Canterlot, Approximately Nine Years Later
Cloud Runner

“So that’s it then?” Cosmo asked from the other side of the table in Canterlot Castle’s dining hall. “Kovac and his Synths disappeared?”

From her place at the head of the table Princess Celestia nodded. “Indeed… We can’t find a trace that they even existed.”

Besides the Princess, Cosmo and myself, a small entourage of other ponies had assembled. The entirety of Dusk’s family, the former members of his squad and the leadership of the Northern Guard had all assembled in Canterlot in the aftermath of last night’s attack. Kovac had made his move, bringing a small army of Synths to bare against Canterlot after a week in hiding. But to our surprise, Archer had known that the raid was coming. Only Cosmo seemed to believe Archer’s warning, for reasons that still aren’t understood. When Kovac arrived at the Castle he and Archer were waiting.

While they didn’t manage to stop the one-eyed stallion, they delayed him long enough for Dusk to learn of the attack and order his private army into action. It was after Dusk arrived that he learned that Kovac had breached the hidden door that led to the Nexus beneath the Castle. All we know is that Kovac was killed, Dusk was apparently vaporized while trying to contain the nuclear device that Kovac had brought with him, the Nexus had been somehow disbursed… And somehow Archer had made her way after Dusk and had survived the ordeal. All she confirmed is that Kovac was dead and Dusk had inverted a shield spell around the Nexus chamber when he realized that the bomb couldn’t be disarmed. Beyond that she wouldn’t say a word to anyone.

“So that's it then.” An older red stallion, Dusk’s father if I understand correctly, solemnly replied. “We’re only still here because Dusk went and acted like a hero again.”

Judging by the expressions of the ponies around the table, it was a shared sentiment. Dusk was known for being brash and reactive at times, but up until a few days ago everyone had apparently thought that he had retired from a life hiding in shadows. And no one had expected that he had used the wealth that he had assembled from the development of the entire planet to finance a private army composed of survivors of the Wasteland Expedition.

Well, judged by Dart’s pained expression she did know something about this army of Dusk’s. “Dart…” Princess Celestia asked. “What do you know about this network of ‘Ghosts’ that Dusk established?”

Dart seemed to snap out of her stupor and looked up at the Princess. “You mean you didn’t know?” She asked.

Celestia looked confused. “You thought that I knew about this?”

Dart nodded. “He said you gave him the green light right after we retired. I found out once Osman’s engineers started construction of the Grotto about five years ago.”

“Can we back up a minute?” Cosmo asked. “Because from what I just heard it sounds like Dart may have been lied to.”

“Obviously he lied about Celestia giving him permission…” Dart said as she realized where Cosmo was going. “But believe me, Dusk did everything with the greater good in mind. The base, the equipment, the army, all of this was meant to deal with Kovac when he made his move.”

“Can I just ask a question?” Strike said. “I know that Dusk was technically on our side, but doesn’t rasing a private army break some sort of law?”

“Technically it doesn’t.” Celestia admitted. “There isn’t a law preventing such an act on the books, and my refusal to level any condemnation or consequences against the Northern Guard after they first formed established legal precedent.”

“Then what do we do about this little private army of Dusk’s?” Strike retorted.

Celestia simply shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t simply dissolve the organization that Dusk has created because I don’t have the legal authority to do so, and nationalizing the group in it’s entirety would allow the heads of the military to gain access to Dusk’s files… Which I think is safe to say that some of the information might be rather damning if it were to somehow be leaked to the public.”

“So we leave these Ghosts alone. As long as they’re not a threat I don’t think we have anything to worry about.” Meteor Shower added. “My only concern is that they’re essentially leaderless. Dart, I know you’re aware of their existence but it doesn’t sound like Dusk ever gave you any real responsibilities within this group.”

Dart nodded. “You’re right General, I didn’t really do much other than occasionally talk to these stallions… And to be honest I don’t even know where to start so far as succession plans are concerned.”

“What if I told you that Dusk did leave a plan?”

All eyes at the table turned to Cosmo as he fished out a clean white envelope from his jacket. “Wait, how would you know?” Meteor asked.

“Because Archer gave this to me and asked me to bring it to this meeting.” Cosmo retorted as he held up the envelope. “What I hold here is Dusk’s last will and testament. Because he never actually married or had children, he designated heirs both to lead his company and maintain control over the organization he’s built.” He put down the envelope and pulled out two pieces of paper, passing one to Dart while holding onto the other. “Dart, I know that all you have is an engagement ring… But Dusk made sure that you’d be taken care of.”

I, as well as everyone else at the table, watched my sister intently as she read through her copy. Her stoic facade began to fail as some tears began to stream down her cheeks a moment after putting the paper down on the table. “He left me everything. The house, the company, his bank accounts…”

Clearly something else was wrong, because Dart didn’t seem to calm down as she tried to compose herself. “Dart, is there something else?” I asked.

It took her a moment, but Dart nodded. “He knew that I was pregnant.” Dart didn’t need to say anything else, because it seemed that every pony around the table recognized something once they heard Dart’s admission. Dusk knew that he had a family coming, but he apparently didn’t think he’d be around to actually raise a child. Through his apparent fears of Kovac he planned for what he must have believed was an inevitable confrontation that neither stallion would walk away from.

“Cosmo, just who did Dusk leave to command this army of his?” Meteor asked, sounding rather pained as he slowly asked the question.

Now it was Cosmo’s turn to look dejected. “He left it to Archer…”

Even Dart stopped once Cosmo made that admission. “He left an army to a child who’s only military experience came from that memory orb?” Dart asked, pushing down a sob. “I know what happened to the last colt to use that thing, so why should I believe that Archer won’t just go mad?”

“Because Dusk was there.” Cosmo replied. “Look, it’s a bit complicated… But there was what I call an echo of Dusk that acted as a guide for Archer, helped keep her mind in one piece. I’ve actually seen it thanks to Luna’s training in dream-walking. As for this will, I only got it because that echo left it for me. That thing admitted that it knew that Dusk was going to die and wanted to make sure that we were all prepared for the aftermath.” Cosmo leaned forward and rested on his arms. “I don’t know what or how, but something is coming.”

Cosmo’s explanation has understandably raised a few eyebrows, but I couldn’t count myself among that group. If anything his explanation sounded rather familiar… But I just couldn’t place why it rang some bells.

POP!

It took me a minute to realize that the pop and simultaneous flash of light meant that someone had teleported into the room. “Dusk is still alive!”

Once I managed to get my vision straight I realized that an old friend had joined us. “Amore, do you want to run that by us all one more time?”

“I said that Dusk is alive.” Amore repeated. “The Nexus… Cloud, that was the mirror that the paradox referred to! Not only that but the Paradox is proof that Dusk survived because one of the fractures that he created wrote it.”

“Amore, I realize that you think you’re trying to help…” Celestia admitted. “But you sound absolutely crazy.”

Amore actually cracked a grin. “See, I knew you would say that.” She said as she swung a bag off of her back. “But I have proof!”

Amore unceremoniously dumped the bag’s contents onto the table. But these weren’t just any random pieces of junk. Laid out for all to see where very old armor components. Clearly they had corroded over the years and the paint had flaked off, but they were still recognizable as Mjoinir components. But if the different shoulder pad parts were the cake, then the helmet that sat on it’s side on the table was the icing. It was clearly an elongated Fotus model with space for the horn of a unicorn in its peak.

Dart picked up the helmet and turned it over in her hands. She brushed some dirt off of the chin, revealing the still-pearl white paint that had coated Dusk’s last set of armor. “Where did you find these?” She asked.

“We were excavating the village that was recorded as the source of the Broken Mirror Paradox. There was a small temple in that village where the original inscription was found. Well we found a number of unmarked graves inside the temple itself…” Amore’s grin only seemed to grow more and more. “And in one of those graves was a full set of this armor. No body or sign of augmented remains, no undersuit, nothing. Just the armor components. I think that the fracture may have discarded the armor at some point and buried the pieces at the temple where it left the inscription.”

“But we’re talking about a Fracture Amore.” I pointed out. “How does that equate to ‘Dusk is alive’?”

“Well this is where I’m going to surprise you Cloud, but I’ve managed to track Dusk down.” Amore stated, looking rather confident. “I started with notes on the subject of the multiverse left by Starswirl the Bearded. As he different universes have different magical signatures. Well that got me thinking… How do you find one pony in a sea of infinite duplicates? Well all I had to do was go to Archer and use her to figure out what I was looking for.”

“And just what does Archer have to do with this?” Celestia asked.

Cosmo, however, must’ve realized something. “When Kovac first returned he tried to track Dusk down through his magical signature, but instead he found two separate points. Archer was one of them-”

“Which means that her magical signature was replaced with a duplicate of Dusk’s.” Amore said, cutting off Cosmo. “So using Starswirl’s notes I managed to construct what he called a ‘reality map’.” She pulled out a golden amulet from the pocket of her jacket and placed it in the center of the table. It lit up immediately in a blue glow before it flashed and turned green.

This so-called map was an array of translucent orbs that reminded me of holograms. There was one that instead of green was a bright golden hue. A second one on the far edge of what the map represented was a bright pink. “Incredible…” Celestia muttered. “Starswirl supposedly took the one he made for himself with him when he disappeared but I never actually saw it for myself, nor was I able to determine how to recreate it.”

“Then how do we read this thing?” Meteor asked.

“It’s rather simple.” Amore admitted. “This golden sphere is the map’s origin point. The green orbs are parallel universes, while the pink one… That’s where the map detected Dusk’s magical signature. Suffice to say the presence of two otherwise identical magical signatures is a bit problematic.”

“How so?” Celestia asked.

Amore tapped the amulet and the orbs started to vibrate and shift positions. “Because Archer is here and Dusk is in another universe, the fabric that holds reality together seems to be reacting. In essence because the magical signatures of the two are identical, and two ponies can’t be in two different places at once.”

“So it’s a violation of a bunch of different scientific laws.” I replied. “And if the map is any indication then existence as we know it is reacting…”

Amore nodded. “We need to find Dusk and restore Archer’s original magical signature, otherwise the existence of everything that ever was or ever will be is in jeopardy.”

“Do we really need Dusk?” Strike asked. “Couldn’t we find one of these ‘fractures’ and get them to help?”

“Well we’d to find one that exists long enough to be of service, but there’s also the sticking point that the Fractures all have unique magical signatures. They aren’t going to understand Dusk’s magic, let alone help reverse its imprint on Archer.” Amore answered.

“Then we need a solution.” Celestia added. “Amore, you apparently have a handle on this phenomenon. Do you have any suggestions?”

Amore’s smile never disappeared, and to an extent I couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious. “As a matter of fact I do.” She said as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Now where do you want me to start?”

Author's Note

So while I keep working on Part II of Broken Mirror and go through and work on the full-blown editing of Part I (because lets be honest, that early writing absolutely sucks), we'll see more short stories that'll set up the eventual story of Reflections. This story, the eventual final chapter of Operation Bullseye and others will help with that effort. You know what else Fractures does? Like how Chaos Theory established Blueblood as a figure of importance for Archer going forward, Fragments also sets Amore up to play a bigger role down the road as another mentor for Archer. Where Blueblood will act more as a teacher of the humanities (teaching an otherwise introverted young mare how to deal with other ponies), Amore's near-decade of studies places her as a future technical adviser for Archer. There's also the apparent survival of the original Dusk after the inevitable final confrontation in Broken Mirror Part II. Obviously that story won't get told for a while yet (but we're getting there!)

In the meantime, anyone got 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