Shards of Sunset

by fmriver

The Mirror and the Moon - CH01

Sunset Shimmer crept back out from her hiding place in the Canterlot High School, making sure the school grounds were abandoned for the evening. Tonight would be another full moon, and she was getting ready for her monthly ritual. She pulled out the blanket she had stuffed in her rucksack, and placed her thermos full of coffee to the side.

First she would test to see if the portal had reopened, then review her astronomical notes in search for any potentially meaningful patterns, and meditation against the statue. She usually stayed up all night, but it was critical that she not miss any opportunity. The meditation had actually become part of her monthly tradition after she almost fell asleep during her vigil of the statue on her 5th moon in this world. She had been feeling frustrated, and had been wishing to at least get a clue of what was going on in Equestria. The next thing she knew, she was able to make out the throne room, which had been mostly empty at the time of night.

She'd been able to shift her view around to the nearby areas of the castle, and get gossip mostly fby listening in on the staff as they went about cleaning and prepping for the next day, though she had a couple lucky breaks when some higher end government officials had late nights with the princess.

She had also noticed that the distance she could explore from the mirror waxed and waned based on the relationship of the stars with the moon, which is why she had begun studying them on both sides of the mirror. Tonight she would be confirming her theory, as the far end of the portal should get the largest boost yet, as there would be a special alignment that came around only once every millennia. She believed that the 30 moon timeline was due to a requirement that a similarly powerful alignment happen on both sides on the same night.

The last of the light in the dusk sky finally disappeared as Sunset sat with her head back against the statue.

---

Sunset focused her mind, feeling for the faint whispers of magic empowered by the constellations and moonlight. Slowly her mind followed the trail, until she began to see the mirror, then slowly the area nearby began to come into focus. It was currently set in the throne room, in an alcove across from the throne. At this time of night the throne room was usually empty, so she would spend time focusing on extending the range she could see from the mirror until she reached the administrative offices in the western wing.

Tonight however, to her surprise she saw Princess Celestia sitting in the dark, at the foot of her throne looking out of one of the windows. Sunset studied her mentor. If she didn't know better, she would say that the princess looked heartbroken. "The mare still gazes down from the moon... but I can feel her... She'll be free soon. No matter what, it will be tonight won't it?"

'What is she talking about?' She pushed through the molasses of her mind to get closer, when suddenly her heart froze. Celestia had tuned and was now staring right at her. That second of fear almost broke her concentration enough to break her connection. 'Can Celestia see me?!'

After a few seconds passed with Celestia not reacting except for a slightly scrunched eyebrow, Sunset convinced herself that the princess was simply looking at something behind her. She had never been caught while spying on Celestia before after all. She turned around, and noticed that it was likely the portal mirror that caught her attention.

With a couple deep breaths to rid herself of the dregs of her nervous energy, she once more focused on keeping up trance. She told herself that there was nothing for her to notice from the mirror. Celestia continued staring at the mirror, when her her face suddenly lit up in concentration, and a quill and notepad appeared in a flash of golden light. It seems she may have indeed noticed something. Sunset tried to remind herself that she was a whole dimension away.

"... Sunset? ... the mirror ... my eyes must have playing a trick on me..." the sun princess muttered to herself as she seemed to case an exhaustive set of diagnostic spells. Sunset stayed motionless, startled to inaction. If the princess did something to the mirror, it may sever her own way home. Her nerves were growing, but now she felt obligated to continue to spy on Celestia. Otherwise she may never find out if the princess did something to the mirror.

After a couple minutes however, Celestia seemed to be overcome by a fit of frustration. "Oh, you stupid old nag... your mind seems to want to remind you of all your failures tonight doesn't it... Oh Sunset... why? I'm sorry little sun... I'm so sorry..." tears began streaming down the alicorn's face. "Is it not pathetic I made the same mistake twice? First my sister and then the foal I had raised... "

'What did she mean by that?! Sister? By Equestria, it's starting to sound like the mare on the moon is real and she's Celestia's sister?!' Sunset's heart raced in her chest, as her head swam from what she had seen and heard. It seemed Celestia was done with her monologue for the moment however, her heavy hoof falls taking her back towards the base of the throne, where she proceeded to lie down on one of the areas illuminated by the full moon, and rest her head on her forelegs. If not for her ears moving every which way, Sunset would have thought her asleep.

Suddenly, the magical connection she was using to connect to Equestria seemed to suddenly fill with a torrent of energy. Sunset was barely able to keep the connection open. At the same instant Celestia's head shot up, though she was looking out the window instead of turning back towards the mirror. "She's free... Twilight, it will be up to you to save us all..."

Sunset barely caught the Princess's whisper as her concentration broke. She was assaulted by an intense sense of vertigo. As she snapped her eyes open, she barely had a moment to the stars surrounding the full moon as she fell backwards into the portal under the statue.

---

Sunset had a few seconds to realize what had happened while she was transported across realities. Her adrenaline as she realized she was about to fall right into Celestia's lap, and her only hope was that Celestia was distracted enough to not notice her arrival. She fell out of the mirror in a back roll which she pushed out off towards the nearest pillar, desperate to hide. Even with her acrobatic feat, one of the white alicorn's ears swiveled immediately in her direction, and Celestia began raising her head to look in that direction. However a larger distraction appeared.

The Skylight window shattered as a black shape careened into the floor in front of the princess, cracking it and sending rock chips flying everywhere. Sunset flinched even from behind the pillar, her mind being stabbed by the amount of magic suddenly saturating in the air. As the energy began to dissipate in the form of black smoke, Sunset finally was able to see the new pony in the center of the crater.

It was an alicorn of a similar height to Celestia, all black, in martial regalia. Sunset was unnerved, after noticing that she appeared to have reptilian slit eyes. She stood in front of the princess aggressively with her rapier like horn at the ready to either cast or gore her former mentor.

"Sister, did you miss us?" The black alicorn hissed as she began walking around Celestia. The sun princess just lay there looking at her apparent sister. "... Oh? not going to say anything?!" Even Sunset could tell that there was violence in those cold eyes and open nostrils.

"No demands? No recriminations or cries for mercy? ... yes... At least you know how little mercy is left in me... Well, don't worry, our subjects will flourish under the reign of Nightmare Moon." Celestia didn't seem to react at all to what Nightmare Moon said, though Sunset had gasped at hearing the name.

The Nightmare had finished her circuit around Princess Celestia, staring at her face to face once more. Finally, Sunset saw some reaction from her former mentor. Celestia seemed to scrutinize her sister's face, before quirking her lips in the most irreverent smirk Sunset had ever seen on her. "Luna, are you still going with that ridiculous pseudonym? Why don't you stop being ridiculous. Now that you're out of time out, I'd like you to accompany me to Poyville. I'm supposed to be officiating the Sun Summer Celebration there, you know."

Sunset's jaw dropped at her mentor, while the darker sister leaned back in surprise. There was a pregnant pause before a cackle burst from Nightmare Moon. "Oh sister... you never knew when to stop."

The violence was immediate and excessive.

Nightmare reared up and brought both front hooves down onto Celestias face with enough force to kill any pony else. Celestia's head snapped to the side with a crack as she toppled over. Sunset covered her muzzle with her fore hooves, her heart skipping a beat, which relaxed as it became clear she was only knocked unconscious.

"This'll do for now. We shall even take your bait, and see what trap you have at this Ponyville, but we refuse leave you behind to plot and trouble us." The orange unicorn did not know why, but she had barely stopped herself from jumping to the princess' defense when she heard Nightmare Moon's ominous words.

Instead, Sunset kept herself hidden as the dark alicorn's horn glowed with a sickly black color before blasting the knocked out princess. Celestia began to turn into motes of light that gathered into Nightmare Moon's mane, adding to its stars. For the first time Sunset saw evidence of some weakness, as Nightmare Moon panted from the magic she had performed. "Half my strength to keep you sealed until I've dealt with your final gambit? A bargain we say."

"Now to find this... Ponyville... hngh!" She became smoke once again, leaving the throne room. Sunset was now alone in the throne room, where she just saw some pony defeat the pony she had been planning to surpass for the last year.

Sunset walked unsteadily out from behind the pillar, until she was in front of where Princess Celestia's face had the cracked marble tile. This close she could see that there were a few specks of blood. Her mind seemed to be in turmoil as her heart ached for some reason. She had had many fantasies about how her return to Equestria would tun out, but in none of them did she ever contemplated Celestia not being around. She needed to be there for Sunset to prove her wrong for for holding her back, not helping her ascend, for exiling her.

An evil villain, sealed millenia ago, escaping and defeating the pony she had based her entire life around was unfathomable. Sunset began to feel an increasing amount of cold rage. ' I'm not going to let a fairy tale villain ruin everything before I've even reached my goals!'

With that thought she focused on what she knew. Nightmare Moon is at her weakest right now, as she's using most of her might in keeping Celestia sealed, not to mention having just escaped her imprisonment. Celestia had something cooked up at Ponyville that could defeat Nightmare Moon, likely related to the 'Twilight' pony that was her last hope.

Sunset quickly decided her next course of action.

Author's Note:

Basically the premise is that during the night before the 1000th Summer Sun celebration, when the stars supercharge the moon to let Nightmare Moon escape, the constellation alignment also charges the magic mirror, opening the portal outside the usual 30 moon time frame.

I got this idea as I rewatched the first MLP episode and compared the stars and moon action against the signs in the first EQG movie. It probably helped that I had read Witch of the Everfree which has Sunset battle Nightmare Moon. This percolated along with the common fan trope where Sunset could spy into Equestria on full moons, and this came out of it.

I actually imagine this going in one of 3 different ways, one where Sunset gets the element of Magic, another where she tricks Nightmare in returning to the throne room and wrestles Nightmare Moon through the mirror with herself, and one where she fights and loses, ending up crippled and forced to recuperate in the castle under the care of Celestia/Luna.

Comments

[Demous_Abyss]

Honestly if this was a full story I'd like that third option the most and have Celestia make Luna caring for Sunset as her punishment. But that's just me.

[diablo4000]

I like to see the third, but the other two interest me.

[Vaguely Demented]

Third does seem best. Though first is a close second.