Knights of Equestria: I'll See You on the Other Side

Chapter IV: First Lessons

When the Equestrian sun rose the following morning with orange rays extended over the entire sky, a rooster from afar cawed loudly and awakened Sol from her deep slumber. She opened her heavy eyes, blinked several times to adjust to the light, and let out a bellowing yawn as she stretched her hind legs, fore legs, and back. She looked about the room, which was still dark as the sun had barely entered the sky off the mountainous horizon. Already, there were carts rolling down the paved roads, pulled by early-bird ponies all ready for the new day. With a groan, she fell back to the bed and shut her eyes. Her ears, however, were still wide open and let in every minute sound from beyond the walls of the house.

She opened her eyes again, but continued to lie down on the bed with the covers halfway over her body. Her new fur coat kept her rather warm. Beside her slept Midnight Sparkle, who was wrapped tightly in a cocoon of the blankets with a pillow wedged underneath her head. All the while she lay there, she thought about her mother. Before the two had gone through the mirror, Sunset warned Sol about the many Equestrian dangers, from destructive magic to mythical beasts that roamed the wildernesses. All was so foreign, yet when she made her way through the streets, she saw many ponies who featured significant similarities to people she knew from her own world. The entire mane six, she realized, she had met on the other side as they, too, were all friends from the past.

Not more than five or so minutes after the sun had first risen, she heard faint thumping hoofsteps coming nearer from down the hall before they knocked thrice upon Midnight’s bedroom door. Sol did not reply, and shut her eyes as though she had just awakened. The knocking came again and was followed by a female voice, Twilight, who said in a hushed tone, “Girls? Are you awake?” Sol was about to answer when she heard rustling from Midnight’s side of the bed.

Midnight slowly awoke and groaned as she smacked her lips. She then yawned with a brief stretch. She leapt out of bed and answered, “Yeah, mom,” with a forced cheer in her voice. Sol followed Midnight’s lead and stumbled out of the bed. The untouched wooden floor felt cold to her hooves and sent a shiver down her spine, a simple feeling that was all too familiar.

“Are you all right?” Midnight asked as she brushed her mane. Her hairbrush, Sol noticed, floated in the air; carried by a light blue aura coming from her horn.

“Yes,” was Sol’s reply. After a few seconds of silence, Sol then asked, “I’m curious. Why don’t you have wings like Twilight?”

Midnight raised her right eyebrow and tilted her head toward Sol. “My father was not an Alicorn,” she answered.

“Ahh, sorry.”

Midnight turned her head quickly back towards her dresser and responded, “It’s all right.” Her eyebrows bent inward and a frown momentarily crossed over her lips. She looked at herself in the mirror before turning her attention to a charred photograph, framed and sitting upright on the dresser.

Twilight returned a few minutes later and opened the door. Her mane was tangled and disheveled, unlike the day before. Small bags formed under her eyes and there were alternating patches of rough fur all over her purple coat. “What do you girls want for breakfast?” she asked.

“Anything is fine,” Sol replied. She looked over at Midnight, who still had her attention on the picture.

Twilight saw what her daughter was doing, yet continued, “Oatmeal?”

“That’s fine,” both girls answered simultaneously.

Twilight smirked and told them, “I’ll get to it, soon.” She then asked, “Did you sleep well, Sol?”

Sol nodded and said, “Yes.”

With a vibrant smile, Twilight said, “That’s good. Come down when you’re ready. I’ll make breakfast in about half an hour.”

Twilight then left and shut the door. When she was gone, Midnight turned away from the picture and continued to brush her mane. With her magic, she pulled brush through her blue mane, yanking sternly whenever she felt a knot. Each section of her mane that she brushed began to glow and wave about like her mother’s.

“Do you want to take a shower or bath?” Midnight asked. She set her hairbrush back on her dresser when she finished and approached Sol, who was still standing beside the bed.

“No,” Sol replied, “I don’t think I need one, but can I use your brush?”

“Of course.”

Midnight grabbed the brush with her magic and tossed it onto the bed. Sol stared at the brush for a few seconds, trying hard to use levitation magic. None of her attempts were successful and not even a glow appeared on her horn. “Um, how exactly do you levitate things?”

“Here, I’ll do it for you.”

Midnight picked up the brush and pushed the bristles through the tangled strands of Sol’s mane. Once each section had been detangled, Midnight placed the brush down and said, “I think I’m done.” The two walked over to Midnight’s mirror. Seeing herself in pony form, Sol frowned as she moved her head from side to side. Her eyes were larger, which brought out her brightly colored yellow eyes, although all of her other physical features were drastically different. Her ears pointed upward, her nose was now part of a small muzzle, she now had a tail, she stood on four legs with a vertical back, and she no longer required clothing to go around in public.

“It looks great,” Sol commented. Most of her wavy mane hung down to the right side of her face, though a few locks kept to the other side. Her tail had also been brushed, revealing a single lock of hair that curled around beside the main strand, which waved like her mane. The deep colors of the red in her mane brought out the pale orange of her coat, much like in her other world.

There were several small pictures shoved into the crack between the mirror and the wooden base, but all of them seemed to be of friends or places around Equestria. Her eyes panned over from the mirror to the picture in the frame. She quickly identified Twilight due to her wings and horn, and recognized a much younger Midnight being held by another pony, a male, with a grayish coat. She could not identify the setting, however, as she had seen little of Equestria. Midnight saw that Sol was looking at the picture, and quickly said, “I’m not sure when she plans to do anything, but my mom can teach you how to use magic. Teaching others is not a strong skill of mine.”

Sol nodded and looked away from the picture.

“Are you ready?” Midnight asked. After she finished speaking, Sol heard a low rumbling come from Midnight’s stomach. The feeling of hunger was mutual between the two.

“Let’s go,” Sol replied. Before leaving the room with Midnight, Sol quickly glanced back at the mirror.

She followed Midnight down the stairs and into the kitchen. A few pieces of confetti remained from the party the day before. She felt a chilling blast of air come from a vent in the ceiling felt goose bumps form all along her sides and back. She looked around the kitchen and the living room, but found no sign of Twilight. Sol turned to Midnight and asked, “Where is Twilight?”

“She’s probably taking a shower. Want something to drink? I have juice.”

“Sure.”

A few minutes later, Twilight stumbled down the stairs with a white towel wrapped around her mane. Warm droplets of water covered her shining purple coat, and she smelled all over of flowers. Immediately, she entered the kitchen and pulled out a glass jar filled with dried oats from the pantry beside the dishwasher. A blue curtain covered the small window over the sink, but the street could barely be seen through it. The sun kept moving higher in the sky.

Twilight scooped some of the oatmeal with a wooden spoon and tossed the spoonfuls into three ceramic bowls. She then added fresh and cold milk from the refrigerator near the kitchen entrance. To save time, Twilight heated each bowl with her magic and stirred the warmed mixtures with the same wooden spoon. The ponies sat down on the red pillows set on the floor beside the table, each with a bowl before them. To Sol’s surprise, Midnight was able to pick up the bowl using only her hooves.

“How did you do that?” Sol asked, pointing her hoof at Midnight, who was still holding the bowl.

“Hooves, how do they work?” Midnight snidely remarked.

“After breakfast, we’ll begin your first lesson, Solar Shimmer,” Twilight said before she began to eat. “We’ll go to the Castle just outside Ponyville. Before you learn spells and magic, you’ll need to learn how to read Equestrian characters.”

“Why is that?” Sol asked. She mimicked Midnight’s grasping of the bowl using her hooves, but dropped the bowl after lifting it only a few inches. Luckily, nothing was spilled and the bowl sat upright.

Twilight blew lightly on her oatmeal and replied, “Equestrian magic is often formed using lines of words called spells. You have to ponder on these words to make things happen. Once they are learned, they become more automatic and you can just do them at will.”

“So, to use them, I have to read what they say?” Sol added, trying once more to lift the bowl.

“Exactly! Don’t worry. Our letters aren’t that difficult.”

Sol wrapped her right hoof halfway around the bowl, and with minimal effort, lifted it from the table and to her face. “Hey, I did it!” she exclaimed.

Later that morning, the three arrived at the Castle outside of Ponyville and made their way to a small room near the guest wing. There were several filled bookshelves packed with magic spell books lining the walls, Equestrian tapestries depicting Princesses Celestia and Luna beside each of the two windows, and unlit candelabras in every corner in addition to the diamond-like light fixture in the center of the slightly arched ceiling. There were two large and circular tables, with pillows beside them like chairs, placed near the windows.

Twilight quickly entered the room and pulled out several books from each bookcase. She slammed the tomes down on the table closest to the window overlooking Ponyville. Canterlot could be seen by all of them off in the distance. Twilight, with a deep grin, sat down at the table and flipped through the pages of each book to specific passages, and set them in a row before a seat on the other side. “Sit, sit!” Twilight ordered, looking closely at Sol. Sol sat down by the books and looked down at the words. Each of the passages Twilight pointed out were written in English, though strangely worded.

“These books should help you read our letters. Most of our spells are written in them, as they have magical characteristics,” said Twilight.

“To optimally read magic, one must first and completely master the native Equestrian characters with which to read magical spells,” Sol began to read aloud, “Most of the aforementioned magical characters in the native Equestrian language base are often rather exaggerated versions of the written letters in this modern Equestrian written text, where with visible pictures in the form of pen or brush strokes, there added to make each written one unique and nearly obvious to the reader in definition.” Sol then looked up at Twilight and said, “I’m confused.”

“Sorry,” said Twilight with a reassuring smile, “these books are rather old. Keep reading and it should explain each character.”

As Sol kept reading, Midnight sat down beside her mother and asked, “What should I do?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Twilight exclaimed. She leapt from her seat and ran over to a bookshelf, and jerked out a black book from the top shelf. Another book wedged next to it fell to the floor without Twilight noticing. She slammed the book onto the other table and used her purple magic to open the book to a passage, revealing a page-long spell written in the Equestrian characters. Opening her eyes up wide, Midnight Sparkle pushed her head in closer to look more thoroughly at the words on the page.

“One’s heart, pressured with an eternal anxiety, strives to forgive and to love and to show, to carry the burdens of our world; a soul with strong words and feelings to often violently ignite the way of the truth, revealed through our actions and carried out by our dreams and aspirations, until the day the world ceases to be,” Midnight recited carefully. Sol looked up briefly from her book to watch Midnight stand there in total silence. Midnight kept her eyes open, and after ten seconds or so of the silence, formed a blue glow around her unicorn horn. Gnashing her teeth and grunting heavily, she made the glow stronger until a quickly rotating sphere ignited and burst around in a spiraling reddish light that absorbed her horn entirely. Sol felt the blazing heat from across the room and halfway shut her eyes, yet she could not turn away. With a short cry, Midnight shut her eyes and shook her head. The flames swarming around her vanished, leaving only a cloud of grayish smoke that gathered around the room.

“What- what was that?!” Midnight exclaimed with a hoarse voice as milky tears ran down from her eyes.

Twilight smirked and answered, “Flames of the Sorrowful Alicorn.”