A Broken Mirror

by Ma Zedong

Prologue

"Snrk... bwah, huh?" Sunset Shimmer snapped awake as the building around her shook. She could hear the dull sound of an explosion coming from outside the school's front entrance and quickly snapped to action. Getting out of her makeshift bed, she shoved her bedding-- a pile of unused foam insulation-- back where it belonged. She gathered up her belongings and shoved them into her jacket pockets, checking the time on her phone as she did so, "Nobody should be here for at least another three hour, what in Tartarus is going on?"

She slowly opened the door to the storage room that had become one of her temporary shelters and looked around the hallway. Seeing nobody, she exited and locked the door with the set of keys she'd stolen from Janitor Discord. Cautiously making her way to a window, she could see that there was nobody outside, but that the mirror portal out front was shining with a brilliant white light. 'This shouldn't be happening... the portal shouldn't be opening for another 4 moons!' she thought as she began to swiftly make her way towards the front entrance. Once there, she had to begin shielding her eyes against the brilliant light emanating from the portal.

As she approached, Sunset could hear a soft whirring coming from the portal. The closest comparison she could find was that it sounded like an overheating computer. The light from the portal began to die down, allowing Sunset to observe her surroundings. The portal's light was beginning to fluctuate rapidly as a steady wind began to pick up. Sunset's hair began to stand on end, and she could almost feel the air ionizing around her. Suddenly, the portal exploded with light and sound, forcing Sunset to the ground as though she'd been hit by a flash grenade. As her vision returned to her, Sunset could see the blurred outlines of a crumbled statue and a mixed pink-purple blob laying in the dirt about ten feet from where the glowing portal had been moments before.

As her vision cleared further, Sunset realized with increasing dread that not only was the equine statue now crumbling onto itself, the mirror portal that had been part of its base was completely shattered. The strange blob she had noted before could now be distinguished as two teenage girls tangled together into a mess of limbs. Both seemed to be battered and bruised and, considering they had not moved at all since Sunset had first noticed them, they were likely unconscious.

As Sunset got back to her feet, she noticed that one of them looked strangely familiar. She began to translate the features she saw into an equine body. Light pink fur; flowing tricolor hair of pink, purple, and gold; and finally and most damningly, a white T-shirt with a picture of a light-blue heart-shaped crystal emblazoned on it. This was, without a doubt, Princess Cadance.

A flood of thoughts flowed through Sunset's mind as she inspected Cadance further. Why was she here? She was an alicorn, an adopted relative of Princess Celestia! Celestia could have sent her as an agent to retrieve Sunset, but then why did it look like she had been beaten and then flung through the portal? Why had the portal been forced open in such a dramatic fashion in the first place? Surely it wasn't for her. Tartarus, Celestia hadn't even bothered writing to her in her journal, so why would she send an alicorn to come retrieve her when there would be so many risks involved?

The alternative, Sunset realized, was that something very, very wrong had happened in Equestria. As she turned to inspect the other girl, Sunset's sense of dread grew even further. She didn't know who this was personally, but she could easily recognize the starburst pattern on her skirt. She had seen it once before, in one of the books that Celestia had tried to hide from her-- it was the cutie mark for the Element of Magic. Internally, rage warred with dread. On one hand, the unconscious girl in front of her reminded her of everything Celestia had been grooming her to be. On the other hand, here was the Element of Magic herself, a prophesied savior of Equestria, beaten and trapped in an entirely different dimension with no clear way back.

Sunset resolved quickly that, regardless of her opinion of those laid out before her, she would need to get them awake and talking so she could figure out just what was going on, hopefully before any cops came to investigate the explosion. Revenge on these two would be pointless if she could never get back at the one mare who truly deserved it.

After deliberating for a few more seconds, Sunset turned and ran back into the building and, after a few minutes of rummaging through the nurses office, returned with a first aid kit and what she could only hope were smelling salts. After untangling the two teens and covering every cut that she could find with bandages, she pulled out the smelling salts and, propping up Cadance's head on her lap, began to waft them under her nose.

"W... Wha?" Cadance mumbled as she began to stir. As she slowly drifted back into full consciousness, she lifted her hands up to rub her eyes and, upon seeing them, snapped fully awake with a surprised expression on her face. Scrambling to her knees as best she could with unfamiliar limbs, she began to frantically search her body for any familiarity.

"Cadance, Cadance." Sunset said softly, trying hard not to let her own stress at the situation seep in, "I know this is all new and strange, but I need you to take a nice... calm... deep breath." Cadance began to slow her search and take deep breaths, driving Sunset to continue "Yes, in and out. Panicking won't help you, just take a nice deep breath, just like you used to tell all those colts and fillies..."

This caused Cadance's attention to snap to the strange creature that was talking to her. She'd heard that voice before, and though the creature before her was as unfamiliar as the body she now inhabited, the color scheme only served to confirm it. "S- Sunny? Is that really you?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sunset Shimmer struggled to stifle a groan, "I told you a million times Cadance, my name is Sunset, unless you want me to start calling you Candy I suggest you get that into that empty head of yours."

Cadance, seeing something mundane in a sea of unfamiliarity, latched on and began to giggle softly, "And now I know that it's you. It's been so long since I've been insulted like that by somepony who isn't Chrysalis!".

Sunset let out a huff, "Listen, it's great that you've calmed down and are now back to your goody-goody self, but we kinda have a situation here. You and whoever this is-"

Cadance noticed her fellow inter-dimensional traveler for the first time since arriving, and immediately scrambled over to kneel by her body, "Her name is Twilight Sparkle! Is she okay? Where do I check for a pulse? Oh gosh..."

Sunset gently pulled Cadance back from Twilight's body, "Listen, I already bandaged her up and checked for a pulse. You don't know how these bodies work, so you'd probably just hurt her if you tried to do anything else. Take a deep breath, calm down, and we'll get to work waking her up. Okay?"

Cadance nodded, and didn't try to move back to Twilight after Sunset released her. As Sunset moved to apply the smelling salts, Cadance looked back towards the shattered remains of the mirror portal and wilted, "I assume that used to be the portal we came here through?" she said, pointing at the wreckage.

"Huh, so they did teach you something in princess school. Yes, that right there is an extremely intricate and powerful magical artifact crushed into hundreds of tiny, jagged, irreparable pieces." Sunset said, fists clenched and head starting to shake.

"Listen to your own advice Sunset. Deep breaths, in and out. We won't resolve anything if we panic." Cadance cautioned, "let's just get Twilight up, then we can figure things out from there. Here, prop her head on me and apply the salts. I used to foalsit her, so I know she'll freak out much worse than I did unless I'm right there calming her down". Sunset did as advised and began to apply the salts while Cadance struggled to give herself an aura of serenity.

"Hmm... Urgh... Wha?" Twilight opened her purple eyes to find a matching set calmly staring back. Memories flooded in, "Cadance, Shining, monster... monster!" Twilight tried to jolt herself up, but her bruised and unfamiliar body responded by leaving her awkwardly sprawled back into the dirt.

"Calm down, Twilight! It's me, Cadance! Take a nice, deep breath." Cadance said, waving her hands at the purple girl.

"How do I know that it's you? You don't look like her... I don't look like me! How can I be sure that I'm not trapped in some illusion, or in a coma? How do I know you aren't just another monster in disguise?" Twilight spurted out while attempting to use her new legs to distance herself from her potential captor.

Cadance raised her new hand to rub her chin thoughtfully "Hmm... Well, you aren't in a coma or an illusion because you're almost certainly feeling pain right now... As for proving I'm not a monster..." Her face lit up in realization. Awkwardly wobbling onto all-fours, she proceeded to convey a rough rendition of a secret ritual that spans all times and dimensions,

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" Cadance exclaimed, doing her best to clap her 'hooves' and shake her rump at the appropriate times.

Twilight's face immediately brightened and tears of happiness began to roll down her face as she struggled forward to wrap Cadance in a hug, "It is you!"

Sunset, watching from the sidelines, allowed a small smirk to form. "Huh, after all these years you still teach foals that stupid dance?"

Cadance turned to her while petting Twilight's hair, "Hmph, I seem to remember catching a certain fiery little filly doing it with herself in the mirror once while she thought nopony was looking. Maybe you know her?"

Sunset sputtered, "Y- you... I mean... We're getting off track! How did you two end up here, what's going on in Equestria?"

Cadance's face tightened into a thin frown as Twilight seemed to notice Sunset for the first time and immediately set about barraging her with questions of her own, "Who are you? Where are we? What are we? How did-"

Sunset cut her off, "I'm Sunset Shimmer, former student of Celestia and Cadance's old roommate. We're in the human world. We are currently humans. This world was linked to Equestria by a mirror portal in Canterlot Castle, but the portal was destroyed when you came through. Any other questions can wait. Now please, tell me what's going on. Make it quick, too, we don't have much time before people start coming to investigate and find us hanging around a destroyed statue!"

Cadance looked like she was about to object to Sunset's rude treatment, but her expression softened when she noticed that Sunset's hands were beginning to tremble. Thus, she began to give an abridged version of what happened, with Twilight filling in on what happened after Cadance had been replaced...

---

Cadance was not having a good day. For the past two weeks, Queen Chrysalis had been personally checking in on her and providing her with a daily dosage of dull-green gruel with a side of vicious taunting. Today though, Cadance thought, Chrysalis was running extremely late. Or, at least, late enough that Cadance could tell despite having little sense of time anymore.

Cadance's musings were cut off as a green flame suddenly roared up right in front of her. Perhaps on the first day this would have gotten a reaction from the pink alicorn, but by now Cadance had come to expect Chrysalis' "surprises". What did get a reaction out of her, however, was the unconscious purple unicorn that Chrysalis held in her sickly green magic.

"Ah, what a lovely look of despair! Why, it even tasted delightful too!" Chrysalis said, taking a deep whiff of the air. "This pesky unicorn is the only one who saw through my disguise at all. And to make it even better, when she pointed it out, nopony believed her! Not your friends, not your aunt, not even your fiance! I bet I could replace you for the rest of eternity and act however I'd like and nopony would notice, because regardless of your title you don't matter!"

Cadance was used to such taunting at this point, but still couldn't hold in a sniffle as Chrysalis' words crashed down on her.

Chrysalis took this as a sign to push forward, "Aww, is the little princess breaking now? It's too late now, my plans are already coming to fruition and you no longer matter even as a captive. I think it's time I dispose of you and this pesky little unicorn once and for all, what do you say to that?"

Cadance simply gulped and, composing herself as best as she could, raised her head to stare defiantly at the Queen.

"Ah, defiant to the last. I guess you do have at least one notable quality, not that anypony did note it, mind you." Chrysalis sneered, "Well, it's about time you meet your maker. Don't worry about me making this easy on you, I know you'd like a long painful death where you can resist to the last, so I'll respect your wishes..."

Chrysalis unlatched the chains holding Cadance and pulled her squirming body into a tight telekinetic grip, "Ah, don't go resisting now! You need to keep your energy up for when you'll really need it!"

Cadance, now held upside-down, raised her head to meet Chrysalis' eyes, "And what trial could be worse than being in your company, Chrysalis?"

Chrysalis allowed her face to pull into a sinister smile, "Ooh, I'm glad you asked. My changelings have found an ancient mirror hidden away in Canterlot castle, a mirror that houses an ancient prison created by Starswirl the Bearded himself. All kinds of ancient beasts that ravaged Equestria, trapped in one convenient place in the heart of Equestria's capital! I imagine, of course, that Celestia never told you about something so important, not that she'd have any reason to."

Chrysalis sat back on her haunches and adopted Celestia's trademark benevolent smile, "I, however, take pity on all of my little ponies, even those as worthless as you. Therefore, I shall give you the chance to prove your worth as one final act before your death. You and your pesky unicorn friend shall go into the portal and spread the magic of love and friendship to all those poor, lonely souls on the other side of the mirror. Preferably by being their playthings, but I'll let you decide what's best once you get there."

With that, Cadance began to struggle even harder against the telekinetic grip. Chrysalis lit her horn even brighter, coating the entire cavern in a soft green glow, then everything was darkness.

---

"... A-and when I woke up next, I was here" Cadance said, sobbing a bit as the memories of her captivity came back to her. Twilight had a deep set frown on her face, but was doing her best to hug and comfort Cadance while Sunset awkwardly watched.

"Well, I don't know about any unimaginable ancient horrors on this side of the mirror," Sunset said, standing up and looking at her phone, "We have other problems right now anyways. We're currently sitting in the middle of a blast zone and police are bound to come investigate any second now. If they catch us, trying to get back to Equestria will be the least of our worries. We're going to gather a few mirror shards, then I'm going to take you two a few blocks away to my hideout. I'll get us some food, and we'll try to figure out what to do from there. Good? Good. Try to figure out how to use your bodies while I go put away these supplies."

Without waiting for any acknowledgment, Sunset began gathering the medical supplies and then swiftly walked back into the school building, leaving Cadance and Twilight to fumble their way onto two feet.

As Twilight began to stand on wobbling feet, she turned towards Cadance and tilted her head questioningly to the school building, "Was she telling the truth about who she was before? Celestia's former student, your roommate? Why have I never heard of her?"

Cadance swallowed nervously, "Well..."

Author's Note:

Welp, I've finally done it. I've wanted to write a story like this on and off for something like two or three years, and today I finally forced myself to sit down and write a chapter all in one go. Then I accidentally closed the tab before saving and wrote a new one twice as long.

This story as I envision it now will mainly follow Twilight, Cadance, Sunset, and whoever they pick up along the way as they attempt to repair the portal. Any chapters on what's going on in Equestria, if they happen, will be supplementary and will not influence the plot until a link is reestablished between the two worlds.

Timelines are pretty loose in the MLP world, being as it's a children's cartoon, and I myself haven't watched a single episode beyond Season 2, so let's just say that this takes place after Sunset has established her queen-bee status but before she fully develops her plan to invade Equestria. I am aware of Dean Cadance, but have decided that, considering Sunset is significantly older than Twilight and yet looks to be about the same age, the mirror just doesn't care much for age consistency (or maybe it just likes being a convenient plot device). Any minor discrepancies with canon can, if you'd like, be chalked up to this being an AU.

Finally, to end an already long authors note, the appearance of human-Cadance is based off of an image by dm29 over on Deviantart, which can be found: here. All credit to him or her.

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history. - Mao Zedong

Comments

[everydaygamer]

Well this is a nice surprise, a well written story with a premise I have not seen before. I look forward to the next one.

[Magnus Orion]

This is something I’ll definitely keep up to date with, as this is pure gold. Hang on, not valuable enough... plutonium fits the bill. Yes, this is definitely plutonium.

[werewolfhunter]

Ooh this sounds interesting

[Vansho-Lakon]

This is a fascinating and promising beginning too what looks like a fun story. I hope to see the next chapter soon

[River Road]

Well now, this is certainly a nice surprise. A unique premise pulled off with the skill it deserves, with vivid and believable characters... And an actual smart and sensible Sunset Shimmer. Harmony knows when I've seen that in a story last.
Definitely looking forward to seeing where this goes, and even more to seeing how you are going to bring in some of the other villains in waiting.

8692977
I think you mean platinum. I mean, plutonium is rare and expensive too, but probably more Chrysalis' accessory of choice.

[Magnus Orion]

8694145
No, I meant plutonium. Platinum is $60 a gram, while plutonium is $4,000 a gram. Note these are approximate numbers, and may or may not be correct.

[Ma Zedong]

8694154

To build off this, if we take your statement as literal fact and consider that the story as it stands now could be printed on 6 standard A4-sized sheets of paper with Times New Roman size 12 font, and that each sheet of paper is about 4.5 grams without ink, I have so far produced at least $108,000 worth of words. That's like... enough to put me through college, at least!

[Magnus Orion]

8694632
Or we could sing this stories praises even more and move it up to californium, sitting at about $26 billion a gram. I suddenly feel rather proud to live in California.

[Lightning_Striker]

Gosh darn it, I was planning on waiting until more was done to read, now I'm hooked and have to wait.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sunset Shimmer struggled to stifle a groan, "I told you a million times Cadance, my name is Sunset , unless you want me to start calling you Candy I suggest you get that into that empty head of yours."

Yes, please start calling Cadance, Candy. That would be great, thank you.

[nightmaster0]

This off to a great start. I have admit i'm curious if we're going to more than the Dazzlings on the banished evils front, since the mirror is thought to lead to a prison created by Starswirl.

[Starlight Nova]

Now, I haven't actually read this story yet, but wouldn't an adventure tag fit better than a slice of life tag?

[Ma Zedong]

8698656
I considered this for awhile, but in the end I think the answer is no. They're not really going to be adventuring to much of anywhere. They're trapped in one place and need to do research, resource gathering, and alliance building in order to get back. It will take months for everything to fall into place, and in that time life happens. There might be some adventure elements in there, but most of their time will be spent with more mundane questions like "Should I break up with Brad" or "How do I set up a portal to another dimension if I can't access that dimension without another portal?".

Now, if and when they get a portal up and running, that is another story entirely both literally and figuratively. As I conceive it now, once that point happens I would make a sequel which would, in fact, have an adventure tag, as then the main characters would be gallivanting into an uncertain world to slay monsters and save princesses.

If you think there's something I could do with the description to better indicate my intent with the story, don't hesitate to point it out.

[Greatazuredragon]

A very solid intro, good work.

[LucarioFan2066]

"Well, I don't know about any unimaginable ancient horrors on this side of the mirror,"

...Just don't meet a group of girls named "The Dazzlings", or go into this world's Everfree Forest, or interact with Wallflower Brush.
Even without the magic brought by the Element of Magic tiara, I'd bet those artefacts still retain some juice, and thus could prove problematic.