A Spark in the Stars- Magic’s second Spark
The wooden staircase and the shelves of the school library was not what you would normally expect for a young child to be on a Friday Afternoon. But for a young girl named Dawn, she considered it as a safe haven. She was a fourth grade student who had a hard time making friends with the kids on the playground, but was able to make friends with the characters in her favorite storybooks. Each week, she immersed herself in the stories of the journey’s of different heroes and heroines as they tried to complete a grand quest or some kind of goal.
As she picked out books, it seems a new addition was added to the shelves, which caught her attention. She pulled it out to read the title, “Displaced: Heroes of the Multiverse, by Eric Smith.” Flipping it over, she began reading the backside, she said to herself “Heroes lost across the multiverse from a single world, listen as you read about several of their journeys. Similar yet unique.” She placed it with the others as she went to check out.
The Usual Librarian was sick so a temporary replacement had volunteered. Covering from head to toe was a long body cloak yet a long beard was seen coming out. “Got what you were looking for? Lets see… Displaced? My, that one came out not to long ago, I hear it's a great read.”
“Really? This is the first time I’ve heard of it.” Dawn replied back, smiling a little and presenting her Library card to the strange replacement.
“Well it was self published unlike the bigger well known authors.” With that, the card and books were handed back to her.
“Thank you Mr…… What’s your name, sir?” She asked, trying her best to sound polite.
“Smith, Eric Smith, but everyone calls me Loki for some strange reason.” The replacement said. With that he waved her goodbye. Dawn had not realized it though as she sat back down in her favorite spot of the library. A comfy chair underneath a tree like canopy and opened up the book. However, something seemed different about this book than any other one she read before.
There was a lock like mechanism on the side of it. Almost like if the book was a diary. Ignoring the chance to ask herself why that was there in the first place, she looked at the flap that resembled a six pointed star. Almost like a spark in the night sky.
“Come on… It shouldn’t be that hard just to open a simple latch-.” The library soon lit up as a vortex of light began to spin around her, covering her in the lavender colored light.
“W-what the!?” Dawn gasped at what was happening. She looked around, trying to find some help, until she realized that she was the only one in the library. Acting on fear, she ran to the doors, only to find herself getting pulled away from them like a rip current. As she was getting pulled in though, she knocked her head on the pile of books she had checked out, causing them to fall and having Dawn pass out. The girl along with Dawn was swallowed by a massive flash and soon, the library was empty once again.
The replacement librarian simply blinked as he scratched his chin with his eagle talon. Appearing was a blue light next to him. “Well that’s a surprise, that book has all she’ll need right?”
“Define, All she’ll need. Besides, you know Twilight will try to get her hooves on you for this right?” The Light spoke to him. All he did was chuckle a little as he sighed.
“Not to worry. She always wanted a student. So, I thought it might be best if she tried to teach someone like her.”
As the vortex stopped Dawn from herself outside in a park. But something was way off about her. Something to her didn’t feel right at all. When she tried to get up, something made it hard for her to try and walk on two legs as she fell backwards. That’s when she looked to see her hands…
… Or more likely what were her hands.
They were now a pair of lavender colored hooves. This scared Dawn, making her feel like she was a bad dream. She had to wake up at some point. Either that or she needed some MAJOR help.
The book she had was next to her but with a different title. “Tips on how to be Displaced, Written by former Displaced Loki CH Sparkle.”
“Hmm… Wait… Loki?” Dawn remembered that name. Then realized who it was. “Oh you have got to be kidding me...” Now she tried to turn the book over to read the book, but it was hard for her to do so with the lack of fingers. It got to the point where she was mentally trying to yell at the book to flip over. When she did do that though, Dawn soon found the book wrapped in a strange glow and a warm sensation on her forehead. Looking up, she soon saw that she had a horn.
The book page she was on glowed as it revealed some basic tips. “Rule 1, if you are in the past try not to get on the sisters bad side, this is so common it makes me what to throw up. Rule 2, If it's modern day try to befriend Fluttershy she the most open. Rule 3, being a villain maybe fun, but there are more heroic Displaced, most of them probably above your level of power. Rule 4, don’t make a token until you're settled in. Rule 5 check the page and timeline to figure out when in Equestria history you are.” All of this brought confusion to Dawn as she looked at it. Then she read the bottom part of the page. “If you have any questions; please refer to the Reference guide in the back of the book.”
‘Well, hopefully this helps me out as best as anything right now.’ She thought, fumbling around with the book using her newfound magic to turn to that specific section.
On the Reference guide she saw several pages of use. What was a Displaced, Celestia and Luna, Elements of harmony, and finally the multiverse. “Oh boy… I’m in another universe as a pony princess.”
“Hey who’s that… wait Twilight what are you doing here?” A Pink Earth pony asked hopping up to Dawn.
“Umm…… Hi?”
The pink pony was bouncing up again and again.
“C-can I help you… miss?”
“Twilight, it’s me… You know… Pinkie Pie? Super Duper best party planner in ponyville?”
“I.. ahh.”
“Pinkie? What’s going on-?” Came the sound of another voice. This time, Dawn thought that she was hearing her voice. Looking up, she now was face to face with the actual pony that she looked like now… Princess Twilight Sparkle.
“Umm… hi?” was the only words Dawn could muster because of her rising anxiety.
Pinkie pie looked between Twilight and Dawn. She did this over and over again. “Wait a moment... Am I seeing double?” She thee glared at Dawn. “Something not right? Are you a changeling... “ She put her hoof in Dawn mouth expecting fangs. No Fangs. “Not a changeling, can’t be mirror pool… Twilight from another universe sent by a cosmic being?”
“M-my name isn’t Twilight! It’s Dawn!!”
“Dawn? Dawn what?” Pinkie Pie asked.
Twilight decided to add into the conversation. “If you don’t mind me asking, Dawn, why are you here?”
“I-i don’t know… I just started reading this book the librarian gave me and then I woke up as you. Got it from some… Loki person.”
“Loki? Is there a picture in the book?” Twilight asked.
“I don’t know. I just only read a few pages. It has his name on the front though. Like he’s an author?” Dawn handed the book to Twilight as she looked through the pages a bit and on the back was a picture of something in a cloak. However the fang and beard plus the glowing eyes gave away who “Loki” was.
“Oh boy…”
“W-what’s wrong? Am I in trouble?” Dawn asked, a little scared.
“No, But I know somepony who is.” Twilight said. Inside a pocket dimension of madness the Spirit of Chaos stopped for a moment. He felt as though he was taking the blame for someone else.
“So…” Dawn started, “How do I go back?”
“At this rate, I don’t know if there is a way to get you back to your home.” Twilight told her the truth, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “But I promise we’ll try to figure out a way to help you, Dawn. But there might be some things we need to do first.”
“Like what?” Dawn asked. This could not be possible. It had to be a dream. Dawn really hoped it was a dream.
“Well… We’ll need something to make you not look exactly like me… Second, I’m going to need to be able to teach you something important that you will need while you are here… Magic.” Twilight spoke. “Plus, I need to explain the situation to my friends and the princess-.”
“Hey, egghead. What’s up-?” Dawn looked up to see a Rainbow Maned pegasus with a cyan coat. “Who’s your clone? Is it a changeling? If so, can I beat it up?”
“Rainbow-!!”
“What-?”
“You’re scaring Dawn!”
“Who?”
The princess of friendship pointed to the copyright in front of her. Dawn was a bit afraid at the whole ‘Can I beat it up’ statement, so she almost resembled Fluttershy trying to hide herself. “Wait, so she’s not a changeling?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“No she some kinda, interuniversal Displaced…” Pinkie Pie said. She then stop for a moment. “Wait a minute.” She thought this seemed familiar.
“Pinkie?” Twilight asked.
Pinkie Pie blinked. “What was I talking about?” Pinkie asked.
“You were saying something about Dawn?” Twilight reminded her. “Like Displaced?”
“Oh that? What is displaced even?” Pinkie Pie asked. Dawn had the book and showed the cover. “Oh that. never heard of them.” she answered after looking at it.
“I think the definition for Displaced is on the first page,” Dawn said, causing Twilight to start looking through the pages. As soon as she saw the page, Dawn pointed it out with her newfound hoof so Twilight knew where to look. “There it is.”
“Displaced, or Dimensionally Misplaced; means to end up in another world as another person or character and contract his or her abilities.” Twilight read it aloud. “So, you ended up here as me?”
“Y-yeah…”
“Well, it’s going to be very confusing seeing two Twilights around. Here.” Rainbow helped, getting a mane tie from her bag and typing Dawn’s newfound mane into a Ponytail. Followed by adding a small scarf around her neck. “How’s that?”
“It’ll work for now. I bet we might have some books at the castle on dealing with changing appearances, but we can worry about that later. Right now, a certain somepony is going to get in trouble for this.”
Discord was off in the Canterlot market looking over something for his home. Usually he would just materialize it with a snap of his talons, but he wanted to see what the old made by hoof craftsmanship was like. “Discord!” The spirit turned to see Twilight… with another Twilight.
“What in the name of Chaos? Twilight, I didn’t know you had a twin.” Discord exclaimed. “Or is she magic mirror clone? No wait, alternative self from another timeline.”
“You are in SO MUCH TROUBLE MISTER!!” Twilight snarled.
Discord couldn’t believe this. “What? But the hydra wanted to eat me! So I banished it to another dimension! What’s wrong about that!?” Discord screamed back at Twilight.
“Not that.” Twilight would have to look into that later. “This.” She said pointing to Dawn.
“What does yourself have to do with this?” Discord asked.
“Discord we know you sent her to this world!” Twilight answered.
“What? I would never!” Discord screamed back.
“Umm…” Dawn said, unsure of what was happening. Discord looked at her as she was looking at the cover of the book again, seeing something off about it. He then looked back at Twilight. “Maybe we should go somewhere where we won’t make a scene in public.”
Discord teleported them to his home dimension and was looking over book that Dawn had. “I’m afraid I couldn’t have created this.” Discord answer to them. “Don’t get me wrong it looks like me on the image, but here the thing, It’s hard to travel across universes, this…” He waved his talons at Dawn.
“So what are you saying?” Dawn asked.
“I didn’t send you here, nor do I have the power to send you back.” Discord answered.
‘I can’t go back?’ Dawn thought. She let this all sink in. She was lost, in another reality with no way home. She was now a pony, for life. Dawn mind did the only logical thing. She fainted.
Learning. Magic and Books.
“T-twilight?” Dawn groaned a little, her head hurting a little like she had hit it against a wall. “W-what happened?”
“You fainted and landed on your head.” Twilight answered her. “Discord had leaved soon after bringing us to my castle.” At the part where she heard Castle, Dawn looked up and took in her surroundings. The crystalline walls and floors were what surprised her the most. Upon looking in a mirror though, she saw her pony body. Wings, horn, mane and everything else.
“Wow… You have a very nice castle.” Dawn said, looking at Twilight. “I think we should probably do something about us looking the same. I don’t want them mistaking me for you.”
Twilight was in agreement with that. It was kinda weird talking to somepony who looked just like you in every way. “Let's see, oh I know!” A few moments later Dawn mane was braided and glasses were added. “This is all I had on me, I would do a color changing spell but… I have a troubled history with those kinds of magic.” Twilight answered.
“Hmm…” Dawn looked at herself, with mixed results. She liked the braid, but the glasses made her feel… strange. Especially since they couldn’t stay on her face for more than five seconds. She did still have the scarf from when she was in Canterlot, so that could work. “I like the Mane, but the glasses don’t seem to like me.”
“They were something Discord gave me for my birthday, should have guessed they would be too big.” Twilight answered before asking another question. “Anything else we could use?”
“Well… there's the fact that we have the same name… Most people probably wouldn’t think of the name Dawn when they see me almost resembling you.” She replied. “Any possible ideas?”
The Alicorn gave it some thought. ‘Let’s see. Twilight, Sunset? No, Dusk? Oh no… Nightfall? Yeah that’s it.’ Twilight thought in her mind. “How about Nightfall?”
“... I like that name.” Dawn replied happily.
“Ok now that’s out of the way, I don’t suppose you know how to use magic right?” Twilight asked. Dawn shook her head. “I thought so.”
“W-wait… are you going to… teach me?” Dawn or Nightfall asked.
“Well we can’t have a untrained Alicorn roaming around so yes.”
“O-okay.” Dawn stuttered. “What do we do first?”
“First we should start with some basic spell and work our way up.” Twilight said. As she levitated several books out and a chalkboard.
To say Twilight was surprised by how well Dawn was progressing would be an understatement. She was already starting with more advanced spells and it only took her an hour to get ahold of all the basics. ‘How can this even be possible… Is it because she me? Or is it because she’s an Alicorn? Or is it both?” She then thought that since it was because she was a natural at magic when she first started learning, that the same would be reflected upon somepony like herself.
“Hey Twilight… Remember that color changing spell you mentioned before… I was wondering… if it would be easier if we tried… umm… Doing the spell together?” Dawn asked.
Twilight thought it over for a moment. “It could work.” The two lite up there horns. “On one two three.” With that Nightfall appearance changed. Her fur now looked a lot lighter and it reminded Nightfall of white chocolate. “D-did it work?”
Twilight blinked. “It did.”
Dawn looked at herself and her new appearance, who was very happy upon glancing at her new fur coat. “A-amazing!”
“Yeah now it’s better to tell us apart.” Twilight said with a smile.
“What about our manes?” Dawn then asked, looking behind her. “And the… marks?”
“Marks? You mean our Cutie Marks?”
“What’s a cutie mark?”
“A cutie mark is what represents a pony's special talent, it's a reflection one’s soul in a way.” Twilight explained.
“Oh ok, so what’s your’s- I mean our cutie mark?” Nightfall asked, correcting herself.
“Magic.” Twilight stated.
“Magic? Like you’re naturally talented at casting spells?”
“Something along those lines,” The Alicorn replied. “I was a student at Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns, one of the highest leveled Magic Schools in Equestria…” It looked like Nightfall now was getting a little confused, but soon, Twilight simplified things for her. “It’s a special academy for Unicorns with highly skilled magical abilities.”
“So… you mean like a private school?”
“However you call it in your world I guess…” The Princess explained. “Speaking of which, what is your world like?”
“Well…” Nightfall spoke as she began to explain some of the basics of her world. Strangely enough it sounded like the world of Canterlot High to Twilight. “Of course, there is no magic.” Nightfall finished.
“You know that sounds similar to the mirror world I visited but I don’t think it’s the same.” Twilight mentioned. All it did though was confuse Nightfall, causing her to look at her in a puzzled manner. She was confused about this mirror world that the Alicorn was talking about and couldn’t really put a feather on what she was trying to explain.
“Mirror world? What do you mean by that, Twilight?” She asked her, wanting to find the answer to her question.
“There’s a magic mirror that is connected to another dimension, everyone there is a human counterpart of someone here.” Twilight answered Nightfall’s question. Nightfall thought this through for a moment, looking around a bit before looking back at Twilight.
“Do you have a picture or something of the people there? I wanted to see what you mean.” She asked politely. Twilight nodded as she went to a shelf with pictures of her time in ponyville. Twilight was amazed they had survived when Tirek destroyed her castle. She levitated a picture over too Dawn of her last outing to the mirror world. When Dawn had a brief look at it, she could tell right away that something wasn’t right. “Um… back home, I don’t think anyone had colored skin.” She told her, pointing at the Mirror world version of Pinkie Pie. “Most people on earth had sand like skin or darker. But it really depended on the person honestly.”
“Can I see your book you came with? Maybe it has some visuals to better understand.” Twilight suggested to Dawn. The Cream like Alicorn nodded and levitated her book to Twilight as she open it and began turning pages until she found one what showed some of her earth's humans. Holding it up for Twilight to see the Alicorn Princess.
“Displaced can come in all shapes and sizes, but can also be thrown into a variety of different worlds at different points in time. Here are a few examples of such.” Twilight soon turned the page to see the first individual that was on the page. It was a Blond teenaged man with a Azure coat and outfit along with a long braid and a specialized piston in one of his hands.
“This one is Lance Walker, or also known as either The Azure Striker or Gunvolt. Whatever you do though, do not call him Geeves. He doesn’t like that nickname. Anywho, Lance here was Displaced with control over lightning based powers and thrown into the Equestria of the Power Ponies. He works with them and is seen as a hero by many, but as a threat by his enemies. His Token is the hairpin that is on the end of his braid.”
“What’s a token?” Dawn asked. All she got though was a shrug as the two of them looked at the next page, only to see what see a metallic volcanic mass of what appeared to be a huge dragon.
“This is Neltharion the Earth-Wander, or Deathwing as he calls himself. He is an extreme cause of different points in time when displaced as he was displaced to before the planet that his equestria was apart of was formed. Bigger then most mountains in full size, he is amnesic which is understandable given he over four billion years old. Do not let his appearance fool you, he is actually quick gentle and has a thing was sweets. His token is a black orb called the Dragon Soul.”
“Sweet Celestia, that’s one massive dragon.” Twilight swore. The first two examples were… somewhat interesting and have really caught the young Alicorn’s attention. Still, she wondered what other ones would be intertwined within the pages of the book. With Curiosity guiding her, she used her magic to turn the page. The first thing she saw though on the top left side was what appeared to be a woman swinging a massive red claymore.
“This dear lady is known as Amy Anderson the Third. But she prefers to be known by her title as The Crimson Avenger. Formerly a Blazing Heart, she lost her fire based powers and gained the ability to control Dark and Blood Magic. Which she expresses through her techniques. Word of Warning though, she can be a bit wild and reckless at times. Her token is a Dark El Shard that resembles a blood red diamond.”
The next page had what Twilight first mistaken for a golem of metal, but as she looked at it’s details, she saw it was a advance machine built in the form of a man.
“This is Ultron, former Co-barrier of the Elements of Harmony. He is a A.I. with the heart and soul of a human, and is currently creating a peacekeeping force for his world after a thousand years in cyber lobo. He has a brilliant mind and was able to merge magic and Technology. His token is a prototype of his magical reactor that provides his body with the energy for everything from basic movement to powerful feats of magic.”
At reading this Twilight mind flashed what his Equestria must be like. One of her images was that it was in constant strife, but the other one was an technologically advanced planet that made her inner scientist squeal. Making Nightfall look at her with a worried expression as Twilight was in a personal heaven. Using a hoof, she nudged the Alicorn out of her trance as she soon snapped back to reality.
“Sorry I was in my own little world.” Twilight said with a laugh. “Still if these are just a sample of what are out there It might be harder than I thought to get you home.”
“Well, at least I’m not the only one that this happened too.” She sighed, looking at the following page. “Hey, why does that look like the guy I met earlier?” When she pointed her hoof, the Two Alicorns were now looking at what appeared to be a Draconequus
“This Draconeqeuss is Loki, former god of Chaos, now God of Balance. Ending up on a “normal’ Equestria, Loki has had many adventures as both a shopkeeper, an ally to the Elements of Harmony, father to the reborn Nightmare Moon, and husband to the Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle. He is currently traveling across the sea of universes, timelines, and dimensions within the multiverse and beyond. His token is his own fang.”
“Wait… I’M MARRIED!?!” Twilight exclaimed. Nightfall decided it was best to change the subject.
"Hey what are these tokens anyway?" Nightfall asked. Twilight turned to the book to the continents page.
“Tokens. How to use one and create your own. Page 53.” Flipping through the pages, the two alicorns soon reached the starting point of the chapter and began to read the information in the book.
“Tokens are items that every Displaced should have. A Displaced creates their own token by taking an item that represents themselves, enchanting it or storing their energy into it, saying a message for other Displaced and casting it out into the void. This action will send out your personal token across the Multiverse, while keeping one for yourself. A few of the previous tokens that were mentioned in the Displaced section of the book can be found here as well.”
-Eric Smith
“Wait a second……” Nightfall spoke to herself, before remembering something from her time at the Library before ending up in Equestria.
“Smith, Eric Smith, but everyone calls me Loki for some strange reason.”
Now though, Anger began to set in upon realizing this. “Oh that little-!”
“Nightfall? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, concerned for the other alicorn
“The author Loki is the one who sent me here!” Nightfall screamed. Twilight turned back to Loki’s page and then the title of the book.
‘Did he really just put himself in the book?’ Twilight would expected this sorta thing from Discord, which Loki might have been.
“I can’t believe he was the librarian who gave me the book.” Nightfall said to herself. Twilight did her best to comfort herself, setting the book wide open on a nearby table as she tried to wrap an outstretched wing around her. However, when the book slipped and fell down, it looked like the pictures of the tokens inside… moved.
“Hunh?” The Alicorn said to herself, noticing this. She had a feeling that somehow, the said items that were shown in the book… were not just ordinary pictures. Carefully, she placed her hoof on the image that was suppose to represent a token of a Displaced, only for her hoof to go through the page. When she pulled it out, the token she had was being held inside her hoof
“Did you just pull out something from the book?” Nightfall asked.
“I think I just did.” Twilight said just staring at it. After a while the token faded back into the book. “Hmm… I think I thought of something. Like how to get to Loki.”
“H-how?”
“Simple. If we make a token for you, then we can summon one of these Displaced. Hopefully, they at some point met Loki and if they could summon him, we could get some answers.” Twilight proudly theorized. “That is… if you are up for it. I don’t want you to feel forced to do something you don’t want to do.”
“That’s a good idea but where would I get a token.” Nightfall answered.
“I think these tokens won’t fade away once you make one.” She replied. Nightfall book flipped opened to a blank page with a book coming out the page. On it was titled Nightfall. “Well seems the book gave you one.” Twilight stated. The book flew towards Nightfall and floated in front of her. However, that was not done by Twilight.
“How do I…” Nightfall touched the book causing a surge of energy for a moment as a phrase was spoken as the book disappeared into the portal.
I am Nightfall. One with the Twilight and one with Magic. This is my story. Call upon me when You need my help and I will be sure to respond.
