Through the Looking Glass into Darkness
This is a fan-based work of prose. I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Equestria Girls, or RWBY. The products belong to Hasbro Ltd. and RoosterTeeth/Fullscreen Entertainment. Please support the official release.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was asleep in her borrowed room in the Crystal Palace...or at least she would be if her brand new wings would stop popping up at the most inopportune moments. "How can anypony with wings sleep like this!" she complained to softly herself so she wouldn't wake her number one assistant. Right as she closed her eyes for what she hoped would be the final time that night, she was awoken by the distinctive tingle of magic being used and opening her eyes she saw that her crown was being levitated into the bag of a gold coated unicorn mare. "Thief!" Twilight cried and the mare ran out of the room and down the hall. "Stop her, she stole my crown!"
The mare turned back and charged Twilight, teleporting away at the last moment. "Sorry princess, don't have time for niceties." The mare said with a scowl on her face. The mare ran into a back room away from the main hall, and Twilight and her friends followed her and tackled her to the ground, knocking the crown through a mirror. "Grimm spit!" The mare cursed before rushing through the portal herself.
It wasn't long after that the other Princesses arrived. "That mare was a former student of mine named Sunset Shimmer." Princess Celestia explained. "She began to research dark magic without my approval and traveled through this mirror into another world."
"We have to get my crown back, without it the Elements of Harmony are useless!" Twilight said readying a saddle bag. "Come on girls!"
"No Twilight." Celestia stopped the friends. "You must do this alone, I fear what would happen if all six of you were to be trapped in that other world when the portal closes."
Twilight gulped and stepped forward into the portal, barely noticing Spike running in after her. The two swirled through existence, their bodies reshaping to match their new destination. Opening her eyes she found herself facing a small biped in green and purple clothes. "Spike is that you? What...are you?"
Spike looked over himself and turned around. "No idea, think it's the same thing you are."
Twilight looked down at her body and saw that she was a biped as well, her limbs had digits on them, her head had her regular ears, her back had her wings adjusted to her new size...but she had no idea what she was. So Twilight did the only sensible thing to do when faced with a dramatic change...she screamed her head off. The sound of roars and howls shook Twilight from her shock. She looked up to the sky and gazed upon its shattered moon, and panicked as she saw a bird the size of building coming towards her.
“Twilight! What do we do?” Spike asked as he hurriedly helped her to her feet.
“Run!” Twilight shouted as the bird fired its black feathers towards them. The two ran as fast as their new bodies could take them, but it wasn’t far enough. They came across bipedal wolves and large bears, all colored black with red eyes and bone protrusions. They were surrounded on all sides. “I’m sorry Spike.”
“For what?”
“Not being a good mother.”
“Twilight… I…” Whatever Spike was going to say was interrupted as arrows pierced the three closest monsters around them. The ground below the two formed a passage way through the horde, which the two ran down without hesitation. At the other end was a girl in a purple-white combat hoodies holding a bow in her hands with a quiver on her back. She was firing arrows into the beasts they came near her and summoning walls of rock and boulders to push the beasts back.
“Hurry up you two, I can’t hold them off forever!” The girl said just before firing a bolt straight into a creature’s mouth, which exploded. Twilight and Spike ran to the girl who summoned a wall of rock to hover above them all as they ran. The three came to a cliff and the shield above them fell. “Can you fly with those wings?” The girl asked Twilight.
“Not well.”
“Damn. Hold on then.” The girl pushed Twilight and Spike off the cliff and jumped after them backwards, firing an explosive arrow into a crowd of monsters. The girl uses the dust and debris to form a semi-soft barrier of sand below Twilight, Spike, and herself and used it to slow their descent into the water below them, then hardened the cloud into a solid raft. Pulling off her hood to reveal purple, curled hair the girl smiled in satisfaction. “Okay, now we just use the current to drift us back into the city, the Grimm don’t usually follow anyone this far from Beacon.”
“Grimm?” Spike questioned.
The girl looked stunned at Spike. “Yeees~ Grimm~. Creatures of Darkness and Devestation. Sworn enemy of life and civilization. Caused a big ruckus about a month back as the harbingers of the End. Ring a bell?”
“Err… Yes?” Twilight tried to act like she knew what was going on, but the girl didn’t buy it.
“I can’t imagine anyone not knowing about the Grimm, nor end up at Beacon after The Fall without weapons.” The girl said turning to look at the moon, giving Twilight a view of a mark on her shoulder, three diamonds arranged to interlock together.
“Rarity…?”
“Hmmm? Did you say something dear?”
“Sorry, you look like a friend of mine.”
“Rarity is her name?” The girl hummed at Twilight’s nod. “Strange name, not a color and doesn’t remind me of a specific color either. What are your names and why aren’t you carrying a weapon?”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Spike.”
Spike looked rather upset at the idea of carrying a weapon everywhere. “We’re pacifists lady.”
“Paci-fist?” The girl cocked her head to the side in confusion, before shaking her head. “Nevermind, I guess pacifying with your fists is good enough if you can use Aura well. Anyway, I…” The girl flipped her hair. “Am Endura Lapis, Huntress-in-Training and member of Team SKIE.” Endura looked sad as she gazed back up to the cliff they had fallen from. “At least I was…”
“What happened?” Spike asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“The Grimm attacked the Vytal Festival, the celebration of peace between the Four Kingdoms. Atlas’ military robots turned on everyone, and we lost a lot of good people.”
“I’m sorry.” Twilight said. “I…can’t imagine what that must be like. To have peace broken so easily.”
“It wasn’t easy. …Oh this is our stop.” Endura stated as she got up, pulling at an invisible rope to pull them to a dock. She led them away from the docks and Twilight and Spike found themselves in a vast, but empty city. “Welcome to Vale, Twilight Sparkle and Spike. I get the feeling it will be an interesting stay.”
On a roof above the three, gold horse ears surrounded by red hair with yellow highlights twitched. The woman observed them through her binoculars before sighing and putting it on her bandoleer across her chest. He black jacket had orange trim on the arm, with a dual colored red-yellow sun emblazoned on the back. As she watched the three walk away from the docks, the woman sighed again and vanished in brief flash of blue light.
Author's Note
Team SKIE member letter E
Name: Endura Lapis. Comes from names used for different emeralds and rubies.
Weapon: Bow-and-Quiver she calls Elegance. White bow with purple trim that extends to make the bow larger.
Semblance: Terrakinisis, also known as Earthbending.
Symbol:
Endura led them to a warehouse and went inside, lights coming on as they did so and exposed small living arrangements and a two wheeled vehicle in the corner. "Everyone, I'm back from Beacon patrol! And we have guests!"
Small explosions drew Twilight and Spike's attention to the vehicle as a blonde woman rocketed out from behind it, green gauntlets and grieves drawing their eyes. The woman stood up to her full height and stretched out her hand for Twilight to shake. "Karin Schneider, nice to meet you. Where in Vale are you from?"
"Applejack?" Twilight and Spike questioned aloud, to which Karin raised an eyebrow.
The sound of an object rapidly falling drew their eyes upward as a person fell straight to the floor, crouched with a single fist on the ground. The figure was a woman with chromatic hair, a scar over one eye, and a piece of her ear was missing. On her back was a technological backpack with a single metal wing coming off the right side. The woman stood and saluted. "Iris Storm, prepared for combat." Endura palmed her face in annoyance.
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Guests huh?" Iris asked Endura, who crossed her arms and nodded. "How the heck did they get to Beacon?"
"I never said they were at Beacon with me." Endura stated.
"When you have Beacon patrol you never stop and chat on the way back, that's the only reason they would be here."
"We came through a por-!" Spike was going to say before Twilight came up behind him and covered his mouth.
"It doesn't matter how they got there, only that they were. Beacon is infested with Grimm, it's too dangerous for even most Hunters." Karin admonished them with absolute sincerity. She looked at Endura "Get Amarilla and see if she can take time from Triage to give these two a physical, I'll take them to my room." Endura nodded and walked off and Iris floating up the loft. "Come on you two."
As soon as Karin closed the door, Twilight began asking questions. "What is going on here?"
Karin sighed and rested her head against the door. "...That is a very long story we don't have time to tell. What you need to know is that you're safe now." She turned around and faced the two with a glare. "Now the others may stop question' ya, but I won't. What were you doing at Beacon Academy?"
Twilight wrung her new hands. "Some one stole something from me, something important. I followed the thief there."
"Look out the window, towards Beacon.." Twilight did so and saw a tower with a shape curled about its top. "That thing is a Grimm, a Dragon Grimm. Somehow it was frozen in place but it keeps drawing more Grimm to it. If whatever was stolen from you is there, it's in the Grimm's claws now, best forget about it."
"I can't!" Twilight yelled. "Without my crown po-people are in danger!"
"Crown?" Karin asked with an eyebrow raised. "You royalty or somethin'?"
"Yep! She's a Princess of Equestria and...!" Spike was slapped on the back of his head by Twilight who gave him a look that said 'Stop. Talking.'
"Princess of Equestria?" Karin's eyes seemed to widen briefly in something akin to recognition, but it may have been a trick of the light in Twilight's eyes. Maybe just considering the name, as she closed her eyes and lied back on her bed, arms behind her head.. "Never heard of it. Most nomads don't find good places to hold back the Grimm and definitely would have better armed leaders."
"If you aren't going to help us, we'll just leave!" Spike said storming to the door.
"Spike! Don't be rude." Twilight admonished him.
"Rude! She has no intention of helping us get your crown back!"
Karin cracked an eye open and smiled. "Now when did I say that?" To spike and Twilight's eyes, she vanished. "I'm a Huntress, we help people. It's kind of our thang." Karin's voice came from behind them now and she wrapped her arms their necks in a friendly gesture. "But Hunters are professionals, there will be a fee."
"You expect us to pay you?" Spike questioned.
Karin stepped back and shrugged. "Don't know ya well, and times are tough. Got ta make a livin'."
Twilight nodded. "Alright, we'll find a way to pay you, but it may be difficult. Equestria is...rather out of the way."
"You'll figure somethin' out, and its not like I'll be taking ya wings." Karin stepped to the door and walked outside. "Amarilla here yet!?"
"um...I'm here..." A small voice said from the entrance to the garage. Twilight and Spike passed around Karin and saw a pink haired woman in a nurse's uniform carrying a large back pack...and two pistols, the look they shared seemd to say 'Fluttershy?'. "You said you had patients for me Karin?"
"These two." Karin said pointing to Spike and Twilight. "Somehow they ended up at Beacon and Endura broguht them in. Thought it'd be best they get a check up."
"Oh, of course." Amarilla set down her pack and pressed a button, causing it to expand to an examination bed with equipment. She then took out a flat board that she pulled open to show a projection screen, which from what Twilight could guess, worked in conjunction with the bed. "Alright ma'am, if you would please lay down, I have the bed configured for Faunus with back protrusions." Twilight gently laid down on the bed and a circle came up from around the bed, separated, and began moving along her body and shined down lights as it moved. "Interesting." Amarilla said looking over her screen. "You don't have the normal double ears I expected, possibly due to the presence of two animal traits? Possibly due to mammalian and avian mixture?" the nurse questioned hypothetically. "Your Aura is also strange, almost like..." Amarilla suddenly stopped the device and placed her hand on Twilight's, her eyes closed as a glow came from the place where their skin met. "...I see, just like her." Amarilla opened her eyes and looked at Twilight questionably. "Are you related to Sunset Shimmer?"
"We know her. She's the one who stole Twilight's crown!" Spike said. Karin dropped a wrench by the vehicle that drew their attention, but waved it off. Amarilla looked at her concerned but she silenced the nurse with a glare.
"Right... Anyway. You are in fine health for an Equestrian." Amarilla retracted the circle back into the bed. "Your turn young man." She waved Spike over.
"You know about Equestria?" Twilight asked as Spike laid down.
"Sunset Shimmer has been treated by me many times in the past."
"You know where she is! Please, tell me!" Twilight took Amarilla's hands into her own.
Amarilla for her part looked concerned , glanced to Karin, then sighed. "Not at this moment no." Twilight became sullen and backed off to allow Amarilla time to examine Spike. "Oh! You are a Faunus as well? Ah...You have sharpened teeth not unlike an alligator or crocodile's. Very subtle compared to others." She frowned as she looked at the data on her screen. "Your Aura is also quite strange, but closer to the normal baseline." She closed her eyes and collapsed her screen. "Without a larger sample I am forced to conclude you are in good health, but I request you have a full physical at the hospital here or Patch in a few months to be sure."
Iris floated down from the sky and hovered above the bed. "Then let's get going. Karin filled me in that you two are clients?" Twilight and Spike nodded. "Okay, we'll check with Sunset Shimmer's old boyfriend to see where she is. Flash Sentry is usually pretty good about keeping tabs on her." She landed and led the two out the door back into the city. "He's probably over at Juniors right now." With that the three left and went into the disturbingly empty city.
Amarilla stopped packing her things and met Karin's eye. "Do you think...?"
"Maybe."
"But...?"
"We'll have to wait an' see." Karin said with folded arms, her eyes glaring at the door.
Author's Note
Team SKIE member profile letter K.
Name: Karin Schneider, a type of red apple.
Weapon: Gauntlet-grieves based on the Ember Celica model favored by Yang Xiao Long. These
blueprints are mass produced and are often used as starter weapon builders.
Semblance: limited Time control, allowing her to briefly stop time and move.
Symbol:
Team SKIE ally profile
Name: Amarilla Peperuda
Profession: Nurse
Semblance: The ability to examine a body from skin contact.
Amarilla tried being a Huntress but despite being a great shot, did not have the stomach for combat. She retains two pistols for her own personal safety.
