//------------------------------// // Reverse Mirror // Story: Xenocorn // by 3phantoms //------------------------------// I’ve confirmed it. Three little words that Twilight knew would put her mentor’s mind at ease. Her heart a little lighter she had Spike send off the letter, watching as the emerald flame twisted out her library window and towards Canterlot. For the past week she had been making regular trips to the Everfree Castle to study the room where she and her friends had fought Nightmare Moon. Magical scans were performed, retellings from each of her friend’s perspectives were gathered, and every object she could see was cataloged. No stone was left unturned. And now she had finally found the answers she’d been looking for: buried underneath the avalanche that was the Element’s magic was a teleport spell unlike anything she’d ever seen. Imagine a sphere, stretched and flattened until it resembled a disk, its third dimension imperceptible unless one was looking for a sphere. Then take parts of the sphere out, muddy some of the rest, and ask it to be identified. That was what had taken her so long: the spell was collapsed like a layer of dust, clinging to everything, including living ponies that moved and distorted the leftover and fading magic. It was a conundrum over a jigsaw puzzle that had six pieces missing doused in a blanket named “Harmony.” And it had taken a week’s worth of on and off sleepless nights, and a pigeon landing at the right moment and getting magic on its beak as she was conducting a scan for her to understand: Nightmare Moon had tried to flee when the Elements had activated. The overwhelming amount of magic in the air had responded to Nightmare Moon’s desire to escape and Twilight and her friend’s nebulous but shared desire to stop her. The resulting conflict in forces had resulted in parts of the teleport collapsing in on itself and forming a magical sinkhole that drew every last bit of power into itself. Usually a teleport had a set destination, a beginning and endpoint connected via a caster. The sinkhole had no destination besides away from here, and instead had spiraled in on itself, the magic trying to spiral into infinity, until it eventually just… Broke. Twilight finished the thought with equal parts glee and worry. The situation had created a kind of magical singularity and pulled Nightmare Moon through- and a good bit of the Elements’ magic with her. An arcane hole in space was up until now only theorized of in advanced academies. Now here Twilight Sparkle sat, having participated in the creation of one such anomaly; with this she knew she could publish her own paper and disprove at least a dozen different theories on how magic and physics interacted, she could open up an entirely new branch of study, the possibilities seemed limitless. Until Princess Celestia had asked for her silence. Twilight was sitting on one of the hottest discoveries of her generation, and she couldn’t truly enjoy it. Oh she was practically vibrating at the prospect of new knowledge, but the cost had come at the expense of another pony, and it was a price that was too high. When she and Celestia had returned to the library that morning. The princess had done something Twilight had never seen her do: she calmly sat at one of the reading tables dotted throughout the main room and slumped. Wings fell, white feathers brushing against the floor as a ruler laid her head and dignity down on the hard wood and sighed. She looked so old. It was easy for Twilight to forget sometimes that her teacher was over a thousand years old, as the little filly had grown older she had caught glimpses of the pony behind the crown. A dig at the ground here, an uneasy ruffling of great wings there. Celestia was always personable but professionally distant unless one had spent more than a little time with her. But such moments where she put professionalism aside were both sparse and fleeting, and unless the two were in private, rarely lasted more than a second. The library was private, removed; nopony to judge or gossip about how the perfect princess fixed the opposite wall with a look of such anguish that it drew Twilight up short. “I was so close.” It was just four words but they weighed heavy on Twilight’s heart; a little thought of truth about being so smart was that she was very good with numbers. Other ponies might struggle with the concept of waiting a thousand years for anything, but she became painfully aware of just how long that was. How many seconds counted and sleepless nights had her mentor endured? How many plans put into motion, revised, revised again, and ultimately scrapped? Twilight didn’t know, she doubted even the princess could remember, and it was probably better that way. Celestia looked so beaten under that weight that any more might just break her. For a time the two remained in silence, one worn by the centuries, the other becoming acutely aware of what that meant, then slowly, Twilight approached, gave her a nuzzle, pressed their sides together, and tried to smile. “It’ll be okay.” As comforts go it wasn’t much, an empty platitude from a mare that wasn’t the most experienced at offering. As pink eyes closed tight in repressed pain Twilight’s own grew more firm. Here was the pony who’d taught her, who’d entrusted her with protecting the kingdom -even if she hadn’t told her everything. Twilight was sent to stop Nightmare Moon, and she could still be out there somewhere, maybe even hurting a princess of the realm. Her and her friend’s mission wasn’t over yet. “It will be okay. My friends and I will find out what happened to Princess Luna, I promise.” And now after days of research Twilight had confirmed it. After triple checking her findings she was sure she was right. Luna had not perished but simply moved, using a theoretically improbable situation, and a positively obscene amount of power. Of course that still left the question of“where?”dangling in front of Twilight’s nose, with the question of returning still waiting at the end of its own stick. But for the moment she felt more accomplished than she had in over a week. Drawing up a sheet of parchment she produced a quill and ink from her drawer and made her mark. Step 1: Find out what happened to Princess Luna. -Check Step 2: Confirm the theory that Princess Luna teleported and is most likely lost. -Check. Step 3: Bring the princess home. Twilight brought a hoof to her chin. “Working on it.”