Chapters The Fallen and the Forgotten
Ask the average pony in Ponyville to describe the Everfree Forest in a word and most would say dangerous. Not many pony folk venture out into it’s depths, and even fewer would call it home. The local folklore that has been passed down over generations featured everything from haunted houses deep in the woods to headless ghost ponies that roam the night. Twilight Sparkle had no doubt that there would be at least a few new tall tales to be told at slumber parties to spook young fillies and colts after this evening was through.
With the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters shrinking into the forrest behind them, Twilight and her friends were in a full out gallop in the midst of the densely packed trees. Her ever faithful assistant Spike atop her back, along for the ride.
Twilight looked skyward in the direction they where headed. Even this deep in the Everfree Forest the unnatural shimmering shaft of blue light that projected upward in the distance was visible through the tree canopy. The enormous pillar of light cast long, shifting shadows across the forest floor.
The origin of the strange phenomenon was the Crystal Mirror, a magical artifact that Princess Celestia had entrusted Twilight with. Twilight had set up the mirror in a corner of the castle library so she could continue study it. The irregular behaviour began a few days after the last trip she had taken to the human world to trade books with Sunset Shimmer about each other’s world.
At first, Twilight had merely observed the strange behaviour, assuming it was her own modifications to the mirror to enable being able to use it outside of it’s original intended limits. A week and a half of extensive research brought her to the conclusion that the abnormal amount of excess energy was thankfully not due to her modifications, but seemed to be occurring within the mirror itself.
Her research at a dead end, the answer continued to elude her. No amount of poking and prodding at the artifact or re-reading every single book that had been sent over along with the mirror a second time proved to be nothing more than a reminder of just how long Princess Celestia had this particular magical item in her possession. She continued to read every single book she had in her library of Star Swirl the Bearded’s research even remotely connected to cross dimensional travel, hoping to find something referencing similar observations of her own, but that also turned up little of use.
Rarity, who was following closest to Twilight had quickened her pace to pull alongside her. She broke Twilight’s train of thought. “Oh dear, I feel like I’m coming down with something absolutely dreadful,” she said. Rarity shook her head. “I don’t know how else to describe it. I feel like my mind is enshrouded in a thick fog. The more I attempt to focus, the more my thoughts are jumbled up. It’s quite unpleasant,” she complained.
Twilight took a measured breath to clear her own thoughts. The acrid scent of raw magical that had built up in the air was starting to take it’s toll. She looked to her friend with concern. “I think it’s a side effect of the raw magical energy seeping from of the Crystal Mirror, as I’m starting to feel the effects of exposure as well.
“The amount of energy being expelled from the Crystal Mirror has built up in the air around us, and far exceeds the normal level of ambient energy. The amount of that’s being generated shouldn’t even be possible of something that size,” Twilight grimaced. “Your horn makes you especially sensitive to the the built up energy,” Twilight said. She returned her gaze towards the shaft of light. “Thankfully even long term exposure won’t cause any lasting harm. Nothing that a little rest wouldn’t fix, anyway.” She smiled weakly.
Twilight stole a glance to her other flank. The rest of her friends continued to follow close behind on hoof. The only exception was Rainbow Dash, who took to the air, flying just above the forest’s canopy overhead. “I’m afraid that even earth ponies and Pegasi will start feeling the effects soon enough,“ Twilight said.
Rarity sighed. “In that case, I can tough it out a little longer,” she smiled weakly. “I do hope everypony in town is managing okay. It must be absolutely dreadful seeing that light outside and not knowing anything about it.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll fix this and everything should go back to normal,” Twilight reassured. She returned her attention towards the direction of her castle as the group weaved through the trees. “If only I had more time to study this. I’m sure I can figure out exactly why,” Twilight muttered to herself.
It was a lucky break they had found a possible solution to the current problem. Twilight and her friends took a trip to the ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters to go through the last of the books that still hadn’t been transported to Twilight’s castle. Rainbow Dash had been the one to find the spell. She had been flipping through one of Star Swirl’s final journals and found diagrams similar to that of the Crystal Mirror.
Spike leaned forward atop Twilight’s back, steadying himself by gripping tightly on to Twilight’s saddlebag and mane. “There will be plenty of time to figure that out after we make sure Ponyville is safe.”
“You’re right, Spike,” she sighed. “We still have to represent the Elements, and protecting Equestria comes first. Any word from Princess Celestia?” she asked. Not even a full day before the Crystal Mirror started to misbehave, both Princesses Celestia and Luna had left for the edge of Equestria’s border on an urgent diplomatic incident.
Spike shook his head. “I’m sorry Twilight, Nothing from her yet.”
“Well, I’m sure we’ve got a good handle on this without the extra help.”
She slowed to a trot, the group following suit. The trees thinning until they reached the tree line bordering her castle. Twilight saw the royal guards she had posted in front of the twin doors that served main entrance to the tree castle where still there.
A small squad of Princess Celestia’s royal guard had been temporarily assigned to Ponyville to help Twilight settle in to her new castle. Twilight had posted two of them outside and the remaining guards to head into town to ensure it’s residents stayed a safe distance from the castle. The two posted out front recognized Twilight and her friends and deftly made enough room for her group to proceed into the castle’s lower lobby.
Twilight and her friends galloped up the spiral staircase to the second set of doors that opened up to the main hall. She came to a full stop just before the oversized doors, her friends gathering on the steps behind her. Spike hopped off of her back to stretch his legs.
Twilight put one hoof against the huge crystalline door and closed her eyes, calming herself. Clearing her throat, she turned to look to each of her friends. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike all stood, attentive. Twilight smiled, proudly.
“Girls, as always, thank you for everything. We never would have made it this far if it wasn’t for all of you, my friends coming together in a—”
Rainbow Dash cut in. “No need to thank us, Twilight. When you have awesome friends, specifically me, you there should be no doubt.” Rainbow Dash drifted lazily in the air, her wings’ slow, rhythmic flapping keeping her a steady just above the stairs.
Applejack rolled her eyes and shook her head at Rainbow Dash, who just grinned and shrugged. “Translation for the more humble folk here, we’re always happy to help.”
”Unfortunately, this is as far as we go for now as a group. I need to cast the spell and—” Twilight began.
“Hey now, hold on there a minute,” Applejack interjected, her brow furrowing. She took a step up towards Twilight. “We do this sort of thing together. That’s kind of what we do.” The rest of the girls murmured in agreement.
Twilight had expected her friends to outright reject her proposal, but Applejack did have a point. Every time they’ve ever encountered an extraordinary problem, they’ve always come together to get through it.
“I know how you all feel, and any other time I would be more than happy to have you all there with me. From what I deciphered from Star Swirl’s journal that Rainbow Dash found in the ruins, this spell requires the pony casting it to have a high level understanding of magic. As I am the most experienced magic user here, it has to be me. I want to proceed as safely as possible, and since an immense amount of magical energy is involved I don’t want to risk anypony getting hurt while I do this,” explained Twilight. “No need to worry. I understand what the spell requires me to do. I can handle it,” she nervously smiled.
Twilight nervously observed everypony with bated breath. Each exchanged sidelong glances with one another. All except Pinkie Pie nodded in silent agreement. Pinkie Pie’s attention turned to Twilight, her eyes narrowed to a squint. Pinkie opened her mouth about to speak up, but then thought better of it. Her expression instantly snapped back to her normal, joyful self. Pinkie turned to Applejack and nodded eagerly in agreement.
“This means a party afterwards. Guest of honour: Twilight!” Pinkie said cheerfully.
Applejack sighed, returning her attention to Twilight. “Well then, I reckon that’s that. We’ll stay put, but at the first lick of trouble, we’ll come running. Just holler if you need us.”
Twilight exhaled, relieved. “Thank you for understanding, this wasn’t an easy thing to ask of you girls,“ she said. She turned to face the large crystalline doors that opened directly into the main hall and the inner chambers of the castle. Twilight’s new library was adjacent to the throne room at the far end of the hall.
Spike took a small step forward from Rarity’s side. “Twilight—” he began.
“No, Spike,” Twilight cut in. She turned her head meeting Spike’s pleading gaze. “You have to stay here as well.” Before he could mount further protest, she faced the doors once more. “I’ll be back before you know it.“
Before Spike could protest further, she focused her magic on the doors that stood before her. The doors heaved open, the vacuum caused by the magical energy finally giving way. The vortex of charged air from the Crystal Mirror had fully saturated the air in the hallway. Twilight carefully stepped through the doorway and and turned, focusing magic on the doors once more. As the doors closed, she smiled, her friends proudly encouraging her on. Fluttershy winced at the sudden gust of magically charged air that slipped past the doorway.
The doors closed, another gust of magically charged air pushing them firmly shut. Alone, Twilight turned to face down the empty hallway. The main hall of the castle was nothing short of stunning. On an average day, walking through here felt welcoming. The enormous green tinted glass windows that lined both sides cast a warm glow, along with the intricate rugs lined the polished stone floor. With the shimmering beam of light projecting out into the evening sky the light that filtered through made everything turquoise, as if the hallway was under water. The unnatural metallic whine drifted down the hallway from the crystal mirror helped to complete the unsettling ambiance.
She used magic to pull Star Swirl’s journal from her saddlebag and flipped to the bookmarked passage. She re-read the spell that had been written as well as the additional notes scrawled all over the page. A few of those notes directly referenced the spell he had built, one in particular stood out. As far as Twilight could determine the note translated literally to:
‘Danger, fortune transform. Curtail unknown.’
“Danger,” she muttered, frowning. The translation didn’t make any sense. Star Swirl’s note taking shorthand was still mostly a mystery to her even after reading and deciphering most of Star Swirl’s original journals Princess Celestia had preserved.
Using powerful magic like this almost always brought about unpredictable side effects, and this specific scrawl had to be some kind of warning, Twilight was sure of it. Risking anypony else’s well-being when trying out a powerful new magic spell for the first time all because she couldn’t completely understand the cryptic warning scribbled in the margins of the journal.
She was confident she could handle any risk based on the results written in Star Swirl’s journal, as he indicated the spell did succeed in it’s intent to address the excess magical energy of his own dimensional mirror. She closed the journal and returned it to her saddlebag, committing the entire spell to memory.
Twilight shook her head clear and took a deep breath, clearing any remnant of doubt. Putting one hoof in front of the other, she proceeded down the hallway. The bright blue light from the mirror radiated from the library’s doorway near the end of the hall in front of her.
She paused directly in front of the doorway, and tried to block some light with one of her forehooves and squinted. As her eyes adjusted to the light, the immediate area around the doorway had sustained significant damage. The mirror was now projecting long tendrils of raw magical energy from it’s surface. “Well, that’s new,” she muttered.
She assessed the damage directly surrounding the Crystal Mirror. The reach of the thrashing tendrils cut into everything they came in contact with, the crystalline doors and the surrounding stone wall sliced to pieces. A few of the nearest book shelves had been entirely cut through, the books resting on them either cut to pieces or entirely vaporized. “Aw, my books,” Twilight said.
The stacks of cargo crates that sat just inside the door where mostly undamaged, Princess Celestia’s royal seal still protecting them from harm. Twilight looked to the mirror itself. Both the contraption Twilight built to augment the power of the mirror, and the mirror remained undamaged.
Twilight grit her teeth together, attempting to stave off the mounting headache that was brewing. Even with her training into magical resistance being this close to the source of this much raw magical energy was pushing her own limits.
Still squinting, she peered upward. The mirror was emitting so much energy the excess had burned a large hole straight up through the castle to the outside. The beam of pure magical energy came to a point that reached even higher than the tallest spire of the castle.
She returned her attention to the Crystal Mirror that sat in front of her. She had to be extremely precise with this spell. Hitting the mirror frame instead of the mirror’s event horizon would be catastrophic. Twilight suspected the mirror’s frame was enchanted, a containment vessel for the dimensional vortex magic held within. She shuddered at the though of would happen if that where breached.
She focused on the mirror surface near the center of the blinding light. The shimmering blue pool of liquid-like mass rippled endlessly. Concentrating solely on the spell, she channeled every ounce of focus into the tip of her horn. Glowing a bright purple, the magical stream of light shot forth from her horn and struck true, hitting the center of the mirror.
She could feel the raw magic crawling it’s way back up her own spell. She was prepared for this, drawing the raw energy away from the mirror into herself. After a few seconds Twilight could feel the extreme level of magic was weakening.
“It’s working!” she exclaimed aloud to the empty room. Twilight took a confident step forward, the energy from the mirror shrunk further. The odd energy tendrils had also diminished in size. She closed her eyes, Twilight could sensed the latent energy saturated in the air had tapered off.
Suddenly one of the energy tendrils lashed out and followed Twilight’s focused beam of magic back to her horn, latching onto it firmly. “What the—” Twilight pulled her head back in reflex, but kept the spell going. She fanned her wings, to balance herself. “Let go!“ Twilight commanded the tendrils. She gave it a hard tug, the tendrils responded in kind, pulling closer to the mirror.
A jolt of energy ripped through the tendril, her focus slipped for an instant. “Ow!” Twilight exclaimed. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her head. She brought a hoof to her temple, massaging it. “What in Equestria?”
Another tendril extended from the Crystal Mirror and wrapped around her forelegs. Again, it was ice cold to the touch. It pulled in tandem to get her even closer to event horizon of the mirror surface. Twilight started to panic. She tried to take a step back as well flapping her wings for assistance but it only slowed the rate she was being dragged in.
“Maybe a teleport then as soon as this is complete,“ she said to herself. She continued to strain against the pull of the mirror, but forced every remaining ounce of her strength into a pinpoint in her consciousness. Another few anxious seconds and the casting of the neutralization spell was complete.
The out of control magical energy emanating from the mirror levelled off. Twilight exhaled a sigh of relief. she stole a glance upward. The excess energy blasting skyward had all but disappeared. The evening sky was visible overhead, The moon lit the lightless library.
“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed. She looked back to the mirror. Despite the beam of light vanishing and the mirror’s energy returning to normal, the unnatural tendrils still extended from the surface of the mirror, entwined firmly to her horn and forelegs. She tugged hard again, expecting the mirror’s appendages to release her. They didn’t budge. “Well, mostly.” She concluded.
She didn’t understand why the tendrils of energy extending from the mirror were still present. Even Twilight’s own physical strength augmented with her magic were not enough. Her gaze drifted back to the mirror surface itself. It had gone from bright blue-white to a light absorbing pool of darkness, the tendrils shifting properties in an instant to match.
Twilight’s heart raced, a thousand thoughts firing through her mind, sending her head spinning. Twilight had never encountered a phenomenon like this in any of her studies. None of this made any sense to her.
“Let. Go,“ commanded Twilight. She tried tugging on the blackened tendrils once more, but it was a futile effort. They pulled her roughly towards the mirror. “Teleport it is then.” She focused on casting the spell to put some distance between herself and the mirror.
A second surge of magic ripped through the tendril to her horn, much stronger than the first. This time, she felt the invasive prodding of her consciousness woven into the attack, an icy chill tore down her spine. The invasive force combed through her very being.
“Oh no,” Twilight whispered. A new hypothesis had just occurred to her: The mirror malfunctioning was an intentional act. Somepony or something was in control of every event leading up to this point. An elaborate attempt to get her to cast that spell on the Crystal Mirror. One thing was for sure, Twilight knew she had to regroup with her friends, to figure out who would do and more importantly, why. She tried to organize her thoughts to finish casting the teleport spell to get her out of the tangle of tendrils, but the magic from the tendrils reacted quicker.
The invasive magic dug deep into her mind, stunning her. It sifted through a lifetime of her memories. The brief flashes were just bits and pieces but where incredibly vivid, as if reliving the moment in perfect detail. Her first time meeting Princess Celestia, her very first visit to Ponyville, her transformation into an Alicorn and becoming a Princess. The relentless amount of information sent her mind reeling.
The barrage ceased as quickly as it had began, Twilight’s mind was hers alone once more. She felt mentally exhausted, unable to think clearly. The tendrils capitalized on the momentary weakness, abruptly pulling her to within a hoof of the black pool that was once the surface of the mirror with strength that now easily exceeded her own.
“Wha!?” Twilight slurred, her reaction to the sudden movement noticeably slowed. The pool of black warped outward outward in an instant, closing the remaining distance between herself and the mirror. Twilight reflexively closed her eyes. She panicked, attempting to muster the last of her strength to try and kick herself free. “No!” she yelped.
The viscous, black mass spread outward surrounding her body like a cocoon in the blink of an eye. The black substance closed in around her, enveloping her almost entirely. Twilight tried to opened her mouth to call out to her friends, but not single sound escaped her throat.
The black bubble encompassed her entirely. Twilight’s eyelids drooped, heavy with sleep as the last of her mind and body’s strength ebbed. Alone, her consciousness slid into the darkness.
Author's Note
I haven’t really written anything in a long while and I was on the fence on whether or not to pursue starting a new project, since you know, completing any project has been… problematic. This has been sitting half edited for a few weeks so I apologize for any glaring issues. I do hope this proves to be an interesting adventure!
The Fallen and the Forgotten
Twilight shivered. Cool dawn air pervaded every square inch of her body. Grumbling, she curled up in an attempt to retain some of her remaining warmth. Her muscles protested at the unwelcome movement.
“Spiiiike,” Twilight wailed. “If you’re up get me another blanket. I’m not feeling very good and it’s freezing in here,“ Twilight moaned. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed, attempting to will herself back to sleep.
Her request was met with silence. Even the usual early morning song of the birds that drifted in through the window of her bedroom couldn’t be heard.
“Spike?” she called out again. The silence continued, unabated. Twilight reluctantly forced herself to open her eyes to take in the morning view. Hair from her mane obscured her vision. She pursed her lips together to blow the strands away, unwilling to employ her protesting muscles any more than she had to. Even that action proved to be difficult, every single tooth in her mouth felt numb and she was greeted with an unpleasant metallic taste in her mouth. “What happened last night?” she asked herself. Squinting, she saw that the sunlight from outside had just barely broken the horizon. The first rays of daylight cast, beginning to stream in through the window above her. Twilight’s reflex got the better of her and she let out a yawn.
Her ears perked up. The sound of claws against the hard floor bounded rapidly towards her. Whatever the source, it slid to a stop a few paces from her and began to bark, loudly.
“Huh, what!?” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes grew wide with surprise. Before letting panic take hold, she figured it had to be Spike goofing off. “Ha ha, Spike. Very funny,” she reached to her side with her hand to swat at the source of the obnoxiously loud barking to shoo her assistant away.
Twilight froze mid motion, the last remnants of sleep vanishing. She rolled onto her back and rotated her head in a single swift motion, turning her attention to her fore hoof, attempting to make sense of what she was looking at. It wasn’t the fore hoof that he was expecting, but an arm. A human one to be precise, complete with four fingers and an opposable thumb. She commanded herself to move the digits. Predictably, every thought translated into the appropriate action. It was most definitely her arm.
“I’m human? What?!” said Twilight, confused. She eased herself to sit upright, most of her muscles still actively protesting at the unwelcome activity. Staring at the fingers, she focused past them to the source of the barking. It was Spike. Well, Spike as a dog. The diminutive dog hopped forward, sniffing her outstretched hand cautiously. He seemed to decide that it was acceptable, enthusiastically licking at her digits.
“Ow!” Twilight recoiled in pain. The dog winced, taking a step back and cowering. She brought her hands to her temples, the sudden sharp pain persisting. A flood of memories rushed forth, everything that had occurred over the last week was fresh and vivid. The flash of memories was brief, the pain subsiding. She took a few calm, measured breaths. “Well that explains last night. How did I end up on this side?” she asked herself. She hastily took a look at her surroundings. A large stainless steel refrigerator with photos plastered all over the front door, an oven and stove that had a bright red kettle sitting on top of it, and a sink with a leaking faucet. Opposite the fridge was a wooden table and two chairs, a mountain of books stacked in the centre of the table. “More importantly, where is here, exactly?” Other than a dog that looked like Spike, she was by herself, sitting on the cold tile floor.
Twilight didn’t recognize this place. It didn’t match any of her friend’s houses that she had been to on this side. She craned her head to try and peer over the counter behind her. It was the window she mistook as her own. Fresh snow had built up on the bottom of the sill, frost along the bottom edge of interior side of the glass.
“It’s winter?” Twilight mumbled. She looked down to Spike, whom just tilted his head, inquisitive. “Sorry for the twenty questions, Spike. It’s not that I expect you to know any of the answers. With your witty remarks I’m guessing you’re not my Spike,” she said with a thin smile. She patted the small dog on the head. Spike excitedly wagged his tail, happy for the attention. “If you’re the equivalent of Spike on this side, that probably means…“ she trailed off. She looked towards the only doorway in the kitchen, where Spike the dog emerged from. She could hear another set of footfalls. Spike turned his head, not appearing to be concerned at whoever was drawing closer. Twilight’s shoulders tensed up, she had nowhere to hide.
“I’m up, I’m up. You can stop barking, Spike. I’ve got a big enough headache as it is. Ugh, I really need to stop using my keyboard as a pillow. My neck is a mess,” an oddly familiar voice grumbled from the mouth of the archway. The owner of the voice haphazardly slapped at the light switch on the wall next to the kitchen archway.
The overhead lights flickered on, draping the entire room in a warm white light. Twilight focused on the stranger. Her eyes widened, jaw dropping in shock. The other person stood before her. A young woman, familiar dark purple shoulder length hair, decidedly disheveled. A set of reading glasses nestled in the tangled mess of hair. It reminded Twilight of a tiara. She wore a plain white housecoat over her light purple pyjamas, along with matching pair of white slippers. The young woman rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and let out a yawn.
Twilight could only think that the extent of the similarity was improbable, leaning closer to the impossible. But there she stood before her, a doppelgänger of herself.
The other Twilight lowered her hands from her eyes. Her vision focused and her gaze locked to Twilight, sitting on the floor, next to her dog Spike. She blinked, doing a double take.
Twilight’s duplicate snapped out of the momentary shock first, her eyes widening and a broad grin grew across her face. She started jumping up and down excitedly. “It’s really you, isn’t it? What am I saying, of course it’s you. Yes! Yes! Yes! I KNEW it!” she yelled. She stopped jumping mid fist pump, her expression instantly turning serious. “Hold on. What happened to your clothes?” she questioned.
“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, confused. She looked down, to her torso. Not even underwear. “Ah!” she exclaimed, her cheeks flushed bright red. She quickly crossed an arm over her chest, the other below. “Well, that explains the chill,” she laughed awkwardly.
“Here-” the other Twilight removed the house coat had been wearing over her pyjamas and tossed it to a still sitting Twilight, “-use this.”
Twilight clumsily caught the coat. “Um, thank you,” Twilight said, grateful. She hobbled to stand, her leg muscles protesting at the sudden movement and put the housecoat on. “So… Twilight?” she began.
The duplicate Twilight smirked. She stepped past Twilight, towards the sink by the window. She began to fill a kettle with water. “Light. Just Light. The only person that calls me Twilight nowadays is my brother.“
Twilight spun around, to watch Light place the water-filled kettle on the stove top. Light twisted the dial on the front edge of the stove, a blue flame sparked to life beneath the kettle. “I see. Well, I’m—” Twilight started.
“Twilight Sparkle. I’ve worked that out already,” Light cut her off.
“Well that makes things easy, no this Twilight or that Twilight business to deal with. For someone who has just seen an identical copy of my— er, yourself, you are handling this far better than I am. I mean, I did consider the possibility that there if there was version of almost everyone on this side, then there was a good chance there was an equivalent counterpart of myself here as well,” Twilight said. She brought a hand to her chin, mulling over the revelation.
Light reached up into a cupboard above the stovetop. Retrieving a small green box of tea packets, placing them carefully on the countertop. “If we are at all alike, you’d know you would be more curious of everything than being in a blind panic. To be fair though, you could say I didn’t handle it so well when I first discovered that you had appeared over a year ago at Canterlot High School. To put it simply, I was in shock. That, and your appearances coincidentally lining up with the reports of strange phenomena occurring in the immediate area kind of made me obsessed with discovering what your existence meant, exactly,” Light said. She scratched at her tangled hair. “Other than the fact you appeared in my kitchen without clothes, you probably aren’t a cybernetic time traveller from the future that looks like me sent back to end me.”
“I’m reasonably certain this isn’t time travel,” Twilight said, she raised an eyebrow.
Light shook her head. “Never mind that, you probably wouldn’t get the reference anyway,” Light laughed. ”Anyway, based on the information I’ve gathered I’ve come to this conclusion: You’re from some kind of parallel dimension where you have control over some kind of intangible magic. You’ve been here at least two times that I am aware of, and have played a part in preventing some very serious incidences from taking place. The friends you have here seem to have been affected by what looks like supernatural forces since the first time you arrived. That about sum it up?” Light finished, studying Twilight’s expression carefully.
“Surprisingly accurate,” Twilight said, nodding. Everything her counterpart rattled off was spot on and she was impressed that her she had managed to gather enough information to come to that conclusion.
“I knew it!” Light grinned. “Before you explain why you have appeared in my house without any clothes, would you like some tea?” Light asked, motioning to the stovetop. The kettle had started to whistle, hot steam billowed from it’s spout.
“…and after what I think was myself blacking out, I woke up here in your kitchen. Everything after that point, well, you know about,” Twilight concluded. She grasped her fingers tightly around the warm cup of tea in front of her.
Light sat across from Twilight, hanging on to every word that Twilight spoke with great interest. She placed the pen atop the journal she was scribbling detailed notes in and took a sip from her own cup of tea. “Fascinating, absolutely fascinating, ”she said exclaimed, the bright glimmer of excitement danced in her eyes. Light pushed the reading glasses she wore up the bridge of her nose. “You are actually from a world of intelligent ponies and magical arts is widely practiced? This is a lot of information to take in, let alone believable.“
“As bizarre as seeing everypony— I mean everybody walking on two legs and a set of those things?” Twilight outstretched her arms and wiggled her fingers. “The first time I crossed over I could hardly believe I looked like this. I still have difficulty knowing what I’m supposed to do with my hands when I’m not using them sometimes.“
Light couldn’t help but let our short laugh, “don’t get me wrong, I believe you are from another reality. The simple fact that you are here in front of me is enough to convince me of that. Between you and the story you have told has validated over a year worth of research.”
“What kind of research?” Twilight asked. She took a bite of the pastry she had taken from the dish that sat on the table between them.
“Understanding how and why you exist, of course. My research started out as studying unexplained seismic phenomena at the University. I discovered reports of unusual events that occurred at a local high school in the suburbs called Canterlot High, which eventually brought my sights to you,” Light pointed a spoon she held at Twilight. “After that, my studies turned towards to what some call ‘fringe science’.”
“So you’ve been watching Canterlot High since the front of the school was wrecked?”
Light nodded. “Correct, I believe a student named Sunset Shimmer was to blame for that incident if my research is correct. At first I dismissed it as an anomaly. After the second incident occurred, the musical event that a high school was hosting went sideways. After that I set up some hardware that acts as a sort of early warning system to log and notify me in real time if another event occurred around the school. A few other small scale readings where cataloged and after that I spent some time investigating on site at the campus. What I discovered was, well, you: a person that is a mirror image of myself who just so happens to appear at the epicentre of both of the recorded instances of unexplained seismic activity. The more I sifted through the information I had collected, the more invested I was in understanding the truth.”
“Well, I suppose with the front of Canterlot High getting wrecked, and the light show from the last time I was here I shouldn’t be surprised that didn’t attract more attention than it did,” Twilight tilted her head, in thought.
“Both the principal and vice principal of Canterlot High appear very persuasive. They somehow swept both events under the rug. Not much more than a footnote in the local paper.”
“They certainly are something special, even on this side,” Twilight nervously laughed. “When you discovered my existence, why didn’t you just approach my friends? Make your self known?”
“I had considered doing exactly that. In fact, I almost did,” Light said. She pulled at her tangled hair. “I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” Twilight questioned.
Light sighed, “I was afraid of what would happen if we ever met face to face, unsure of what would occur if such an event where to take place. How would you, or I react? What kind of unforeseen consequences would there be? I couldn’t answer that without more research, so I chose to observe until I could answer those questions with confidence.”
“I see,” Twilight nodded. “A prudent plan, observe and study before acting. I can’t fault that.”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment since the very first photo I saw of you. Now that I’m fairly confident the universe won’t collapse with both of us in the same place together, I don’t even know where to begin. What tests I need to run? Which categorized list of questions should I get you to provide answers for first?” Light tapped an index finger on the pen she had placed on top of the notebook, her expression became serious. “Before any of that, I should ask one very important question. What are you going to do now?”
Twilight thought about her counterpart’s query. “I’ll ignore the fact you want to run experiments on me for now,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I need to get back to my side to make sure that Equestria is safe. I’m not sure how long I’ve been gone, so the sooner the better.“
Light masked her disappointment behind a gentle smile and a simple nod. “Understandable. I believe I can help with answering the question ‘how long’,” Light said. She shuffled the stacks of books and papers that where piled up on the edge of the kitchen table. The heaps of books, file folders and contraptions Twilight could only assume was some kind of scientific equipment didn’t seem to be in arranged in any particular order. “Ah! here it is,“ exclaimed Light. She gingerly picked up a small tablet sized device that had been wedged under a particularly thick stack of printed paper. Light turned the device on and flicked around on the lit up screen. Light spent a few moments finding what she was looking for on the diminutive device.
“Okay, so it’s been one hundred eighty six days. That’d be six months since the last seismic disturbance originating from ground zero, which I assume is where the portal is located. After that point, it looks like there was an extremely brief seismic event that occurred a couple hours ago but didn’t last long enough to send a priority alert. Based on your appearance here, that seismic event will likely line up exactly with the moment of your appearance here in my kitchen.”
“I’ve been gone six months… this can’t seriously be happening,” Twilight mumbled, her eyes widening in shock. “Six months would put right now around new years? That is assuming our calendars line up.“
“Correct. New Years is just under two weeks from now,” Light nodded. “Winter break from classes has begun. I think that’s even the case for the high schoolers.”
“Being gone this long makes getting home even more urgent. I have to go. Now,” Twilight abruptly guzzled the remaining tea in her cup and placed the cup on the matching saucer. She pushed the chair she occupied back away from the table and stood.
“I don’t think you are going to make it very far in a housecoat in this weather,” Light said, pointing towards the window. Even with the morning sun out in full, the liberal layer of snow that blanketed everything outside sent an involuntary shiver down Twilight’s spine.
“That does pose a problem,” Twilight said. Venturing out into the cold without a hint of where she was going would just be foolish.
“I could take you to Canterlot High, that’s not a problem,” Light replied, leaning back in the chair she was sitting in. “I do, however, have one condition.”
“Oh, and what might that be?” Twilight said, lifting an eyebrow.
“I would like to observe first hand this so-called magic portal with my equipment. I promise I won’t get in the way or interfere in any way,” Light leaned forward and resting her arms on the edge of the table.
Twilight silently considered the request for a moment before responding, “I get the feeling I don’t have much of a choice. It’s not like I know where I am right now or where Canterlot High in is,” Twilight said. “Don’t get any funny ideas about tagging along through the portal. I don’t know what’s waiting for me on the other side and having two of us over there isn’t something I want to deal with until I know it’s safe.”
“Excellent!” Light clapped her hands together, a wide grin spread across her face. She stood, bumping into the table and almost toppling a precariously stacked pile of books on the table. Spike sat up and wagged his tail vigorously, attentive to his owner’s animated display. “First thing we should sort out is get you ready for the weather. Come with me.”
Before Twilight knew what Light had in mind, she grabbed her by the arm and dragged her from where she stood. Light led Twilight down the hall and up the stairs to the second floor of the house. The sun had risen far enough that the morning sunlight illuminated the hallway with a warm yellow glow. Twilight caught a glimpse of a photo hanging on the wall that caught her attention. She stopped in her tracks, preventing Light from proceeding forward.
“Are those people your parents?” Twilight blurted out. She examined the photo, the woman in a beautiful long white gown, the man in a tuxedo. Both where on a dance floor, absolutely glowing.
Light turned to look at the framed photo Twilight pointed out, “Yeah, from the day they where married. That photo over there,” she pointed to the photo that hung to the right of it, “that’s myself and my brother, Shining Armor.”
Twilight looked at the other framed picture. A human that looked faintly familiar, with two shades of blue hair. He was pushing a younger Light on a swing, both of them looked like they where enjoying themselves. “Fascinating. I can see the resemblance to their counterparts on my side,” Twilight said. “Are you close? With Shining I mean.“
“Yeah. Growing up he was my best friend. Still is, even,” Light tugged on Twilight’s housecoat’s sleeve, to coax her on. Twilight continued forward. “He actually lives here with me.“
“He does?” Twilight replied, cautiously. “Won’t seeing two of us be kind of, complicated?”
“He is aware of my research but I can see that two of us here at the same time might be difficult to explain. Thankfully he’s coming back from a big business trip tonight and we’ll have you back home well before he’s back,“ Light added, “hopefully.”
Light dragged Twilight to the end of the hall, passing a partially ajar door to a bedroom, which Twilight assumed was Shining Armor’s. They reached the room at the end of the hall, the door wide open. Twilight stopped just short of the doorway, Light releasing the sleeve of the Twilight’s housecoat she flicked the switch next to the door on. Careful to not step on the many piles of books that lay on the carpeted floor, Light made a bee line for the closet at the opposite end of the room.
Twilight peered into the room from the doorway. Light’s bed was neatly made up, the sheets and perfectly folded and the blanket perfectly entered on top. With Light’s complains about a terrible sleep last night, Twilight assumed the bed didn’t get much use. Spike had a pillow at the foot of the bed, similar to the Twilight’s version of Spike slept in, color and all.
In the opposite corner of the room next to the window was a desk with neatly stacked piles of books. In the center of the desk a computer screen that had a screensaver with stars shooting across a simulated night sky. The keyboard in front of the monitor was pulled close to the edge of the tabletop, Light’s makeshift pillow no doubt.
The wall above the desk had a cork board with various clippings and printouts. Curious, Twilight made her way over to Light’s desk, careful to not knock over the precariously stacked books at the foot of the bed.
Twilight perused the contents of the items pinned to the board. It appeared to illustrate a spiderweb of events. A picture of herself and her friends from the Fall Formal dance was at the centre of the web, Twilight’s head circled in red ink with an question mark next to it. The strings pinned from the photo sprawled out to printed articles surrounding the events of both the event Sunset Shimmer caused as well as the Sirens, as well as detailed records of local weather, seismic activity of those days.
“Impressive amount of research,” Twilight said, her eyes still wandering over the massive amount of information.
“Oh that’s just high level fluff I use to keep my focus on the big picture. Most of the research is on my computer. I can show you the rest some other time if you’re interested,” Light said. “For now, pick something warm that you want to wear. You seem to be a little bit taller than I am, but we should be similar in size,“ Light said, chuckling.
Twilight turned her attention to Light, who had emerged from her closet with a pile of clothes draped over an arm. Twilight cradled the heap of clothes Light dumped in her arms.
“You’re free to use my bathroom if you want to take a shower, and bedroom to get changed. I’ll use Shining’s bathroom since he’s not home to give you some privacy. We leave in an hour,” Light said. She spun around, immediately making her way to the door. “This is so exciting! I still can’t believe I’m finally going to see results!” She continued to talk to herself. She turned into her brother’s room, out of Twilight’s sight.
Twilight sighed. She looked to her feet. Spike the dog sat in front of her, attentively looking upward at her. “It’s good to have you here, Spike. Even if you aren’t my Spike.”
Spike turned his head slightly to the side as if comprehending Twilight’s words. After a few moments he opened his mouth and barked once, wagging his tail.
Author's Note
Took longer than I expected. I did work ahead a little bit in terms of story though, so the next couple chapters shouldn't take as long.
Cheers.
The Fallen and the Forgotten
It was mid morning, the temperature reaching just above freezing and not a single cloud in the sky to be seen. Twilight exhaled, her breath visible in the crisp air. Both of the girls stood at the rear the car that Light had parked in the faculty lot at Canterlot High School. Twilight took in the surroundings. A couple of other vehicles that had been blanketed in fresh snowfall from the night before sat a few stalls away. Much of the snow had been been cleared from the lot, along with the walkways that crisscrossed the campus grounds. The snow that remained had begun to form slushy puddles.
“That should just about do it,“ Light said, satisfied. She tossed a tripod and a camera bag atop the mountain of odds and ends that had already been piled between Twilight’s arms.
“Oof,” Twilight grunted. She adjusted her footing, struggling to keep the weight she held balanced between her arms. “Is all of this… stuff really necessary?”
“Sure. It never hurts to be prepared,” she replied. Light continued to dig around in the trunk of the car. There was still a considerable amount of her belongings that remained. Twilight was astonished that Light managed to pack as much as she did in that little space.
Light turned to Twilight and did a once over of everything she picked out. Pleased with the collection, she nodded her head. “Great! That’s enough to set up some enhanced monitoring,“ she said. She grabbed one last item, a shoulder bag that contained her tablet, notebook, and plenty of pencils, and slammed the trunk hatch shut. She returned her attention to Twilight. “I could get used to this, having an assistant I mean.”
Twilight craned her head to the side, attempting to look around the giant stack of Light’s things. “My Spike would have been more than happy to do the heavy lifting if he where here,” She said.
“Having a Spike that could help with my research would be fantastic. My Spike is amazing in his own right and I love him to bits, but he’s just a dog. An incredibly intelligent dog, even. If I had a pet that was as dextrous as baby dragon? I can’t even imagine what I’d do,” Light remarked. “I’ll settle for another version of myself as an assistant for the time being,” she added. “Come, follow me.” Light spun around, grabbed the hot cups of cocoa from the roof of the car and proceeded to walk across the parking lot towards the nearest pathway that led to the front of the campus grounds.
Twilight huffed and quietly followed. She stepped carefully, testing her footing on the slick sheet of ice that hadn’t started to melt atop the dark parking lot asphalt. Twilight was thankful that Light had lent her suitable winter clothing for this morning’s outing. A long white winter overcoat rounded out with matching boots, all of which was unsurprisingly more or less a perfect fit. Even with suitable boots for the conditions, there was enough icy spots to require treading carefully, especially so walking with two legs. Gaining confidence in her step, she finally made it a few paces past Light’s parked vehicle.
She stole a look down the length of the vehicle. Light had parked at a crooked angle, sitting on top of a sleet covered yellow line painted on the asphalt. In front of the double parked car Twilight spotted two signs posted at the end of each parking stall. ‘RESERVED’ was printed in bright bold yellow capital letters. Below, names, in smaller but matching yellow letters. “Hey, should you be leave your car here? That sign says it’s reserved for the Principal Celestia and the Vice Principal Luna,“ Twilight asked.
Light shrugged, dismissing Twilight’s query, “Don’t worry about it. Holiday break started yesterday, so it’s not like there will be anybody around. It’ll be fine.”
Twilight nodded, “It’s probably a good thing nobody else is around. I’d like to avoid as much attention as we can. What does all of this equipment I’m carrying do, exactly?” Twilight asked, shifting the pile of instruments between her arms.
“It’s for monitoring the portal on this side, of course. Hopefully I’ll be able to observe something new, considering that you are here, I’m hopeful,” she said. The girls approached the corner of the main building of the high school and headed towards the large stone statue of a stallion that sat in front of the building. The campus grounds at the front of the building was as empty as the parking lot. Twilight spotted a couple bundled up in winter attire, walking down the street away from the school paying the girls no mind.
Light abruptly came to a stop a few paces in front of the statue, Twilight almost bumping into Light’s backside. She propped her hands on her waist, surveying the sculpture. “You can set everything down there,” Light said, pointing at the base of the stone statue.
Twilight hobbled forward, knelt and put everything she held on the ground near the statue. She exhaled a sigh of relief, the numbness in her arms fading.
Light handed Twilight one of the hot drinks and walked the perimeter of the statue, one hand gently brushing the stone surface as she went. Returning to the rear of the statue, she focused on the stallion at the top. “Still seems normal enough,” she mumbled, narrowing her eyes.
“I’m having trouble comprehending how you can live in this weather without a coat of fur. It’s freezing,” Twilight crossed her arms, shivering. Even with the insulted jacket and winter boots that she had borrowed and the temperature above freezing, it was still chillier than she would have liked.
Light chuckled, “You learn to live with it. Plenty of hot cocoa helps too,” she said, taking a sip.
“Thanks for this,” Twilight graciously thanked her, the cup held between her mitten clad hands. The warmth from the liquid contained within was certainly welcome. Light placed her cup on the statue base and got to work setting up the tripods and other equipment she had had Twilight haul here.
“So, how does this portal of yours work exactly? I assume there’s a magical component, and you step in one side and immediately come out the other?“
“More or less,” Twilight said. “The magical theory behind it is fairly simple to explain if you’ve done even basic magic studies—”
“Just pretend I don’t know anything,” Light interjected.
“Right. Well, how should I put this. Who or whatever built the Crystal Mirror created a spell that anchors a point in a universe to a fixed location. In this case, the mirror is the medium that maintains it’s physical representation of that fixed location. Every aspect of the mirror, right down to the materials that where selected was intended to keep the fixed location stable indefinitely.“
“And… you lost me. How does that explain this side? Why is the portal this statue, of all things?“
“Well… it’s magic?“ Twilight replied, shrugging. “I don’t know exactly. It’s something that even the previous owner of the mirror was able to explain. It’s on the top of my list of things to study further.“
“I’ll just add that to my own ever growing list of unanswered questions I have,” she said. Light knelt down in front of a tripod she had deployed in front of her. She nimbly attached the antenna to the mounting clip at the top.
Twilight moved to stand next to Light and placed a palm against the stone surface. Even through the gloves, she could feel faint heat radiating from the surface. “It’s warm?”
Light nodded, focusing on the tablet screen. She bent forward and adjusted the antenna attached to the tripod. “The stone block always has an large change in temperature a few hours following an anomalous event. I suspect this change in temperature is because of your appearance in my kitchen.”
“The distance between here and your house has been bothering me. Even if the most powerful Equestrian magic could work on this side, a skilled unicorn using a teleportation spell would never be able to teleport that distance. I wouldn’t recommend anypony try to use a teleportation spell unless you can guarantee you know the your destination is safe,” Twilight said. She shook her head, the idea of a bad teleport wasn’t pleasant.
“Perhaps it was some kind of built in safety measure, it placing you somewhere out of harms’ way?” Light hypothesized.
Twilight considered the possibility before replying. “Conceivably, yes. My own study of the Crystal Mirror didn’t indicate as such, though. If that’s the case, it did put me in the safest place in this world that it could have, my home. The only thing I can’t even begin to work out is why I ended up here without any clothes.”
“Better naked indoors than in than out here in the middle of winter,” Light joked. She tapped on the screen of her tablet a few more times, and satisfied with the results looked up, towards Twilight. “Okay, that should do it. All of the sensors that I set up appear to be functioning correctly. You can do your thing now,” she said, observing Twilight with great interest.
“Uh, my thing?“ Twilight questioned. Still facing the statue, she sipped at her hot drink.
“Do some magic to open the portal, of course.“
Twilight placed put her cup of cocoa down on top of the stone base and placed both of her gloved palms against the stone surface. She closed her eyes and sighed. As she had expected, it had remained entirely solid. “I’ve never had to do anything special on this side, it simply let me pass through,” she said. She opened her eyes and slowly turned to face Light, who appeared perplexed. “I was worried that I couldn’t sense any Equestrian magic at all because of how far I was from the portal. Even standing next to it now I can barely sense anything at all.”
“So what does that mean? Are you saying you’re trapped here?”
“I… don’t know,” Twilight pursed her lips and shook her head. “There’s definitely Equestrian magic in the air, so the portal can’t be completely cut off. I just need to determine which magical thread to pull to get things flowing again.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Light asked. “I mean, I think I’m out of my depth here, but if you think I can…”
“I’m thinking, I’m thinking,” Twilight muttered. She brought a hand to her chin and closed her eyes. This was uncharted territory, even for her. The faint traces of magic emitting from the statue was a good sign that the portal was at least partially functional. “A anchoring spell could work to force this side open, but there isn’t anywhere close to enough magic to even think about that, even with my friends here,” she mused, lost in her thoughts. The more she thought of possible solutions, the more frustrated she became. “Argh!” Twilight grumbled.
“Twilight?” a voice called, snapping Twilight out of her train of thought. She shot a glance towards Light, who was still hunched over her tablet, focused on reading something on the screen. Light was also alarmed at voice, she turned her head looking over her shoulder to see who had managed to creep up behind them. It was a young girl with flowing bright red and yellow hair. Her expression something between panic and relief. To Twilight, it was familiar face. “Twilight! I’ve— we’ve been so worried!” the girl exclaimed.
“Sunset Shimmer—” Twilight managed to squeak out. Sunset zipped past Light and threw her arms around Twilight.
“I’m glad to see that you’re okay. When the notebook stopped working and the Equestrian magic faded on this side, we feared something terrible had happened,” Sunset Shimmer said. She released Twilight from her embrace, hands still perched on Twilight’s shoulders.
“I’m still trying to sort out what exactly that terrible thing is,” Twilight replied. “It’s great to see a familiar face,” she smiled.
“Oh! I know you! You’re the one that almost blew up the school, right?” Light blurted out.
Sunset Shimmer sighed, dejected. “My reputation precedes me,” she said, turning to the young woman behind her. She did a once over, then slowly back to Twilight, her eyes narrowed. “So there’s two of you know? Do I want to know why?”
“That I can explain. She’s the Twilight Sparkle from this side,“ Twilight said, motioning with a hand in Light’s direction. “Sunset Shimmer, meet Light.”
“Hi,” Light gave a stiff wave.
“I see. Even you have an equivalent on this side,” Sunset Shimmer murmured. She returned her attention to Twilight. “Okay. So what happened in Equestria? Magic on this side stopped working a few months ago. No ponying up, no messages, nothing.”
“I’m working on that problem now,” Twilight frowned. Twilight wasn’t surprised that Sunset couldn’t sense the minuscule amount of magic that remained, she hadn’t exactly kept up with studies since arriving in the human world. “I was hoping to figure this out with Light’s help. Long story short, my friends and I were dealing dealing with some dangerous magic back home. I thought we had it straightened it out, but before I realized what was happening I got pulled through the mirror, and next thing I know I wake up here six months later in her kitchen,” Twilight said, pointing to Light.
“Well, that’s troubling,” Sunset Shimmer said, her expression dour. She forced a smile, in attempt to lighten the mood. “You’re here, so that’s something. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t know yet. Having a unicorn around couldn’t hurt, and you do have a connection to the magic that linked Equestria to this side,” Twilight said. She motioned over her shoulder with a thumb. “The portal is completely unresponsive and I’m only sensing faint traces of Equestrian magic.”
“I don’t feel anything. The girls and I tried everything we could think of when I the book stopped working. We even tried to get help from Adagio and her flunkeys. That was fun, but uneventful,” Sunset said, casting a sour look at the thought.
“Desperate enough to seek out the Sirens for help? I’m sorry to have to put you through that,” Twilight said meekly. “Hey, wait a minute, why are you even here? Don’t you and the girls have vacation?”
“I volunteered to drop off the gym keys Rainbow had borrowed for a group project we are working on since everyone else was heading out of town to be with family,” Sunset looked to the ground rubbed her arm, nervously. “I didn’t really have plans for the holidays, so I volunteered.”
“I see,” Twilight replied, realizing the question she posed made Sunset Shimmer uncomfortable.
Light cleared her throat, to get the other girls attention. “Anyway, back on topic. There is a measurable difference of temperature when Sunset Shimmer approached the statue.”
Twilight turned and placed her hand on the solid stone statue base. “It doesn’t feel any different.”
“The temperature change was just above the normal margin of error. Let’s try both of you near the base of the statue. Miss Shimmer, if you would please,” Light directed Sunset Shimmer with an open palm towards the statue.
“Okay,” Sunset said, moving to stand next to Twilight.
Light stared down at the tablet she cradled in her arm. “Good,” she said, nodding to herself. “Another measurable increase. Miss Shimmer, please try touching the pedestal, bare palm if you could.”
Sunset Shimmer gave Twilight a sidelong glance, before shrugging and taking the glove she wore off and carefully placing her palm on the stone surface.
“Wow, it’s warm,” Sunset Shimmer said. She swivelled her head towards Light. “Now what?”
Light didn’t immediately reply, instead intensely focused on her tablet screen. Squinting for a moment, she mouthed silently what she was reading. Her eyes went wide astonished. “Oh my. There’s a large increase in temperature.”
“How crazy would that be if all it takes is a couple of Equestrians knocking on this door?” Sunset joked. She returned her attention to the slab of stone and pulled off the remaining glove with her teeth. She placed the other palm on the stone. She looked to Twilight.
“It really couldn’t be that simple, could it?” Twilight said. She took Sunset Shimmer’s lead and followed suit, placing her other hand on the warm stone surface. “Hmm, it does feel hotter now. I wonder if this is a result of passive flow of the natural magic that exists between us?”
Light ignored Twilight’s remark, instead squinting at the readings on her tablet. She took in a sharp intake of breath, her heart skipping a beat. The results she was observing she had observed before. “Both of you back up. NOW!“ she hurriedly blurted out. Moving quickly, she tossed the tablet into the snow and reached for the girls’ jacket collars in front of her. Roughly clutching, she pulled both of the girls back from the statue.
Before Twilight or Sunset Shimmer could mount a protest, the three girls shielded their eyes from the brilliant flash of white light and accompanying gust of wind that came forth from the stone slab in front of them. The light flash of light faded, the stone statue visually returned to normal.
“I can feel it,“ Sunset Shimmer said.
Twilight nodded, she felt it as well. “That’s definitely Equestrian magic. The mirror is linked to this side again,” she said.
Light took a step back and knelt to pick up her tablet that was embedded in the snow bank. Wiping the snow from the screen with her jacket sleeve she powered it back on, looking over the results. “That was a huge burst of energy. It fried all of my sensors when that flash occurred. Twilight, now what?”
“We test if the portal is active,” Twilight said.
Sunset moved towards the statue, picking up the gloves she had dropped. She slipped both on and stopped just short of the statue. “That easy. I’ll just stick my hand through. If it’s actually working, hoof,” she said, placing a hand on the surface of the stone.
“I wouldn’t—” Twilight said, taking a step forward and reaching out towards Sunset Shimmer.
“Ah!” Sunset Shimmer exclaimed, her hand passing straight through the visibly solid surface. It started to pull at her arm causing her to lose her balance. Sunset began to panic, he free hand flailing in the air.
Twilight sprung forward, grabbing frantically for Sunset’s arm in an attempt to pull her back. The combination of Sunset Shimmer’s momentum and the vacuum-like pull of the portal was too much for Twilight to keep her own balance. She faltered, falling forward. With her free arm she reflexively shielded her head, finally falling through the active portal.
“… do that,” Light concluded. She almost dropped her tablet, stunned at what had just unfolded. “Of course that would happen,” She added. Light considered her options. Of course, Twilight did say to stay put on this side. Curiosity and more importantly, concern for the girls being dragged through was certainly a unprecedented event. She couldn’t very well not ignore her new friend’s safety. “Over there and right back home. No harm done,” she reasoned.
Her mind made, Light took a step toward the faintly shimmering surface of the stone surface. A faint whistling was now audible standing this close to the precipice. She slipped her tablet into her shoulder bag, securing the flap. “Five minutes maximum,” she reassured herself. Taking a single sharp breath, Light closed her eyes and stepped through the gate.
Author's Note
Kind of churned on this chapter for a while, edit upon edit. I think it turned out okay.
Half way through what's next!
The Fallen and the Forgotten
4. You Can Never Go Home Again
“Owmfh—” Twilight let out a muffled yelp, her muzzle buried in something soft. She used her front hooves to lift herself away from what she had landed on. She looked down, her eyes finally focusing in the dim light. She faced a familiar orange flank, complete with a red and yellow cutie mark in the shape of a sun.
“‘Ow’ indeed. All I got was the hard floor,” Sunset grumbled. Twilight hastily got on all fours, backing up to give Sunset enough room to stand on her own. Sunset hobbled up onto her own legs. “Horns, hooves and magic.”
Twilight took inventory of her horn, mane, wings, tail and hooves, confirming Sunset’s summary. She was her familiar self again. “Home,” she said. Taking in their surroundings, they appeared to be inside a small, dark, windowless room. The cold grey floor made of stone, the simple walls much the same. She cast a simple illumination spell, a bright light from the tip of her horn blanketed the room in a soft white glow. With the aid of the new glowing light, it was evident that they were in a room that used for storage. Chests of various sizes were stacked taller than Twilight lined the walls and a single row in the centre of the room. The Crystal Mirror sat alone against the wall opposite to the only door for the room.
“I’m not sure exactly where hough. I don’t recognize this place,” Twilight said. “It looks like most of this stuff is from Canterlot, most of those chests have royal crests on them. Nonpony’s been in here in some time, though,” she stepped a front hoof forward, kicking up dust.
Sunset Shimmer, now that she had her bearings had moved to a dust laden object propped up against the wall to the left of the Crystal Mirror, wiping away the grime away from it’s surface. Beneath, a dull but unmistakeable golden glimmer they both recognized was revealed.
“Celestia’s royal guard armour plating,” Sunset said. She looked to Twilight, who had used a telekinesis spell to open one of the chests that was in the middle of the room.
Twilight pulled free a cloak, also adorned with the royal guard colours and the seal of Princess Celestia. “We must be in the castle at Canterlot,” Twilight declared, releasing the cloak from her magical grip, the fabric settling, draped over the edge of the chest. “This is good. I need to see the Princess, hopefully I can get a complete picture of what’s happened and…“ Twilight trailed off mid sentence, her attention shifted to the mirror, which showed signs of activity.
The Crystal Mirror they had just fell through moments earlier flashed brightly, a third figure emerging through the reflective surface. Sunset and Twilight squinted at the sudden burst of light. The new arrival was a sight Twilight hadn’t seen in a while: A purple unicorn wobbled on her hind legs, complete with a purple mane and tail with pink highlights and a cutie mark she was all too familiar with. The new unicorn took a couple clumsy steps forward before falling forward, landing heavily on all fours.
“Okay, totally a pony now,” the new pony said, amused.
Twilight sighed. “Of course she’d follow us through. What do you think you’re doing here?” Twilight said, exasperated.
“You both fell in. I thought I should make sure you made it over safely?” Light nervously replied. She balanced unsteadily on her newly bestowed hooves. “So where are we?“ she asked.
“Equestria. Look, I do appreciate the concern, but you need to go back to your side. I promise you’ll get your chance to visit once I have everything sorted out here,” Twilight said.
“But—,” Light began to protest.
“I should go back with our new friend as well. I don’t feel comfortable dropping in unannounced,” Sunset cut in, backing Twilight’s opinion. Twilight looked to Sunset Shimmer, her features softened.
“You are fine to visit. You are from here, after all,” Twilight said. She turned to Light. “You though, you’re going back.”
Light frowned, disappointed. “Fine, I’ll go home. I can at least monitor things on the other side,” Light grumbled. She spun around awkwardly on all fours and stepped into the mirror. Her face colliding with the mirror surface. “Ow,” Light said, rubbing her nose with a hoof. She shakily held her left hoof against the surface of the reflective crystal. “I hate to say this, but I think this was a one way trip.”
“What?!” Twilight’s exclaimed, her eyes widening in surprise.
“Wonderful,” Sunset grimaced. Twilight approached the mirror to inspect for herself. She raised a hoof and knocked the surface. It was indeed solid.
“Well that’s just great,” Twilight muttered. “I’ll have to figure this out later. New plan. You stick with us until we can find Princess Celestia,. That means no wandering off and getting yourself into trouble,” Twilight said. She looked to Light who had already tuned her out. Instead, Light’s attention was transfixed on her own reflection, and her new horn. “Light, Are you listening?”
“Uh huh. Follow you, don’t wander. Got it,” Light said, her ogling not faltering from the mirror. She reached up with a hoof to poke at her horn. “Neat,” she mumbled. Twilight pursed her lips, shifting her attention to Sunset, who had begun rummaging through another one of the chests in the room. “Find anything useful?”
“No, just more cloaks. It looks like Princess Celestia’s Royal guard winter regalia. The stuff they wear at the annual Hearth’s Warming Eve parade,” Sunset said.
“Let’s figure out where we are in the castle then, we can make our way to Princess Celestia after that,” Twilight nodded, she looked to Light, who was attempting to quietly stand still on all fours. “Light, are you going to be able to walk? I know going from two to four legs takes some time to adapt to,” Twilight asked.
Light took two tiny, wobbly steps forward. She grinned, satisfied with the result. “This is pretty weird, but I think I have this figured out,” Light said, nodding. “I do have one request,“ she began, blushing, “could I get something to wear? Having a coat of fur is nice and all, but the lack of clothes is kind of… uncomfortable,” Light asked.
“Here,” Twilight lifted one of the cloaks out of the chest Sunset had dug through with magic and tossed it hastily on top of Light, “that should do for now.”
Light clumsily shuffled around to get the cloak on right. “Oh! Can I do that too?” Light asked, excited. She tugged at the cloak with her teeth to straighten it out along her backside, sufficiently covering her from head to tail.
“I believe so since you appear to be a unicorn on this side. You should have some ability,” Twilight said. “You’ll need to study the basics and practice though, to see how much ability you have to work with.”
Light’s eyes lit up at the possibility.
“But we can talk more about that later. For now, lets get moving,” Twilight motioned with her horn towards the door. Twilight extinguished the magical light source and pulled the only door in the room open carefully. At first just a crack, the small gap letting in a little bit of light from the other side. Twilight squinted to let her vision adjust.
“Well?” Light asked, anxious.
“Nopony around. It looks like we are in Canterlot though,” Twilight replied. She opened the door wide enough for them to pass through single file and stepped into the empty hallway. The trio stood in the middle of a finely detailed bright blue runner rug that ran the entire length of the hallway. Above, ornate crystal chandeliers were dimly lit with a yellow magical glow, giving the hallway an eerie air. Light looked every which way taking everything in. She had never been in a mansion, let alone a castle before.
“Why is it so dark out? It’s only mid morning,” Sunset asked. Twilight looked to Sunset, who had already proceeded ahead of the other two ponies towards one of the tall windows that lined the outer side of the wide hall.
“Perhaps it’s cloudy?“ Twilight approached the window Sunset was peering through and looked skyward. Not a single cloud to be seen. Instead, a full moon set against a deep purple hue as it’s backdrop. “Or… maybe not. What in Equestia is going on here?”
Twilight shifted her attention below. The familiar view of the palace grounds lay before her. “That’s the northern courtyard. It looks like we are on the third floor. The main hall is that way,” Twilight said, motioning with her head to her left. She noted to herself that the instead of a blanket of white powder, there was as much greenery as she would have expected mid-summer. “Lets head that way and find out where Princess Celestia is. Hopefully we can get some answers.”
Twilight started trotting towards the main hall. Sunset let Light pass in front of her and took up the rear. The trio proceeded quietly to the end of the hall, greeted with a staircase spiralling downwards. Descending the steps, the girls arrived at the landing of the second floor. In front of them, another hall. Shorter, but with a stone railing overlooking their destination, the main hall.
Light slowed, straying to the side and peering over the bannister. The wide open hall below was lavishly decorated, with thick velvet rugs running the length of the room, and matching banners emblazoned with Princess Celestia’s cutie mark draped the walls of the room.
“Shouldn’t there be palace staff around?” Sunset asked, she had paused as well to look over the railing.
“This time of the day, yeah, there should be. At the very least, some guards at the front doors,” Twilight replied. Motioning to the ajar doors with her hoof. She arrived at the landing of the curved marble staircase at the front of the huge hall a few paces ahead of Light, who had appeared to gotten the hang of walking down stairs on four limbs. Twilight went to the enormous ornamental doors at the entrance to the hall. Peering between the doors, she discovered there was not a single royal guard on either side.
“YOU THERE! I COMMAND THOU TO CEASE MOVEMENT AT ONCE!” a booming voice filled the room. Twilight spun around and reared, her wings flaring outward. Sunset froze in place and Light jumped in surprise at the command. Twilight spotted the source of the voice first. A large, purple figure loomed in the shadows, it’s flowing mane that rippled like a starry night sky.
“Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed. She excitedly took a couple of steps forward.
“WHY DOST THOU IGNORE MY COMMAND?” Luna’s overpowering voice echoed through the hall. Luna leapt from the second floor directly to the ground, landing heavily. She held her head high, looking down at the smaller ponies that stood before her.
Sunset Shimmer moved between Light and Luna. “Stay quiet, this doesn’t feel right,” Sunset muttered to Light. Light nodded and lowered her head, obscuring her face with the hood of the cloak.
“Oh! Where are my manners!” Twilight exclaimed. She bowed her head, her wings spread out and lowered in formal greeting.
“AN ALICORN? I DEMAND YOU STATE YOUR NAME, AND WHERE YOU HAIL FROM,” Princess Luna shouted.
“That’s enough, Luna. They don’t appear to bear us any ill will,” spoke another voice. It was soft, but a held a familiar, strong presence. Both Twilight and Sunset had recognized it’s owner immediately: Princess Celestia.
“WHO DARES—” Luna craned her head to the other end of the hall, facing the path to the throne room. Luna’s eyes flickered with surprise before her overbearing air subsided. She coughed, lowering her voice to a conversational level, “I leave this to you,” she muttered. With that, Luna eyed Twilight, then Sunset and Light, who was cowered behind the hood of her cloak. Raising her head once again, she turned around and began trotting towards the front doors, her figure vanishing into a dark black mist.
“I must apologize for my sister’s behaviour, she’s had difficulty adjusting to being back home,” Celestia said. The Princess of Canterlot was just as awe inspiring as Sunset Shimmer remembered. Her immaculately maintained white coat and beautiful long flowing mane were a sight to behold. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was imagining things, but she thought the Princess appeared uncharacteristically fatigued. “I don’t get to entertain often it seems as of late, but what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” she asked.
Twilight cast a sidelong glance to Sunset, who had visibly relaxed now that Luna had come and gone, and Light, who had pushed back the hood on the cloak a little bit to get a good look at Princess Celestia.
Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes and focused on Sunset Shimmer, “My student, Sunset Shimmer? I pondered the day you would return!” she exclaimed. Her previously haggard appearance melting away.
“Uh, hi,” Sunset managed to respond, confused. She shot a quick look to Twilight, who appeared even more puzzled than Sunset felt. Sunset cleared her throat. “Twilight, if you would…” she began.
“Oh, right!” Twilight exclaimed. “Princess Celestia. I apologize for Sunset Shimmer arriving back unannounced, but I can explain everything,” Twilight began.
Princess Celestia surveyed Twilight’s actions before speaking. “Twilight is it?” Celestia asked.
“Yes. Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said, concern creeping into her voice.
“An alicorn. Fascinating,” Celestia replied. “From where in Equestria are you from?”
“What?” Twilight’s expression scrunched at the question. “I don’t understand what you mean. I’m from Canterlot, my parents live here. I was— am, your faithful student.”
Celestia pondered Twilight’s response for a moment. She let out a laugh. “Your friend has a sense of humour, Sunset Shimmer,” she said.
Twilight looked to Sunset, who had observed the exchange, bewildered. Sunset Shimmer shook her head.
“Princess Celestia, This—“ Sunset gestured with a hoof towards her friend “—is Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Friendship. I don’t understand, you really don’t know who this is?”
Celestia tilted her head, “No, I do not. Are you feeling unwell, my student?” Princess Celestia asked. She took a step forward, the combination of concern and exhaustion creeping back into her expression.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Twilight squeaked, between hyperventilated breaths.
“Okay, this is hurting my brain,” Sunset Shimmer said, rubbing her temple with a hoof. Light watched without a word.
“My little ponies, please, start from the beginning,” Princess Celestia said.
The trio stood before Princess Celestia, inside the cavernous throne room. As unbelievable as it must of sounded to her, Princess Celestia listened to Twilight’s entire tale politely. Twilight had gotten very efficient at keeping her story short and concise. At the conclusion of Twilight’s story, Princess Celestia nodded and sighed, closing her weary eyes for a moment. She stepped from the front of her throne towards the window to her right and stopped, looking out to the dusk-like sky beyond.
“I see. A very troubling sequence of events,” Celestia said. “The crystal mirror had not functioned since Sunset Shimmer had left Equestria many moons ago, so I am afraid I am unable to explain your predicament.”
Twilight stifled a frown. That wasn’t an answer she wanted to hear. “If how this all came to be isn’t explainable, then perhaps a clue exists in a past event in Equestria’s recent history that could point us in the right direction.”
“A reasonable conclusion, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “A studious one, isn’t she, Sunset Shimmer? Much like how I remember you.”
Sunset smiled nervously and nodded.
Celestia closed her eyes and bowed her head in agreement. “Well then, where would you like me to begin?”
“Let’s start with an obvious one. What’s going on with the sky? Why is it dark in the middle of the day?” Twilight asked.
“The Eternal Dusk. As good of place as any. Come,” she said, motioning behind the raised floor where the throne stood. The young ponies stepped up and passed by the throne, towards the large glass doors Princess Celestia had opened with her magic. What lay beyond was semi circular balcony overlooking Canterlot. Princess Celestia stopped just short of the balustrade and looked upwards, to the moon. The enormous white disk gleaming in the cloudless purple sky.
“When Nightmare Moon made her return on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration four cycles ago, I alone had to stand against her. A predestined incident I had been dreading for a thousand years.”
“But what about the Elements of Harmony? I understand that I am apparently not your student back then, but surely the elements of harmony were recovered in the process of stopping her?” Twilight asked.
“I had planned for that very outcome. With Sunset Shimmer leaving Equestria many moons ago, I could not bring myself to take another student under my wing,” she replied.
Sunset looked away, averting her eyes from Celestia’s wistful regard. Princess Celestia continued.
“I chose to recover and wield the Elements on my own, prepared to take on Nightmare Moon in order to protect Equestria and maintain balance,” Princess Celestia said. She turned her head to face the moon once more, closing her eyes and let out a long breath.
“So you freed Princess Luna of Nightmare Moon all by yourself? It was my friends and I that retrieved the Elements of Harmony and put a stop to Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said.
“If that where the case, I believe the events that followed would have been very different,” she turned to face the trio of mares, her expression of sadness. “Wielding the Elements of Harmony alone is not without risk. A calling that is best suited for a group of close friends. I was left with little choice, though. I was able to stop Nightmare Moon and cleanse the corruption from my sister but it did come at a cost. The Elements, along with a portion of the power both myself and my sister wielded have vanished, leaving us unable raise the sun or moon completely. Equestria has been in a perpetual twilight ever since.”
“Wait, the Elements of Harmony went missing!?” Twilight exclaimed. “What about the Tree of Harmony?“
Princess Celestia nodded. “The tree is safe within the Everfree Forest. The wards I have in place that protect it have prevented Sombra from taking the forest so far. It’s one of the remaining artifacts that is keeping balance within Equestria. Those measures will not hold up forever, though.”
“Sombra? As in King Sombra? What’s his role in all this?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, Sombra,” Celestia let out a sigh. “Since the return of the Crystal Empire, Equestria has engaged in a war against them. A fight we’ve been losing.”
“King Sombra succeeded in taking back the Crystal Empire…” Twilight trailed off, her voice weak. “Dare I ask about Discord, Queen Chrysalis or Lord Tirek?”
“Ah, a cavalcade of some of the most trying times for Equestria. I am impressed! You know much of Equestrian history. That was something Sunset Shimmer was never keen of,” Princess Celestia said, again smiling fondly. “Discord is still in the sculpture garden on the palace grounds. The Queen of the Changelings I have not seen in decades, but have had reports of changelings being spotted along the borders of Equestria that are still under my protection. Lord Tirek—” Celestia spat with disdain, before catching herself, “—is still locked away within Tartarus. I am grateful that Sombra has not attempted to open those gates, even he has limits to his own insanity.“
“That’s some small relief,” Twilight mulled aloud. “How could events have changed so much? Where was I when all this was happening? What about my friends?”
“I have a theory if you’re willing to humour me,” Light said, finally speaking up. The other mares turned to Light, who had up until now just hovered near the doors to the balcony. Light awkwardly pushed back the hood of the cloak with a hoof.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Twilight said.
“I am way out of my depth with Equestria. I know nothing of it’s history or magic and just about every other aspect that I have seen in the few hours we’ve been here, but I surmise this reality is not the same as the one you came from. This Princess Celestia doesn’t know who you are. Some event in the past, a substantial one, had an enormous effect leading up to this point.”
“The obvious one is the currently missing Elements of Harmony?” Twilight replied.
“A possibility but I think we have to look a little further back. I think it’s an even earlier event, specifically surrounding you, Twilight. The lack of your presence when this ‘Nightmare Moon’ appeared and every event occurring after that point has been… world altering,” Light continued. “I have to ask the question: where were you in this continuity? More specifically, when would your first interaction with Princess Celestia have been?”
“That would have been when I demonstrated my talent as a filly at Princess Celestia’s school for gifted Unicorns. If not for that I never would have met her or have been personally tutored by her. I probably would have met her though, since my brother is a guard, though.”
“What is your brother’s name, Twilght?” Princess Celestia asked.
”A stallion by the name of Shining Armor? He was a captain in your royal guard,“ Twilight said. Princess Celestia immediately recognized the name, her expression brightened.
“Yes, I know him well. A fine young stallion. I have him on an assignment with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza at the town of Ponyville to watch over the Everfree Forest for the last two years since the the Crystal Empire had returned. As far as I am aware he is an only colt, though. I know his parents well, Twilight Velvet and Night Light.”
Twilight’s expression grew dour. “Shining Armor… is an only colt? Wha…,” she stammered. “If he is an only colt… that means I was never born? I’m the event? What?!“ Twilight yelped.
“I’m kind of rusty with the magical study I did here, but this feels an awful lot like someone that tampered with time,” Sunset Shimmer spoke.
“Time travel?” Twilight questioned, grimacing. “I can feel the headache mounting already. Assume I was never born here, why do I exist at all? And why does Sunset still remember me?”
“Purely speculation, but perhaps you weren’t supposed to come back. That could be why the portal wasn’t working on either side,” Light proposed. “The prospect of that this is all the result of some kind of time travel brings up so many more questions.”
“My little ponies, I can assure you all of Star Swirl’s original research of the topic of time travel are locked away in the Canterlot archives. The danger of that kind of magic is too great to be out in the wild,” Princess Celestia said. “Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle and Light, you are more than welcome to use the archives if you wish,” Princess Celestia offered. “I sense that the events that will unfold in the coming days is going vital to the future of Equestria as a whole.“
Twilight nodded. “Thank you Princess Celestia, but I believe before I can begin that line of research, I need to get my friends back to their own home,” she faced Sunset and Light, both with surprised expressions.
“No way, I’m not leaving now. You need help,” Sunset Shimmer spoke, shaking her head vigorously. She took a bold step towards Twilight. “That’s final.”
“Th-Thanks,” Twilight managed to smile. Before Twilight could follow up with Light, she spoke up.
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible in a reasonable amount of time, what with the portal being closed on this side and all,” Light began, awkwardly scratching her head with her front left hoof.
“I’m certain I can get it working, I just need to spend some time digging into the topic in the Canterlot library,” Twilight replied.
Light shook her head, objecting to the idea. “No, getting me home isn’t as important as fixing, well, whatever this is. I want to help here too, if I can. I promise I won’t get in the way.”
“Twilight Sparkle, I can attempt to repair the mirror if you wish to seek out the fate of the Elements,” Princess Celestia offered. “I do have some experience with it, over the centuries.“
“It’s settled then,” Sunset said, trying to brighten the mood. “Where should we start, Twilight?”
“We hit the books now to get perspective of what lays before us. Tomorrow, we go looking to find out what happened to the Elements of Harmony. We start that search in Ponyville,” Twilight declared.
Author's Note
Well, this took longer than I expected.
The Fallen and the Forgotten
The mares had made good time on their journey towards Ponyville since leaving Canterlot. The condition of the southern path had surprised Twilight once they were clear of the Canterlot gates. It still snaked down the side of the mountain’s rock face, but it hardly saw any use anymore as a primary roadway into Canterlot. Instead, it had deteriorated into a dirt path with unkempt wild brush that crept up from the outer mountain face. The further they proceeded down the path, the more unrecognizable the road ahead looked. By midday, the pathway was barely half the width that it would regularly have been.
The girls formed a loose single file line. Twilight, who had taken up lead of the travelling party. Sunset, followed a few paces behind. Light, took up the rear nearly two dozen paces behind Sunset. Twilight used her telekinetic magic to adjust the harness that held the saddlebags in place she wore on her back. The saddlebags and the cloak where parting gifts from Princess Celestia. Unfortunately it seemed it was fitted for an earth pony so it kept riding uncomfortably up into her wings.
She glanced back towards Sunset and Light, who both adorned identical cloaks and saddlebags. Sunset met her glance with fleeting smile. Further back, Light’s attention was preoccupied with her footing while she walked downhill on the narrow path. The brief glimpses of light reflecting from the moon was welcome, and provided enough illumination to see their surroundings.
“I didn’t think we where literally going to hoof it,” Light grumbled.
“It was the only option,” Twilight replied. “I couldn’t carry both of you and fly to Ponyville. Teleportation isn’t viable either. Even the Friendship Express line was totally shut down. I doubt we could have done anything to convince a team of engineers to run one train to Ponyville for the three of us after the last one went missing,” Twilight shuddered. The mere thought of the story Princess Celestia had told them would have made for a great story around a campfire. Unfortunately, it was more than just a tall tale.
Twilight recalled the story inwardly: A train had left Canterlot a few days after the the endless dusk had began. The train had left on schedule as usual, but never arrived in Ponyville. Princess Celestia had sent out a small detachment of her already stretched thin Royal Guard to investigate, but not a single trace of the train could be found along the length of rail between Canterlot and Ponyville. As far as the guards could see it had simply vanished. With few passengers and engineers that were brave enough to travel after that event, Princess Celestia chose to shut down that train line until further notice.
“I know, Princess Celestia’s story spooked me. I wouldn’t want to ride, let alone work on a train after an incident like that. I just wish there was an alternative. All this walking on all fours business is surprisingly tiring,” Light sulked.
“On the bright side, you’ve adapted to walking quickly. Learning to walk on just two legs took far more effort. Now that was an unsettling experience,” Twilight remarked. “Sunset, how about you? How’s it feel to be on your own hooves again?”
“Living on the other side so long, you kind of get used to walking on two legs and having hands and fingers, so I never really thought about it too much,” she replied. “It does feel nice though. Having a horn and being able to use familiar Equestrian magic I did definitely did miss. Being back here, I feel like the research into the magic on the other side does make it feel very close to the Equestrian magic here, but it’s far stronger over here.”
Light shook her head. “I don’t believe magic ever existed in my world in any tangible amount, at least until Sunset Shimmer came through through the mirror. I’m not even convinced what you call magic is, well, magic.”
“Even after all you’ve seen in the last day. Everything you’ve read, you think magic isn’t real?” Sunset Shimmer said. “Or —I hate to think about it— when I tried to take over the CHS with Twilight’s crown?”
“What little I have read of the history of Equestrian magic so far is certainly fascinating, and I want to learn more about it both here and back home before I can come up with a real hypothesis what exactly magic is.”
“Well, you’ll have some time this evening to get a little more reading done. We’re almost at the rest stop,“ Twilight said.
“We’ve been walking that long?” Sunset replied. “With no day and night cycles, it’s kind of hard to tell.”
Twilight nodded, it had been a surprisingly long day. They had been walking for almost eight hours, with only a couple of short breaks in between. She had made this hike with Spike on a few occasions in the past, but she had usually done it over a two or thee days. Her usual rest spot on the second night was just up ahead: a group of cabins for rent along the side of the road. The reports from Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard indicated that the cabins where still run by the same friendly couple that she had gotten familiar with over the last couple of years. Twilight grimaced inwardly. “It’s not like it matters, they won’t know who I am,” she thought to herself.
“We made excellent time, just over the crest,” Twilight said, attempting to sound cheerful.
The trio fell silent, plodding up the hill. To either side of the trio, the overgrown brush and the forest beyond had been uncomfortably still. Twilight had expected even the odd rustling of a wild animal, but in the hours they had spent walking down the path, not even a single sound other than the plodding of their own hooves. Twilight was relieved when she spotted the group of cabins as they had made it to the top of the crest. The main cabin at the front, where the owners lived had lights emanating from a lone lantern that flickered a pale yellow.
“Looks like somepony’s home,” Twilight said, relieved at the sight.
At first, the owners of the inn had been extremely leery of Twilight and her companions. The combination of Twilight dropping a few extra bits and the cloaks that bore Princess Celestia’s emblem that they wore eased their trepidation of the visitors. The elderly stallion at the front desk of the proprietors’ cabin obliged their request for lodgings with the large three bedroom cabin near the owner’s cabin. His wife was gracious enough to bring over all of the ingredients needed to make a hearty vegetable stew. Sunset had prepared everything and tossed it all in the pot over a fire that Twilight was now absentmindedly stirring with a wooden ladle.
Sunset sat on the oversized couch that faced the fire. She flipped through book she had borrowed from the archives. Light stood to the left of the couch, her own nose buried in one of the books she brought with her. Twilight released the ladle from her magical hold, it gently coming to rest at the edge of the pot. She sat on her haunches, watching the embers of the fire under the pot crackle and glow bright orange. A particularly loud pop from the fire snapped her out of the reverie.
Her attention drifted to Light, who appeared to be focused intently on the book she had propped up on the oversized hoofrest of the couch. Twilight got a better look at the book and had instantly recognized it as the first volume of Principles of Magic. She had the entire set in her own library, which she was particularly proud of. Twilight noted that Light’s expression had grown increasingly sour over the last couple of minutes.
“How’s the studying coming along?” Twilight asked, curious of Light’s progress.
Light awkwardly spun around and gestured at the stool that sat between them with her snout in a huff. “I’ve been trying a basic telekinesis spell for the last half an hour,” Light huffed. Her expression scrunched up, frustrated. Light paced between the hearth and the stool. She nudged the object that lay on top of the stool with her hoof: a small red apple. It hadn’t moved since she put it there.
“Once you wrap your head around a simple telekinesis spell, things get easier,” Twilight assured her. A faint purple glow enveloped the apple and floated upwards a couple hooves before returning to the uneven wooden floor. “Single minded focus is a good first step to mastering this spell. Eventually you’ll be able to do this without batting an eye. This would take a unicorn filly a few weeks to even nudge an object this small on demand, so don’t feel like you have to master this in a single night,” Twilight added.
“How long did it take you to successfully cast this spell?”
“For the first time? I think it was about two days,” Twilight said, blushing, “but I had read Principles of Magic cover to cover at least a dozen times before I even attempted it for the first time,” she hastily added.
“What about you, Sunset?” Light asked, turning to Sunset.
Sunset had put down the book she was reading and stood up approaching the fire. She stirred the pot of stew and carefully levitated the ladle in front of her, the piping hot liquid steaming in the chilly air. Considering Light’s question, she finally replied, “Five days, give or take, but I didn’t start out with studying. It was more of a force of will to control my raw magical potential,”
“Well, do you have any tips for this?” Light asked.
“Before I was accepted to Celestia’s school for gifted Unicorns, most of my early magical training was done by an overpriced tutor in Canterlot yelling at me non-stop. I don’t think much of that was very useful,” Sunset sighed. She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts before continuing, “The only thing I can think of is try to concentrate not on the words of the spell, but the meaning behind the words. Try to imagine how the magic meshes with the world we are in, how the magic should feel. That helped me when I was just starting out as a filly, at least. Of course, that could just be clear as mud.”
Twilight considered the advice, finally nodding. “That’s a great idea, Sunset. It’s worth trying alternate methods if you are just starting out. Emotion is an important aspect of magic, so you could try approaching it from that perspective,” Twilight agreed.
“How it should feel… Worth a try, I guess,” Light muttered. She returned her attention to the apple on the floor. She squinted, focusing solely on the apple. At first no change, not even a wobble. After a few moments, to Twilight and Sunset’s surprise, the apple started to shake.
“Good! keep going,” Twilight encouraged.
Light nodded, focusing her concentration entirely on the apple. The apple shook more vigorously, eventually lifting about a hoof from the surface of the stool top.
“Excellent!” Twilight exclaimed. Sunset shimmer nodded in approval.
“Finally!” Light grinned, her attention wavering from the apple. A dark, viscous cocoon momentarily enveloping the fruit whole. A slushy popping sound snapped Light’s focus back to the task, albeit too late.
Sunset Shimmer yelped at the sudden sound, her telekinetic grasp of the ladle cut short, the momentum causing the spoon to fly right towards Twilight, who managed to catch it in midair before it smacked her in the head.
Light, momentarily stunned, realized what had just occurred. She began jumping up and down, excited at the result. She managed to levitate the apple, if only for a few seconds.
“Your raw ability is very strong, so that’s good news. With enough practice you’d make a fine student of magic,” Twilight said. “We need to work on some discipline training first. A simple telekinesis spell shouldn’t result in the subject being pulverized like that.“
“Enough magic business. Lets eat,” Sunset said. She hastily filled three bowls with the hearty stew she had tended to. The bowls and spoons drifted in the air and came to a rest in front of the girls.
“Smells delicious, Sunset,” Twilight said, taking a whiff of the steaming bowl in front of her.
“I spent a ton of time learning to cook for myself on the other side. I probably know more ways to prepare vegetables than spells at this point,” she joked. She looked to Light, who had just settled in front of her own share of the meal. “It’s a bit tricky to consume with just your hooves without some practice.”
“I’ll manage. I’m just going to let it cool down a little first,” Light said. She looked down at the bowl, nudging at the spoon. “So, from my few hours in Canterlot, the effects of this war Princess Celestia is fighting seems to have taken it’s toll on the city. I don’t think I spotted more than a dozen other ponies on our way out.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the city this barren before. Even when Celestia had high profile visitors, the palace always had a a few ponies going about their business. The Dusk and the war against Sombra has changed things.”
Light nodded, her attention drifting to the bowl of stew. Her confidence of consuming the contents of the bowl wavered. The task looked too difficult when she considered the hot liquid. “I did get to read up on a collection of recent events over the last few years here, I haven’t gone through it all, but Princess Celestia had kept a fairly in depth collection of news throughout the lands she watches over.”
Sunset gently let the bowl she had held with her telekinetic spell to the table. “Oh? Anything interesting?” she replied.
Light shrugged. “Lots of fascinating events, but I don’t know if any of it’s helpful. There was one report of a town way out west that’s under the protection of a powerful unicorn. I think her name was Starlight something or other. The report went on to say that Sombra had left that tiny little pocket of land alone, for now at least.”
“Somepony I’d love to meet under different circumstances,” Twilight mulled.
“Down near the Badlands border is a different story,” Light continued. “Only a couple of unsubstantiated reports of something called changelings skirting the Macintosh Hills.”
Twilight frowned. “Queen Chrysalis’ hive no doubt. Assuming she’s even the hive queen in this reality.”
“You’ll have to tell me about changelings and this Chrysalis later,” Light said. “Anyway, to the northwest of Canterlot, Cloudsdale has been getting help from the gryphons.”
“That’s something I never thought I would hear,” Sunset snorted. “Even when I was a filly, gryphons never really got along with anypony.”
“They’re not all bad apples,” Twilight sighed. “Light, what about of Ponyville? Did you read anything about that?”
Light shook her head. “Nothing recent. Only tidbits about Princess Cadence and Shining Armor keeping the peace there. Considering how close it is to Canterlot, I think it’s still well protected.”
“Ponyville will be fine, the residents are a strong bunch,” Twilight. “I do hope there is some degree of normalcy, but we’ll see for ourselves what we’re dealing with when we arrive in the morning.”
Light yawned. She nudged the empty bowl in front of her with a hoof. “Pardon me! Dinner has made me sleepy. I think I’m going to do a little more reading before I hit the hay,” she said. She clumsily got up on all fours arced her back, attempting to stretch.
“G’night, Light. Try to get more sleep,” Twilight replied, nodding.
“To you, as well. I promise I’ll only spend an hour reading,” she said. Light headed to her bedroom, awkwardly nudging the door shut with a hoof.
Sunset finished her own dinner and stacked the dirty bowl, along with Light’s on a tray at an end table. Looking out to a nearby window, it was just as dark as when they had arrived, and outside was just as unsettlingly quiet as their entire walk here. She returned her attention to Twilight, who had been sitting quietly, seemingly list in her own thoughts watching the embers flicker and crackle in the fireplace.
“This is a pretty nice place. Has this always been here?” Sunset spoke, breaking the silence.
Twilight blinked a couple of times, her own thoughts returning to the room. “Yeah, its been here for quite a few years. I have stayed here a few times and had gotten to know the Timbers. Wonderful family. Normally, almost every cabin is full of guests. I can’t recall ever coming through here and seeing not even one other guest.”
“With this endless night, I can understand the average pony not wanting to travel,“ Sunset said, “It is unfortunate the Express isn’t running. It’s been ages since I had ridden on that line. That would have been fun.”
“Princess Celestia’s decision to shut down the line is a prudent one,” Twilight said. “At least the tampering with the sun and moon has played to our favour. If winter was in full swing we would have had a tough time making it even a third of the way here on hoof.”
“True, not having to slog down a mountainside knee deep in snow was great. Our new friend Light would have had a difficult time,” Sunset said. She picked up the cast iron prod with her magic and poked at the logs on the fire. The agitated wood popped and cracked. “You think we’ll find your friends in Ponyville? Princess Celestia didn’t exactly paint a great picture of what’s going on in this world. Who knows what we’re dealing with now.”
Twilight nodded. “I can’t be one hundred percent sure of anything anymore but at least one of the girls should be there. Once we find one of the girls, the hopefully that will point us in the direction of the rest. One thing that has been bothering me is what happened to Spike. Princess Celestia never had a dragon egg in her possession to begin with so where could he be? Does he even exist? If so, would he even be the same Spike?”
“I’m sure he’s fine here with a nice group of dragons,” Sunset offered. “But our first priority needs to be focused on recovering the Elements of Harmony, not tracking down Spike.”
Twilight glared at Sunset. “Spike isn’t as important as the rest of my friends?” she questioned.
“That’s not what I meant, I—” Sunset paused, considering her next words carefully. She knew she had struck sensitive subject. “I’m sure he’s fine in this timeline. But that’s just it, Twilight. This timeline isn’t ours. The sooner we figure out what in Equestria caused all of this, we can work to fix it, and get back to our own timeline. To our… home.”
Twilight’s features softened, her attention returning to the embers crackling in the fire. “You’re— you’re right. The last twenty-four hours is getting to me. I— no, we have to focus on what’s ahead.”
Sunset simply nodded. Both of the girls resumed watching over the last remnants of the dying fire.
“So,” Twilight began.
“So,” Sunset echoed.
The awkward silence hung heavily in the air. The remaining embers of the wood in the fireplace tried it’s best to liven the room. Twilight managed to force sound out of her throat first.
“A full day of walking on all fours, that must of been different than you are used to,” Twilight said.
“Getting to stretch the old legs felt pretty amazing,” Sunset Shimmer remarked. “It’s been too long since I’ve been able to just run like that. Even being on the other side for so long, walking like this feels so… right. I didn’t think I’d actually miss something this trivial,” Sunset remarked. “I’m impressed that Light adapted to her transformation quickly.”
“For sure. Honestly, it’s remarkable that the Crystal Mirror somehow helps you adjust to the physiological changes when you move between worlds. It’s some seriously complex magic.”
“That was a puzzle that had eluded me since I had known about the mirror. I spent every waking moment for the months leading up to crossing over for the first time. Even with that all that research, I had barely scratched the surface of the intricate weaving of spells that went into creating the mirror when I had decided to step through,” Sunset said, collecting her thoughts.
“I’ve read just about every historical entry and likely every single book you had managed to track down. Between the two of us, we probably know more about it than even the Princess does at this point,” Twilight joked.
“I feel like I’m the luckiest pony on either side the mirror. After what I had done, being given the opportunity to grow into something wonderful has been an amazing experience.”
Twilight regarded Sunset, who had been gazing at the fireplace. Sunset appeared lost in her own thoughts.
“You know you can come back home at any time, right?”
Sunset bit her lower lip. “I know, and I’m thankful. But, I don’t feel like I’ve earned that right yet. I know I’ve gotten the same invitation from Princess Celestia that you’ve also extended, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the bridge I burned with Princess Celestia the moment I crossed over to the other side could just be rebuilt just like that. I need to find a my own way to earn that right,” Sunset said, steeling herself. “Besides, with senior year coming up I have so much left to learn.”
“After your senior year, what then? Your recent letters have focused on all of our friends’ plans and very little on what you want to do.”
“I don’t know, maybe go to a college on the other side? There are many areas of science over there that interest me, and it’s a topic I seem to have a natural affinity for.”
“Well, that’s a start. I’m glad that you’re looking forward,” Twilight replied.
Sunset simply nodded, averting her eyes from Twilight’s gentle gaze. “Forward is the the only direction I should be going in. Looking back just brings up all sorts of things I’d rather not think about.”
“You mean how you left things before you left our dimension?”
Sunset nodded once more. “That’s part of it. I really didn’t have many ponies that I would have considered myself close to back then. Even if I did, I doubt anypony even remembers who I am.”
“You do have at least one friend back home. Two if you count Spike,” Twilight said, smiling.
“And I’m grateful for that,” Sunset replied, her expression shifting to a brief glimpse of melancholy. “I haven’t even seen my parents since the last parent teacher day Princess Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, and that was over a year before I had crossed over. They are both undoubtably off doing their own important work. Probably didn’t even notice that I had left. They were always nonchalant when it came to the topic of me,” she finished.
Twilight paused, searching for the right words. Sunset rarely wrote in the book about her own life on the other side, other than magic and the goings on with their friends. Even more rarely about the life she had left at her original dimension. Not wanting to pry further, she chose to be a supportive friend. “I’m sure they miss you. If you do ever choose to come back home, I can help get in touch with them.“
“Thank you,” Sunset’s features relaxed, her usual restrained expression melting away. She looked tired. “I’m sorry… there’s more important things to worry about than listening to me moping about myself. Constantly second guessing every decision I make. How one bad choice could dredge up my power hungry demon side again. The mere thought of it terrifies me.”
“Trust me. With more responsibility even seemingly trivial choices can feel like a burden sometimes. Having wonderful friends that have my back is reassuring though. That’s something we both have plenty of,” Twilight said. She raised a brow and tilted her head, quizzically. “I don’t think you ever need to worry about going full demon again.”
“Oh, I know,” Sunset abruptly answered, her usual guarded expression returning. “Anyway, we’ve got a long day ahead of us,“ Sunset said, letting out a a big yawn. “I’m going to try to get some shut-eye as well. Thanks Twilight, for listening.”
“Of course,” Twilight responded. “Have a good sleep.”
Sunset slid off the sofa and headed to her darkened room. Twilight watched on as the door quietly closed. She unsuccessfully tried to stifle an involuntary yawn. Stretching out to the entire length of the warm sofa, she let her head rest on the hoofrest. She watched the dim orange glow of embers fade, before nodding off to sleep.
Author's Note
This sat in editing hell for a long time.