It took several days for Princess Twilight to search for a way to connect her portal mirror to Tsunderplane's home world. Tsunderplane and I had gone on a few more dates – not over-consuming apple fritters those times – and we'd gotten to know each other even better. Were we actually going out now? Like special someponies? I wasn't sure. But we definitely had gotten a lot more comfortable with each other, and Tsunderplane was beginning to understand our world a lot better. Thankfully, she still didn't understand that a fast food cafe was a terrible place to bring a date.

It was late one morning, just before Tsunderplane and I would normally go to bed, that the Princess came to us, with Spike at her side. “Okay, I had to use some samples from that time I examined Tsunderplane's anatomy, but I've made a breakthrough, and I finally have some answers for you. If you want them.”

“Of course we do!” I said.

The Princess held her hoof up toward me. “Tsunderplane, are you sure you want to find out the truth, even if it might be unpleasant? I need to hear it from you.”

After a moment of glancing worriedly between me and Princess Twilight, Tsunderplane nodded.

“Then come with me.” The Princess immediately went down a stairwell toward the basement, her little dragon trailing after her.

That was less of a request and more of an order. So Tsunderplane and I hurried to follow her down to the basement of her castle.

It wasn't until we all stood in front of Princess Twilight's custom-modified portal mirror that I began to feel a sense of foreboding. What happened here might change ... everything.

The already-eerie mirror was covered with strange machinery, with two huge, glowing antennae next to it, some kind of enormous metal ring above it, and too many odds and ends bolted around it for me to make sense of. It looked wrong. Like something that wasn't supposed to be in this world. Which ... I guess was the point.

“Okay,” the Princess said. “The good news is that I've found her home world. I just need to apply a little bit of magic, along with Tsunderplane's magical signature, and we should be able to see it.”

So ... good, right? I was happy that Tsunderplane would finally get to go home. Or, well, at least I felt like I should be happy about that. Really, though, I wasn't entirely sure about saying goodbye to her. Not if it was going to be forever.

Princess Twilight’s horn glowed, and a little purple lightning bolt connected Tsunderplane's nose to the mirror's surface. Tsunderplane yelped and jerked back when it happened.

“Sorry,” the Princess said. “A biological connection is necessary to align the mirrors spectral plane to the correct universe.”

I turned to look back at her, but then stopped. The mirror's glowing intensified a hundred-fold, and a violet whirlpool of light filled its surface.

But after a moment, everything stabilized. Tsunderplane shook off the little shock she'd gotten, and the machinery around the mirror calmed down, leaving just the whirlpool of light.

“Okay, good.” Princess Twilight nodded grimly. “I was worried it might fail on me again. Spike, get the viewing portal, please.”

Spike walked up to the mirror itself, but instead of doing anything with it, he picked up a smaller rectangular mirror from a notch in the machinery. Its glass was dark, but its edges glowed with the same magical light the huge mirror had. Coming back toward us, he held it up for us to see.

“And now for the bad news,” the Princess said.

Tsunderplane edged forward, her face in rapt attention, as Princess Twilight gazed along with her into the viewing port. When Tsunderplane saw her home, her face went ashen.

“When I looked inside, I saw you Tsunderplane. You, side-by-side with some bipedal creature in a striped shirt, talking together.”

“But what's that mean?” I asked. “How can there be two Tsunderplanes?”

“I was confused at first as well, but I've done a lot of research, and my best guess is that someone with the power to do so has reset your world, likely to prevent the accident that sent you here in the first place. So a new Tsunderplane was created in a new timeline, replacing the one who was sent to our world.” The Princess shook her head. “And the rules of your world won't allow for two copies of you to exist at the same time. There's no way I can send you back ... no way to even communicate with them. I'm sorry.”

Rather than heeding what the Princess said, Tsunderplane bumped her nose into the too-small mirror over and over again, until Princess Twilight held her in place with magic.

“So, um...” I looked back and forth between the two of them. “Does this mean...?”

Princess Twilight nodded. “Yes. I'm afraid this means that Tsunderplane is here to stay. She can never go back to her own world. For all practical purposes, the world that Tsunderplane is from no longer exists.”

“What? Why?” I rushed up next to them, not sure what I planned to do about any of it. I didn't know anything about interdimensional mirrors. “Are you sure?”

“I'm afraid so. I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help.”

A high pitched, jet-engine-y whine came from Tsunderplane. She vibrated in place, trying to break free from Princess Twilight's magic and smash into the viewing port again.

Princess Twilight yanked it away, as if afraid that Tsunderplane might break it. A flash of her magic shut the viewing portal down. “Why don't you two get some rest?” she said. “We'll have plenty to talk about when you wake up in the evening, but for now, you have a lot to process. Again, I'm terribly sorry I couldn’t do more.” With a flick of her horn, she shut the bigger mirror down as well. Everything stopped glowing, and the both mirrors became just an ordinary reflection. Tsunderplane sank down to the ground, staring morosely at her own reflection.

I went up to her and patted her on the back ... as if that could help.

The Princess came up and whispered into my ear, “I really am sorry, but there's nothing I can do. Nothing anypony can do. The only thing we can do is try and find some way to make her feel better about it ... and, well I don't think she likes me very much. It's going to be up to you.”

I went from patting Tsunderplane's back to stroking it gently, petting her almost, and I nodded to Princess Twilight. If there was anything I could do to help Tsunderplane feel better, I'd do it.

* * *

It took a while for us to get back to our rooms. Even though Tsunderplane wouldn't say anything, she still flew really slowly as she moped along.

When we did finally get to Tsunderplane's door, she looked at me with woe-filled eyes.

“You don't want to be alone, do you?”

She nodded, barely, still not speaking.

Opening the door, I led her inside. “Sure, sure. I can stay with you for a while.”

Tsunderplane shut the door behind us, and she locked it. That was strange, but it wasn't scary or anything; I could always unlock it as easily as she'd just locked it, and I wasn't about to make a big deal about something so small when she was already upset about something else that was so much more important.

If I expected Tsunderplane to grab onto me and start crying her eyes out, I was entirely wrong. She just glided over to her bed, planted herself on top of it – not even bothering with the blankets – and stared at the wall.

I didn't know what to do; I didn't know why she'd wanted me in here if she was just going to sulk... What did she expect me to do?

After spending what was probably far to long of a time just standing there and staring at her dumbly, I finally made a hesitant few steps toward her.

When that didn't make her angry or any more visibly upset than she already was, I came closer.

She didn't show any reaction at all until I climbed up into her bed with her. And even then, it was to just glance at me, then go back to staring at the wall. What was I supposed to do with her?

I settled for sitting on the bed next to her, stroking my hoof slowly down her back ... I had no idea if she hated me for it or if I was helping her to feel better about being stranded here indefinitely.

Author's Note

This story is a commission for Loveless. If you'd like to get a commission of your own done, go to my Patreon page and sign up!

Commissioned by the artist vacuvung. If you wish to read this fiction alongside the illustration, click here to find out how https://www.deviantart.com/vavacung/art/Pay-What-You-Want-SECOND-WORLD-VOL-8-778020712