It was a pleasant day in Ponyville. The sun was out' a gentle breeze, an all round enjoyable day. All the towns the residents were out enjoying the brilliant sunshine, all except for those deep inside a crystalline castle at one end of town. Their Rarity was searching the halls and many rooms of the castle, searching for Twilight Sparkle. No doubt she had her head buried in a book as she normal. As Rarity moved deeper into the castle, she became aware of strange noises emanating from one of the deepest rooms of the castle. As she approached its door’ the strange sounds suddenly stop. Pressing an ear against the door, Rarity could clearly Twilight speaking to Spike.
Rarity flung the door in flamboyant style, catching the attention of all in the room.
“Twilight, darling. I simply cannot allow you to lock yourself away on such a glorious day for any book, no matter how grand. I insist you join me for a….”
Her words were cut off by the re-emergence of the strange noise. She looked up at its source, the Crystal Mirror, the portal to Canterlot High and the world it resides in.
Rarity watched it intrinsically. It's surface glowed and then faded, the noise emanating from it would while up and then die down. It was if the portal itself was trying to power up yet was unable to, not completely, falling just short every time. After several minutes of trying and failing to open the portal powered down, its surface turning back to its usual mirror state.
“Good morning Rarity,” Twilight chirped as silence returned to the room.
“That's the…” Rarity started.
“Portal to Canterlot High,” Starlight Glimmer finished, making her presence in the room known for the first time to Rarity “We’ve been up all night watching it and Twilights been telling me all about it.”
“ALL night,” Rarity exclaimed.
“Yes,” Glimmer continued “It woke me up in the early hours this morning. It woke Twilight and Spike up as well, we investigated the noise, and we’ve been observing it since then.”
Rarity looked over at Twilight “Darling you know staying up all night ruins you compl….”
Yet again she the portal trying again to activate but once again falling short.
“This cycle is taking longer,” Spike commented
“And the time between cycles is shortening,” Glimmer added, “Whatever it's building up to’ it's gonna happen soon.”
The Crystal Mirror eventually calmed downed back to its normal state.
“Do you think the same thing is happening on the other side?” Rarity asked.
“Oh yes,” Twilight said, lifting up a book with a distinct sun symbol on it “And Sunset Shimmer has been given keeping me informed of her side and it appears to be doing exactly the same thing.”
The mirror powered down after a short time, but it took longer than before.
“Has it done this before?” Rarity continued asking
“Not While I’ve had it here, and I can’t find anything in any records of this happening…..”
This time, it was Twilight Sparkle who was interrupted by the mirror starting another cycle, but this one was different. It's was building up power faster and more intensely’ its surface glowing brighter and brighter’ and it wasn’t stopping this time.
Spike and the three ponies started backing away from the mirror and towards the door.
“I don’t think we’re safe here!” Glimmer Shouted over the building sound.
They now had to shield their eyes from the light now engulfing the room.
Then it happened.
A beam of white light shot out of the crystal mirror at a sharpest of angles, burning a hole into the ceiling without slowing.
With Spike clinging to Rarity’s back, the little Ponies raced out of the nearest exit of Twilight’s castle and looked up to the skies. The beam of light had stopped in mid-air, several hundred feet above the castle's highest point. A new portal started foaming, replacing warming blue in the sky with an unnatural purple with red lightning arcing all through its swirling void. Its diameter grew immensely until it was easily able to swallow up the castle below.
And there it stayed, hanging ominously’ high above Ponyville. Twilight stared up at the swirling mass in awe and growing fear. Many aspects of it were very unnerving, least of all was the fact that it cast no shadow on the ground.
It was about this time that she became aware of other ponies gathering to watch the spectacle, both in the air on the ground.
Beside her, Glimmer, Spike & Rarity had gathered, also transfixed on the portal.
“You three,” -Twilight turned to them- “Get everypony to move back, I think it may keep expanding!”
The three nodded and set about their task, as Twilight unfolded here wings and took flight.
Several Pegasi had already gathered around the portal, and although they were keeping a distance, they were too close for Twilight’s liking.
Amongst them’ she saw a familiar blue coloured pegasus zipping about.
“DASH!!” Twilight called out.
The ears of Rainbow Dash perked up’ and flew over.
“Twilight’ Whats going on!?!”
“It's the portal to Canterlot High’ its going crazy!” She quickly explained. “We have to get everypony back, I don’t know what it's going to do next.”
Dash nodded and moved out.
Twilight took a deep breath, and silently hoped that all was better at the other side of the portal.
At Canterlot High, things had taken a turn for the worst. Sunset Shimmer and the others watched helplessly, as the first stages of a major disaster unfolded before them.