A World, Reflected

by Bliss Authority

Chapter 1: A Night, Stolen

Chapter 1:
A Night Stolen

For what must have been the tenth time - or more! - that night, Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle rolled over in her restless sleep, opened her eyes and checked the time. It wasn't even five minutes since last time: Twilight let out a sullen groan.

Spike was snoring away in the next room, a sound that reminded Twilight of a truffling pig on the hunt, but she was used to that - he'd always lived in the room next door, and frankly the rhythm of his breathing helped her sleep.

No, the problem was that her newly acquired wings were aching and uncooperative; they would fold and unfold without any conscious thought on her part, often with great force at awkward angles against the hard 4-poster frame of her bed at the Crystal Spire. It wasn't quite like banging her shin against a table corner three times in the night; there was less torsion when she banged her shins.

"Easy - It's just like having another set of legs," Rainbow Dash had assured her. Well, okay, Rainbow, but most ponies' legs don't split at the hoof, Twilight hadn't said. They aren't multi-jointed and splayed either. I don't HAVE a Pegasi's instinct for wings, so don't you tell me that something you've practiced since you could walk is easy. Twilight knew that this was unfair to Rainbow - but Sun blast it, the pony could be so dense. No theory of mind whatsoever; if it was easy for Rainbow, either it should be easy for anyone or it was proof positive she was the coolest thing in Equestria.

Since it had become apparent that she wasn't going to get any sleep, Twilight instead rolled out of bed and trudged towards her supplies for some paper and charcoal; if she wasn't capable of sleep, she was going to write while lying down at rest.

Twilight had only brought one large saddlebag - writing supplies, a nonfiction book on apiaries and eusocial insects, a romance novel that Rarity had recommended called The Rider With Stars in His Eyes, by one Jenna Canterin Moran (which she had found deeply weird, albiet oddly romantic); a new dress for the occasion - Twilight would have brought her Gala dress, which she still thought was the most beautiful thing - but Rarity had insisted; and of course her crown, a gleaming starmetal tiara set with the physical Element of Magic, a gleaming star of some material like amber, but deep purple in hue.

She hadn't unpacked. Twilight was absolutely sure of that. Unpacking would have been in some small way admitting that her coronation was happening, that she was going to become a Princess - the Princess of Friendship, with broad domain over the Principality of Ponyville in the same way that Celestia managed Canterlot and the Day, Luna the Wyld Territories and the Night, and Cadence Romantic Love and the Crystal Empire. Twilight had trouble keeping a village - well, okay, small town - library in order. The thought of managing the Principality of Ponyville - an area much broader than Ponyville itself - was terrifying in its scope; thinking on it was like the math class when she understood for the first time precisely what was meant by 'Infinite.'

She hadn't unpacked, so why was the flap of her saddlebag hanging open in the moonlight? And why were her papers strewn across... the floor...?

Twilight reared back, ready to gore, and concentrated on a point at the tip of her horn. She felt the power well up at the tip and cast it out as a lavender glow illuminating the room -

And there she was! A rippling of the air, as if refracted through a glass of water. An invisible pony - well, nearly invisible. Sloppy, Twilight found herself thinking. I couldn't do an illusion like that - but Trixie could, and for all her faults she wouldn't mess it up with the haze. Whoever this is didn't even bother to add a charm of Obfuscating Mundanity.

Twilight traced the runes for negation, light, and revelation in the air with her horn in short, stylized calligraphic strokes, then let her counter-spell rip. It flowed from her horn in an amethyst wave, which crashed against the invisible pony - and she popped into existence.

All that Twilight could make out was a swirl of hair the mixed red and gold of sunset, a horn, robes the grey of crushed granite - and that the unicorn thief's tangerine-colored mouth clutched the Crown of Magic in her teeth.

The unicorn thief bolted for the door.

"STOP, THIEF!" Twilight said - not screamed but projected, both from her diaphragm and with her magic. It should have been enough to wake the recently dead. Where in Tartarus were the gua-

Twilight had enough time to avoid goring the guard - the only guard, she thought with dismay - that had come her way before crashing into him and OVER him. Her wings flared out, catching the air and breaking her fall; it was the first time she'd ever been glad to have them.

His helmet went flying, revealing a shock of blue, crew-cut hair; but he caught himself by rolling on his front calves and back up. He whipped his head around to Twilight. His face was at once both delicately featured and rugged, like a stone carving of a colt. "Your Highness, are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine, but the thief is getting away!" Twilight pointed at the receding - and, she could swear, laughing - unicorn thief, who at this point had tossed the Element of Magic on her head.

Both she and the guard picked themselves up, the guard not bothering with his helm, and chased after her. "Where are the other guards?"

"Asleep, probably enchanted. I couldn't wake them up, your Highness," the guard said. Twilight had lost sight of the unicorn thief. Before she could speak, the guard jerked his head in the direction she had gone.

Twilight nodded thanks and turned that way, pooling magic in her horn. She had an idea.

"Thank you, Mr...?"

"Lieutenant Flash Sentry, Miss. Do you have a plan?"

Twilight nodded. There was a door at the end of this passage, flanked by two pegasi guards. Asleep - and Flash was right to guess it was enchanted sleep. No doubt the door was where the thief was headed.

"So far all she's done are glamours," she said. "Enchantments. Wanna bet that's what her Mark is in? Take her on my signal. Three, two, one -"

Twilight stepped between the space separating her and the door in a flash of indigo. She was facing the way that she had come from - face to face with the unicorn thief. And she could see Flash Sentry's eyes light up with understanding as he spread his wings for a burst of speed.

The thief seemed utterly unimpressed. Dusk take her, she was smirking. That made Twilight very nervous.

Flash had tackled the thief a second later, the crown on her head tumbling between her forelegs and bouncing once. "In the name of Princess Amore De Cadenza, Keeper of the Power and Estate of Romantic Love, I hereby place you under arrest for grand larceny and -"

"Still underestimating me, I see," said the unicorn thief. She grabbed the crown between her teeth and her horn flared scarlet, bright enough to burn through Twilight's reflexively closed eyelids and leave an afterimage, and then her body and the crown flashed crimson -

And she was gone with an implosive pop as the air filled the void where she had been.

Flash Sentry looked up, blinked once, then took to the air to scan the room. "She has to be around her somewhere. Teleportation needs line of sight!"

"Or intimate familiarity with your exit point." Twilight said, her voice flat. She implied something about the thief and Tirac's high opinion of her under her breath and tried the door.

Locked. Of course. The thief had been counting on that, and on exactly the assumption Twilight had made. "Twilight, you idiot. 'She can only do glamours!' It's not like you know any unicorns who know multiple schools of magic -"

"It's a mistake anypony could have made. There are only two unicorns in recent history with a talent for magic itself, and you're one of them." Flash Sentry's expression turned as dark as a thunderhead, and it didn't take the Power and Estate of Friendship to tell how angry - and bitter - his emotional state must have been underneath. He ripped a keyring from an unresisting (and snoring) guard's belt and started trying the lock. "No, this is 'Flash, you idiot.' I should have recognized her immediately."

Twilight had an unsettling insight that Flash was trying not to emote - and that the murderous expression he wore was a successful attempt to suppress his true feelings.

She reached out a hoof. "Flash, do you know who that was?"

"That was Sunset Shimmer," Flash said through gritted teeth. "Celestia's most faithless student, traitor to the crown -" He unlocked the door and swung it open wide. The room was completely empty save for one thing: a full-length lunargent mirror, gilt and jeweled, that reflected a forest that wasn't there.

"- and, night take her sun-blasted soul to TARTARUS she's taken the Element of Magic to another WORLD!" Flash shuddered from his nose to his tail.

Twilight considered this for a second. Then she looked up at Flash, feeling a certain tension in her cheeks pulling the corners of her mouth down. "Two questions."

"...I'm alright NOW, if that was one of them. " Flash had taken out a notepad and pen and was writing things down; Twilight guessed he was trying to mark every detail of the incident that he could.

"Glad to hear it. Really. But. One, you're WAY too angry for this to just be about what she did to the kingdom."

Flash sighed. "Your Highness, please let me keep what she did to me, personally - well, personal."

Twilight nodded. She had figured as much.

Then she raised her hackles, and said - almost snarled - "Why under Sun and Moon didn't Celestia tell me she had another protégé?"

"That's a very good question, my most faithful student. I'm wondering that myself, now."

Twilight and Flash both looked up at the rare sight of Celestia both sorrowful and angry, and these both directed outward and self-inflicted. Her hair streamed with all the colors of the sky at dawn, and her sleek white form was festooned with rose-golden orichalcum jewelry.

She looked very, very tired. Twilight could relate.

"Your Highness!" Flash saluted, his face taking on the professional terror of an employee caught making a mistake by his boss - which, to be fair, was his exact situation.

"Celestia!" Twilight looked on her mentor - her mentor, her first friend, even once upon a time her first crush - and Celestia hung her head in shame. Twilight raised a foreleg to offer a hug, and this Celestia did accept - indulgently nuzzling Twilight's forehead as she nuzzled the Dawn Princess' shin.

"My little ponies, I have failed you," Celestia said. "And I have done so by refusing to admit my greatest failure to you. I can only beg for your forgiveness."

"I'll forgive you if you tell me what's going on," Twilight said, sitting down and crossing her forelegs.

Flash Sentry raised an eyebrow at Twilight's familiar - even defiant - tone; but Celestia accepted it, nodding.

"Very well," Celestia said. "I will call the other Element Bearers and explain everything after I raise the Sun." Celestia sighed, casting her gaze through the mirror to the alien world beyond it. "This concerns all of Equestria, the Bearers of the Elements most of all."

Author's Note:

And here we go.

Jenna Katerin Moran is the author of Nobilis and of Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine, the latter being a tabletop RPG that heavily informs this fic. Knowing Chuubo's is not at all necessary for understanding this fic, but it might help you to guess where I'm going with it.

Comments

[Storykeeper]

So, I read the story, liked it, upvoted it, favorited it, then realized it wasn't getting a whole lot of attention. So, I decided to comment on exactly what I liked, hopefully getting a few more readers for you.

So, to start with:

It's a small thing, but I like how you gave each princess her unique domain not just in magic, but in physical ruling - Celestia for Canterlot, Luna of the Wyld Territories, ect. That way, they're equal but separate, so they don't undermine each other's authorities (though I've got to wonder what Mayor Mare's thoughts are on her town become a little Principality. Eh, that's a question for season five).

One thing I was looking forward to was seeing how you handled Flash Sentry. A lot of fans dislike him more on principle, since his actual characterization in the movie was...bland. So I really like how you handled his intro, presenting him as a competent & capable guard. Sunset still gets away, but since she also escaped Twilight we can hardly rest the blame on Flash. I am curious as to why Flash was the only one not affected by whatever spell Sunset put on the other guards - a quick explanation that it only worked on ponies were were already sleeping, tired, or bored to take them out of commission, and Flash was the only one who was none of the above, or another reason you can devise - would have sufficed.

She implied something about the thief and Tirac's high opinion of her under her breath and tried the door.

Twilight! I didn't even know you COULD swear! I'm so proud of you. :)

"night take her sun-blasted soul to TARTARUS"

I have no idea why I like this line so much. I just do.

I feel Twilight is being harder on Celestia than she needs to be. Okay, Celestia never told her about Sunset Shimmer. But Sunset coming back and stealing the crown was something no one could have predicted. And outside of that, Twilight must have understood that she can't have possibly been Celestia's only student. Granted she might have assumed she and the last student were separated by a much longer time period. Still, even if I think Twilight is being too harsh, considering what just happened I don't blame her for being upset.

I'm not at all familiar with the table top RPG you're referring to. Which means I can be pleasently surprised by where this fic goes!

Alright, on to chapter 2...

[djthomp]

Oh yeah, this looks right up my alley.

[Bliss Authority]

5465543 That's always lovely to hear, but is there any particular reason you're looking forward to it?

[djthomp]

5465773 Magical Girl Twilight is what I've been wanting the Equestria Girls movies to turn into since before the first one came out. Between the promise of that in the story description and the additional character development for Flash, this hits all my hopes for that 'verse.

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

I respect how you made pony Flash competent and relevant. I'll keep an eye on this and read more when I have more free time.