1 - Blast to the Past! (Literally!)
Twilight Sparkle, unicorn prodigy and faithful student to Princess Celestia, was in her assigned research of the legend of the two pony sisters when some sort of tear in space and time appeared behind her. Something she wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for the sound accompanying the phenomenon.
That hole in reality spat a strange being, an hairless bipedal thing somewhere in between a minotaur an an ape. Then some electrical-like ark of magic came out of its body only to strike it, making it convulse an turn it into an alicorn that was around Twilight’s own height, maybe slightly taller. She had light amber coat, a red and brilliant yellow mane and tail, and her cutie mark was a red and yellow shimmering sun. She was wearing a small geode with her cutie mark on it as a pendant.
As if the poor unknown princess hadn’t suffered enough, the tear in reality then pelted her with similar-looking geode, but of different colors and, Twilight suspected, different motif on it. As the anomaly finally shut itself, all the geodes beside the Alicorn’s turned into gray stone.
Shaking her head to recover her bearings, the lavender unicorn ran to the mysterious alicorn asking "Are you okay?"
To her surprise, as an answered she was called by name. "Twi… light? Where… Moondancer?" After that last name dropping, the unknown pony lost consciousness.
There was only one way to know what was happening. "SPIIIIIKE!!! Take a letter!"
Princess Celestia was quite surprised to see her former student again, let alone as a fellow alicorn. What had happened to her in that world on the other side of the mirror? How did she ascend? And when had she met Twilight and Moondancer? Was she really the pony she knew, or an alternate incarnation of it? So much questions, and she won’t have any answer before she wake up. And in any case, she couldn’t have arrived at a worst time, with the nearing return of Nightmare Moon.
Still, Celestia would stay at Sunset Shimmer’s side until she woke up. …Or the return of her sister, whichever came first. (She sincerely hoped for the former.)
At lest she had convinced her faithful student to return to her research on Luna’s fall. It shouldn’t be long before she finally discovered the scattered informations about the Nightmare’s return. Then, as planed, she would dismiss it a fairy tail and send her to help organize the Summer Sun Celebration, under the pretense to "make friends".
The sun-princess’ reflection was stopped by a waking groan from Sunset.
As Sunset slowly woke up, she felt her body ache like it was a giant bruise, with sharper pain on her sides, all of it being 'nicely' complimented by the mother of all headache. The last time her body had hurt that much, was in the aftermath of being blasted by the 'rainbow of harmony'. As for a similar headache, when she got her cutie mark. The little orphan she had been back then had wanted to give their lone princess a 'day off' after witnessing the Summer Sun Celebration, and almost killed herself trying to raise the sun. She woke up in the medical wing of Canterlot Castle and, after a stern lecture from the Princess about her reckless behavior, was made her personal student.
Slowly opening her eyes, she saw a pale pink, almost wite, blurry form with aurora-colored hair. At first she thought it was the former principal of her school, but the way said hairs seemed to move in non-existent wind, or the long blurry protrusion from her forehead dispelled the notion. It also informed her she was back in Equestria.
That revelation startled her, who rapidly blinked to clear her vision. "Princess Celestia?!? Do you know what happened?" She had been a bit surprised to see her in full regalia, last she knew Celestia and Luna had abdicated, (or had they taken a long vacation?) letting the nation in the capable hooves of her friend Princess Twilight, but that was a question for another time…
"That's what I would like to know Sunset. Can you tel me what you last remember?"
"As you know, I took over as Principal of the school on the other side of the mirror, when your counterpart stepped down. We got a visit from a student of Crystal Prep', named Moondancer, who had somehow stumbled over some of Sci-Twi's notes from back when she was a student at the same school. From there she repeated almost action for action the errors Sci-Twi had before her, except that unlike her, she had a principal that tried to dissuade her from that course of action instead of encouraging it, but she wouldn't listen."
"While the girls and I kept in touch, we all have our own live now. I knew none could come back to Canterlot City in time, so I was forced to fight her alone. At some point Moondancer blasted me with a beam of magic and then, nothing."
Celestia found that story intriguing. But more intriguing was the little thing she said suggesting she was supposed to at least have an idea of what Sunset had been up to on the other side. "Sunset, I have a question for you. One that may sound strange, but I need you to answer it truthfully nonetheless. Can you do that for me?"
"Of course. What is it?"
"Is it the first time you came back to Equestria?"
Sunset was a bit surprised to hear such a question, but knowing Celestia, she would never know why she was asked this before answering. "No. I first came back to steal the Element of Magic from Twilight, who made me realize the errors of my ways. And since becoming the principal of CHS, I often come back for the holiday with my wife, when she isn't giving another of her speech at a conference or another. Sometime we even brought our best friends with us. Why?"
Looking at her with sorrow, the sun princess said something that froze her blood solid. "I don't think you're in your Equestria, Sunset. Twilight don't have the Element of magic. Not yet, anyway." After a pause, the sun monarch asked "By the way, when did you ascend to Alicornhood?"
"I… WHAT?!?" Looking at her side, Sunset saw she effectively had wings, and groaned.
After her discussion with Sunset, who was now mourning the loss of her loved ones, Celestia felt the urge to visit the mirror, the apparition of this alternate Sunset reopening an old wound.
Sunset, her Sunset, had been like a daughter to her. The same could be said of Twilight, but it wasn't the same. First, Twilight still had her own parents, Sunset wasn't that lucky. As a result, the amber filly had latched onto her as a substitute mother, while she, the princess that took the orphan under her roof, tried to keep her at hoof length, fearing what the noble might try to use poor Sunset in their schemes. But that distance planted the seeds of resentment in the young mare heath as she grew. Seeds who them bloomed into rage and hatred as she adopted the recently ascended Cadence as her niece.
Celestia was taken from her ruminations upon entering the secret room housing the mirror portal, which laid out of it's horseshoe-shaped frame, on the ground, broken. A quick spell confirming there was no magic left in any of its pieces, nor the frame.
Author's Note
Juste a little idea I got, not sure how far I'll go with it. (Nor where I'll go, to be honest.)
Like usual, if you want to continue it, or take the idea and make a better story out of it, feel free.
