One day in Ponyville at the Castle of Friendship, Starlight Glimmer led her friend, Trixie Lulamoon, into a room housing lots of books on shelves and a big mirror in the center of the room.
“So what’s so special about this mirror?” Trixie asked.
“This is no ordinary mirror,” Starlight told her excitedly. “The Crystal Mirror is a magic mirror that is a gateway to an alternate world. Twilight has told me stories about it.”
“Sounds interesting,” Trixie said not too impressed.
“I’ve always wanted to give this mirror a try and travel to another world, but Twilight hasn’t taught me how to use it yet,” Starlight continued.
“Maybe she’s testing you,” Trixie suggested. “She probably wants you to learn how to use it on your own. Sometimes the best way for somepony to learn something is to learn it from experience.”
“You really think so?” Starlight asked skeptical.
“The Great and Powerful Trrrixie, is positive.”
“Okay, let’s give it a try. Maybe one of the spell books here might help.”
So Trixie and Starlight started looking through some books to see if they could find a spell that they could use to activate the mirror.
Elsewhere in the castle, Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship and Starlight’s mentor, was having a pancake meal with her five friends and her young dragon assistant, Spike, in the dining hall.
“These pancakes are really good today, Pinkie,” Twilight complemented her friend.
“I know. Aren’t they delicious?” Pinkie Pie said and then scarfed down half a ten stack in one bite.
“It’s nice for us to just hang out together and not need to save Equestria or solve a friendship problem,” Fluttershy said.
“It’s very rare for us to get a break now and then,” Rainbow Dash said.
“By the way, how’s Starlight been?” Applejack asked.
“I was hoping she might join us for this,” Rarity said.
“Starlight said she wanted to study some magic with Trixie,” Twilight told them. “She seemed really interested in learning about something. I don’t know what it is, I forgot to ask her.”
“Well, she’s missing out,” Spike said taking a bite of pancake and licking his lips. “I wonder what she’s doing right now.”
Back in the mirror chamber, Starlight and Trixie were both reading a single book together.
“I think this is it,” Starlight said believing she’d found the perfect spell to use. “This just might work.”
“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s give it a shot,” Trixie said excitedly.
So Starlight put the book down and faced the mirror. She began powering up her horn and then cast the spell on the mirror. It started emitting a bright white light. Starlight and Trixie both smiled thinking it was working. But then the mirror started violently shaking and the two mares’ smiles turned into fearful frowns as they realized something was wrong.
“Starlight, what’s happening?” Trixie asked nervously.
“I don’t know, something’s wrong,” Starlight replied fearfully as the mirror continued acting violently.
Back at the dining hall, Twilight and her friends were finishing their meals and chuckling together at one of Pinkie’s jokes when suddenly they felt the entire room start to violently shake. They all stopped eating and laughing and focused their attention on the sudden disturbance.
“W-What’s happenin’?” Applejack asked nervously.
“The entire castle is shaking!” Rainbow yelled.
“Is it an earthquake?” Fluttershy asked.
Then something came to Twilight’s mind. “Oh no, Starlight!” she exclaimed with fear and took off down one of the hallways with Spike and her friends following right behind her.
Eventually, Twilight and the others made it to the mirror chamber where they saw Starlight and Trixie watching in horror as the mirror was glowing and shaking violently.
“Starlight, what have you done?!” Twilight said in horror.
“I don’t know!” Starlight replied fearfully.
Then the mirror stopped shaking and the light it was emitting turned into a dark purple vortex that began sucking everything in the room into it. Everyone struggled to stay away from the vortex, but its force was too strong.
“STARLIGHT, HELP!” Trixie desperately cried as she was being pulled right into the center of the vortex.
“TRIXIE!” Starlight cried as she took her friend’s hoof and desperately tried to pull her out, but she soon felt herself being pulled in with her.
“STARLIGHT, NO!” Twilight yelled as she saw both Trixie and her student get pulled completely into the vortex. She desperately made a dive at the vortex in an attempt to save her student, but was soon caught within the vortex’s power. Spike grabbed her tail in an attempt to pull her out, but it proved useless and he was pulled in with her.
“TWILIGHT!” all her friends shouted as they all leapt into the vortex after their friend. One by one, they were sucked into it.
Within the vortex, they all found themselves screaming and flying uncontrollably through a tunnel of darkened rainbow-colored lights with a bright white light at the end. As they got closer to the light, they soon found themselves falling through the sky and drifting away from each other in different directions. Starlight fell with Trixie, Fluttershy fell with Rarity, Rainbow fell with AJ, and Twilight fell with Pinkie and Spike. As Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike saw the ground approaching them at rapid speed, Twilight quickly used a levitation spell to stop the other two from falling and used her wings to hover safely down to the ground while carrying the other two safely down with her.
“Are you two alright?” Twilight asked her friends.
“I’m okay,” Spike replied.
“Okie-dokie-lokie,” Pinkie happily assured her.
“Where are we?” Spike asked taking a look at their surroundings. They found themselves standing in the middle of a big grassy field.
“I don’t know, Spike,” Twilight said. Then she looked down at her hooves and noticed that they weren’t hands. “But it looks like we’re not in the world Sunset lives. We should start looking for the rest of our friends and find a way back to Equestria.”
“Then let’s get to it,” Pinkie said excitedly.
“I think I saw some of them fall over there,” Twilight said pointing north. “So let’s head in that direction.”
Spike hopped on Twilight’s back and they started galloping north. They ran until they came across a huge deep forest. They journeyed through the woods for hours but found no sign of any of their other friends. Eventually, night fell and the trio had to call it a night. The trio built a small fire and huddled around it. Every once in a while Spike would gather more wood to feed the fire.
“I don’t feel right about ending the search for tonight,” Pinkie said sadly. “We haven’t found any of our friends.”
“I know how you feel, Pinkie,” an understanding Twilight said. “But we need to rest and gather our energy for the morning.”
“I just hope they’re all okay,” Spike said nervously watching the dark woods surrounding them. He had a terrible feeling that they were all being watched.
“Don’t worry everypony,” Twilight assured them. “We’ll find our friends. I’m sure of it.”
Then they all lied down and drifted off to sleep. Little did they know was that they were being watched by a mysterious figure hiding in the shadows of the trees. The figure was a humanoid creature that wore an outfit made up of light leather with hints of mail underneath, a helm with a cage visor, and a hood. It carried a sword in its right hand and a dagger in its left. After watching the ponies fall asleep, the mysterious figure silently took off and disappeared into the night.
