Somewhere over Vanhoover
Twenty Seven Hours after Departure
Cloud Runner

The flight back to Equis was easily more peaceful and relaxed than when we had journeyed to Tribute. With our main objective attained, and Princess Amore finally returned to the land of the living, I found it far easier to relax and catch up on some of the sleep that I had missed. Even with the question of this ‘Broken Mirror Paradox’ now looming large, I didn’t find myself all too concerned. Whatever facts were waiting, I have serious doubts that finding them will require getting shot at.

But this time someone shook me awake. I wiped the crust away from my eyes and looked up to find Sky standing over me. “We’ll be back in Vanhoover in a few minutes.” She said.

I nodded and got up from my seat. Lucky for me, my armor was certainly comfortable enough to sleep in. Reaching up I grabbed my helmet off of the rack above the chair and tucked it under my arm. The deck shuddered and the ramp slowly swung down to let in the cool afternoon air into the cabin.

We were finally home, some of the first ponies to set foot on another planet in a completely different star system. It may be the history teacher in me, but I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pride as I marched down the ramp to the roof of the building that had been home for the better part of the last year.

“So this is modern Equestria?” Amore asked, having walked down the ramp behind me.

I looked at her and nodded. “Part of it anyway.”

I heard a metal door swing open, followed by a set of footfalls echoing out from the landing pad’s deck. I wheeled around to find Cosmo, wearing nothing more than jeans and a black sleeveless shirt, making his way over to the ship with a grin that most could see from a mile away. “You guys did it!” He shouted over the dying whine of the Prowler’s engines.

“Damn right we did it!” I yelled back.

Cosmo certainly was excited, uncharacteristically so if his body language was any indication. He slapped my shoulder pad one he finally was in arm’s reach. “Great work kid.” He proceeded to step back and turn his attention to the Princess, bowing his head in the process. “Welcome home, Your Highness.”

“Thank you…” Amore replied, motioning for Cosmo to straighten out. “You’re Cosmo, correct?”

Cosmo nodded. “Indeed I am.”

Amore seemed to crack a slight smile through her facade of neutrality. “Sky has told me quite a bit about you.” She stopped as Dusk marched off the Prowler carrying some crates of equipment, followed by Dart and one of the Spartans. “Although I do have some things that I believe we should discuss… Assuming there’s some place a bit more private than this.”

Dusk didn’t seem to pay our conversation any mind, instead going back up the ramp to get more of our equipment. Cosmo, however, caught on that something was up right away. “Of course there is.”

“Then lead on.” Amore replied, waving he arm at the door that Cosmo had emerged from.

The walk downstairs was rather uneventful. But I couldn't help but notice that Cosmo looked unusually happy. If I didn’t know any better I’d think he must’ve taken something. But when we walked into the loft and I saw Trixie with a similar expression I put two and two together. “So did you two finalize the wedding or did something else happen?”

Cosmo and Trixie both exchanged looks. “There’s that…” Cosmo said. “But I also got the official adoption paperwork for Archer this morning.”

The image of the yellow filly popped into my mind and I couldn’t help but smile. “That’s great! Does she know yet?”

Cosmo nodded. “Told her myself first thing this morning.”

I couldn’t help but notice at that point that Archer was nowhere to be seen. “So where is she?”

“Therapy.” Trixie replied as she walked over to the fridge and pulled out some water bottles. “I pulled some strings and managed to convince a local therapist to make house calls for her once a week, conveniently starting today.”

“What does a young mare need a doctor for?” Amore asked.

“Archer is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.” Cosmo explained. “She watched her birth parents die about a year ago and she’s been slowly getting worse. If Trixie hadn’t found a shrink…”

“Long story short, it likely wouldn’t have ended well.” Trixie replied.

“Fair enough…” Amore said. “These therapists, are they a recent development?”

Trixie shrugged. “They’ve always been around. But the need for them exploded after the war ended, with thousands of traumatized ponies that had never dealt with death on the scale that the Enclave dealt out.”

“Ah, yes. Dart did briefly tell me about the conflict.” Amore replied. “All things considered you’ve all managed to adapt quite well if appearances are an indicator.”

Trixie handed out the bottles before cracking open hers. “I’d say that you’re right.”

Amore did the same and took a quick sip from the bottle. “With that in mind I’m hoping that the two of you might be able to help us.”

“And just who’s ‘us’?” Cosmo asked.

“Myself, Sombra and Radiant.” Amore replied. “Cosmo, would you be able to get us copies of all information pertaining to the quantum mirrors?”

“Quantum… You mean the portals?” Cosmo said, a confused look crossing his face. “What do you need info on them for?”

“We believe they are key to an old prophecy that was uncovered a few years before my imprisonment.” She said. “Tell me Cosmo, what have you heard of the Broken Mirror Paradox?”

“The what?”

Amore shook her head. “I’ll take it that you’ve never heard of it. No matter, we still need that information. Can you get it?”

Cosmo looked over at Trixie before turning back to the Princess with a determined look in his eyes. “I’ll go make some calls.”

***

Four Hours Later…

“Here you go!” Cosmo groaned as he put the box of files down on the coffee table in the parlor. “That should be copies of everything in the archives in Canterlot on the mirrors.”

I reached over and grabbed a tan folder off the top of the pile. “Thanks Cosmo.” I flipped open the folder and was met with a color picture of what looked like some sort of aircraft. It was drab green with a number of attachments on the hull. The top corner read ‘Guardian’. I noticed that it appeared to be in some sort of hangar and had suffered some significant damage. “Cosmo, what’s this?”

Cosmo leaned over and smiled. “That was the ship that Dusk built. It got shot down about four years ago in the Badlands. From the looks of it that was taken after the bits and pieces were recovered for Princess Sparkle.”

“What’s it doing in here?” I asked.

“See those attachments on the upper hull?” Cosmo said, pointing at the attachments. “Those were built from parts of quantum mirrors that were recovered from a warehouse in Manehattan. That was supposed to carry Dusk’s team on the originally planned Wasteland mission… But after the Guardian was shot down and Dusk was captured the plan was shelved.”

“This Dusk character sounds like he’s quite ingenious…” Amore observed as she read through the contents of the folder that she had picked up. “He designed this craft all on his own?”

Cosmo nodded. “I think it had something to do with Dusk’s encounter with a database on his first Wasteland mission a number of years ago. Something about his thought process changed… I just don’t know all the details.”

Amore nodded and put the folder down on the table, grabbing a loaded red folder with the words ‘Operation Scorpion’ printed in black letters across its face. She flipped it open and picked up a picture that was sitting right on top of the papers. “Is this one of the portals you refer to?” She asked, handing Cosmo the photograph.

Cosmo nodded. “Only one that's still remotely intact. It broke when Dusk took his team through it to reach the Wasteland.”

Amore took back the photo and placed it down on the table. “Well it certainly reminds me of a mirror…”

“You should’ve seen it when it was running.” Cosmo said, sitting down at the table opposite of Amore. “The portal itself looked like a sheet of polished steel. It wasn’t all that reflective but it was enough to make out the rough shape of your body if you stood right in front of it.”

“So it could be the mirror referenced in the paradox…” Amore muttered. “But you said that this is the only one still ‘remotely intact’. Can I correctly assume that there were others at one point?”

Cosmo nodded. “The final count came in at six units. Four were destroyed in raids by various Special Forces teams, that damaged one was recovered for study, and a larger disabled one is under guard in a base in the Badlands.”

Amore studied the files before her for a few minutes before she shook her head. “No… This is too convenient. The portal that is being studied broke after this ‘Blaze Squad’ passed through it because it was already damaged. If these fragments only appear to resemble Dusk then where are the ones that resemble the rest of his associates?”

I grabbed the Operation Scorpion folder and flipped through the papers, stopping when I came across a report of some kind. The top of it read ‘after action operator report’. The line below it had in handwriting next to the line that denoted the operator ‘Dusk Light’. “Hey, look at this.” I said, handing the first page of the report to Amore. “Looks like a blow by blow of Dusk’s entire time in the Wasteland.”

Amore quickly read over the first page before leaning over and looking at the second one that was sitting in front of me. “He has this report broken down into segments... “ She took the second of what was apparently six pages, handed me the second two and passed the final ones to Cosmo. “Alright, let's go through these. There might be something in here.”

I turned to my pages and found that my section started with what Dusk called a ‘salvage mission’ to the northern part of the Wasteland. I read about halfway down and noticed that Dusk had added a footnote to his entry. “Hey, listen to this.” I said, getting both Cosmo and Amore’s attention. “The first time I encountered the individual calling himself the Mountaineer, I believed that I was hallucinating in my wounded condition after our first encounter with the locals. I distinctly remember the Mountaineer firing off a flare over my position. However as previously stated I believed that I must have been hallucinating. It wasn’t until our second encounter during the Enclave assault on Chicacolt that I realized that I wasn’t crazy and that this individual had saved me from freezing to death only a few days before. I would later believe that this individual died when we destroyed the Victorious, but he eventually reappeared during our final engagement with West Wind in the ruins of Canterlot and save me a third time.”

“Mountaineer…” Cosmo muttered. “Is there any other papers in that file on this colt?”

I flipped through the file quickly, coming up empty in short order. “Nope, I’ve got nothing. I’ve only got that one footnote.”

Cosmo took the folder and shook his head in disbelief. “We’re missing reports.” He said. “Comet, Strike, Dart… Dusk’s is the only one here.”

“This is a paper system. Could they have been misfiled?” I asked.

Cosmo shook his head. “I don’t think that it's likely, not with reverence that the military places on Scorpion.”

“If that’s the case, then did someone remove reports from the file?” Amore asked.

“They’re not in there because they’re filed separately.”

All three of us turned around and saw Dusk leaning against the counter. “If they’re filed separately, then where are they?” Cosmo asked.

Dusk strolled forward and took up the final remaining chair at the table. “They were stored in the royal archives at the request of the Princess. My report is only with the Scorpion files because I put the original there myself.”

“The military files are kept as a separate archive…” Cosmo realized.

“And the archivist gave you what she had.” Dusk replied.

We all sat in silence for a moment before I noticed that Amore was studying Dusk with some intent. “What do you know about this ‘Mountaineer’?”

Dusk shrugged. “Not much. My best guess is that he was some sort of synth, but I could never tell for sure.”

What I didn't expect was Amore's apparent satisfaction. “Fair enough.” Amore replied, sitting back in her chair.

With nothing else to say Dusk got up from his chair and walked out of the apartment, all while Amore was still staring at him. “Is something wrong?” Cosmo asked.

“I don’t know…” Amore muttered. “I just don’t know…”

Author's Note

And there's the sixth chapter of Fragments done and out of the way. The next chapter is the epilogue chapter, set nine years from the end of this story in the immediate aftermath of the final confrontation between Dusk and Kovac. Like with Chaos Theory (which has a comic in the works), the coming epilogue will help set up the proper sequel to both of the Broken Mirror stories.

In the meantime, does anyone have questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker