A Certain Magical Friendship - MIRROR_NOISE

by Sora2455

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Main 6, Other, Drama
Length: 38504

The worlds of 'A Certain Magical Index' and 'Friendship is Magic' come in contact once again. Together, they will have to answer the question: are clones people?

Nightmare Moon had been defeated.
Everypony had returned home from the world of 'A Certain Magical Index'.

But the portal is still open.

And when a certain world begins to probe a friendly world, both will have to come together to answer the question: are clones people?

This story can also be found on Spacebattles, Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

Published 2017-03-19 10:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-12-22 11:55:48 UTC

Send out the invitations - laugh_and_cry

Send out the invitations - laugh_and_cry

-Ding, dong-

That was the sound that hundreds of students had been waiting for all day.

It was the joyous sound that heralded days of unparalleled fun and freedom. It signalled an end to the oppressive system of indoctrination and unpaid labour. (In their minds, at least.)

In other words, it was the bell that signalled the end of the school year.

The day had started off with a disastrous phenomenon from well outside normal understanding, so you would have been forgiven if you had thought that school would have been cancelled for the day. Unfortunately, the grown-ups that ran the city had decided that the best way to keep order would be to impose normal routine over the day. As everyone went through the motions of normalcy, their thoughts were guided onto their usual, everyday paths.

It also gave time for various stories to spring up, each one attempting to explain the global ‘blackout’. They ranged from undetected meteors causing an impromptu eclipse to an experimental countermeasure against solar flares.

For the first time in her life, Saten was in the unusual position of knowing the true source of the rumours that flooded the message boards. Her fingers itched to type out the true explanation, and tell the world exactly what had happened. But…

If I do that… would anybody believe me? And more importantly… what would happen if they did?

Somehow, Saten knew, one lady had caused the sun to fail to shine one morning. One miserable, pathetic human being had stretched our her hand and snapped her fingers, and the unfathomable power of the sun had abruptly been extinguished.

That was not the sort of thing you went to school the next day and forgot about.

Saten, like all the students in Academy City, dreamed of one day being a powerful Esper. Earlier this week, she’d gotten the chance to meet one of her idols, the #3 Railgun who had worked her way from Level 1 to Level 5. Saten had scoured the internet, searching for something – for someone to tell her what she was doing wrong, why all her efforts hadn’t raised her Level above 0.

Now though, the day of attendance at school had given time for the idea to take root that even if she found the mysterious Level Upper, that she would forever remember that snap of the fingers with a chill down her spine.

Such melancholic thoughts followed Saten out of her classroom and down to the front gate.

There, she stopped and stared.

Standing just outside the front gate, there was a girl who would best be described as ‘pink’. Pink hair, pink wristbands, pink jacket. She stood out from the crowd so much that she seemed almost unreal, like finding a four leaf clover in a desert.

Pinkie Pie said, tapping her foot.

Saten managed.

Saten switched languages. “Par-tay?”

For some reason, Pinkie seemed to insist on speaking in her nonsense Japanese. Admittedly, Saten’s English was only just above the ‘pass’ level expected of a first year middle school student, but now they were down to pantomiming.

Saten tried again, moving her hands like she was pulling the string on an invisible popper.

Pinkie smiled.

Saten sighed.

A few of the other Tokiwadai girls stopped to listen and stare at the public spectacle, but the throbbing vein on Misaka’s forehead convinced them to move on whenever her glare shifted to them.

Misaka roughly pulled Kuroko to her feet.

Misaka realised this was the wrong thing to say immediately, but Kuroko had already doubled the volume of tears and snot running down her face.

Misaka wanted to groan (or better yet, roll her eyes), but first she had to calm down her overemotional roommate.

-sob-

Misaka paused, putting a finger on her chin.

An aura of gloom had settled over Kuroko as she curled up into the fetal position.

Misaka pressed a hand into her face and sighed.

She was saved from having to try and salvage the conversation from the ringing of her phone.

Misaka gave out more death glares until the next wave of passers-by moved on, and answered her phone with a tense .

The person on the other end of the line was taken aback by her tone.

Misaka looked down at Kuroko, who had started chanting ‘I hurt Sissy’ to herself quietly.

Misaka turned around and cupped her hand around the phone.

Misaka blinked, running the idea through her head. She put a hand over her phone’s receiver.

For the moment, the light of intelligent thought re-entered Kuroko’s eyes.

Kuroko’s pigtails stuck straight up in the air like she had just been electrocuted. In the span of an eye-blink, she was no longer kneeling, but now stood ramrod-straight directly in front of Misaka.

Misaka felt a chill down her spine.

With great dread, Misaka raised her phone back up to her mouth.

<…are you sure you’re okay?>

Touma Kamijou’s face was down as he walked down the street.

With school out, he really should have been skipping down the road, jumping for joy, but his late arrival at school today had upset his suspiciously young-looking homeroom teacher. Rather than give him detention, like a normal teacher, Ms Komoe had instead tearfully wondered if she was trying hard enough as a teacher. Seeing that sorrow-stricken face had made his classmates give him death-glares all day. It had gotten so bad that Touma was worried they were going to jump him on his way home and beat him up.

Just his luck.

On his way home he had been struck by the impulse to go out and spurge a little at a restaurant, but the prospect of a second mouth to feed had sucked that impulse down of him. Instead, he had stopped by a supermarket and stocked up on pretty much everything that was on sale… which wasn’t much.

Touma sighed, but hefted his shopping bag behind his back and started climbing up the stairs to his apartment. The building hadn’t been on fire when he got back, so that was a plus.

Wait. His wall still had a giant hole knocked in it. Drat. Knowing my luck, it’ll pour with rain tonight. Touma thought sourly. Academy City’s giant supercomputer, Tree Diagram, could predict weather down to the second, but Touma felt that even if it predicted clear skies a lone storm cloud would appear just to drench his apartment.

He called out, feeling slightly foolish for doing so. Still, he’d given Index his keys, and his spare was inside the room. If it turned out she hadn’t taken up his offer, he was going to have to try to climb in the hole in the wall, suspended as it was over a sheer drop.

To his pleasant surprise, however, the door opened, revealing Index behind it. <…um, welcome home?>

Touma looked the nun up and down, narrowing his eyes and rubbing his chin.

<…what?> Index squirmed under his gaze.

It was a bit of a struggle, but Touma managed to make it past the threshold.

His apartment was small – it consisted of just a bedroom/living area with a tiny kitchen attached and a bathroom. It wasn’t really built to entertain guests, and there was a definite sense of snugness as two people and a kitten manoeuvred around each other.

Touma moved into the kitchen and dropped his cargo down on the bench. Index walked in after him, her eyes flickering between his face and the bags of food.

The apartment became very quiet as Touma put the food away, the atmosphere only broken up by the pained winces Touma gave as he saw how much of his food Index had eaten while he was away.

Neither of them really knew what to say to each other. Touma didn’t regret offering Index a place to stay, he just… didn’t know where to go from here. Did she have some goal she could reach once she had time to plan it out? Or if nothing changed, would she really be content with sleeping in a random boy’s apartment forever?

Index was just as uncertain. She had been planing to take advantage of a sanctuary, but in a church. Index knew how churches worked. When they extended out their hand to their needy, they did so because their divine lord had instructed them to do so. But a look though Touma’s apartment made Index quite sure that Touma wasn’t religious, so there was no way to be sure how long his charity would hold out for. Even if his hand had shown her nothing but kindness so far (and for some reason, the bruise on her face throbbed as she thought that), there was no guarantee that she could depend on him forever.

Touma had almost finished unpacking the groceries when the kitten walked in and sat down next to Index’s robes, looking up and meowing as if to say Well somebody say something!

Touma started hesitantly.

Index spun around, showing off her sparkling white-and-gold habit. It had gotten soaked on blood during the incident of the previous night, but didn’t show any traces of that anymore.

Touma scratched his head.

Index continued.

Index frowned.

Index scowled.

Touma finished packing food into cupboards, and turned to face Index.

Index corrected, as though she was disputing what colour they had been wearing.

Touma felt a little out of his depth. Index was speaking in square boxes, but his mind only had round holes to put them in.

The deliberate calm in Index’s voice told Touma he was skating on thin ice.

He asked, hoping to move on from what was apparently a blunder. He stumbled around the foreign word.

Index finished for him.

-Knock, knock, knock-

All three heads, human and cat, turned to stare at the door. Touma and Index then shared a look.

-Knock, knock, knock-

Came a girl’s voice, speaking in slightly muffled voice.

Touma found himself getting uneasy. That did not sound like Tsuchimikado or his sister, who were the only two people who would normally come calling. Even worse, he thought he did know that voice.

Touma carefully stepped around Index to head towards the door. For her part, Index grabbed a frying pan and held it threateningly, which did nothing to ease Touma’s nerves.

Touma bent down to stare though his keyhole.

He saw tea-coloured hair.

Misaka murmured to herself, impatiently knocking again. She felt slightly foolish, standing outside a boy’s dorm room knocking on the door, but the first person to poke fun at her was taking a 5,000 volt penalty for doing so.

She asked the door rhetorically. Sighing, she held her hand up to the lock. Sparks jumped between her fingers as she used magnetism to slide the lock into the ‘open’ position.

Opening the door and striding inside, Misaka continued to grumble to herself.

Misaka blinked.

Halfway out the hole in his wall, bed-sheets tied together into a makeshift rope, Touma sweated.

Misaka continued to stare, her eyelids rapidly opening and closing as though she could blink away the ridiculousness of the scene.

Touma said, somewhat pathetically.

<…what are you doing?>

His cunning plan of escape foiled, Touma began to climb back into the room.

A third voice drifted in from behind and below Touma.

Touma twisted around so that his head was looking down his makeshift rope.

After a few more rounds of shouting, Touma and Index were back inside the apartment.

Now present in the same room, Index and Misaka stared at each other. Index, who couldn’t remember anything from the time she was ‘talking in her sleep’, only recognised her as the girl who had chased after Touma flinging lightning bolts at him. Misaka, on the other hand, remembered that incident just fine, and she stared down sharply at the girl who had outright ignored all her attacks. She’d been hampered by the Nightmare Forces, but still!

Both girls raised a hand to point at each other.

Touma moved his hands in a calming gesture.

Touma blinked, totally stupefied.

Touma normally remembered incidents like that one through a new collection of injuries, so the notion of celebrating together with friends afterwards was new to him. A curious warm feeling spread though him, but his natural pessimism warred against it.

He turned around at this point to face Index, and discovered that she had started drooling.

She said, sparkles in her eyes.

Touma turned back around.

With six out of eight targets acquired (nobody seemed to know where the smoking boy and the sword girl were), Pinkie was ready to return home.

There was just one last hurdle.

Uiharu fretted, trying to think of how to say this politely. She was already confused, having been dragged from her apartment straight here with only the short explanation of ‘a party’.

Kuroko didn’t bother being polite. She said bluntly. She was already in a foul mood, having arrived to find that others would be joining her and Misaka in this outing.

Kuroko switched languages. “I speak English just fine, so –”

Pinkie insisted.

Index said, as she, Touma and Misaka walked onto the scene.

Kuroko turned around, her face dripping with exasperation. Whatever she would have said, however, died on her lips as she properly noticed Index. She asked, honest confusion overriding her manners.

Index said with a completely straight face.

Touma swiftly clamped his hand over Index’s mouth. He let out a laugh that didn’t fool anyone.

Kuroko said, completely unconvinced.

Misaka waved away Kuroko’s concerns.

Kuroko eyed her roommate suspiciously.

<…no.>

As an argument started to break out, Saten gave Uiharu an awkward smile.

Uiharu carefully leaned over the edge. The sun hadn’t been directly overhead for hours now, but Uiharu was sure that even with the lighting she had that she should have been able to see the bottom.

She couldn’t.

Saten reassured her.

Uiharu had many, many questions, but for now she’d settle for: She couldn’t see any way to climb down this thing – what had Saten done, just slid down the sides?

Uiharu turned her head weakly. <…come again?>

Too late – Saten wrapped an arm around Uiharu and, shrieking with delight, jumped down the hole, pulling her friend with her. Uiharu started shrieking as well, though for entirely different reasons.

At the sound of the dual shrieks, Kuroko and Pinkie’s heads both swivelled around in surprise.

Pinkie said, in a tone that made everyone sure that she meant to say ‘Well, finally!’. With a hop, skip and a jump, the pink-haired girl was falling down the hole as well.

Kuroko made a noise of pure panic and dived after them, the only thought going through her head was that she was the only one here well suited to aerial rescue.

Touma wasn’t far behind, though he skidded to a stop in front of the hole. He called back to Index. He wasn’t quite sold on this ‘magic’ business, but she seemed to know what was going on – more than he did, at any rate.

Index considered the question.

Touma’s face grew pained at that. If negating things wasn’t an option, he was no more help than any other high-school student.

He sighed.

Misaka did not respond.

Touma looked up. There was a distinct lack of tea-coloured hair in the park.

Misaka 9748 tilted her head to the side as the other Misaka strode towards her.

|Misaka thought that she was the only Misaka deployed on this mission, Misaka comments idly.|

The other Misaka flinched, but kept on striding forward until she stood directly in front of 9748. Then, she bodily shoved 9748 into the alleyway she had been standing in the mouth of, out of sight of the street.

9748 righted herself. |You are displaying abnormal behaviour, Misaka notes with alarm. When was the last time you had maintenance performed?|

|9748, there are no other Sister units in your vicinity, Misaka notes having counted them all up.|

The other Misaka hissed out loud.

9748 blinked.

For some reason, this seemed to upset the malfunctioning unit.

Two and two are…

The Original’s eyes grew wide, and her voice shook. Her behaviour was consistent with the data 9748 had of the condition called ‘shock’.

9748 frowned. The Original did not know of the project? But wasn’t she the one who had donated her DNA for it in the first place?

|The Original’s DNA was obtained under false pretences, Misaka reminds Misaka while figuratively waving a finger. It isn’t a surprise that she has no idea what use it was actually put to.|

The Original flinched again.

<(What’s up with that way of talking?) Okay then, what are you doing?!>

The Original’s breathing was starting to steady. Given that she had started to focus on the details of the situation, then by 9748’s understanding she was past the worst of her shock. Still, protocol was protocol.

|Your mission is still time-critical, Misaka reminds Misaka.|

The Original did not flinch this time, but instead turned around to face the direction of 9874’s broadcast.

So saying, the Original stepped back from 9748 and into the main street, before running in the general direction of 9874.

9748 considered this for a moment. 9874 was not, in fact, anywhere near the current production facility – she was supplying one of the equipment drop-points for a later experiment.

Still, she had her orders. Going from what she had glimpsed earlier, several members of the city had already entered the anomaly. The natives from inside it would be fully alert for more visitors, so her mission to observe unobtrusively was already doomed. She had no choice.

Whatever it was that was occurring inside the anomaly, she would have to join in.

Mistakes were made - heroes_DISPLACED

Mistakes were made - heroes_DISPLACED

Shortly within the borders of the Everfree forest, just off the path, a deep hole was present in the forest floor. It didn’t look like something an animal would dig – it was far too circular, and the walls far too smooth. It’s abrupt appearance just screamed ‘magic’, even before one noticed that its edges were glowing. The wooden sign ‘Danger, probably magic’ prominently nailed to the nearest tree seemed almost superfluous.

When taken in as a whole, the scene looked less like a real place and more like a postcard of the Everfree that somepony had taken a hole punch to.

The strange, alien impression the hole gave off was, however, dispelled somewhat by the sound of a mare’s scream approaching.

Saten was a carefree young girl. She was a level 0 esper, attending Sakugawa Middle School. She was friends with Uiharu Kazari, Shirai Kuroko, and Misaka Mikoto.

Uiharu was another Sakugawa student. She was friends with her schoolmate Saten, had a more mischievous relationship with her Judgement partner Kuroko, and a more distant one with the friend of her friend, Misaka.

_____ was a carefree young ____. She was a ____________________________________________. She was friends with ______ _____, ______ ______, and ______ _______.

_______ was another _________ student. She was friends with her schoolmate _____, had a more mischievous relationship with her _________ ______ ______, and a more distant one with the friend of her friend, ____.

Satin was a carefree young mare. She was an earth pony with a Cutie Mark of a magnifying glass. She was friends with Gatekeeper, Stage Hand, and Railgun.

Gatekeeper was another Academy student. She was friends with her schoolmate Satin, had a more mischievous relationship with her other friend Stagehand, and a more distant one with the friend of her friend, Railgun.

Faster than the eye could track, two shapes shot out of the glowing hole in the ground, slowed to a stop in the air, then came crashing back down to the ground next to the hole. This flight path meant that they went over the top of the completely out-of-place picket fence that tightly followed the edges of the hole. The moment the shapes hit the ground, the screaming stopped, the air squashed out of their lungs.

For a moment, the forest was quiet again, before one of the shapes groaned and stood to its hooves, revealing itself as an earth pony mare with dark-coloured fur and the Cutie Mark of a magnifying glass.

The other mare wearily raised her head, looking quite shaken. She had light blue fur, and her Cutie Mark was obscured by the flowers weaved into her mane.

-Click-

“4:46 PM. Two mares ejected from hole, pictures attached. First subject appears identical to Academy resident ‘Satin’, second mare unknown.”

The two mares’ heads turned at the unexpected voice.

A third mare sat on the other side of the path from the hole, a seemingly-random assortment of equipment surrounding her. Her horn glowed purple, as did the camera that had just taken their picture. A small dragon stood by her side, looking rather bored as he jotted down notes with a clipboard and pencil.

Now, the context from which the two ‘mares’ had come from and the context in which they now resided had different ideas on what a name should be like. This meant that, when moved from one context to the other, their names changed to match.

However, not all transitions were as simple as Saten to Satin. Some of the new names, like Gatekeeper, might be strange and unfamiliar. However, their names had not really changed, even if they were treated differently ‘somewhere else’.

Thus, to ease any confusion, all characters will be referred to by their ‘real’ names in narration from now on.

Saten cast her mind back to the introductions of the previous night. <...Twilight?> She said, half-guessing.

Twilight peered intently back at Saten. “4:46 PM. Subject 0000 is able to identify me by name.”

“Subject appears to be attempting to communicate in unknown language.”

Uiharu reminded, getting to her hooves.

“Weeeeeeeeeee – oof!”

Another mare flew out of the hole, crashing right on top of Uiharu with a loud -donk-!

-Click-

“4:47 PM. Single mare ejected from hole, identical in appearance to Ponyville resident Pinkie Pie.”

The pink mare in question lifted her head off the ground to look at Twilight in confusion. “I am Pinkie Pie.”

“Okay, prove it.” Twilight glared the glare of someone who was working long after they should have gone to sleep. “Tell me something only Pinkie Pie would know.”

“Your favourite snack is tea cake with vanilla frosting.” Pinkie replied immediately.

“I never told Pinkie Pie that.” Twilight shot back.

Pinkie paused, then drooped her head. “Oh, right.”

Twilight suddenly blinked. “Wait. How did you know what my favourite –”

Kuroko was a young teleport-type esper who let herself get obsessed far too easily. She attended Tokiwadai Middle School along with the centre of her universe, Misaka. She generally got along with her Judgement partner Uiharu, though she frequently lost her temper at her. She barely knew Uiharu’s schoolmate, Saten.

______ was a young _________________________ who let herself get obsessed far too easily. She attended ___________________ along with the centre of her universe, ______. She generally got along with her _______________ ______, though she frequently lost her temper at her. She barely knew _________’s __________, ______.

Stagehand was a young unicorn with a talent for teleportation who let herself get obsessed far too easily. She attended the Academy along with the centre of her universe, Railgun. She generally got along with her schoolmate Gatekeeper, though she frequently lost her temper at her. She barely knew Gatekeeper’s other friend, Satin.

“Ahhhhhhhh –” -Poof-!

A fourth mare flew out of the hole. Though instead of crashing into the ground like the others had, she disappeared with a flash at the apex of her flight and reappeared safely on the ground, sprawled out on all fours.

Twilight shot one last confused look at Pinkie, then turned to the new arrival and snapped another photo. “4:47 PM. Single mare ejected from hole, identical in appearance to Academy resident ‘Stagehand’.”

“I’ll never be single as long as I have Sissy!” One forehoof suddenly shot into the sky as the mare shouted, her twin pigtails lifted skyward with the sudden motion.

There was a slightly awkward pause as Twilight, Spike and Pinkie took in this declaration, while Saten and Uiharu just shared a look.

As suddenly as it had risen, Kuroko’s hoof shot slammed down to face Saten.

Kuroko disappeared in a bright flash of magic, reappearing on her hooves in front of Saten, nearly nose-to-nose with the other mare.

Uiharu wheezed from underneath Pinkie. Pinkie looked down, blinked, and then jumped off the poor mare.

Saten moved her head and neck backwards, sweating slightly from the intensity of Kuroko’s glare.

Kuroko said, ignoring the fact that Index was older than her.

Saten opened her mouth.

When she didn’t continue, Kuroko raised an eyebrow.

Saten closed her mouth, her eyes widening. There had been a reason – something that Kuroko knew that made her unable to believe Index’s words, but for the life of her Saten couldn’t remember what it was.

“Ahem.” Twilight cleared her throat. “Please state your name for the record.”

Kuroko glanced over at Twilight, glanced back at Saten to make sure she wasn’t going to continue, then turned around bodily to face Twilight. “What are you doing, Sparkle?”

“I’m keeping detailed notes so I can investigate this anomaly scientifically.” Twilight said.

“You mean I’m keeping detailed notes.” Spike interrupted grumpily, his pencil still moving back and forth across his clipboard.

Twilight looked over at her assistant. “I promised you a diamond for this, didn’t I?”

Behind Kuroko, Pinkie yawned. She looked up at the (low) position of the sun in the sky, and tapped one of her hind-hooves against the ground.

Kuroko sighed. “When you say anomaly, I assume you mean the portal behind me?”

“That’s right.” Twilight turned back to face Kuroko again. “I’ve done some preliminary research on magical portals – there’s one quite close to here that opens up every so often so the Breezies can collect pollen – and none of the ones studied so far display the same side-effects as this one.”

“Side-effects?” Kuroko raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”

“Tell me your name first.” Twilight said, stubbornly.

Kuroko rolled her eyes. “I told you last night, my name is Stagehand.”

Twilight turned back to Spike. “4:49 PM. Subject 0003 claims her name is ‘Stagehand’.”

“I got it, I got it.” Spike said, tongue clenched between his teeth as he continued to write furiously. “(I should have asked for a bigger gemstone…)”

Pinkie was joined in her boredom by Saten and Uiharu, neither of who spoke Equish very well and therefore couldn’t understand a word that was being said.

Kuroko sighed. “And what exactly is wrong with my name, Sparkle?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Twilight said, in a way that completely failed to convey any sense that there wasn’t anything wrong. “Now, just for the record, what is the name of the place you just came from?”

Kuroko stared at Twilight for a few seconds, then closed her eyes and sighed. “I have just come from the Academy. I came because I was chasing Gatekeeper, Satin and Pinkie, trying to keep them from going -splat-. The time was 5:03 PM when I left, it was an overcast day, and my favourite food is cherries. Is that enough for you, Sparkle?” She opened one eye, watching Twilight’s reaction.

“For now.” Twilight answered, gently easing several still-developing photos out of her camera.

“Now, those side-effects?” Kuroko prompted.

“Travelling through the anomaly creates discrepancies.” Twilight said. “Logical inconsistencies.”

At some unsaid signal, Pinkie, Saten and Uiharu set off for Ponyville at a walk. Twilight and Kuroko were too engrossed in conversation to notice. Spike shot them a jealous look as he watched them go.

“Logical inconsistencies like…?” Kuroko prompted again.

“How many times would you say that the sun rose this morning?” Twilight asked.

Kuroko cocked her head at the odd question. “…twice.” She said. “Once normally, then a second time once Nightmare Moon was subdued and Eternal Night ended.”

“That’s what I remember, too.” Twilight said. “Unfortunately, that sequence of events is quite impossible.”

“Huh?” Kuroko blinked.

“We saw the sun rise, Nightmare Moon set it, then the Princess –” Spike gently nudged Twilight, and she corrected herself mid-sentence “ – Princess Celestia returned it to its rightful place. But that’s not what the ponies over here saw. They saw Nightmare Moon arrive and leave, Princess Celestia raise the sun, and it stay raised.” She glanced at the sky, where the sun was getting reasonably close to the horizon.

“It was early in the morning.” Kuroko offered. “Maybe everypony just missed the ‘false dawn’?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “On the morning of the Summer Sun Celebration? The one day a year when everypony watches the raising of the sun?”

“Alright, fine.” Kuroko said, slightly testily. “You explain it.”

“I can’t.” Twilight responded, just as testy. “That’s the problem. It’s easier to causea sunrise then it is to fake one, and the ponies here would have seen that as well. We can’t have seen a sunrise – so how come we did?”

“So, what, you think this portal messes with the ponies that go through it?” Kuroko said, her expression and voice suddenly completely flat. “Please excuse me while I go fetch my tinfoil hat.”

Twilight stamped a hoof on the ground. “This is serious! Sure, the side effects thus far have been small and easily dismissed, but what if something big were to happen to somepony who moved through?!”

“Excuse me, Railgun politely interrupts. Could you please direct me to the nearest area of civilisation, Railgun asks, assuming and presuming that such a place exists.”

Twilight had been looking at Kuroko at the time, and so saw quite clearly as all the colour drained out of her fur. Moving in short, sudden jerks, Kuroko’s head turned to face the voice that had just spoken.

She matched exactly what Twilight remembered of Misaka from last night – the same tea-coloured mane, the same chestnut eyes, the same light brown wings. Her mane made snapping and crackling noises, which wasn’t at all surprising considering that she had taken the extraordinary step of weaving lightning bolts into her fur.

The newcomer looked at the two shocked faces aimed at her. “Did Railgun say something odd, Railgun asks?”

A high-pitched whistling noise came from somewhere near the back of Kuroko’s throat.

Twilight blinked, a little taken aback herself. “For example…”

“S-S-S-S-Sis-Sis-Sissy!” Kuroko screeched. “Wha – what has happened to you?!”

“Railgun does not know what you mean, Railgun says as she tilts her head to the side in confusion. Railgun has never met you before, so she does not know to what baseline you would be comparing her to.”

“Sparkle!” Kuroko’s gaze snapped around to focus on Twilight with panic in her eyes. “What do we do to fix her? TELL ME WE CAN FIX HER!”

“I – well – I’d need more data to work with – there’s a lab under the Ponyville library, but –”

“Then lets go!” Kuroko’s horn suddenly stared glowing.

“No wait –!”

Twilight’s objections were ignored as three ponies and a dragon were enveloped in a bright flash of magic, and vanished without a trace.

Index was an extraordinary young girl who could be said to contain the combined magical knowledge of every civilisation of the human race. She had just begun to make friends with the Academy City resident Touma Kamijou.

Touma was stubborn, unlucky and held some very strong opinions on the subjects of right and wrong. He was listed in Academy City as a Level 0 esper, but his right hand contained the mysterious existence known as Imagine Breaker. He had managed to attract an unrequited rivalry from Misaka Mikoto, and was host of the otherwise homeless Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

_____ was an extraordinary young ___ who could be said to contain the combined magical knowledge of every ________ __ _____________. She had just begun to make friends with the ____________ _______ _____________.

_____ was stubborn, unlucky and held some very strong opinions on the subjects of right and wrong. He was listed in ____________as a ____ _ ____, but his right ____ contained the mysterious existence known as Imagine Breaker. He had managed to attract an unrequited rivalry from _____________, and was host of the otherwise homeless ________________________.

The sound of breaking glass rang out.

Index was an extraordinary young mare who could be said to contain the combined magical knowledge of every race in Equestria. She had just begun to make friends with the Academy student ______ ______.

Touma was _______, _______ and held some very strong ______ on the subjects of right and wrong. He was _____ in Academy City as a Level 0 esper, but his ___ hand contained the mysterious _____ known as Imagine Breaker. He had managed to attract an _________ rivalry from Misaka Mikoto, and was ___ of the otherwise _______ Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

The _____ of breaking glass ____ out.

Index was an extraordinary young mare who could be said to contain the combined magical knowledge of every race in Equestria. She had just begun to make friends with the _______ ______ ______ ______.

Touma ___ boneheaded, unlucky ___ ____ ____ ____ _____ opinions __ ___ ______ __ ____ ___ _____. __ ___ listed __ University City __ _ Level 0 psychic, ___ ___ right hand ________ ___ ______ power ____ __ Imagine Breaker. __ ___ ________ __ ______ __ unwanted rivalry ___ Misaka Mikoto, ___ ___ host __ ___ ________ homeless Index of Prohibited Books.

The _____ of _______ ____ ____ out.

Index was an extraordinary young mare who could be said to contain the combined magical knowledge of every race in Equestria. She had just begun to make ______ with ___ _______ ______ ______ ______.

_____ ___ ___________, _______ ___ ____ ____ ____ _____ ________ __ ___ ______ __ ____ ___ _____. __ ___ ____ __ _______ ___ __ _ ____ _ ______, ___ ___ _____ ___ ________ ___ ______ _____ ____ __ Imagine Breaker. __ ___ ________ __ ______ __ _________ _____ ___ ______ ______, ___ ___ ___ __ ___ ________ ________ _____ __ _______ _____.

Unlike any of the other mares who had made the trip through the hole in the Everfree forest, Index’s flight was neither uncontrolled nor were her movements panicked. The apex of her flight coincided with ground level almost perfectly, and she stepped onto the small ledge next to the fence like she was walking off a boat.

Grabbing hold of the fence like a railing, Index checked herself over for anything missing – or more worryingly, anything extra.

One, two, three… all four hooves were in place, her fur its usual light blue. She was still clothed in her white-and-gold robes. No wings, and – she touched her forehead with a forehoof – no horn. So far so good.

She looked around. On this side, the portal was surrounded by the thick trunks of forest trees. Apart from the fence and a sign nailed to the nearest tree, nothing artificial could be seen. Index’s eyebrows drew together. Everything around her seemed perfectly natural, and for a portal like that she should be seeing something –

The fur on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end.

Slowly and carefully, Index turned her head to look.

_____ _______ was splayed out on the ground opposite her.

…

…

She shook her head to clear it, and looked again.

No good. The _____ was still ______ _____.

Index’s eyes was seeing _____, but her brain was refusing to attach any meaning to that _____. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anything there, or that it was a eldritch abomination that could not be understood. Instead, it seemed to not fit into any category that existed in this world, even the category of nothings.

_______ started to _____ ____ to where she was, _____ ________ ______ as __ did so.

As a knee-jerk reaction, Index pressed herself into the fence behind her. There was nothing in her 103,000 grimoires that could produce an effect like this.

All of a sudden, she realised she was afraid. ______ was still _____ towards her.

“Wha-what is this?” The words tumbled from her lips. “What kind of spell could have produced something like this?! That power of yours should have protected you from –!”

Index’s panicked thoughts came to a screeching halt.

‘That power’?

Yes, that was right.

______ held a special power that rendered attempts to affect __ with magic useless. That meant it was a something.

The mind that had been designed to analyse and counter any magical effect kicked into high gear. What else could she infer?

______ was not there was she had come through the portal – it had appeared shortly after she had arrived. It was almost a certainty that it had also come from the portal. But it hadn’t continued skyward like a ray would – it had changed direction. It had the property of ‘velocity’. It was an object.

Before her eyes, some of the mysteries of ______ started to be filled in. Now that she had forcibly placed it in the category of ‘object’ it gained presence and solidity. She could now see that ______ was moving towards her.

It wasn’t moving downhill – it was moving under its own power. Magic could not be its animating force – not with the power it held. Therefore, ______ was a creature. With that worked out, some of the gaps in her memory that Index hadn’t even realised were there started to become filled in. Yes, that was right – she and ______ had both wanted to come through the portal together, but ______ had been worried that their special power would destroy the portal while they were travelling through it. They had wanted to quickly return home to grab a _____ to cover their ____ with.

______ finally reached her, and touched ___ ______ to her shoulder, __________. Index flinched at the sensation, which felt distinctly like ___.

The deductions were coming thick and fast now. ______ had a home with possessions. That home was within easy travel distance – ______ lived in the Academy. These facts together mean that ______ wasn’t an animal – it was one of the talking races.

If ___ was one of the talking races, and she had been willing to wait for ___ to return before proceeding, then that could only mean that she knew ___.

Some other part of ______’s existence clicked into place, and Index could suddenly comprehend a loud screeching noise, sounding like nails being scraped down a chalkboard. Index flinched at the loud and distressing sound.

“Cut that out, Imagine Breaker!”

-click-

That seemed to have been the final hurdle. There was a crunching sound that inexplicably put the image of two gears crushing an obstruction between them to mind, and Touma snapped back into understanding. All of a sudden, Index realised that it was his forehoof shaking her roughly, and his voice that was shouting in her face.

He cried.

She snapped, swatting away his boot-covered forehoof with one of her own. At once, the awful screeching sound stopped, ending on a peal that almost sounded confused.

All four of Touma’s knees folded under him, and he collapsed to the ground, panting.

The loud sounds that had been filling the air were now gone. Now that a creature from beyond understanding was no longer bearing down on her, Index could feel her racing heart begin to slow. She took the chance to look him over more thoroughly.

His fur was a dirty white. His mane was black, and stuck up around his head like the spikes of a hedgehog. He had no wings or horn, which wasn’t surprising given that his features had the gangly cast that marked him as a mule, a half-donkey, rather than a pure-bred pony. Curiously, there was a faint mark on his flanks that resembled a Cutie Mark – when Index squinted, she thought she could see the outline of a zero symbol.

All of this matched up with how Index remembered him.

The only trouble was, was that the way she had remembered him before coming through the portal?

Touma’s shaken voice interrupted Index’s introspection. She looked down into his eyes.

Index considered the question. How best to explain this?

Then she shrugged.

Touma’s eyes slowly lifted off the ground.

…

He managed.

Index climbed over the fence around the portal, and Touma moved to follow her out of sheer reflex.

Index repeated.

Touma stared at her, blank incomprehension in his eyes.

Index chastised him, setting off down the path at a trot.

Touma scrambled to follow her.

Index freely admitted.

Touma froze in mid-step. Index glanced back at him. His head was drooping down to the ground, and an aura of doom and gloom had settled around his shoulders like a cloak.

A twinge of sympathy flashed across the mind that was otherwise concerned with the food awaiting her in town. She reassured him.

Touma moped.

Index rattled off automatically, turning around fully.

<…yeah, that one.> Touma said, having momentarily forgotten that Index was a walking encyclopaedia of everything magical.

As soon as Index spoke those words, a rift opened in spacetime.

“There you are!” Cried a brown earth pony with a hourglass as a Cutie Mark as he leaned out of the rift. “Where have you – oh nevermind now, the time beavers are coming!”

So saying, the strange pony wrapped both forehooves around Touma’s middle and pulled him through the rift, which sealed behind him.

…

…

Index opened her mouth, and closed it again.

“Well howdy there sugercube!” Applejack greeted Index as she walked somewhat stiffly into Ponyville Square. “We was worried ya’d gotten stuck halfway down that hole or somethin’. Er – ya don’t happen to know where th’ others are, do ya?”

Index’s rump hit the ground with a firm -thud- as her eyes stared off into the distance.

Applejack blinked, and leaned closer. “Somethin’ the matter?”

“Something just happened that makes absolutely no sense.” Index said, faintly. “I need to sit down for a while.”

Applejack took in Index’s unfocused eyes and slightly slurred speech and jumped to the completely wrong conclusion. “Don’t worry about it, sugercube.” She said. “Lots of ponies have that reaction to Pinkie Pie. The headaches dull over time.” She offered a small confectionery on the end of a hoof. “Cupcake?”

Reflected echo - continue_the_fall

Reflected echo - continue_the_fall

“Railgun does not fully understand your intentions, Railgun says, however if you intend to hold me captive it will be met by heavy retaliation from my people.”

“Oh, Sissy!” Kuroko moaned. “Can you really not remember anything of our deep, everlasting love for each other?!”

She reached forward to wrap both forelegs around Misaka 9748, which proved to be a mistake as one of the lightning bolts in 9748’s fur was jiggled loose.

-ZAP-!

“Don’t touch me.” 9748 said in a complete monotone that somehow still managed to sound contemptuous, looking down at Kuroko’s smoking body.

Twilight, who was rummaging through cupboards and bookshelves on the other side of the Golden Oak’s library’s basement, looked up and over at the two of them. “4:55 PM. Subject 0004 displays intense hostility to 0003, supposedly her friend.”

Kuroko moaned “Actually, this is normal…” at the same time as Spike yelped “Wait, I’m still taking notes?”. Ignoring both of them, Twilight went back to rummaging in cupboards.

9748 looked around at the underground room. Whoever designed it had apparently been on a B-grade sci-fi kick when they had – there were large scientific instruments taking up much of the floorspace that 9748 was reasonably sure were decorative. The roots of a large tree dangled down from above and wrapped around some of the equipment, giving the room an air of abandonment despite the fact that it was clean and well-maintained.

“Ah-ha!” Twilight crowed. “I was hoping that there would be one of these down here!”

Kuroko flopped around on the ground to face Twilight, and she, Spike, and 9748 all stared at the contraption that she had telekinetically pulled out of one of the cupboards. It resembled a wide-brim hat comprised primarily out of light-bulbs, and thus looked like an even lower-quality prop than the rest of the basement lab.

“I’ll just place this on Stagehand to get a baseline reading –” Twilight said, proceeding to do so “– and then I’ll record Railgun’s brainwaves, and hopefully the comparison will tell us –”

-Zap!- -Bang!-

Just before the device touched 9748’s fur, a bright flash and the smell of ozone suddenly filled the room as a spark jumped from her tea-coloured mane to the device, causing all of its light-bulbs to shatter explosively.

Spike yelped, and toppled backwards off of the counter-top he had been sitting on.

Kuroko looked up with wide eyes at one of her pigtails, which was swinging back and forth with the force of the glass shard that had whizzed through it.

Twilight, who had been standing at ground zero, blinked uncomprehendingly. Several red lines traced themselves across her muzzle, and the metallic smell of blood began to mix with the ozone.

For a moment, there was complete silence.

“What –” Twilight found her voice “– what was that for?!”

“You did not ask Railgun for permission to read her brainwaves, Railgun scoffs.”

One of Twilight’s sleep-deprived eyes began to twitch. “And because of that, you decided to blow up a valuable scientific instrument in my face?!”

“Yes, Railgun says, glad that the rude pony has understood her point.”

“You – agh!” Twilight let out a noise of pure frustration. She turned away in a huff, using her magic to pull a first-aid kit out of another cupboard. She walked into the nearby bathroom, set herself up in front of the mirror, and slammed the door shut with a purple aura.

The moment the door closed, 9748 immediately turned around and began to walk back up the stairs.

“W-wait! Sissy, where are you going?!” Kuroko vanished with a flash and reappeared in 9748’s path.

“Railgun is leaving, Railgun states the obvious.” The Sister said, shoving Kuroko out of the way. “Railgun has much better things to do than to entertain the fantasies of ponies she doesn’t know, Railgun adds with a note of scorn in her voice.”

In a way, the monotone voice and emotionless eyes made it worse. Kuroko stared wordlessly as the object of her affections walked out, the dismissal obvious in the way she didn’t look back.

“W-wow, she’s really eating all of it!”

“Applejack, fetch more of them fruit!”

“Yes granny!”

“The Apple family ain’t gonna lose in a battle of food!”

Saten and Uiharu were both sitting on their haunches, watching dumbly. Though neither of them had reacted much at the time, the both of them had been just as surprised as Kuroko when the white-and-gold Index had shown up at the Academy side of the portal unexpectedly. Any worries they might have had had about her intentions, however, had been completely forgotten in the face of the desperate struggle in front of them.

Uiharu in particular seemed completely flummoxed after watching Index devour the leftovers of a banquet that had been set up to feed an entire town.

Mystery-hunter Saten, on the other hand, had sparkles in her eyes.

“U-um…”

Saten and Uiharu turned to face a new pony – one who had dark pink fur, and a Cutie Mark of three flowers. “Well, it’s just that I don’t think I’ve seen you around Ponyville before, and I just wanted to say welcome!”

There was a short pause.

Index finished draining the punch bowl before turning to face the two of them.

Uiharu deflated.

Index repeated the message. The other pony, feeling that continuing through an interpreter would be too awkward, smiled nervously and walked off.

Surrounded by the oppressive power of the language barrier, Saten and Uiharu only had only one pony they could really talk to.

Uiharu started, inwardly cringing. Of course they were never introduced – she’d never met the robe-wearing pony in person until just before they all jumped down the portal.

Index swallowed a big mouthful of apples and nodded.

She said this in an entirely pleasant way, a friendly smile prominent on her features. It was a stark contrast, Uiharu couldn’t help but think, from the soulless expression she’d been wearing back when she’d faced down Nightmare Moon by herself, holding Misaka off with one metaphorical hoof.

But where Uiharu was nervous, Saten was excited.

Index observed, her ravenous eating put on pause for now as she fully committed to the conversation.

The old earth pony who’d sent Applejack off for more food blinked and leant in to examine the apple pie Index had been about to eat, unsure if she should count this as her victory.

Uiharu, who was just as much of a fangirl about the aristocracy as Rarity was, suddenly had the nervousness in her eyes replaced by stars.

She got a far-away look in her eye, probably remembering something she read in a Shōjo manga.

Index sweat-dropped.

Saten’s amateur detective instincts flared up.

Index hadn’t planed to get this personal with a ponies she’d just met, but…

Saten and Uiharu shouted in surprised stereo, startling the few ponies still hanging around Pinkie’s party.

Index tilted her head to the side, and in a slightly confused tone of voice said

Saten opened her mouth, couldn’t find any words, and closed it again. Next to her, Uiharu sat in a similar state of confusion. But…

Saten and Uiharu both jumped. ‘Misaka’ seemed to have arrived on scene while they were distracted with Index.

Index greeted 9748 with an annoyed scowl. She gulped down the pie in front of her, re-lighting the fire in the eyes of the elderly earth pony watching.

Saten asked timidly. Confusing things seemed to be raining from the sky at this point.

Saten and Uiharu stared at 9748, taken aback at her monotone vitriol. Even Index found the time to raise an eyebrow in-between gulping down the last of the party food.

Uiharu interrupted, hoping to steer the conversation back to friendlier waters.

Saten joined in, catching on.

The terrible Neighponese heralded the return of Applejack, hitched up to a cart of apple-based foodstuffs. Index’s eyes lit up and she zipped over to the cart, her eyes devouring the food before her hooves had even touched it.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at the rude narration.

A third pony randomly joined the conversation, her head bursting unexpectedly out of the new punch bowl Applejack had brought on her cart.

All others in attendance paused to stare.

Slowly, Saten raised the tablecloth to find the rest of Pinkie’s body standing under the table, her neck rising up into the part of the table where the punch bowl was. Applejack, with a confused look on her muzzle, gently pushed Pinkie’s head back down into the punch. There was a gurgling sound, and the punch drained out the hole Pinkie had been plugging with her neck.

9748 began, only for Applejack to shush her.

Pinkie cried, springing out from under the table. Her mane was wet and smelled of fruit juice.

Applejack sighed. “Pinkie, ya know nopony can understand ya when ya go on like that, right?”

“Wait, really?” Pinkie blinked, confused. “What, is my accent that bad?”

“…sure. Let’s go with that.”

“Fiddlesticks.” Pinkie pouted. “How ever am I going to get them to join in my funerrific party games if I can’t sing them the rules?”

“Pinkie, ah’m pretty sure everypony knows how to play ‘pin the tail on the pony’. Ya don’t need to get into a fuss on account a’ that one.”

Pinkie inhaled in a loud exited gasp. “That’s a great idea! Thanks Applejack!” She zoomed off into the distance, presumably to fetch the necessary materials.

That monotone question earned 9748 puzzled looks.

Applejack corrected, honestly confused. <’Pin tail on pony’ is game, not doctor-working! Is fake tail, picture of pony! Is funny when player miss and pin tail to pony foot by mistake!>

Index asked Applejack, appraising her critically.

Applejack responded somewhat defensively.

Index immediately replied.

Saten cried, not wanting to be left out.

Saten turned around.

Applejack spluttered, having apparently missed everything after ‘12’. Land sakes, Apple Bloom wasn’t much younger than that! The Neighpon ponies looked seriously older than they really were!

The conversation radically changed direction at that point, because Pinkie zoomed back to the party, gesturing everypony off to where she'd set everything up.

As the overexcited party planner hurried everypony along, a thought occurred to her.

"Hey, wasn't there a stallion with you guys? Where'd he go?"

“Right.” The brown earth pony said, slamming a device down on the ground that appeared to be comprised primarily of stop-watches that had been duct-taped together. “The rest of the Lad Brigade is holding the beavers at bay just ahead, which means we have one shot at this. Time’s already fuzzy inside this breach, and this device should let us abuse that to have a single object ‘touch’ all times at once – in this case, your right forehoof. Any questions?”

The earth pony said, a mad gleam in his eyes.

"I haven't a clue." Index said, completely honestly.

Fuse is lit - CRITICAL_MASS

Fuse is lit - CRITICAL_MASS

“Hold on to the tail nice and tight;

wear this blindfold to block your sight!

Spin you round, one two three;

Pin the tail on the po-nee!”

And with that, Pinkie lifted Uiharu up onto her hind legs and spun her around three times. Uiharu landed and stumbled around dizzily, trying to regain her footing while blindfolded. Pinkie and Saten both steadied her with a gentle nudge from their heads into her middle, and pointed her in the direction of her target: a piece of stiff cardboard pinned to the wall of Pinkie's room in Sugercube Corner.

Uiharu took a couple of uncertain steps forwards until she gently bumped her head into the wall. Having reached her target, she lifted her head up and pressed the pin she was holding in her mouth into the cardboard. The cardboard tail attached to said pin slid out of her mouth as she pulled her head back. She took a step back and removed her blindfold.

“Pffff. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Uiharu’s cheeks flushed with heat as Pinkie rolled around on the ground laughing. She’d managed to pin [picture] Princess Celestia’s tail onto her head so that it lined up with her hair, but flowing in the opposite direction.

“Hee hee hee.” Applejack remained upright, but she was also laughing. “It looks like she got her head stuck in some kinda rainbow-coloured cloud!”

Uiharu’s Equish may have sucked, but it wasn’t exactly hard to tell that she was being laughed at.

“Heh heh heh. Or that the artist messed up her head and tried to erase it by covering everything in hair, Railgun adds while laughing.”

Saten hid her own grin – Uiharu’s blush, visible even though her fur, was mixing with the flowers in her mane in a way that reminded her of a radish. She said, drawing focus onto herself.

Applejack shook her head.

Saten reassured 9748.

Uiharu pulled the tail out from the wall with perhaps a little more force than was strictly necessary, and handed it to 9748. Pinkie repeated her jingle from before, and she and Saten repeated what they had done to Uiharu. Unlike Uiharu, however, 9748 had wings to balance with, and so regained steady footing almost immediately.

Her fur bristled, the lightning bolts inside it twisting in place until they all formed into a series of curving lines; like the kind iron particles form when a bar magnet is held near.

9748 twisted her head back and forth, as though she was trying to discern the origin of a sound. A pair of lightning bolts sat just above her ears like some kind of bizarre hairband, and as her head pointed in the direction of the wall, the two bolts swivelled down to point directly at the pin holding the picture of Princess Celestia to the wall.

Uiharu asked.

9748 ignored her.

Taking calm, measured steps, 9748 walked up to the wall. And then, a silly grin plastered on her blindfolded face, she pinned the tail onto the cardboard exactly where it was supposed to go.

With a flourish, 9748 removed her blindfold.

-snort-

Her face coloured as the ponies behind her tried (and failed) to hold in their laughter.

She’d placed the tail in the correct place all right – but she’d been so focused on getting the pin in the right place, she’d forgotten to make sure that the tail was pointing in the correct direction. She’d pinned it so that the tail was pointing straight up.

Saten joked.

9748 spun around, her cheeks still burning.

Applejack’s off-hoof comment drove 9748 past the point of coherency, and she was reduced to random spluttering.

“My turn, my turn~!” Pinkie cried, snatching the blindfold off 9748. “Hold on to the tail nice and tight –”

The other five ponies sat back and watched as Pinkie managed to pin Celestia’s tail above her middle, making it look like she was wearing a rainbow-coloured inner tube.

Saten consoled 9748.

Saten stepped forwards to take her turn with the blindfold, completely failing to notice that 9748 had gone very quiet.

Certainly, Misaka had heard of the Sisters project.

That is, she had heard about it in the same way that she had heard about the group of killer high school girls who lived in the sewers, or the project to build a laptop that could simulate Academy City, right down to the people who lived there – as a rumour that she’d heard in passing, or seen posted on the same kind of conspiracy websites that Saten liked to frequent.

But she’d never paid it any mind. Academy City had always been full of crazy stories and legends like that. In a city where there really were people who could close their eyes and see a year into the future, something like palm reading seemed downright mundane. And in a city where all the researchers one day dreamed of reaching SYSTEM, an esper capable of understanding the intentions of God, something like dissecting bodies found in a UFO seemed almost pathetic.

That was why rumours like that sprang up so quickly and easily – because in a place like Academy City, there was always the niggling doubt that they might actually be real.

But at the same time, that was what made them so easy to dismiss. There were simply so many rumours like that that they couldn't all be real. Misaka had heard of more than a hundred rumours that focused around her specifically, and she knew them all to be false.

In a way, that was almost the most shocking part of actually finding one of the mythical Sister clones – the betrayal of the stories that were supposed to all stay in the harmless category of ‘fake’.

The ‘How’ was confusing enough – Tokiwadai put great effort into making the DNA of its students hard to acquire, to the point where they even vetted which hairdressers its students went to. Obtaining a copy of Misaka’s DNA in a good enough condition that it could be used as the basis of a cloning program was supposed to be impossible. But it was the ‘Who’ and ‘Why’ that were really occupying Misaka’s thoughts. To find the answers to those, she would first need to find the answer to ‘Where’.

Which is why she was now standing in front of a locker.

It was a simple coin-operated locker that was commonly found in train stations. As it was in a train station, it and the 40 or so identical lockers around it did not stand out in the slightest. (Although, Misaka did notice that this particular locker was out of view of the various security cameras that had been haphazardly set up without any regard for thoroughness or professional pride).

There was a simple reason she was glaring at this locker – though, for clarity, perhaps it would be best to recap a little.

Triangulation, as the name implied, used the angle from two different reference points to a third point to find the position of that third point. However, Misaka didn’t have two reference points – she just had herself. Normally, it would be impossible to calculate the position of the clones base just from the direction of their signal to her.

Normally.

Lets see – if I assume that the clone I’m tracking was moving on foot, then that limits the radius of the area they could have moved around in while I was searching for them. Catching that bus let me take a wide range of reference points in a short amount of time, and if I’m right, that means that the clone would have been inside this train station.

It should be noted that Misaka had done those calculations in her head. She hadn’t even used pen and paper, let alone the computer that most people would be completely dependent on to calculate out relative positions from her bus’s route, remember the angles to those positions, then solve for x.

However, even as she arrived at the station she knew it was too late. The transmissions she was following had stopped, and three different trains had left between then and her arrival. There was almost zero chance of the clone still being in the station.

Dammit. Why’d she suddenly have to stop transmitting? Is it a coincidence, or do they have some kind of operational security?

The useless lady at the information desk hadn’t remembered seeing her ‘twin’, so Misaka had shrugged and skipped straight ahead to illegally accessing the security camera server. The clone had arrived at the station with a large bag, entered the locker area, and then left on a train without said bag.

Misaka might have been the #3 Level 5, but she still couldn’t catch up to an express train. The clone had gotten away – so she was checking the lockers to see what the clone had left behind.

As she had already said, this part of the locker area was out of sight of the cameras, but fortunately she’d been left a clue. It was extremely faint – a Level 4 Electromaster might even have missed it – but this locker’s handle was ever-so-slightly magnetised. That either meant some kid had been leaving fridge magnets on it, or…

Misaka tapped the locker with the back of her index finger, sending a jolt of electricity through the electronic lock that caused it to pop open.

…or it’s been used regularly by an Electromaster.

Misaka swung open the locker door, and there she found…

She clapped her hands over her mouth immediately after that surprised shout, but she needn’t have bothered. No one had hear her over the hubbub of the train station.

She looked into the locker again.

She couldn’t be sure without trying to set one off, but who in their right minds would need a fake landmine?

She reached out to touch it, then thought better of it.

Slowly, it occurred to her that there were other items in the locker, each in their own bags.

Taking up the majority of the space at the back of the locker was the kind of bag that someone might use to carry a violin around.

The same kind of bag, in fact, that action movie villains frequently used to carry rifles though the streets without being noticed.

Misaka swallowed, hard. What exactly was the rumour that she had heard regarding the Sisters?

Wasn’t it that there was a program to produce clones of her for military use?

And hadn’t she encountered one such ready-made soldier heading towards the hole that her friends were in?

Not even bothering to close the highly dangerous locker, Misaka ran out of the train station as fast as her legs could move.

“Thanks for, uh, coming to visit me.”

“Oh, that’s quite all right Rainbow. It’s absolutely no trouble at all – isn’t that right, Fluttershy?”

“Oh, yes indeed Rarity. No trouble at all.”

The rainbow-haired weather-mare was lying in bed, legs down. Considering the reason Rainbow Dash was in Ponyville General Hospital in the first place was for broken ribs, Rarity and Fluttershy had expected to see bandages wrapped around Rainbow’s barrel, but the nurse on duty had informed them that that hadn’t been the recommended treatment in decades.

“So, ah, what did the doctor say?” Fluttershy asked quietly (her default volume).

Rainbow adjusted her legs, trying not to look like she was fidgeting. “Oh, well, you know how it is. She just wants me to stay overnight for observation, but she’s pretty sure I just need a couple weeks to heal.”

“Rainbow.” Rarity said flatly.

Rainbow froze in place. “Uh, yeah?”

“You’re preening.”

Rainbow looked down: her neck and one of her wings had curved around to meet, and she was in the middle of licking one misaligned feather back into place. “Uh, yeah?” She repeated. “I preen when I get nerv – I mean whenever I like! Whenever I like. Yeah.”

“In public?” Rarity asked, slightly incredulously.

“Okay, first of all? This is a hospital room, not the town square. Second of all? Don’t be a such a prude Rarity!”

“I-it is a perfectly natural thing to do.” Fluttershy spoke up in defence of her fellow pegasus.

“Girls, there are plenty of ‘perfectly natural’ things that ponies do that I would rather not witness, thank you very much.”

Fluttershy could see the steam building up in Rainbow’s head, so she quickly changed the topic. “S-so you should be out of hospital by tomorrow?”

“Huh?” Rainbow blinked, her train of thought broken. “Oh, uh, yeah. Though the doc wants me to stay on ‘light activities’ for the next couple weeks. So, pretty much none of the things I actually like doing.”

“E-except napping.” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Okay, fine, except napping. But seriously, what am I gonna do if you guys go on another adventure without me?”

“Rainbow.” Rarity sighed, rolling her eyes. “I highly doubt that another ‘adventure’ is going to spring up the minute we finish celebrating the first one. That would just be ridiculous.”

“Sparkle!” Kuroko yelped breathlessly, reappearing in a flash of magic. “She’s not in the train station either!”

“Well, she hasn’t returned to the forest – not unless she can move faster than teleportation.” Twilight scowled. Several band-aids were placed on her face, which combined with her uncombed mane to give her a weird sort of punk look.

The other ponies who were still in the town square were mostly there to help clean up the remains of the party of the day just past, and they gave Twilight and Kuroko wide berths as they argued.

Kuroko’s ears swivelled back and forth as the stress of the situation built up. “But, then where is she?” She blurted out.

“We’d know if you hadn’t just let her walk out on us!”

Kuroko faltered, taken aback by the venom in Twilight’s voice. “I was in shock! My fragile maiden’s heart had taken a terrible blow! Surely you understand?”

“Nope.”

“R-rejected…!”

Kuroko clutched at her heart dramatically, but Twilight was in no mood to mindlessly play the straight mare.

She was there… she was right there! Living proof that my suspicions were correct, and she just walks out the minute my back’s turned!

No, Twilight was not feeling very charitable towards Kuroko… or in general right now. That portal was dangerous, didn’t anypony else see that?! The longer they were in the dark about its effects, the more damage would be done.

“We have to find Railgun, now!” Twilight snapped.

“I know, I know!” Kuroko moaned. “Oh sissy, where are you?”

“Dare I ask why you’re looking for me?” Misaka asked crossly, standing just off to the side the duo.

…

“S-sissy?!” “R-railgun?!” The shocked cries of Kuroko and Twilight rang out in synchronisation. The questions started almost immediately after.

“A-are you alright?”

“Where did you go?!”

“When did you stop referring to yourself in the third person?”

“Are you going to apologise for what you did to my muzzle?!”

Rather than actually answer any of those questions, Misaka just scowled. “So, she’s already started attacking ponies…”

“Eh?” Kuroko blinked.

Twilight tilted her head to the side. “She?”

“My clone!” Misaka spat. “Looks exactly like me but acts nothing like me?”

Kuroko’s mouth dropped open, having been shocked into silence.

Twilight blinked, the idea working its way through her head. “Your… clone? That was a clone of you?!”

“Yeah!” Misaka said in the tone of voice usually reserved for ‘no duh’. “What did you think was going on when you saw ‘me’ acting so out-of-character?”

“A clone.” The heat of anger that had been banished by Misaka’s sudden arrival was coming back, twice as strong as before. “This whole time, I’d thought I’d found proof, and she turns out to be completely unrelated?!”

“Proof of what, exactly?” Misaka raised an eyebrow.

Twilight felt the last of her patience slip away from her. “Forget it.” She snapped. “I’m going back to the library.” So saying, she charged up her horn and vanished in the purple flash of a teleport spell.

Kuroko blinked at the empty space Twilight had left behind, then turned to face Misaka.

Misaka interrupted,

Misaka humphed.

“Spike!” Twilight called, reappearing with a flash in the ground floor of the Golden Oaks library. “Spike, where are you?!”

“I’m here!” The dragon in question ran up the stairs as fast as his short legs would let him. “Did you find Railgun?”

“She’s a clone.” Twilight told him sourly, trotting past him to the bookshelves.

Spike blinked, frozen in place for a few seconds as he tried to process this new information. “Um… what?”

“The ‘Railgun’ we met is a clone!” Twilight yelled, scanning the book titles. “We met the real one in the town square!”

Spike blinked again, then hurried over to Twilight’s side. “Er, why exactly does Railgun have a clone?”

“Who cares!” Twilight scowled. “It doesn’t matter. It means that she’s useless to our research on the anomaly after all.”

Spike scratched his head. “Well, what if it was that weird portal that cloned her?”

Twilight froze. Spike took the moment to look worriedly at the bags under Twilight’s eyes. She’d been working hard for nearly 36 hours straight now…

“Spike, that’s brilliant!” Twilight dashed over to a different bookshelf. “Quick, help me find a book about clone magic!”

This library was very sloppily organised by Twilight’s standards – it was only indexed by book title – so it took the two of them several minutes to find anything helpful, and all that book did was point them to another book that the library didn’t have. As she fruitlessly looked through The Wizarding Bible and Modern Magical Mysteries, Twilight controlled her frustration by planning out a giant book cataloguing session she was going to do as soon as she had proven her suspicions about the hole in the Everfree.

Eventually, Spike found something in Exotic Magical Effects, 32nd Edition. “Twilight! Have a look at this!”

Twilight dashed over to Spike, so hasty that she snatched the book up (with her magic) without giving him a chance to actually let go of it, leaving him dangling in mid-air. “‘Creating a true copy of a creature (and not simply an illusion or ‘time twin’) is one of the few magical effects that modern spell-casting has yet to duplicate. As of the time of publication, it remains only achievable through randomised magical sources, such as the magic of a draconequus, or of the Everfree Forest. The only known dependable source of this effect is the ‘Mirror Pool’, found in the Everfree Forest.”

Twilight dropped the book, letting both it and Spike hit the ground with a loud -thud-. “That’s it! The magic of the Everfree Forest must be interfering with the anomaly!” She gasped as another possibility occurred to her. “Or maybe it’s even the source of it!”

“Ow…” Spike rubbed his head where the book had fallen on it. “Okay, but how do you go about proving that?”

Twilight dashed over to the bookshelves on the other side of the library. “Mirror Pool, Mirror Pool… here!” She pulled another book of the shelves. “‘Mirror Pool clones are the distorted reflections of their original selves, and frequently fail to recognise even close friends and family.’ This fits perfectly with what we saw!”

“Yeah,” Spike said “but that’s not actually –”

“There’s even a spell to deal with the clones!” Twilight closed the book with a snap.

“When you say ‘deal’ with them –”

“I’ll be right back, Spike!”

With that, Twilight teleported out again, leaving Spike alone with a sinking feeling that this wasn’t going to end well at all.

Mikoto - MISFIRE

Uiharu, Saten and Applejack all turned to face 9748, the same dumbfounded expression on each of their faces.

After a few seconds of complete silence, Staten felt that someone should say something.

In the background, Pinkie cheered on Index, who had managed to pin [picture] Princess Celestia’s tail onto the end of her hair.

Uiharu flustered, wondering what on earth had brought this on.

Saten disagreed.

Applejack suggested.

Saten said.

Uiharu disagreed.

…

The three lapsed into silence, unable to definitively answer the question.

<…that is sufficient, Railgun says.>

Index asked, as she and Pinkie walked back to the group.

Saten stomped a hoof.

Pinkie looked between the faces of all the Neighponiese speakers (everypony but her). “Um, why does everypony look so –”

The sound of hoofsteps on the stairs to Pinkie’s room interrupted the pink Earth Pony.

<9748. We are being recalled, Railgun conveys the instructions.>

Everypony turned to face the new arrival with the impossibly familiar voice, and their jaws collectively hit the ground.

Another Misaka had just walked into the room. The second one was perfectly identical to the first – the same fur, the same wings, the same muzzle with the same emotionless expression on it. They even had the same Cutie Mark – a pair of parallel lightning bolts.

The Misaka who had been playing with the others said.

The newly arrived Misaka said

The heads of the other ponies in the clearing whipped back and forth between the two ponies who could be mirror images of each other, except for the fact that only one was talking at a time.

There was a pause as the two Misakas stared emotionlessly at each other for a very seconds.

<…very well, Railgun accepts.>

Without another word, the new arrival moved out of the doorway and the first Misaka walked out of the room.

The ‘first’ Misaka paused at the unexpected shout, but the newer arrival continued walking away unconcerned. Had she not realised that shout was directed at her as well, or had she simply not cared? Regardless, Misaka 9748 stopped walking as Saten, Uiharu, Index, Applejack and Pinkie Pie all spilled out of Sugercube Corner in a rush, surrounding her with their bodies and voices.

“Why in tarnation is there suddenly two o’ ya?!”

“What’s going on? Why’s everypony so grim all of a sudden? W-weren’t we just enjoying a party?”

<…Railgun?>

9748 looked around at the faces of the ponies surrounding her.

Uiharu and Saten yelled in unison.

“What kinda question is that? O’ course I do!” Applejack said, muzzle twisted in indignation.

Index said in a moment of far too brutal honesty.

Pinkie seemed to have fallen to the floor convulsing in lieu of answering.

So saying, 9748 turned her gaze to the cramped stairs down to the ground floor, and pushed her way through the ponies who surrounded her.

An unexpected voice came from an unexpected direction. A unicorn dropped from the sky onto the group of ponies behind 9748, a teleport spell already charged on her horn.

With an -Eep!- Saten ducked out of the way, recognising the unicorn as her friend only after she’d dodged out of her grasp. Kuroko tried to grab onto her, but she was too far away, and so Saten was left behind as the rest of the group vanished in another teleport.

A third Misaka had appeared before Saten. Or was this the first one? She was actually acting like the Misaka Saten knew from before today, unlike the monotone Misakas. In addition, she had arrived with Kuroko, so she was probably the ‘original’ Misaka.

The Misaka Saten had been with until just now said, confirming her suspicions.

<‘Is something wrong’, she says. Oh, how about ‘everything’?!>

One of Misaka’s wings flew open, a bolt of lightning wrapped around every feather. A pair of bolts shot forth from that organic silo, hitting the ground before and to the side of where 9748 had been a moment before – the mare having jumped back, her own wings open not to return fire but to hold altitude.

More lightning bolts flew through the air, and 9748 flew backwards to avoid them, away from Saten. Just as planned.

Saten cried out to Mikoto, ducking down and putting her forehooves over her head.

Mikoto didn’t give Saten a chance to follow her instructions, instead galloping at her clone, loosing more bolts to keep up the pressure.

9748 reviewed her standing orders. Her creators hadn’t focused much on self-preservation, mostly because they saw her in much the same was a normal pony would see a tissue – something you would naturally toss aside the moment it was ‘used’. Nonetheless, there had been instructions for her to avoid needless confrontation, so she put her wings to their intended use and began to fly away.

The twitching of the bolts in 9748’s fur let her know about the approach of further bolts from the Original even without looking. She rolled to the side to avoid them.

Maybe it was because it was an Ad Hoc encounter rather than a fully-predetermined battle, but 9748 felt freer with her tongue than any of her sisters ever had in battle.

Another bolt was loosed, but 9748 could tell from the twitching of the bolts that it was pass overhead, missing her completely.

Mikoto’s bolt of lightning had definitely missed 9748… but it had hit the lone cloud that had placed sometime since Rainbow had cleared the skies yesterday morning. 9748 looked up just in time to see the cloud spark with excess electricity, before suddenly disgorging ten more bolts of lightning down to the earth.

When it was a single bolt from behind, 9748 could roll or dive out of the way. When it was a scattershot from above, no direction would save her, not even hovering in place. One bolt slammed into her right wing, and other into her barrel. Pegasus magic kept the bolts from passing inside her body, but the distinct smell of burning feathers and fur suddenly filled the air, and 9748 plummeted from the sky.

With a meaty -thud-, 9748 hit the ground on her side, her fur slightly charred and smoking. She lifted her head slightly to find the Original standing over her downed body, her expression stormy.

The Original demanded.

The Original picked up 9748’s head with her forehooves and shook her roughly. She demanded.

“S-stop!”

Mikoto looked up.

The population of Ponyville had stepped out of the sidelines. Earth ponies of every colour and build surrounded her. The local pegasi quickly swooped in to take away the cloud she’d exploited just before. The few unicorns native to the area stood behind the others, horns charged.

An earth pony with dark pink fur, and a Cutie Mark of three flowers, stepped forward from the crowd, her gait almost steady. “I d-don’t know what’s going on here, but get off her!”

“…eh?” Mikoto said, blinking. She looked down, to find herself nearly throttling a pony who had been laid helpless from her electrocution.

“Ah!” She cried, jumping backwards and away from 9748. The ponies behind her flinched as though struck, retreating to keep their distance. One unicorn lost control of her horn in her fright, discharging a spell uselessly into the air. Shivering slightly, she hurried to recharge her horn.

“Wait wait wait!” Mikoto cried. “You don’t understand! She was sent here to hurt my friends!”

The crowd parted slightly to allow Saten to trot out.

Mikoto felt herself growing flustered, extremely uncomfortable with the image of herself she could see reflected in the frightened eyes of the onlookers.

Saten swallowed.

Mikoto blinked.

Saten took a nervous step forwards, then another.

Saten was nearly nose-to-nose with Mikoto now

Mikoto stared back into Saten’s eyes, then suddenly spun around to stare down at 9748. All of a sudden, the clone didn’t look like a vague mass of malevolence anymore. Instead, she looked just like a living, breathing pony.

9748 lifted her head from the ground, her movements slightly weak.

Mikoto stared back down at her clone, her eyes suddenly filled with panic.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Ponyville…

With a bright flash, Kuroko and her passengers reappeared. Index, Applejack, Uiharu fell to the ground (having just been tackled by Kuroko, falling from the sky), while Pinkie continued to convulse.

“Land Sakes!” Applejack swore. “What in Sam Hill is going on ‘round here?!”

Uiharu stuttered.

Kuroko said, making calming motions with her forehooves.

The patch of air behind the group shimmered like a mirage, and Touma was ejected out of it as though thrown from a catapult, crashing into the building before them.

Kuroko froze. <…everything except that.>

<’s okay, everyone.> Touma groaned as he shakily got to his hooves, his eyes spinning slowly in their sockets.

The girls all shared uncertain glances.

By silent agreement, the girls turned away from Touma.

Touma asked, his eyes starting to focus again. The girls ignored him.

Kuroko told what little she knew.

Uiharu blinked.

Kuroko looked back at Uiharu, then suddenly grabbed her cheeks with her forehooves.

Uiharu cringed.

A -sniffle- off to the side of the group brought everypony’s attention back to Pinkie, who had finally stopped convulsing. Her every-present smile had somehow left her face, and entirely out-of-character tears were welling up in her eyes.

“Pinkie!” Applejack gasped, rushing over to the other mare. “Land Sakes filly, what’s wrong?”

Pinkie looked up at Applejack, the first tear falling down her face. “S-something’s about to happen. Something really bad.”

The crowd of ponies that had surrounded Mikoto and 9748 now started to dissipate. The atmosphere had turned from one of violence and danger to anguish and regret, so the onlookers suddenly found themselves making excuses to leave. Some were leaving to get ponies from the hospital, some to get a guardpony, and some just felt that they were no longer needed.

One sleep-deprived mare, however, moved towards the scene instead of away from it. The ponies she passed suddenly found themselves giving her a wide berth.

“Alright.” Twilight Sparkle smiled, one eye twitching and tiny purple sparks flying from her horn. “Which one of you is the clone?”

Name unknown - villain_APPEARS

Name unknown - villain_APPEARS

“Luna?”

“Five more minutes, Cele.” Luna murmured, shifting one wing over her head to shield herself from annoying sisters.

There was a soft laugh from above, and a gentle push on her shoulders. “Luna.” Celestia’s voice insisted. “We’re nearly there.”

Luna shifted her wing and opened one eye slightly.

It was late afternoon, and the sky-chariot was moving though the air as smoothly as a boat on calm water.

The sight of her sister standing before her, smiling without a care in the world, made Luna wonder for a moment if one of the Nightmare Forces had regained a spine and tried to torment her with visions of things lost to her.

There was a sigh from above, and a hoof was extended down to help her get to her hooves. “Honestly, Luna. I’ve been awake for longer that you have. Just a little longer, okay?”

The sight of Celestia acting like nothing had happened made Luna wonder if the past thousand years had been the dream instead. But as the sky-chariot cleared the clouds, it wasn’t the Castle of the Two Sisters that came into view.

“…is that Canterlot?” Luna asked, recognising the mountain it was on rather than the actual city.

Celestia cleared her throat. “After you… well, left, I moved out of our old castle and built another one here.”

Luna turned back to her sister. “What was wrong with our old castle?”

Celestia fidgeted nervously. “Do you remember why we built it in the Everfree?”

“So that ponies wouldn’t come and bother us all the… oh.”

They had built it to be alone together. Not alone period.

The two pegasi in golden armour dipped down, drawing the sky-chariot down towards the castle below. Luna noted that they were heading for a balcony at the back of the castle, rather than the front entrance that was choked with ponies demanding answers. She let out a grateful sigh. She didn’t feel like dealing with those questions for a while.

The guardsponies slowed to a stop in front of the balcony with a grace that made Luna wonder how many hours they had practised that manoeuvre. Celestia stepped off the sky-chariot, then turned to offer Luna a hoof getting over herself.

Luna flushed with slight indignity, but took the hoof and stepped off herself. The two pegasi took this as their cue to leave, flying off to parts unknown.

“The bedrooms are just ahead.” Celestia promised. “I made sure to retrieve all of your –”

“AND JUST WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

Celestia’s mane was momentarily blown of to one side with the force of the scream, and Luna blinked at the third pony waiting for them in the hallway.

Her fur was a light pink, and her mane was a triple-tone cream-pink-blue. She wore a golden tiara, amulet, and shoes. Most importantly, she also had two wings and a horn.

“Ah.” Celestia swallowed nervously. “Hello Cadance.”

“’HELLO’? THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME? YOU’VE BEEN MISSING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH FOR HOURS, THE SUN DIDN’T COME UP, PONIES HAVE BEEN SWARMING ME ASKING WHERE YOU WERE –”

Well, at least Luna knew that the Royal Canterlot Voice hadn’t vanished in her absence.

“Who is this pony, sister?” She asked Celestia when Cadance paused to inhale.

Cadance swallowed whatever she was going to yell next, instead focusing on Luna for the first time. “‘Sister’?”

Celestia nervously cleared her throat. “Cadance, this is your Aunt Luna.”

“‘Aunt’?!” One of Luna’s eyes twitched. Come to think of it, Cadance’s fur looked much like Celestia’s had when she had been young…

“I’m adopted.” Cadance corrected Luna’s thought process curtly. She then turned back to Celestia and resumed screaming. “AUNT LUNA WAS COMING BACK AND YOU DIDN’T BRING ME ALONG? WE COULD HAVE HAD THIS WRAPPED UP HOURS AGO!”

Some bubble of Nightmare Moon’s ego must have remained, because Luna found herself scoffing. “Oh, is that so?”

Cadance glared at Luna, black circles of stress under her eyes. “It is.”

Luna tilted her head, one eyebrow rising. “What would you even have done against the Queen of Eternal Night?”

“I would have made you love Aunt Cele again.” Cadance said matter-of-factly.

Luna waited for the punchline, but Cadance didn’t continue, and Celestia just awkwardly shuffled her forehooves.

Luna leaned slightly to one side to get a better look at Cadance’s Cutie Mark. It was the Crystal Heart.

Luna took one step back from Cadance, thought about it for a second, then took a second one.

Celestia cleared her throat again. “Luna, why don’t you go on ahead? I think that Cadance still has a great many things she would like to say to me.”

“OH YOU BETTER BELIEVE I DO! I HAVEN'T EVEN MENTIONED ALL THE STRESS POOR SHINY’S BEEN UNDER –”

As mildly entertaining as it was to watch Celestia get chewed out, Luna decided to take her sister up on her suggestion. The night had been long, and the next few nights were guaranteed to be even longer. It was best to get some sleep while she could.

It was easy enough to figure out which room was intended for her – it had a crescent moon symbol on the door, and sat across the hall from another door with a symbolised sun. Luna turned the handle with a quick act of magic and walked in.

It was close enough to her old room from the Castle of the Two Sisters. Most of the room was taken up by a huge four-poster bed, with a wardrobe sat on one side and a study desk on the other side, facing the window.

Luna weighed up investigating all the nooks and crannies in the room versus just going to sleep now, and had her decision made for her when a yawn interrupted her pondering. Sleep it was then.

With a flap of her wings and a heave of her back hooves, Luna jumped onto the bed, letting it’s soft plush envelope–

A sharp piece of metal jabbed into her side.

“YEOWCH!” She yelled, jumping right back out of the bed again. She grew a foot taller and her mane darkened several shades before she was able to cancel the automatic transformation. “We are betrayed! An assassin lurks in the castle!” The shock also appeared to have reverted her speech patterns by several centuries.

After a few more moments of cursing and of rubbing the new sore spot on her hide, Luna finally re-approached the bed to find the offending item that had given her such a surprise.

To her surprise, a diary or journal of some kind had been stashed under the covers. The metal lock on the side had been what had jabbed into her.

Luna glared at the offending book. “What is such a tome doing in our room?” The lock shattered after only a moment of Luna forcing it, and the book flopped open on the bed. To her surprise, Luna recognised her sister’s writing style.

Starswirl says he won’t help me. He thinks that if the Elements have made it so, we shouldn’t fight it. Stupid old codger. How is giving Luna a thousand years to stew supposed to help anypony? Looks like I’m on my own.

Luna blinked, before turning the page with a wing.

Something’s preventing me from teleporting directly there, even with a potion of long-jump. I don’t know if it’s something the Elements or Luna did, or if that’s just plain too far to teleport, but it looks like I’m going to have to head up there the old fashioned way.

The entry after that read:

...Starswirl was right. I can’t fly nearly fast or high enough to reach the moon, and my control over it isn’t nearly good enough to bring it closer.

Why is this so hard? I just want to see my sister again, not that thing from my nightmares.

Luna felt a pang of guilt. One of the first things she’d done after being banished to the moon was to hijack the Nyx’s dream-making magic to get into Celestia’s dreams. She’d tormented her with visions of her former self saying that Celestia had abandoned her. Celestia had been able to fight back and burn out the connection with the Magic of Love, so Luna thought that she’d been unaffected by it…

Well, if Starswirl thought I’d give up now, he shouldn’t have shown me his magic mirrors. Seeing the other Luna in the reflected world has given me an idea…

The next few pages were filled with spell notation, but after that…

The mirrors keep breaking when I fire them at the moon. I can’t wrap them in protective spells because their own enchantments are too delicate, but the moon’s atmosphere is too thin to rely on parachutes. I can’t use a free-form portal either, because the alternate Pony of Shadows is still waiting to hijack them!

There has to be a spell that can get me to the moon!

Luna skipped ahead a few pages.

My future self was waiting for me when I ‘skipped ahead’. She told me it wasn’t worth it, and banished me back to my time.

…what does she know. She’s already done her waiting.

And beneath that, in considerably fresher ink:

Indeed I have.

Most of the rest of the journal was filled with crossed-out scribbles, desperate ideas that Celestia had had and discarded. The dates between entries showed Luna that Celestia had originally had one serious attempt to reach the moon each week. But as new ideas became rarer and rarer, the dates between entries became further and further apart – weeks apart, then months apart, then years.

The final page of the Journal, dated a little over four hundred years ago, was blank except for one line:

Would the seal break if the Elements were broken?

The paper underneath had never tasted ink, but there were cockled patches underneath it that made Luna quite sure that Celestia had cried onto the page.

“My goodness, Cadance had quite a lungful for me. I really must have worried her something fierce… oh.”

Luna looked up to find Celestia standing in the doorway, her eyes flickering between the journal Luna was reading and her new larger and darker body.

“I’d forgotten that I’d left that in here.” Celestia said quietly.

“Sister…” Luna struggled to find words to explain what she was feeling. Celestia clearly hadn’t destroyed the Elements (otherwise the power of the Tree of Harmony would be broken and the Everfree Forest would currently be spreading across the land unstoppably) but the fact that she’d even considered doing so… “Why?”

“Why?” Celestia looked confused for a moment, then seemed to understand what Luna meant. “Luna, you’re my sister.” Celestia’s mouth assumed the form of a smile that was tired, sad, and triumphant all at the same time. “Of course I’ll do whatever I have to in order to save you.”

“S-sparkle?” Misaka stammered. “W-what are –”

“Oh, so you’re the real one.” Twilight stopped walking and began to charge a spell on her horn. “I’ll get rid of the clone now.”

“Get rid of…?” Misaka repeated blankly, then realisation hit and her eyes widened. “Wait –”

Twilight didn’t wait, firing the anti-clone spell at 9748.

There was the sound of a thunderclap alongside the sizzle of the beam-like spell. A small explosion rang out along the road, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Then a gust of wind blew the smoke away, revealing 9748 still lying on the ground. Misaka was standing over her, her wings bustling with lightning bolts just like the ones she’d just used to intercept the anti-clone spell.

Confusion warred with exhaustion for control of Twilight’s face. “Why did you do that?”

“I said wait!” Misaka said, her fur beginning to make -zap-zap-zap- noises as the bolts stored within it began to surface and rub against each other.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Wait for what?”

“For us to figure out what’s going on!” Misaka yelled.

The twitching in Twilight's eye suddenly become much worse. “I would love to figure out what’s going on. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on all day. For some reason, nopony else seemed to care until just now.”

Saten, who’d been standing off to one side with a look of steadily escalating horror, spoke up.

“And it will be a lot easier to see the big picture once I’ve filtered out the meaningless noise!” Twilight’s horn and eyes began to glow a solid purple.

Misaka’s eyes shot open, her wings only just behind them. She wrapped her forehooves around 9748’s shoulders and jumped off the ground, her wings straining with the weight.

Twilight was shifting her aim upwards when Saten suddenly tackled her from the side, causing the anti-clone spell to discharge instead into a fruit stand off to the side of the road. The watermelon hit by the spell suddenly swelled up to three times its original size, before breaking apart into a puff of smoke and a field of shimmering energy that flew off in the general direction of the Everfree Forest.

Saten and Misaka stared at the fruit stand with mouths agape and eyes wide.

Twilight growled unintelligibly, the purple haze of her magic still covering her eyes. She disappeared from under Saten in a flash, reappearing on the roof of a building behind where Misaka was flying.

Saten screamed, and Misaka banked just in time to avoid the spell that flew past on the left.

Twilight disappeared in another flash, and Misaka shot through the air, trailing sparks in her wake. The chase was on.

Touma was really getting sick and tired of being left out of the loop. He demanded quietly to Index.

She flicked an ear at him to show she was listening, but didn’t turn her head from watching the others trying to calm down Pinkie. She explained back, just as quietly.

Touma went pale as he imagined three Misakas, all crackling with electricity and demanding that he face all three of them at once.

Index shrugged, an action far more noticeable when on all fours. She paused for a second, thinking.

Index refuted immediately.

Touma blinked.

Index said, like it was no big deal.

Index turned to give Touma a funny look.

<…so, Bug-Zapper’s clones are here to stay?>

Index tilted her head.

Touma felt the blood drain out of his muzzle, his mental image of three Misakas looming larger, and their zap-zap-zap getting fiercer.

Index said bluntly. Index frowned.

Touma blinked, his triple-Misaka daydream (day-nightmare?) suddenly interrupted by a thought.

Index said, again bluntly.

“Sparkle, please listen to me! Something weird is going on!”

Twilight responded to that request with an inarticulate scream of rage, and Misaka was forced to dive to avoid a trio of anti-clone spells.

She’s completely lost it! Misaka thought.

“Railgun does not understand, Railgun says, confused.” 9748 said in her usual monotone, dangling from Misaka’s grasp.

“Kinda busy here!” Misaka responded, the lightning bolts in her fur standing up as she tried to summon clouds to shield her. Nothing’s responding – did they seriously clear the whole sky?!

“You were unconcerned with Railgun’s well-being before, Railgun points out. Why are you now fighting on my behalf?”

“Seriously? You want to talk about this right now?!”

In a dizzying display of magic, Twilight teleported to five different spots around Misaka in rapid succession, firing an anti-clone spell off each time. All but one of the spells were aimed to miss, but that just made dodging the one aimed to hit extremely dangerous. Misaka was forced to intercept the spells with lightning bolts, which – as a pony – she had a limited supply of.

“Look, I don’t know how to feel about you!” Misaka yelled, diving down between two buildings to limit the angles that Twilight could attack from. “Everything’s been happening so fast today – I haven’t had a chance to sit down and sort out my thoughts! But, if I had to put my feelings into words right now, I guess I’d say…”

Twilight appeared behind the two, as Misaka thought she would. She kicked off the side of the building so that she moved out of the spell’s path, but also so that she flew at Twilight, rather than away from her. Reacting in surprise, Twilight raised a forcefield that the two physically identical pegasi bounced off of, sending them out of the alley and back into the open sky.

“I’m… look, I’m sorry for hurting you.” Misaka said. “I thought you were something you weren’t. Now I don’t know what you are. But I don’t think you should explode for it!”

Misaka banked to avoid a wooden cart that Twilight had telekinetically thrown at them, frantically trying to climb as they were too close to the ground to dive again. The anti-clone spell hidden behind the cart would have hit her if she hadn’t half-expected it, but she was still forced to fire a lightning bolt at it as it was too close to dodge.

“…Railgun’s production value is one thousand eight hundred bits. That is the value of her life, Railgun explains.” The wooden cart just thrown at them casually cost more to make then she did. “Her memories are backed up in the Network, distributed amongst the brains of over ten thousand Sisters. Nothing of value would be lost if she were to –”

“You really think that Satin and the others will be happy with a lame excuse like that?!”

9748 looked up at the Original as she frantically dodged the incoming spells. She didn’t see what that had to do with anything. If they wanted to play with ‘her’ again, any of her sisters would do exactly as well as she would.

The Original was fit, but not overly so. 9748 could see the strain that the high-speed manoeuvring (with the added handicap of carrying a passenger) was taxing her endurance. She had to be nearing her limit already.

This was not a simple game of keep-away. Anything hit by the anti-clone spell would be reduced to a state that could not be considered ‘alive’. And 9748 couldn’t help but note that every time the Original dived to prevent her being hit by the spell, she was, however briefly, putting herself in the path of the spell.

The Original… no, her big sister… was worth more than one thousand eight hundred bits. She could see it in the eyes of her big sister’s friends, when they had gotten the two of them confused.

With a hard yank, 9748 pulled herself out of Misaka’s grasp and began to fall back down towards the earth.

9748 heard a sharp, panicked gasp from her big sister, but her eyes were locked on Twilight Sparkle, who made a growling noise that to 9748’s ears sounded like ‘finally’.

Misaka dived. Twilight fired her anti-clone spell one last time.

As the smoke of the anti-clone spell started to clear away, only one pegasus silhouette could be seen. The purple haze over Twilight’s eyes finally faded, the unicorn panting heavily with the strain of the rapid and sustained spellcasting.

The sound of thudding hoof-beats proceeded Saten as she galloped into the street, Uiharu, Kuroko, Applejack and a strangely wet-eyed Pinkie right behind her.

Although not understanding the actual words Satin was saying, Twilight waved them over. “It’s okay! The clone’s gone now!”

She turned back to Misaka, staring with eyes wide and mouth agape at the space her clone had formerly occupied.

“And now that that’s dealt with,” Twilight continued “we can get back to figuring out what’s going on with that portal in the forest!”

Applejack and Pinkie shared an uncertain look, and Saten stepped forward, her mouth opening –

“You are wrong, Railgun says quietly.”

Abruptly, there was complete silence. Everypony’s expressions slowly changed to looks of absolute horror, none more that Kuroko’s, as they all turned to look at ‘Misaka’.

“W-what?” Twilight stammered out.

‘Misaka’s eyes slowly lifted from staring at the ground to staring Twilight in the eyes. “You missed, Railgun says, feeling no desire to elaborate further.”

“’Missed’?” Kuroko said in a shrill voice. “Missed with what?! Where’s Sissy?”

9748 didn’t answer her. She turned her back on the others, snapped her wings open, and flew off; not once looking back.

Not even bothering to teleport, Kuroko simply jumped bodily at Twilight, knocking her to the ground. Kuroko grabbed Twilight’s head with both forehooves, and began to shake her roughly. “WHERE’S SISSY?!”

“She’s… I…” Twilight swallowed, wilting under Kuroko’s increasingly furious gaze. “I was only trying to…”

“ONLY TRYING TO WHAT?! WHERE IS SHE?!”

-snif- “S-something terrible’s just happened, hasn’t it?”

In it’s own way, seeing Pinkie being so out-of-character and sad was almost as freaky as having Kuroko scream in her face.

Applejack put a hoof firmly on Kuroko’s shoulder. “Put ‘er down, sugarcube.”

Kuroko switched her furious gaze to the farmpony. “Not until she tells me where Sissy is!”

“Ah’ll be surprised if she can remember her own name with you shakin’ her like a dog with a chew-toy.” Applejack countered. “Put the mare down.”

Kuroko glared at Applejack for a few more moments before releasing her grip on Twilight, who collapsed to the ground, not even trying to catch herself. She stared directly upwards, the full impact of what she had done fully sinking on.

“Where’s Sissy, Sparkle?!” Kuroko growled.

Twilight’s breath was now coming in short, jagged gasps. “She… she…”

“Yes?” Kuroko pressed.

Suddenly, Twilight’s eyes widened so much that Applejack was worried that her eyes were going to pop out. “The clone!”

“What?” In response, one of Kuroko’s eyebrows suddenly lifted so high it nearly left the confines of her face.

Twilight shot to her hooves. “Which way did the clone go?!” She looked up and down the street frantically for signs of 9748.

“Why?” Kuroko and Applejack said together.

“We can get her back!” Twilight said. “We just need something that will cast Railgun as its reflection!”

“’Back’?!” Kuroko exclaimed. “Where exactly did you send her, Sparkle?!”

“She went that way.” Pinkie pointed, wiping her nose on a foreleg.

“Tha’ way leads back to the forest.” Applejack observed.

“She’s going back to the other side!” Twilight yelped. “Quick, we have to catch her!”

The three Equestrian native mares galloped off, leaving the three Neighpon mares watching them go.

Uiharu asked, her and Saten not having understood a word of the whole confrontation.

Kuroko narrowed her eyes.

Uiharu and Kuroko galloped off in the same direction as the others, leaving just Saten standing in the street.

She took one more fear-filled look up and down the street, the fresh memory of an exploding watermelon large in her thoughts.

She whimpered, before finally galloping off after everypony else.

9748 couldn’t have had more than a few minutes head-start, but there was no sign of her the whole way back to the hole in the forest floor.

“Wha’ now, Twilight?”

“We have to go after her!”

Six mares jumped into a hole in the Everfree Forest, and six girls flew wildly out of a similar hole in Academy City and collapsed on the ground in a heap.

Soundlessly, Kuroko teleported herself out of the tangle of limbs, reappearing just off to one side. She then stood up and crossed her arms. “Now what, Sparkle?”

Twilight untangled herself from the others the normal way, saying as she did so “Same as before! We have to find Misaka’s clone!”

“Um, girls?” Pinkie said, inspecting the patch of dirt just in front of her face. “Were these tire tracks here when we were here last?”

Twilight span around frantically to look at the tracks in the rapidly fading sunlight. “What? No, no, no!”

Kuroko said in a commanding tone of voice.

Without even bothering to get off of the ground, Uiharu had produced a hacked portable video game console from a pocket. Her thumbs made a -click-, -click-, -click- noise as they danced across the controls.

Saten said, getting up herself.

<…> Kuroko narrowed her eyes.

Uiharu announced.

Kuroko said, memorising the address and grabbing the back of Twilight’s shirt. “Let’s go, Sparkle.”

“What? Wait –”

Headless of her passenger’s objections, Kuroko flung the two of them into a series of rapid teleports that sent them soaring across the sky.

“Tarnation!” Applejack cursed, as the remaining four girls ran to the location Uiharu had pinpointed. “I got a real bad feeling ‘bout those girls leaving us behind…”

-sniff- “I-I’ve got a worse one.”

Applejack looked behind herself with surprise on her face. “Pinkie? I thought ya were getting better back there!”

“You r-remember how I said that something bad was going to happen?”

“Yeah? That was whatever happened to Misaka, right?”

“T-that’s just it. I don’t think the really bad thing has happened yet.”

Kuroko didn’t bother trying the door of the warehouse, or even landing on the ground. She simply teleported herself and Twilight in through the ceiling.

If Twilight had been thinking clearly, she would have noticed that Kuroko did that without knowing the internal layout of the building. By teleporting in blind, she was running the very real risk of reappearing inside of a solid object. The fact that she was taking such risks meant that she was almost as panicked as Twilight, if not more.

As it happened, though, both girls appeared safely in the third dimension in an unobstructed space. As excepted of a warehouse, most of the space inside was empty. In fact, the shelving units that had been occupying the warehouse all appeared to have been violently shoved against the sides of the warehouse as if by the hands of a giant.

Standing in the middle of the warehouse was an albino Japanese boy wearing grey pants and a black shirt with white jagged lines.

Currently, he was holding 9748 up by the neck.

Her blood-covered neck.

Twilight’s scream and Kuroko’s loud gasp drew the attention of the boy, who turned his head to face the two new arrivals.

9748 said, not even having the strength to narrate herself. She weakly lifted her hands up to grab the boy’s hands on her throat.

“W-what are you doing?! Get away from her!” Twilight yelled, Kuroko yelling something similar in Japanese. Nails appeared in Kuroko’s hands, and a purple glow encased Twilight’s.

“Alright, alright.” The boy said casually, switching to English. “I was pretty much done playing around with this one anyway.”

There was a series of -crack-s, -pop-s and an overarching wet tearing noise.

Even though they were watching it happen, it still took the two girls several horrified moments to realise that the boy had somehow ripped 9748 in half.

Vertically.

“Now then.” The body said, dropping the two halves, and dusting off his strangely blood-less hands. He turned fully to face the two girls, and even though his posture was slouched, his imposing presence still seemed to fill the whole warehouse.

“What the **** do you ****** want?”

Far above the clouds, impossible for any of the group to see, Orihime 1 sat in geosynchronous orbit above Academy City. Its cargo, the supercomputer known as Tree Diagram, sat and watched.

And calculated…

Eruption - path_diverge

Eruption - path_diverge

Both girls charged as one. Neither needed to be close to attack, so it was foolishness to approach. But neither of the pair were sparing much thoughts on strategy – their hind-brains were in full control here, so they were running to punching range even as they planed to blast him.

Kuroko was the first one to attack, nails disappearing from her hands just as suddenly as they had appeared. She screamed, and it took Twilight a moment to realise that it was in pain instead of fury. She glanced over at the other girl: her nails hadn’t embedded themselves in the boy, but had instead reappeared near Kuroko’s own hands. The Judgement member stared at her hands, and the two nails sticking out of them, even as the rest of the nails clattered to the floor.

“Oh, nice.” Twilight listened to the boy distractedly, her attention split between him, Kuroko and her own attack. “That vector was drawn in 10… no, 11 dimensions, wasn’t it? I haven't done one of those in a while, so you’ll have to forgive me if I wasn’t able to reflect it perfectly.”

Twilight loosed the beam spell she’d been charging up, a purple lance of energy erupting from her hands and slamming into the boy… only somehow, Twilight was the one who went flying instead.

“Now, that? That’s more what I’m used to.” The boy grinned, then frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Though, what the **** did you have mixed in there? Half the force went missing when I turned it around.”

He took a step forward, a foot coming down on the left half of 9748’s bloody chest with a meaty crunch. “Whatever. So what exactly did you want to say to me, again?”

Kuroko screamed again as she teleported the nails out from where they were embedded in her hands; the girl herself disappearing a second later. Though her vision was swimming slightly, Twilight spotted her reappear on the far side of the warehouse, grabbing something Twilight couldn’t make out. She tossed it at the back of the boy’s head.

It hit almost perfectly on target, but instead of knocking him over it suddenly flew back the way it came: faster than it had come the first time. Kuroko teleported out before she could be taken out by her own projectile. The boy took another step to Twilight, not seeming to have noticed the attack at all.

Twilight managed to focus enough to start another spell, a purple glow encasing both her hands and her target. The boy actually showed some surprise at this, and Twilight grinned savagely as she pulled her hand down.

Only, rather than the boy being pulled to the ground, she found herself flung upwards. Momentarily weightless, she clearly felt it when Kuroko grabbed her and teleported the pair of them safely to the ground.

“The **** is that? Some kind of energy Ability that can also be used for telekinesis?” The boy clicked his tongue. “You’re not just making it up like that pain-in-the-*** #2, are you?”

He crossed his arms. “Here’s a tip. What’s the reflection of you pushing me down? Answer: me pushing you up. It doesn’t matter through what weird other-space you have to draw the vector in. You honestly think nobody’s tried ****ing telekinesis on me before?”

A few minutes ago

It should probably be mentioned that Misaka had not intended to take the hit for 9748.

Though in fairness, things had proceeded too fast for her to properly consider that option.

When 9748 had wrenched herself from her grasp, all Misaka had had time to think was I have to catch her!

It was only now, as she zoomed across the sky as a ball of magic, that Misaka could properly consider whether she was… whether she had been… willing to give her life for a clone hadn’t known existed until today and had spent less that ten minutes in the company of.

She definitely didn’t want to die. She had no desire to inflict that kind of pain on her parents or her friends. And her dreams for the future could hardly be fulfilled if she hit 0 HP while still in the tutorial level.

But… she didn’t want the clone to die either…

Had one been worth sacrificing the other for? If not, what would be?

It’s probably a moot point now.

Her involuntary flight had already carried her out of the town limits, and she was now soaring over the Everfree Forest. The firm pull that had been active on her ever since getting hit with the spell was getting stronger and stronger, and Misaka knew that she wasn’t far from her destination, whatever that was.

Abruptly, the purple ball of energy that was Misaka made a sharp turn downwards into a hole in the ground about the size of a hay cart. The soft light that she gave off reflected off of the smooth walls of the tunnel as both she and it twisted around, heading on a meandering path underground.

The tunnel eventually opened up into a vast cavern, the bulk of which was occupied by stalagmites and various fungus. In the centre of the cavern was a small pool of water, fed by a tiny stream no wider than a pony hoof. With no wind or currents to disturb it, the surface of the water was mirror-smooth, and Misaka caught a brief glimpse of herself as she plunged down –

– just in time to see a million cracks suddenly appear in the mirror-like surface, and the entire pool shatter, leaving an empty space behind.

Misaka’s form hovered in place for a moment, the banishment spell just as confused as Misaka herself was.

After a few seconds, something touched her form, and Misaka the ball of magic exploded, leaving Misaka the perplexed pegasus behind.

Too stunned to fly, she dropped down into the shallow depression formerly occupied by the Mirror Pool, staring upwards at Index and Touma, who were standing just to the side of where the pool had been.

Misaka blinked slowly.

Index deadpanned.

<…why are you making it sound like a bad thing?> Touma protested.

The idiot can break magic? That… would explain a couple of things, I guess.

Touma scratched the back of his head with the same right forehoof that had just destroyed two enchantments.

Index huffed before Misaka could reply.

For a moment, Misaka just looked up at the other two ponies. The suddenness of the banishment spell and her subsequent rescue meant that her head was still spinning a little, her brain half-expecting for the rug to be pulled out from under her any second now. She managed, eventually beginning to get to her hooves.

She trailed off. Come to think of it, that had been her plan first, hadn’t it? Not to hit her clone with some weird spell to banish her for all time or anything, but to get her away from her friends before they could get hurt.

Had that been what Twilight had been thinking? That the clone was dangerous and best gotten rid of quickly? If so, what right did she have to criticise her, when she had attempted it first?

Index wasn’t privy to Misaka’s internal revelation, but she seemed to derive some meaning from her silence.

Misaka said, not really feeling like going into detail.

Touma’s gaze swivelled back and forth between the two girls as they talked, feeling out of the loop.

Misaka cricked her neck and wings, a determined look on her face.

Touma said, gesturing behind Misaka.

She blinked. She turned around.

A group of people of assorted species had been sitting behind her in stunned silence. One or two members of each pony tribe, a handful of dragons, a zebra and other creatures that Misaka didn’t know the names for. Then stood, mouths agape, staring around the cavern like they couldn’t believe their eyes. The two that were wearing clothing were out of fashion by about four centuries.

A pretty earth pony mare stepped forward out of the group. “Art thou another added to this group of tortured souls?”

Oh.

OH.

Misaka figured she had better snip this in the bud, and reared up, waving her forehooves back and forth. “N-no no no! The spell on this place is gone, you can all leave now!”

The assorted peoples stared back in stunned silence. “Thou… thou hast broken the curse?” The pretty mare whispered.

Without thinking, Misaka indicated Touma with a wing. “Well, technically he did, but –”

With a wail, the pretty mare leapt forward, rather impressively clearing the entire distance from her to Touma in one massive glomp, hugging him tight as she sobbed into his fur.

“HEY!”

Neither Misaka nor Index would be able to explain later why this made them so mad.

Back in the present

“Oh, this is rich. You don’t actually know who I am, do you?” The boy said, raising an eyebrow.

Twilight raised a forcefield between the boy and herself. The boy examined the forcefield with a slightly bored expression, and pressed a finger onto it. Unlike the previous times, Twilight actually felt the moment control over her spell was contested, but still wasn’t able to do anything about it. The forcefield swung back towards her like a giant cat-flap to hit her in the chest, throwing her backward.

As she tumbled backwards, she could just barely hear Kuroko start to speak in Japanese. Twilight looked up to see Kuroko suddenly take off her earpiece-phone and glare at it “– dammit, it’s jammed?!”

Twilight assumed the switch to English was for her benefit, but she wished Kuroko hadn’t done that. She didn’t want to know that there was someone stopping them from calling for help.

She flinched as the boy flicked something at Kuroko at impossible speeds, and the teleporter screamed as her phone was smashed to pieces, along with the finger that had been in the way.

“Oi oi oi, it’s a little harsh to be calling me a murderer, isn’t it?” The boy said, sounding only mildly offended. “All I did was smash up a wind-up doll, after all.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, but Kuroko’s jaw clenched in pure rage. She growled at the boy, but did not attack.

Perhaps she couldn’t think of how she could.

“You won’t get away with this.” Kuroko swore.

“For what? For doing my homework?” The boy responded casually. “Newsflash, whoever-you-are – I’m not going to get in trouble for doing this. You’re going to get in trouble for trying to stop me.”

He paused. “Come to think of it, this whole project is supposed to be a secret, isn’t it? Those stupid adults probably want to make sure you don’t go blabbing.” He gave a smile that promised nothing but pain and insanity. “I wonder if silencing you will get me some extra credit?”

“…you’re lying.” Kuroko said, but Twilight could hear the first hints of doubt in her voice.

The boy rolled his eyes, the smile vanishing. “Give me a break. What, you really think I made this piece of trash on my own?”

He lightly kicked one half of 9748’s head with the back of a foot. It burst like a water balloon, spraying blood, brains, and fragments of bone all over the wall behind him like a painting on the world’s most violent canvas.

Kuroko gasped and Twilight had to swallow one of her own.

It’s like he doesn’t see her as human.

Twilight blinked, turning that thought over in her head.

…she was human?

Twilight recalled the look of fear that 9748 had shown just before her death. That… that was not the face of an emotionless drone, a mistake of magic. That was someone who had fears, who wanted her…

Twilight swallowed, even as the boy advanced on them further, Kuroko hissing at her side. She didn’t seem to be able to work up the concentration to teleport with the pain she was in.

…who had wanted her friends to be safe.

Twilight couldn’t hold in the gasp this time, a though occurring to her that was so painful it felt like she had been punched in the chest.

…he doesn’t see the clones as people.

…just like I didn’t.

A few minutes ago

<…and so we brought them back here.> Touma finished explaining.

Time Turner rubbed his chin.

Time Turner’s eyes lit up.

While Touma was handing off those who had been stuck in the Mirror Pool, Index and Misaka were talking to an earth pony with pink fur and a Cutie Mark of three flowers.

“…and I came galloping, obviously, but by the time I made it back here both you and your sister were gone!” The mare babbled.

“That’s weird.” Index said. “Why would Sparkle run off like that? Did your friends chase her off?”

She turned around to find Misaka staring off into space, mouthing the word ‘sister’.

“Hello? Short Hair?”

Index waved a hoof in front of Misaka, who snapped out of her funk. “Huh? Wuh?”

“Focus, Short Hair.” Index chided. “Sparkle isn’t going to be banishing anypony else, but something still feels off to me. I don’t think we’ve resolved everything yet.”

Misaka raised an eyebrow. “Uh, no duh? For one thing, we still don’t know why somepony was making cl– er…” she glanced at the pink mare, and changed track with a slight flush on her muzzle “…well, why somepony started this whole mess.”

The pink mare tilted her head in confusion, before her eyes suddenly widened and she straightened up. “Oh, um, miss Short Hair?”

“That’s not my name!” Misaka snapped.

“Oh…” The pink mare said, taken aback, her eyes flickering between Misaka and something behind her. “Well, it’s just… your sister is back?”

Index and Misaka (and Touma, who was now trotting back over to rejoin the group) turned around to find another Misaka clone standing behind them, off to one side of the town square.

“Oh, you’re okay!” Misaka perked up, trotting over. “I was worried for a minute there that Sparkle might have tried something even more drastic after what happened –”

Misaka halted, taken aback.

The clone paused.

Misaka fumbled.

Touma raised a hoof.

The pink mare, realising that the new ponies wouldn’t be talking in Equish again anytime soon, backed off nervously and busied herself talking to somepony else.

Index repeated.

<97D8E40EC0D3E581256… Railgun requests a –>

Misaka interrupted, ignoring Index and Touma who most certainly did not get it.

For just a moment, a flicker of something seemed to pass over the normally emotionless face of 10032. <…9748’s broadcast just ended.>

A chill passed through the three humans-turned-ponies listening. Index said, slowly.

Index guessed.

Touma grumbled.

Misaka, for her part, exploded into fury, her fur coat going zap-zap-zap as lighting bolts rose to the surface and rubbed against each other. She ground out.

She turned around, not seeing the hint of worry crawl its way into 10032’s expression. She urged the other two, galloping away.

Back in the present

“So, here’s the thing.”

The boy bent over and picked up Twilight by the neck. Panicking, she tried to pry his hands off, but somehow that only seemed to increase the force on her throat.

“By now, you’ve surely figure out that my power only works on things I’m touching, right? Well right now, I’m touching you. I could manipulate all sorts of interesting things here. Maybe I could make your blood flow backwards? Or maybe I could randomise the flow of bio-electricity between your neurons and fry your brain, that sounds fun.”

The boy glanced behind himself with a smirk, looking at Kuroko with the corner of one eye. “Of course, your teleporter buddy could get over here and try to teleport you out of my grasp… she’d have to be very careful, though. Otherwise, she might send you into a wall or the floor after I reflect your outgoing teleport.” He let out cruel laugh, before abruptly spinning around and throwing Twilight into Kuroko. The two girls hit the side of the warehouse with a clang, their existing injuries flaring up in pain as they cried out.

Burning fury was the only force allowing Kuroko to even think through her pain at the moment, but Twilight didn’t have that. All her rage had drained out of her with her epiphany.

Is this what Misaka and her clone felt like when I was chasing after them?

At the time, the idea would have seen ludicrous. The clone couldn’t feel anything, and Misaka was interfering only to be contrary.

Or so her sleep-deprived –

…no, no excuses. So her frustrated mind had believed.

No, you mustn’t be here…!

But that clone could most certainly feel things, and Twilight just hadn’t seen it.

The boy began tapping his foot against the ground. “Well?”

...huh? Well what?

“Why are you still here? You honestly don’t think you can beat me, do you? You’re boring to play with, so if you run away now I promise not to chase you.”

Twilight felt Kuroko place a hand on her shoulder and use her as a handhold to push herself to her feet. The slight girl growled, apparently beyond words, as she pulled another nail out from its sheath.

The boy gave a disappointed sigh. “You’ve chosen to die? Really? For what?”

“I… won’t let you… hurt… anyone else…” Kuroko panted, roughly pulling Twilight to her feet. “Doesn’t… matter… who…”

The boy laughed again. “It’s not like you’re going to get a gravestone, but man, what a stupid thing to have on it!” In the blink of an eye, the boy had dashed across the several meters separating them to grab Kuroko by the throat. “‘Nameless Judgement Girl: Died trying to avenge a body pillow.’”

Something clicked in Twilight’s brain, and she fired a beam spell at the ground between Kuroko and the boy. The concrete exploded, blasting the two apart. Kuroko cried out as several shards of concrete pierced her legs, but the boy just allowed himself to be pushed backwards, completely unharmed.

“Indirect attacks won’t hurt me either, you know.” The boy said, maniac grin still in place.

“Don’t need to hurt you.” Twilight gasped, swaying a little despite her attempts to steady her stance. “Sealing you away will do just fine.”

“Aren’t you a little too American to be a shrine maiden? (Come to think of it, you might be the first American esper I’ve seen… eh, whatever).”

Twilight knew the boy was joking, but unfortunately that didn’t stop him from being right. Nightmare Moon had made it abundantly clear that she needed to learn some proper sealing spells, but all she’d spent her time on was fruitless searching for answers about a hole in the ground.

Still, if there was one thing she’d learned from her and her brother’s D&D obsession, it was this: when the wizard was fighting something immune to magic, it was time to shove them down a pit and start dropping things on them.

“Kuroko, get out of here.” Twilight clenched her teeth. Kuroko spared her a worried glance, one hand massaging her throat, but for whatever reason obeyed – vanishing silently.

Twilight grunted, her hands flaring purple as she reached out, ‘feeling’ the warehouse around her. Suddenly, the whole room began to flare with the light of Twilight’s magic, her Telekinetic grasp around the very walls themselves.

The boy raised an eyebrow, completely unconcerned. “What’s with the light-show? Are you trying to sparkle me to death?” He dashed forward, exactly as he had against Kuroko. “Guess we’ll never find out –!”

The boy zoomed forward so fast that Twilight was only able to react because she had been waiting for it. Because the whole room had been lit up in purple, it had been impossible to the boy to notice the identical purple aura around him as well. As he zoomed towards her now, she pulled him towards her and slightly to the left. The boy’s power reflected the force, naturally, but that just sent Twilight flying forward and to the right, letting her dodge the charge.

The boy grunted in surprise and frustration, but the damage was done. For a few blessed seconds, the boy was preoccupied with turning around and lining up another charge. This gave Twilight the time she needed to focus completely on the structure of the warehouse…

…and crush it.

Meanwhile, Kuroko was gasping in pain just outside the warehouse, running as fast as she could manage. Teleportation was much faster, but that relied on 13-dimensional vector transformations being done in her head – it wasn’t something she could concentrate on with the pain from her injured hands. Frankly, it was nothing short of a miracle that she’d been able to teleport out of the warehouse at all. The shock of Sparkle stupidly trying to take the boy on on her own must have cleared her head for a second.

If she’d only had her phone, she would have tried calling for help again. But it was destroyed, and Sparkle had asked her to leave her behind with a murderer.

That thought left several uncomfortable feelings in Kuroko’s chest. Horror that someone who looked just like her Sissy had been viciously murdered right before her. Shame that she hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Concern for Sparkle’s welfare, even though she’d been furious with the girl, and further shame that she had abandoned her.

Wild panic at the thought that if Sparkle died, she’d have lost all leads as to how to get Sissy back.

Out of breath, Kuroko was forced to slow her pace to barely more than a walk, gasping both in pain and for air. Her vision started to swim as the world seemed to shift under her feet.

I’m going into shock, she realised.

She tried to take another step, but the ground seemed to move from under her foot as she tried to put her weight on it. The fact that her chin hitting the ground barely seemed to register in her mind was probably a bad sign. Everything just felt so numb…

<–oko? Can you hear me? Koroko –!>

Oh good, Sissy was here. If she could save Sparkle, then they could all go save Sissy together.

She heard herself say.

She managed two more words as her vision went dark.

“Huff, puff.”

Twilight’s breathing was laboured as she looked upon what she had wrought. The warehouse had collapsed from a double-story block-occupying building to a pile of rubble about the size of her bedroom. She had left the section of wall behind her alone, so the rubble hadn’t touched her; but of the boy she had attacked there was no sign.

As she gulped down precious oxygen, she continued to stare at the unmoving pile of rubble.

She hadn’t just… killed someone, had she? She didn’t even know why they were fighting, not properly. Who had that boy been? Why had he been killing the clone? He seemed to know that they were ‘made’…

Wait. The thought occurred to Twilight. What if… the clones were being made on this side…?

“Well, it’s more creative then most, I’ll give you that much.”

Purely on reflex, Twilight raised up a forcefield to shield herself, but it shattered as the pile of rubble exploded outwards with even more force then had been used to create it. She went flying through the air, something in her chest making a worrying “crunch” noise as she slammed into the ground.

“I mean, sure, ‘shrink’ is a scalar movement, not a vector one.” The boy commented, walking forwards with his hands in his pockets. ‘Changing size’ only had a magnitude associated with it, not a direction. You couldn’t ‘shrink left’. “But crushing a building and shrinking it are hardly the same things, are they? You broke the building up into pieces, each of which had its own vector of ‘inward’, and the reflection of that is obvious. But hey, that’s still closer to beating me than anyone else had come. I’ll actually have to give some thought after this as to how to fight a size-changing Ability. Those are a thing, right? Probably.”

Twilight reached out a hand – what for, she didn’t know – but the boy stomped on it hard, and Twilight hissed at the fresh rush of pain. She looked up to find the boy staring down at her, his face unreadable. He reached down with his hand…

BOOM

…and an orange line traced itself between Twilight and the boy with enough force to blow a bank vault door off its hinges. The boy was unmoved, his power even protecting his eyes from the bright flash; but it was enough of a surprise to make him lean back, allowing the shockwave to throw Twilight out of his reach. Her ears ringing, Twilight was only barely aware of someone grabbing her shoulders and dragging her backwards.

She blinked furiously, her hearing returning before her vision:

“– decided to join in?” The boy was saying.

“I don’t know what you’ve got against Sparkle, but I’d be a massive hypocrite if I allowed you to kill her when I’m here to save someone!”

“Save someone? What the hell, you things have a life outside of throwing yourselves at me?”

“…what…?”

“…wait. What’s with that dumb look on your face? And that way of speaking… ooooohhhh, I get it! You’re the real one!”

Twilight blinked a few more times, and the impossible scene started to come into focus. Misaka – the original one, somehow – already had another coin held between her thumb and index finger, arm aimed right at the boy with the reflection power. The boy with the anti-magic fist (had she ever gotten his name?) stood next to Misaka, arms raised into an amateur fighting pose. He and Misaka looked about as lost as Twilight felt.

Misaka asked, eyes narrowing.

Another voice spoke up from behind her, and Twilight rolled her head back to see Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Index, and the two girls who had arrived through the anomaly with Kuroko earlier standing behind her. The one with flowers in her hair was rapidly pressing buttons on a portable game console, and the other one had Kuroko slung over her shoulder.

Applejack had her arms hooked under her shoulders, evidently having dragged her back out of harm’s way. This was becoming a trend.

<…he’s the #1. Accelerator.>

Misaka’s eyes widened.

Accelerator drawled. He began to clap sarcastically.

Judging from the shock in Misaka’s eyes, she had just figured something out, though Twilight had no idea what. Given Applejack’s sharp inhale behind her, it must have been something important.

“Now, here’s the thing.” Accelerator said, returning to English and spreading his arms wide. “I have spent the past couple of years slaughtering copies of you pretty much every day. Sure, their specs are lower, but that’s not going to be enough. Killing you won’t be hard – it’ll be routine.”

Touma’s ability to speak English was so bad that his teacher had once told him never to try to speak it again for the sake of world peace. However, for some reason he could remember the English word for “Kill”.

The rest he could figure out from the maniac grin on Accelerator’s face.

He charged forward with a roar, ignoring Pinkie’s cry of “No!”

Accelerator lightly kicked a loose piece of rubble with the tip of his foot. It shot into Touma’s abdomen with the force of a cannonball, blasting him off his feet and knocking the wind out of him. Twilight thought she could see a couple drops of blood flying through the air before he slammed into the ground, not having made it two meters/yards.

“And the rest of your little friends? Not even a challenge.” Accelerator continued, as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “So how about we just call it quits here? To be honest, this is more boring for me than anything else.”

That’s the second time he’s offered that. Twilight noticed. To just let us run away.

Come to think of it, he’d threatened to kill them plenty of times, but never seriously tried to do so – even when he quite literally had her by the throat. And the way get kept switching back and forth between bloodthirsty mania and nonchalance – either he was suffering from severe mood swings, or…

It’s an act. She realised. He actually doesn’t want to kill us. He wants us to leave.

But why? Why did their lives have value in his eyes, and not the clone’s? Wait, she already knew the answer to this one.

He knows we’re real people, but he doesn’t think the clones are.

Twilight didn’t know why Accelerator was killing them. She didn’t know how the clones of Misaka were being made or why. But one thing was abundantly clear to her now.

She knew what had to happen to finish this.

She opened her mouth to talk – and was interrupted when Applejack suddenly dropped her. Before she could do more than wince in pain, she saw said farm-girl leaping bodily over her, Pinkie right behind her.

She screamed a wordless warning, but it was too late. Pinkie pulled something that looked like a flare gun from a jacket pocket, levelled it and fired. Having met Pinkie, Twilight wasn’t surprised to see streamers and confetti shoot out of the end of her ‘party cannon’. They reflected off of Accelerator, of course, but they had lost most of their momentum before reaching him. They ended up floating in front of his face, obscuring his view.

That was enough of an opening for Applejack to get her lasso over his body and pull hard. The rope tightened, and for a moment it looked like it might hold, but then Applejack was pulled forward with enough force to send her soaring through the air, landing roughly behind Accelerator.

“Oi.” Accelerator spat, clearly frustrated. “Just because the rope’s vector runs around me rather than into me doesn’t mean I can’t reflect it. In fact, I added a little extra, just for you. Happy now?”

“There’s got to be a limit to your power!” Misaka roared, black clouds of Iron Sand emerging out of the ground all around the group. “Like the number of objects you can reflect!”

The clouds of Iron Sand all rushed towards Accelerator at once, each grain moving at slightly different speeds and directions so that they each made contact with his body at once.

“Maybe so, but it’s way more than you can send, third-string!” Accelerator laughed. The Iron Sand, contrary to Twilight’s expectation, did not bounce off his skin. Instead, each grain rolled over his skin and clothes to gather together into a ball of iron in his right hand. Judging from Misaka’s face, she was fighting his control over the iron, but just like he had with Twilight’s force-fields earlier, his Ability trumped theirs.

By the end of it, Accelerator had ended up with a ball of compressed iron filings about the size of a large marble. “How’d you introduce yourself again?” He asked, his mad grin coming back full force. “Wasn’t it like this?” He flicked the ball of filings up with a thumb, and aimed his arm at Misaka.

Pinkie’s desperate lunge at Accelerator was reflected completely, the poor girl sent flying like so many others tonight.

He didn’t seem to notice the ultra-high-pitched concentration-disrupting tone Uiharu desperately played at max volume from her hacked console.

With his other hand he easily batted away Applejack’s attempt to obscure his vision with her hat, sending her soaring as well.

Saten wasn’t able to do more then cry out in despair, and Kuroko could not be roused, even for this.

But by telekinetically pulling on Accelerator, Twilight was able to launch herself in-between Misaka and Accelerator just in time for the iron ball to land back on Accelerator’s hand.

The orange glowing line of plasma of a railgun traced itself across the room faster than the human mind could process, and the boom that followed after it was just as loud as it always had been. Usually, however, that line was traced from Misaka, not to her.

Twilight coughed roughly, the air having been roughly forced out from her lungs with yet another blow to the gut. She’d tried to deflect the railgun shot by forming her forcefield at an angle, but it hadn’t been enough and the shot had barely changed direction as it blasted through.

Indeed, if Index hadn’t also been jumping in the way and blocked the shot with the sleeve of her Walking Church, she would probably be missing a good chunk of her torso right now. Even so, the sheer force of the shot had created a shockwave more than capable of blowing the three girls off their feet.

Everything hurt, but it was especially bad when Index pushed off of her to try and stand up, making Twilight gasp. “I don’t recognise any of the symbols he’s using.” Index whispered, either ignoring or oblivious to Twilight’s pain.

Twilight had to bite her bottom lip just to endure the pain that came with rolling off Misaka. “That’s because he’s an esper, not a magician.” She whispered back, feeling silly for needing to explain this to Index Librorum Prohibitorum of all people. “He’s not using magic.”

Index didn’t look convinced, but Twilight didn’t have any time to continue the discussion. She turned to Misaka instead. “You’re the only one who can stop him now!”

Out of the corner of her eye Twilight could see Pinkie reload her ‘party cannon’, jump to her feet, and make another charge at Accelerator. This time, glitter shot out when she pulled the trigger. Accelerator took a page out of the man of tomorrow’s book and blew both girl and glitter back with a vector-boosted super-breath. Being covered in glitter didn’t seem to bother Pinkie any, but tears were running down her face anyway. Twilight wondered what had triggered that until she turned to get a better look, and noticed Pinkie’s eyes flicker to a piece of rub–

– oh god that wasn’t rubble, that was half of a leg.

“If you know something I don’t, spit it out!” Misaka hissed, standing to her own feet unsteadily.

“When I –” the words caught in her throat, and the sight of Applejack getting tossed across the room after trying to drop onto Accelerator from above was not helping her spit them out “– when I attacked you and the clone –”

“I remember.” Misaka growled, her tone saying ‘hurry up’ perfectly well.

“You attacked her as well, right?” Twilight didn’t wait for an answer. “But you stopped before I got there.” She swallowed. “I think you realised the same thing I did. What that boy still hasn’t.”

Misaka stared at Twilight, her face unreadable.

Cries of pain drew all three girl’s attention around to Accelerator fully once again. He was dusting his hands off, the crumpled forms of Applejack and Pinkie being dragged off by Saten and Uiharu. Both of the American girls appeared to be unconscious.

This wasn’t a comic book. Forcibly rendering someone unconscious usually involved head trauma, something that definitely couldn’t just be slept off, even as tough as the girls were. They needed urgent medical attention, now.

“Whatever you’re talking about there, it doesn’t sound like you’re giving up.” Accelerator said. “Haven’t you gotten it through your stupid heads?! You can’t beat me. The only reason I’m even the same level as you on paper is because the whole idea of SYSTEM is bull****, otherwise I’d already be the one and only Level 6!”

He stomped one foot forward, and the ground underneath them erupted upward. If they hadn’t been expecting something like it, it would probably have taken them out of the fight. As it was, Misaka and Twilight were forced to dodge using magnetism and Accelerator-anchored telekinesis. Index had no equivalent dodging ability, but she didn’t need it – the stone thrust broke against her Walking Church like a wave against a shore.

“You idiots keep fighting me over and over again! I break your limbs, prove I’m not playing around, but already I can see that ****ing light of defiance in your eyes!” Accelerator leapt into the air, arms outstretched for Misaka. “If killing you is the only way you’ll ****ing stop, then you’re going to ****ing die!”

“Just another dead Misaka, Misaka asks with vitriol?”

“Eh?” Confusion spread across Accelerator’s descending face. When Misaka side-stepped his attack, he made no move to correct his trajectory, just landing on the ground in a crouch.

“The Misaka here had a serial number of 9748… how many thousands of Misaka’s sisters have you murdered, Misaka wonders with disgust?”

“H-have you somehow connected to the Network…? No, wait, if you had then you’d know what’s going on!”

“Have any of them ever asked you not to do it, Misaka wonders? Looked into your eyes and said ‘Let Misaka live, Misaka pleas’? Or do they always just lie down and tell you it’s alright, Misaka demands to know?!”

Accelerator knew full well that the girl standing before him was the #3, Misaka Mikoto, and not one of the Sisters that had been cloned from her.

However.

For years now, he had been seeing that exact face, that exact uniform even. He had crushed, burned, electrocuted, reflected bullets into and otherwise killed so many like her that the deaths had long since blurred together in his head.

Never once had they shown any sense of self preservation. They had never complained, never shown any signs of hurting. Only wind-up dolls did that!

But a Misaka standing there, accusing him with their face, with their voice…! Like she had any ****ing right to blame him!

A realisation was building in his head. One he had wondered about ever since that first experiment, years ago. He’d pushed it to the back of his head, trying hard not to think about it. Dreaming of a day when he would be so powerful that people would quit attacking him, just to try and unseat him from the #1 spot.

“Dammit, don’t act like you’re innocent in all this! None of this would have happened if you hadn’t given up your DNA map, so don’t act like you’re blameless in all this!”

That great unspeakable thought was rising up in his mind.

He just needed one final push.

“You’ve gotten all defensive, Misaka notices. Is that because you can’t stand the thought that all the lives you’ve snuffed out might actually be those of real–”

Accelerator stood up fully with a roar, murder in his eyes. He thrust out a hand at Misaka, and she knew there would be no evading this one. She’d broken the mental barriers he’d been deluding himself with, and was now lashing out with guilt and rage.

This was where she ended –!

A right hand clamped onto Accelerator’s other arm, and his hand brushed against Misaka’s face to no effect.

Touma Kamijou had been knocked over earlier in the battle, but not knocked out. Moving little, no matter how much it pained him to see others get hurt. His only trick was punching, which required punching range. Accelerator had demonstrated already that he wasn’t going to let him close the distance, so he had to wait until Accelerator came to him.

“What the ****?!” Accelerator screamed, trying to twist around to see who had managed to lay a hand on him. “Why can’t I feel your vectors?!”

Touma roughly pulled Accelerator around so that they could (awkwardly) look each other in the eyes, but making sure not to let go with his right hand. At the same time, he clenched his left fist. He said.

And with that, Touma shattered Accelerator’s illusions of invincibility.

Also his nose.

Tears begin to fall - consequences

In the end, the decision was made to not wait around for Anti-Skill to show up.

It wasn’t something that anybody said out loud or anything. In fact, each group had a different reason for wanting to go.

The minute that Uiharu had tried to report the incident, she had suddenly found her signal jammed. Even the greatest hacker couldn’t un-clog the airwaves, so she wanted to retreat to a landline connection. Saten was sticking with her, nerves completely shot.

Touma wanted to get Index out of there. If the authorities arrived and tried to ID everyone, they’d shortly realise that she wasn’t supposed to be in the city. He himself had taken a gut-shot courtesy of Accelerator, but that reckless boy decided that the medical fees weren’t worth having it checked out.

Kuroko’s injuries were more severe, and Misaka’s pockets much deeper, so those two were going to the hospital.

For Twilight, it was both of the above reasons. She needed to leave the City of Science before being outed as an outsider, and she needed to get Pinkie and Applejack to a hospital. She carried them off on ‘stretchers’ made of purple forcefields.

Nobody looked at the unconscious Accelerator during this, or at the few remains of 9748 that were still visible. Despite having won that fight, not a single member of the group felt like a victor. Still, what were they going to do? Kick him while he was down? None of them were that kind of person.

Copying Twilight, Misaka made a ‘stretcher’ out of Iron Sand, carrying Kuroko behind her as gently as she could manage. She might be a perverted pain-in-the-neck, but she was also a true friend when it counted.

And so, the party split up. None of them could think of anything to say to each other.

It wasn’t until Misaka was sitting in the hospital, waiting for the frog-faced doctor to finish bandaging Kuroko’s hands, that the gun-wielding men in Anti-Skill uniforms came.

Misaka had let her guard down in relief at the news that Kuroko’s hands weren’t permanently damaged, and the men were able to properly surround her before she could jump to her feet. The sensation of a gun barrel pressed into her back dissuaded her from trying anything hasty.

The man before her demanded.

The frog-faced doctor interjected (though not looking up from his work).

Misaka said.

The man who’d demanded her name nodded to someone behind her. Misaka was shocked to feel her arms pulled behind her and handcuffs placed onto her wrists.

The man said, holding up a recording device.

It was the wrong thing to say, and Misaka knew it the instant the words left her mouth. The man before her nodded, interrupting her attempt to explain.

Misaka’s mouth fell open.

Misaka’s brain spun, trying desperately to make sense of this new information.

The man turned his head, and Misaka followed his gaze. Another man was placing Kuroko’s phone into an evidence bag.

Misaka’s mouth worked up and down, her brain struggling to think of what to say. No… no, this is all wrong…!

The man addressed the frog-faced doctor, who had now finished bandaging Kuroko’s hands and was standing up as though to shield her.

The Doctor allowed.

The man let out a bark of laughter, his professional persona slipping for a moment. Then his eyes focused, and the mask went back up.

He nodded at his subordinates, and two of them grabbed Misaka by the arms as two more fetched a stretcher to carry the still-unconscious Kuroko.

As his subordinates herded the spluttering #3 into the van lined with AIM Jammer, Kihara Amata resisted the urge to scratch under ‘his’ uniform. Man, is Anti-Skill’s equipment really that much lower-spec, or did whoever last wash this really screw it up? Eh, whatever.

The Anti-Skill investigation was real… or at least, it would be after the city’s higher-ups finished faking the paperwork for it. Before that happened, it was down to Hound Dog to sniff out all the evidence and destroy it.

Damn it, Aleister – give us something fun to do next time.

By the time Twilight was half-way out of the Everfree, Applejack started to rouse.

“Ohhh… mah achin’ head...”

“Oh, good.” Twilight said, sounding more drained then happy. “You’re awake.”

Applejack stretched her head back, noticing that she was lying on a forcefield that Twilight was pulling behind her. Her earth pony pride asserting itself full force, she rolled off onto the ground before properly checking on her condition, and promptly collapsed to the ground as her legs folded under her weight. “Oof!”

Twilight paused and looked back, but Applejack forced herself to her hooves before she could say anything. “Ah’m okay!”

Twilight gave her a tired look, before shaking her head and turning back to the road. Applejack blinked, then galloped to catch up.

For a moment, they trotted together in silence. Out of the corner of her eye, Applejack saw Pinkie Pie floating behind them on the same kind of magic that she had been.

“We didn’t win, did we?” Applejack eventually asked.

“She’s gone, Applejack.” Twilight said, staring off into the distance. “The stallion, he just…!” She sniffed. “We’ll never see her again. A-and you know the worst thing?”

Applejack didn’t say anything, just watching as the corners of Twilight’s eyes started to water.

“The worst part is… the only reason he could do that… is because I failed to do it first!” Quiet tears began to stream down Twilight’s face.

Applejack kept her trap shut all the way to the edge of town, opening it only when Twilight stopped walking and started staring at the ground.

“What’cha gonna do now, Sugercube?” Applejack asked softly.

“I can’t stay.” Twilight said, her voice shaking.

“Sugercube –”

“I don’t… I’ve caused too much trouble for everyone, I can’t –”

“T’aint us ah’m worried about, Sugercube!” Applejack jumped in front of Twilight, staring her in the eyes. She saw sadness, regret, and just a hint of panic.

Neither of them said anything for a moment, before Twilight broke eye contact to look down. With a soft -pop-, the forcefield holding Pinkie aloft failed, causing the mare to drop to the ground. Twilight immediately started panicking. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!”

Applejack dashed around Twilight to check that Pinkie was okay. The mare still hadn’t woken up, which Applejack took as a bad sign. She bit her bottom lip, her eyes dashing back and forth between Pinkie and Twilight.

“I didn’t… I didn’t mean to, I just… I couldn’t keep it going any longer…!” Twilight was starting to hyperventilate.

Applejack grimaced, but hoisted Pinkie over her back and turned to face the hospital. “Go to bed, Twi’. I promise yah, things will seem better in the morning.”

Twilight said nothing, simply continuing to cry as she watched Applejack trot off as gently as she could manage.

<****ing hell, nothing gives those researchers pause, does it?>

Accelerator stared wearily at the Sister, who was standing on the other side of the roof from him. A nose splint was attached to his face, the only sign of the hasty treatment the project had given him.

Misaka 9749 stared back evenly, her eyes concealed by a pair of googles that covered the top half of her face. Two horizontal strips on the goggles glowed faintly in the dark. It was a pretty stupid feature for night vision googles, Accelerator thought.

Every part of these battles was calculated out down to the second, so if they got there early, Accelerator and the Sister slated to die would often find themselves just… waiting for it to start.

A lot of the times Accelerator would try to get a rise out of the Sister. He’d explain how painfully and slowly he was going to kill them, and they would just stand there with that damn blank expression, and ask in that damn monotone voice what the point of telling her that was when she was going to find out in a minute anyway.

They’d never shown any fear or hesitation. Never any doubt. Never shown the slightest hint of wanting to run away.

Yeah, **** subtlety.

<…Misaka is not sure she understands the question, Misaka responds after a thoughtful pause.>

Accelerator clenched his teeth.

“I still don’t like this, Shiny.”

Shining Armor, captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, hurried to keep up with Cadence’s slightly longer stride. His special somepony had been frantic for 24 of the last 32 hours, and she still hadn’t completely calmed down, even though everything seemed to be resolved. “I dunno. If the princess wants her younger sister to move in with her, who am I to judge?”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it!” In a huff, Cadence lightly batted Shining’s head with a wing. “Okay, I get not wanting to cause a panic. I get not wanting to make ponies afraid of Aunt Luna. But I really can’t see how she thought this through! She didn’t tell anypony, Shiny! Not me, not you, nopony! Nopony knew what was going on except her, so when she got captured –!”

Shining Armor interrupted Cadence with a shrug. “I mean, if she had told me, I probably would have mobilised the whole guard and tried to batter her into submission. Er, Princess Luna, I mean.” He clarified hurriedly at the shocked expression on Cadence’s face. “Hospital visits for everypony, and it gets made obvious to all of Equestria that Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon are the same pony.”

Given that Nightmare Moon was usually equated to the Boogiemare, that would have killed any hope of re-integration into society. Now, that realisation would hopefully be delayed enough that ponies would give the newly reinstated princess a chance.

“It still feels wrong.” Cadence grumbled. “She spends weeks teaching me about responsibility, and then she pulls this?”

Yeah, but if it had been Twily up there, I probably would have tried an even worse plan to get her back.

Shining wrapped a foreleg around Cadence’s neck. “Well, if being with you has taught me anything, it’s that alicorns are ponies too.”

“Oh?” Cadence said in a dangerous tone of voice. “And what exactly do you mean by that?”

Shining Armor grinned. “Well for one thing, it means that you get cranky when you haven’t had –” a look of panic appeared on Cadence’s face “– your daily tummy rub!”

“Shining Armor, don’t you dare –!” Cadence said, beginning to back away from Shining too late. The captain of the guard jumped on Cadence, knocking her over, and began to relentlessly tickle the underside of her barrel with his hooves. She couldn’t help herself, and began howling with uncontrollable laughter.

The nearby serving staff of Canterlot Castle collectively blushed, and hurried past the all-too-common scene, professional enough to keep their thoughts on appropriate behaviour to themselves.

Later that night found Misaka face down in a pillow, stewing. Kuroko hovered over her nervously, wanting to help but unable to think of anything that could make light of her situation. She’d gone to give Misaka one of her special hugs earlier, but Misaka had shot her a look of such cold fury that she’d lost her nerve and backed off.

Instead, she was reduced to sitting on her own bed, twiddling her heavily-bandaged thumbs. She longed to get into contact with Uiharu, to put their heads together and uncover just what conspiracy had been levelled against them. Unfortunately, the Dorm Manager had confiscated all of their electronics, and Kuroko wouldn’t be surprised if their room was under radio surveillance.

Even if she hadn’t been lost in worry, there was no chance for Kuroko to notice the moment her own thoughts became locked inward, her expression going starry-eyed. She didn’t hear the knock at the door, nor see Misaka stir on the bed and give a muffled yell of

An incredibly annoying voice came through the door.

The grinding of Misaka’s teeth was audible even through the pillow. She lifted up a sparking hand and waved it, the door lock opening without her touch. Behind it stood the #5 level five esper, Shokuhou Misaki, and the second-in-command of their clique, a girl with her hair curled into ringlets.

Misaki strode into the apartment room like she owned it, the ringlet curl girl hovering behind her nervously.

Misaka rolled over and sat up to face the intruding pair, not bothering to ask how they had gotten in here when she was under house arrest. Misaki’s Ability of Mental Out would let her force anyone to obey her commands. Even, Misaka glanced at Kuroko, ones such as “ignore me” and “forget I was here”.

The ringlet curl girl slung a package down from her back, and to Misaka’s disbelieving eyes set up a collapsible table and two chairs, before also getting out a tea set and pouring out a cup for Misaki. She poured another one for Misaka before moving to stand next to the door, hands folded behind her back.

Misaki took a sip from her cup, apparently savouring the taste, before delicately placing it down in its saucer like a proper lady.

Misaka snorted, shambling off of the bed to sit in the other chair. She glared at her tea cup like it had personally offended her.

Misaki added, swirling her tea around.

Misaka’s gaze shot up to the other level five, and she half rose out of her chair before she properly parsed the second sentence.

Misaki sounded almost as disgusted with the idea as Misaka.

Misaka blinked in surprise.

Tension seeped out of Misaka’s body as she slumped back, her eyes dropping back down, and she began to idly flick the handle on her teacup. After a moment, she said

Misaki snapped.

It had been Kuroko that had tried to get Judgement involved, but Misaka answered the question as though it had been her.

This time it was Misaki who snorted.

<…one of the major research facilities?> Misaka guessed.

Misaka stared at Misaki, her eyes slowly widening as she began to realise just how much trouble she was in.

Misaki took another sip of tea, slamming her cup into its saucer afterwards.

Misaka’s mouth worked for a moment, but no sound came out. Eventually, she managed a soft

Misaki closed one eye and stared at Misaka as she took another sip of tea. Then she sighed, and softly placed the cup down.

Misaki placed the tips of her fingers together and stared over them, the ringlet curl girl looking away awkwardly.

Misaki cocked her head.

Misaka stared off into the distance, her body slumping bonelessly down in the chair, trying to make it all work in her head.

Misaki finished the last of her tea. her eyes flicked over to Kuroko

Misaka’s gaze slid back to Misaki, her mouth opening in horror.

Misaki said, mistaking the source of Misaka’s horrified confusion. She stood up, and the ringlet curl girl began to pack away the tea set and furniture, studiously avoiding eye contact with Misaka.

Once the ringlet curl girl was done, Misaki turned to leave, but she paused to say one last thing. she said, as though it was a given there would be a next time

The intruding pair then left, closing the door behind them. After a second, Kuroko’s eyes refocused, and she gave a start when she realised Misaka was standing and staring dejectedly at the wall instead of lying on her bed.

Misaka turned around, flopped back onto the bed, pulled her pillow to her face and screamed into it.

For the first time in a very long time, Princess Celestia woke up early.

A thousand years had drilled the raising of the sun into her like the beat of a drum. Every day, at the exact same time, she would wake up and pull the day sky into it’s proper place in the heavens. Even the disasters that Equestria seemed to suffer on a bi-annual basis wouldn’t throw her off her rhythm for more than a day.

But today, she couldn’t help herself.

This day, she leapt clear out of her bed the moment her eyes opened. With practised ease, her golden tiara, collar, and horseshoes floated onto their respective places with the yellow glow of her magic. The biggest smile imaginable was plastered across her face.

Luna’s here, Luna’s here, Luna’s here…!

A thousand years of waiting had finally paid off last night, and Celestia was fully planning on enjoying every minute of it.

She threw the door to her chambers wide open, and to her surprise and delight found Luna outside waiting for her. “Luna!” She scooped up her smaller sister in a great big wing-hug. “Oh, it is so good to see you!”

“U-um, yes, we are glad to see you as well, sister…”

Celestia held the hug for a moment longer, then sighed and put Luna down. “What’s happened?”

Luna looked off to the right, and Celestia followed her gaze to find Twilight sitting quietly in the hallway, Spike hovering nervously behind her. There were damp patches of fur under her eyes.

“Twilight…?” Celestia asked.

Twilight’s bottom lip trembled, but she didn’t say a word. Spike and Luna, standing out of Twilight’s field of view, shrugged helplessly and gently shook their head respectively.

Celestia stood, uncertain for a moment, then turned her body to face Twilight and opened her wings up wide.

Twilight took the invitation, crashing into Celestia and beginning to sob.

Several days later

She didn’t have enough money for the train.

She counted twice more, hoping that she’d missed some the previous times. She was exactly 200 Yen short of a train ticket out of Academy City.

She briefly considered begging for leniency, then glanced over at the train station again. Everything from the ticket sales to garbage collection was automated – no humans to ask for help. It was the middle of the day, so there weren’t even any pedestrians she could beg change off of.

She managed to find a seat on a park bench before her legs gave out from under her. Was this it? Weeks of planning to escape from the school, only to be stopped just before freedom because she didn’t steal enough spare change?

…she probably had less than an hour before her “bodyguards” found her again. She’d seen a fast-food place on her way to the train station. If she couldn’t beg money out of them, then at least she could gorge herself on burgers before she was forced back into captivity.

As she was considering this, however, her ears picked up the sound of two more people approaching: two older thug-looking boys in street clothes.

<– I’m telling you Hanzou! It’s the real deal!>

Silently, the girl followed after the two thugs, figuring that one of them might be able to spare 200 Yen if they could stop arguing for a minute.

The boy whose name was apparently Hamazura yelled, pointing at something on the other side of a line of bushes.

<…I see the hole in the ground, yes.>

A third thug-looking boy was waiting in the park. He was a giant – all three boys looked like they should be in high school, but this third boy made the other two look like primary school students. The girl estimated his height at a whopping 230cm, or about 7’6’’.

The giant boy, apparently named Komaba, spoke up with an appropriately deep voice, infused with great gravity.

He said.

Hamazura yelled in despair, as his last supporter appeared to abandon him. The second boy (Hanzou?) snorted.

Komaba said

The girl walked up behind the boys, peering over their shoulders. None of them noticed her, but she hadn’t really expected them to. On the other side of the bushes was indeed a hole in the ground, about as wide as a park bench and deeper than she could see.

Komaba said, picking up a rock about the size of an ordinary man’s fist. He dropped it down the hole and waited.

After about a minute, the rock came rocketing back out of the hole, and Komaba caught it. He offered it to Hanzou to examine.

Hanzou took the rock, looking it over. he said

Komaba nodded. This time he offered a piece of paper to Hanzou, who looked it over.

<…is this English?> Hanzou asked, peering at the writing on the paper.

Hamazura scratched the back of his head.

<…I can’t read English though.>

The girl, apparently unlike the boys, actually could read English reasonably well, and could see that the paper simply said ‘Please stop throwing rocks up here.’

…wait, the other side of the hole was ‘up’? This hole didn’t run all the way through the centre of the Earth and come out the other side, did it?

Suddenly, the girl felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She turned around to find one of her “bodyguards” on the other side of the park.

He was looking directly at her, and speaking into a mobile phone. Typical. She was only noticed by the people she didn’t want to see her.

A group of three likely-Skill-Out-members were hardly going to intervene to save her from her “bodyguards”, especially if large numbers of them appeared to take her back to Misawa Cram School. There was no chance she could shake him, even if she started running now.

That left one way out.

She shoved her way past the boys, who finally noticed her presence with shouts of offence and alarm. She deftly evaded Komaba’s attempt to grab her, bent her knees, and jumped into the hole in the ground.

Aisa Himegami had only one goal in this world: find a way to stop her Ability from getting everyone she knew turned into monsters and killed.

______ ____ had only one goal in this world: find a way to stop her _____ from getting everyone she knew turned into monsters and killed.

Deep Blood had only one goal in this world: find a way to stop her Talent from getting everyone she knew turned into monsters and killed.

A mare arrived in the Everfree Forest alone, which is how she had arrived everywhere since that fateful night ten years ago. She took in her surroundings with dead, emotionless eyes, which showed feeling for only a brief moment when she noticed Canterlot Mountain through the trees at the edge of the forest.

The princess will be able to help me. She thought to herself. She has to be.

The world she was now in didn’t have the concept of “seeking sanctuary in a church”, so her Walking Church had not made the transition between Contexts with her. Her flanks were bared to the world, allowing anyone to easily see her Cutie Mark: the skull of a pony with elongated canines.

There is no rule that says that mixing two good things must always result in a better thing.

Pay close attention – some of the biggest changes yet have gone completely unnoticed.

Now that the MIRROR_NOISE has died down, we will begin to see some blood_manifestation.

Bonus: Spellbook

In a small auditorium, two podiums stood empty on the stage. In the audience sat a small crowd of espers and ponies, shifting uncomfortably.

“…they’re not commin’, are they?” Applejack eventually broke the silence. Japanese subtitles briefly flashed into existence before her, repeating what she had said.

Saten squirmed a little in her chair. Equish subtitles appeared here as well.

“Even if she wasn’t, I’m afraid that both she and Twilight are still… rather upset about everything, darling.” Rarity finished. Japanese subtitles… well, you get the idea.

Uiharu slowly raised a hand.

“Do I hear somepony in need of a special guest appearance?!”

The espers and ponies looked in confusion over at stage left, with the exception of Pinkie, whose eyes bugged out of her head. “No no no! You can’t appear here! You’re still sealed!”

“Well, isn’t it lucky for me that I own a time machine then?” The mismatched form of Discord swooped in from offstage, curling around a podium like the snake that ate the canary.

“A time machine you neglected to mention was smaller on the inside, spirit.” A second new arrival said, lazily riding a Segway onstage. She was human (in appearance, anyway), and wore a witch’s hat, a black cape, an eye-patch, and frankly not much else. In one hand she carried an ornate spear longer than she was tall.

Discord scoffed, snapping two claws together to freeze the audience in place before they could finish running for the exits. With a wave of his paw, the audience spun back around to face the stage, and rigidly sat down in their seats, panicked looks frozen on their faces. “Oh come on Othi-poo, you know you love it!” He fluttered his eyelashes at her.

With a rubbery squelch noise, Othinus ran Discord through from behind, her spear pinning him to his podium. “Never call me that again.”

“Okay, okay, fine!” Discord huffed, wriggling around the spear more in annoyance than in pain. (Luckily for him, he was the furthest thing from the ‘symbols of human power’ that that spear destroyed). After a moment, he seemed to realise that he couldn’t pull himself free, and stopped. “Um, little help?”

Ignoring him, Othinus picked up the list of questions left on the podium Discord wasn’t pinned to and skimmed them. “Hmm… stupid… insulting… stupid and insulting…” She paused. “‘How does Twilight and co’s magic work in Academy City?’”

“That’s not much of a question.” Discord protested. “Most of them have already had their magic explained – Fluttershy has a Sleeping Beauty ‘blessed by the fairies’ spell, Rainbow Dash is still using Pegasus magic, Pinkie Pie’s a Gemstone and Applejack’s normal!”

Othinus narrowed her eyes at her ‘co-host’. “The rainbow-haired one keeps her magic?”

Discord waved a finger, smirking. “Not at all! In my world, it’s ‘pegasus magic’, as in the species, and in your world it’s ‘Pegasus magic’, as in the stallion.”

“That explains why she can carry lightning bolts,” because Pegasus had often been said to carry bolts for Zeus “but not why she can move clouds around.”

“Because Pegasus was made from a cloud, duh.”

Othinus’s narrowed eyes became a full glare. “No he was not. He was born when Medusa was beheaded.”

“In the original maybe, but that’s just icky, so she based her spells on the Disney version instead.”

Before Othinus could think of a response to that, Discord stretched himself over to pluck the list of questions out of her hands. “Ooh, this one looks interesting...”

Othinus sighed, and her gaze briefly flickered to the girls still frozen in the audience. “Just so we’re clear, humans, Rarity’s cloth magic is a mix of several different myths, much like that English Knight Leader’s sword spells. Twilight’s magic is primarily based of Hephaestus, the Greek forge-god. If she properly put the time and effort in, she could make some properly divine ‘arrows’ and ‘armour’; but she’s always in a hurry, so she churns out second-rate beams and forcefields instead.”

“‘What is this SYSTEM thing anyway?’” Discord read out.

“Humans cannot comprehend God.” Othinus explained, leaning forward on her Segway. “As a being that exists outside of time and space, cause and effect; lacking completely in the concept of ‘limits’. Therefore, to understand God, you must become more than human. Academy City calls this result, a human with the so-called ‘mind of God’, SYSTEM. It is the defining trait of a Level 6 Esper.”

Discord leafed through a textbook, coke-bottle glasses suddenly perched on his nose. “Uh-huh… okay… yeah...” Reaching the end of the book, he threw it behind himself, his glasses disappearing when he did so. “Okay, the fact-checkers are all done. What do we think, boys?”

Two more Discords who were abruptly standing next to the curtains on both sides of the stage sang out in chorus: “That is not science!”

“Naturally.” Othinus deadpanned. (The extra Discords disappearing the moment no-one was looking). “Most of the city thinks it’s some kind of abstract goal that can never be reached, like world peace. Only a select few realise that the Director-General is completely serious.”

“Oh, here’s another interesting one!” Discord said, looking back down at the question list. “‘Does telekinesis really go though another dimension?’” He looked over at Othinus eagerly.

“…what are you talking about?” Othinus tilted her head.

Discord blinked. Wordlessly, one of his arms stretched offstage and returned with a television clutched in his paw. His claw tapped it, and Accelerator’s face appeared on it.

“The **** is that? Some kind of energy Ability that can also be used for telekinesis? You’re not just making it up like that pain-in-the-*** #2, are you? Here’s a tip. What’s the reflection of you pushing me down? Answer: me pushing you up. It doesn’t matter through what weird other-space you have to draw the vector in.” The image of Accelerator said, his voice slightly distorted by the recording.

“Ah, I see.” Othinus nodded in understanding. “You’re asking me if telekinesis works by routing the force through another dimension to avoid crossing the space to the target?”

“Uh, yeah?” Discord raised an eyebrow and waited. When Othinus didn’t respond, his other eyebrow rose to meet the first one. “Wait, do you not know?”

“It’s not a Hephaestus-based spell, I can tell you that much.” Othinus shrugged. “Beyond that, no I do not know. The spell she casts in my world is simply the closest approximation to the spell she has in your world. It could easily be from a long-forgotten cult, dead for thousands of years until she rediscovered it, or even an original invention of hers. It might well work the way the esper suggests.”

“Some god of magic you are.” Discord said, holding up a small statuette of Othinus and dropping it into a bin he held in his claw. Both disappeared as suddenly as they’d appeared.

Othinus scowled. “I created that world by applying phases over another one, changing the parameters that make it up. I have no special knowledge of its contents; much like a child with a grow-your-own-crystals toy does not know what the crystals look like until they examine them. I’d like to see you do better, spirit.”

“Fine, I will!” Discord declared, scrolling down the list of questions. “Oh! This one’s a doozy. ‘What the what was up with Touma going down the magic hole in the ground and coming out ____?’”

Othinus squinted at Discord. “…are they talking about Context Shift?”

Discord lifted the list of questions closer to his head, one eye briefly occupying all of his face as he peered closer at the words. “Must be. I guess they haven’t named it yet.” He turned to face a calendar that hadn’t been on the wall just before, peering intently at it.

Othinus sighed. “To properly understand what happened, you must understand both phases and Imagine Breaker itself.”

“See, lots of smart ponies think that there’s lots of different worlds, but that’s not true!” Discord leaned back, resting his head on his mismatched claw and paw. “There’s just the one ‘real’ world, and that’s the Pure World. It’s a world of pure science, no magic. Nobody believes in anything, not in fate, not in gods, not even in luck!” He paused. “It’s a pretty rubbish place to live, frankly.”

“Spirit, you have no idea what life is like there. You would dissolve the minute you arrived, the magic that comprises your form sucked out in a feeble attempt to fill the vacuum.”

“Are you sure about that?” Discord said, his head twisting upside-down and looming over Othinus’s form.

Othinus ignored Discord’s antics, and the draconequus snapped back to whatever passed as normal for him. “Regardless, the minute that anyone believes something, they cease to live in the Pure World and now live in a world where that belief influences the world. At first the only way the newborn ‘phase’ can do so is through you, but the more people believe the same thing for longer, the greater the distortion grows.”

“It’s a bit like stained-glass windows!” Discord said, snapping his claws and conjuring one at the back of the stage. “The light behind the glass is a pure white, but because of all the obstructions in the way, it looks like there are beautiful patterns in it!”

“Unlike with stained-glass windows,” Othinus took up the explanation “phases can be layered on top of each other as many times as you can imagine, each one changing the ‘appearance’ of the world you live in just a little more.”

“For example, Princess K-K might well be ‘Equestria’s darling little princess’,” Discord said, pretending to gag “but she also runs Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She has plenty of students who think of her as their principal so much that they forget she’s also a princess – so much so that there’s a version of the world where she’s only a principal, not a princess.”

“A more common example are the ‘alpha worlds’, where a prominent figure is decried as evil or praised as good with no basis.” Othinus’s mouth twisted in distaste, her knuckles turning white as they clenched tight onto her Segway. “If the distortion becomes great enough, the forces of good and evil can swap places altogether.”

“I am never going to live ‘Captain Goodguy’ down.” Discord hung his head in shame.

“Which brings us back to Imagine Breaker.” Othinus said. “Some people mistakenly think that it’s the power to ‘destroy magic’, which is ridiculous. The souls that people posses and the ley lines that run through the planet are undeniably magic, and it destroys neither people nor planet. Instead, it is the power to ‘return things to normal’.”

“But here’s the kicker!” Discord waved one ‘finger’ from his paw. “What counts as ‘normal’ is context-dependent! I mean, obviously, otherwise young mister Fantasy Killer would be returning everything he touched to its Pure World version.”

“Context Shift is a gap between the layers of stained-glass windows.” Othinus resumed. “As you leave the ‘light’ formed by the phases of your home, all of your features become indistinct, lost in the ‘darkness’. It is only when you emerge into another layer that you can see yourself again, though because of the different spread of light and colour, you ‘look different’.”

“Imagine Breaker knew that Touma wasn’t supposed to be a mule in a world of pastel-coloured ponies, so it blocked that transformation. But having left the ‘light’ of his home phase, it couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to ‘look’ like. Eventually it gave up and left him ‘in the dark’ as it were.”

“Only a true god like myself and Imagine Breaker working together could remove the effects of a phase, so the human was very lucky that the Index was able to ‘shine light’ on what he was.”

Discord looked over at Othinus, offended. “What’s with this ‘only a true god’ business? I can do that too!”

“Spirit, I will admit that what you can do with just one phase is very impressive. However, all you are doing is increasing and decreasing the influence of this… ‘Chaosville’. You cannot create a new phase from nothing, and you certainly cannot destroy one. That is beyond even me.”

“Oh, pish.” Discord scoffed. “You just don’t want to admit I could do something you can’t.”

“Naturally you can do things I can’t, spirit. Otherwise, why would we –”

“Shhh!” Discord covered her lips with a finger. “Don’t want to give away too much too early, now do we?”

With a finger-flick, Othinus splattered Discord’s upper half across the back wall of the small hall. His middle stretched out to cover the gap, his lower half still pinned into his podium.

“Think twice before you lay hands on a god, spirit.” Othinus scowled.

Discord coughed up a handful of splinters as he pulled himself back together. “Noted.” He wheezed.

“Good, because we are out of time.” Othinus pulled Gungnir out of Discord with a rubbery squelch sound. The newly freed draconequus quickly flew around to Othinus, wrapping around her and her Segway.

“Oh come on, please? Just two more?” Discord pleaded. Two extra heads sprouted from his neck, one of a puppy and one of a kitten, both of which did their best pleading faces.

Othinus stared flatly at Discord, before rolling her eyes. “Fine. But no more.” She reached over and picked up the list of questions, scanning through the entries. “‘Is Time Turner secretly the Doctor...’” She paused. “Doctor who?”

-Bu-dum tish-

Othinus looked over at Discord. “…why did you do that?”

Discord looked down at the drum kit that had suddenly appeared around his podium. “You know, I’m not actually sure?”

Othinus gave a long-suffering sigh, and finished reading the question. “‘…and are the time-beavers just re-skinned Reapers?’” She shook her head. “What utter nonsense. Why would anyone want to put skin back on the Reaper? A beaver skin at that. Spirit, does this make any sense to you?”

As she looked up, she found that Discord had turned white as a sheet, all of his colour having leaked out of him and formed a puddle around his feet. “The time-beavers are back?” He whispered in horror.

Othinus stared at Discord for a moment, before shaking her head and selecting another question from the list. “‘Is Kuroko in the 3rd or 177th branch of Judgement?’ They’re really asking me this?”

She sighed, pulling out a small Academy City guidebook from a compartment in her Segway and leafing through it. “The 3rd.” She said after finding the relevant page. “Judgement officers only have jurisdiction inside their own school, so they have one branch per school. The 3rd is Tokiwadai Middle School’s branch.”

She made to throw the list away, but noticed just before she did that that question had a postscript written in a smaller font. “‘But wasn’t Kuroko in the office of the 177th branch when Rainbow Dash first entered Academy City? Yomikawa called for her there!’” She squinted at the list, wondering how they had a follow-up question prepared in advance. “Branch 177 is Sakugawa Middle School’s branch of Judgement – the school that the flower girl and the rumour-finder attend. The teleporter visits there only to fill out joint paperwork and to visit her friend. It would be weird if she regularly visited the office, given that it’s inside Sakugawa proper. If the officer was looking for her there, it would be because she first tried her Dorm Manager who then told her to look there, I’m sure.”

With growing annoyance, she noticed a second postscript in even smaller text. “‘Eh? But isn’t the 177th’s office next to the street, not in a school?’” She looked up at the girls still frozen in the audience. “Did you really write these? Where did you get such a hare-brained idea as that? No, such a building does not exist. Judgement offices are always on the grounds of the school they watch over.”

With a jerk, Discord suddenly started moving again, giving out a strained laugh. “Oh? Oh, so it’s one of those things that’s always been that way, huh? Like Twilight actually knowing Moondancer, or the Endymion tower existing, or the Castle of the Two Sisters having been built in the Everfree, or –!”

“Is something bothering you, spirit?” Othinus asked, still sounding quite bored.

In one smooth motion, Discord scooped his colour off the floor and dropped it back inside his outline, his eyes constantly spinning in their sockets as they tried to look everywhere at once. “Well, um, you see, I didn’t realise that the time-beavers were active before I decided to violate causality to make a guest appearance…!”

The sound of a thousand buck teeth chewing on wood suddenly rang out throughout the small hall. Discord’s colour dropped right out from his outline again.

“Abort!” He yelled, grabbing the unamused Othinus and dashing back towards the side of the stage where they’d entered. “Abort! Abo –”

Remember the events so far - story_resumes

Remember the events so far - story_resumes

There was a party well underway in Ponyville.

If you were to flag down a passing pony and ask them why this was so, most would tell you that it was merely the Summer Sun Celebration, slightly delayed this year.

If you hunted down a smaller number of ponies who had been in right places at the right times, they would tell you that they were celebrating the defeat of Nightmare Moon, the legendary Mare in the Moon. (Some would know that somepony named ‘Luna’ had been rescued from her evil clutches, or something. They were very fuzzy on the details.)

Most ponies were content with one of those explanations. They trusted that they would hear an official explanation for the weirdness of the night in due time. For now, they just wanted to party.

But if you asked a much smaller group, you’d get a much more detailed story.

A story about how Nightmare Moon, breaking out of her seal after a thousand years of banishment, had descended to the Earth. They would tell you how she had banished her sister Celestia to the same moon she had just escaped from, intending to forever shroud the world in Eternal Night.

But there had been one pony present last night who had been from out-off-town. While everypony else had been panicking at the defeat of Celestia, Satin had panicked in a slightly different way.

While most of the ponies had wanted to run away, Satin had a particular destination in mind to run to: a mysterious glowing hole, just inside the boundaries of the Everfree forest. From there, things had gotten weird.

They’d jumped into this hole, and fallen so far that by the time they reached the other end, they were falling up. And on the other side of that hole had laid a city full of people with talents and abilities that none of those ponies had ever heard from before. They had helped defeat Nightmare Moon and her minions, and the ponies had helped defeat an aggressor from ‘over there’.

But at the moment, five of those mares couldn’t care less about what was on the other side of the hole. They were full concerned about what was on this side.

Because, after everything had been said and done, Twilight still wasn’t attending the party.

“Twwwiiiilllliiiigghhhtt.” Pinkie Pie whined. “Come oooonnnnn. Most of the ponies have gone home already. Even the princesses have left! If you don’t come now, there won’t be a party left for you to attend!”

“The princess is gone?” Twilight’s voice came out slightly slurred, before she caught herself and shook her head vigorously. “I mean, the princesses are gone?” She corrected herself, sounding much more awake this time. Having two princesses was going to take some getting used to. (Well, there was Cadence, but she had only just finished school a year ago, so nopony thought of her as a ‘real’ princess yet.)

“Yup.” Applejack said. “Said ya could stay as long as you liked, an’ come back to Canterlot when you’re ready.”

“Oh.” Twilight said. “That’s nice.”

Rarity moved closer, inspecting Twilight’s muzzle close-up. “Dear, your adorable little dragon said that you haven’t slept since the night before last. If you aren’t going to join the party –”

“Which you should!” Pinkie insisted.

“– then you should be sleeping, dear.”

Twilight squinted at the three mares confronting her. “…haven’t you been awake since then as well?”

“Ya can’t sleep though a Pinkie Pie party, sugercube.” Applejack said. “S’not possible.”

“Why would anypony want to sleep though a party?” Pinkie looked honestly confused.

“Well, I appreciate your concern girls, but I can’t come.” Twilight shook her head. “That ‘hole’ in the Everfree – something isn’t right about it, and I need to figure out what.”

“Twilight, dear, the princess – I mean, princess Celestia already said that she’d take care of that.”

“Princess Celestia conjured a fence around the hole with a sign saying ‘Danger: probably magic’.” Twilight deadpanned.

“’xactly.” Applejack nodded. “So if anypony falls in, it’s their own fault.”

Twilight turned around, looking down at the scroll she had been reading when the other mares had come in. “But there’s more to it than that.” She insisted. “Listen. I wrote down what happened last night, and it doesn’t make any sense!”

Applejack opened her mouth to say ‘Leave magic to the unicorns and go to sleep’, remembered who she was talking to, and closed it again.

“You mean like how we saw the sun rise twice, but the ponies here only saw it rise once?” Pinkie noted.

Twilight turned her head back just enough so that she could look Pinkie in the eye as she nodded. “More than that. ‘Over here’, Satin knew the legend of Nightmare Moon even better than I did, but on ‘the other side’, she didn’t know anything about it!”

Rarity frowned. “Yes, that was rather unusual, wasn’t it?”

“And Applejack, you got hurt fighting a Shadowbolt, right? Do you remember how you got better?”

“Nope.” Applejack answered. “Next thin’ ah remember, we were bein’ swarmed by th’ Nightmare Forces.”

Twilight turned around, facing the three of them again. “Well, I asked Fluttershy, and she said that she healed you with magic!”

Applejack’s mouth fell open, as did Rarity’s and Pinkie Pie’s. “Come again?”

Quite aside from the fact that Fluttershy lacked a horn to be casting spells with, there had been exactly one pony in the last millennium who could cast healing spells. That was a super-rare Talent.

“I know!” Twilight exclaimed. “Fluttershy couldn’t explain it either – she clearly remembered healing you, but she couldn’t explain how!”

“Land sakes!” Applejack swore. “Tha’ is weird.”

“That’s still not the weirdest part.”

“There’s more?” Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity said together.

“Girls, do you remember the name of where we were, on the other side of the hole?”

The three mares opposite Twilight looked uncertain.

“I was just thinking of it as ‘Satin’s home’.” Pinkie admitted.

“Did anypony actually say…?” Applejack asked.

“We all had other things on our minds, darling.” Rarity said. “Where we were exactly didn’t seem so important.”

“Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy remembered.” Twilight said. “They called it ‘the Academy’. And they both remember being shocked to find that out, though they can’t remember why now.”

Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity shared uncertain looks. “I, uh, don’t think we’ve every heard of a place like tha’.” Applejack admitted.

“You wouldn’t have.” Twilight said, her tone serious. “Seeing as how it doesn’t exist.”

“Doesn’t…? Darling, you must be pulling my leg.” Rarity protested. “We were all there mere hours ago. You can’t just say that we were in a place that isn’t real.”

Twilight’s head swung around to look at the bookshelf behind her. “I checked everything – ‘Great schools of the world’, ‘Where to get research done’, ‘Grand faculties of the globe’… I even had Spike send for ‘The complete guide to Neighpon’ from the Canterlot library. Girls, none of the academies in the world look anything like where we were!”

“So they got the name wrong.” Applejack said.

Twilight shook her head. “No. Something is wrong with that hole.” Telekinetically gathering up the stacks of books on the table, Twilight started walking up the stairs. “And I’m going to figure out what!”

Entering her bedroom, Twilight dramatically slammed the door shut.

“Hole’s not going anywhere, though.” Applejack told the door. “Honestly, ya need ta sleep.”

The door, being a door, did not answer her.

“Well, shoot.”

“She doesn’t want to attend my party?” Pinkie sounded slightly shell-shocked.

“I’m sure she wants to, dear.” Rarity sighed. “It’s just that she thinks this is more urgent, though. It’s not like she’s forgotten there’s a party going on.”

Pinkie’s wide eyes slowly narrowed in confusion. “Forgotten there’s a…?” She gasped suddenly in a huge intake of air. “That’s right! I almost forgot! I kinda need to got back and check on our new friends because they also haven’t come to the party and actually I’m not sure they can read Equish so they might not have understood my invitations and they’ve gone all this time without a party, and –”

“Breathe, Pinkie.” Applejack interrupted, which seemed to break Pinkie out of her run-on sentence.

“Right! I’ll be right back!” Pinkie dashed out the door of the Golden Oak library so fast she left a smoky after-image.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Honestly, that mare.”

“Wait a minute.” Rarity said. “When she said ‘our new friends’, you don’t think she meant the ones over there, do you?”

Applejack and Rarity shared a worried glance.

“...those are your orders. Do you understand, 9748?”

“Misaka understands, Misaka replies as she begins to prepare for deployment.”