A Sunset of Flames and Swords

by SuperAvenger3

Chapter 0

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."
-Winston Churchill

To say that the final mid-term test was the toughest, most rigorous test in the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns would be a very precise description. It was meant to separate the talented and the adepts from the slackers and bush-leaguers. Sunset Shimmer was fully aware of this, moreover, she also knew that she would be on the spotlight more than anyone else in the school, for she was princess Celestia’s pupil, an honor that has been granted to only a handful of ponies over one thousand years, so everybody was expecting a lot from her; especially the examiners for this test--they wanted nothing short of excellence. But this didn’t faze her in the slightest, for she had proved herself to princess Celestia over the years with hard work and prodigious results. In fact she liked and appreciated the burden, since she saw it as a challenge to her skills and dedication.

The trot to the building that contained the classroom for the test was full peace and day-to-day activity. Once she entered the corridors she noticed that other students were already starting to talk or turn their heads towards her exactly as she passed them. That was a good thing in Sunset Shimmers mind--she liked it d she knew why they were staring and/or and what they were talking about. For it meant that it would be all the more natural when she finally passed the exam and proved how better she was to any of them. And she wasn’t a strange to this feeling, it had been like this ever since she was a filly discovering her cutie mark in talent for magic in the Merciful Skies orphanage in Canterlot. Receiving great praise from caretakers and fellow orphans alike gaining the attention of talent scouts from various magic academies and then Celestia's.

When she entered the classroom, the first thing she saw was mare with a blackened face, the poor thing almost scorched her face while attempting her own tryout spell and a stallion holding a very aggressive plant… which was supposed to be a banzai tree.

“Now, Sunset Shimmer… for your final test, you shall need to wow us.”

“Give us the best you’ve got.” Added the only male examiner, probably the sternest of the three. The oldest mare proceeded to talk as she was marking Sunset Shimmers name in the attendances list.

“We’re looking forward to seeing if you can top your dancing cat of light piece from last semester. That was a dazzler!” She said that last sentence with a hint of what Sunset Shimmer thought to be condescendence, it could certainly anger her. But she knew better than to antagonize an examiner for it, precisely at this place and at this moment. Not that she was afraid or had a legitimate respect for those teachers, but she was Celestia’s student and she had a public image to maintain.

“As princess Celestia’s own pupil, we expect big, big things today!” exclaimed the examiner who appeared to be the youngest of them all.

“So I was right about my previous feeling and the idea these examiners have about me. Naturally.” She thought.

“Well, you’ll certainly see that.” Sunset said with the heaviest tone of confidence.

She proceeded to harness magic and focusing on a flowery pot, even at such small scale it was visible how much raw, yet controlled power was being put into it. It was like using a sledgehammer to drive a nail without leaving a single scratch on the rest of the wood.

“Oh! Looks like she’s going to do a growth spell… classic! But is it enough?”

“Let’s hope it turns out better than Juniper Berry’s attempt.” commented the older mare. Growth and incubating spells were already pretty difficult enough, since it was pretty much about both inspiring new life and time acceleration all at the same time. This time she couldn’t really blame them for having doubts, still, she felt sort of insulted.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Juniper Berry’s bonsai tree was getting wilder and wilder on him until he let out a scream for help.

“Gah! Get off me!” Screamed the student holding the ferocious bonsai tree.

At that exact moment Sunset Shimmer threw her final magic charge to the flowery pot making the seed inside it grow a thousand fold. Extremely long vines with colorful flowers all around them extended from the inside of the classroom through the windows digging its way all through the inside and covering building from inside out. It was a beautiful sigh, if only a little bit damaging to the school’s property. A little bit inconvenient. The vines all had healthy color, big proportions and many beautiful and colorful flowers.

“I see somepony just passed her mid-term!” said princess Celestia who was strolling around the campus, as she did every semester during the last days of the third month of it. She was feeling certainly proud, but most of all, she felt genuinely happy for her student. Meanwhile, at the epicenter of the massive vine growth, everyone--examiners and applicants--were praising Sunset Shimmer for such a demonstration of skill, precision and magical might.

“Bravo! Wonderful!” cheered Juniper Berry. Curiously enough, since he was one who failed at his attempt on the same spell, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, right after the success of her spell, Sunset threw another at his ferocious banzai tree rendering inert for good measure.

“Thank you, thank you! It was nothing!” Sunset Shimmer was so dedicated her studies, even to a degree that even a spell of that level only had a mild difficulty for her. Still she appreciated the attention and compliments.

Later that day...

She was seated at a one of the numerous tables set through the campus, reading one of her many books on magic when a group of five classmates approached her still impressed by her work and the score they were sure she got.

“Sunset Shimmer! That vine you made was amazing!” Exclaimed one of them, the one who seemed to have the most initiative.

“Really exquisite!” other mare added with a rather refined tone of voice.

“Would you like to come have lunch with us?” Finally said a mare with a cyan colored coat. Sunset Shimmer have been already offered something like this in the past and her response reaction was always the same--rejection. Invitations from popularity-seeking mares, requests for dates by aspiring coltfriends, she just didn’t have time for any of those. Why couldn’t these ponies understand an objective so straight-forward as hers? Was that so much to ask? And thus, Sunset Shimmer proceeded to dismiss them in the only way she knew how:

“Hmpf. I have better things to do than socialize. I’m going to re-read ‘advanced elemental magical practices’ and then study for my summoning spells exam. What are you studying for? Nothing, that’s what.” Sunset said as she abandoned the place to continue with her studies somewhere else--somewhere less crowded.

The disdain in Sunset Shimmers words was so palpable that they almost felt that it could knock them backwards.

“…Well, she wasn’t very nice.” Lamented another mare with a notoriously nice, red and purple mane. She was likely the shyest and yet, seemingly, the most interested in having Sunset Shimmer lunch with them, her disappointment being as subtle as the sun.

“She’s full of herself, that’s what!” Declared with indignation one last mare from the group.

“Her loss, I’m awesome.” Affirmed the first one who approached Sunset Shimmer a moment ago. They were all clearly disgusted by her overly arrogant and superior attitude, but what frustrated them the most is that they knew she could legitimately back all that haughtiness up. Sunset Shimmer arrived to the castle faster than she thought, the carriage and walkthrough, everything seemed quicker to her that day. She was intercepted by princess Celestia when she was about to reach the corridors where her bedroom was located. Sunset Shimmer thought she was going to receive a big commendation from her great mentor--the pony whom she expected it the most, the one she felt nothing but admiration and respect--instead she received a wakeup call.

“Sunset Shimmer, I have heard that you are not getting along with the other students--we talked about the fact that personal relationships…” said Celestia with a tone of concern. Not a praise, not a congratulation, not even a compliment but instead a petty wakeup call--and it was over such an insignificant matter. This saddened her but most of all, it exasperated Sunset Shimmer more than she would ever admit.

“Personal relationships? Who needs anypony? The most important thing in life is be the best.” She retorted with as much determination as she could muster and not even allowing princess Celestia to finish her sentence. She wanted to end the talk right there but she knew better than to not expect insistence from her teacher.

“We have talked about friendship and its importance before, and we have discussed that you need to start opening yourself up to new friends. And remember that talk we had about humility?”

“Of course. I remember how boring it was.” Princess Celestia easily took notice of the brash attitude Sunset was starting to show. So she led her to a place where she thought she could get her to reflect in both senses of the word, she decided that maybe this was the precise time to teach her some principles of her own wisdom. They reached a big room through a narrow hall--it looked old--yet well conserved.

“This is my personal room of reminiscences, here is where I keep all objects that hold some sentimental value to me, some of them are worth a fortune and some other wouldn’t amount for a penny, but this,” she guided Sunset to a really big mirror “is what I wanted you to see. This mirror was brought from the now disappeared Crystal Empire--it shows you what you want to see as much as it shows what you do not want to see--it reveals the content of your heart. Go ahead, look into the mirror and tell me what you see.”

Sunset never actually cared all that much for her appearance, only when it was absolutely necessary so she wasn’t very used to check herself in a mirror, but she complied if anything else, only to show Celestia that was nothing wrong with her choices and that she didn’t need to change.

“I see a beautiful pony that has nothing but prowess and potential” she said while looking at her own reflection with a cocky smile--she liked what she saw. Now she realized that she couldn't really blame all those colts who asked her out over the years.

“Care to try again with our talk about humility taken into account?” Asked Celestia, this time with an almost funny expression of surprise and perplexity at Sunsets sheer presumptuousness. Sunset took another look, this time trying to see further in the details of her own face, since perhaps what Celestia wanted was a longer more complex answer. But when she looked, instead of discovering her own defects, she saw everything else she still lacked. The reflection started to subtly change at Sunset's own desires and ambitions-- everything she still sought to achieve but for different reasons she was still unable to reach. What she finally saw was an ideal version of herself--a perfect version of herself, one that emanated only one thing: Power.

“Power…” she said almost whispering the word out of amazement “I see somepony who isn't successful enough. Somepony who could be great… superior…” The reflection finally changed to something that Sunset Shimmer never imagined--an authority status… As a princess. “Rule Equestria…?” She said being both bewildered and fascinated at what she saw until Celestia interrupted her stupor.

“Sunset, what are you--” Celestia began to ask put off by Sunset’s vague words.

“What--?” Said suddenly turning her gaze to Celestia. ”It's nothing. I said I--” The image already faded into nothingness when Sunset turned to the mirror again and before she could say something else, Celestia interrupted her again.

“Maybe we should better move on…” Sunset Shimmer was about to follow Celestia’s suggestion, when through the corner of her eye noticed something else in the mirror--it was a… thing--a creature like Sunset have never seen before yet it shared so many of her own features including her flaming colored mane, and even the look that Sunset was able to catch was uncannily similar to her own, except hers was completely and absolutely uninhibited, limitless… And powerful.

“Wait, what was that? I thought I saw…” Sunset still wasn’t sure if what she was seeing was real so she moved closer to the mirror but then, the vision disappeared as soon as it made contact with her reflection.

“Oh, it was probably a trick of the light. Our lesson is over for today. For tomorrow, I want you to ponder on the discussion we just had.” Said Celestia dismissing Sunset's claim using as much logic as she could, not wanting to show her own concern as to whether what Sunset saw was an illusion or not. Sunset remained skeptical about Celestia’s explanation but ultimately decided to listen to what her mentor suggested and move on… For today.

Sunset Shimmer spent the rest of the night pondering in her bedroom, yes, but not about Celestia’s attempt on a lesson on humility. No, she was thinking about the images she saw on the mirror--were they even real? Were they only an illusion? If it was real, what exactly meant? And that creature who sort of looked like her, what was she? (Or at least she thought it was a she) Her appearance was… Bizarre to say the least. Yet her other me--as Sunset decided to call her--looked so much better, whatever she had, Sunset wanted it too. But she needed more answers perhaps she could ask princess Celestia some of these questions, after all, she has known this mirror for quite a long time. But for now, all she needed was a good night of sleep.

The next day, in the Castle library. Sunset Shimmer and Celestia were conducting a study in magic synergy comparing different researches on the same subject. Sunset had been beating around the bush for more time than necessary, until she formulated the exact questions she was going to ask the right time was now. Celestia was arranging the last two revised books back into its shelf when Sunset Shimmer finally revealed her confusion.

“Princess Celestia, about that mirror I've been wanting ask about what was made visible to me you said that it showed what was inside my heart, but, could it be that it also showed the future?” Sunset asked with supplicant face, this time she wanted to trust her mentor’s wisdom and experience. Celestia finished her current task and sighing proceeded to answer:

“The mirror, aside from showing you the truths in your heart, does not show you the future as much as it shows you possibilities within the reach of your present.” She finished her explanation and Sunset Shimmer did her very best to hide the shock and surprise in her face.

“Oh, so that… that’s It.” she turned her gaze away from Celestia and to her book again and Celestia asked a question this time.

“Why do you ask? What did you see in the mirror?” Sunset knew she couldn’t tell exactly what she saw, Celestia might get fearful and paranoid. So she thought of a vague yet satisfactory answer, she mustered as much sincerity in her face as she could and replied:

“It’s just that… Now I know I can truly start my path to better myself.” she was just half-lying about that after all. Celestia genuinely smiled at this--joyful at knowing that her lesson truly transpired into her student, Sunset smiled back with a contented face. But then she remembered the other thing--the creature that was nothing like Sunset Shimmer yet was so much alike and seemed to be staring at her from the other side of the mirror. That was it! The other side! She wanted to know about that as well, but she had to be very subtle about this so she mustered courage and asked again:

“Princess Celestia, there’s another thing” Celestia turned to her again

”Yes? What is it, Sunset?” Sunset took almost ten seconds to formulate the right question-- one that only showed legitimate curiosity

“There are… many fairy tales and… Crazy theories about mirrors being windows to another world, and they are exactly that--crazy folk tales, but, could it be that there is actually something to the other side of this particular magic mirror?

Celestia adopted a deadpan face but her eyes got suddenly burdened and she finally replied

“You will know in due time, for now-- “one of the castle couriers entered the library

“Princess Celestia, I hate to interrupt, but your presence is needed at the court.”

“I will be there in a moment. Sunset, forgive me. Finish your assignment and I will check it tomorrow morning, I have matters to attend.” Celestia followed the courier exiting the library and leaving Sunset Shimmer with her ideas. She was about to finish. She only had one more book to search and revise for a different approach in the subject. She was about to keep looking when a headache got to her. It wasn’t anything unbearable, yet, it was enough to make her rub her temples closing her eyes. When she did that, and only for a few seconds, in the darkness of her eyelids she saw her--it was her Other Me. Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes and the headache was pretty much gone now. And found herself staring to the other side of the library. She noticed the numerous shelves across the library, there were so many shelves dedicated to subjects and studies she never touched in her assignments. There were so many and her natural bookworm curiosity took the best of her. After all, she had so little work left to do and still plenty of time, so she wandered into the deeper parts of the library.

She saw so many books about so many sciences--from ordinary medicine to statistic and other algebraic subjects. And then there were the books from beyond the deeper corridors of the library--books on alchemy, lost magical practices, spiritism and other unproven sciences. She finally reached the furthest section of the library where there plenty of very old books in stacked on even older shelves--they were outdated of course. Although upon inspection she noticed that, judging by the titles, they were all about fictional literature. At first she didn’t understand, newer editions of many of these same book were already available fourteen shelves ago, so why they were being kept? Then she realized that perhaps all these books had some emotional value to Celestia just like her Reminiscence Room.

Inspecting them more closely she found a notebook of a very old and with a vintage design, its pages glued to its back instead of being united by a spiraled wire--it was smaller compared to the rest. This one was peculiar because it didn’t have any title or description on its cover whatsoever. When she opened it she saw some very strange handwritings. But that section of the library wasn’t very well illuminated, so she took the book with her to the other extreme where it was the table with her notes and the book she finished studying.

When she inspected the writing again at the light of the sun she noticed that, while the handwriting was kind of faulty, she still didn’t recognize the characters she wasn’t a linguistics expert but she had seen many texts in different languages which had drastically different writing system to equestrian such as Qilin lettering from the west, sylvanian from the deer domains in the woods of the east to the more civilized wolf kingdoms far north east and none of those looked like these writings. Well, some characters from the book kind of looked like sylvanian lettering but they were still far from it. She kept leafing through its pages until she felt the same ethereal pains as before, only this time she only closes one of her eyes and rubbed the center of her forehead. And then it was gone as soon as it came.

She decided to not give more importance for the moment, this wasn’t the first time she experienced headaches without knowing the reason. She started leafing the pages and about three quarters of the book later she saw something that made her heart skip a beat--it was a drawing of the mirror Celestia kept in her Reminiscence Room. The drawing depicted not only that but some unknown magic circles and one was under the mirror, the page also contained what appeared to be side notes on how--presumably--use the circles, she lamented that, once again, she would need to look for Celestia’s help but she would have to be even more careful this time.

The next day…

Sunset Shimmer was being instructed by Celestia about theory on the different manifestations of the magical arts around the world but Sunset wasn’t quite as active taking notes as other times and she seemed to have her thoughts somewhere else, Celestia took notice of this and calmly interrupted her lecture.

“Does something bother you?” Sunset didn’t want to look too nervous since she needed to ask this carefully, if Celestia discovered exactly what Sunset truly wanted know, she could consider that book too dangerous and Sunset would never see it ever again, so she choose the right words started:

“I’m sorry, princess. But I’m still worried about yesterday, when I finished my assignment I wandered deep inside the library and I found the oldest shelf with all those antique books and among them I found this,” she moved to take the book out of her saddlebags and levitated it in front of Celestia, even opening it on the first pages to show her the writings and express her consternation although without getting to that one drawing. ”It’s so old. But the lettering here, what is it? Where does it come from?” Celestia’s face adopted a slightly nostalgic expression and said:

“Ahh, it seems that you found it.” and then she grabbed it from Sunsets own telekinetic grasp and she immediately moved to Celestia’s side. ”This notebook here, was left by an old friend of mine a very long time ago.” She said as she quickly leafed through its pages making Sunsets heart beat at--what she thought--was the speed of sound “it was the day when we last saw each other that I found this,” she slightly shook the notebook “the very same day.” And then she finished leafing and gave it back to Sunset.

She was extremely relieved although she still felt the drips of sweat in her forehead, however she was now getting utterly confused as to why Celestia seemed to not notice--or not care--about the strange drawings of the mirror. Yet, she managed to hide her confusion and anxiety from Celestia and keeping her composure, she asked:

“You said it was a friend of yours? Who was she?” Sunset wasn’t even interested on that. Yet; she worked on diverting the subject, regardless of whether Celestia would do it herself or not.

“He,” Celestia corrected “was a quite complicated individual, not very mannered and even insolently rude at times. But we came to understand, respect and even learn from each other. He sometimes was hostile around me for being an immortal--he used to say that the people should be outlive its rulers and not the other way around. And guess this was his diary.” she finished. Sunset was starting to feel safe again and the anxiety was fading away. In her relief she decided to ask:

“Can I keep it?” Sunset said in an expectant tone. Her feel of apprehension was slowly coming back.

“Well, yes. I guess. Although I don’t think you will have much use of it, I still don’t understand its language… Even though he seemed to speak equestrian as if it was his mother language. But yes, you can keep it.

“Thank you very much, princess!” Sunset said in a slightly fake cheerful tone--she was still feeling confused at Celestia’s apparent obliviousness. Even so, she mustered sureness and asked another question, as if testing Celestia’s insight--or lack of it. “Oh, I have another question, what about the mirror itself?” Celestia looked at her with sternness and bluntly said:

“No. I told you I would show everything about it… but it will be in due time. Now, can we continue on our lesson?” Sunset Shimmer was frustrated at this but she quickly adopted a cheerful demeanor, only if just to maintain any image of innocence she could have conveyed.

“Yes, absolutely, princess!” Sunset said with a face full of glee, although she still felt confused at Celestia’s omission of the notebook’s critical contents.

Sunset Shimmer spent that night pondering and analyzing the notebook and all its strange writings, she knew that was very little chance of deciphering the whole thing without a linguistics mayor, however, she found so fascinating and mysterious specially the drawing and its references to all those, particularly the one under the mirror, she didn’t have a clue yet; she just couldn’t take her eyes away from it. She sighed and thought:

“I wonder what all of these are for... And they seem pretty darn complicated. Specially this larger one… this stallion had expert knowledge of the magic arts, he truly must have been one interesting pony. Oh how I wish we could have met! We would have shared so many ideas.” She sighed “I bet we would have so much in common. I wish Celestia had told me how old he was. It would be so interesting if I find out that he was my age.” She thought with giddiness.

Her curiosity and eagerness gave her some problems to let her head relax, but after a while she was able to conciliate sleep. After closing her eyes and feeling time flowing rapidly in the darkness of her rest. At some point she found herself gazing at the opposite side of the bed she remembered laying asleep.

“Great. It’s one of those nights again…” She whispered as she dragged her sheets to cover her head. Sunset heard a small sound, she uncovered her head to expect that sound again in order to identify the source--it was so subtle, that she felt that it was her imagination, she was about to resume her relaxation process when she heard something that was eerily similar to a unintelligible and creepily close and murmur. This time her beat skipped a beat and laid there, without moving a single muscle, expecting to no hear it again just to confirm that it was indeed her imagination playing a prank on her. But then she heard it again slightly clearer this time--she only managed to make out that the murmur started with an S sound. Then, for the third and final time she heard the same murmur that now was a clear voice saying Sunset Shimmer.

Outright terrified she leaped to the opposite side of her bed, tangled in sheets, and once she got her head out, she looked around trying to spot the source of the voice--it was not a long search, for the speaker was right in front of her bead. In the darkness, Sunset could only see a silhouette with some kind of bipedal figure.

“Ok, whoever you are, you’re messing with the wrong mare!” She said with all the courage she could muster, even though that, without knowing the nature of the potential threat, and despite her magic skills, she was at disadvantage here.

And before she could use her horn to illuminate the illuminate and reveal the intruder, the latter whom sprinted out of Sunset’s bedroom revealing her opened door.

“Hey! Where you think you’re going!” She didn’t wait nor she called the guards just yet, she figured it would be more effective if she could at least pinpoint the intruder’s escape route. She galloped following the sounds of steps through the halls until she followed the intruder to a recently familiar place--Celestia’s Reminiscence Room, with the door open, Sunset didn’t waste any time and found the intruder, illuminating the area she saw something that made her give a gasp of shock. It was her Other Me this time clearer than ever before--she was clad in a simple yet somewhat colorful outfit.

“…Who are you…?” Sunset asked almost mechanically. Then, her Other Me looked at her with a strange mixture of challenging yet inviting, right after that, she disappeared through the mirror walking backwards and without breaking her peculiar expression.

“Wait! I need to know--!” she ran after her doppelganger and when she touched the surface of the mirror, she was back again in her bed, staring at the ceiling.

Sunset felt her heart beating very agitatedly, shifting to a seated position she turned on the lamp on her nightstand and grabbed the notebook that contained all those weird writings, leafing through the pages again, as she had done so many times in the past two days. She reached the page that contained the drawings with all those other weird-looking magic circles. That vivid dream, the recurrence of her Other Me in her thoughts, and the fact all seemed to connect to her finding on this particular and old notebook, the realization was quickly landing on her but she didn’t accept it, she didn’t want to trust this signs, she wanted something tangible, solid, something real--she wanted to trust Celestia’s wisdom.

“…Now I really, really need to know about the mirror.” she said with determination, although that night, Sunset was only able to sleep three hours or so before she had to get ready and attend her classes.

For several days Sunset attended school, and did her assignments. However when she had her sessions with Celestia, there was always that nagging feeling of obsession over the mirror, she already knew the--most likely--answer, but she couldn’t bring herself accept it. She wanted to know the truth from her mentor, yet Celestia would only dismiss Sunset’s questions with “you will know it at the right time” and she just didn’t want to hear it, not anymore. That created a big apprehension feeling whenever she had a lesson with Celestia. Bottom line: Sunset didn’t want to be near Celestia as long as she couldn’t get a satisfactory answer from her. That apprehension became a distraction, one that reflected on Sunset’s performance, yet every time Celestia asked her if something was wrong, she simply avoided talking about it by saying “I’m sorry, I’ll just work harder. I promise”.

One day Sunset Shimmer received a message from one the castle couriers--an invitation for a lunch in the castle yard. Of course she already suspected Celestia would use it as an opportunity for another of her lessons--the ones about petty matters. She always did. Why was she so stern and serious about those with such little importance, anyway? Sunset expressed her commitment to attend and the courier went on his busy way.

“But maybe this won’t be such a waste of time. Maybe Celestia has finally come to her senses after all this time...” Sunset thought as she trotted towards to appointed place. This time, she was decided to get a direct answer. One way or another.

After her period of classes Sunset was feeling somewhat expectant and optimist, perhaps this will be the day, perhaps today she would finally know the truth about… Well, everything since Celestia showed her that magic mirror. As any other day of summer the climate was very heated and consequences of this could already be seen in the horizon, black clouds that already overwhelmed white clouds were coming on its way to Canterlot, slowly yet surely. Sunset Shimmer took notice of this and realized that maybe her meal with Celestia would be somewhat rushed. She found the sheet, the basket and other preparations already there so she figured that she would need to wait--princess Celestia could be very unpunctual at times. She sat and started contemplating the view around her--the sky, the mountains;

"These gardens… It would be so easy to find peace… I wish I could reach my potential here.” she sighed and kept mulling over other conflictive thoughts reaching the same conclusion she had had during all that week until Celestia arrived.

They both shared a small talk and other about slightly more meaningful things over the course of the lunch until the rain clouds had already blocked the sun and the wind started changing to more aggressive blows, Sunset realized that she didn’t have much time so she abruptly attempted to change the topic to a more urgent one for her.

“And you know what else is fascinating? Mirrors… about that one in…” Celestia untimely interrupted her

“Sunset Shimmer. We have been over this, we will get to the mirror and many other lessons in due time… when you are ready.” Sunset Shimmer could feel the frustration and disappointment hitting her chest very hard which quickly turned into utter anger at Celestia’s sheer distrust and unnecessary secrecy. On that moment, in her mind, she vowed that she would not live a single day more than necessary in Celestia’s suffocating shadow. Then as she rain finally came down, Celestia made her way to the castle.

“I am ready.” Sunset simply said between her teeth

She looked for solace in the only place she knew--the castle library but she just couldn’t find a book that would give her peace on that moment, perhaps what she needed was to unload her anger on something but then remembered one of the few Celestia’s lesson that truly left an impact on her: You can always express your anger, but do not ever act on it. Was it better to calm down? Probably, but she still needed something to distract her. She decided to look for one of the few triviality and fiction books she liked--she looked for it all through its usual shelf and just couldn’t find it, it must have been loaned.

“Well, that’s odd. I was sure that novel was obscure enough.” she thought and then remembered the shelf of very old books at the other side of the library--it was full of similar books maybe there was another older copy of her book there. Once at the shelf she started to get desperate for not finding the copy she thought it would be here and before she could get frustrated again one of the books that she had already checked fell off because it wasn’t well accommodated and as she approached to pick it up she noticed something odd--a very linear crack on the floor. She used her horn to light the area and discovered that not only it was a linear crack but it also extended as a big rectangle under her, she then laid down and put one of hear near one the lines that formed rectangle and felt a small flow of air. There was definitely something under these lines.

“Oh me, oh my. What do I have here?” she gleefully said. Upon a more rigorous inspection she found that this rectangle was in reality a slab “Do you have secrets too? Can you tell them to me? Or has Celstia forced silence on you as well?”

Sunset attempted to lift the slab and the first thing she noticed was that it was strangely heavy even with all her training in telekinesis, as she levitated it she saw a chain underneath it which held the slab bound to a lock. She rejoiced when she saw that--indeed--there was a room underneath but the slab was getting too heavy so she laid it down and used several books to held it in place, now with that out the way, Sunset focused on the chain using a concentrated blast of magic she started to melt one of the links which was also proving to be oddly resistant despite Sunsets mastery of the technique, but ultimately gave up as well.

Once she entirely lifted the slab and using her horn as a lantern she trotted down a set of stairs and the first thing she saw was a sheet over a big, symmetrical object, Sunset approached to lift the sheet to discover that there were lots and lots of really old and dusty books underneath.

“Books…? Is that it?” she said disappointed” but wait, somepony went to some considerable amounts of trouble to keep these books hidden, I wonder what…” She grabbed one of the books from the pile and dusted to get a clearer view of the title.--Secrets of the Everfree? What…?” She discarded the book aside thinking that there couldn’t be anything interesting in it, but then grabbed and dusted another book and this had a title that simply caught her off guard “The truth is the only thing we have” she disconcertingly read the title, she opened the book and found that the vast majority of its pages had a thirty percent of corrosion by moth larvae however she could still read most of it--the book spoke of pre-unification era, but Sunset still couldn’t figure why it was stashed all the way here she then started checking all the books lifting them and re-accommodating them and she found that all of them had either cryptic or subtle titles she could have thought that they were all about more useless literature but she kept in her mind that they had a reason to be hidden away from everypony else so she kept digging until she found one that caught all of her attention--it was written in the pre-unification pegasi language and read ”Inter saecula…for its etymology translates--and if I still can remember my lessons of pegasopolean--Between worlds” Sunset felt her heart skip a beat out of the expectancy for what that could mean and quickly opened the book and it was very corroded as well but she managed to read it.

It was there--theories and treatises on the subject, nothing proven yet--again Sunset could have discarded it as frivolous science-fiction but she knew better since she still had to figure out the reason why all this books were there, she kept the book in her telekinetic grasp and kept digging through the book and finally she found one that more explanatory title-- Sorcery: its purest forms she leafed through it and saw theories and depictions of rituals, summoning techniques, lethal uses of magic and even references and mentions of necromancy as well all other magic practices forbidden by the first post-unification council of mages.

And then she saw it--one of the arcane circles from her unintelligible book, it was clear now, the reason why these book were hidden, they were all abjured knowledge.

“Dang… but if they’re so dangerous then why Celestia didn’t just had them burned?--oh but of course… Methodical to even the smallest detail, eh, Celestia?” Sunset still had a lot of books to revise so she figured that information about the mirror would be there in some book, she sighed and said with in a jaded tone:

“Why can’t you just trust me, Celestia? What are you so afraid of?” she quickly trotted out of that makeshift basement and headed to Celestia’s reminiscence room and saw a few guards patrolling the hallway. “Yet, I will have my answers. But first, I’ll have to do something about those guards.”

An so, for several more hours se kept studying the books in that hidden basement finding many more with quite interesting contents and other with really specific subjects that not even Sunset would need to think about.

“Nothing on the mirror yet...” she leafing through the pages of another book yet paying attention to the titles and subtitles of its studied subjects. “…But some of these spells might come in handy.” eventually, by rearranging the entirety of the books she found one with a title she never thought she would see among all the other cryptic ones--Canterlot enigmas volume II she now was baffled why a book with such an ordinary title would be all the way down here. Sunset started to read and found many writings on historical events but they were longer than the times she read about them in history class they included many details that were overlooked in the official records and Sunset understood why it was there.

”So dangerous indeed.” She thought with sarcasm but this essay on history was proving to be pretty darn interesting so she kept reading until she found something that made her skip a beat out of sheer surprise--it was a picture and of the mirror in Celestia’s Reminiscence room.

”there we go.” She cheered. "The book described the mirror’s influence in historical events of Equestria. The mirror reveals any individual’s deepest wishes or hidden necessities, even some ugly truths. But on very rare circumstances it can encourage--or force (if necessary)--the individual in question to realize his/her true calling in life. By severely (although disturbing for many) setting said individual on the first steps towards said goal. This can be manifested in distracting thoughts,” Sunset gulped heavily as she read the next words. “Nightly visions and even selective hallucinations.” She stood there, pondering about the implications of this finding. At first, she felt terrified, but then she felt utterly intrigued as to what was the mirror wanted from her. She took her notebook with the unknown language and opened it in the pages that contained the mirror drawings and the arcane circles “did he tamper with the mirror? Did he stared into the mirror…?”

She then remembered what princess Celestia said about she not knowing exactly where did he--her mysterious friend come from and if the mirror has been in the castle longer than that, then, did she lie? No, of the things Sunset Shimmer admired from Celestia was her utmost honesty, so she put the two books back to back and finally concluded Celestia’s friend was, indeed, from another world. Most likely he wasn’t even a pony since Celestia never referred to him as such. And, that he had to tamper with the mirror so he could… turn it into an actual gateway (as the many myths suggested) to his homeworld, she then passed to the last page where she saw an hominid stick figure and remembered again what she saw on the mirror--what called out to her, she concluded that Celestia friend’s world--it’s where she wanted to go--where she needed to go.

Sunset Shimmer spent several days reading the books all the books she could find down there about tampering with magic objects and that other book about hypothetical dimensional travels--everything that could be useful. She even found about the arcane circles and its functions: they served scissors to open rips in the fabric of reality, these rips can be found anywhere with a strong enough magic aura.

“This… Individual took huge a gamble, how could he know that the mirror had the necessary magic potency to fuel his portal?” She looked to her notebook and smiled smugly, but then her expression changed again. “I hope the mirror has as many juice now as it did back then. So she kept doing both labor for several more days--studying those secrets books and carrying out all of Celestia’s assignments. Sunset was a quick learner and memorized all the necessary spells and techniques. She devised a plan to pass the guards and use the mirror the time necessary without being disturbed using all that knowledge hidden away, the rest of the time she keep doing visits to the hidden basement only to keep her memory fresh and remind herself of her resolution, at this point, all she needed was just the perfect opportunity.

It was during of one her (now) habitual trips to the secret basement that she found herself reading the book that started it all for her--The truth is the only thing we have there she discovered a rather interesting fact--the princesses Celestia and her banished sister moved the sun and moon respectively but not because they have the raw magic strength, but rather simply because they could. It was an inborn ability of them--a birthright so to speak given to them by the higher divinity however that was never the reason why they ruled Equestria. So she imagined that, in theory, if she accumulated enough skills and magic power she could stand by Celestia as another ruler, maybe even relieve from her duties? And she wasn’t even finished with half of these books, oh the possibilities, and to think that they were almost lost forever… To Celestia.

“And all this time my faithful mentor hid this all the other knowledge here to rot away and be ultimately forgotten by the hand of time, is she so paranoid? Is she so selfish? Such arrogance…“ however, Sunsets anger was interrupted when she heard hoof steps down the stairs, she kept the book in her telekinetic grasp and turned around to face none other than Celestia herself accompanied by two guards.

“What is kept here, it is not really for you to know.

“How dare you dare you keep this knowledge from me! You know that I’m ready for this, that I can be great!”

“You could be great. I thought I saw compassion and sincerity in you, but it was nothing but ambition. You are being selfish, you need to step back and reflect…” Celestia said with a stern and serious tone. And Sunset just felt her anger boiling more and more.

“I’m selfish? The books here - they reveal the tools for my future, the keys to my destiny! I could rule here. It’s selfish of you to keep me from my rightful place.” Sunset recklessly threw the book at her and it simply bounced off an invisible force field, the guards standing by Celestia--without explicit orders--simply limited themselves to glare at Sunset.

“I deserve to embrace my potential, reveal to me the secrets of the mirror, and then you will see why I deserve being a princess.

“No. you are not ready for gazing at the truth of the mirror and being a princess must be earned… I have been trying to teach you everything you need to know, but you have turned from it.” Celestia looked at Sunset Shimmer with a mixture of disappointment and disapproval.

“Every time you say you deserve to get something without the effort just proves me that you are not ready.” Among Sunsets anger a small smile formed in her face, out of the sheer ridiculousness of hearing Celestia saying that.

“Heh. Effort? Is that what you did to start moving the sun?” That hit a nerve and Celestia’s face transformed to one that could barely contain her contempt

“No… Sunset Shimmer. I am removing you from the position of my pupil. If we cannot get past this, your studies end here. You are welcome to stay in Canterlot, but you are no longer welcome in the castle.” Sunset felt a sharp pang in her heart, she quite didn’t expect that. Because it meant that a secret was more important to Celestia than her, her valued, faithful student. Her heart started to tear into small pieces and she wanted to cry, to break down in tears then and there but she wouldn’t give Celestia that benefit and understood that, in effect, she would never reach her true potential under Celestia’s shadow. So she mustered all the dignity and emotional toughness she could and without spilling a single tear said

“Well get past this because you aren’t seeing how great I deserve to be. Is that really all you have to say to me?”

“No. the guards will escort you out.” Everypony trotted out of that basement and to the library’s exit.

“This is the biggest mistake you’ll make in your entire life, princess.” Sunset said devoid of the smallest hint of real concern. Celestia stopped in her tracks and realizing that, indeed, this wasn’t the first time she had to take such a harsh and drastic choice.

“One of many.” it was all she managed to say.

The guards were guiding Sunset to her room using the longer route in the castle, after a prolonged silence, she let out a half-hearted sigh and said:

“Well, I guess this is as good of a chance as any.”

“A chance to what, young mare?” Asked one of the guards with their usual stoic tone.

“You know, to get out of this place…”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Once we reach your room, you will have fifteen minutes to pack your belongings, then you will have another fifteen minutes to leave the castle for good.” said the other guard.

”Oh, trust me, that’s more than I need.” Sunset said as much carefree tone as she could. It was truth, she would need a little less than that to gather everything she prepared during all these days to put her plans in motion.

Later that same day, on her chambers, Celestia was not taking very well their abrupt separation, mourning over the fact such nasty things were said and she dismissed Sunset without not even the simplest of farewells.

“Is my destiny cursed… or do I curse others’ destinies…?” She sighed “Should I Sunset a second chance? No. I must stand firm by my decision, but… Maybe I can offer her returning under my wing under a strict condition--?” her thoughts were interrupted by a very hard knock on the door and one of his guards shouting from the other side.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!” he kept knocking and Celestia rushed over to open the door.

“Calm yourself, soldier, what seems to be the problem?” The guard took Celestia’s advice and took a few seconds to calm down and arrange the things scrambling in his mind.

“It’s Sunset Shimmer, you have to come with me quickly.” as he finished saying this he turned and started to trot quickly down the hall as Celestia followed through. On the way the guard finally spoke about the whole reason why she was needed.

“Sunset Shimmer, she locked herself in your reminiscence room.” after hearing this and what it could only mean, she wasted no time trotting or even galloping so she teleported to the exact location only to find several downed guards on the hallway and around outside the numerous rooms and the base of the which was door firmly closed. There was still some traces of a pinkish mist around through the hallway.

“she took us by surprise… she used… some kind of mist and I felt as if getting drunk to the point of passing out in mere seconds.” Said one of the first guards to start recovering from the effects of the strange mist Sunset used on them.

Celestia teleported back to her room for her key to the room and use it but to no avail, she then ordered the first guard in recovering to bring more guards and a portable battering ram. They spent three whole minutes trying to take down the door but it was no use, it was then--due to the gravity of the situation--decided to try and blow it up with her magic, she charged an above average powerful magic blast that it would have been more than enough to shatter a thick wooden door and when she fired… the blast dissolved on the door like a ripple.

“A siege-proof enhancing spell…!” Celestia could still take down the door, but it was going to take more time and she was getting desperate, for she might need to save Sunset’s life. inside the room, Sunset finished painting the arcane circles under the mirror and around it after she heard the first blast of Celestia’s magic she realized she didn’t have much time left now that she knew the hardness of the spell and how to break it, she quickened to activate the circles pronouncing the proper words for the spell and she heard heavy poundings on the door by Celestia’s blasts that were making it start to give up.

“Come on, come on. Sunset.” demanded to magical forces working and now she only had to light the circles with the newly harnessed energy. Now that they were active she only needed to establish a connection with the book of Celestia’s friend, she placed it in the central circle and their glow changed, the color in the mirror changed too triggered by a line of runes connected from the circle around the mirror to the circle where the book was. Projecting the image of a glow under a deep yet crystalline lake, she rejoiced in the fact that it worked after all. The door started to drop pieces of itself and Sunset realized that the moment to step through was now.

She picked her saddlebag with all her supplies and looking at the notebook where the pages containing all the notes and circles were now gone. She could have stood there, confused and intrigued as to why they weren’t in the pages anymore--or if they were even there in the first place, but the pounding on the door kept on and on and she hastily remembered the purpose of all this. In a matter of a minute or less and right after she crossed the mirror, she figured she should perhaps take one last look at this world and everything she once called home, but what was the point?--there was nothing else left for her. And so, she finally stepped through.

Twenty-nine seconds after Sunset went through the mirror, Celestia and her guards finally broke down the door and exactly eight seconds later the mirror and the circles finally deactivated leaving only deformed scorch marks on all the spots where they used to be.

“Oh, Sunset Shimmer… No… I came too late.” Celestia looked all the intricate work Sunset did all around the mirror and let out a heavy and depressed sight. Memories started coming back to Celestia and she felt a nasty sense of deja’vu once again she failed and at some point history repeated itself. Only this time, the other pony decided to leave by herself. Meanwhile the guards were looking in confusion at the strange circles drawn around the mirror and one of them asked.

“Do we chase after her?

“No, it is impossible now, Sunset Shimmer was a unique prodigy, and I do not think somepony will ever replicate what she just did here.” Celestia said just narrowly hiding her anguish.

“Would you kindly move the mirror to a safer place?” The guard nodded and after Celestia gave the precise new location of the mirror he with the aid of one of his fellow guards moved the mirror to the throne room, near to the door.

“Why hang it in an even more prominent place? Shouldn’t you hide the mirror, princess?” Asked one of the guards.

“No. I want it here… to remind me. Also, maybe she will come back… someday.” After leaving the throne room towards her chambers Celestia could never shake the feeling that all of this was--once again--her fault, she kept torturing herself about the turn of events that took place this day, how everything came to this, what she did wrong exactly and in general, that she should have done more for Sunset… for Luna.

“I guess that, after all, I am always the cause… Celestia was doing her best to fight back tears but it proved too much and she couldn’t help it anymore. “I was a fool then and I was fool now to think this would not happen again… not again…” Celestia said this as she spilled tears all the way back to her bedroom. “Not… again…” she said in between sobs.