My little pony : Mirror Spell

Uncomfortable revelations

"Wake up, man!" loud voice interrupted the slumber the human was forced to have earlier. He didn't know how long he was out, but it seemed it was a long time, because he actually felt dizzy like he just woke up from a deep night's rest.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself still hanging in place where he blacked out earlier. His chest was hurting a bit, like it was pierced by hot, molten piece of iron. Well, he all felt like his body parts were now part of the suit he was now wearing.

"How do you feel? We need to document everything..." That voice, he knows the person who talks like this.

Scarfix, the android himself was standing right beside him, with a notepad in his metallic hands, ready to take notes at once.

"I am fine, even though I don't feel well. My whole body aches." replied human, feeling really tired. Android wasn't surprised, though.

"So, what happened?" asked human, when robot didn't seem to have any comments on his current state.

"I would ask you to sit down, but I think I will leave you like this and tell you everything." said android, with his eyes closed, then not so suddenly he added: "Well, maybe I should put you down."

The platform on which was human standing at the moment started lowering down slowly. Human felt pain in a chest again when the metal structure hit the ground lightly. He had never been one for whining about things and pains so he didn't make a sound.

"So," began Scarfix, standing before a rather massive holographic picture of the armor, "You have been integrated into the suit. That, by the way, means you can't take it off any time soon and never ever again in the rest of your life. The armor itself seems to be generating a strange field of energy, which prevents the ultimate destruction of your body."

"I don't get it." said human, his face clearly saying that what he said is pure truth.

Android sighed and rather loudly to be said. "The armor is now part of you, the second skin. While you were sleeping, some...things were installed in your body, like one extra skeleton copying the current one, lungs extension, muscle upgrades, carbon bone reinforcements and stuff. Even I don't know how much damage had been done." time master took a breath in and out before continuing, "So, I recommend you to wait, before we figure out, how much of the suit can be taken off without damaging your body. Okay, are we clear?"

The human had to ask himself, why he would ever want to take off this suit. He felt great to be honest, now with the pain gone, he really felt like the metal covering his body was now the part of him, somehow.

Scarfix was dancing around the machinery for a small amount of time, then he said 'Okay…' and turned to hanging man.

"It looks like the suit has two layers, the armor one and cloth one. The shell on the outside can be unscrewed without problem, the second one though, has to remain untouched, but…" another peek at the machinery and screen before it, "The structure of the cloth is nano-based and it's also formed out of your own skin, so you don't have to worry about taking a shower while dressed in it, I can assure you nothing will short-circuit. Actually, I am impressed, didn't know Thenory Hardware has or had this level of technology. You know better yourself how our famous empire looked when you, I mean GPI, made a first contact those years ago."

The human had to chuckle, yeah, the expert is right on this one.

The thieves, the rotting community of rich people, high level of criminality.

Now look at them…Ever since creating Thenory Hardware, the Science and Engineering alliance of GPI and Thenory Empire, they actually made some real progress and marked themselves as the gifted species of the galaxy and further.

And his mother is the freaking thenory as well, not that he minds though. It's kind of cool if you think about it, hell, even he was dating one of these aliens few years ago.

Yeah, the humanity has a weird taste, but if you like your girlfriend or wife furry, with animal ears and tail included, why not...

Author's note: You may start to wonder why I am calling the obvious main character by his species. Well, you can be glad, cause I got fed up with it and will be calling him Lukas from now.

"You know, I think it's time to get out and join your friend. I expect a report of your study tomorrow 12 PM. Dismissed. " said android, touching one of the many levers. Lukas got catapulted out of machinery and landed hard on the steel floor.

"Thank you, sir." hissed human over the shoulder, before entering the hallway and walking away.

"So, what Scarfix wanted of you? And what the heck are you wearing?" laid fox-man a question as soon as Lukas entered their personal quarters. Human replied with his hand raised, formed into vulgar gesture and words, "He put me into some scary machine, integrated me into the ancient armor, which damaged my body permanently then kicked me out and gave me a homework."

"Ooh, I know how you feel, bro. So, cocktails and stargazing?"

"Yeah, I guess that can improve my mood a bit. Nothing alcoholic, please, though. I don't feel like drinking tonight."

Thenory shook his head in agreement and both of them went to spend their evening off.

Landing zone one point three

"All stations are secured." someone said in the front of the shuttle, probably replying to one of Scarfix's questions about the status of the vessel.

Human and Thenory sit together on the other side and were talking ever since the shuttle launched from the mothership.

"I am telling you, this whole mission is a crap. We are not here for any good reason. " said Lukas in a very angry tone, because he had to paperwork earlier. Foxy just chuckled.

" Man, you have to cheer up. Look at me, take this opportunity as an exotic vacation. "

" I hate vacations. "

Shuttle crossed some high mountain and started to descent. Scarfix opened the door between pilot's cabin and the rest of the ship and said in cheering voice, which was even more terrifying than his usual screaming.

"Gentlemen, welcome to Equestria."

*Smash* Legs of the ship met something solid and android lost his balance for a second, much to Lukas' and Foxy's amusement. The pressurized door hissed and opened to reveal a green wall of forest which they were landing in.

Lukas, already standing with a rifle in his hand on the edge of the platform looked up and saw a rather large hole the shuttle penetrated through the forest rooftop.

"Wow, how old are these woods?"

"More than a thousand years. I've been here once and I am missing the fur on my back since then. Some nasty nature, they have here I say." replied Foxy, with a smirk on his lips, which grew even bigger when he saw the expression on his friend's face. Scarfix made his way through the body of the ship and turned around to face the crew again.

"This, ladies, is called the Everfree forest. It's the only place on the planet we can work in without being spotted by locals. When I say locals, I mean Equestrians. Never let them get close to you or you risk your health. Period. " Android waited a second for ship to settle on the ground and then shouted, "You two, Out! Go, go, go!"

As soon as Lukas and Foxy had jumped out of cargo hold, the shuttle ascended up rapidly and flew out of the hole in the rooftop of the forest.

"Now, what are we supposed to do?" asked human, when his companion didn't say a thing for about a minute while they were walking through the woods.

"We were asked to find someone. Let me pull out my trusty notebook...here" replies Foxy, activating the holographic interface of his suite and flipping through some less important notes. He points two fingers at the hovering screen to catch human's attention, which haven't been needed because his friend has been watching him for a while already.

On screen was visible a yellow pegasus with three pink butterflies as a tattoo on her thigh and long, pink mane as well as the same colored tail of the same length as her mane. Human looked up and saw the picture is labeled as Fluttershy, Equus.

"So, that's Fluttershy, right? Scarfix was talking about her. He told me, she was lost." said Lukas, moving closer to Foxy. Fox man turned off the screen and added, "Yeah, and she's probably in these woods. You know what's strange, on the one hand, that android says to be aware of locals and on the other one he gives us a mission including one of them. I am so confused. "

"You and me both." replied Lukas and both of the mercenaries went to explore the depths of forest before them.

"I tell you Trixie, you are a genius. So smart idea to think about the Everfree forest while teleporting somepony." Twilight was angry, again. They spent for about two hours looking for their pegasus friend, but with no luck so far.

"I know I am sorry. Can we keep going? This place is giving me the chills." said Trixie, totally forgetting about her normal way of speaking. Twilight shook her head and disappeared behind a rather large bush. Trixie decided to follow her.

"But Twilight, the way..."

"Shush, I hear something."

"Man, didn't you hear that? Sounded like someone's steps."

"Yeah, I guess so. More like hooves, actually."

They both listened, hidden behind various types of cover the forest could offer. The steps, or more like the sound of clopping hooves could be heard again after a while, but much weaker than before.

"Weapons ready, it knows we are here." said Foxy, reading his heavy pistol to firing position, laying one of his shoulders against the tree. The bush shook violently.

"3, 2, 1..." counted thenory down and sent a warning shot in the air along with a shout, "Show yourself, now."

Nothing happened, so Lukas pointed the heavy rifle on a green wall and turned on the infrared vision. The scan revealed two horse-like silhouettes.

"Foxy, wait. I think we encountered the locals. Switch your scanner to infrared." whispered Lukas over the distance between their covers to thenory man.

Both of the mares were stunned and on top of that Trixie was starting to panic. "They are armed, they're gonna kill us."

" No, they are hiding and waiting just like us. I think the shot before was just a warning. I am gonna show myself to them and explain the situation. "

Before alicorn jumped out of their hiding place, Trixie grabbed her by the hoof and pulled back. "Are you nuts? Have you seen the size of those two monsters. They will hurt you."

" They will not and they are not monsters. I am absolutely sure, one of them is human. These are not that bad."

Before Twilight did anything reasonable, they heard the voice calling out at them, "Hey, both of you. Show yourself!"

Trixie didn't like it, so she was dragged out of the bush by her friend.

" Hey, both of you. Show yourself!" shouted Foxy, with the pistol still aimed at the wall of leaves the strangers were hiding behind.

They did show themselves this time...

The larger, purple mare with wings and horn showed herself first and it was already certain that this one is some kind of leader. A bit smaller, blue unicorn was hiding behind her, afraid to even move.

"Identify yourself, ladies." rumbled Foxy out, with his gun still ready to shoot if it was necessary. "And fast."

The purple one took a step towards them and said, "My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is Trixie Lulamoon. What do you want from us?"

Foxy was still frowning, but Lukas had enough. He walked over to him and pushed his weapon aside. "This whole drama is not necessary, they are the locals and can actually help us with our task. Besides, if they wanted to hurt us, they would attack us already and I also believe they know it here better than us. Right?"

Foxy didn't change his expression, but lowered and hid the weapon, "OK, I will let them slip this time, but that doesn't mean I trust them."

Lukas then walked to the horses and asked them, "You two are alright? Sorry about my friend, he's not the one, who trusts others easily."

"Yeah, I guess we noticed. " Replied Twilight and added a question, "So, what are we supposed to help you with then?"

Foxy got caught in the discussion and opened the visual interface to show them their goal. "We are looking for this one. She's supposed to be in these woods."

"Fluttershy? Why are you two looking for her?" said the smaller unicorn this time. Lukas tried to explain, but Foxy was quicker. "Our boss asked us to do so. Do you two know her?"

Twilight didn't smile or did anything at all, she was just staring at them blankly.

"Yes, she's our friend and by the looks of it, we have the same task. So, let's look for her together, yeah, sounds good." said Twilight, started grinning, God knows why. Trixie was oblivious to her behavior as well and both men were thinking their own thoughts about her too. Purple unicorn's expression changed, when she saw no one was actually sharing her enthusiasm, to rather serious, or annoyed even, and added short, "Let's get going then."

Shuttle's engines roared loudly and hot air blew old leaves away of marble pavement. Scarfix, hanging from the cargo hold by one hand , hopped down even before the ship reached save height and went to meet up with their hostess.

Princess Celestia, standing proudly on her post with her eyes following the newcomer. A little smirk on her lips grew up to smile when she recognized the person who just landed in the center of her hometown - Canterlot.

"Alsi..." she whispered, but was interrupted by the owner of the spoken name. "You know better, Celly, I am not called Alsius anymore."

Celestia closed her eyes and said with added volume this time, "I know, Scarfix, I just couldn't help myself. How are you?"

"Good, I guess. You know how busy I am. Can we go inside, I could use some privacy." told android and after quick hug he shared with Celly they both departed in the direction of the castle. In the meantime, the shuttle had landed down and a small squad of Viper class units unloaded their equipment, making normally clear square almost uncrossable.

"Foxyyyyyyy!" shouted human from the front of their group, "What are your scans showing up?" Foxy, with the holographic screen before him, rolled his eyes and replied, "You don't have to shout, man, I am right behind you."

"So, what do you see?" asked human again, much quieter this time.

"Well, I got the heat signature few meters norther from us, I just hope it will not be another bunny or something."

They walked a few more steps, but then suddenly Foxy's scanner picked up something, "Wait, everyone stop. I got something here." In the time of a few nanoseconds, human was standing behind him, "More heat signatures. Five or more, no, ten, no, twenty. Everybody get ready!"

In one while, both men were touching with their backs, their weapons ready. From the forest jumped something with green, vicious eyes and attacked Twilight. Fortunately, she managed to teleport away, before it hit her. The creature roared and came to light, revealing its terrifying form to everyone.

"Timber wolf!" screamed Trixie at the top of her lungs.

"And it's not alone." added Twilight, when another dozen of wooden wolfs came from the bushes around them, sealing them in tough circle.

"FOXY! Get girls to safety, I'll take care of them." shouted Lukas, readying his heavy rifle to firing position.

"Roger!" replied thenory, grabbing Trixie and putting her on his back. He then sprinted away as fast as he could, knocking two wolves down in the process. Twilight didn't follow him, though.

"Twilight? Run! Save yourself." shouted Lukas, while blasting one of the wolves to pieces with a rifle.

"I am staying! I never leave my friends hanging." said purple unicorn, slicing another beast with energy beam which fired from her horn.

Did she just call me her friend? Thought human, but wooden attacker didn't give him time to think. Both of them, Lukas and Twilight were covering each other and combining their attacks to protect themselves from sharp fangs of timber wolves.

Suddenly, when the majority of beasts was already lying on the ground lifeless, something yellow flew through the air and landed before Twilight.

"Fluttershy?"

The last wolf backed away and disappeared in the forest, growling and moaning angrily. Twilight helped her friend on her hooves and asked her again, "Fluttershy. Are you alright? We were looking for you."

Shy pegasus didn't reply, maybe because she lost her consciousness. Twi wanted to lift up and carry her on the back, but human grabbed the yellow pony first. "You are exhausted, I'll carry her." he explained. Both of them, then left. Twilight led the way, because she said she knew the shortest way out of the forest.

"I hope Trixie and your friend are safe. You can easily get lost in these woods."

"I would not worry about Foxy, he's a smart one. Besides, he has a digital map of this place, they should be fine." said human, to calm purple pony down. As they had reached the border of the forest, they learned Foxy was already waiting for them and putting in and out the battery in his pistols out of boredom. Trixie was sitting near him and was rather annoyed by the sounds he was making, but she stayed silent.

"I see you have found our winged horse, great job." he greeted them when he had seen Fluttershy is human's arms. Human himself could stay quiet and keep all the honor for himself, but he was born honest, so instead of grinning pridefully he said, "Actually, she found herself all alone. When we were fighting those wooden beasts she showed up and then fainted without a word. We are going to take her to the hospital, are you coming with us?"

Fox man looked at Trixie and back, then replied, "Sure, I can't stand Miss Scared horse here anyway."

Trixie felt rather offended by being called 'scared horse' by the way, "Hey, I am brave when I need to be. Besides, we are ponies, not horses."

" Yeah, yeah, keep talking, everybody believes you. " Replied Foxy with sarcasm to her anger and joined Lukas with Twilight on their journey to the hospital.

"So, Scarfix, how have you been?"

"Again with this, Celly... I've been busy to be said, being a Time master and all. You don't have much time for yourself, but I like it. The power, the independence..."

"But you regret something, right? You wouldn't keep coming back here if your life was so perfect."

"Yeah, I guess so, It has to do something with a white, beautiful princess before me..." Before Celestia could reply, they were both starlet by loud shouts and certain midnight alicorn burst through the door of Celly's bedroom.

"Who is responsible for a mess at the town square?" then little pause, because she was surprised to see two persons in the room where it's used to be only one most of the time, "Alsius...? 'Tia?"

She almost felt anger against the boyfriend of her sister when she finally recognized him. It didn't have an effect of lowering the amount of the anger she was feeling, though.

Scarfix adjusted himself in the armchair and said sarcastically, "It's nice to see you too, Luna."

"It's Princess Luna for you, Voider. I presume you two declared martial law behind my back and changed the whole city in the military fortress again."

Celestia stopped smiling and said, "Calm down, dear sister of mine. Everything's fine. They are not going to stay here for a long time," she then turned to Scarfix, "Two days, you were saying, am I correct?"

Android nodded and added, "We are here because some military organization known as Redmean Corp. infiltrated this sector. They are still quite far from the planet, but better be safe than sorry. We know what they are capable of."

Midnight princess relaxed a bit after she had heard the caused chaos had a good reason to be happening, but the sentence android said after didn't make her happy, more specifically, it shifted her back to her original mood.

"I need someone for spying on my two mercenaries in Ponyville. Luna, would you be so kind and give them this letter personally. Using subspace communication could be dangerous right now."

"I bucking hate you." snapped Luna at him and flew outside, shattering the window in the process. Celestia smirked, small chuckle escaped her lips. Android went to watch Luna, whom was rapidly getting smaller and less visible while her dark wings were beating the air furiously as the distance between her and the castle were shrinking.

"Yeah, that's pretty much like I remember her." stated Scarfix when he looked at his lightly burned right glove, "I am surprised she didn't tear the envelope in half with the force she had used."

"You didn't tell her who your mercenaries are." said Celestia, unexpectedly with a straight face. Instead of her signature polite smile she was sharpening over a thousand years, she used more serious expression, something between a frown and malicious smirk.

"Oops, I think she's on her own, then." responded android and both humanoid and pony started to laugh so hard the whole tower was shaking. If somepony was outside in the moment, he or she would think their Sun princess had gone completely nuts. Why they laughed at all stayed hidden, only the two of them knew.

"So how's the patient, doctor?" asked Foxy.

Tall, yellow pony in white, cloth coat with red cross on the shoulder was first startled by thenory's straight 'attack' but when he managed to calm himself a bit, he said, more like choked out of himself, "Stable, for now." Next one with questions was Twilight, "Do you know what happened to her?"

"She doesn't have any injuries, Miss Sparkle. She probably just exhausted herself by all the running and the telekinetic jump, she went through earlier didn't help as well. Tell your blue friend to try her magic on something better than ponies."

"Don't worry doctor, I already have taken care of her. It will not happen again." Yellow pony just nodded his head when he received Twilight's answer and wanted to leave, but suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks and bowed deeply, so his chin was touching soft floor the hospitals used to have. Other ponies in the room did the same. Well, maybe the rest of them were not so radical like him and didn't break their jaw while bowing.

Both of the men turned around and watched how dark figure approached them. "I suppose you two are Scarfix' mercenaries." said tall, dark mare, while holding an envelope in her telekinesis. "Yeah, that's us. Can we help you?" replied Foxy and Lukas at once.

Twilight was tapping on the human's back for a while already. When he finally gave her a look, ready to ask her to stop, she whispered, "You are in the presence of royalty. This is Princess Luna, one of the co-rulers of Equestria."

Small pause... Luna didn't mind not being bowed to by human and alien.

"I was asked to supervise you two and to give you this." continued dark blue princess, efficiently overlooking their behavior, as well as anyone in the room except for Twilight, "Oh, Twilight. I almost forgot due to recent events. You left this book in my sister's room, so I brought it to you. That crown you are wearing really suits you by the way." The last sentence she almost whispered into smaller pony's ear. Twilight blushed a little and to cover her embarrassment she tried to hid her face behind the heavy, dusty book Luna had handed her. Then she read aloud the title, "Void spells for dummies, take one. Oh... " then a small shadow crossed over her face before she said her next thought, "I need to apologize to Trixie, I had never sent her the book I promised her in the first place. No wonder she failed that jump spell earlier." Twilight sighed and like she utterly forgot about everything what happened before she asked the two mercenaries, "How did you two know about all of this anyway? I am curious..."

Before anyone could form any solid answer, Luna unexpectedly stepped into the conversation, "I think I can answer this one. Twilight, their boss, Scarfix, as he call himself anyway, he's the Time master. So, I believe you already can picture his interest in the topic when he wants to impress my sister. And saving the life of one of the Element bearers counts a lot." More explanation is needed, though, Twilight is not following what's Luna saying. "He already knew what would happen before it had happened. It's like when you were traveling in time to warn yourself. Do I make any sense to you?"

Twilight, taking notes, flipped through the stack of paper and nodded.

"Okay then." said Luna, turning back to the soldiers, "I also need to know where you two will be staying for a night, so I can easily find you if it's necessary."

Human's lips formed into uncomfortable smile and with the nudge of his elbow, he woke up Foxy, who was staring at something on the other side of the room, "Man, snap out of nothingness, we have to set up a camp somewhere, the nightfall is near." Foxy's reply was not as nice as expected, "Well, good idea, but you have the tent, so it's kind of your problem."

"I don't have any tent on me, I thought you would pack it."

"I am from light class, we don't have any of this in our basic equipment. You are from the heavy, you should have necessary things."

"Wait, what? Goddammit."

"You didn't pack any survival equipment, did you?"

Before they could start arguing, Twilight stepped into the conversation and said, "Guys, calm down. You can stay at my place as long as is necessary, no need to worry yourselves."

Luna was patiently watching the whole drama which was happening before her at the moment and she was finding it funny, even though her light chuckles couldn't be heard through the noise the other three persons were making. Suddenly she got up and left them alone with the words, "I see you all are settled, no need for me to be here anymore." Then she left the building and Ponyville completely, disappearing into the darkness of her night.