Talking To My Friends.

In the pony world (or simply the world for those who did not know a human world existed a hop, skip and a magic portal away) the recently crowned Princess Twilight was sleeping soundly in a gest bedroom in the Crystal Empire. Her crown, the element of magic which was gifted to her by the tree of harmony, sat not on her head but on her nightstand. The young alicorn princess thought The Crystal Empire was safe especially since all four alicorn princesses were gathered for Twilight's first ever princess summit.

The sound of soft hoof-steps was drowned out by pony guards snoring. A simple sleep spell was Sunset needed to take the element of magic into her hooves.

Princess Twilight shot out of bed. She was wracked with fear. She knew something was terribly wrong even if she could not put her hoof on what. She was barely able to remain calm.

Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance rushed into Princess Twilight's room. "Where is the element of magic," asked Luna in a calm tone.

Cadance was not calm. She was running around the room looking under the bed and behind the books on the bookshelf. She was not looking for the crown. She was looking to distract herself.

"I don't know where my crown is," admitted Princess Twilight. "I can still feel its magic. I am still connected to it, but it feels as if it is a world away."

"It is even farther than that I am afraid," said Celestia with a look of sorrow. "A powerful sleep spell was cast on the entire castle. All of the guards fell at the same moment. Luna was only one of two waking ponies in the entire castle."

"Who was the second," asked Princess Twilight.

"My web of spider sentinels were not effected by the sleep spell. They told me a unicorn stole your crown," said Luna slowly. She chose her words carefully. She was being cautious. "She had a wavy red and yellow mane, an orange coat and blue eyes."

"Does that description ring any bells," asked Celestia.

Twilight searched her mind. She searched the deepest recesses of her memories, but found nothing.

"It was not her," snapped Cadance. "She would not return after all this time just to steal the element of magic."

"We can discuss who did or did not steal my crown later," said Twilight. "Right now we need to find the element of magic."

Celetia firmly stated, "Sunset Shimmer has your crown."

The name Sunset sounded vaguely familiar to Twilight. Had she heard it once long ago? She had. When Twilight was a filly Celestia had two pupils. Twilight was the second pupil. The older pupil was Sunset. Despite both of them having had studied under Celestia they never met. One day Sunset left Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. Twilight had not heard or thought of the name Sunset Shimmer in years.

Princess Twilight asked, "Do you know where Sunset is now?"

Celestia nodded. "Follow me."

Princess Twilight followed Celestia to Cadance's office. It was a simple room with a desk, three chairs and a lamp. The room seemed to say there is no place for fanfare in important decisions. The small unassuming office was the heart of the entire kingdom. It was the single most important room for thousands of miles. The seven foot tall horseshoe shaped mirror and it's adorning gems seemed out of place in the princess's office.

Twilight approached the giant mirror. "This is clearly magical," she stated as a mater of factly.

"This mirror was created by Star Swirl the Bearded," said Celestia. "Long ago he wanted to-"

"Sister," yelled Luna. "Twilight does not care about the history of the mirror. It's a portal to another world. You have three days to return with the element of magic before the portal closes for thirty moons. Be off quickly."

Twilight prepared to leap through the portal but was stopped by Cadance.

"I am going through the mirror," stated Cadance. "You are staying put. I had the mirror brought to The Crystla Empire so I could go through and apologize to Sunset. My plan has not changed."

"We can both go," offered Twilight.

"Cadance will be staying here," said Calestia as if Cadance was not in the room. "Retrieving the element of magic is our only priority. We can not have Cadance's guilt getting in the way."

"You don't feel guilty for the role you played in Sunset running away?" snapped Cadance. "I thought you cared about her!"

Celestia very calmly said, "We all made our decisions now we have to live with them. You chose to sneak the mirror out of Canterlot under my nose and now you have to live with the consequences. If you could be trusted I would let you go."

Cadance lowered her head in shame. "I just wanted to see her again. I wanted to be the sister she deserves for once."

Celestia nuzzled Cadance. "When you live to be as old as I am you can't help but make your fair share of mistakes. After a while you will realize some things can never be undone. Sunset is never coming back and as hard as it may be we need to let her live the life she chooses. I made some terrible mistakes when it came to raising Sunset. The worst mistake would be asking her to come back. Trust me. What she wants is more important than what we want."

"Can I go through the mirror now?" Twilight asked with one hoof through the portal.

Spike the baby dragon, Twilight's trusted assistant and youngest member of her family, burst into the office with a saddle bag. "I packed everything we will need for a magic adventure," he said proudly. "We can go as soon as you are done discussing things that have already happened."

Celestia softly commanded, "Spike, you may not follow Twilight."

"Why not?" Spike chewed his claws with worry. "Is the mirror dangerous?"

Luna said, "The Watsonian answer is yes. The mirror is dangerous to you. The Doyalist answer is no. Twilight is only a proper parallel to Sunset if she is alone."

Celestia asked, "Do you think is alright to break the forth wall like that?"

Luna shrugged. "This story is fan fiction and it knows it. Just try to have fun."

"The story is about Sunset and her friends struggling under the weight of their own relationships," said Celestia. "No pony is going to have fun."

Twilight gave Celestia a confused look. "I thought we were doing The Magic Mirror."

"We were," said Celestia. "Things changed,"

"What exactly changed?"

"I am sorry, but we don't have time for this," insisted Luna. "Just go through the magic mirror and see for yourself."

(A moon is an abstract amount of time. There is no human equivalent and the length of time changes depending on context and who writes the story. In this case thirty moons is roughly four years.)