“Perfect!” shouted Photo Finish. “I go!” She had just taken a massive group photograph of all the residents of Ponyville, per the commission of Princess Twilight Sparkle. It was a rare invocation of Twilight’s sovereign powers, but she felt that in this case it was àpropos. Photo Finish managed to pull it off using a remote function attached to the camera, so that she may also appear in the photo. After two other tries, she considered this negative to be “perfect”.
She was quick to pack her belongings, and even quicker to dash out of town, taking her assistants with her. It would be circulating in most major Equestrian publishers, starting with the Canterlot Tribune the very next day.
“What do you say, Starlight?” said Twilight Sparkle. “Shall we head inside?”
“Sure!”
⁂
While Twilight and Starlight continued into the central map room, Spike heard something rattling around in the library.
Peeking inside, he saw on the shelf one of the books donated by Celestia glowing and vibrating. His eyes went wide; Sunset Shimmer was contacting Twilight Sparkle once again.
He grabbed a bookshelf ladder and moved it to just to the left of the book. He climbed up five shelves (Twilight’s new organization system put it far out of the way) and grabbed it. He slid back down and rushed to the map room.
He opened the doors to find nopony else in the room. “Twilight?” he asked. “Where’d you go?”
“In here, Spike!” Her voice was faint, indicating that she was in another room. “I’m just showing Starlight the bedrooms!”
“Which one?” Spike started hurrying in the general direction of her voice.
“Third one, on the left!” Spike knew exactly which room in which Twilight and Starlight were.
“I think you’d better see this!” Spike still had the tome under his arm, and it was still rattling around. He had almost lost his grip twice on the way here.
Twilight took it up in her telekinesis, which was a lot more secure. “What’s that?” asked Starlight.
“This is a book that me and Sunset Shimmer use to communicate back and forth to each other,” she explained. “She lives in another world, one on the other side of the Crystal Mirror.”
“Is she another student of yours?”
“No, no!” Twilight flipped the book open, onto the last page that had any writing upon it. She saw that Sunset Shimmer had written a brief letter to her:
Hey Twilight—
Haven’t heard back from you yet; I guess you must be pretty busy with your role as Princess. But I could really use your advice right now.
You see, I’ve been given the job of keeping magic under control here at CHS, even though I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around it. And now after seeing Rainbow Dash pony up the way she did, it makes me think her magic might be. . . changing.
Everyone is looking to me to figure things out and I really don’t wanna let them down. But I’m not sure I have enough experience with friendship magic to solve this.
“When’d she write that?” asked Starlight.
“Let me see. . . .” Using a simple dating spell, she figured the writing to be recent – definitely written within this month – to the week before. “Oh my!” said Twilight. “Had it been there for that long?”
“Well. . . .” Spike scratched his nape. “I did hear something vibrating in the library when we were coming back in from that seminar in Canterlot. But I guess I got caught up in our conversation to investigate it. And, well, when we found Starlight Glimmer in the map room. . . .”
“Right.” Twilight’s normally calm composure was then shattered by the revelation. “Oh my gosh Spike, we gotta get over there! Where’s the mirror? Bring the book!”
“Way ahead of you, Twilight!”
“Should I come, too?” asked Starlight.
“No, it’d create too much confusion for the others,” said Twilight. “Besides, I don’t know if the mirror can handle more than me and Spike at the same time. Maybe another time!” She then dashed down the hallway, trailing Spike.
Twilight grabbed the book and placed it in the Crystal Mirror machine. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” she muttered under her breath. Her hooves started tapping underneath her, further signalling impatience.
The machine took its time, but eventually the portal opened up. And at the precise moment that it did, she jumped through. Spike did not follow.
⁂
Seven female high school students were relaxing outside of their school after school, in the shade of a statue on the front lawn. They had pulled together a picnic for themselves.
Rarity was stylizing Rainbow Dash’s hair, much to the annoyance of the latter, with Applejack looking on. Pinkie Pie was reclining on her stomach on top of the statue, occasionally sipping from a juice box. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle were playing with Spike.
And Sunset Shimmer, the original author of the message, sat right beside the statue, waiting for a response that she was certain would never come, not from the book nor from the mirror.
To the surprise of everyone present, a lone figure burst forth through the mirror. One face of the statue’s foundation rippled, as though a liquid. They recognized her as their friend from Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner!” she quickly rambled. “I didn’t get your messages until just now because I was caught in this time travel loop, and honestly, it was the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me!”
Now it was her turn to be surprised. As soon as she was done speaking, she noticed that, contrary to what she imagined earlier, she actually did have a doppelgänger in the human world, and so did Spike, who looked quite pleased to see her. The human-world Twilight sheepishly smiled, and waved a timid greeting to the Equestrian Twilight.
The Equestrian Twilight blinked twice, making sure that the human-world Twilight wasn’t a mere illusion. “Make that the second strangest,” the former then added.
