The Alchemist and the Mirror

Dear Diary,

It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve written one of these, and to be fair, it probably has been. What’s it been, like... fifteen years? Nah, gotta longer than that. I mean, the last time I bothered writing a personal diary had to have been before I finished the memoir I made Aqua Regia read before she volunteered in Project Genesis in lieu of execution. Wait... If I’m in my forties and I was... Okay... Not longer, just fourteen years.

Regardless, fourteen years is a long time by any definition. I mean, more than eight years on top of that... I’ve been on this world for more than half my life now, and things are changing so much. Populations are booming, towns have evolved into small cities, and the life expectancy is higher than it has ever been. I wonder if my parents are still alive and kicking? Mom’s gotta be in her seventies by now, dad in his eighties... Do they think about me at all, I wonder?

Sometimes, I wish I could go back and put up more of a fight when they decided to pretend I didn’t exist all those years back. When they disowned me, I lost something of myself, something I’ve been contemplating a lot, lately: family. I know that Lyra and Bon-Bon consider me a part of their herd, and their daughter, Honeydew, is like a big sister to Pura and Clara, but it’s just not the same. Honeydew has both Lyra and Bon-Bon’s parents, cousins, and aunts to call upon for possible support.

My girls grew up never knowing their grandparents, cousins, or aunts on my side of the family for fairly obvious reasons. Those not arrested in the inquisition of the house formerly known as Blueblood—a surprisingly high number in and of itself—have never shown an interest in the girls or me, not that I’m entirely sure I would ever have allowed it. Admittedly, a large amount of their assets became mine in the months that followed as form of reparations, and the Blueblood family was proud to a fault.

Still, Aqua Pura and Aqua Clara grew up as well as could be expected under the care of an eccentric single mother. In spite of my best efforts, Pura actually DID manage to read the entirety of the library in the Crystal Empire, and even got her cutie mark in library sciences in the process. Princess Twilight was certainly ecstatic about that. The day she saw Aqua Regia for the first and last time had a pretty big impact on Clara; she’s studying for a degree in mental health, and is basing her thesis on her sire. At least they’re more normal than I am. No inclination towards arson, murder, or jaywalking, or anything like that.

As for me, there’s not much to say. I’ve sorta bled into the background over the years. I’m still the most well-known alchemist in the Crystal Empire, but I seem to be treating illness, injury, and genetic issues more often than not these days. I’m still allowed to tinker and experiment, but it’s lost its lustre, as have a lot of things. I just hope the rumors about Twilight opening a portal back to my Earth aren’t true, or else I might get contracted to research ways to keep people from becoming ponies and ponies from not getting enough ambient magic on Earth, etc.

Am I tired, or am I just becoming predisposed to bouts of depression? I find myself yearning for those days when I had access to such wonders as video games and the internet. Heck, that’s all I seem to even really remember about being human; would I even remember how to walk, talk and act like a human if I went back to Earth?

~ Prologue ~

A pounding on my hotel room door stops my thoughts dead. Knowing that I probably won’t be finishing that page, I put aside my ballpoint pen and close the journal. There’s an inward sense of gratefulness for the interruption filling the back of my mind. That was going in a rather dark direction, and I know that such thoughts only end up putting me in a bad place.

There are three more solid thumps on the door, and then the tingle of magic alerts me to someone manipulating the lock. “Mom, are you still asleep?” is the query that floats through my bedroom door. “I swear, if I’m late for the party because you chose to sleep in again, I’ll light your arse on fire.”

“Sorry, Pura,” I call back, smiling into the vanity mirror at the reminder that she is most definitely my daughter. Got her mom’s penchant for swearing and everything. “Just felt the need to start a new diary is all. Also, watch your mouth; I’m still your mom and I can, and have in the past, removed all the bones from your legs with alchemy.”

I watch as the door creaks open to reveal a blond unicorn with a coat a darker shade of gray than my own. The embarrassed smile on her face says that she isn’t amused at being reminded of how she learned the ‘Don’t drink mommy’s experiments,’ lesson when she was five. “Ha ha, Mom,” she deadpans, looking me over. A smile crosses her face as she notes my mane and tail. “Wow, you look great; trying to keep up your youthful appearance?”

A smirk spreads across my face, and I flick my eye from Pura to my mane. Contrary to how I’ve worn it in the past, a long braided ponytail with a short fringe in front, it’s much shorter in the back, closer to how Princess Twilight wears it, while my face is framed by a rather spunky, uneven set of bangs. Also out of the norm is the set of strawberry blond streaks going throughout my otherwise silver-white mane.

“Oh please,” I respond, turning my nose up in mock offense. “I’m every bit as youthful as the day I gave birth to you.” Casing look over my shoulder, I give her a wink. “Besides, I think it goes well with my eye patch to give me a roguish look.”

Not missing a beat, Pura rolls her eyes at me. “No, mom, you look like a fuckin’ pirate,” she replies in monotone. “Now, are you ready to go?”

I note the large wrapped present protruding from her saddlebags, and frown, “Princess Flurry Heart happens to like pirates right now, kiddo,” I note, putting on my own saddlebags and placing a wrapped box of potions in one side. “Lemme guess, books.” When her cheeks flush red, I let out a laugh. “You’re getting as bad as Twilight, girl.”

“Yeah, well... potions from the alchemist!?” she says in an adorable display of being flustered. “Whodathunk?” At the sound of what could only be multiple confetti cannons going off in the distance, she gives me a worried look. “You reckon Ponyville will stay normal enough for Flurry’s birthday party?”

It’s my turn to share a deadpan look with my daughter. “Normal and Ponyville are mutually exclusive, Pura.” I lead her out of the hotel with as nonchalant an expression as I can. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t get some sort of kaiju wannabe or flavor villain of the month popping up to interrupt.” Under my breath I add, “Just keep Pinkie away from the hard cider and sex change potions... Or else I’m going to need a bloody vacation.”

~ Prologue ~

“And she’s all like, ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie, wherefore art the window coverings a conflagration?’ and I’m like, ‘Duh, mom, it’s cuz I like it that way, silly!’” Pinkie slurs, waving a half-empty plastic cup of soda around with one hoof, sloshing some of its contents into my face. “I didn’t have a good Christmas that year...”

Two and a half hours—I’ve had to listen to nearly two and a half hours of Pinkie’s horseshit, and believe me, I’ve been checking. Not once have I even seen the mare stop for air. Like me, she’s gotta be in her forties now, but she has the energy of a five-year-old on crack. How is this even possible?

Sucking a breath in between my teeth, I close my eyes—both of them. “Alright, Pinkie, there are so many things wrong with what you’re saying.” Mentally, I prepare the list. “One: you’d never heard of christmas until 20 years ago; you celebrated Hearth’s Warming as a filly.” I open my good eye a slit and grin. “Two: you might have changed some of the words, but I’d recognize Cops on Fire with Erections anywhere.” Taking the cup of soda from Pinkie’s hoof, I balance it on the tip of her snout. “Four: there is no three. You just did a mental playback to check.” Closing my eye again, I take another breath. “Five: that is a sugar free, non-alcoholic beverage. You are drunk on neither sugar or alcohol. Stop acting like you are, ya goofy fuzzball.”

Pinkie frowns, staring at the cup atop her muzzle. “When did you become such a party pooper, Silver Soren?” she says with a giggle. In one deft movement, the cup goes flipping into the air, its contents landing in her mouth, even as the cup itself vanishes into her mane. “I just wanted to say ‘Hi,’ to my bestest bestest friend from another world.”

Even as I laugh, I shake my head. “I’d almost believe that if you weren’t, in that demented little way of yours, trying to butter me up so that I might take you and Dash off the mail-order blacklist.” I glance over at the other ponies here in the main hall of Twilight’s castle, where I see Rainbow Dash boasting about something or other to Princess Cadance’s daughters, Etherea and Flurry Heart. “Look, Pinkie, the party’s almost over, and I’d really like to give the birthday girl her present.”

“Fine, ya got me,” she says with a smirk and a shrug. “Can’t blame a filly for trying, right?”

“A: When Rainbow Dash becomes a pterodactyl and accidentally eats a certain someone’s beloved housepet, yes, I can. B: You haven’t been a filly for like thirty years and you know it. Being a marechild don’t count none, either,” I reply with a wink. “Seriously though, Pinkie, it’s great to see you, but you’ve had me cordoned off from the rest of the party for hours; haven’t even been able to see my other daughter since she showed up.”

At that, I turn my back on the chatterbox before she can get another word in edgewise—which I just know would turn into a whole damn run-on paragraph—and make my way into the party. I could almost swear that she was stalling for something, but fuck only knows why she would be stalling at a bloody birthday party to keep me from seeing the birthday girl. That’d be like me giving a test subject a placebo when the whole reason that patient was there was to be experimented on.

Not even halfway across the hall, something interesting enough to give me pause catches my eye. In from a side entrance creeps the Princess of Friendship and Magic herself, Twilight Sparkle. That in itself isn’t actually all that unusual, given that this is her bloody castle and all, but there’s something about her demeanor that makes it seem like she’s not going to enjoy the party any; there’s a heavy weight on her shoulders, and though she’s making a brave face, her mind is elsewhere.

I watch as she makes her way through the festivities, stopping to talk in hushed tones to that Starlight Glimmer mare she befriended after fucking with the timeline repeatedly. Both mares look dead serious about whatever they are chatting about. This goes on for a few minutes before Twilight’s eyes flick in my direction, only to widen in alarm. Her ears fold back, and she whispers a few more things to Starlight before breaking away and moving on into the party.

Rather than approach me, however, she ignites her horn and begins to speak. “Silver Script, there’s something very important I need to tell you about, but this isn’t the time or place to have this discussion,” she whispers, her voice clear as day in my ears. What comes next almost has the tone of a royal order, but there’s something else in that voice, too: fear. “Meet me in my library in thirty minutes.”

Nodding absently in her direction, even though she’s already out of sight by the time I’ve even started going through the motion, I continue on my quest to give a teen her birthday gift. The entire time I’m talking to Flurry Heart and Etherea, even as I explain my alicorn concealment potion—more commonly known as a unicorn morph—and its ups and downs, my mind keeps going back to Twilight and her ominous request to speak.

~ Prologue ~

Thirty minutes later, I’m making my way through Twilight’s crystalline maze of a castle, cursing whoever designed it. Everyone says “A tree did it,” but as loathe as I am to believe such horseshit in a land where magic is a legitimate branch of science, it’s the answer that makes the most sense. The entire construct itself has a tree-like aesthetic on the outside, so I shouldn’t be surprised that its layout might make more sense to a fucking tree than it does a pony. Maybe I’m just spoiled from living in a normal three bedroom house with a fortified basement laboratory.

Regardless, it takes me more time and backtracks than I would like before I find the large double-doors. The one side is already ajar and there is light pouring through the pony-sized gap, but the moment I slip through, the door slams shut. My first reflex is to look back at the door, and when I do, I see the now closed doorway behind a shimmering pink barrier. There’s no denying that whatever Twilight wants to say, she wants there to be privacy.

Turning to face Twilight’s generally well-kept library, I see her planted in front of a large device seemingly built around a mirror. All around her are books stacked in towers, and a pile of rather ancient looking scrolls off to one side of the mess. You know something’s got her attention when she won’t even put books away.

“Silver, you were present in the Crystal Empire when I attended that Princess Summit all those years ago, right?” she asks, not facing or greeting me. I pause to consider her question before nodding an affirmative. “Do you recall anything odd happening around that time?”

Again, I have to think about that question. “You did seem to go AWOL for a few days partway through,” I reply, cautious of exactly what she’s getting at. “Rumor was you were eaten by a grue, though I’m pretty sure Pinkie was full of shit.”

“A unicorn by the name of Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic, which was doubling as my crown at the time, and fled through this mirror.” She lifts a hoof to gesture at the item in question. “It serves as a fixed gateway between two worlds, not unlike the subspace highway I used to temporarily bridge your world and this one. It’s actually quite fascinating the way it’s tied to their lunar cycle, but that’s not important.

“Sunset fled through the mirror into a world very similar to your own.” She finally glances at me with a twinge of... guilt? “The humans of that world are much more colorful than those of your world, and seemingly were a counterpart of every pony in existence here. Sunset was living among them, biding her time at a school called Canterlot High. She’d been there for at least twenty years from the Equestrian standpoint, having forsaken Celestia’s tutelage in a desire for power, but she was still only in her teens when she came back through.”

“Different rates of time flow between the worlds, much like the cyclic nature of the afterlife,” I offered, giving her a soft smile. “Lemme guess; the flow of time only ever balances out when the mirror is active?”

“It seems that way, yes.” Twilight finally turned to face me completely, that look of guilt having gotten lost somewhere between relief and confusion. “The most interesting property is that when a pony goes through the portal, they come out on the other side a human, completely devoid of magic. Something changed when Sunset brought the Element of Magic through, however. People, namely the counterparts to the Elements of Harmony, began exhibiting signs of Equestrian magic when doing things they were passionate about, ‘Ponying up,’ as it were. This allowed me to unite the Elements of that world to quell Sunset’s rage and corruption by purifying her. Then we befriended her.”

I can’t quite stifle a derisive snort, and when she looks at me with a raised eyebrow, I smile. “Sorry, I’m just having a hard time not picturing you and the rest of the girls in schoolgirl outfit fighting the forces of evil. Please, continue.”

“To give you the long and short of it, I’ve been to that world a few times, helping out Sunset and the human equivalents of my friends,” she says a bit more tersely than she probably intended. “But when the group befriended my human counterpart around the time I was protecting our own timeline from Starlight, we decided that it was mutually beneficial for me to stay on this side of the portal, rather than risking unknown consequences of prolonged proximity to her.”

At this point in her speech she levitates down a book that I hadn’t noticed was mounted atop the device affixed to the machinery. “We’ve kept in touch using this book, which is linked to Sunset’s own book on the other side.” She frowns as a stricken look crosses her face. “After what I calculated to be about ten months from her perspective, I stopped receiving messages... I tried to open the portal, but it simply wouldn’t connect. I thought maybe having come into contact with my counterpart had weakened the bonds between worlds, but I kept trying every so often. Even my attempts to create a temporary subspace highway failed.”

She passes the large tome to me, opening it to the last page with any writing. “I received this message this morning.”

Twilight,

This is some seriously fucked up shit you got me into. I don’t even know where to begin, but I have the distinct impression that this world is trapped in some sort of time travel related insanity. When you asked me to check things out when the portal went live, you suspected your friends would all be in college or university by now, if not in their thirties, but they’re still in highschool. Sunset’s the only one with any inkling that time’s been fucked to shit, and even then, it’s only the impression that things aren’t supposed to be happening in such and such a way. She was genuinely surprised when I showed up asking for her.

There’s something else... a creature—I’m not sure if it’s some kind of monster or an angry deity or what—is here, causing trouble. It keeps popping up around holes in reality everyone says were appearing during some lame-ass event called the Friendship Games. It’s extremely powerful, but Sunset is hesitant to use the power of the Elements against it. She thinks that the Elements are causing time to loop in on itself, so she is saving it as a last resort.

I’m not sure if I’ll be coming back or not, Twi, or whether any of this will even make it home. Tell my girls I love them, okay?

~Silver Script

P.S. In the unlikely event that Sunset’s right and this message is somehow sent to before you showed me the portal, tell me not to go through the portal without THAT, as well as plenty of magic restoratives and alchemist’s fire. She just might be able to win with some extra help the next time around.

I stare at the book. “Well shit.”

~ Contact ~

I slammed Sunset’s cell-tome shut and turned to face her. “Alright, Sunset, it’s done,” I grunted, pulling off my eyepatch with one hand. “Are you absolutely sure Twilight will get the message?” I glanced at the middle of the intersection, where another magical vortex had begun to manifest. “And can you be so sure I’ll be there when the she gets the message and not here?”

The young woman before me ran her fingers through her fiery, rainslicked hair and leaned against a light pole. “We can’t be sure, but the two worlds are linked again; the moment you came through the portal, you became a part of this too,” she fired back with a hollow laugh. I could see the pain in her eyes as memories of previous loops trickled back. “I never did ask, though... why did you come through in the first place? You don’t know me or my friends at all...”

That was actually a good question. What was it that drove me to come through on Twilight’s behalf? Was it because I wanted a vacation from being a pony? Did I feel like I owed it to Twi as her friend, or was I too loyal to turn her down and let her go through the portal into an unknown, dangerous situation? With a shrug, I slid off the hood of the police car upon which I’d been sitting. Glancing around at Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Twilight and Sunset, I sighed. “I have a tendency to make things my problem. It’s how I ended up with a cursed eye in Equestria, after all.” Under my breath, I added, “I sure could use it right about now...”

Before Sunset could make any sort of remark, Rainbow Dash dropped down from above, Fluttershy coming in for a much more graceful landing behind her. “Alright, girls,” Rainbow said, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow, even as her wings dissolved into the aether. “This part of town’s been evacuated, but the army won’t be here for a while yet.”

Sunset Shimmer pushed off from the lamp post and straightened her jacket. “This is it then.” She looked even more pained than before. “We’ll have to do all we can.”

Walking around to the passenger side of the squad car, I frowned. “No, we just have to buy time,” I said, kicking in the passenger window. Reaching inside, I grabbed the still loaded shotgun that had been abandoned in the evacuation. I examined it before flicking off the safety and giving it a pump. “Even if we don’t succeed this time, maybe the next worldline will fare better.”

From the center of the vortex, a single green eye rose atop a slimy blue-black eyestalk; another soon followed. Tentacles surged up all around them, their sharp barbs glinting as lightning flashed through the sky. Shit, was this thing ugly or what? I’d seen enough hentai to know what was not going to happen here, but it’d almost be preferable.

Swallowing my fear, I stepped forward. “You girls do what you need to do,” I yelled, tightening my grip on the shotgun. “See you in the next world, Sunset.”

Charging into the intersection, I let out a bestial scream, firing off a shot at one of the eyestalks, even as multiple tentacles lashed out at me. The eye exploded into a mess of luminescent green-blue ichor as the buckshot tore through it, and an ungodly screech filled the air. Tentacle after tentacle scored scored hits against me, tearing through cloth and flesh alike as though both were butter.

Again and again, I fired off shells. None of my shots scored a direct hit, but each tore through either one of the flesh-rending barbs in my path, or deflected a tentacle enough to force it out of my way. Ichor sprayed every which way, coating me and staining my cargo pants and shirt phosphorescent green, this only seemed to encourage the wriggling terrors to redouble their efforts against me.

Whether by blood loss or misfortune, I tripped, and a tentacle seized me around the arms and torso, pinning the shotgun to my belly. The godless abomination raised my body into the air above the vortex, and when I looked down, I saw my many fanged death. “Come and get it, motherfucker! I hope I choke you!”