Chapters Scattered books lay across the white tiled floors of the room, some stacked haphazardly as tall as the room itself, a scene rarely seen in the Canterlot Castle’s observatory, once the residence of the princess’ personal protégé; Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic and a newly ascended alicorn.
But a new resident resides in the observatory, his name is Michael Gazer, or was his name. At first glance you would instantly recognize a pair of large yellow wings on his back, too large to be of a regular pegasi.
In a closer inspection, you would also see on his forehead, under his jet black hair a single diamond shaped silver magi gem which blend in with the silver tips of his hair is seen: a sign of his affiliation with magic manipulation, which every unicorn has.
Added his strength that is present to some gaians, he is quite a rare sight.
He is one of those who are called alicorns. A race which few in numbers, but has powers beyond the other races, provided that they can control it.
But one particular detail about him is that he is a foreigner, an alien to Equestria. He is from another world, where magic is null and void, where magic is but a myth.
It has been more than two years since the two worlds were linked, each one with something to share with the other. From Earth, technology: and from Equestria, applied magic.
But due to differences in the magical atmosphere in each world, one with magic flowing within everything, and one with lack of it, it was potentially fatal for natives of each world to cross to the other side. Thus, the Morph program was founded.
The Morph Program as it’s named is a movement in ‘Morphing’ terrans to equestrians or the other way around, to give them a chance in seeing each other’s worlds. The only difference of Terran morphs is their lack of tails, while Equestrians retain theirs.
This now leads us to our story, an opportunity to learn in Equestria was given to James, which he quickly took, ‘A change of pace’ he thought.
But a cruel trick was laid onto him, be it fate or pure dumb luck, his wish to soar through the skies was followed by other responsibilities, responsibilities he wasn’t ready for.
For the most part, screams of pain and agony was his only reply to these ‘responsibilities’.
After the transformation, his magic was fluctuating and unstable. It was strong enough to get the princess of the sun’s attention from Equestrian side of the portal.
His magical outbursts were short but powerful, almost destroying the facility anchored between the two worlds.
By the time the princess arrived on the scene, all she could see were wrecked equipment, unconscious scientists, unicorns, and a new alicorn.
His body burned by his own magical energy and unmoving except for the steady rising and falling of his chest.
With his condition, he was urgently rushed to the Canterlot Castle’s private hospital, the only hospital experienced with treating alicorns having treated the princesses in multiple occasions.
The following days went like a storm in the castle, the unpredictable magic James was given was undeniably hard to contain. But after a few days under Princess Celestia’s guidance, he himself found a way to control it and found a rather peculiar ability, the ability to see a spell’s geas: the instructions for the magic of a spell, letting him ‘copy’ a spell at a glance…
…Well, that is if it doesn’t explode right on his face.
It also reawakened something inside the princess; something she thought was long dead.
After finding out about his ability, it was only a matter of time before his cutie mark appeared: a diamond shaped mirror in front of a green ring adorned on his shoulders. After further practice, his affiliation with illusions surfaced, with that he decided of his new name as a morph, Mirror Image.
~†~
“Come on… come on.” Mirror growled as he concentrated his magic crawling towards his wings, “Creating force fields? Easy. Firing an arcane bolt? I can do it with my eyes closed. Using illusions in pranking the guards? Easiest one yet, but trying to hide wings… tartarus.”
Shutting his green eyes closed, he put more power into the spell. The tips of his wing’s feathers started to glow, scattering into nothingness causing a smile of success to find itself onto his face, which was until it backfired.
An explosion centered on his back sent him plummeting towards the shelf, causing the books to rain on him burying him in deep in literature.
A moment passed in silence, which was broken by the creaking of the large doors of the observatory, providing a clear view of Princess Celestia and the serene and calm smile on her face which turned into curiosity when she glanced at the black scorch mark in the middle of the room
“Mirror? Are you here?” She stepped inside, cautiously inspecting the mark, “Are you finished with your disguise? I’ve got good news about your schooling…”
Hearing the princess’ voice, Mirror let out a grunt and pushed his arm out of his papery grave, and pulled himself out using the shelf revealing his slightly burned body, “Uhh, here princess…”
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“Just a little problem with my wings.” He answered mentioning his feathery appendages before remembering its size, “okay, big problem.” Elicting a few giggles from the princess. “Suppressing my magic is surprisingly easier than this.”
“I suspect that you already put a seal on your magic?” Princess Celestia asked, getting a small nod in response, “There’s your problem then.” She stated.
Mirror blinked, “Excuse me princess, but how is having my magic suppressed connected to hiding my wings?”
“Easy, you haven’t adapted to your reduced magical output. You still cast spells as if you still have the enormous magic power of an alicorn, you just need to practice.
“And as for your wing problem, I have just the spell.” Walking towards the middle of the room, Princess Celestia raised her arms, coating them in a golden aura.
“Look closely Mirror, I’ll only be casting this once,” a few strips of magic started to form, rotating around her own white wings, “It is a low level portal spell, which creates a pocket dimension that can fit large objects. It is mostly used as an enchantment on small bags but can also be used as such.” Finishing the spell, she stretched her wings pointed straight towards her back where a small portal was formed; it carefully slid the appendages inside until the base only leaving only a small patch of golden magic where the wings are attached to her back.
Taking in the spell Mirror stood up and charged his magic, “Like this?”
“Remember, it’s a low level spell so use less magic.” Princess Celestia warned as she willed her wigs back on their place.
Heeding the princess’ reminder, he lowered his magical output… a little too low.
Unbeknownst to him, the portal formed was unstable.
His wing tips had entered the portal when the princess spoke up,
“When you’re done with that, pack your bags, classes start in two days and you need to settle in your dorm.”
The portal inched its way on Mirror’s wings. “So, Manehattan State University accepted my papers?”
“No, Luna and I decided to enroll you to Eclipse University, where Luna can check on you from time to time.”
Mirror’s eyes widened, he froze as the princess mentioned the words ‘Eclipse University’, and he didn’t even hear the last part.
He lost concentration, the portal collapsed and clamping his wing in the process. With a loud yelp, he dispelled the portal releasing his messed up wings and nursing them, “P-princess, with all due respect, I-I can’t afford studying in Eclipse. I only have enough bits for Manehattan State. And enrolling in Eclipse probably would bring more attention to me, which is the exact opposite of what I want.”
Maintaining her calm demeanor, Princess Celestia explained, “As I said Mirror, It is where Luna can check on you from time to time. You are still an artificially made alicorn, thus we still need to look out for anomalies in you.
“And all your expenses have already been paid for, all you need to do is study. You’ll also be treated like all present students there don’t worry.” She turned for the door, “I’ve assigned Twilight Sparkle to take you on a crash course in the university. As a newly ascended alicorn herself, she can help you settle in.” With that she exited the room.
Still dazed at his current predicament, Mirror shook his head to clear his thoughts, “Enough of this, time to go down to business.” He charged his magic again… this time a little too strong.
~†~
After surviving yet another blast from another spell, it didn’t take long to pack his things and find himself in front of his new school, Eclipse University.
He stood there with a smile on his face, now wearing a black zip-up sweatshirt with a white undershirt and black jeans. He continued inside joining with the new arrivals like himself, with the intent of finding the element of magic herself.
A few steps inside and his smile widened. Sitting by a nearby bench was an alicorn mare, Twilight Sparkle; she has dark blue hair and tail with a violet and pink streak above her right eye, a magenta magi gem centered on her forehead behind her bangs. She was wearing a white blouse under a purple vest that blends with her wings and a dark blue skirt that is bearing her cutie mark, a pink starburst surrounded by white sparkles, ending mid-thigh.
She was looking around almost desperately with excitement written all over her face. Well, it’s not every day a new alicorn pops up out of nowhere.
Mirror walked up to her, carefully avoiding passersby, “Hello, Miss Twilight?”
Hearing her name, Twilight winced slightly, ‘Great more fans.’ she thought. It’s hardly a rare occurrence that one or two admirers come and ask for autographs and such, she is one of Equestria’s heroes.
She wore the most sincere smile she could muster, “I’m sorry sir but I’m currently busy looking for someone.” she stated before continuing her search.
“Mirror Image.” He pushed his hand forward, “I take it that the princess didn’t tell you that I’ll be going incognito.” He laughed internally at the guilty and surprised expression plastered on her face.
“Sorry, I was getting really excited to have another alicorn around that I didn’t really think you’ll come in like that.” She gestured to his body. Clearing her thoughts, his hiding instantly made her curious, “Why did you disguise yourself? It’s not like somebody is going to kidnap you or something.”
“I just don’t want any unnecessary attention to myself.” He simply replied, “I just want to fit in with the others and also I get a weird feeling when someone stares at me, and these alicorn power doesn’t really help much do they?” he whispered.
Twilight gave a nod of agreement and simply motioned him to follow her further inside the campus, “I understand, being an alicorn can really separate you from the others. But you know that secret can’t be kept forever right?” she asked walking in a steady pace
“I know, that’s why my first objective here is to find real friends before those pompous nobles get any ideas in ‘befriending’ me and use me as an accessory for popularity points.”
The two of them weaved through the walkway, evading other people as they pass by. Mirror was taking in the sights, printing out a solid mental map of the place and noticing people waving as they passed by, no doubt to Twilight. They walked by several buildings, looking like shops and businesses.
‘It’s almost like a small town.’ Mirror thought.
Noticing the look of awe on his face, Twilight spoke up, “This is the university’s student community.” She gestured to the shops, “All these shops are manned either by the students or their guardians that decided to help here to pay for their children’s schooling.”
Mirror took her explanation with a small smile, and continued mapping in his head, “So, what’s on your to-do list Twilight?” he jokingly asked only to be surprised to see her pull out a scroll out of her small purse, ticking off something at the top and glance down on her list then put it back in her purse, ‘Huh, she actually had a to-do list.’
The mare spun around facing Mirror with a smile, “Glad you reminded me,” she spun again, now having a specific destination in mind, “First, we’ll need to find your dorm and drop off your things, and maybe get to know your new roommate, then I’ll take you on a tour around campus.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Mirror said obviously impressed at how she organized herself. They approached a large looking building, which is the main office, and entered inside. A cozy room met them as they walked in, a comfy looking sofa next to a coffee table flanked by two chairs was furnished inside.
Across the room was the information desk, behind it is an gaian mare, her curly hair was divided into two colors, on was pink and the other one was navy blue. Noticing their entrance she stood up and spoke up happily, “Hiya Twilight, how can I help you today?” then she noticed Mirror behind her, eyeing him up which sent a few hairs on the back of his neck stand on its ends. “And who’s the stallion?”
Twilight, noticing Mirror practically frozen in place decided to speak up, “Hello to you too Bonbon, this here is Mirror Image. And he just arrived a few minutes ago, we just want to get his room number and maybe the name of his roommate.” She stepped closer to the desk mare, “Please don’t look at him like that, he gets nervous when someone stares at him.”
Understanding her statement, she quickly processed Twilight’s request and wrote it down and giving it to her.
Satisfied, Twilight walked out but not before saying goodbye to the mare behind the desk, Mirror on the other hand settled with a wave and a sheepish smile as he followed Twilight out.
Walking outside, Twilight can’t help but start a small conversation, “So, Mirror, where did you live before studying under the princess? Manehattan? Fillydelphia? Maybe Saddle Arabia?”
Suffice to say Mirror was a little surprised, he expected her to be briefed by the princess. But then again, Princess Celestia always had a unique way of hinting someone, “What exactly did the princess tell you?”
“The letter she sent me only said that there’s recently discovered alicorn training under her and that the new alicorn is going to study advanced magic in this school.” She answered enthusiastically without even a little hesitation.
Mirror promptly dragged his hand down his face in irritation. ‘She never even told her about that…’ he thought as he released a sigh. “Ok Twilight I know you’re not going to believe right away but... I’m a morph.”
Having heard the word ‘morph’, Twilight suddenly stopped walking. She turned around showing a wide smile, a smile filled with the need for learning. She was getting giddy, stepping closer to the disguised alicorn.
Mirror was getting disturbed by the mare’s actions and can’t help but think, ‘Did I say something wrong?’, but what happened next simply broke that thought.
“You’re a MORPH!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed, “I have some questions I need you to answer. How was life on Earth? Do you know what spell they used in the transformation process? How did you turn into an ali-“ she was cut off by a hand to her mouth leaving behind a zipper holding her lips closed.
“Quiet down Twilight, my disguise will mean nothing if you just straight tell everyone what I am.” He ‘unzipped’ his magic and released Twilight’s mouth, “I’ll gladly answer any questions you have, just not her where other people can hear. Just hold the announcing I’m alicorn thing until I have a few real friends.”
Twilight just smiled sheepishly at her own outburst, “O-okay, sorry about that. I just can’t help myself when there’s a chance to learn. And about you being an alicorn, can I at least tell my closest friends?
“Who?”
“You know who the Elements are don’t you?” She asked claiming a nod from him, “Them and about three other people.”
Hearing who those people are, Mirror couldn’t help but think, ‘About seven more people, maybe this will make things harder, then again they are the Elements of Harmony and their closest friends, maybe they can keep a simple secret.’
With a smile he turned to Twilight, “Okay, but they have to keep it a secret too. Meeting the Elements would be an honor.”
Upon hearing Mirror’s answer, Twilight beamed with excitement and grabbed his arm, “Then what are we waiting for?” she started dragging him towards he assumed to be his dorm, “All of us are going to meet at the library sometime at noon, we got to finish your tour before then.”
Mirror on the other hand had only one thought in mind as he was dragged through campus.
‘This is going to be one hell of a semester’
A few minutes of walking eventually led the two alicorns to their intended destination, dorm room A09. Surprisingly, the room doesn’t have anyone living inside yet. The information somewhat baffles Mirror, after all It’s only two days left until the classes start and they’re still haven’t arrived.
Regardless on that matter, the dorm was simple as can be. Behind the door was a small hallway with a door on the left for the bath room. Further inside was the main room where resides a bunk bed, two dressers and a door which Mirror guessed was the closet.
Walking inside, he immediately unpacked his bags on the bottom bunk, leaving whoever his roommate will be to pick the top bunk.
After that, he got out and meets Twilight outside, who was tapping her foot in mild irritation, “What took you so long? You know we have a schedule to keep if we want to meet the others later.” She chided
“Sorry.”
Twilight let out a breath, “It’s okay, now let’s get on with the tour.”
The tour lasted quite long as they journeyed along an obviously readied path around the campus all the while having a light conversation about the element’s adventures and Mirror’s own time at the castle.
What really piqued Mirror’s interest was Twilight’s not-so-recent encounter with Starswirl’s spell journal, thanks to the princess of the sun. A supposed unfinished spell was completed after a few problems eventually leading to her ascension to an alicorn. Having never done anything amazing in his life, Mirror thinks that his ascension was not just.
The tour ended at the library, which surprised Mirror that it was near his dorm.
The sun was almost at its peak as they entered the library. With nothing else to pass the time, Twilight picked out a book with her magic from one of the shelves, “The girls will be here soon Mirror, why don’t you help yourself on some books.” She then took a seat next to one of the tables scattered around the library.
With an acknowledging nod, Mirror set out to the spell tomes section, getting lost in his own little world.
~†~
With sun high in the sky, a rainbow blur landed with a thud forcing a cloud of dust to form a few steps in front of the library. After a few flaps of her wings, the pegasus revealed herself, Rainbow Dash.
The short athletic mare was wearing a pair of blue jeans with a white tank top under a blue vest which easily reveals her cutie mark on her shoulders, a tri-colored lightning bolt under a white cloud.
Upon entering the library, she immediately spotted her librarian friend sitting near a table, currently engrossed on a book. With light feet, she casually neared Twilight.
“Really Twilight, don’t you do anything else but read?”
“What’s wrong with reading?” Twilight said, eyes never leaving the book.
“It’s just boring, don’t you have anything more exiting to do?”
“You’re one to talk, miss ‘I love Daring Do’.”
A slight red tint found its way up to Rainbow’s face both in embarrassment and slight irritation, luckily for her no one appeared to be near for the moment, “Shut it Twilight, what if somebody heard you, I’ve got an image to maintain.” Rainbow whispered. The two mares continued to argue for sometime not noticing a stallion approaching.
Walking out of one of the hallways while keeping his eyes on the book he’s reading, Mirror didn’t really have anything to notice the new presence in the room, “Twilight, do you have any idea how to remove an alicorn’s powers? I don’t think I can hi-“
*CRASH*
With his gaze still in his book, Mirror didn’t have the chance to evade the rapid rainbow blur that tackled him to the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs.
“Who are you!?” dropping out of his current daze gave him the opportunity to recognize the small figure that pinned him down, her wings flared aggressively as she glared him down, “How much did you hear?!”
“W-what?” he managed to stutter out, still trying to piece what happened, “Hear about what?”
“Don’t you play dumb with me.”
“About what? I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Rainbow’s intense glare was almost enough to make anyone crumble down, but Mirror saw something else in that glare.
Fear…
Fear of getting ridiculed, laughed at, and not taken seriously because of… reading Daring Do? No, reading in general?
Mirror started laughing.
You see illusions are where Mirror’s talent resides. Creating masks to protect oneself from others, protecting using misdirection, and doing everything he can to keep secrets hidden. In fact, his deepest secrets can only be uncovered by the Element of Honesty herself and only when she’s concentrating.
And with his experience in secrets, he can easily find cracks in its foundation, slipping in its guard and into the protected piece of information itself, catching a small glimpse of what’s inside.
“Why are you laughing? What’s so funny?” Rainbow began shaking the still laughing stallion before being coated in a billowing purple aura and lifted off him. It took only a second for her to realize whose aura it was and glared at the caster. “Twilight, what are you doing?”
Rolling her eyes, Twilight raised Rainbow higher letting Mirror stand up. “Sorry about that Mirror, Dash here can be a bit irrational when it comes to her reputation.”
Mirror gave out a small smile, “No worries, and what’s that about hearing something?” of course he already knew the answer. Playing ignorant just helps in respecting someone’s privacy.
“Oh, it’s just-“
“NOTHING IMPORTANT!” Dash’s sudden exclamation brought a string of silence in the air, “I-I mean… Uhh… it’s none of your business!” she hovered in front of him, “And I still don’t trust you.” She added while poking him in the chest, hoping on changing the topic.
“Uhh, right… Twilight, do you have anything about alicorns and their magic?” Mirror asked with a certain uneasiness in his voice.
Twilight paused for a moment in deep thought, and then walked inside the library office seemingly looking for something.
The following silence was somewhat awkward for Rainbow, being left with someone she accused a moment ago.
Mirror on the other hand was getting nervous, the silence was getting to him, ‘Well, this is awkward…’ he thought, ‘Oh yeah, I haven’t introduced myself…’ thinking on how it might alleviate some of the awkwardness in the room.
Rainbow was getting anxious she was over-thinking about how rude she was to someone, someone who could tell others that she always jumps to conclusions that she’s a jerk who only cares for herself, and how it could really destroy her reputation. Luckily for her, it’s not the case.
“Mirror Image.” Mirror managed to say. He was stumped on how to properly introduce himself, so he picked the method that first popped into his head… Blurting out his name.
“What was that?”
“My name, it’s Mirror Image.” He repeated while facing away from her, while bringing his hand out for a handshake.
It took a while before Rainbow caught up and shook his hand, “Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, and the fastest flier of all Equestria.” She said with pride.
Once again the room was silent, only to be broken by the office door opening with Twilight coming out with a young boy about half Mirror’s height. He was wearing a purple long sleeved shirt and shorts with green highlights, his green hair styled into a mohawk and has purple scales on some parts of his body, mostly visible are on his hands which looks like armored claws.
Seeing the drake, Mirror’s eyes widened in shock, ‘My first ever encounter with a dragon kin… and it’s inside a library… in a school. Huh, can this day get any weirder?’ he thought to himself still staring at the young drake.
Twilight, noticing the stallion’s stare, quickly introduced them, “Mirror, this is Spike, my assistant.” Then moved to Spike, “Spike, this is the stallion the princess mentioned in the letter the other day.”
Spike gave a questioning look at his caretaker then back at Mirror and shrugged.
“Spike will take you to the Magical Anatomy section, maybe there’s an article about alicorn magic in one of them.” Twilight said while pointing at a corridor.
Spike continued followed by Mirror without question.
Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Rainbow staring at the very same corridor both colts went. “You okay there Rainbow? You’re kinda spacing out there.”
Hearing her friend’s voice made her snap out of her thoughts, “Uhh… Yeah” she replied. She turned in the air and hovered near Twilight, “Do you notice something off about Mirror?”
“Like what?”
Rainbow scrunched her face thinking of a way of describing Mirror, “Like when he’s near, I can’t think straight, I can’t decide if I want to punch him or just leave him alone… arrgghhh it’s so confusing!”
Twilight caught on, and remembered something the princess of the sun had written in one of her letters, “Princess Celestia did say Mirror’s presence is connected to confusion, indecisiveness, and gullibility.”
“Presence? What do you mean by presence?”
“The feeling an alicorn gives off or encourages, that is what we call presence; it’s most likely connected to his or her special talent. For example, Princess Celestia gives the presence of warmth, Princess Luna; peace, Princess Cadance; love, mine; friendship, and apparently Mirror’s presence is confusion…” — then it hit her— “Or illusion, the princess did say Mirror had an unusual knack for illusions.” Twilight nodded to herself then turned around, finding her athletic friend deep seemingly deep in thought, a sight she was not used to seeing.
“Wait! Let’s backtrack a bit here, you said only alicorns have these ‘presence’, how can Mirror have them? How could that even be possible?! He’s clearly a unicorn! Plus he’s also a morph for crying out loud, anyone could see that,” — Twilight let out a lame chuckle—“And if he is an alicorn, where are his wings?” having finished her barrage of questions, Rainbow settled down.
“First of all, yes, he is and in fact the first morph alicorn in existence, the reason for this is still unknown. And he was enrolled in this school so that Princess Luna can monitor him; we never know what would happen to a morph given alicorn powers. Secondly he kinda wants to avoid any unnecessary attention, and can you imagine how he’ll be hounded just for being an alicorn? So, he made a way to hide his wings.”
Having lost in Twilight’s explanation, the two mares didn’t notice the Mirror and spike return until the former spoke, “Right on the mark there Twilight.” surprising the two out of their conversation.
Rainbow leveled another glare at him.
‘There it is again, I just want to give him a beating right now…’ Rainbow thought while scrunching her brows.
Mirror cast a suspecting glance at Twilight, “By the way, you know an awfully lot about me, care to share how?” The question seemed to catch Twilight off guard, and made Rainbow a little bit curious.
Twilight let out a sheepish laugh, trying to make up an excuse to what may have been an embarrassing explanation… until Spike spoke up.
“She’s been asking Princess Celestia about you ever since you trained under her, your age, height, strength, magical power, magical skills, heck even your sleeping patterns, almost everything that can be converted into data to be studied, she already asked for.” Spike smirked at his caretaker’s beet red face, more on the fact that her magic didn’t affect him as she wanted evident on the pink aura on his throat.
Mirror was taken a bit surprised at the new revelation, “I thought the only thing you knew about me was that I was an alicorn?” he asked, slightly muffled by the hysterical laughter from the pegasus in the room.
The fact that he didn’t notice that lie the first place made him think, ‘hmm, maybe alicorns are harder to read than others… well, the more you know I guess.’
He let out a breath and put a hand on her shoulder, “It’s alright Twilight, I understand you have a fascination on the subject, the princesses already told me about your slightly obsessive studying habits…” he trailed off at the end after noticing Twilight’s red face going crimson, with Rainbow’s own intensifying laughter.
Rainbow settled down a bit, “You keep this up Mirror and maybe you’ll go into my ‘okay’ list very soon.”
Hoping to diffuse the situation, he steered their conversation elsewhere, “Ooookay, next topic, what were you doing to Spike?”
After managing to lower her own embarrassment she answered with a defeated sigh, “I was trying to prevent his larynx from vibrating, thus preventing him from speaking, which failed miserably…”
“And why is that?”
“He’s going to have a growth spurt sometime in the later months, his body is maturing and since he is an arcane drake, his body’s magic resistance will increase dramatically.”
“And I’ll be growing wings!” Spike added.
“Right, and that. Rainbow, do you know when the others will get here?”
“Applejack said that she and Big Mac just need to unpack and they’ll be here. Rarity and Fluttershy said they’ll come after they finish decorating their room. And Pinkie said she’ll be late, something about introducing us to someone and having a sudden urge to party.” Rainbow replied.
“While we wait, do you mind if you turn down your presence a bit Mirror? I’m getting really indecisive on what to do next around here.”
With a sheepish smile, Mirror complied, “Sorry about that,” he later received strong punch on his shoulder by the rainbow mare. “Ow, what was that for?”
“Nothing, with your presence out of the way I finally decided to punch you… hard”
“Satisfied?”
“Yes… at least for now.”
A moment later, the apple siblings made their entry, one Earth mare with blonde hair and tail wearing a red plaid button up shirt a pair of blue jeans embroidered with three red apples, and boots. The other one, a massive stallion easily towering over Mirror about a head or so, he was wearing a red button up shirt embroidered with a halved green apple, blue jeans and a pair of boots matching his sister.
As always Applejack’s handshake almost threw Mirror through the roof, “Howdy there Mirror, name’s Applejack, It’s nice to meet ya.”
Big Mac’s Handshake on the other hand was firm… and silent.
“Big Mac?” Mirror Inquired
“Eeyup.”
“Not much of a talker?”
“Eeyup.”
Silence.
A few more minutes passed before the next pair entered. A tall unicorn dressed with a white blouse, black jeans, and a pair of high heels. Her purple hair curled with precision to prevent a baby blue gem on her forehead from being covered. Her face showing signs of frustration.
The second, a meek yellow winged pegasus wearing a yellow turtleneck sweater and white pants. She was trying to hide in her long pink locks as soon as she spotted Mirror.
Rarity and Fluttershy crossed the entryway, the latter gingerly made her way to the large farmer while the former, while frustrated, didn’t notice Mirror as she sat right across from him from the various benches and seats inside the library.
“Is she always like this?” Mirror whispered to the hovering athlete at his side, noticing Rarity’s conflicted demeanor.
“Nah.” Came the answer, “She only like this when she’s in a jam. Mainly involves fashion though.”
“I’ll take your word for it then, I don’t know anything about fashion, doubtful I could help her in that subject.”
Rarity raised her gaze for a moment, apparently the word ‘fashion’ broke her out of her internal debate, and grew wide eyed at what she was seeing: Black and White.
“Now, is that normal?” he asked again, now slightly uncomfortable at the fashionista’s stare.
“Happens every time she realizes a solution.”
Slowly, a smile crawls up the fashionista’s face, followed by her standing up and shaking Mirror’s hand with mirth, “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you darling!”
“W-what did I do?” Mirror asked in confusion
“Why darling, you just broke through my little dilemma on my next line. I haven’t tested my fields in monochromatic styles, this is going to be an enjoyable experience.”
Mirror hadn’t the slightest clue on what he helped on her on, until the word monochromatic came to view, ‘Really,’ he thought ‘me wearing black was the only reason about this? It’s hardly a reason to thank me.’
“With all that black you’re wearing, aren’t you getting hot in there?”
The moment Rarity asked the question, Rainbow was already hovering by Mirror’s shoulder with a smirk, raising a brow, “Wow Rarity, you don’t even know the guy’s name yet and you’re flirting already.”
The statement alone made the fashionista stutter and paint a faint blush on her cheeks.
‘This mare really likes to mess with friends’ Mirror thought, ‘May as well play along.’ He mirrored Rainbow and raised his brow.
“Right, well my name is Rarity Belle, the sole proprietor of Carousel Boutique, and the element of generosity.” Rarity held out her hand, slightly faltering by the power of the brows.
Mirror stood up and removed his face with a raised brow, revealing a smiling face below it. The unusualness of the movement somewhat appalled Rarity and the farm-mare behind her but granted a little humor from both the pegasi in the room. “Mirror Image, the illusionist.” He said as he shook her hand.
Rarity stuttered, “I-illusions? For a moment there I thought it was the Discord fiasco all over again.”
*SLAM*
*GASP*
The group immediately looked upon entryway, there stood mouth agape a pink mare… a very pink mare, maybe it’s the hair.
She stands a bit taller that Rainbow, with a head full of bouncy pink hair and wearing a pink shirt embroidered with balloons, two blue and one yellow, baby blue shorts with suspenders, pink sneakers and white and pink striped knee-high socks.
Mirror was equally agape, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of pink.’ he thought
With a pink blur, Mirror’s hand was soon shaken with vigor, “Hi my name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but everybody calls me Pinkie Pie, what’s your name? I like parties, do you like parties? ‘cause it’ll be really, really weird if you don’t like if I throwapartyandyouare’ntinvitedbecauseIknewyoudon’tlikepartiesandyou’llbelikesuperboredandallalonebecauseeverybodyisinvitedbutyou.
“Hi Pinkie, my name’s Mirror Image, and, uh occasionally?” he faced Rainbow, who was hovering a bit ways above him “Is this normal?” he asked quietly
“It is for Pinkie Pie.” She answered, she hovered closer to her pink friend, “So, Pinks, care to tell us who you brought with you?”
“Sure thing Dash,” Pinkie replied as she let go of Mirror’s hand that she was shaking vigorously and stepped back a bit, “He’s right here!” she yelled as she stepped aside, both arms gesturing where she were before with a huge smile on her face.
With all the other’s look of confusion, Pinkie looked where she was gesturing and frowned. She crouched down facing away from the others and started talking to her shadow. “Why didn’t you come out?… What? I’m sure they’ll at least let you talk first… Don’t be a meany pants, I’ll pull you out of there if I have to… you asked for it.” Reaching into her shadow, she pulled out a big chunk of dark mass which slowly formed into a distraught stallion.
A moment later Twilight easily recognized the form, “KING SOMBRA?! How are you even alive?” she asked all the while charging a spell into her hands, while the others, except Mirror and Big Mac who were getting confused, got ready for battle.
Sombra on the other hand was passive, “Sparkle.” He said nonchalantly
“Pinkie get away from him, he’s a villain, a tyrant, and most of all he’s—“
“Reformed.” Pinkie interrupted causing her friends to shout in unison,
“WHAT!?”
Twilight was the first one to break out of her stupor, “How and When?!”
“Remember the time when you all invited me to Canterlot because of your ascension and I stayed behind a bit?”
“THAT WAS TWO MONTHS AGO! Why did you keep this from us? You could have been killed!”
“No can do Twilight, Princesses orders.”
Twilight gave out a sigh and turned to Sombra, who was now more or less fully formed. He stands as tall as Rarity with somewhat flowing black hair, scarlet eyes and a faintly glowing crimson gem on his forehead. He was wearing a grey button up shirt and black dress pants.
Sombra turned to Twilight, “It seems that your friend Pinkamena can be a handful sometimes, but I still owe her for giving me my sanity back.” He said as he picked out a book out of the shelves.
Twilight gave out another sigh, “Pinkie—“
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you get that party Dash was talking about out of your system while I gather my thoughts.” Twilight slowly entered her office and closed the door… hard.
“Gladly!” Pinkie pulled out a blue cannon from out of nowhere as far as Mirror could notice, leaving him slack-jawed. “Let’s get this party started!” With a blast from her cannon, library was decorated almost in a blink of an eye, making Mirror question if logic really exist.
‘Okay this day just got a LOT weirder… But I’m not complaining.’ Mirror thought.
The pink party gal’s party was a total success as far as Mirror knows, he hasn’t had any experiences in these kinds of parties without watching over somebody, namely his twin cousins. But now that he has nothing to do, he’s absolutely stumped on what to do.
Back on Earth, people often never often invite him unless his cousins are what they’re after, leaving Mirror looking after them from the sidelines and keeping him from paying attention to the party itself. It’s always family first.
Because of just that, the party’s atmosphere sends him an itch to just stand at the sidelines and observe; an itch that he is more than happy to comply.
Old habits die hard.
Seeing the sun lowering from its peak considerably, Mirror excused himself out of the party, “Thanks for the party Pinkie, but I should really get going.” He exited the building and head to his dorm,.
~†~
After Mirror’s exit, the party started to calm down, hinting the apple siblings to make their exit, “Alright, Big Mac an’ I are gonna head up to the school’s agricultural gardens if ya’ll need us.” followed by an ‘Eeyup’ from Big Mac before leaving for the gardens.
With the party officially stopped, Pinkie took a second to look at the room before turning into a pink blur zipping throughout the room. Within a few seconds she comes to a stop by Sombra with a clean room and an excited grin on her face. “We need to leave too girls, Sombra promised to help me set up the Sugarcube Corner branch her in campus.” Without any time for a reply, she grabbed Sombra by his collar and dragged him off outside, leaving four mares in the library.
Twilight, having been left to her thoughts, can’t help but think about Sombra. ‘Why is he still alive? How is he still alive? And why isn’t he hostile?’, but she decided to hold those thoughts; she has utmost faith in her teacher’s decision and the sincere smile she saw on Sombra’s face is a testament of that. Instead, she focused on Rainbow’s behavior at the party, which also didn’t escape Rarity’s notice.
“Rainbow darling, care to tell us why you can’t take your eyes off our new friend?” Rarity gave her a questioning glance.
Rainbow froze but answered anyway, “I… I don’t know.”
Twilight still held her gaze, “What do you mean Rainbow, you were looking at him like he was hiding a knife behind his back.”
Rainbow winced. She didn’t mean to, but having heard of Earth’s past conflicts burned negative thoughts about Terrans in her mind. If they can produce mass destruction without magic, there’s no telling on what a Terran would do with alicorn powers
“Give him a chance dear, I don’t know what you think of him but the princess did offer to teach him, and she is a great judge of character.” Rainbow ruffled her wings and walked to the door.
“Yeah, I’ll think about it, later.” With that she exited the library.
Rarity waited to make sure her prismatic friend weren’t nearby then adjusted herself on the bench and faced her alicorn friend, “Alright Twilight, spill…”
Twilight was slightly stunned, “Wha-What?”
“Don’t play coy dear, you’ve been tense ever since you came back from your office.” Looking at herself, only now did Twilight notice she is clenching her hands. Looking over the rest of her body, she noticed she was sweating. She could feel her body twitching every few seconds as stress racked her thoughts. “Darling please, I know you think that sharing your problems will just be a burden to us, but I assure you that’s what friends are for, isn’t that right Fluttershy?”
The shy pegasus shifted behind her hair, “Y-yes, we’re here for you Twilight, w-we’ll be happy to help you… I-if that’s okay with you.”
Twilight let out a sigh, her secret was already found out. She was never really good at keeping information to herself. She slumped down in her seat. “Thanks girls, for being understanding.”
“It’s fine dear, now what is causing you to be so high strung?”
Twilight hesitated. “I don’t know how I could put this…” she suddenly found the floor more interesting
“Come on darling, surely it can’t be that bad.”
“It’s not really, the princesses just gave me something to solve. It’s been going bugging them for months now and they can’t make time to continue their research with the papers flooding from Earth.”
“Well, what is it?”
Twilight paused. ‘Is this the right choice? They had said that they’ll help me with this.’
After some thinking she lifted her gaze. “There are reports of something unusual happening to a few Morphs. After the transformation spell was casted to them, they will almost immediately suffer from magical feedback regardless if they’re morphed into unicorns or not, but that’s not the most surprising part...”
She paused with hesitation, but the looks of curiosity on her two friends edged her to continue, “... After recovering from the feedback they will have a mix of the magic of an average gaian and one of the two remaining races. We’ve come to call them hybrids.”
“Is that it? That's not something to be tense about darling." Rarity visibly relaxed, "I suppose it is a little bit of blessing- wait, is Mirror one of them?”
Twilight nodded.
“So, Mirror is not actually an alicorn?”
“Technically, he is, just not fully ascended.”
Rarity motioned her friend to continue.
“According to the princesses data that I ask for,” Twilight blushed at her little confession, “Originally, he was a pegasus-unicorn hybrid: the first morph hybrid that deviated from the others. But then after a while the gaian part of his magic started to develop and the pegasus part began to fade. And I’m almost certain that soon his pegasus magic will disappear fully.”
Crestfallen, Fluttershy gripped her tail on her lap like a vice “Poor Mirror, how is he going to fly when the time comes? He seemed to love the feeling of flight when he told us about his time practicing flying back at the party.” and even though she almost always stay on the ground, still she is terrified of the thought of losing her ability to fly.
Twilight’s mood soured, “I wouldn’t worry about that. There’s something more worse happening to him that losing his ability to fly.” her voice was starting to flatten.
A quiet whimper escaped the meek pegasus’ lips. “Wh-what’s going to happen to him Twilight?”
“He’s going to die.”
~†~
“Come on guys, this rain isn’t gonna place themselves!”
Those words hung in the air above the clouds as the university’s weather team arranged the upcoming storm.
“Fifteen minutes before downpour!”
Patch by patch the pegasi filled the skies above the campus with gray clouds, ready to release their load of water below. Each one of the gray puffs directly being delivered from the great floating city of Cloudsdale as it passes through above them.
“We’ve got ten minutes left. Rest up before we get the clouds going.” Rainbow Dash, captain of the weather team shouted once more seeing as the perfect blanket of rain clouds is already covered her own area of responsibility.
Glancing once more, she spotted a blank hole behind her, “Clear Skies, get me a rain cloud here.”
Answering with an excited ‘Yes ma’am’ the mare flew up the factory to find a cloud, leaving Rainbow to her devices.
She checked down on the clouds getting to ready to take off before she spotted large white wings gliding below the cloud layer, ‘Was that Celestia?’ she checked again noticing the figure’s lack of ethereal hair, ‘That, isn’t Celestia.’
The figure was heading for the patch of trees next to the campus’ edge, ‘Who is that?’ choosing to investigate, Rainbow Dash followed quietly.
The flight didn’t last for long, as soon as the figure reached the mini-forest, it dove down into the canopy, landing on it’s two feet. Now that it stopped, Rainbow finally saw who it was.
“Mirror.” she whispered under her breath
He looked around for anyone near, before going in deeper in the trees with Rainbow tailing him by hopping from branch to branch.
‘What is he doing here.’ She stopped noticing Mirror sitting on the ground a few meters away.
His eyes were closed, concentrating on something… but what?
She was about to ask him, but she spotted it. The change was subtle but was still there, the green grass was slowly becoming darker, as if it’s life was being drained away… and it was.
‘I’ve got to tell Twilight.’
Then came the rain.