"Sister, if you continue pacing as you are, you will wear a hole onto the marble floor." Princess Luna gave her sister a level look. "You already teleported all the way to Canterlot and back, sister, don't tire yourself more."

Celestia glared at Luna. They had moved the mirror, under guard, to the courtroom, where it had several warding spells around it, and remained under constant watch from the Crystal Empire guards while they discussed the new developments.

"I am worried, Luna, for both Sunset and Twilight."

"I still don't get why you'd be worried about Sunset," Rainbow Dash spoke up, ignoring the look Celestia gave her by virtue of looking at the others for support. "I mean, she didn't seem like she needed help protecting herself."

"Well, dear, it's been over eight hours since our dear Twilight got tackled into the mirror," Rarity said. "It's only natural that the Princess would be worried for Twilight and… Sunset."

"What Ah want to know is why none of us can go after them!" Applejack growled, slamming her hoof down on the table. "However dangerous it might be, we've handled plenty of problems of our own! Ah say we can handle whatever is happening on the other side of that mirror!"

"Well, do remember what happened to poor Spike when he tried to rush the mirror…" Fluttershy said, rubbing the head of the morose dragon, who was sitting next to her. "The Princess did say that the portal was closed somehow."

"I just hope they have good food on the other side!" Pinkie said, with a smile. "I don't know why but I really, really want to go there and set up a restaurant! Oooh! Or an Inn! Pinkie's Traveler's Delights!" She giggled. "Free donuts with your coffee!"

Princess Cadance smiled weakly. "I'm sure they would love that, Pinkie."

"Princess Celestia," Shining Armor spoke up next, looking at the princess with a grimace of frustration. "Is there really no way of opening the portal?"

"I'm afraid not, Shining," Celestia sighed. "All we can do now is wait."

"So, what's the deal with the vibrating book, then?" Rainbow Dash asked.

In an instant, Princess Celestia was next to them, her magic opening the diary to its last page. With bated breath everypony gathered around her, staring at the pages as slowly a message appeared.

Princess Celestia,

Twilight is safe. She came in during a very dangerous situation, in a very dangerous place. I cannot emphasize the dangers of attempting travel right now, so she will remain with me for the time being.

Right now, she's getting settled in… she doesn't know about the diary yet, but I will let her write to you as soon as possible. I know you must be worried sick. Try not to drill a hole in the marble floor again.

This drew a snort from Luna and a giggle from Pinkie. There was a pause before the writing continued.

Much has happened since we arrived… I think it'll be best for Twilight to fill you up on that whole situation… my word alone is probably not enough to erase your worries… but I'll be honest, you should be worried. This world is not Equestria, Princess, and no one is safe here… although I guess Twilight is as safe as anyone could be.

You should be proud of her. Even though she was understandably scared, and thrown into a scenario completely outside her experience, she pulled herself together with aplomb. She's fairly quick in learning things and… surprisingly forgiving and kind.

The group smiled at those words.

I have to say, however, that you should make sure that Cadance is put under some sort of military basic training if Twilight is anything to go by. As it is, Twilight will have to go through basic training here, if only to better handle herself in those situations.

While I'll be the first to admit that her interference saved my life, my mission from the point when we came out of the mirror to the moment when we reached the base, was to protect her life and well-being.

I'm grateful to her, princess, I truly am… she arguably distracted a dangerous foe from splattering my brains and melting my face with plasma… but I had ordered her explicitly to ignore my own danger and get to safety and that situation could have ended very badly indeed if she and I hadn't both been as lucky as we were.

Cadance winced and Shining Armor shook his head as most of Twilight's friends gasped in horror, although there was a low 'cool!' among the gasps which sounded conspicuously like Rainbow Dash.

I can only feel for your guards if that's the attitude they have to deal with. It probably causes more alarm than reassurance. I'm surprised they're not more paranoid.

The group turned to look at Shining, who glanced around and snorted. "It's true."

I should go now, I have a mission debriefing, training and officer classes to attend… they keep me busy here. I'll take the diary to Twilight… I hope she respects my wishes to not read my previous messages… I'm not proud of them.

-Sunset

PS. I got promoted to Sergeant. I can't help but feel I didn't deserve it.

PPS. Please tell Princess Luna that I'm sorry I used a cheap trick to escape the fight, and that I knew she was strong enough to take it. I hope I didn't do any lasting damage… she's very pretty and I was kind of vicious, so I'd hate myself if I really hurt her at all.

PPPS. Give my sincere apologies to the Captain of the Guard for what I did to his troops. If they're interested, I have some observations I could share if I ever get the chance to go back there.

The room was quiet for a bit.

"I think Princess Luna is blushing!"

"Pinkie!" Rarity hissed. "Don't bring more attention to it!"

"Yes, well." Princess Luna straightened up. "The Blood Witch has much to answer for, and compliments will not compensate for the trouble she's caused."

"So Sunset Shimmer is part of this other world's military?" Shining Armor shook his head. "That's a bit of a relief, but also worries me."

Cadance looked at him. "How so?"

"Well, for one, it explains her willingness to engage guards in combat, but her restraint when it came to Twilight and her friends," Shining explained, pacing around the table as he thought. "I was worried that she was just violent, but now I'm starting to see her rules of engagement."

"Eh, we could have taken her," Rainbow Dash said, waving her hoof dismissively.

"Maybe." Shining looked thoughtful. "But the bottom line is she avoided conflict with civilians. The language in her message right now shows that she cares about our military as well, not sure how much or in what way… but if I had been the one to do what she did and gotten away with what appears to be such little effort…" He shrugged. "Let's just say, if I was her, I'd be annoyed if I still held some loyalty to Equestria."

He sighed, looking at the diary with some frustration. "I'm also glad she protected Twilight and is going to make sure she gets some basic training… but at the same time, it means my little sister is at best a guest, at worst a prisoner for a military group which might or might not conscript her into service. And I don't like that idea."

"It didn't sound like Sunset was too eager to risk Twilight either," Cadance said, placing a comforting hoof on her husband's shoulder. "Let's see what Twilight has to say."

Shining sighed. "It doesn't help that they now have the Element of Magic… how hard would it be for them to weaponize it?" Shining shook his head. "What do you think, Princess Celestia?"

Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We will have to trust Sunset Shimmer for the time being. I'm glad my student seems to have found a cause, and that her priority was to protect her successor. For now, we wait."

Twilight glanced around the small room she had been assigned.

"I'm sorry the accommodations are not ideal," Tygan said. "As most certainly a new branch of study should have much more modern equipment, but, I have personally found the challenge of working with less equipment much more rewarding… if a little frustrating."

"Oh, no, I think this will be enough, after all, most of the stuff I'll be working on at first will be theoretical…" Twilight said, walking up to the desk that took the whole back of the room. "Are you sure you're not going to do anything to the Element of Magic?"

Tygan cleared his throat, still uncomfortable with the concepts that they had discussed. "I think it is for the best. If we didn't have you or Sunset here, I would suggest a more… direct approach to learning about this artifact, but why risk causing major damage to the Avenger, when we have a veritable expert of this new field as a guest?"

"Hehe, I guess…"

"Good," Tygan said. "I will be back later with a schedule… as much as I would like to avoid it, Sergeant Shimmer's insistence on running you by basic training with the newest recruits might not be such a bad idea, given our… different… lifestyles."

"I'm sure she's just looking out for me."

"Yes, a most curious development," Tygan acknowledged with a shrug. "In any case, I will have your equipment delivered here soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a new specimen to examine."

Twilight watched Tygan walk away deeper into the lab, which was probably the second largest room in the Avenger, then turned around and sat on her chair, sliding her hands through her hair. How had she gotten herself into all of this?

Not only did she have a new body, but she had joined a rebel force under the command of Chrysalis herself!

A knock on the door made her turn around. She almost sighed in relief when she noticed it was Sunset. "Oh, hey Sunset."

"Hey yourself," Sunset replied, walking into the room. "Your own office, huh? Nice. I only got a small desk and my locker."

"Sorry…" Twilight sighed, looking down.

"Nah, the barracks are good," Sunset replied. "Besides… I um, got you something that you can use."

Twilight watched curiously as Sunset revealed a large, bound tome with decidedly Equestrian design.

"This is my diary," Sunset explained. "It can… still communicate with Equestria. I let everypony there know you were okay, and promised that you could talk to them with it, but… I want you to promise me you won't read anything before the bookmark. It is my diary, after all."

Twilight gasped, looking from the diary to Sunset and back. "I-I couldn't! I mean, it must contain so many thoughts an—"

"Twilight, it's okay," Sunset insisted. "Just… please don't read anything before that, okay? Besides, I'm sure they're all worried and would rather hear from you than from me."

"Thank you…" Twilight said, her own emotions piling up. She could talk to her friends! To the princess! To her brother!

"Anyway, I should go. I'll pick it up later, um, I won't read what you write if you don't want me to, just let me know, okay?"

"I will," Twilight replied. She felt a smile grow in her face and moved forward to embrace Sunset, who stiffened under the unexpected hug. "And thank you, really… you don't know what it means to me."

"Yeah… well, um. Training. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Oh my! It's vibrating again!" Fluttershy squeaked. "Um… girls? Girls? GIRLS!"

"Oooh! I bet it's Twilight!" Pinkie cried, hopping over, while Celestia, Luna and the others approached as well.

"There is but one way to find out," Luna said, flipping the pages open.

Dear Princess Celestia, can you read this?

"Well, that certainly reads like a Twilight introduction," Celestia said, relief evident in her voice. She levitated a quill, dipped it in ink and wrote back:

'I'm here, Twilight. So are your friends, your brother, your sister-in-law and Princess Luna.'

Oh, wow, it really works! I was worried… well, I didn't think Sunset would lie to me but… I don't know how much time I have to myself right now, Dr. Tygan—that's the lead scientist here, he's very, very smart!—said they were working on my schedule. I have orientation and some basic training with recently recruited cadets, although I'm going to be working in the lab… I guess Sunset wasn't very comfortable with how I handled myself, so she insisted I get some basic training to better be able to defend myself.

I don't even know where to begin. I'm okay? I guess? When we came through the portal, we became something different. I have hands now.... they're like, claws, basically, although I'm not used to them yet… so I'm sorry if my hoofwriting is less than ideal, but I'm using my mouth to write right now.

Anyway, as I said, we changed into things called humans. It turns out that this world was invaded by aliens… I haven't had a chance to study much of the history, but at least from the human side of things, it appears that the invaders destroyed several cities and then conquered the world when the governments surrendered.

Sunset became part of this resistance group, XCOM, which was the last line of defense they had 20 years ago before their Commander was betrayed and captured… The Commander is okay now; Sunset, a man named Bradford and others rescued her and she's… well, there's no other way to put it, she's Chrysalis in human form… just not her. Or at least not the one we know.

This gave pause to everypony. Cadance and Shining Armor exchanged worried glances. "I... hope that Twilight is careful around her," Cadance said softly. "Even if she's not the same..."

This Chrysalis is… very focused, concerned about her troops, knowledgeable and intelligent. Not that I ever thought Queen Chrysalis wasn't smart, but this one… it's different, and I'm glad the Commander is not someone we had as an enemy. She took over XCOM when she was assigned to fight the alien invasion, but the aliens managed to convince several governments and organizations to surrender, even when XCOM was holding its own. Chrysalis is not the only one here that has a counterpart. I met a Rainbow Dash, also older, who pilots a large metallic chariot that flies without magic… they call it the Skyranger. I didn't get a chance to talk to her much, but it was comforting to see one of my old friends here. I wonder how the others are doing?

"An older me?!" Rainbow Dash grinned, pushing the others out of the way so she could re-read that. "That's awesome! I bet she's the best pilot in that world!"

"Whoa there, Nelly," Applejack said. "Does that mean we all have... hooman... versions of ourselves there?"

"It certainly appears to be the case," Celestia said.

It turns out that there was another Sunset Shimmer here too, twenty years ago, and she was very close to the Commander. She might have been part of XCOM too, although Chrysalis didn't really go into detail… she died at some point… I don't know how.

Celestia trailed off and the others shared concerned looks. Cadance gave Shining a hug, who sighed and returned it. "It's not the Sunset we know."

"I know," Cadance whispered. "But... even if she wasn't a friend... I know it's not her, just... what came to my mind was her, lying still...

"It's okay," Shining responded, brushing through her mane with his hoof.

"Well, it is a world at war..." Rarity spoke up, shaky. "I-I wonder how many of us... over there are still, well, there?"

"Aww, I'm sure we're all okay!" Pinkie Pie said, hugging her friends. Her smile faded a little. "Nopony could tear us apart, right?!"

"Please continue, sister," Luna said, giving the girls a pitying look.

It's not a happy place here. Soldiers go out in missions and they don't come back. Or they get seriously injured… I heard little of what happened during Sunset's last mission… they were attacked by what appears to be the worst the aliens had at hoof, and one of her team members got seriously injured. Sunset is trying to be optimistic, but I can tell how much it bothers her.

Celestia stopped reading for a moment and sighed. "When she was here, Sunset was very worried about what was going on on the other side of the mirror... no wonder..."

"Hark, sister," Luna said softly. "Even if Sunset had good reasons to rush back there, we are not mind-readers. Feeling guilt for what happened is not going to help anypony."

"The Princess is right," Shining Armor said. "Those soldiers knew the risks and Sunset's visit was apparently an accident, more than a planned effort. None of the blame is on us, and I think Sunset knows that well enough."

"I suppose so," Celestia nodded, her sad eyes returning to the book. "Let's continue reading."

Backtracking a little, when we arrived, the first thing I noticed is that my magic didn't work anymore. That was very scary, and the lack of a horn makes it really hard to envision how to make things work… Sunset told me that it took her over a year of constant practice to be able to get her magic working when she wanted, and even then, she's always had to use her personal reserves, so her spellwork has to be limited to either emergency spells or very low-output effects.

I have a few theories already on how this works, and I will be discussing them with her and Dr. Tygan. It is difficult and scary to not have my magic as readily as I'd like, but I'm confident that with her assistance, I should be able to cast spells of my own without much trouble. She used some visualization techniques to achieve her control that I'm sure I can use as well. Other than our personal reserves and the Element of Magic, magic itself is very scarce here, but another energy does dominate the spectrum… there are several empaths and psychics around, although according to Sunset, the mixture of said energies is very… volatile.

However, Dr. Tygan believes we can use that to disrupt alien communications… I know it might not seem smart throwing my lot into this, but my gut feeling is that they are honestly trying to save Earth—that's the name of the planet—from the aliens.

I hope I can go home soon.

But I'm not alone… and thanks to Sunset, I can talk to all of you at least.

Anyway, I can see Dr. Tygan coming this way, I guess I should go. Give my love to everypony there, and I'll try to write again soon!

~TS