That was officially the weirdest dream I've ever had. Sunset thought to herself. Kind of overreacted. Whatever, I better get ready for school. Sunset yawned and stretched her limbs, mindlessly throwing the blanket to the ground. Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Yet when she opened them, it wasn't her room that greeted her eyesight.
"Oh buck..." she muttered defeated. It was still the huge bedroom from before. She got up a little and checked on the things that kind of felt weird on her body. Yep, the wings were still there.
"Sunny!" The fiery mare cringed visibly, after hearing that particular nickname. She hated it beyond belief, before and after her reformation. The voice she recognized easily, as it belonged to the mare she owed so much. Titling her head, Sunset found Twilight leaning towards the bed and looking intensely.
"Twilight?"
"Mom said you wanted to talk to me, before you hyperventilated. She has to run court today, so she couldn't stay here. What happened? Why did you hyperventilate in the first place?"
Because my world just made a complete three-sixty? "Twilight...are we...sisters?"
Twilight blinked at the question. "Uh, yes. Of course. You're my BSBFF."
"Excuse me, what?"
"Big Sister Best Friend Forever." Twilight explained, as if she had to tell Sunset what a hoof was. The lavender alicorn's expression turned into one of concern. "Sunset, are you feeling alright?" she asked.
The other alicorn sighed and shook her head. "I'm not sure anymore. I'm getting a headache and..." her stomach growled very loudly "...that."
Twilight giggled, while Sunset finally got off from the bed. "We should probably get you some breakfast. You probably just overdid it yesterday somehow while you practiced. Let's go, I need to make sure Spike doesn't eat so much gems again."
"Sounds...good." It sounded at least better than sounding like a crazy mare. Sunset had no idea what was going on, but playing along sounded better than getting into another fit. Yes, I used the word on purpose.
Since it had been years Sunset last had been in the palace, she actually followed Twilight without the mare noticing anything. She let Twilight go two steps ahead in order to do so. Five minutes later they arrived in a small private dining room. Breakfast was already served and a certain purple dragon was rubbing his stomach happily. Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Spike!"
"What?"
Twilight actually started lecturing the dragon about how eating too many gems was not good for his health and how he also needed to eat his vegetables and so on. It was completely mother's talk. Sunset silently chuckled as she took a seat. As she used her magic to levitate some stuff to her plate, she didn't feel like any of her magic is missing. Luckily levitating was something no unicorn ever forgot to do, no matter how long you're without magic.
I totally forgot just how tasty flowers are. Reminds of when I tried one of them, when I was a human. Boy that were times...times I wish I just could forget.
"Jeez Twilight, if you're so worried about him, you should put him on a leash." Sunset joked.
"I actually might just do that..." Twilight muttered, annoyed that Spike wasn't really listening at all. Spike just waved off, knowing that Twilight would never do such a thing.
"By the way Sunset, what happened?" Spike asked.
"I'd... rather not talk about it." Sunset replied.
The little dragon shrugged and munched on his own sandwich without gems (Twilight made sure of it). "So what are you two gonna do today?" Spike asked.
"There's something I stumbled upon yesterday and I need to look deeper into it."
"Really Twilight? More studying?" Spike asked in a deadpan.
"This is important Spike. I think I'm onto something big." Twilight insisted.
The drake groaned and looked over to Sunset. "Tell me at least you have planned something different from studying."
"Uh...well, I have nothing really planned today." I actually have no freaking idea what a princess does all day. Celestia has her court, but what am I supposed to do? Wow, I never actually thought this through.
"Though, now that I think about it...there's something I want to check out in the castle and afterwards...I'll think of something. Maybe talking a little walk and getting some fresh air."
"Great, I'll go with you." Spike declared.
Sunset blinked. "Uh...alright. Twilight, are you sure you don't want to come along?"
"Maybe next time." Twilight replied, her focus clearly being somewhere else.
XIII
"Where are we going again?" asked Spike.
"I'm not too sure if I'm honest. It's been a while since I've seen the thing I'm looking for." Sunset explained. "I'm not even sure if we're walking into the right direction."
"Well, I have never been in this part of the castle." Spike shrugged.
In fact, the two were now in the basement of the castle, which was still well illuminated by magic crystals. There were still a lot of ponies running around in the basement: maids and servants, carrying stuff from the various storage rooms. Speaking of those ponies, they always bowed to Sunset and even greeted her sometimes with her 'title'. One particular encounter was still fresh in her mind:
Spike and Sunset were just turning around the corner, when Sunset accidentally bumped into a maid, who was carrying a tea-set with her magic. The set was ruined and as for the tea, it was all over Sunset's face. The maid then bowed her head quickly and started apologizing.
"I'm sorry, your highness. I'm so sorry! Please don't banish me from the castle! I have three children to take care off." The mare was trembling in total fear and shakily levitating all the pieces together. Sunset knew what fear looked like and right now the mare almost resembled Fluttershy during the time Sunset bullied her.
Getting out of her stupor Sunset spoke to the mare. "Calm down already. It's no big deal."
"Y-your highness?"
"It's just tea. Don't worry about it. It's partially my fault anyway. Here let me help you."
"N-no, i-it's alright."
Sunset rolled her eyes and picked everything up quickly with her own magic. With another spell she dried the tea of her face and the little stuff that got the maid's face.
Afterwards the maid had quickly bowed and ran away with the shards in her magic grip. That hadn't been so surprising in the aftermath. What had been were all the ponies, servants and guards and even Spike staring at her like she was some kind of alien. When she asked the drake, after quickly getting away from there, he didn't exactly gave a clear answer, except from: "It's nothing."
Back at the basement one of the servants approached the duo. "Excuse me, your highness, Sir Spike, can I help you two somehow."
"Hmm, no not- actually, do work often in this part of the castle?"
"Indeed I do your highness." The stallion replied.
"Good. Did you notice a mirror in one of the storage rooms? It's oval shaped, has the height of three or four ponies standing on top of each other and on top is a picture of a pony dancing on its hind-legs. Any ideas?"
"A mirror? That's what we're looking for?" Spike asked in disappointment.
"A mirror....ah yes, I recall stumbling upon one in one of the storage rooms on the second basement floor. I can lead you there, if you wish me to do so."
"That would be really nice. Thank you."
The stallion seemed to freeze up for a second, but that surely was just Sunset's imagination. The servant lead the two into the second basement floor in which didn't seem to be used as much as the first one. It also wasn't as tidy with boxes and old armor lying around in the corners among with other stuff.
"It's cold here." Spike complained, rubbing his arms.
"Ah yes, here we store the food that is not used the same day it is delivered. The cold temperature is there to keep everything fresh."
"Ah, I see. I still don't like the cold." Spike started to shudder. "Let's get this over with quick."
The stallion walked towards one of the doors and opened it. He took a quick look inside, only to close the door quickly. "I-I'm sorry. This was wrong door." He looked a little startled. An all too familiar smell told Sunset what exactly got that kind of reaction out of him. Back in the other world it was very easy to come by this product. This was for special guests.
"Ah, here it is. My apologies."
"No problem. We can take it from here. I promise we won't take long."
The stallion bowed and left the basement. "You okay Spike? You can wait upstairs, I won't take long."
"I-it's fine." he shuddered a little. "You got me curious, why you're so interested in a mirror."
Sunset chuckled and closed her eyes, letting some nostalgic memories flow through her mind. "It's more than just a mirror Spike." She went inside and illuminated the room with her magic. Being there, she finally remembered why the mirror was moved here. This room was so barely used, the chances someone accidentally using it were slim. On plus there was the thing that it only opened every 30 moons.
Dust had settled all over the mirror, but it was definitely the same one. Seeing it again brought up mixed emotion, which Sunset fought down for the moment. There was time for worrying about her friends later, when she was alone.
"That's it? Huh, that picture is weird."
"I never understood the design choice either." Sunset slowly walked up towards the mirror, until she could see her own image. She slowly raised a hoof and touched the mirror.
...
...
"Figures. It's closed." she muttered.
"What did you say?" Spike asked.
Sunset took a few steps back. "This isn't just an ordinary mirror, you know?"
"Uh...no."
Sunset glanced at Spike for a second. "This thing here is actually a portal that leads to another world."
"W-what?! Are you serious."
"Dead serious, Spike." And she also sounded dead serious. "I did some...research. Starswirl for example used the mirror to sent some evil beings called "The Sirens" into this world, because it doesn't contain any magic. In short, it cut them greatly in their power and ever since they've been stuck there."
"Wow. So...how do we open it?" Spike asked. Sunset sighed.
"That's the annoying part, but also a good safety measurement. It only opens every thirty moons. Though with a constant power source we could change that, but we would need one at the other side too. Arrgh, I better stop before I start rambling." Sunset stopped herself before she said too much. Luckily Twilight explained her how she managed to keep the portal constantly open. Rebuilding the device shouldn't be that hard with some studying up.
"Yeah, please do." Spike agreed.
"Guess I have to wait until it opens and just check every day from now on."
"You really want to visit this other world, huh?"
Sunset shrugged. "I'm just curious. Don't tell me, you aren't?"
"Hehe, I sure am. Wait until Twilight hears about this."
"Yeah, I guess we shouldn't leave her out." Sunset nodded. "Okay, let's get out of here. I'm suddenly in the mood for ice cream. Wanna join?"
"What? How can you think of eating ice cream now?!"