Darkness and Magic

At some point, I remember Celestia contacting me one night about returning to Equestria. I still don't remember much, but I stayed for one more day so that I could say goodbye to the girls in this world. From what they've told me, I made quite the relationship with all of them. I think they told me that... damn it... I can't remember. From the conversations here though, I can take a guess at what they did. Anyway, once I said my goodbyes, we all had our group hug before both my sister and I jumped through the portal.

Once we arrived back in Equestria, the first person to meet us with open... forelegs was Rarity. I felt her tackle me for a hug, as I was guessing she was waiting for my return, "Oh my Celestia, it's so great to see you again Mitchell! The days went by so slowly without you."

"Really? It felt like the days went by a little quick for me. Anyway, it's still great to see all of you again as well."

"Hm, did the girls there try anything to you?"

"I think you know the answer to that," They all looked at me with frowns, Rarity giving me the biggest frown.

"Yeah, think about how I feel since I was in the same household it all happened in. I'd wake up every morning stuffing his face into the ground. Don't worry girls, I made sure he learned his lesson."

"Whatever, Celestia, you said that my new equipment was ready too, right?"

"Yes, please follow me," We followed her through the castle, and I do say, this castle is huge. I never thought it'd be this big. I've only been in here twice, and each time, I've only seen the main throne room and the room that had the Crystal Mirror. The place we entered looked more like a lab, and a... gunsmith?

Don't ask me how I know what a gunsmith looks like, just know that it looked like a gunsmith. What I saw next was something I almost couldn't believe, "Celestia, are those..."

"Yes, those are Magical Firearms. Only created by the top gunsmith from the 5 magic dimensions."

Before I could say anything, my sister spoke for me, "Wait, weren't those banned after The Great War centuries ago?"

"I didn't know you knew that sis."

"I'm not an idiot. I learned a lot about the history of magic after mom died so I could refresh your memory if you forgot anything. Oh, and not to be called stupid when I didn't know something that a normal mage wouldn't even know. I mean seriously Mitchell, do you really think they taught this in school?"

"They taught when I was in school."

"You were home schooled!"

"Not the point, but are these the weapons that are being given to me?"

"Precisely. My friend created these in such a short time, and she was even able to upgrade them with the best magical bullets you can have."

Suddenly, another voice from behind us spoke, "Allow me to explain the upgrades Princess," The woman looked human. Actually, she kind of reminded me of...

"You look like..."

"Me!" If you didn't know who said that, it was my sister. I wasn't joking though. She had the same brown long hair my sister had, but she had the same lapis lazuli blue eyes I had. I know that's being a little too specific, but she looked just like my sister.

"Celestia, why does she look like my sister?" Before Celestia could answer, the woman answered first.

"We need to go over your equipment first. I'll explain this look alike business afterwards. Mitchell, if you could follow me to this wall of weapons," Mitchell nodded as she followed this look alike.

"Can I at least know your name."

"My name is Emilia," Her name is almost like Emily too. I know I heard this name somewhere before, but where...

"Emilia..."

"Not right now, we need to go over your equipment. Now, all these weapons use a specialized version of the bullets known as Q-Bullets. It's the only bullet that Mages can't block, destroy, or fire back at the user."

"Don't those require the user to use some of their life energy?"

"That's only a myth. Q-Bullets require nothing from the user. Just aim, and fire," She pointed one of the guns at me, and fired, the bullet just barely missing my head.

"Hey, you could've taken my brother's head off!"

"It's fine, she wouldn't do that. If she did, I would've attempted to move out the way. Anyway, that's a good thing to know about that. I was afraid that the clips had an infinite amount of ammo, but it had to use magical or life energy. Alright, but what should I use for armor against whatever the Magical Vanguard would have to throw at me?"

"I'm glad you asked that," She reached under the wall of weapons, and 5 different vests began to float in the air. One bigger, and more armored than the other, "These 5 vests give certain types of abilities. Whether it be fire resistance, or even hypnosis resistance, these vests have it. It's your choice based on which one is best to use."

"I see, that would be very useful against the Magical Vanguard using a variety of spells on me."

"Exactly, now let's go over your weapon of choice. We have a wide variety of weapons at your disposal. You can switch out your loadout at any given time, but for now, let's go with a signature loadout," Signature? I don't really know what would be my choice. I like speed during combat, so maybe I should go light in this loadout.

I walked towards the wall of weapons, and looked over each weapon. Speed... well, I would think a SMG would be the best bet, but that's just too generic. Plus, my spread would be a problem since akimbo SMGs would cause a problem to accuracy. Perhaps I should be simple, and not a Neo Matrix wannabe. I picked a standard 12G shotgun, and a standard issue pistol.

"Simple are we? Oh well, doesn't matter to me. You'll be lightweight, so that would be useful against slow moving spells the Magical Vanguard will throw at you. Wait, is that all you're going with? Not even an SMG, or assault rifle?"

"No, I like being lightweight. Like you said, it would help with certain spells. Also, if I combine the speed I get from this loadout and a speed spell, then I could possibly even dodge the fastest of spells."

"I see, oh, here Mitchell," She ran over to the other side of the room, and took out what looked like sword, with dragon talons on the hilt, and dragon heads on the bottom of it.

"This is a custom sword I made from Clousium. The hilt is made from Krontine, and molded by yours truly. The dragon heads on the bottom of the hilt are actually small daggers that laced with poison."

"What kind of poison?"

"Gleinade."

"Isn't that a little too much for the mages?"

"Well, they'll have healers preventing them from getting poisoned. Gleinade will still take effect, but it will be weakened by the healing spells."

"Hm, Gleinade are extremely lethal to everything it's injected into, depending on the species of mage they are... if they're debuffed by the healing spells, they would only slow them down, but it'll still slowly kill them, thus-."

"Giving you a chance to subdue them easily," I was surprised that she thought this through. She may look like my sister, but she has a much larger understanding of magic that I thought.

"This is kind of taking shots at my sister, but you look exactly like her, but you know more about magic than she does. She could never get all that information down pat like that."

"What?!" My sister attempted to tackle me, but she was randomly frozen in place, "Why did you freeze me?"

"I didn't."

"You're the only one I know that knows the paralysis spell to freeze the entire body. Who else could've done it?"

"That would be me," I turned my head towards Emilia, and was surprised.

"Wait, a paralysis spell with that type of effect on someone is only through people that are biologically in the Stone Family. My family has perfected the spell in order to properly subdue criminals. How can you have the spell to where they can still talk? A normal paralysis spell is suppose to affect one part of the body, not the whole body. Also, it's suppose to prevent them from talking, so how the hell can you do it?"

Everything I said was true, and I'm not joking. Our family were either security guards, policemen or women, special forces, and sometimes, they would do it just because it was in their lineage. I learned it specifically for self-defense.

"Actually, one more thing, why would you give me a sword to use?"

"Because I know you're a swordsman."

Before I could respond, my sister said, "Wait, I'm the only one that knows my brother is a swordsman. I know his skill with a sword too. How do you know that?"

Now Celestia toned in, "Now I'm starting to wonder. I didn't even know Mitchell was a swordsman, which is why I was also wondering why you were giving him a sword. Emilia, I've known you for 15 years, and you never once mentioned anything about this man. How do you know so much about him?"

"Well," She looked at me, and smiled, "Mitchell, do you remember having a younger sister before Emily here? You know, when you were about 8, she disappeared without a trace?"

"Yeah, I was devastated. Which is why I guess he married Emily's mother so that I could have another sister again. What are you talking abo-," Wait, let me think about it right quick. She has the same hair color as Emily, same eye color as me, knows how to use the Stone Family's use of the paralysis spell, and she knows I'm a swordsman. I get it now, "Sis?"

"Yes Mitchell?"

"Why didn't say anything before?" I dropped my shotgun on the floor, and went to hug my biological sister.

"Wait, what about me?" I heard my other sister, but I just couldn't... resist. This was a moment of reuniting with my biological sister. I guess I should explain the deal between myself and Emilia, but I'll do that in the next journal entry.

Wait! I want to know what happen now!

Pinkie? What are you doing? You messed up my writing.

I don't care, I want to know what happened. You can't end on another cliffhanger like that.

Pinkie, you were there, you already know what happens.

Oh right, but they want to know too!

Well, we gotta go. We have something important to do. I'll get to it, don't worry Pinkie.

Oh fine, I'll see you later.

Man, why did have to write that instead of just say it to me. That was weird because I was responding by writing on the same page. Oh well, I have to be somewhere, so I'll see all of you later. Farewell for now!