Archmage: Beyond the Crystal Mirror - Prologue

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“Hello Cadance. I came as soon as you called.” Twilight beamed as she entered the Crystal Kingdom’s main throne room, where she was waiting for her. Her smile soon wilted, though, when she saw the dour look on Cadance’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“You need to see this, Archmage.” Cadance said in a quiet, somber tone. Twilight stiffened when she was called by title. Her sister had never called her by title. Not outside of a teasing joke, anyways. A quick glance at Cadance’s serious expression affirmed her suspicions. Something was ahoof.

“Okaaayy…” Twilight said guardedly, tucking her wings against her back. “Lead the way.” Cadance turned away, leading Twilight away from the main room and down a side hallway. She was completely silent, which was unnerving to say the least. Twilight’s frown intensified as she followed her down one corridor after another, and after a while into stairwells that cut back into the ground, until she was sure they were at least four dozen feet beneath the floors of the palace.

“I don’t remember there being any subterranean passages here.” Twilight muttered. “Save for the one, but I thought that was sealed off after we retrieved the Crystal Heart?”

“It was.” Cadance shot over her shoulder. “But these were recently re-discovered. By chance, as it were.”

“I wonder who made them…” Twilight mused, looking over the roughly-hewn walls and floors, frowning still. “This clearly isn’t Crystal Pony architecture. It’s too rough; almost like it was rushed.” They had transitioned from furnished halls and corridors to this cave-like system upon descending the first set of stairs, and Twilight could tell the difference almost immediately. Still, Cadance’s somber expression made Twilight hold most of her questions until they arrived wherever it was they were taking her.

“Here.” Cadance said at last. They had descended another rough set of stairs into another cavern, but around the first corner was a sight Twilight wasn’t entirely prepared for. “We discovered this just last week.” She continued, approaching the center of the largest chamber they had seen since leaving the castle proper. Twilight wondered why she hadn’t sensed it before, but this entire place hummed with an energy she was completely unfamiliar with. It was alien to her. And quite frankly, frightening. All over the rock walls, she could see skittering lines of energy as they shot all over, vibrating, humming, and scintillating with their power.

“Cadance, this is so strange.” Twilight breathed, her ears pinned flat against her head. This place made her skin crawl. She wanted to leave, to seal this place off and never allow anypony else to enter again. But her curiosity and Cadance’s determined pace kept her pressing on. She swallowed her fears and doubts and continued walking. It was near the center of the chamber that Cadance stopped, turning back to her.

“Tell me what you see.” She said gruffly. Her expression was serious. Twilight raised her head a little more, looking about the chamber slowly. She didn’t see anything, aside from the lines of energy shooting across the walls at blinding speeds.

“I don’t see anything.” Twilight said softly. Cadance didn’t respond, but continued to frown intently at her. Twilight gave the chamber another look-over before arriving to a conclusion. She had missed something. Something was amiss in this chamber. It wasn’t the alien energy or the multi-colored lines of energy shooting all over. It was something else entirely. She mulled it over, trying to piece together all the bits of information she had. Which wasn’t all that much. At last, she realized it.

“This is a temporal warp.” She breathed. “This place shouldn’t exist in the universe. In fact, it shouldn’t be on this plane of existence. By the heavens, they were right! Cadance, they were right!” Excitement welled up in Twilight’s chest, and she beamed at her sister brightly.

“Who was right? What are you talking about?”

“The summit! The summit of unicorns! Oh, come on! Didn’t you read the dossier I sent you?!”

“I don’t read anything you sent me. If I did, I’d sleep better than I do now.”

“Fine. I’ll summarize. You remember the library I uncovered? About two hundred and twelve years ago?”

“I remember.” Cadance nodded.

“Well, in the records section was a set of notes. Bolt discovered them, and had copies sent to Canterlot a few years back. It was minutes from a meeting of unicorns long, long ago. Not just any meeting, though. A summit. The greatest minds in Equestria met to hypothesize, theorize, and speculate. They determined that, alongside Equestria and the world we know, were hundreds; maybe even thousands of different worlds. Different planes of existence, similar to our own, but different in their own way. They went on to theorize that these different worlds were created due to changes in magical energies in our own world. Specifically, those that revolved around prophecy.” Twilight turned in a slow circle, looking over the room intently.

“They went on to speculate that one could reach those different worlds through points in our own where the magical ley-lines bisected, or where two energies were most congruent. But the summit came to a close, or our records are imperfect. I had Bolt look into it further, but he couldn’t find anything in his library, and none of the others in Equestria had any documentation. Not even Celestia’s. She says she remembers the summit, but she was embroiled in some conflict with the dragons to remember anything about it. But I can feel it, Cadance…” Twilight turned to her sister, frowning at the expression she wore. “You can feel it too, can’t you?”

“Y-yeah.” Cadance muttered. “It makes my body vibrate and crawl. I don’t like it, Twilight. I don’t like this place at all. I want to leave.”

“I don’t blame you.” Twilight sighed. This place was unsettling to say the least. In fact, she very much wanted to leave as well. But curiosity drove her further. “I wonder… Do you know any time spells?”

“Only a few.” She muttered, kicking the ground with a hoof. “I’m pretty rusty, though. I wouldn’t feel confident casting any.”

“Hmm.” Twilight’s frown intensified as she gestured her to move aside. Cadance stepped back, letting Twilight step into her place. Almost as if she were a puzzle piece, Twilight could feel something click. It felt like she was a child’s ball that had settled into a small hole in the ground. She felt something in the energy around her click into place, settling and falling into a sort of order. She didn’t understand the pattern or the way the energy pulsed, but it wasn’t unfamiliar to her. She could say she had never felt anything of the sort before, though.

“I felt it.” Cadance breathed. “Twilight, what are you doing?”

“Hang on.” Twilight breathed. “The summit… They theorized not just that you could travel to other worlds… But how you could travel between them.” Twilight’s horn began to glow with her signature lavender aura, and she breathed out softly. The spell came to her almost by itself. The form and invocations became clear. Twilight shuddered before raising her head once more, lighting the entire chamber with her magic. Cadance took a step back, watching with wide-eyed rapture at the scene before them. Twilight’s own eyes went wide in shock at what she saw.

The lines of energy skittering across the walls began to converge. Twilight watched as they drew towards the center of the room, a spot just a few feet before her hooves. As the spell began to go through the motions, she watched the jagged lines lump together, pulse, and grow. They began to take shape. A corporeal form. Before their very eyes, an oval-shaped aperture took form, growing larger and larger as Twilight’s horn continued to blaze with energy. When her magic finally faded away, the humming energy around the room had died. There was no longer any unsettling sensation of displacement. She didn’t feel like running anymore. Instead, she felt something else entirely.

Wonder. Amazement. Curiosity. A whole slew of other emotions that she knew was less-than-healthy to anypony who wanted to continue living.

Before the two of them stood a mirror. It was perfect. The smooth oval shape of the border bore no flaw, and hovered a few inches above the roughly-hewn stone floor. The surface of the mirror was pure crystal, and had been polished so thoroughly that Twilight could have sworn she was looking at a perfect copy of herself. Not a mirror image, or a trick of the dull lighting, but somepony else entirely. Somepony standing off and away in another cavern somewhere in another world. Somepony just like her, but forged when a critical decision had been made, or one prophecy had failed or been fulfilled. To her left stood Cadance, both of them staring with rapt attention at the image in the mirror. The sound of hoof-falls drew her attention. Glancing to her left, she saw Cadance standing at her side.

But in the mirror, that Cadance stood back.

It clicked then. Twilight wasn’t looking at a mirror. This WAS a different world! A different realm! The four ponies froze with the sudden realization of what this meant. Twilight wasn’t looking at a mirror. She was looking at herself and Cadance, but in a different world. One not their own. She took a hesitant step forwards. The Twilight in the mirror took a step back. She spread her wings. The Twilight in the mirror didn’t have wings.

Cadance screamed.

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“Explain it to me one more time.” Cadance groaned, rubbing a hoof into the bridge of her nose. “And for once, let’s assume I haven’t read any of your reports.”

“Fine.” Twilight huffed, pulling a chair up to the table where Cadance sat with a steaming cup of tea. Twilight herself was rather shaken. But alongside the fear and questions was a sense of excitement and happiness. Discovery. Progress! She collected her thoughts before speaking.

“The spell I cast down there wasn’t anything that’s been researched or developed. Not yet, anyways. But it was already built into the mirror. A mechanism, if you will, to stabilize itself. It needed a princess to work, so it had to have been cast by somepony on-par with a princess’ abilities long ago. Now, it’s been determined that a large group of skilled unicorns can achieve a level similar to that of a princess’, so it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that both Celestia and Luna have no knowledge of this mirror. Then again, they just might. I sent a message to them just a moment ago, so they should be here within the hour. I’ll need their input before I make any real determinations, but I can guess.” Twilight took a breath before launching into her hypothesis.

“The mirror stabilized itself with my power, turning from the lines of energy we saw into the mirror that stands there now. How or why it changed into the lines is beyond me, but I know it used my energy to turn into the mirror we see now. What we saw was no illusion. Instead, it was another world, one that had been created when one prophecy failed or was fulfilled in this world. The Twilight in the mirror didn’t have any wings, but she was with you, in almost the exact same position we were. So we can assume that that world, whichever one it was, was a world where I did not become a princess, or hadn’t just yet. Follow?”

“I think.” Cadance looked haggard. “Essentially, each time a prophecy comes to pass, fulfilled or failed, another world is made. That thing… That mirror… Is a way to travel between them?”

“I think so, yes.” Twilight affirmed with a nod. “When Celestia and Luna arrive, I can get their input and say more on the matter. But I’m fairly certain that this mirror is a convergence of worlds. A portal, if you will, between different planes of existence. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be prophecy. It could be anything. Even small details, like whether you decided to buy milk or orange juice this morning.”

“I got eggs.” Cadance frowned. “But that’s not the point. You’re saying these worlds can be made by any event? Not just prophecy?”

“Well, think about it… It’s arguable that my own prophecy said I was supposed to become a princess. The Twilight in the mirror didn’t have wings. She was still a unicorn. So either the prophecy hadn’t come to pass, or something else changed. Something minor. Something small and insignificant to make that world different enough. Maybe the prophecy hadn’t even been made in that world. Maybe we weren’t even standing in the caverns, but in the castle proper.”

“If what you say is true, then there are an infinite number of possibilities. All over the world, every new second, hundreds of thousands of worlds are being created. By decisions ponies make in their everyday lives.”

“That’s what’s so frightening about this.” Twilight swallowed. “Who’s to say this is the root world? The world all of these other ones are being made off of? For all we know, we’re just a copy of a different world. We could have been made when Celestia decided she wanted tea instead of coffee four hundred years ago. Or we could have been made when Luna decided she’d become Nightmare Moon instead of rationalize her feelings. Any number of possibilities can be true.” Twilight shuddered, but it was with a giddy grin. “Exciting, isn’t it?”

“Terrifying.” Cadance offered weakly, taking a sip of her tea. “I don’t want to think about this world not being real…”

“But it is real.” Twilight tapped her hoof on the table. "Can you deny your feelings towards Shining, or the reality of the tea you’re drinking? What about your children, or the castle around you? What about myself, Luna, and Celestia? Aren’t we real?”

“True.” Cadance smiled at last, the first Twilight had seen since she arrived. But it quickly faded. “What about these other worlds, though? Are they real, too?”

“One would assume so.” Twilight sat back again, frowning with thought. “They seemed real enough to me. But we need to wait for the princesses before I can say any more. I want to ask Celestia about something, and Luna as well.”

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Luna and Celestia arrived promptly, both of them looking very serious as they landed in the courtyard outside of the castle. “We came as quickly as we could.” Celestia tucked her wings against her back, both of them breathing moderately heavy. Twilight nodded and turned, talking as she walked. She didn’t waste any time.

“Cadance has discovered a convergence. Do you remember those notes on the unicorn summit I had Bolt send me, about six years ago?”

“Vaguely.” Celestia frowned, looking to Luna. The princess of the night shrugged. “Something about different worlds.”

“Well they were right.” Twilight shot a grin over her shoulder as she led the princesses down the same halls Cadance had taken her. “We’ve discovered something. A portal of sorts. When I stood in the center of the spell, it triggered, and used my energy to reform itself. What we thought was a temporal disturbance turned out to actually be a mirror. Well, what can best be described as a mirror. It shows you things. Other worlds. When we first looked at it, I thought I was looking at myself and Cadance. But it turned out I was looking at copies. Somewhere else. The Twilight in this mirror didn’t have wings. She wasn’t me. She was somepony else. Somepony on another plane of existence.”

“That’s impossible.” Luna said with a frown. “We haven’t heard anything about the Crystal Mirror in over fifteen hundred years. Since well before Sombra began his reign.”

“You know about this?” Twilight turned to Luna with wide eyes. The three of them stopped in the middle of a short hallway. “You knew about the crystal mirrors?”

“It’s been a long, long time.” Luna sighed. “Celestia wouldn’t remember, since I was handling most affairs involved with magic at the time.” She sat on her haunches, her eyes closed as she fought to remember all that had happened. Twilight waited anxiously. At last, Luna began to talk. “Five hundred and eighty-seven years before Sombra was ever even born, I went to the Crystal Kingdom to investigate claims of a convergence. Not uncommon at the time, since magic was still young and raw. But it wasn’t anywhere near here. It was further West, about forty miles or so. In an open plain, a herder said he saw his wife. But she had been dead for twenty years. Upon investigating, we found a mirror. A portal, as you said. It opened to another world, a world where this herder and his wife were still alive and happy. The wife had stumbled across it during her daily routine, and came through to this side.”

“Wait.” Twilight frowned. “You can go through these portals?”

“Of course.” Luna nodded. “It wouldn’t be a portal if you couldn’t. But there’s a catch.” Luna raised a hoof. “You don’t belong in that other world, so you can’t interact with it. You can only observe.”

“Did you go through?”

“I did. But only to investigate. Now, this is all speculation, and it’s been a long, long time since this all happened, but I remember rather well… The herder was distraught because he could see his dead wife, but he couldn’t hear anything she was saying, and he couldn’t touch her.” Luna waved a hoof. “I saw her as clearly as I see you now, but when I went to lay a hoof on the herder’s dead wife, it went straight through. Like a ghost, or a phantasm.” She continued on, still frowning with intense thought. “Through a vague series of gestures and signs, we managed to direct her back through the portal, and I followed her through. I saw another world, almost unmistakable from this one, but with the herder’s wife alive. They could see me, but I couldn’t talk to them. No matter what spells I cast on myself, I couldn’t get my voice to reach them. I could only watch as they panicked and ran about, trying to figure out what was happening. Eventually, I came back through and destroyed the portal. It was too confusing and too strange to be left open at all. I thought that was the end of it. It never resurfaced, and hasn’t been an issue since.”

“Hmm.” Twilight frowned with thought, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “Well, let’s take a look at this one, see if there are any similarities.” Twilight turned back to the hall, leading them further down into the caves where the mirror was. The princesses shared a look, but remained silent as they followed. Upon arriving in the chamber, they both frowned intently.

“This is almost exactly the same.” Luna said quietly, sitting opposite the mirror. The surface was blank, and didn’t show their reflection, or anypony else. “But the energy is different.”

“How so?” Twilight asked, sitting beside her.

“It’s more intense. Prevalent. It fills the air, like it’s suffocating me. The other mirror was smaller, too. I think. Yes, it was much smaller. Just big enough for maybe me alone. This one…” Luna breathed, looking up the length of the thing. “Two or three of us could fit through at a time. It’s uncanny.”

“I know nothing of this.” Celestia offered, sitting on the other side of Twilight. “This is an entirely new experience for me. But I can speculate. It’s as you say, Twilight. This is a portal to another world.”

“Not just one other world.” Luna breathed. Both the other princesses looked at her. “All of them.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. See.” Luna’s horn glowed, and she pointed it at the left edge of the mirror. Twilight watched, mesmerized, as she slowly turned to the right. The surface of the mirror wiped clean, following the motion of her horn. Beyond the new surface was a peaceful-looking forest. Twilight could see small animals scamper away, and soft, muted light filtering through the leaves above them. Luna repeated the motion, and Twilight saw a busy street, somewhere in a major city, with ponies bustling to and fro. Again, and this time Twilight saw lava. They were near a volcano. Once more, and Twilight was looking at a mass of changelings, hissing and skittering away from the mirror.

“As you can see,” Luna said somberly, finishing the small journey with one last motion of her horn. “This isn’t just a portal to one other world. It’s all of them. Every world available to us. We can visit any one of these as a spectator. To see and observe the changes that have been made.”

“Unreal.” Twilight muttered in amazement. “I can’t believe it…”

“Nor can I. Not until I see for myself. Luna, turn it to somewhere safe.” Celestia stood, taking a few steps towards the mirror. Luna obliged, wiping the surface of the mirror over to what looked like a wide, grassy meadow. It was bright and sunny, with no visible threat anywhere nearby. Celestia boldly strode forward, stepping head-first into the mirror. Twilight watched as the surface rippled around her large frame, but didn’t stop or hinder her. The only difference Twilight could see was that she disappeared on the other side. Worry and concern almost made her lurch forward to enter the mirror after her mentor and sister, but Luna stopped her with a gentle hoof.

“She’s okay.” Luna whispered. “Just give her time. The passage is different on either side of the mirror. You can spend hours or days there, while only seconds pass here. Watch.”

“Haah!” Celestia emerged from the mirror, her mane frazzled and her eyes wide. “You’re still here?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked. “You were gone maybe ten seconds.”

“I was gone a whole week.” Celestia breathed, her wide eyes bloodshot and furtive as she looked about. “A whole week, no sleep, no food, no nothing. You cannot grab anything in that place. I didn’t sleep, because I didn’t want to miss the portal.”

“Unreal. Come on, let’s get out of here.” Twilight looked over Celestia’s shoulder at the mirror. The meadow still looked peaceful and calm, but the way Celestia looked, she dreaded ever setting hoof in that place. She must have seen things beyond comprehension.

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“A whole week… That’s incredible.” Twilight shook her head at Celestia’s story. The princess had arrived in that same meadow, and done a little exploring. She found a nearby town, and spent the day watching ponies go about their lives. When she tried to go back to the mirror, though, she found it was gone. So she spent an entire week searching, watching, not sleeping or eating. When the mirror re-appeared a week later, she dashed through it to return to her own world, just ten seconds later.

“That mirror is dangerous.” Celestia sighed, rubbing her temples with her hooves. She had eaten a rather large meal, but hadn’t rested yet. After discussing things with Luna and Cadance, they agreed to raise and lower the sun and moon from the crystal kingdom and rest there for the next day. “But it’s also very intriguing. Twilight, how do you feel about entering another world?”

“Apprehensive.” Twilight frowned. “But if I go prepared, take some things with me, I don’t think I’d be entirely opposed.” She looked back up at both princesses, nodding firmly. “I think, for the betterment of magic and Equestria, I should explore at least a few worlds. Can you tell the difference between them?”

“I can.” Luna said softly. “The world I sent Celestia to had been created when Sombra’s reign never occurred. The Crystal Kingdom had been alive and prosperous for a thousand years, instead of hidden in a slumber. It’s… A strange process, but I can usually tell what’s different in one world or another.”

“Amazing. So, you could send me to a world where, for instance, I had chosen to become a god rather than return to Equestria?” At Twilight’s question, Luna swallowed. Obviously, the very thought pained her, but in the end she nodded.

“I can. A word of warning, though. Those worlds technically don’t exist for us. You would be visiting. Just that. You couldn’t impact it in any way, shape, or form. You can hear, see, and smell things in that world, but not feel them, taste them, or interact with them in any other way. Also, it stands to reason that in other worlds, we have discovered other mirrors that function similarly. You might encounter copies of yourself, or one of us. It’s not advisable to touch any of them, either. The result is unpredictable.”

“I understand.” Twilight nodded. “With your permission, princesses, I will begin exploring these other worlds.”

“You don’t need our permission, Twilight.” Celestia said with a weak gesture. “You’re free to do as you please. I thought we had established this.”

“Right. Sorry.” Twilight muttered with a blush. “Would you suggest anything else, though?”

“Take food.” Celestia sighed, rubbing her tired eyes. “Enough for at least a week, if not more.”

“And a means of finding your way back to the portal. I don’t think putting an item behind you, like a stake or a flag of sorts, will affect the world around you. Others might be able to see it, but they won’t be able to interact with it. That way you can find your way back whenever you need to.” Luna frowned with thought for a few moments. “Also, consider sleep spells.”

“I surely could have slept if I wanted to. With the aid of a spell or two. But the energy of that world made natural sleep almost impossible. It’s easy to stay awake for days at a time, but it is unhealthy. If you must sleep, do so near the portal, and be very careful about being stumbled upon by a visitor from another mirror.” Celestia offered once more before yawning widely. “For now, though, I must rest. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry.” Twilight shook her head. “I will begin exploring this evening, while you rest. I will be careful about this. Trust me.”

“I do trust you, Twilight. Now goodnight. I look forward to hearing about your journeys in the morning.” Celestia stood and plodded off. She looked exhausted. Twilight had seen her stay awake for months on end before, with little to no impact on her life. But now and again, she would seem completely exhausted, as if she were an earth pony after a hard day’s work in a field somewhere. Twilight could identify, though. Being relatively new to being a Princess, she was subject to the same physical stipulations Celestia, Luna, and Cadance were. There were times she felt completely exhausted, and other times when she was able to stay up for almost a whole year without resting. Celestia left the chamber, leaving Luna and Twilight alone.

“So…” Luna sighed. “I’m guessing you want to see how some of your decisions have impacted Equestria?”

“Can you blame me?” Twilight blushed. “I just want to know, Luna. It’s not like my knowing will have any impact on my feelings for you. They are different worlds. Different times. Different ponies. You and me, we’re still very real.” Twilight scooted closer, smiling warmly. “And very, very much in love.”

“True.” Luna smiled, kissing Twilight’s cheek tenderly. “I’m rather interested to hear the differences myself. Promise me you’ll tell me when you return?”

“Every detail.” Twilight promised. “Dirty or otherwise.”

“Ooh, I hadn’t thought of that.” Luna shuddered as Twilight gave the edge of her ear a teasing nip. “You could watch us in a different world.”

“Hmm. I’ll be sure to take detailed notes.”

“Okay, stop.” Luna panted. “We can’t be doing this here.”

“You’re no fun.” Twilight teased, giving Luna’s neck a quick kiss before pulling away. “But you’re right. Come on, help me pack.”

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“Let’s go down the list one more time.”

“Fifteen days’ worth of shrunken food, ready to be resized when I’m hungry. Two empty journals, a stack of quills, seventeen scrolls, a red scarf to serve as a flag for return, and supplements for sleep spells. Oh, and a bedroll. And lest we forget, I have this.” Twilight laid a hoof over her necklace, smiling warmly at Luna.

“Yes you do.” Luna smiled, giving Twilight a quick kiss. “Don’t forget.”

“I couldn’t if I tried.” Twilight returned the kiss in kind, groaning just a little. “I’m going to miss you.”

“You’ll be gone for a few minutes at most.” Luna teased.

“Or it could be days on my end.”

“Right. Well, you have your necklace. I’d give you another parting gift, but I think committing coitus in front of an inter-dimensional portal isn’t very wise.”

“Don’t tempt me.” Twilight teased, nipping the edge of Luna’s ear once more. “Promise me you’ll stay here for my return? It’d be nice to know I’ll have your smiling face to come back to.”

“I brought a book.” Luna levitated the dusty tome forward, smiling as she waved it in front of Twilight’s face. “I’ll be fine, whether you’re gone ten hours or ten seconds.”

“Let’s hope for the latter.” Twilight grumbled. She smiled at Luna once more before hoisting her saddlebags onto her flanks. After tightening the strap and flexing her wings, Twilight nodded to Luna. “Ready.”

“I’ll send you to the world where you decided to become a god first. In this world, you never returned to Equestria as Twilight. Instead, you became the god of magic, on-par with the day and night in power and influence. You’re no longer Twilight Sparkle. You are Ephemira, all-knowing, all-powerful god of magic and knowledge.”

“Okay.” Twilight shuddered at the thought. Ephemira. The name was haunting. It fit her. Luna’s horn glowed, and she wiped the surface to another world. Beyond, Twilight couldn’t see anything. “Is it safe?”

“You’ll be fine, Twilight.” Luna nodded. “I promise.”

“Okay.” Twilight looked over her shoulder one last time, excitement and apprehension welling up in equal parts inside her chest. “Luna. I love you.”

“I love you too, Twilight. Be safe.”

Twilight nodded and took a step forward. In a breath, she was in another world.

Beyond the crystal mirror.