. After he’d collected all three parts, the captain left on near-silent wings to bring them to Luna’s chamber. “How are things in Los Pegasus?” Celestia asked. “Not good, y’r royal highness,” Applejack replied. “Th’ city o’ Los Pegasus is under siege, an’ it’s only goin’ t’ get worse once King Ferdinand lands ‘is Stygran mercenaries.” “King Hyelliff and Borgas are rolling up the Westerlands,” Rainbow Dash said. “It’s going to come to blows sooner or later with Silversword’s army, led by Marquesa Flax.” “There is going to be a clash in the south soon between Duke Alfons and … well, anyone he comes across, really. He has managed to gain the support of the South Equestrian Bison,” Twilight Sparkle reported. “Even so, I doubt any of them will be able to gain control of all of the Kingdom of Los Pegasus without uniting.” “A divided Los Pegasus, as we thought,” Celestia said, looking to her sister. “Whether this is to Equestria’s benefit or harm, only time will tell. I insist you all stay here for the night and tell us all about it.” “Yes, of course,” Twilight Sparkle replied. Since she’d learned how to open portals, she’d always been able to return to Ponieville after visits to Cant’r Laht, but now she’d be staying in her old chambers again. It was like a trip to an earlier time, one that had been simpler. *** Twilight Sparkle awoke later that night to alarm bells ringing in her head. She had just barely managed to get to sleep, having finally found a position where her new wings didn’t interfere, and her awakening was slow and groggy. The alarm was unfamiliar to her until she realized its source: a spell she’d cast years earlier, when she and her friends had briefly occupied her chambers in Cant’r Laht during the Grand Galloping Gala and Celestia’s first Equestrian summit. She’d set it to warn if an unrecognized pony entered the tower. She arose and cast a spell that created a dim light at the end of her horn to illuminate her way as she headed to the main chamber. Was a servant not notified that we’d be occupying these chambers? The culprit who’d triggered the spell was revealed the moment Twilight entered the chamber. A pony in a dark robe had cracked open the chest within which the Brave Companions had stowed the Elements of Harmony for the night and was rooting around inside. The respective locks on the chest and the door were both broken; clearly, this was no servant doing some late-night cleaning. The thief noticed the light from Twilight’s horn almost immediately and left off what they were doing to dash for the door. “Stop! Thief!” Twilight Sparkle cried as she pursued them, waking the rest of the Brave Companions. The intruder only galloped down a few of the stairs that wrapped around Twilight’s tower before leaping to the sloped roof of the castle. They slid down before swinging over the lip and crashing through a window. Twilight teleported herself down into the hallway the thief had entered and pursued them, following the cloaked pony as they navigated the passages as only somepony familiar with Cant’r Laht Castle could. Twilight was gaining on them, and the thief made an unexpected move. They were there one moment and gone the next, having teleported away. Twilight could sense where they had gone, however, and overcame her momentary shock to teleport herself into the thief’s path in the corridors beneath Cant’r Laht Castle. “Stop!” Twilight shouted, and the thief plowed into her, knocking them both to the ground. Twilight Sparkle grabbed hold of the thief’s dark cloak, but they teleported away to a short distance down the passage, leaving the cloak behind. Brightening the light on her horn, Twilight got her first good look at the thief: a unicorn mare with a yellow coat and red-and-yellow striped mane and tail. She was dressed in a bright blue guardsmare’s uniform that didn’t match any realm or house that Twilight knew. The thief only spared Twilight a single condescending glare before resuming her gallop down the passage. “Mrinessen’r torrisal![1]” Twilight called out, and ice rose around the thief. The mysterious mare whispered something, and the ice instantly turned to water and washed away toward Twilight. The alicorn leapt over the water without using her wings and dragged her nightgown’s hem in the shallow layer left over as she pursued the thief who she now realized was a powerful sorceress. The yellow unicorn darted into a storage room and Twilight followed after her, wary of traps but more concerned with catching her target. It didn’t occur to her that it was strange for the thief to have fled here, a small chamber underground, from which there was no obvious escape. Within, the thief stood before a full-body mirror, awaiting a dramatic moment which came as Twilight Sparkle entered and fell against a chest. “So long, ‘princess’,” the thief spoke mockingly, and leapt toward the mirror. Instead of slamming against the glass, polished metal, or whatever material the extraordinarily reflective mirror was crafted from, the thief passed through, leaving ripples along the surface of the mirror. Twilight Sparkle hurried up to it but didn’t dare try to pass through after the thief. There was magic coming from the mirror, but it was unlike anything Twilight had ever experienced. Clearly it was a portal of some kind, but it was completely unlike the portal spell Twilight was accustomed to using. Besides that, she couldn’t detect where the portal might lead. In fact, it seemed to lead … nowhere. But how could that be? *** “I do not understand,” Twilight Sparkle told Celestia later. “Who were they? Where did they go?” Celestia, Luna, and the Brave Companions had all assembled in the throne room in the aftermath of the incident. Celestia had needed to be awakened; her façade had never looked so thin to Twilight, but this was an emergency that couldn’t wait until morning. Upon returning to her chambers and a gaggle of perturbed friends, she had quickly discovered what the thief had taken. The Element of Sorcery had been replaced by a fake, and Twilight could only assume the real one had vanished with the mysterious mare through the mirror. “I had hoped this day would never come, but I should have made you aware of this sooner,” Celestia said wearily, visibly drooping upon her throne. “Given what you described, this pony who has taken the Element of Sorcery is Sunset Shimmer, a former apprentice of mine. When Cadence’s progress began to stall, I thought that it was because she was neglecting her studies to spend time with her friends. Because of this, I took a new apprentice in secret, so that every noble of Cant’r Laht would not think they could send their daughters and sons to me. “To avoid what I assumed were Cadence’s weaknesses, I chose to cloister Sunset Shimmer away from most other ponies, both young and old. She showed promise at first, but I now realize that keeping her isolated as I did had only negative effects. Sunset Shimmer became cruel, self-interested, and began to dabble in magic that should not be touched. I … attempted to correct her, but perhaps she was already too far gone. She vanished shortly after Cadence’s alicornification, and I was never able to discover where she had gone. This night’s events have answered my question, though. I now know where she has been these past sixteen years.” While Celestia had been talking, a few burly servants carried the portal-mirror into the throne room, and they gently set it down now. Celestia rose from her throne and trotted past the Brave Companions to stand by it. “This mirror was created long ago by Star-Swirl the Bearded. He was fascinated by other worlds and how sorceresses might travel between them. This mirror is a relic with which he managed to create a stable pathway to another world, one incredibly alien to us in many ways, and yet quite similar in others,” Celestia said. “Star-Swirl the Bearded made this?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she stared at the mirror in open adoration. “Yes, I discovered it in the first century after I lost Luna,” Celestia said as she looked to her sister. “I had no idea what its purpose was, for it was inert at the time. Several centuries later, it became active again and Star-Swirl the Bearded emerged from it.” “Hold on! Didn’t Star-Swirl die in the Age of the Earth Pony? That was …” Spike said as he counted in his head, “… over three thousand years ago!” “Star-Swirl disappeared mysteriously shortly before the Long Winter, but he did not die until several centuries ago. Here, in secret, in this very castle,” Celestia replied. “When he disappeared, it was because he traveled through this mirror into another world—the ‘World Across the Divide,’ as he called it.” “But how could he live so long?” Twilight asked. Everything she knew about her idol had just been turned on its head. “Star-Swirl never became an alicorn … unless did he?” “No, he was not an alicorn,” Celestia said with a shake of her head. “He was in his final days, dying of old age, when he emerged from the mirror, but he did not spend three thousand years in that other world. Apparently, the passage of time is variable between our worlds; an hour across the Divide might be decades in ours, or it could be only a moment. Star-Swirl was never able to predict the variation, but I will give you all of his notes to take with you when you pass through.” “When I pass through?” Twilight asked as she looked at the mirror. “Twilight, thou must retrieve the Element of Sorcery,” Luna said gravely. “Without it, the Elements of Harmony are useless, and our world is in danger. If Tartarus were to open or Discord were to return to his old ways, we would be defenseless.” “You must leave as soon as possible, Twilight,” Celestia said. “The pace of time may vary, but its direction does not. The longer we wait, the more time Sunset Shimmer has in the other world to escape again. I will give you everything I can to help.” “And you’ll have us with you,” Rainbow Dash said encouragingly, and the other Brave Companions all stepped forward to join her in supporting Twilight. “No; that is out of the question,” Celestia said firmly, “Star-Swirl’s notes are clear that traveling to the World Across the Divide carries risks. Twilight must try to blend in and remain unnoticed, and that will be more difficult with all of you along. Besides, we do not know how much time has passed since Star-Swirl the Bearded was there and what new dangers might exist that we do not want to follow you home to our world. No, Twilight must do this alone.” “I understand,” Twilight said. “I will not fail.” “I know you won’t,” Celestia said. “Now go, pack all that you will need and return here when you are ready.” Twilight didn’t need much time to prepare, as her saddlebags were still packed from her journey to Los Pegasus, and she was soon standing ready in front of the mirror. Added to her saddlebags were Star-Swirl’s notes and a letter from Celestia. Exactly how that letter would help was unclear, but according to Celestia, there was some kind of transformation that occurred to all things that passed through the mirror. It couldn’t hurt to have a letter from a leader of a kingdom, no matter how that manifested itself in the World Across the Divide. Realizing she was prepared as she could be, Twilight trotted forward and thrust a hoof through the mirror. Its surface gave way, but her hoof did set down on something solid on the other side, and she continued to pass through the rippling reflection until she disappeared entirely. Celestia, Luna, and the Brave Companions watched her go, but there was one who couldn’t just stand by and let Twilight go off on her own. Spike ran forward before anypony could stop him and plunged through the mirror, following his friend to the other side.