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Every alicorn has a mirror, meant to hold her if she ever turns upon Equestria in rage and bitterness. She will be safe inside, comforted by the familiar.
Twilight has come to Canterlot to update her own personal prison. While she's there, an old friend wishes to meet her for the very first time.
Written for Everfree Northwest's 2015 PreCon Contest.
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Kony 2012.
Interesting story, though I'm a tad confused. Let me see if I got this straight.
So these mirrors create personal sanctuaries from memories. And Sunset's created Canterlot High, but also has the mirror there that leads to the Equestria that is canon, but is her imaginary world here? So the world we're in throughout the story is actually the 'real' world?
Is that the gist of it?
Fantastic piece of work as always. Not much to say in concrete terms, although that might just be the hour getting to me.
Ok so let me see if I get this straight,sunsets shimmers world included canterlot high, and an imaginary mirror that led to an imaginary Equestria inside that imaginary mirror world? God I was so confused at first at what was going on but now I think I got it
5775745
Yeah, there's a couple of worlds in there. Basically, everything that happens in Equestria Girls, from Twilight's visit to the Crystal Empire, losing her crown, etc., happens in Sunset's mirror. Canterlot High and its portal does not exist in the 'real' world that Twilight lives in.
Real world has a mirror that leads to a fake Equestria that Twilight and Celestia have kept updated. That fake Equestria has a mirror that leads to Canterlot High.
So, I read the description, and my first thought was, "What about the... Oh my goodness, the moon is an enormous reflector. That is brilliant." Not quite a mirror finish, but it still works.
...Oh. You meant literal mirrors for all of them. Well, now I'm kind of disappointed.
So... one does become an alicorn without being able to handle the power? I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here, and it's vague enough that it sounds like you've contradicted yourself in the same paragraph.
As for Sunset... Just how real are these worlds, and how dependent are they on their prisoners? Twilight just needed to dip her head into hers to maybe update a bit of it. Sunset's, on the other hand, seems filled with independent, self-aware minds and is so existentially fragile that it could cease to exist if she spends too long out of it. There doesn't seem to be any consistency here.
This is certainly a novel way to try to divorce the movies from the show, but it needs a bit more thinking through. Still, I quite enjoyed it.
5776425
I don't think it's that it's fragile. It's more that Sunset's afraid that if she comes back to Equestria, then the mirror will be inactive and she may lose the friends that she's come to regard as real. At least, that's what I'm attempting to imply.
Maybe it should be a 'shouldn't', too, rather than a 'didn't'. Because *obviously* Sunset did and just had some issues. Twilight's doing the whole 'one does not simply' train of thought that she probably shouldn't be doing.
I may be reading too far into it, but you could have gone to some touchy subjects with this and I am glad you didn't.
What I mean is Sunset could be suffering from a lot of mental trauma, the illusionary world is sort of a self exiled prison, a form of Stockholm Syndrome would be a real thing. Her belief if she is away from the mirror the world will disappear and lose all of her friends, she is feeling empathy and happiness to basically her illusionary jailers. The illusions are not real but to Sunset they are, too much time there could end up as a form of Schizophrenia. Then again I did say I was looking far to into it.
Here's a question Twilight should ask Celestia:
If there are indeed more than five Alicorn by now, how come they're all mares?
My mirror would probably be FimFiction.
A think a hundred years of reading nothing but works like this would bring me back from the brink of whatever madness I was afflicted with.
5776867
I wouldn't go poking my head into a lot of mirrors in Canterlot Castle .....
5776923
I think Fimfiction would be the cause of your madness in the first place.
What a fascinating reinterpretation of the EQG movies. Easy, easy upvote.
I'll look forward to reading this (hopefully this weekend).
That green E-tag in a sea of red on your stories page, heh.
5776548 Indeed, this whole thing scares the bejeeszus out of me. The whole thing is being less of a personal sanctum and more of a trap, just waiting there in the back of your mind. Somewhere safe, comfortable, where you are happy and don't have to suffer the outside world.
Twily had only spent a few minutes in hers and she was already reluctant to leave it. A Lotus-Eater Machine, if I remember correctly?
5777484
It's a bit of a Lotus-Eater, yes. But just imagine the conversation Sunset had to have with the Twilight in her mirror that she'd been tucked away for so many years. She had the strength to deal with that and see the exit once it was pointed out to her.
If any pony in that castle ever knew what the mirrors were for and saw just how many are scattered around, they'd be tiptoeing around a lot more.
5777517 Does she Really have that strength? She already rushed back to talk to friends who aren't real, to live a life in a dreamworld which doesn't quite matter, dreamed up by Celestia and Twilight.
A sanctum is all well and good but once it's more comfortable to be in there than on the outside it becomes a prison.
5777554 *Chuckles* My apologies. It's unlike me to argue with the author but the fridge-horror is strong in this one.
5777554
That's fine. A little fridge-horror with a deep, one-sided friendship never hurt too badly. And it's not just that the world is completely imaginary. Her Equestria probably is, sure. Heck, Sunset's Equestria in that mirror won't have a Tirek unless it's updated again.
But between Celestia and Twilight's work, Sunset's done some serious magic and it's very possible that she really is working with another world. Her friends might have been additions from Twilight's memories, but they're growing. The machine might exceed its programming one day. Sunset will come and go when she gets more confident. She's very powerful and Equestria proper may need her one day.
In all honesty, I just ran out of words because it's for EFNW's contest and I could have kept going for another 20K if I had wanted. I had to sacrifice some clarity, I'm afraid. (There were several scenarios that didn't show up, like Twilight realizing she may have made her friends too needy in that world, or Sunset bolting back at the mention of white-chocolate fudge brownies, only to learn Twilight would check her homework first.)
You want fridge horror? It was Princess Platinum's relics that made Sunset an alicorn. "Oh, Twilight? If your friend Rarity gets a little silver hoof-mirror one day? You know, with a ruby gemstone in the back? Don't let her admire herself too long in its reflection. Or she'll start having to shine up another full-length frame."
Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.
5775717
What he said. What are you talking about?
5778447
I can give it a go. As a clopfic writer, I'm usually not welcome there and I've been there before under another name, back in 2011. Thanks for the advice!
5775717 More like Joseph Pony 2012.
This leaves a lot that can be explored without feeling incomplete. Might we see an expansion on this idea in another story? Perhaps after EFNW?
5778453
It's not that they have an issue with clop, several of the pre-readers have written clop and there are two very much clop stories on the site. It's that they want it to not be graphically sexual so anyone can go there.
5784178
Oh, I'm very aware of that and I'm in agreement with the policy. It has kind of been the face of the fandom for so long that it's considered a major portal, so it has to be family-friendly. Heck, I've heard some of the things people claimed that they would complain to Hasbro about back in the early days, thinking EqD was *run* by Hasbro.
I was just being gently sarcastic in that I've been here more than three years and that I might not know how a story gets submitted to EqD. (Then again, I don't have "FEATURED ON EQUESTRIA DAILY!" in any of my other summaries, for some cloppy reason.)
Not sure what to think of this story. Well done, but somehow there's an edge of melancholia about it.
Woaaah. You made a way for me to actually reconcile EQG and FiM canon in my mind. Thank you. The cognitive dissonance has been iccky. XD
I liked this. Especially the idea that out there, there's more to the story but without it being 'your teacher is totally evil by the way'. It struck the perfect balance, I thought.
Kudos!
I was thinking your name looked terribly familiar, and that I liked one of your stories, but I couldn't remember what it was for the life of me.
Then I realized you wrote pretty much the only straight-up clopfic (well, porn with plot fic) that I have on my highly recommended list because of what it is.
Anyway, neat to see you branching out and writing other stuff. I might have to take a peek at some of your other stories again sometime; I have a bunch of them marked as "read later", which means basically "sometime before the heat death of the universe".
I wrote a review of this story. It can be found here.
Princess SunSet Shimmer has made much progress:
She reached a point of disassociation where she believed that she is an Unicorn who fled to the world of CHS, and tried to return to a simulated Equestria, believing that it is the real Equestria for stealing an Element of Harmony. Now she realizes that it is an illusion. Soon, she will realize that all of her friends are NPCs and return to reality.
Well now I want to see Twilight go rescue the real Sirens. That would be cool.
Fantastic AU.
5777716
I just had the Fridge Horror thought: is the "real" Equestria- the one that Twilight and Celestia are making mirrors in- someone else's mirror, and if so, whose?
At one point, I think Twilight was going to ask Celestia that, if this was indeed the real world or another mirror, and Celestia would tell her not to get caught up in that whirlpool of thought.
See "Ship in a Bottle" in ST: TNG, when Barclay considers that scenario while dealing with Professor Moriarty.
I have to say that this was really really really good and I hope you someday write more about this universe.
What a brilliant idea. I can certainly see the existence of these leading to a lot of rabbit-hole thinking.
This is a extremely good idea. (And interesting enough I find it far more likely than the Canon explanation to Equestrian Girls)
Excellent work, well done.
An interesting idea. If I'm reading it correctly, then Sunset's mirror has at least two layers of worlds, right? A copy of Equestria (in which she remains a unicorn as opposed to an alicorn), then the mirror portal exists in that copy of Equestria leading to Canterlot High School?
The implication of at least one other alicorn stuck in a mirror is pretty terrifying. That Sunset helped to prepare it means it must have been in the recent past, which makes one wonder if there were even more before that. Additionally, it's mentioned that Celestia made it so time passes in Sunset's mirror, and it later mentions 'Sunset was slightly taller, which was a given. She had a few years of alicornhood on me', so I guess Sunset physically ages relative to the real Equestria even while in the mirror. Would the other alicorns also be aging, and/or have immortality in that case then?
You're reading it correctly. There's a second Equestria in her mirror. Think of it like a failsafe, so if Sunset did storm back from the Canterlot High universe, as she had planned, she would have only ended up in a false Equestria, rather than rampaging back into the 'real' world.
They may be immortal, but they still grow and learn, I think. That's how I'm interpreting Twilight's own body growth.
The implication that there are numerous other mirrors is far too casually thrown around here, I'd think. A thousand years of failed Alicorns trapped all over the castle, and Twilight doesn't even blink at the possibility? I realize that this story is an idea packed down into a 3,000 word package, but worldbuilding is all about making connections, not the various interesting facts and figures in-and-of themselves. (Or at least, that's my opinion.) Besides that, (and the understandably unexplored implication that Sunset Shimmer's world might either be becoming real of that Shimmer is just crazy,) well, it's an excellent and intriguing idea.
5776425
But the Moon is a magic mirror! Oh, you mean fictionally. That could be interesting.
5776923
Ya know, most psychological treatments take significantly less time than a century. And the only new stories would be the ones you imagined, which might be a problem. Though that makes me wonder if animating a self-insert OC would be healthy or unhealthy...
How the fuck did this no do better?
Wow...I was not expecting something this good. Consider me impressed.
Mirrorception.
We have to go deeper...
Am I the only one who thinks sunsets addiction to her false reality is unhealthy? Shouldn't someone be trying to convince her to let go of the fantasy and accept her responsibilities as an alicorn in the real world? Seems kinda sad to me.
This reminds me of the TV series "Life on Mars" (the original UK version).
Starlight will be an alicorn before Sunset, because she deserves it more.
6255320
Except, Twilight is not immortal.
Typo: "madened" should be "maddened".
8757803
That's not clear one way or the other. We have the "word of god" stance that she will not outlive her friends, but there are a number of ways to allow that and make her immortal. There is not enough information to make a definitive canon conclusion.
8758103
That's not to mention WoG is incredibly cheap for a canon with multiple and shifting authors. Remember Amy Keating Rogers' "Journal of the Two Sisters: The Official Chronicles of Princesses Celestia and Luna? In that, the Elements of Harmony predated Starswirl and he had no idea what they were. Now look where we are