//------------------------------// // Through The Mirror // Story: Raising a Human Daughter // by unleashedtwilight //------------------------------// A few months have passed, and things couldn't be going any smoother. Crystal is learning so much in school without the worries of bullies messing around with her all the time. Diamond Tiara and her have actually become very close friends. Her vocabulary has also been getting better. She's been so happy with her life in Equestria, and I'm happy with her here. Unfortunately... Nothing is always easy. Princess Celestia had just sent me a letter regarding important princess matters in the Crystal Empire. I have no idea what she has in store for me, but I'm not going to do this alone. "Mom look! Everything is so pretty!" Crystal exclaimed as the train slowed to a stop near the Crystal Empire. "Welcome to the Crystal Empire..." I smiled as we walked out of the train. "Oh, everything is as beautiful and dazzling as before!" Rarity exclaimed. As we were walking, applejack spoke out. "Gosh... You must be over the moon, Twilight." "Oh, I am excited but... To be honest, I'm a little nervous too..." "You're nervousited!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "It just makes you wanna jump up and down and yell 'YAY ME!'" She stops. "But it also makes you wanna curl up into a little ball at the same time...!" She says curling up into a ball and standing back up. "We've all been there!" "I'm there almost everyday..." Fluttershy said looking away. "You've got no reason to fret, Twi." Applejack started. "Everything's gonna be just..." "TWILIGHT!!" Rarity exclaimed running up to me. "Oh, sorry darling, but I just realized you aren't wearing your crown!... You haven't forgotten it back in Ponyville have you??" "It's in my bag..." I sighed. "I just feel a little uncomfortable wearing it. Plus I haven't really gotten used to these yet..." I said trying to fly but falling flat to the ground. "You are a princess now Twilight, embrace it!" Rarity exclaimed. "I'm telling you, if I had a crown like that, I would never take it off. Why I'd sleep in the thing!" I rolled my eyes until I saw Crystal going through my bag. "Sweetie, what are you doing?" I then saw her pulling out my crown. She then placed it on her head with a goofy grin on her face. "Am I a princess too?" Me and my friends couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, you're my little princess." I giggled and pulled her into a hug. We then started to walk into the castle. As we did, I showed Crystal a few things in the castle. She just listened, excited to hear every word. Eventually we found our way into Princess Cadence's chamber. "Twilight!" She exclaimed hugging me. "I haven't seen you since the coronation!" She moved over to see Crystal. "And it's wonderful to see you again as well Crysta--" she stopped and noticed Crystal was wearing my crown. "Isn't that your moms crown?" "Yup! Mom says I'm a princess too!" Crystal beamed. Cadence giggled. "You certainly are." Celestia smiled walking up to us. "We have so much to discuss. But it can wait. You all look tired from your journey. Now off to bed, all of you." We all bowed, and turned walking toward our rooms. "I can't believe its so late already..." I yawned. I looked at Crystal who used her magic to levitate herself onto my back. "Whoo wee! I can't believe how good she is at magic!" Applejack exclaimed. "I practice every day!" Crystal exclaimed. "I saw Pumpkin Cake do it... So I thought it shouldn't be that hard." "Wait, isn't Pumpkin a foal...?" Rainbow asked. "Yup!" "How the hay could... I'm not even gonna ask." Rainbow said rubbing the top of her head. "I don't need any headaches... Anymore anyways..." We all shared a laugh before we went into our separate rooms. Crystal and Spike both stayed with me of course. I sighed placing the crown on my head. "What's wrong Twilight?" Spike asked. "I don't know Spike... I'm just worried I guess. Princess Cadence was given the Crystal Empire to rule over... What if now that I'm a princess, Celestia would want me to lead a kingdom of my own!?" "That. Would. Be. Awesome!" He exclaimed. "No. It. Would. Not!" I exclaimed rubbing my forehead. "Just because I have this crown and these wings, it doesn't mean I'll be a good leader." "I think you would," Crystal spoke out. "You're in charge of a lot of things at home." "She's got a point." Spike added and yawned. "But come on, we all need to get some shut-eye... Big day tomorrow." I nodded as both me and Crystal got in the same bed. I closed my eyes.... Trying desperately to get comfortable! "Just, tuck..." I said trying to fold my wings rolling around in bed. "Just trying to get comfortable...!" I closed my wings and shut my eyes... Until they shot open again. "UGH!!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I couldn't sleep. I was just too excited! I don't know why Princess Celestia said we were tired, I have so much energy! I got up and walked around to see if I could tire myself out. Suddenly I could hear the door slowly open and I ran back into bed before anyone could see me. I carefully took a peek at who came in. I looked like a pony with a cloak. I saw the pony slowly walk up to the bed and toward the crown. What is she... I then saw her levitate the crown and replace it with one that looks the same! She's stealing mom's crown!! "Stop!!" I exclaimed shocking the intruder and waking mom up. Mom yawned waking up and looked at the intruder in shock. "My crown! She's got my crown!!" The intruder then ran out as me and mom ran after her. "Stop!! Thief!!" The others walked out of their rooms in confusion. "She's stolen my crown!!" Mom exclaimed as we all were now chasing after her. Mom teleported ahead and caught up to her, but the intruder teleported I front of her, revealing that it was an orange unicorn with red and yellow hair. She kept running as mom followed in aggravation. She then tackled the unknown unicorn into another room as the crown bounced off the walls and into a mirror. "What did you do with my crown!?" "Sorry that it had to be this way, Princess!" The intruder exclaimed teleporting in front of the mirror and jumping through it. Leaving everypony speechless. "Who was that...?" Fluttershy asked. "Princess Celestia!!" Mom exclaimed and ran toward Celestia's room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Sunset Shimmer... A former student of mine." Celestia explained. “She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get something as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. One that has sadly lead her to stealing your crown.” “She replaced Twilight’s with this one…” Spike said showing her the fake crown. “I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn’t notice right away that this was not yours. And by the time you did, it would be too late to go after your crown and element of harmony.” "But I don't understand..." Mom started. "Where did she go? Where did she take the crown??" Celestia lead her into a different room. "You'll soon know more about this place than even I do." She said walking into the room with the mirror, Luna already there. "This is no ordinary mirror. It is a gateway into another world. A gateway that opens once, every thirty moons." “Sparkly!” Pinkie exclaimed placing her hoof on the mirror while Luna slowly moved her away with a mused look on her face. “It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle.” Luna continued. “But when Princess Cadence took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over.” Celestia sighed. "I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would some day use it to return… to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what has happened…” "Twilight… you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other elements of harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of its most important means of defense.” "Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer now calls home." Luna said. “And in her possession your element of harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitants of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves.” "Do you understand the importance of your task?" Celestia asked. "Of course," mom answered. "Good... Then you must go at once." Mom sighed as she was about to walk in through the portal. "Whoa whoa whoa!" Rainbow dash cut in front of her. "If she's goin, we're goin with her! Right girls?" "Ooohhh! I'm so nervousited!!" Pinkie exclaimed. "You do realize that's not a real word, right?" Applejack asked. Mom just smiled until... "I'm afraid I can't let you go." Celestia spoke out. She then explained the consequences of moms friends going. Mom sighed as she looked back at all of us and slowly walked through the mirror... Her and Spike ran through. "Spike!!" Everypony exclaimed... "CRYSTAL!!" They exclaimed as well as I followed them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Ugh..." I groaned opening my eyes. "Uh... Twilight?" "Huh?" I said looking around. "Spike...? You're not supposed to--" I stopped mid sentence when I saw him. "Spike... Are you a dog??" "I.. Think so..." Spike said looking at himself. "But... You may want to look at yourself...!" I slowly raised my... Hands!? I screamed at the top of my lungs but quickly covered my mouth. I just kept examining my body in a sort of panic. “W..what happened!? Why am I a human!?” Suddenly there was another scream behind the statue… “That sounded like…” I slowly got up trying to keep my balance. “Oh… my…” I looked down only to find a tan colored unicorn with brown hair. She looked about the same size as the crusaders. “C… Crystal…?” “Huh?” She said looking up at me in shock. “You’re human now!?” “Y-you’re a pony now!” I exclaimed back, “A unicorn!” “Huh!?” Crystal exclaimed examining her own body now. “But… how!?” “I don’t know… but it must have something to do with the portal that sent us from Equestria.” I huffed. “We need to find my crown as soon as we can and get back there!” I said looking at the building in front of me. “I suggest we start searching the castle first.” I started running on all fours with Spike and Crystal on top of me… until I saw another human looking at me strangely. “Yeah, I don’t think that's how the new you is supposed to--” I quickly got on two legs dusting myself off. As I was about to head toward the castle again, I could see Crystal struggling to walk like a pony. “One step at a time sweet heart… take it slowly.” I said comforting her. Eventually, with a little practice she did start to walk a little better. “This feels so different…” Crystal let out. As we walked up to the door I attempted to use my magic to teleport in… only slam into the glass door. “Hmm…” I concentrated hard but nothing happened. “My magic… it isn’t working!” “Makes sense… you haven’t exactly had practice without your horn.” Spike said. “I guess you have a point…” I sighed. “I can do it!” Crystal exclaimed using her magic to open the door. “This is beyond unfair…” i sighed as Spike and Crystal followed. I looked around the ‘castle’ and walked up to what looked like a trophy case. “What do you think Spike? Are there any artifacts that she’s stolen from Equestria?” Just as I asked my question, we all heard a bell ring. Suddenly a large number of humans started passing through the halls. “Huh??” I said trying to make my way through, holding both Spike and Crystal. I was knocked onto the ground and I tried crawling my way out… until I bumped into someone’s leg. “Whoa!” The boy exclaimed. “You okay?” he asked holding his hand out to me… I cautiously took his hand standing up and nodded. I then noticed was was looking intently at Crystal. “Oh! this is uh… my toy!” I exclaimed with a sheepish smile. The boy shrugged. “Alright then. See you later.” he walked away. “I don’t think this is a castle…” Spike said.