The corridor of the Manor House was engulfed in the pure darkness of the pre-sunrise morning, the only source of light being the faint glow of a young unicorns horn. Apricot Morning stifled a yawn. She had not been able to sleep during the previous night due to the excitement and anxiety of the events that were going to transpire.
She stood at a window outside of her mentors bedroom and admired the now setting moon, taking note of the pony shaped mark that had been present for as long as any pony could possibly remember. She was pulled from her musings by the creaking of the door opening behind her.
"Good morning Apricot." Said a low and gravely voice from behind her. "I trust you are well?" Apricot turned to see a tall, Stormy grey unicorn stallion. He had Amber coloured eyes, a long white beard and mane that extended past the knees on his forelegs and he donned a heavy navy blue cloak, patterned with stars, moons and bells. He held a large pointy hat of the same design and a large oak staff in his magical grasp.
"I am well Grandmaster Starswirl. And yourself?" She asked the old stallion with a slight bow.
"I am fine, did you eat as instructed?" Apricot blushed. Although he had phrased it as such, she knew it wasn't a question. Her mentor always knew when she had forgotten to do something. As if to add to her embarrassment, her stomach let out a huge growl.
The old mage just smiled. As he placed his hat on his head he began to walk off.
"Come along, I am sure we have enough time for a quick stop at the pantry." Apricot smiled at began to follow. She had to keep up a quick trot to stay in time with his heavy strides, causing her brown Cotten cloak to flutter out behind her.
Soon enough the pair arrived at the large house's kitchen, and subsequently the pantry.
Starswirl reached inside with his grasp and pulled out two apples. He passed one to her and
Filled two mugs with water and proceeded to eat in silence. When the two had finished their meal, Apricot moved to clean the table when she noticed her teacher staring at her.
"What? Is there something wrong?" She asked looking back at him.
Star swirl simply nodded and said, " You have some apple on your face."
Apricot blushed and looked at her face in the mirror. In the light of the now rising sun, she could see her large chocolate eyes staring back. She glared at the offending pieces of apple. One was sat firmly in her peach coloured fur and a second piece had lodged itself in her brown, tightly-braided mane. She used her magic to dispose of the pieces of food.
"Well," She stated. "Are we ready to proceed?"
Her sudden exclamation seemed to have startled the old wizard out of his thoughts. He nodded to her, causing the bells on his hat to jingle, and made his way towards the door.
A mere few hoof steps from the wooden kitchen door stood a large iron plated one. Starswirl placed his hoof upon the red dial on the door frame. With an almost silent hum of recognition, the dial faded and in its place emerged an iron door handle. Entering the room, the pair set about lighting candles situated around the edge of the room and finished by lighting and raising a large metal chandelier to the roof of the cave like space.
Apricot's eyes widened as she took in the sight of her mentor's laboratory for the first time since being recruited nearly three years prior.
"Wow." Apricot exclaimed. All around the room were tables and work benches packed full of cauldrons and jars of potions. Along the far wall was a massive bookshelf, at least ten meters across and five meters tall, jammed full of large tomes of magic spells and rituals some of which appeared to be older than her mentor himself.
"Do you see something you like?" Apricot jumped slightly as Starswirl shocked her out of her stupor. Her shock quickly changed to her third blush for the morning as her teacher called her out on her love of books and studious nature. Starswirl just chuckled at her silence.
"Don't worry, soon enough all this knowledge will be open up to you as well." He stated with a gentle smile. Apricot simply broke into a large smile and opened her mouth to speak, before her eyes flickered towards an object across the room and her smile faltered.
"What is that?" She asked her teacher, not taking her eyes off of the beautiful object.
"That, my dear student, is what I have called you to assist me with."
The object that had so captured her attention was a beautiful mirror, larger than even her mentor.
The mirror stood inside a dark purple frame encrusted in red jewels. The frame stood on a blue and purplish stand imprinted with hoof print like marks. As Apricot approached the mirror she could see that tiny blue markings, that seemed to shimmer and shift, had been engraved into the surrounding jewels and hoof print marks.
"It's beautiful sir." Was all she could say, captivated with the mirror. Slowly, as if in a trance she raised her hoof and began to move it towards the surface of the mirror. The glassy surface seemed to ripple and warp as her hoof got closer. Suddenly she felt her self snatched backwards. With her attention broken from the mirror, she was able to think clearly once again.
"What happened sir?" Apricot asked, blinking rapidly as if to remove some sleep from her eyes.
"That is why I need help my dear student. This mirror is going to be my greatest project to date, and with your help, Our greatest achievement." Starswirl blinked and rubbed his eyes. "At least it's supposed to be, if I could get the blasted thing to work."
"What exactly is wrong with it?" Apricot asked, eyes flicking between Starswirl and the mirror that seemed to trouble him so.
"Watch closely." Her mentor said. Using his magic, he grabbed an empty potions vial from the table behind him. He moved it closer until the object was less than a foot away from the mirror, and gently tossed it at the reflective surface.
As soon as the two made contact, the glass of the mirror seemed to warp and twist, small sparks of energy jumped into the small glass vial causing it to glow red with the heat. The vial began to hum and shake with magical energy. Suddenly the mirror's surface reverted to it previously flat state. The vial seemed to hang, suspended it the air, still humming. After a but a moments silence there was a loud boom as the the vial splinted into thousands of shards heading right for the equestrian pair, only stopped an inch away from their faces by a shield of dark blue shimmering energy projected from Starswirl's horn.
"That is what is wrong with it." Apricot turned towards her mentor who had addressed her.
"But sir, what is it meant to do?" She asked, referring to her original point.
"This mirror was designed with a purpose. The purpose was to open the ability of instantaneous teleportation to not just unicorns, not just ponies, but every race on the face of the planet."
Apricot noticed that as he spoke, his eyes seemed to blaze with a determination, the likes of which she had never seen from anypony before.
"Why did you need to include me in this sir? Not that I don't appreciate being included in a project of this magnitude." Apricot said hastily trying not to seem ungrateful.
Starswirl just smiled at Apricot.
"The reason I need your help is because I need to make some adjustments to the components of the mirror, however I can't do that whilst the portal is closed and I cannot hold it open myself, meaning I need you to hold it open whilst I am working."
Apricot began to panic.
"But sir," she nearly shouted. "You saw what it did to the glass!"
Starswirl just nodded.
"Yes I did, however during my experimentation I have noted that the mirror only has such an effect if it is not being held open by a magical suspension field. If the field is in place it negates any destructive tendencies the mirrors magical properties hold. You my dearest Apricot are the only other unicorn in this world that I trust enough to hold the field open whilst I am working. Do you accept this challenge?"
Apricot debated with herself internally. However after five or so minutes of considering her options she gulped and nodded.
Starswirl's small smile grew into an extremely wide grin.
"Well then, no time to waste." He began trotting around the room gathering jars of potions and slips of papers covered in runes. In less than five minuets he had gathered all the equipment necessary to perform the task. He pulled two small vials from the pile on the work bench and handed one to his student. The contents of the vial seemed to shift colour depending on the lighting.
Starswirl had noticed Apricot's suspicious glare.
"Drink it." He said before swallowing the contents of his vial in a single mouthful.
Apricot quickly followed suit. As soon as the potion was down her throat she began to cough and hack.
"Ugh, what was that stuff?" She exclaimed, disgust evident on her face.
"That my dear, was what is going to keep you alive for the next few hours whilst we perform this experiment." Her teacher replied.
Apricot's eyes just widened. What did he mean keep her alive?
"Come on then, I trust you remember how to cast a suspension field?" Starswirl said, taking his position in front of the mirror. Apricot stood off to the side.
"I'm ready sir." She stated simply to give a sign of confirmation.
"Open the field on the surface of the mirror." He replied.
Apricot slowly closed her eyes. The spiral that decorated her horn began to glow a light silver, before the light grew to encompass her whole horn. The result was the mirror beginning to shift and bubble near the centre. Noticing the lack of result she began to focus harder. The light silver glow grew brighter and brighter, whilst the small patch of the silver on the mirror's surface began to expand, gradually forcing the light blue surface to melt away.
From her position all she could see was black, a black so dark she felt that it should not be possible to exist. Her thoughts were quickly torn from her as from the black expanse a scorching heat erupted. Apricot was about to groan in pain from the burning before a chill spread through her body, cooling her down to her very bones.
"How are you feeling?" She heard Starswirl ask.
"I'm okay now sir, but for a moment it felt very hot." She replied, desperate not to lose concentration.
"That would be the radiation, that potion you drank basically blocks the radiation from getting through your flesh, however it only works for a few hours."
Apricot noticed that as he spoke he had taken out a small engraving blade, smaller than she had ever seen, and had begun to approach the frame that now lead into the void.
Starswirl had begun to etch something into to the frame's red gems. He proceeded on for a few minuets, etching new shapes and markings into seemingly random spots along the frame.
As he proceeded, the pressure on Apricot's magic grew and grew.
"Sir!" She exclaimed. "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this field open for!"
Starswirl simply grunted in acknowledgement. The pressure continued to build as her mentor worked. When all of a sudden,with one finally mark upon the mirror, all of the pressure had vanished.
"You can release the field now." Starswirl stated, to which Apricot replied by sitting on the stone floor.
"Well?" Apricot asked hopefully. "Did it work?"
Starswirl removed his hat from his head and place it upon the work bench.
"It is too early to say for sure, but yes, I believe it did."
Apricot let out a relived giggle. She continued for a moment before Starswirl proceeded to join in with her. The two sat there, on the floor and giggled like mad ponies for a fair few minutes before Apricot yawned.
Starswirl simply smiled at her.
"I understand that must of been very taxing on a young mare such as yourself," Apricot nodded.
"If you want, you may retire to your chambers for the day."
She threw a grateful smile at Starswirl.
"Thank you sir." Was all she said before heading out of the room, ready to sleep for the first time in twenty four hours.
------------- Four Hours Later--------------
It had been a while since his student had retired for the day and Starswirl wanted to run some last minute checks on the mirror before proceeding to sleep as well. Simple diagnostic spells that he threw towards the mirror revealed nothing odd, however when he examined the power crystals that he had etched the runes into, something was definitely off about them.
For some reason they were beginning to build up an excess of magical energy and were refusing to release it. Whilst this was not a problem at the moment, it would be if left unchecked.
It was for this reason that Starswirl sat in his lab reading up on the power crystals that he had used. Without his realisation, a faint him had already started being emitted by the gems and the noise was slowly building.
After another hour the noise was definitely noticeable. Starswirl had begun to panic. The books about the gems had revealed nothing about what to do in this type of situation. All he could do was etch runes in and hope for the best.
He used power limiters and releasers in different combinations yet the power levels continued to build. In the end Starswirl could only stare at his creation in the knowledge that there was not enough time for him to do anything else to attempt to release the energy.
The old stallion had begun to back away slowly, casting the strongest shield charms and wards around the room as he could possibly muster. Without his realising however, the surface of the mirror had begun to bubble and pulse with the growing energy. Starswirl was just about to finish casting the final protection ward when a loud 'BOOM' sounded. He had enough time to look up and see a sphere of pure silver expand towards him.
Starswirl sprinted as fast as his old legs could carry him. He reached the closed lab door before he realised that the sphere had stopped expanding. He reached for the door handle when a second 'BOOM' sounded and he began to feel a pulling sensation pulling him towards the collapsing mirror.
Starswirl tried to grab onto one of the benches that was bolted to the floor before he saw his wooden staff whip towards his face. He lost his grip and he began to fall towards the mirror.
Apricot was roused out of her sleep by a loud 'BOOM'.
'What the hay!' She fought to herself. Apricot flung herself out of her bed and began to gallop towards her mentor's lab. With the events that had transpired that day, the only conclusion she could think off was 'Mirror'.
Halfway down the upper corridor, She jumped as the second 'BOOM' shook the house. Apricot was sprinting faster than she ever had at this point, desperate to know that her teacher and friend were still in one piece. In her sense of urgency apricot decided to forgo the stairs in the main hallway and jumped straight over the banister.
She slowed once she came to the kitchen door. From here she could see the iron clad door that led to the lab.
"Sir!" She shouted. "Sir, can you hear me?"
Her only response was a third, and final, 'BOOM' that ripped the door off its hinges. From where she stood, all she could see was pitch black smoke and a faint blue mist of dissipating magic leaking from the ruined room. Apricot tentatively stepped into the room.
She gasped when she saw what had happened. The room was covered in soot, benches where strewn across the room, books had been ripped from their shelves and vials of potions where thrown and smashed across the once pristine room. Apricot sat on her haunches in despair as she saw that the only item not completely ruined of harmed in any way was the mirror.
Starswirl could only scream in silent agony. He was blinded by the flashing colours and lights as he felt himself falling. He could feel his bones snapping,growing and reshaping. He could feel as his organs shifted around his body. He could feel as he lost his form.
Starswirl was sure he was going to die. Before he passed out from the pain he thought of his mistakes and regrets and only one came to mind.
As he closed his eyes he could of sworn that he saw a flash of light and dark blue hair and a faint giggle.
Author's Note
Hey everybody! This is my first story so any constructive criticism is very much appreciated.
I would also like your opinions. Is it worth me continuing? Or should I try my hand at something else?
Anyway hope you enjoyed.
The Renegade Brony