Starlight's Shattered Glass

by jrock117

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Profanity, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Human, Other, Trixie, Comedy, Starlight Glimmer
Length: 46685

In which Starlight makes a great discovery after breaking a very special mirror and dealing with an ansty Twilight.

Starlight, after attempting a new spell, has shattered a very important mirror. With a replacement in hoof, she has a run in with Twilight that leads the book pone to get antsier and antsier.

All this culminates to a discovery equal to that of Starswirl the Bearded.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Jason, an eighteen year old Deli worker, perfomed a satanic ritual with his friends, just to see if anything would happen. While the consequences don't rear their ugly heads yet, that doesn't mean he's in the clear.

Rated T for only slight profanity.
Scratch that, second chapter is filled with it.

Human in Equestria and Pony on Earth story.

Published 2018-04-20 13:30:06 UTC
Last updated 2019-04-20 17:08:09 UTC

Other Side of the Story

Mondays.

He had always heard people complain about them but never understood why, to him, Mondays allowed him to relax. Well, that's not true, technically he started his relaxation on Sundays, but his first day off of the week was Monday, so it didn't really matter. Besides, he had plans today anyways.

His phone played the ever familiar ringtone he had grown more than accustomed too, the Phoenix Wright theme from a fighting game. It didn't even play the full tune before he picked it up and answered.

"Yellow." He spoke.

"Blue," came from the other end, "so, Jason, when are we doing this?"

"As soon as you guys get ready." He paused. "And I guess as soon as this Game Grumps episode is over."

"Which episode is it?"

"Grumps Dream Course, so you already know which of the two is pissed off."

"Yeah, just hurry up, will ya? My Xbox is fucking up again, so I'm bored."

"I'll hurry up when Arin stops being pissed." He argued.

"You here that guys? Looks like we're waiting a few more hours!"

"Ok, jeez," Jason spoke, "I just turned off my Xbox, let me get my deck and I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Bout fuckin' time."

"And you, sir, need to watch your profanity. I want my life rated E10+, not T."

"And you need to get your ass over here, pronto. See ya in ten." And with a boop sound, his friend hung up. Jason sighed.

"Ok, where did I last put my cards?" He asked no one in particular. After searching the dark living room for a bit, he found what he wanted; a deck of Yugioh trading cards in purple sleeves. "Alright, do I have everything now? Wallet? Check. Wide ass phone? Check. Jacket? That's a no, but today's pretty nice. I just realised I'm talking out loud..." He stopped speaking. Thank God no one's here today, or I would be seen as a weirdo. Ok, deck? Check. Umm... What else do I nee- OH! I need my headphones. And what else? Still thinking, he looked around the shadowed room for anything else he might need. Nothing came to mind, so, he opened the front door to greet the day.

Jason was, what you might call, a young and stout man. He was around five foot eight and was growing a slightly reddish-brown stubble, contrasting his green eyes. His brown hair was cut fairly short. He sported a grey T-shirt with red text asking if whatever 'bro' in the room were mad. Black jeans, grey shoes, and a red/black shoulder bag was the rest of his attire. The home he lived in was relatively dinky, it used to be a mobile home at one point, but it was turned into a permanent home. It had a wooden attachment that acted like a front porch. He and his friends had dubbed it, the 'Tin Can'.

"Let's see," He took out his phone and went to his Spotify app, "NSP? Nah. Bo Burnham? That will just play random comedians. Agh, screw it, let's play some Rush. I'm in a Canadian mood anyways." With a tap, and a minute and a half wait, his Rush radio started to play, starting off with Blue Oyster Cult. "God damn it." He started off for his friend's house.

---~~---

Nine minutes later, and not a single Rush song had played, he had made it to his friend's abode. A brown house with two floors and a basement, it put his own home to shame with how inviting it looked. A red truck was parked in front. Knocking on the door three times, it opened to reveal a young man of the lanky sort, six foot two with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore a plain black shirt and blue sweat pants, along with a pair of grey shoes with orange laces.

"Y'know, Dan, I don't care how many times I say this. Your eyes are creepy as hell."

"I know Jason."

"Like, it feels like your eyes are made of ice, they just look like Hell had frozen over."

"Yep. Ya gonna come in or not?" Dan had opened the door a wider margin and stood to the side, inviting Jason in.

"Ah, fine." Jason relented and walked passed his lanky pal, noticing the lack of people in the yellow carpeted living room. "Taking an educated guess, I'm gonna assume the guys are in the basement?"

"Yep, everything's set up, so we just to get them and get out."

Jason took a hesitant look outside a window, red truck in full view. "We taking the truck?"

"Nah," Dan lead Jason down a set of wooden stairs, they creaked with every step, into a concrete basement, "my parents are still trying to find a new exhaust pipe after the last one blew. We're not allowed to even touch the truck, let alone drive it."

"So, we're walking then?" Jason asked with hope.

"Yep." Dan opened a door to the right of the stairs, opening to a white painted room with a striped carpet, each stripe alternating red and orange. Four others were in the room.

"Sup Gypsy!" A skinny man around an inch taller than Jason immediately stood up, he was wearing a black leather jacket, a blue South Pole shirt, and baggy jeans. With the grin of an animal, he high-fived Jason, the two then brugged (what this group of people have so colloquially named the bro hug).

"Not much, sup with you, Jackal?" Jason spoke with a sharp grin of his own, making his friend's face fall just a tad.

"Be careful," his friend pointed to his own teeth, "this Jackal can bite."

"Nice to see you're taking the nickname in stride now. So, Jakob, you got your cybers on you?" Jason asked Jackal/Jakob.

"You bet. You got your magicians?" Jakob asked, but before Jason could respond, a young, mocha-skinned man with glasses stood up and crushed the other two in a hug, causing Jakob to grunt in discomfort. "Gah, damn it, Mark!"

Mark was the tallest out of the boys, six foot four. He had his auburn hair in a short buzzcut. His apparel was made up of a white A-shirt, a red zip-up hoody, blue shorts, and white sneakers.

"You guys know I can't resist a good bro moment." Mark said.

"Yuh huh." Jakob responded as Mark let the two go. "Anyways, Jason, you brought your cards?"

"Yeah, got my magicians with me in my right pocket."

"Sweet, maybe if this doesn't work, the trip won't be an entire waste."

"I heard that, Jakob." Dan said.

"Look dude, all I'm saying is that I really doubt this is going to work." Jakob said, putting his hands up in defense.

"Hey," Jason called to Dan, "Where are Ty and Davis? You said all the guys were down here."

"Oh, those two." Dan pointed I out the door, "Davis is using the can right now, and I'm pretty sure Ty is asleep on the couch."

"No, I'm just resting my eyes." A voice spoke up, presumably Ty. "Tell Jason he shouldn't have kept us waiting."

"Well that's not a nice thing to say." Replied Jason, "Considering it was my money that's allowing us to do this in the first place."

"Yeah," Ty gave a reply of his own, "well fuck you I'm garlic bread."

"Ty, don't make me defenestrate you." The flush of a toilet broke Jason's train of thought, and not three seconds later, a sixth person walked into the room, wearing a black 'Sleeping With Sirens' shirt, black jeans, and black shoes. He also had snake-bite lip rings and dark brown hair.

"Did someone mention throwing other people through windows?" Davis joked.

"There's Davis," said Ty, "thought you flushed yourself down to the toilet for a sec."

Davis' face fell for a brief second. "That only happened one time and you know it."

"Whatever, dude," Dan said, "listen up everyone, now that we're all ready, let's get going." He turned and went out the door, "C'mon everyone, hussle it up." As everyone stood to follow him, Davis went to help Ty off the couch. The two were practically twins, in both face and body. Ty had blonde hair, a faded green shirt, green jacket, cargo shorts, and faded green sandles. The group headed outside of the house, where Dan was rummaging around.

"I'm afraid to ask," Jason said, "but why are you looking in a bush?"

"Because, this." Dan pulled out a wide, tanned, carrying case, three feet long and three feet wide, only being a few inches thick. It had wheels on the side and a pull-out handle. "I had to order this thing from a guy who makes custom carrying cases in Canada, nothing short of a condensed bomb can blow this apart. Which is a good thing, since what we need is inside of it."

"Is this what most of my money went into?" Jason asked. "The whole reason we're able to do this is because I was the only one willing to pay." Dan nodded.

"Unfortunately, yes. Unlike Diddle Kid, this thing cost a pretty penny." He stood to his full height, pulling the handle up with him, and slid it over to Mark. "Mark, you take it."

"Wait, what? Why me?"

"You have the most steady hands. Alright everyone, let's move it." Dan walked passed the group and down the street. "It should only take forty minutes to get there." And so they followed him with Jason situating himself in the back.

"Hey, Jason?" Ty asked.

"Yeah?"

"Whose baby is that?" Ty pointed to an empty baby carriage, a smirk on his face. Jason did his worst Asian accent.

"Two Wongs no make white!"

"Not my baby!" Davis followed suit.

"Out window!" Ty finished.

---~~---

"This building looks dank," Davis said, "and I don't mean 'dank' as in cool, I mean 'dank' as in 'this place looks like it should be torn down." Dan had lead the group to an old storage building. The outer brick wall was deteriorating and the windows had seen much better days, spray-painted names and swears covered a good sixty-eight percent of the wall they we're currently near. There were even spray-painted Bible verses, imagine that. It had been abandoned for a few years by this point, so it was scheduled for demolition in a few weeks.

"So, is there a safe way in, or...?" Ty let his question sit in the air.

"Yeah," Dan said, "You all see that window up there?" Dan pointed to said window, two floors above them. It was broken, and as the glass had sat outside the wall, it was broken outwards.

"Don't tell me we have to climb the whole building just to get in through a sharp ass window." Mark spoke with some disdain in his tone.

"Nope." Dan smirked, "There's a huge door on the other side, I just wanted to fuck with you guys." Dan started off and walked around the corner, the others not far behind. "Here." Dan gestured to a large metal door. It was once painted a heavy orange, but the age of the building showed as the thick paint had been chipped away, leaving a rusted green in its wake. Dan grasped the handle, "Anyone wanna help me with this?" Davis and Jason got up next to him, gripping the handle, which felt like touching one now those popcorn cielings. In a silent agreement, they pulled as hard as they could, causing the door to open slowly. The aged hinges let out a pained screech as the door moved, inch by painful inch. After a few short seconds, their ears felt relief in the silence that followed.

"Y'know what," Jakob said, "I will be happy, for as long as I live, if I don't have to hear that again."

"Well, sucks for you," Dan replied, "we have to shut this door when we leave."

"Damn it!"

Dan went in first, followed immediately by Jason and the rest. The age of the building showed itself in more than just looks and feel now. The stench that permeated the large, one room floor had similarities to-

"It reeks like a corpse got butt-fucked by a skunk and gave birth to a shit baby." Jakob said.

Yes, yes it did.

"Why are we doing this here?" Davis asked.

"Actually," Jason responded, "I have the answer to that. This place is "haunted"," He said while air quoting the word 'haunted'. "They're just rumors, and two people actually have died here, but it's the closest we got."

Dan had stopped in the center of the large room and instructed the others to sit in a circle after Mark handed him the case. With a click, the case opened, and he pulled out a pitch black pane of glass, which, when placed on its side, is two feet tall and three feet wide.

"Swear to God," Mark said, "if the Devil jumps outta that, I'm gonna book it outta here."

"Meh," Ty responded, "I'll just run at him, if I'm gonna die, might as well take the fastest route."

"Now," Dan called to attention, "who here still thinks this won't work? Raise your hands." Quite literally, everyone, including Dan, raised their hands. "Well, it'll still be fun, regardless."

"The only reason I'm here is because it was my paycheck that made this possible." Jason said.

"Yes, you've said it a dozen times by now, we know." Dan lamented. He pulled a matchbook from a back pocket. "Did everyone bring a match?" The group rummaged around their person's and brought out a matchbook, each. All, except for Jason, who was still patting himself, trying to find at least one. "You gotta be shitting me."

"Uhh... Um..." Jason tried thinking for an excuse, anything that could aid him in this situation, but shrugged as nothing came to mind. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought."

Everyone turned to Mark, whom had ripped half of his matchbook off and gave it Jason. "We've wasted enough of everyone's time as is, let's just open this portal to Hell."

"You know you could've just gave me one match, right?"

"Yes, but I don't use these all that much, just take the twelve matches and deal with it."

"Alright," Jason shrugged.

Together, they all took one match, and with a strike, they were lit. Dan raised his first and recited his line.

"With pride, the Devil fell to his own devices, the black abyss of Hell, imprisoning him and his legion." He then blew out the match, and placed it vertically infront of him, off of the glass. "With wrath, that prison shall break."

Davis blew his match out and did the same as Dan, "With greed, all shall be taken."

Jakob followed suit, "With sloth, all shall lie."

Mark, "With lust, all shall be perversed."

Ty, "With envy, all shall struggle."

Finally, Jason, "With gluttony, all shall be consumed."

They each took one more match, lit them, and placed them on the glass, each match lying horizontal to the person that placed it. The fires of each match burned, and they burned, and they burned, the group sat, waiting, with bated breath. Seconds ticked by.

"Huh," Dan said, "the instructions from Reddit were pretty clear that something should've happened by now."

"Hey, Dan?" Jason asked.

"Yeah?"

"This is a painted mirror, right? Not just some black glass?"

"Yup."

"Did you use heat resistant paint or something?"

"Actually, after I bought the mirror with your money, I only had enough left over for some spray paint."

"Isn't that flammable?"

FWOOM

"HOLY SHIT!!!" They all yelled in unison as they stumbled back away from the roaring pillar of fire that shot from the mirror, burning and blackening the aged stone ceiling. The sunlight that had been streaming in through the windows paled in comparison to the bright orange flicker the room had taken. Just as suddenly as it started, it ended, the fire snuffing out in the blink of an eye, leaving a plain looking mirror on the ground. No smoke, no heat, only the dark room and the echoed breaths of the terrified boys. Once again, they all sat, waiting for something to come next. A red hand? A face? Nothing came. Nothing had been revealed. Just six scared boys in a dank room in an abandoned storage building with a once black mirror. Jason laid on his back, letting out a loud sigh.

"Jesus fuck, my heart is beating a mile per second guys."

The group nodded as they slowly picked themselves up, trepidation and adrenaline running through their veins. Dan spoke up.

"Hey, Jason, you want a mirror?"

---~~---

A few hours had passed. Jason, Jakob, and Davis had played Yugioh during this time, with Jakob achieving the largest win streak. Ty played on a PSP with Dan while Mark texted with his young men's choir group. The time came for them to leave, Jason putting the mirror in it's case and taking taking it with him. They all had somewhere to be, so rather than going to Dan's place again, they just decided to split from the building. After a few 'see ya later's, Jason left for his home, the Tin Can.

---~~---

"Where the hell do I put you?" Jason asked the mirror in his hands. He sat on the bottom bunk in his room in the back of the Tin Can, the carpet had once been a full pink, but now resembled a a brown. He turned to his left, seeing his built-in wooden dresser. He had never really used it, aside from storing sheets and blankets. The dresser stuck out from the wall, with the top acting like a shelf for, well, whatever to be honest. On the wall the dresser jutted out from, he had a few posters lined up, one being a gift he got for pre-ordering Naruto Storm 4, the other two were group photos of AC/DC and Man With A Mission. Hmm..., he thought, I guess I can just move the posters to somewhere else. They're pretty worn anyway.

Thumbtacks were removed, and the posters had been replaced with the mirror, but something was... Wrong. The mirror didn't fill as much space as he thought it would. With the two feet the mirror had vertically, there was an inch between it and the shelf above, and horizontally, the was an entire six inches between it and, what would otherwise be, the perpendicular wall. Jason looked on with irritation.

"Screw it," He said, throwing his hands up, "I'll just get some styrofoam tomorrow and fill in the space." He sat down on his bed, head in his hands. He couldn't shake this feeling of dissatisfaction. Maybe he did think something would happen, or rather, hoped that something would happen. Just one second later, his played that tune again, and he answered.

"Yellow." He said.

"Blue." Dan's voice called. "Hey, you up for a game of XenoVerse 2?"

"Sure, that sounds great right about now."

"Awesome, I'm gonna get the guys in a group call."

"Shit dude, you really want that three v three to happen, don't ya?"

"I have been waiting, for five freaking months, for everyone to get an Xbox and get XenoVerse 2. Not that we all do, there is no reason for any of us not to finally do this."

"You are way too determined for this not to work, I'm guessing?"

"Yep."

"Alright, let me get to my Xbox first."

---~~---

"FUCK!" Jason yelled as he gently placed his controller down onto his soft pull-out couch. His living room, now lit up thanks to a tall lamp he had turned on, was nothing much to look at. The windows were all covered with thick blankets, so as to keep the evening light out, not that it mattered since it was now the middle of the night. If you were to stand in the center of the room, looking South, to your left would be a couch and in front of you would be another couch. Both were three seaters, but only the left turned into a bed. To your right would be the television set and entertainment center. Flat screen on top, with a WiFi router and internet modem right next it, an Xbox One sitting in a vented glass case. A shelf in the center held all sorts of things; cards, random sheets of paper, cords, a clothes hanger, a single Lego. The bottom of the shelf had four playable games, and an unused three-cooker that had been bought at Christmas. The front door was on the same side, just to the right of the entertainment center.

"Dude," Dan's voice yelled from his phone, which was now on speaker, "you weren't kidding when you said you couldn't use the giant ball attacks."

"I told you so." Jason said. "For some ungodly reason, I just can't use attacks like Spirit Bomb or Death Ball..." Jason paused, "Wow..."

"What?"

"I just... I just realised how uncreative of a name Death Ball is. Like, it's just a ball of death, that's all it has going for it."

"It took you this long to figure that out?" Dan scoffed.

"Shut up-" Jason cut himself off when he heard, what sounded like, something heavy falling in his room, with two loud thumps in succession. He stood up.

"What the hell was that?"

Author's Note

This has to be the longest chapter I've written, probably.

Now, I'm not saying this chapter would've been up sooner (it definitely would've been finished sooner), but I accidentally deleted a good half of the chapter by reloading the page before I clicked save changes.

If you like the story, feel free to comment.
Though, it's fine if you don't want to.

Contact & Questions

Starlight jumped to her hooves, a small 'eep' escaping her lips. She turned to the built-in dresser she hit her face on. Ok, that's too tall for me to jump onto, maybe I can use the drawers as steps. Her horn glew an ethereal blue, the drawers becoming enraptured in that same glow, and didn't move.

"Wha..." She so eloquently said. She turned her attention to the door of the room, or rather, doorway. There was no door, but a long, grey, curtain hanging on a bar. From a small glance, she determined that there had never been a proper door there; no screw holes in either wall, the only nails holding the walls together. The curtain acted as her only visual shield.

---~

~---

"Dude, the hell was that?" Dan said over the phone. Jason's tone softened as he pondered what it might've been.

"I don't know, sounded like it could've been one of my boxes though."

"Let's hope it wasn't one of the ones filled with your Yugioh cards."

"Ugh, don't say that." Jason stood up, taking his phone with him, "I don't want to think about the mess I'd have to clean up if it is." He walked passed his kitchen and down the hall, heading for his room.

"That would really suck, especially if it got under your bed and behind your dresser."

"Please stop."

"Ha, you have fun with that, I gotta use the can."

---~

~---

"You... Stupid... Drawers..." Starlight growled quietly under her breath, pulling her head back as if she were pulling a rope attached to the drawers themselves. "Why... Won't you... Open..." A small thunk could barely heard whenever she pulled, but the drawers remained stuck, only opening a centimeter or two.

Eventually, she heard what she could only describe as cloth rubbing on metal. She froze, eyes wide, as her magic left her horn, the blue glow fading from the drawers. Oh no, oh no, oh no... She thought to herself as she stood still. Now what? What are they going to do? What if they know who I am? What if they call the authorities? Does Ponyville even have authorities to call? Would Twilight count... Her expression fell, What if Twilight finds out about this!? How could I possibly explain this to her!? That I fell into somepony else's house against my own volition, like Tartarus she'd believe that! Maybe... She would believe me. She's my teacher, my friend, she'd have to believe me! She knows me more than I know myself! Why won't this pony behind me say anything!? Her ear flicked and she heard something rub against the carpet behind her. Yes, something was behind her. She felt a bit of irritation rise up within her, as she waited for the other to say something, to do something.

But they remained silent. Whoever was behind her remained silent, and it frustrated her. She knew somepony was behind her, Or even some creature! She thought. Who's to say that I'm even in Ponyville? I could be halfway across the world in Minotaur territory for all I know! What did Twilight call that area again? Labyr? That sounds right. She ground her teeth together, the waiting grating on her nerves. She decided she had enough of this. With a short inhalation of air, she turned on her hooves.

Her mind had to register just what she saw.

---~

~---

Jason pulled back the curtain that separated his room from the hall, immediaty stopping whatever he was doing when he saw... A thing. A pinkish thing. Wait, is that pink? He narrowed his eyes, trying to discern whether or not the thing in front of him was pink or not. Jesus, that color is bordering on pink and purple, it's like an ill Majin Buu. He smiled, Haha, Ill Flash. His focus returned to the thing, no, the creature in front of him. He could see the back of the creature gently raise and fall with what he assumed to be breathing. Man, it's like someone spilled paint on a dog. He remained silent, taking in what he saw.

The creature had pink(?) fur and deep purple hair. Actually, it had a purple tail, too. Both the hair and tail had a blue stripe going through them. I guess that would be considered a highlight, wouldn't it? The creature reminded him of a mix between a dog and cat with how it's back was shaped, looking more docile than harmful in his opinion. Than again, that tail is more like a horse's... He narrowed his eyes, Is... Is the hair styled? Holy shit the hair is styled. HOLY SHIT THAT'S A HORN! His breathing hitched as he drew his head back. He hadn't seen the horn when he walked in, the creature's hair getting in the way. If my animal biology classes were anything to remember, animals that have horns or antlers usually use them in terrifying ways! Narwhals, moose, goats, you name it!

It's ear flicked, causing him to step back a little, not wanting to be on the wrong end of that horn. Against his better judgement, he examined the animal a bit more. Looking to it's legs, he stood in bafflement. It looks like it's standing on cylinders... The legs were thick, whether or not it was muscle, he didn't know. The front legs were completely straight, the rear ones looking like horse legs that had been fattened up a little.

It's kinda cute... ... Shut up brain. After scolding his mind, he looked back to the creature, particularly where it's legs touched the floor. They ended in what he new for a fact were hooves, although a weird bastardization of hooves is more what he would call them.

Suddenly, it turned, bearing an almost human like face, it's eyes being the oddest shade of blue he'd ever seen. The eyes were large, larger than what should be normal, and where the mouth and nose would be on a person, were on a slightly extended muzzle. The muzzle itself wasn't that long, though. It would've been cute to him in an uncanny valley type of cute, if it weren't for the almost human-like face to be sporting a very human looking expression. The large eyes were lidded, it's brow furrowed, and its mouth held an open frown, flat teeth revealing themselves. It's expression felt somewhere between frustration and anger, neither option being a good one.

What held Jason's attention the most, however, was the horn. It seemed only a few inches long from this perspective, now being closer to him. He could see that it wasn't sharp, barely looking as if it could pierce anything. A small spiral-like indentation ran from the base of the skull to the tip of the horn.

He saw the creature's expression had changed as it looked to him, almost like it was studying him. The open frown was now just a little pout and it's brow had risen, it's eyes no longer lidded. It almost looked... Surprised to see him.

---~

~---

Starlight's mind finally registered what was in front of her, but she couldn't believe it. She had only seen creatures like this once, and that was when she visited Sunset's world. That would certainly explain why the lamp was twice her height. The creature, that she quickly determined was a he, wore a plain black shirt, along with a pair of black... Uhh... What did Sunset call them? Jeems? No, that's not it. Whatever, they're pants for now, I'll just go with that.

Dirty blonde mane--I mean hair, red-brown stubble, chubby cheeks, green eyes... She quickly listed off everything she could about him, What color even is his skin, I want to say... Apricot? That's not right. It's not pink... Or maybe it's just a really bright pink? White pink? Her eyes drifted to his right hand, which had been raised. In it, rested what she remembered was a phone. I think Sunset called them smart phones. It was wider than what she had seen in Sunset's world. Then again, that could just be due to her perspective.

"Hey." She heard a tired voice speak. She looked to the man's face, "Hey, dude?" but it didn't come from him. She realised that while she had been studying him, he had been doing the same with her, his eyes held a tinge of fear and curiosity. She looked to the phone. If what she remembered was correct, phones allowed ponies, or people rather, to communicate long distance without the need for magic. Since the voice came from in front of her, and the man himself hadn't said anything, that could only mean the voice came from the phone. "Dude, hello? You still there? It says you disconnected from the XenoVerse server." Slowly, the man in front of her raised the phone higher until it was just a few inches from his mouth.

"I'll... Call you back." He spoke, his voice sounded young, but contained a little gruff. The stubble paired with the voice lead Starlight to believe he was only in his early twenties, maybe even twenty itself.

The man, No, man doesn't sound right anymore, and boy would just be insulting... I'll think on this later. The person swiped his thumb across the screen, tapped it, and with a weird tune, the screen had darkened, leaving the two of them in silence. Slowly, the... Male crouched, tilting his head to the left a bit.

"What in the world are you?" He whispered, just liud enough for her to hear.

"Well, I'm a pony, for starters." Starlight replied. The young man's eyes widened as he fell back onto his rear, his jaw open in surprise. Starlight raised a hoof, taking a step back. Her ears splayed back as an uneasy smile made it's way onto her face. "You, uhh, weren't expecting a response... We're you?" The young man blinked.

"Uh... I guess you could... say that." The two wordlessly stared at each other. Clearly uncomfortable, the young man covered his mouth as he cleared his throat. "So, umm... I... Do you have a name?"

"Starlight, Starlight Glimmer." She said, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof.

"Uh huh..." The young man said. Silence helf reign over the room once more.

"And..." Starlight waved her hoof in a circle, "What is your name?" She pointed at him with the same hoof. His eyes lit up.

"Oh! Right, uh, m-my name's Jason! I-Sorry, I didn't mean to seem rude just, uhh... ... Please tell me this experience is weird for you too."

"Well," She started, "it's not everyday you fall into somepony else's room for no reason." She could see the young man, Jason as she now knew, mouth the word 'pony' in confusion. "Er, I guess it would be someone in your case."

"Uh huh," He said, not to anyone in particular. Starlight could see the gears in his head turning, trying to work with what it's being exposed to, she remembered that feeling well. A low growl sounded through the room and she felt her cheeks warm up. Jason obviously heard it too, as he looked staright at her, her ears splaying back even more than before. After noticing her embarrassment, he chuckled, seeming a little more at ease. "Uh, hungry?"

Starlight bit her lip, "Maybe just a little." She said. "I ate a pretty light dinner."

"Heh." Jason stood back to his full height, Starlight now eye-level with his stomach. "Nothing wrong with a midnight snack I suppose." He walked over to his doorway, hand grasping the corner of the wall. "Want me to make something?"

"What?" Starlight stepped back a bit. "No, I could ask you to do that." She heard him chuckle again.

"I insist. After all, it's not everyday someone falls into your room for no reason." He looked at the pink pony over his shoulder, a small grin had formed while he spoke. "Or, I guess it would be some pony in your case."

So he can tell jokes. Starlight smiled a little as she rolled her eyes. She took a glance at his teeth. Canines and incisors. Something in common with the people in Sunset's world. She nodded her head, "I guess I can indulge a little." She heard Jason chuckle again as she followed him out the door. The hallway was decently short and taller than what a normal Ponyville house would have. Not quite as wide, though. She'd need to poke her head into a room just to turn the other way. Speaking of which, four doorways. The doorways closest to the last room were the only ones with actual doors, and they were adjacent from each other. The next two doors used curtains as well.

---~

~---

Pony. Jason thought. Pony, pony, pony, pony. A talking creature called itself a pony. Talking creature, talking creature, talking creature. Fuck, I still can't wrap my head around this. I have a talking creature in my house, and I just up and invited it to have a snack. Did I have a stroke or something? I feel there has been some universal malfunction. Either that or the hereditary dementia has finally settled in.

While he was thinking, he could hear the heavy thumps of Starlight's hooves on his hallway carpet. It was calming in a way. He had only noticed they entered the kitchen when those thumps turned into clops. He turned to Starlight.

"You might wanna go ahead of into the living room." Jason said while pointing behind him.

"Why's that?" Starlight tilted her head.

"Well, one," He lifted a finger, "it could be a minute or two before something is actually made. And two," Another finger, "you're in the way of the fridge door."

Starlight looked to her right to indeed see that a refrigerator was right there, put into a little alcove under a cabinet. If the door were to be open, her face would have a very intimate relationship with it.

"Oh! Sorry, I'll just get out of your way then." The pink pony said, walking around him and into the living room. She heard him chuckle.

"You're beginning to sound like me."

"What do you mean?"

"My friends have this ongoing list of what I'll say sorry about. Dan says I'm more Canadian than he is."

"Um... Canadian?"

"Oh, sorry, you probably don't know what that is. The joke is that they say sorry a lot."

"Hmm. I understand, I have a friend who's like that."

Jason turned his attention back to his fridge. Opening the door, he rummaged around for anything his new guest might like. Fuck, I don't know what there diet is... Her diet... Her teeth were flat like an herbivore, but she could still like cheese for all I know. Vegetarian or vegan?

"Hey, Starlight?"

"Yes?"

"Are you a vegan or a vegetarian?"

"Vegetarian."

Huh, thought that would be more difficult. He moved condiments and other food stuffs around, settling for some cheese and butter.

"How's a grilled cheese sound?"

"Wait, you're cooking?" Jason could here more thump-thumping of her hooves hitting the carpet, suggesting she'd be coming his way. "I don't think I could make you cook, that wouldn't be right."

"Nonsense, besides, I haven't even had dinner yet." He stood to his full height, placing a few slices of cheese onto the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. He grabbed a bag of white bread and took eight slices out. "You're a guest, just get comfortable and this should be done in a few minutes."

"Are you sure I'm not imposing." Starlight wilted a little.

"Nah, you're fine." Jason pulled a skillet from inside his oven and placed on the stove, turning it on high. Square off of butter, toss on to skillet, move butter around a bit, place bread on skillet, place cheese on bread, place bread on cheese. He mentally listed off the steps for a grilled cheese, for his own sake so he didn't end up with another mess like last week. "So..."

"Yes?" Starlight asked.

"You said your name was Starlight... Glimmer? Right?"

"Uh, yes."

"And you also called yourself a pony?"

"Oh, are we trading information?" Starlight perked up a little, "If you want we can do it where you ask a question then I ask a question."

"Aight, that sounds fun." Jason pulled the first grilled cheese and prepared a second. "So, can I go on with my second question, or do you want to ask one?"

"I'll answer your second one. Yes, I am a pony, an unicorn pony to be exact."

Jason paused with the second grilled cheese, he looked at the off-pink pony that was now sitting on his couch. "Unicorn?"

"Yes." She nodded. Jason blinked.

"Y'know, I don't know why it didn't click in my head sooner," he returned to the grilled cheese, "but that would definitely be what you are." He pulled the second one off, rebuttered the skillet and prepared a third, placing the second on top of the first.

"What do you mean?" She tilted her head to the side.

Adorable...

"Well, you're an equine with a horn on her head. That's pretty much a unicorn. It just didn't register in my head that what I was talking to was a union."

"Union?"

"Shut up, I meant to say unicorn." He pointed his spatula at Starlight, causing her to giggle.

"Ok, my turn!" Starlight hummed to herself. "Ok, what's that?" Jason had to turn to her to see what she was pointing at. Following her hoof, he looked to his TV, the menu screen of XenoVerse 2 on full display.

"That, my equine friend, is known as a television."

"It's... Uh... TV for short, right?"

"Yes indeed it--Wait, how do you know that?"

"I have a friend who has one," Starlight rubbed the back of her neck, "she said she'd show hers to me the next time I came over. Looks like I'm getting to see one now, though."

"Huh." Jason pulled the third grilled cheese onto another plate and prepped a final one. "So, this isn't my next question, but it's a question nonetheless. Do you know the just of it?"

"Of what? A TV?"

"Yep."

"From how I remember Sunset put it, she said it uses moving pictures along with sound... I think."

"Yeah, that's basically it. Next question, are you pink or purple?"

"What?"

"Sorry, but that question has been burning a hole in my head for a while."

"My coat is a pale purple."

"Ah." He pulled the final grilled cheese off and put it onto the second plate. Turning off the stove, he put the skillet in the empty sink, took both plates to the living room, and handed Starlight the freshest one. "Bon appetit." He stood there, waiting for her to grab it.

Grab it.

Grab.

"I did not think this through." Jason said. The plate was covered in a blue glow, causing Jason to yelp and draw his hand back. As he did so, the plate stayed, floating in the air, only dropping an inch or so. The bottom sandwich floated away from the plate towards Starlight's muzzle. She proceeded to take a big ol' chomp out of the corner, leaving toasted crums on the corners of her mouth. She smiled.

"Mmm, thish ish good." Her eyes widened and she quickly gulped. "Heh, sorry." A concerned frown found it's way to her face. "Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost." Jason just pointed.

"Blue. Float. Plate. Sandwich. Why? How?"

"Hm?" A befuddled look graced Starlight's features before realization struck. "Oh, you've never seen magic before!"

"When you say magic, I think smoke and mirrors and deception and all that junk! What I'm seeing is candy colored telekinesis!"

"Well, you're not wrong."

"Could you please explain how you're doing that?"

"Sorry," She grinned, tilting her head once more, "but I still have to ask my question first."

"Uh, fine, but I still want to know how you do that!"

"Will do!" Starlight tapped her chin with a hoof as she presumably thought of a question, continuing to munch on her sandwich. From Jason's perspective, her eyes seemed to have landed on a small table, which contained many things. "Ok, what's this?" A black controller floated toward her in that same blue glow.

"That?" Jason asked. "That's just a controller."

"A controller?" She narrowed her eyes at it. "What does it control, exactly?"

"It doesn't really control anything." Starlight looked to him with confused eyes. Jason put down his sandwiches before raising his hands. "Before you ask another question, do you want me to show you what it does?"

"Yes!" She scooted closer, only to scoot back. "Sorry, I got excited."

"That's alright, here," he took the controller out of here blue grasp, weirding him out a little, "first, you turn it on by pushing this X button in the center," doing so, the button glew white. He held it up a little, "Now, the controller doesn't really do anything by itself. Instead, it needs to be connected to a game system to really do what it's supposed to do."

"Game system?" Starlight tapped her chin again. "I think Sunset said something about owning one. She didn't get to show me it though."

"Looks like you're going to get a first hand experience then." He positioned the controller in his hands so Starlight could see a bit more. He explained how the sticks and buttons worked, Starlight making a few connections between it and the arcade systems back in Ponyville. Jason had to laugh at that name, Starlight just left it when he said it sounded silly. She eventually explained to him how magic worked, something about thaumic energy being conducted through the horn. He wanted to know just what thaumic meant when Starlight asked another question, yawning before hand.

"How late is it here? You said you hadn't eaten dinner yet earlier, so it can't be that late, right?"

"It's about," Jason pushed the center button on his controller, looking at the displayed time, "three forty-two in the morning."

"What!?" Starlight jumped off the couch to her hooves. "How long have I been awake!?"

"Last time I checked the time was, like, three hours ago, but I was still getting blasted around then. I'd say you've been here about, maybe an hour, hour and fifteen minutes at most."

"I need to get home." Starlight walked passed Jason and through his kitchen, Jason following behind. "I need to get back to sleep."

"Yeah, I can understand that, but why are we going back here, though?"

"I fell out of the mirror back here." She stated matter-of-factly. Jason stopped walking, gears turning in his head. Starlight must've heard the lack of steps behind her because she turned her head to look at him, mostly because she couldn't turn her whole body. "Are you ok?"

"You said you fell out of the mirror?"

"Yes. I did just say that." Jason blinked at this. "Why, is it not supposed to do that?"

"What is the name of your world?" Jason asked.

"Oh, well I already told you I live in a small town called Ponyville. The planet I live on is called Equus, nation, Equestria." Jason remained silent for a few seconds.

"... No way..."

"Uh, what was that?"

"Y... You... Came from the mirror?"

"Yes?" Starlight took a step back, or forward rather. "I thought I said that already."

"It works!?" Jason stepped back, nearly falling over, but caught himself on the edge of a door way. Be careful, alien guests are still guests. He thought. "No freaking way! You're telling me my mirror actually works!?"

"Um... Yes?" Starlight stuck her rear end in one of the rooms, doing a k-turn to face Jason properly. "Why, did you do something to it?"

"Uh... Uhh..." He slapped his face with both hands, dragging them down his face. "Ok, so, earlier today, much, much earlier today, my friends and I did this stupid little ritual in a building with that mirror," he pointed to his room, "and nothing happened. No one else wanted the mirror so I took it here, to my place, and wow I have a magic freaking mirror in my room!

"Wait," Starlight pleaded, "you said you weren't familiar with Equestrian magic, why would you go and try to make a portal to Equestria?

"That's the thing!" He pointed at his room again. "It wasn't supposed to go to Equestria! It was supposed to be a portal to Hell!" His arm dropped back to his side. "At least, that's what the instructions said."

"What's Hell?" Starlight cocked her head a bit.

"Uhhh... Do you have religions where you're from?"

"Only a few, some of them either haven't gotten much ground or just don't go anywhere."

"Huh, kinda the opposite here. We have dozens of religions, two of the most prevalent ones contain a part of the afterlife known as Hell. To make a long explanation short, when you've been bad and die, your soul is sent to Hell to rot and burn for eternity."

"Yikes! That's a bit much, isn't it?"

"You're criticising a religion that also has a God that will smite you if you use his name in vain."

"Yeesh." Starlight lowers her head a little, then raises it again with a questioning look. "Why would you want to go there in the first place?"

"Personally," Jason began, "I don't believe in Hell. I just wanted to see if anything would happen." He clapped his hands together. "And now I have a portal to another planet and slash or dimension! This is absolutely crazy!"

"So, you created this mirror portal just earlier today, right?"

"I'd say before breakfast, yeah."

"Hmm..." With her rear still in one of the rooms, Starlight rubbed her chin with her hoof.

"Yeah?"

"That was a little bit before I got my new mirror." She stopped her chin rubbing session. "I'm going to have to ask Trixie where and how she found it."

"Why's that?"

"She's the one that got the mirror in the first place. I thought she just had one lying around, but if the mirror portal was only created today..." Starlight trailed off.

"Hey, for all we know, the mirror itself might have actually existed long before the portal was made."

"That's also a fair point." Starlight, pulling her rear from one of the off rooms, headed back for Jason's. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you later." She paused mid step. "Actually, could you help me up into the mirror, your drawers won't open and I'm too tired to levitate myself right now."

"Huh? Oh, sure." Jason followed the pale purple unicorn back to his room, the curtain still drawn. "And what do you mean my drawers won't open, they should be fine."

"Well..." Starlight absentmindedly rubbed her other leg with a hoof, biting her lip, "I panicked when I heard you say something, so I tried opening your drawers to use them as steps so I could go back through the mirror and hopefully not be sent to jail or prison or... Where ever it is ponies who break and enter get sent to. So I tried opening the drawers and they wouldn't open. I was also trying not to break them, so I didn't exactly pull all that hard, either.

"Here," As they entered the room, Jason pointed to a thin, brown, wooden shelf stuck between the built-in dresser and the green dresser. Almost indistinguishable from the wall. "The drawers were blocked off by this."

"Oh... Hehe... Woops." Starlight watched Jason pull the shelf from it's place, putting into a closet right next to the built-in dresser. After that, he pulled the drawers out for her.

"Here you go."

"Thanks." Starlight hopped up the drawers onto the top and gave a small wave to Jason. "See you again."

"See ya." Jason gave a two fingered salute as he watched Starlight walk through the mirror as if it were water. No, He thought, not water, more like a Stargate. He returned to the living room, clicking away on his Xbox for YouTube and setting it on a Game Grumps playlist to fall asleep too. A random thought flew through his head, Starlight, Sunset, Trixie... One of these is not like the other.

---~

~---

Starlight reemerged back on her side of the mirror, being careful not to step on anything this time. Hopping down, she looked at it. The blue shimmer was no longer there, looking like any other mirror, excluding the hexagon pattern in the center.

"I wonder if I can still put my pictures on it." She said, absentmindedly. Using her magic, pictures of her friends floated from her nightstand over to her. She took one in her hoof and pushed it up to the mirror, it didn't go through. She bit her lip, grabbing the picture in her magic again, she moved it and placed her hoof on the mirror, it went through.

She let out a sigh of relief as she stacked the pictures in front of her mirror, I'll put them up tomorrow... Or, later today, I suppose. She hopped into her bed, pulling the covers over her as she yawned. Snuggling up, a thought ran through her head, Should I see Trixie first and ask her about the mirror, or tell Twilight about the mirror first?

Author's Note

Forgot about the author's note!

Sorry for the late timing of the upload, work has been a pain in the ass and I've been occupied with reading another fanfic. Neither of those are good excuses.

Happy revenge of the fifth, everyone! Feel free to leave a comment and I'll see you in the next chapter.

Whenever that comes out.

Informative, Trixie's Adventure

"Mm mm mm! Spike, these waffles are amazing!" Twilight spoke between her mouthfull.

"Blueberries and lemon juice always seem to do the trick." Spike threw a chunk of waffle into his own maw, chewing on the warm, flaky breakfast. "What do you think Starlight? ... Uhh, Starlight?" Spike looked to the unicorn, she seemed to be lost in another world, just poking around at her waffle, fork held in her blue magic, staring off into a corner of the kitchen. They had decided to eat there since Twilight wanted to polish the dining room table that day. Spike waved to the pale purple pony, "Helllooooo. Equestria to Starlight."

"Huh?" Starlight jerked her head a bit, fork falling on to her breakfast. "Oh, sorry, I got a little lost in thought."

"That wasn't hard to see." Spike bit off another chunk. Twilight took her attention away from her own waffles and looked to Starlight as well.

"You can tell us if something's wrong. I promise I won't freak out like I did yesterday."

"What? No, no, nothing's wrong." Starlight shook her head. "I'm just trying work out how to say this without sounding crazy." Twilight's face beared one of confusion and concern as she looked to her student. Spike, however...

"Starlight, you live in Ponyville. You could say anything and it probably won't be as crazy as what will happen days from now." He chewed on another piece, mumbling to himself just loud enough for Starlight to hear. "Feels like every other day, something crazy happens here." Starlight took a shallow breath.

"Well, remember that mirror Trixie gave me so I could replace the one I broke?"

"Please don't tell me." Twilight inhaled a bit as she hoped what she was thinking wasn't correct.

"Don't worry, it's still fine. It's just..." Starlight trailed off, chewing the inside of her cheek. "It may be more than just a mirror."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked. Spike, after gulping down the last of his waffles, hopped from the stool he had been sitting on and slowly waddled off toward the door closest to Twilight.

"I'll get the fort ready." He said with a sigh.

"Fort?" The unicorn asked.

"Hehe, just ignore him." Twilight waved a hoof in the little dragon's direction, an uneasy smile on her face. "So, what was that about the mirror."

"Well," Starlight began, taking a deep breath. Just say it, she won't panic. If anything, she might get excited. "To make a long story short, I think it might be a portal to another world." Twilight blinked, her uneasy expression now replaced with a confused one.

"And what makes you think that?"

"I, kinda... Tripped on a cleaning rag and fell through it into someone else's home..."

"Someone?"

"Yes, they weren't a pony." Starlight could practically see Twilight's thought process as her eyes moved from left to right and back again. The young alicorn looked to her waffle.

"Ok, how about we finish breakfast, then investigate."

"Wait, you actually believe me?"

"Of course I do, Starlight. We're friends, besides, you don't have a reason to lie to me." The lavender alicorn giggled at her student/friend's behavior. "Besides, the possibility of another other world is just so... So..." Twilight let out a series of squee's as she downed her waffles.

---~

~---

"Naaaaiiiiilllll... Nnnnaaaaiiiiillll... Wake the fuck up, bitch..." Jason could almost make out a voice on the edge of consciousness. A short intake of air. "NNAAAAAIIIILLL!!!"

"Jesus, fuck I'm up, what!?" Jason, with vision still hazy, flailed off of the couch he had slept on. Two other voices could be heard, specifically from the television. The Game Grumps playlist was still playing. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he saught the one who woke him up. A familiar lanky figure appeared in front of him. Long black hair, black Motionless in White T-shirt with black and white striped jean shorts. "Davis? The Hell are you doing here?"

"I came..."

"To my house."

"To your hou- Damn it." Davis clapped his sides. "I was hoping you'd say 'what'." He looked over to the TV. "Ross Mario Maker levels?"

"Yeah." Jason looked over to his sink, his memory slowly coming back to him. "Hey dude, I had the weirdest dream."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, it felt more real than my spider nightmares, too."

"Huh." Davis sat and picked up a second controller, the right stick stuck downward.

"Yeah, I made a grilled cheese for candy colored unicorn."

"Pffft..." Davis kept a hand over his mouth. "Ok... That's pretty fucking weird."

"Yeah, I used the cast iron skillet."

"Huh." Davis stood up and looked at the sink. "Did you wash it in the dream?" Jason scratched the side of his neck.

"Not that I remember."

"Because it looks like you made a few grilled cheeses last night." Davis pointed over to kitchen. The skillet was still in the sink and there was a half eaten grilled cheese on the counter.

"That might've influenced my dream a bit." Jason got back up on the couch, stretching his arms upwards and popping his neck. "What time is it?"

"Only a little after seven. So, you wanna go a round at Storm 4?"

"Sure." Jason shrugged.

---~

~---

"So," Twilight began, "pictures don't go through it, but we can?"

"From what I tested last night, yes." Starlight nodded. Twilight proceeded to right that down on a tiny notebook she held in her magic.

"And you didn't change species?"

"Nope."

"Have you tested anything else? Like, say, when the portal opens?"

"I... Haven't." Starlight looked over to the mirror. I really hope it isn't a thirty moon thing like the mirror to CHS. "Couldn't we just check it right now?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight paused her scribbling down of notes.

"You know, just," Starlight hopped onto her dresser, right in front of her mirror, "walk through right now."

"NO!" Twilight yelled, causing Starlight to jump off. "We don't know what could happen! For all we know it could lead to some world that's nothing but lava!"

"How about we just send a note?"

"A note?"

"Yeah. Jason should get it if he doesn't have anything planned today."

"Jason?" Twilight pivoted her neck back.

"He's the person I met last night... Er, more like a few hours ago."

"Would that even work? You said it yourself that pictures can't go through."

"One way to find out." In a flash, Starlight had an inked quill and a piece of parchment in her blue grasp. Dear Jason... No, that's too formal... Starlight scratched down a few words onto the paper, scratching out some words here and there. She nodded at her note before rolling it up and gently floating it through the mirror.

"Hmm..." Twilight held her chin in thought.

"Yes?" Starlight watched as her teacher lifted one of the pictures, a smiling Starlight covered in baking stuffs next to Pinkie Pie, that were still stacked on the dresser in her lavender magic. Gently, she floated it through the mirror. "Ohh. That's what you were thinking." The picture floated back through the mirror, Twilight's magic grip still around it. "Looks like the mirror can transfer something to the other world if it has magic."

"And since we used our magic to levitate the picture and note, they were able to go through the mirror." Twilight finished.

"And hey, would you look at that!" The purple student pointed to the picture. "No burns, I guess that means it doesn't lead to a lava world after all." A smug grin found itself on her face while she looked at Twilight.

"There is still every possiblity the mirror can be dangerous. If it wasn't for Princess Celestia implying the mirror to CHS wasn't dangerous, I wouldn't have just gone through."

"And like I said, I fell through by accident! One second I'm examining the mirror, the next I'm falling horn first onto someone's dresser!" Twilight flinched at that.

"Ouch, you never told me you fell on your horn."

"It wasn't important." Starlight dismissively waved her hoof and turned her attention back to the mirror. "I wonder if he even noticed the note."

"It's possible that the note didn't even get him." Twilight walked to the other side of Starlight. "It could've gone somewhere else."

"But that wouldn't make sense. The mirror to CHS only goes to CHS. Why would this mirror be any different?"

"You forget that Starswirl the Bearded, himself, created the mirror to CHS."

"Oh, yeah, and it's not like he wasn't messing with magic he didn't understand at the time he made the mirror! He's not perfect, Twilight. We, the Princess of Friendship and her student, are talking about a pony that immediately through that away without a second thought. Also, we've managed to finish his own unfinished spells, one of them showing Princess Celestia that you were ready to become a Princess!"

"I KNOW!" Twilight ducked to the floor, covering her face with her hooves and wings. "I'm just... Not ready to admit the pony I looked up to for my whole life was was anything but perfect." Starlight felt a pang in her chest at seeing her friend cowering on the floor. She decided to lay next to the young alicorn to try and ease the tension.

"I'm sorry I said that," Starlight sighed, "I also have to give it to him, bringing him and the other pillars from Limbo was a bad idea."

"Yeah..."

Starlight looked around her room, her eyes landing on the stack of photos. She grabbed one in her magic and slid it under Twilight's wings, she saw them lift a bit and drag the photo closer. She smiled and turned her attention back to the mirror. Maybe I should throw something through the mirror, make a bit of noise just in case Jason notice.

---~

~---

"Well now, Hashirama, looks like it's just us."

"You're wrong, Madara. When a Kage fights, they fight with the will of the village they protect. You're not just fighting me, you're fighting the entirety of the Hidden Leaf Village!"

"Hmph, please, you preach so much about unity and will when none of that matters! All that matters is action! So stop babbling and show me just what the Hokage is capable of!"

"Fine, one shall stand, and one shall fall."

"Why throw away your life so wrecklessly?"

"I should be asking you the same thing."

"... ..."

"..."

"Mother fucker, hit the Y button." Davis said.

"Oh, shit, right." Jason said as he pressed Y. Random locations on the television were raced over as one was landed on, a dark and (probably) dank cave with dripping stalactites and mighty stalagmites in the background, the area being lit up by a single entrance. "Hidden Snake Grotto it is."

"Damn it, I was hoping we'd get Final Valley," Davis gestured to the TV, "I mean, we got our best characters by hitting random. It only fits that we should get the best stage."

"Meh, I just want to keep my undefeated record."

"And you, sir, can just go fuck off a cliff."

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm so good at Storm 4."

"Actually, since you didn't really have a life for damn near a year, it kind of is your own fault."

"Whatever." The two began their virtual fight.

Davis, controlling Madara, immediately on the offensive, chakra dashed toward Jason, who was controlling Hashirama. Jason jumped, air dashing to catch Davis from behind. Davis hit the left trigger and warped out of the way, before groaning in irritation. Jason rushed him immediately in the air, capturing him in an air combo, but rather than finish the air combo, he air dashed again, keeping the combo longer, he dashed a third time and a fourth, before finally smashing Davis' character to the ground. Davis growled, physically standing up from the couch, Jason doing so as well, holding the Y button while Davis' character lied on the ground.

Finally, Madara stood up. Davis, pushing two buttons in succession, caused three dragons made of fire to spew from his mouth. Jason reacted by dashing backwards, still getting caught in the attack and taking damage. Jason swore as he repeatedly mashed the A button, allowing Hashirama to recover and land over a puddle. With the same succession of buttons as Davis, Hashirama threw out a giant shuriken, more popping into existence. Davis cursed as he dashed right into it, his health bar getting several bites of damage from the attack, and was thrown back afterwards. His character's armour had been broken by this point.

Jason heard a loud thunk emanate from his bedroom, a severe chilling sensation ran up his spine, a dizzy and hazy feeling filled his mind. He hadn't even noticed he looked away from the screen, and when he did look back up, he saw the still image of a silhouette being obliterated by a blue and white light, orange text was front and center stating Secret Technique Finish. He looked over to Davis, who had been looking at Jason.

"Are you alright?" Davis sat down, something Jason noticed he had also done. He nodded.

"Yeah... Just..." Jason rubbed his forhead, "I got the heaviest sense of deja vu and vertigo for a second." He turned his attention to his room, something lingering in the back of his mind, telling him to go back there. "Did you hear a noise?"

"What do mean?" Davis asked.

"... Nothing." Jason stood up and walked into his kitchen. "I'm just gonna check and see if anything fell in my room. Wanna cook up some pizza rolls for us while I'm back there?"

"Sure." Davis shrugged and walked into the kitchen too, opening the freezer door above the fridge while Jason walked down the hallway to his room, the curtain was drawn back.

It was probably nothing, just your mind playing tricks on you. He tried reasoning with himself, hoping nothing had broken itself. He looked down and found a grey, fist-sized rock on his carpet. He picked it up, seeing that it had a sort of blue colouring to it. Ah, you must've been the culprit. How did you even get in here? He turned the rock back and forth, viewing it from different angles, before placing it on his green dresser, right next to his alarm clock. The time read nine fifty-six AM. He turned to the mirror and a piece of paper caught his eye. It was rolled up like a scroll, slightly rolling back and forth as a breeze came in from his bedroom window. He walked over to it, picked it up (felt like the paper came from the 1800's), and read.

Dear, Jason

Hello friend!

Heyo

Jason,

Hi, a friend and I were just wondering if you could send something back through the mirror to show that we're still connected. Pretty please?

Signed,
Starlight Glimmer

Jason sat onto his bed, craning his neck so he didn't hit the railing of the bottom bunk. Starlight Glimmer... It all came rushing back; the tense meeting, the grilled cheeses, the question and answer session, the blue magic, the candy colored unicorn... Tiny candy coloured uncorn. Holy shit that wasn't a dream. Jason looked to his doorway, to the mirror, and back to the letter. Standing up and hitting his shoulder on the railing, he grunted as he searched the mess that was his top bunk. He pulled out a mechanical pencil with a red clip and wrote a short message onto it. A roll of clear tape made it's way into his periphery, he then looked to the rock. That must've come through the mirror too. Maybe she'll want it back. He taped the note to the oddly colored rock and gently tossed through the mirror, as if it weren't there.

"Hey, Jason," Davis called from the kitchen, "we having a rematch or what?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute." Jason quickly moved to his doorway and pulled the curtain, making it so Davis would be unable to see into the room. He noticed a fist-sized crack/hole/indent in his wooden wall, splinters sprinkled the floor below it. "I'm doing something, just get me when the rolls are done!"

"You sure you're ok?"

"Yes!" Jason turned back to the mirror, waiting for some response.

---~

~---

"Why did you throw a rock through the mirror?!" Twilight yelled, her wings flared.

"I just meant to toss it!" Starlight defended, her hooves raised as she sat of her haunches. "I wanted to get his attention!"

"I could understand that, but you just threw it with the force of Applejack trying to hit Rainbow with an apple!"

"You startled me!" She pointed at Twilight. "I was just trying to make a small bit of noise by rolling the rock onto his dresser, but then you yelled 'wait' at the top of your lungs! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"That wasn't at the top of my lungs, I was just trying to get your attention so I could say to you 'How can he send anything back if his world doesn't have magic like you said?'! What if he was writing a response to the letter and got knocked over the head?"

"Then we should go over there and see if he's alright! Maybe take him to a hospital!"

"That sounds responsible!" Both Twilight and Starlight had there hooves on each other's shoulders at this point. They lowered their heads with a heavy sigh. Before anything else could be said, Starlight saw the rock she threw roll out of the mirror, onto and off of her dresser, and land on the floor, her letter taped to it. Twilight had heard it this against the floor and looked over. "W-Wha... Bu..." She sputtered as Starlight floated the rock back. She inspected the letter and found writing on the back, in some pretty bad hoofwriting. I mean... Handwriting...

Hey Starlight
can't talk now
have company over
talk to you later
maybe an hour
waiting for response
Jason

"But-But... How?..." Twilight asked. Starlight, meanwhile, just wrote under the message and the rolled the rock through the mirror.

"An hour. That should give us some time." Starlight said as she pulled Twilight to her hooves. She walked out of the room, Twilight not so far behind.

"Some time for what?"

"We're going to ask Trixie some questions."

---~

~---

The rolled back onto Jason's built-in dresser, he grabbed it and looked under his message, finding another one.

Ok, thank you for sending a message back, I'll talk to you later. I have things that I can do within an hour, and I might also bring some other ponies along with me.

Starlight Glimmer

"Ok... I have a portal to another world... Did I get enough freakout last night about this or do I still need to do some?" Jason said as he brushed his hand through his hair. He looked over to his clock which read ten oh one AM. So I should expect them around eleven. He looked to the curtain that was now acting as a door. He chewed his bottom lip. Should I tell Davis about this or let it happen? I only wrote an hour because I was hoping he wouldn't be here long, but that might not work out. Maybe this is all just dementia, he didn't hear the rock damn near breaking my wall like I did. He smiled a bit before grimacing. No, this is too real to be be just that... Maybe I should just get Davis back here before the hour's up and let whatever happens happen. He scratched the back of his neck as he left his room, walking back out to the living room. The smell of three meat and triple cheese pizza rolls filled the room, the culprit sitting on the bottom of an upended tub being used as a table. Two paper plates sat on it, both containing around twelve pizza rolls each.

"So he lives." Davis commented as Jason sat down on the couch parallel to the TV.

"I know, right?" Jason replied.

---~

~---

"How have I not noticed this?" Twilight asked as she looked at the faded purple paint of a wagon parked just around her castle. There was a small, unlit firepit.

"Trixie gave her reason as 'the last place she would ever look for Trixie would be right under her nose'," Starlight shrugged her shoulders, "looks like she was right." Starlight trotted to the door of the wagon and knocked three times. "Trixie! It's me, Starlight! Either wake up or open up!"

"Wake up?" Twilight cocked her head.

"Trixie has the weirdest sleep schedule." Starlight banged on the door. "Hey! Wake up! I have to ask you something!" A low rattle could be heard behind the door, the wagon shaking a tiny bit. Starlight backed up a bit and stood next Twilight, they both watched as a drowsy Trixie opened the door. She was wearing her usual star spangled nightcap, as well as a matching nightshirt and pants. Trixie yawned into her hoof and looked to Starlight with tired eyes.

"Trixie was having the most wonderful dream, why did you wake her?" Trixie asked.

"Trixie, I wanted to ask you a few questions about the mirror you gave me."

"What," a silent yawn escaped her, "about it?"

"Well," Twilight started, "for starters, can you tell us how you found it?"

"Hmm, Trixie supposes she could tell you." With that, Trixie slammed the door to her wagon shut.

"Well that was rude." Twilight groaned.

"Give her a second." Starlight said. Seconds ticked by without a sound, then what sounded like a cross between a snap and a boom was heard. Smoke could be seen through the window, filling up the single room. Trixie yanked a window up and dove outside, coughing a bit as she landed, smoke billowing out from the open window. She was now wearing her cape and hat, both seemed a little covered in white dust.

"Trixie forgot she threw her-cough, cough-magician's attire into her smoke bomb collection last night." Trixie said.

"Why did you get dressed?" Starlight asked, "We just wanted to know-" She was cut off by Trixie.

"How the Great and Powerful Trixie was gifted the replacement mirror!" She waved her hoof around, as if she were talking to a large audience.

"Oh no," Starlight said as she gave a low sigh, "better get comfy, Twilight, this could take a while." The two purple ponies sat, prepared to hear Trixie's amazing story.

"So, there she was, the Great and Powerful Trixie, walking along the dirt path, on her way returning from Baltimare."

"Wait," Twilight interrupted, "you walked, all the way to here, from Baltimare?" Trixie wilted a bit.

"Trixie can't afford taxis or train tickets..."

"Sorry..."

"So, there she was, working her amazing leg muscles, when suddenly, a long pillar of fire erupted from the forest she was walking around! She watched as the orange pillar Rose and rose and rose, until it was snuffed in an instant. She thought to herself, 'What in Equestria could cause such a thing?' So, with a sense curiosity, she ventured into the forest."

"Why, in Equestria, would you do that?" Twilight asked as she rubbed her muzzle. "What if it was dragon?"

"Trixie was curious." She shrugged. "Besides, it's not like Princess Twilight is perfect either. What was it that Trixie heard of a certain purple unicorn going crazy and making the whole town obsessed with a doll?"

"Ok! You made your point!"

"Hmph."

"Please, can you not flaunt your distaste for each other so we can get this over with?" Starlight pleaded.

"So," Trixie began again, "she had trekked through and around many roots and upended trees, snaking her way to the pillar of fire's previous location, keeping watch for any dangerous wildlife as she went. Minutes had passed, but she was sure she'd find it. Eventually, she came to a stop as she saw a pane of glass on the forest floor, directly in a line of sunlight. Above it, a long hole was seemingly cut through the tree tops, going directly toward the sky. Trixie, taking a closer look, had determined that this was where the pillar of fire had risen from, this mirror had to be something special! So, she took it, trotted out of the forest with a proud and powerful smile, and placed it in her wagon. Not even two hours later, Trixie's best friend, the Great and Powerful Starlight, asked her if she had a spare mirror to replace the one she, Starlight, had destroyed. Trixie had found the reason she discovered the mirror, fate itself presented it to her so that she may aid her best friend in their endeavor. Trixie laughed, 'Ha', and proudly presented the mirror to Starlight." Trixie sat upon her haunches. "And that is how The Great and Powerful Trixie found the mirror. Why do you ask?" Trixie asked the pair of purple ponies in front of her, the both of them writing on sheets of parchment.

"Pillar of fire... Mirror was found by itself... Anything else to note, Starlight?" Twilight asked.

"Nope, I think that's every important detail." Starlight stood to her hooves, Twilight doing the same. "Thanks, Trixie, the information you gave us was really helpful." She gave her friend a short hug and immediately cantered off. Twilight gave a Curt nod to Trixie and quickly followed after Starlight.

"Wait! You haven't told Trixie why you asked her about the mirror!" Trixie called after the two of them, her hoof extended. She gave a small sigh. "Don't forget about Trixie's show tomorrow! She still needs you for the sword in the box trick!" Trixie yelled after Starlight.

"I won't forget! See you later!" Starlight yelled back.

"That took less time than I thought it would," Twilight said.

"Yep, we still have ten minutes before we get to see Jason again. Well, I get to see him again, this will be your first time seeing him."

"In the meantime, we'll need to think up some questions to ask him. Like about that pillar of fire."

"She said that the fire went upwards, which means that the fire came from the mirror, and it apparently burnt a hole in foliage above it."

"She didn't say anything about the leaves or branches being burnt though. Maybe something else created the hole, either that or something made the hole after the fire."

"I guess we'll get our answers soon enough."

---~

~---

"You said you needed to show me something?" Davis asked as he sat down on the bunk next to Jason.

"Yeah." Jason looked to the clock, Ten fifty-nine. She'll be here any minute now. Jason looked down to his phone as he tapped away at his solitaire app. He sighed. "Leave it to me to not be able to lead up to something, nor be able to explain that something either."

"You are pretty shit at explaining things." Davis nodded.

"I swear to God, I will defenestrate you one of these days." Jason put his phone into his pocket. "Look, something's going to happen in almost a minute, and you would never believe me if I told you what exactly would happen-Let me finish." Jason put his hand up to keep Davis from interrupting. "Let it also be known that I don't know exactly what will transpire, I can only guess as to what's going to happen. So, in maybe a few seconds to a minute-" Jason was unable to finish as a pair of pale purple hooves planted themselves on his dresser, accompanied by a familiar face.

"Hey, Jason!" Starlight said, a friendly smile on her face.

"Or it could happen right now, that's cool too."

Author's Note

Woo! Over 150 views!

So, be honest, did this chapter feel a tad rushed? I think so, but I'm probably a bad judge since I wrote the darned thing.

Here it is, republished and unchanged from it's previous upload... Sorry if I inconvenienced anyone.

Q&A Zwei

"Or it could happen right now, that's cool too." Jason threw his arms up a bit, letting them land at his sides. Starlight raised her hoof.

"Uh, is now a bad time?" Her eyes shifted between Jason and a silent Davis.

"I mean, there really isn't a good time for this type of thing. Y'know, multidimensional mirrors and all that." Jason gestured toward the mirror to make his point. He looked over to Davis and held back a snicker. Davis currently had his jaw on the floor, occasionally moving his lips as if to form words, a shaky hand pointed at Starlight. "Better be careful, flies think open mouths are free real estate." He heard a sound come from Davis.

"Pi... Tiny pink creature... From mirror..." Davis said.

"I'm not pink, I'm purple." Starlight retorted. After she said that, a second creature (Pony, Jason remembered) planted it's own darker purple hooves onto Jason's dresser. This one also had a horn, though it looked an inch longer than Starlight's, she had purple eyes and seemed to have flat bangs. Said bangs were a deep purple, having a two tone pink highlight near the center. Upon a closer look, Jason noted that she also stood an inch or two taller than Starlight, and had a more prominent chest. Would they even use the word 'chest'? They probably have there own word for it, but I'm still gonna call it a chest until they say otherwise. The eyelashes lead Jason to believe it was female too.

"Wow, you look even more pink when something that's a darker shade of purple shows up." Jason said, gesturing to the newer pony on his dresser, earning a pout from Starlight. "So, who's your friend here?"

"Oh, my name is Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said, causing Jason to silently snicker. "It's a pleasure to meet you..." She pointed a hoof at Jason, "You're Jason, right?" He stood up.

"Yes indeed I am." He then pulled his friend up by the shoulder, "And this is my bud Davis."

"Did..." Davis spoke, a blank expression upon his face, "did you, like... Drug me, or, something?" Jason gave him a deadpan look.

"Do I look like the type of guy who'd have anything but super specific medication?" Jason raised his hands, giving them a slight shake, almost like jazz hands. "Because of course sleep medication is gonna make you see candy colored unicorns."

"Actually," Twilight spoke up, "I'm an alicorn." This caused Jason to pause and slowly, ever slowly turn his head to her.

"I... I'm sorry," he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "an ali-what?"

"An alicorn," She continued, "a pony that has traits from all three pony tribes, pegasus, unicorn, and Earth pony." Jason blinked.

"Ok... I know what pegasi and unicorns are, but what in the Hell are Earth ponies? Are they ponies that are from this side of the mirror or...?" Jason trailed off.

"Earth ponies are ponies that don't have wings or horns, but they make up for it with their strength and endurance, they're also the best ponies when it comes to farming." Twilight stated, almost as if she had written this down and recited it.

"So, in other words," Jason said, "they got the short end of the stick."

"What!?" Both Starlight and Twilight asked in disbelief.

"From what I know, pegasi can fly, and from what I've seen, unicorns have freaking magic." Jason spread his arms, "Being good at farming doesn't even compare to the other two."

"Earth ponies are more than just farmers!" Twilight said with a stomp of her hoof, "Two of my best friends happen to be Earth ponies!"

"Hey, don't get mad at me!" Jason raised his hands up in defense, "I'm just going off of the information you gave me!"

"I..." Twilight started, but then wilted, "yeah, sorry, I guess I can't get mad for that."

"Hey," Starlight spoke up, "if we're already starting our question session, shouldn't we get to a more comfortable location, like, say, the living room?" Jason snapped his finger and pointed at Starlight.

"Excellent idea. Hey, Davis, let's ge-" Jason turned to Davis, only to find him sitting back on the bunk, giving the floor the thousand yard stare. Jason began to snap his fingers near Davis' face. "Hey, hey, hello, Earth to Davis." Jason heard one of the ponies behind him whisper 'Earth?' to the other. Whether it was Starlight or Twilight, he didn't know. Davis'eyes lit back up as he swatted Jason's hand away.

"Ok," Davis said, "I can now see why you couldn't explain why you brought me back here. This is... Pretty impossible to explain and still feel sane afterwards." He looked up toward Starlight. "So, you're the unicorn in this situation?"

"Uhh... Yes? Why do you ask?" Starlight nodded.

"And you were here last night?"

"More like seven hours ago," Jason said, "but yeah."

"So... Jason?"

"Yes?"

"Was that dream you told me you had, not a dream?"

"Looks like it." Davis rubbed his forehead to this.

"Oh my God, you fed an interdimensional alien a fucking grilled cheese?" He said, causing Starlight to tilt her head and Twilight to loudly gasp.

"F-F-F-Forbidden word..." Twilight said.

"What?" Jason and Starlight asked.

"D-During Princess Celestia's reign, she made a c-countless amount of words forbidden... That was one of th-th-them."

Jason didn't exactly know how to respond to this. Being against government enforced censorship, he really wanted to comment on the word ban, but the fact that it was during a princess's reign just threw him for a loop. He could hear the two self proclaimed ponies whispering to each other, but he was too preoccupied with his thoughts. During a princess's reign... So, when a princess was in charge of the nation... Since when the fuck is a princess in charge of anything?

"Yeah, we should get to the living room if we're going to do this," Jason rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the clock, "I have a feeling this may take a while."

---~~---

"One thousand years?" Jason asked as he gawked at the two ponies. "I have several questions, most of them starting with 'why' and 'how'."

"Actually," Twilight continued, "we just recently celebrated her one thousand one hundred and eleventh year of ruling Equestria."

"Oh my God," Jason said, still gawking, "so she's like a tardigrade."

"Tardigrade?" Twilight asked. The group had been asking and answering questions back and forth for the past half hour, with the Xbox on it's home screen. Starlight and Jason got comfortable in their previous spots while Twilight had a quill and piece of parchment in her magical grasp, a tiny inkwell floating next to her as well. Davis, meanwhile, decided to just hang back and sit on the corner of the couch Jason was at. Jason noted their saddle bags; Starlight's being filled with odd thin sheets of cloth and sticks, while Twilight's were absolutely loaded with the rough paper. Said saddle bags were sitting off in the corner of the room, allowing the interdimensional occupants to get comfortable.

"Yeah," Jason said, "it's like a weird, microscopic creature that can live in any environment and live. I think it also has the longest lifespan of anything on this planet, but I could be wrong."

"Wow." Twilight said as she scritch-scratched onto her parchment. "I wonder how similar the world Sunset lives in is to this one."

"I'd say it's very similar." Starlight said. "They have phones and game systems here. Not to mention we're talking to people right now."

"That reminds me," Twilight turned her attention back to Jason, "what's the scientific name for people?"

"Wait, for what?"

"People, you're species?" Twilight tried to egg him on.

"Uhh, people isn't the name of our species." Jason said with a shake of his head.

"I-It's not?"

"No, our species is human, and the scientific name for human is homo sapien." Jason stated.

"O-Oh." Twilight dragged her quill across the parchment and made a few more scritches onto it. Starlight gave a quiet 'huh' as Twilight gave her a look. "We'll need to ask Sunset what the people in her world are called. Just in case."

"Okie doke, my turn." Jason said as he clapped his hands. "This is, like, the fourth or fifth time I've heard the name 'Sunset', who is she?"

"Sunset's our friend," Starlight began, "she lives in a world incredibly similar to this one." Davis lifted his head and deadpanned at the two ponies.

"And with that piece of info, I can guess this isn't your first time fucking with the boundaries between worlds." Davis' curse caused Twilight to gasp again, but this time a bit more quietly. "And can you stop gasping everytime I say 'fuck'?" Twilight went to gasp, but quickly covered her muzzle with her hooves.

"I-It's just... Princess Celestia must've banned that word for a reason. Everytime you say it, I feel like this house is gonna collapse into itself!" Twilight whisper-yelled as her wings flared out.

"Actually," Starlight gained Twilight's attention, "I've never even heard of that word before today, and I've never heard of Princess Celestia banning words at all."

"That's because the words have almost been forgotten entirely, only her closest staff and students know of the list of forbidden words. Well, staff, students, and family. It wouldn't surprise me if Cadance and Princess Luna knew them."

"In other words," Jason began, "she's almost succeeded in her nation-wide censorship." He started rubbing his stubble as Davis looked to him.

"If I know you, and I do, you don't like this one bit." Davis said, only getting a nod from Jason in return.

"Is there a problem?" Twilight asked. Jason waved his hand in response.

"Let's change the subject. I think it was your turn to ask a question."

Starlight straitened up and bit her lip, thinking of a question. "Ok, what's with the blankets on the windows?" She gestured around the room with a hoof, "It's kind of unsettling." Davis spoke up.

"Oh, that's because this place turns into an oven during the summer." With a thumb, he pointed to the large blanket that hung behind the couch he and Jason sat on. "This window especially sucks between nine AM and nine PM, the sun is at an angle that just shoves light into the room. So the blankets are to try and keep both the light and heat out. Of course, the real problem with this place is that it's exterior is made of metal, so it both attracts heat and traps it inside." He turned to Jason. "I don't know how, but I keep forgetting how shitty this place is." Twilight gave a quiet 'eep' as Davis swore. "Oh don't you tell me shit is also a forbidden word."

"The amount of words Princess Celestia banned over the years is enough to fill at least three books." Twilight wilted as she said this. After rubbing the bridge of his nose, Jason took the short silence that followed as an opportunity to ask another question.

"So, are there any other princesses other than this 'Celestia' that keeps popping up."

"Actually, you're talking to one." Starlight said as she wrapped a hoof around Twilight. "Twilight here is the Princess of Friendship!" This, to Twilight's chagrin, earned a quiet snicker from Jason and a stunned look from Davis, one that, very slowly, inched into a smile.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Jason said as he spasmed a bit, keeping himself together. "Princess of what again?"

"Princess of Friendship," Starlight said again, "and yes, we know it sounds silly, but there's also a Princess of Love and a chaotic goat, so we're kind of used to it." Davis immediately stood up, hands raised, and walked through the living room to the kitchen.

"I'm out! I'm out! I'm checking my texts!" Davis spoke as he went down the hall. Both Starlight and Twilight had puzzled looks as they watched Davis leave. They turned to the still snickering Jason.

"If you're wondering about his reaction, he hates goats," Jason explained, "he says they're the spawns of Satan, but I personally believe spiders are the spawns of Satan."

"Who's Satan?" Twilight asked.

"One of the names of the Devil." Jason shrugged as he spoke. "Either that or some other demonic entity that has been mistakenly associated with the Devil over the centuries."

"Devil?" Starlight tilted her head.

"Haven't explained that either it seems, uhh..." Jason began snapping to try and jog up an explanation. "Starlight, remember when I told you what Hell was?" She nodded in response. "Ok, the Devil is basically the ruler slash prisoner of Hell. He's like a prison king of sorts... Only this prison happens to be filled with fire and brimstone."

"Hell?" Twilight asked.

"Oh! I can answer this!" Starlight said as she turned to Twilight. "Hell is kind of like Tartarus, except souls go there to be punished for eternity."

"That... Sounds like what happened to Tirek, actually." Twilight looked into the corner of her vision, tapping her chin. Starlight looked down as she blinked.

"Tirek... Tirek... That name sounds familiar but I can't place it."

"Tirek was a prisoner of Tartarus," Twilight rubbed her leg as she seemed to recall something. At least to Jason it looked like she was recalling something. "He escaped a while ago and wreaked havoc across Equestria, stealing the magic from Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike. He stole the magic from my friends... He also stole Discord's chaos magic. It was a miracle we even beat him and sent him back to Tartarus." Twilight looked down. "He's also the reason I don't have a house anymore."

Well that was an info dump. Jason thought.

"Wait, you used to live in a house?" Starlight asked.

"Yes, well, it was a library, but it also functioned as a house." Twilight heard Starlight giggle.

"Is it rude to say it's more believable to see you living in a library than a proper house?" Starlight asked with a kind smile, showing Twilight that she meant nothing by it. Twilight and Starlight had turned their attention to Jason, noticing that he was just staring at the two of them. He absentmindedly scratched his stubble and was about to say something before Davis walked back into the kitchen.

"Alright, I think I'm composed now." Davis looked over to the two ponies sitting on the couch opposite of the TV. "... On second thought, no amount of self-composing would get me ready for this." With that, he once again sat beside Jason.

"I... Damn it, Davis," Jason said, hearing a tiny gasp from Twilight, "you made me forget my question."

"Not my fault you have the attention span of a gold fish." Davis said.

"Says the guy who couldn't spell the word 'ghost' for the first eleven years he was alive." Jason shot back.

"How the Hell was I supposed to know there's an 'h' in 'ghost'?" Davis threw his hands into the air.

"Maybe by looking at any Scooby-Doo thing, like the thirteen ghosts special, that you own." Jason said. Davis looked over to the ponies.

"Do you wanna just ask a question while Jason and I try to think of one?" Davis said.

"Sure," Twilight nodded, "I've actually been wondering what's in front of us." She pointed her hoof to the TV that sat parallel to the couch she and Starlight were sitting on. Starlight's eyes grew, to Jason it looked like she was trying to hold in some excitement. Starlight threw her hoof up, looking to Jason.

"Ooh! Ooh! Can I show her?" Starlight asked excitedly.

"Uhh... Do you remember how to use the controller?" Jason asked, turning on the controller without the broken right stick and handing it over to Starlight, Davis looking on with wide eyes.

"Yep!" As Starlight said this, the controller was wrapped in the blue glow that Jason had associated with Starlight's magic. He noted that the magic felt like putting your hand through a tub of glitter. That was a fun day in first grade. Starlight turned her attention to Twilight. "Oh, this is going to be fun! Now I get to show you something." With her magic, Starlight pushed buttons and flicked sticks, showing Twilight what each button did. The two seemed to be in their own little world as Starlight explained what the controller did and it interacted with the 'Xbox'. Jason just watched as this happened, a small smile forming on his face. He felt like that one kid on the block who got a new Super Nintendo and other children were clammering to play some Mario World.

"Oh my God..." Davis finally said, "you actually showed a fucking alien how to use an Xbox..." Davis paused, not hearing Twilight gasp at the swear was now a new experience to him. "I don't know whether to slap in the back of head or pat you on the back." Jason covered his own mouth. "Dude, are you about to sneeze?"

"No." Jason said behind his hand.

"Then... why?" Davis gestured to Jason's hand.

"I have the biggest grin I've ever had in my life right now." Jason said, his words still muffled a tiny bit. He then gestured to the two ponies. "This has to be the most adorable thing I've seen in my life." Well, not as adorable as a little German Shepherd puppy running around and licking faces, but this is a close second. Jason thought.

"Not as cute as a baby Pitbull running around and licking faces," Davis said with a small smile, "but yeah, I can see what you mean."

"Spotify?" Davis and Jason, hand still covering his mouth, turned to the two ponies once more. "What's that?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know," Starlight shook her head, "Jason didn't show me all of the features on here, just a little of what the controller can do." She turned to Jason and Davis. "What's Spotify?"

"Music app." Davis said with a shrug of his shoulders. "It allows you listen to songs that are available on it."

"What kind of songs!?" Twilight asked with flared wings, sparkles in her eyes.

"Oh, y'know, songs." Davis said as he cocked his head toward Jason.

"I'm sorry," Jason said, "weren't you the one that was getting pissy with me for showing one of them how to use an Xbox? Now you don't have a problem with me showing two of them human music?" Jason didn't hear a noise from Twilight, maybe she was getting accustomed to swearing.

"Y'know, you're right." Davis held his out toward Starlight, whom still had the controller in her magic. "Hand me the controller." Davis said with a smirk.

"Don't you do it." Jason said to Davis. "I don't trust your choice of music."

"Aww, why's that?"

"Because I don't think death metal is exactly the best way to introduce another species to our music."

"Who said anything about death metal?" Davis said, his smirk growing wider.

"Screamo?"

"Nope."

"Thrash?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Then what?"

"Let me have the controller," Davis turned to the two ponies, "and I will show you what I mean."

Starlight looked between Davis and Jason, she seemed to be trying to decide. The intense stare Twilight was giving her didn't seem to be helping either. Jason could see the tension on his otherworldy friend's face, so he waved his hand.

"Alright, fine," Jason sighed, "just don't make it intense. Alright, Davis?"

"Don't worry," Davis said, "I'm sure you'll like the song I pick." Starlight looked to Jason as she gently floated the controller into Davis palm. He opened Spotify and immediately went to the search bar, letting out a small sigh as the keyboard popped up. "I keep forgetting that Xbox and PS4 have different keyboard set up." He turned to Jason, "Cover your eyes." All Jason did was block Davis and the TV from his vision. "That's not covering your eyes."

"I can't see the TV, so I'm pretty sure we're fine." Jason rolled his eyes. It feels like someone decided to shove a stick up his ass... Actually, that would make him happy. Badum-Tsh! He grinned to himself as he closed his eyes, silent chuckles escaping him.

"Know what, whatever, it's not a big deal." Davis said. Jason could hear the flick of the stick and the buttons getting tapped. He's pretty slow with console keyboards, I guess I could ask Starlight another question.

"Hey, Starlight?" Jason asked. Starlight responded by flicking her ear, not taking her sights off of the Tele. Does... Does that mean she's listening? Jason opened his mouth, and paused. Fuck... I can't think of any questions... Guess I'll just do what I usually do. "What would you do if it started to rain chocolate?"

"I would probably find Discord and tell him to stop it." Starlight replied. Jason was quick to speak.

"That's the second time you've mentioned that name..." Jason mumbled under his breath. "Okay, second question-"

"Hey, I still get to ask my question." Starlight swiveled her head to Jason for a second and looked back to the TV. Suddenly, music began to play, this song being incredibly familiar to Jason. He began to clap and stomp to the song, Davis joining him a second after.

"So," Davis said, "you sorry for doubting me?"

"I will always doubt you," Jason said, "and I'll never be sorry for it." Jason stood up as the first verse began. Clapping and stomping, the two friends sang along, only missing a beat here or there. Jason sat back down, resting his legs as he had started pacing sometime before the second verse. He turned to Starlight, "Ok, what was it you wanted to ask?"

"Oh, uh..." Starlight's ears perked up as she looked to the side, only to splay back down. "Sorry, I kinda forgot my question."

"Hey, it's no problem!" Jason said as he scratched his neck. "It happens to the best of us."

"I have a question." Twilight asked in an even tone. Sounds like she's been wanting to ask this one for a while. Jason thought to himself. "How and when did you find the mirror that connects this world" Twilight gestured to the rest of the room, "to our world?" Jason, to his own chagrin, felt a bit intimidated by, what is practically a plush toy come to life.

"Is it me, or did the tone in this room shift a little?" Jason said, tugging at the collar of his shirt. "Umm..." He spared a slight glance to Davis.

"Hey, don't look at me!" Davis said, raising his hands. "She asked you!"

"But you were there, too!"

"You funded it!"

"Alright! Fine!" Jason rubbed his shoulder, letting out a sigh. He looked to Twilight as he chewed the inside of his cheek. "Well... Um... Do you want the long or short of it?"

"What ever gets me details." She said as she floated her quill and parchment in front of her.

"Well... Alrighty then." Jason said, rubbing his hands together, sitting forward.

---~~---

"Pillar of fire..." Twilight mumbled to herself, the scritch-scratching of her quill onto rough paper hadn't stopped since Jason started, Davis filling in little gaps here and there, explaining what Jason couldn't, resulting in Twilight having almost an inch thick pile of paper on a turned over basket, alongside a couple of cups of water. "What happened after that?"

"Not a lot, if I'm being honest." Jason sipped his own cup as he sat back down, having paced through the living room and kitchen while he recanted the events. "We just kinda sat there for few seconds to see if anything would happen. Lo and behold! Nothing happened. So we just played games and talked for a while until we had to head back home." His looked to his right, staring into space. "Now that I think about it, it's kind of anticlimactic." He turned back to the ponies. "Anyways, I came home, put the mirror up on my wall, and just goofed off until she plopped out of it," he gestured to Starlight, whom in return looked off to the side to avoid Twilight's gaze, "at least I'm assuming she plopped out, since I was in a different room when it happened. You can ask Starlight for the rest of the details." Davis found this to be a good time to jump in.

"What, you're just going to gloss over the fact the fact that you fed an alien that might have been allergic to anything in this stupid house a fucking grilled cheese." Cue a flinch from Twilight. "Stop that." He turned back to Jason. "Like, I know it's stupid to be harking on it for this long, but the fact still remains."

"Oh, I'm sorry for not exactly knowing how to approach the situation of someone just showing up in my room." Jason responded. "I'll admit, I didn't tackle the situation in the best way... But I was also really tired and hungry, so you can just shut up you fffff" He looked over to the ponies and turned back to Davis, "fflan." Davis, slowly, took a step back, narrowing his eyes at Jason.

"Ok, I can tell what you were intending to call me, but the fact that you called me a flan kinda hurts more somehow."

"Deal with it, you mediocre pastry dish."

Jason heard a thump to his right, Twilight had taken this moment to hop off the couch. "Well, I think that's all we need for now." Within her purple glow, the papers and quill were put back into her saddle bags, said bags being placed on her back, Starlight following suit. "Thank you for your hospitality, but we really must be going." Twilight gave the quickest of bows and forlornly looked to the TV before turning and heading for the back room.

"Well, I guess I'll see ya later, then." Jason just gave a little wave to the two ponies, Starlight returning the sentiment.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back over in a bit..." Starlight looked to Twilight's retreating form, "though it may be with more paper. See you later." Starlight trotted after Twilight, the clops of her hooves sounding against the hard tile of the kitchen before becoming muffled thumps against the hallway carpet. Jason could just barely see the two ponies walk through the mirror, Starlight quickly glancing back then hopping through.

"Ok..." Jason turned to Davis, "now put on some heavy metal."

Author's Note

Again, sorry for the lateness of the update. The layout of my place of living is changing and we've been getting new furniture, work's a pain in the ass (as always), and then there's also the fact that I'm lazy and just read a bunch of other people's stories on this site or watch anime... Or watch whatever ends up in my recommendeds on YouTube.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Trust and Strife, a Magical Investigation

The Next Morning

"Hey, Davis?" Jason asked as he rummaged through his fridge, wearing a deep red shirt with an NES controller on it and white shorts.

"Yeah, dude?" Davis called from the couch as he played Warframe. He was wearing a white shirt with an Oriental flower pattern and black skinny jeans.

"Have you ever thought that... What we're currently experiencing is just our life flashing before our eyes as we lay on our death bed? That, since we exist as a series of memories, our life is basically nothing but us recollecting whilst we're dying?"

"..."

"..."

"Dude, you're scaring me. Are you alright?"

"I'm scaring you?" Jason stood and turned to look at Davis. "I'm scaring you? How the fuck do you think I feel? I had to deal with that thought for two hours last night while I cried myself to sleep!" Davis, upon hearing this, gave a small chuckle. "I mean it's funny now, but still!"

"Ok, here's a solution." Davis hadn't looked away from the TV. "Either get a psychiatrist, or get really really fucking stoned, I got a guy who can hook you up."

"Nah, I don't have the money for either. Besides," Jason pulled a small bag of shredded mozzarella cheese from the fridge and ate a small handful, "I'd probably be the paranoid type of high."

"Yeah, that makes sense. You never know til ya try, though."

Thump

---~

~---

Earlier That Morning

"No, Starlight!"

"But Twilight!"

"No! Princess Celestia hasn't even responded to the letter I sent her last night, so I'm not even sure if it'd be responsible to do a second investigation by ourselves. Even with that, it would still be irresponsible of me to allow you to take somepony else to this new world."

"But you know he won't tell anypony." Starlight fell to the floor as she pleaded. The two were in Starlight's room in front of her dresser, discussing what their nest course of action should be. "Please let me take him!"

"Starlight..." Twilight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle... If there is such a thing. "You're not a filly that found a new toy, you're practically the same age as me. You're a grown mare that found a portal to another world. If anything, we need to keep this as secret as possible until the Princesses deem it safe for public knowledge. For Celestia's sake, the CHS mirror isn't even public knowledge."

"Hey, if you found a mirror to another world, you'd be acting the same way!" Starlight booped her friend on the snoot.

"I... dy... I would not!"

"You totally would!"

"Twilight!" The two purple ponies paused their heated argument as Spike ran in, scroll in claw. "Princess Celestia finally replied!" The scroll shined within Twilight's purple sparkles as it flew to her from the young drake's claw. Her eyes quickly scanned over it, her lips silently moving.

"What's it say?" Starlight asked as she cleaned her neck to read the letter.

"Really..." Twilight said before reading the letter over one more time. A small, almost unnoticeable smile adorned her lips. "Well, looks like you're getting what you want faster than expected."

"Really!?" Starlight hopped a little, before her face turned to confusion. "Wait, why?"

Twilight's eyes closed as she lets out a sigh, Starlight could barely make out a small squee. The alicorn turned to Starlight. "Princess Celestia herself has decided that we should conduct another investigation. She has informed both Princess Luna and Cadence about the situation and it has fallen upon the two of us, with the aid of three others, to examine the situation further." Twilight puffed up her chest as she looked to the mirror. "I'll go get the journal and talk to Sunset to see if we can work around her schedule. Starlight, you should wait at the castle's main door for a bit."

"What? Why?" Starlight pivoted her head back as she looked at Twilight curiously. Said alicorn looked to her bangs for a moment.

"On second thought, maybe you should wait at the station for him."

"Twilight, please stop being cryptic."

"You wanted to talk with Jason again, right?" Twilight asked as she gave Starlight a smile, receiving a nod from the light-purple student. "Once our guest arrives, the two of you are allowed to go through the mirror into Jason's world and see what types of magic you can find, even if it's just a little spark." Twilight turned to walk out the room, only to turn immediately back to Starlight. "Oh! You should also see if you can talk with the other four peop- I mean, humans, that were present during that... Ritual? Ritual. Princess Celestia wants to know if the connection between our worlds was because of their actions or something on our end." And with that, Twilight turned to trot out the room. Starlight hung her head.

"Just because you're a princess, doesn't mean you have to act like the royal sisters." She said under her breath. Although, it looks like I'm not the only one excited about this. She smiled at this thought. And with the way she was being cryptic, I'll give it three guesses on which stallion will show.

---~~---

Starlight stood at the train station near the edge of Ponyville, wearing her trademark saddlebags, despite nothing being in them. Except for her kites, but that's for her and only her to know. Patiently, she tapped her hoof on the wooden platform as she waited for a specific train to show up and deliver to her a specific stallion. She squinted her eyes, noticing smoke in the distance. The source of the smoke was coming closer, as was evident by the sound of wheels chugging along the track. Coming into view was the crystal train. Perfect. She thought. She only needed to wait a moment before the train slowly halted, the doors opening to let it's passengers exit and let new ones enter. Ponies around her hustled about, but she didn't care for them at the moment. Three guesses as to whom was sent here, and my guess number one is... She stood off to the side so as to avoid being pushed and shoved as she scanned the crowd for-

"Sunburst!" Starlight hollered as she waved her hoof, catching her orange unicorn's attention. He adjusted his glasses.

"Oh! Hey Starlight!" Sunburst made for a quick trot towards Starlight. "I actually wasn't expecting to see you until I got to the castle."

"Twilight and I thought it would be a good idea if I met you halfway." Starlight took notice of the overstuffed saddlebag he was wearing. "So, what did you bring?" She asked as she led him to the castle.

"You mean my bags? Well, neither Princess Celestia nor Princess Cadance told me what my specific duty was. So I just kinda brought everything I thought I would need." Using his magic, he levitated various items as he called their names. "Pencils, scrolls, note cards, quills, inkwells, rulers, a few maps, a couple compasses, a clock, a few books on languages and ways to translate any if we run into one we don't know, a-" He stopped as he heard giggling from Starlight.

"That last one is oddly specific, don't you think?"

"Hey, it's hard to know what you're supposed to bring when you don't even know what you're supposed to be doing."

"Fair point." Starlight nodded. "So, neither of the Princesses even mentioned why you were sent here?"

"Nope, they just said it was important." Sunburst turned his head to Starlight. "So, now that I'm here, what am I supposed to be doing?" Starlight took a quick glance around her, nopony was in direct earshot.

"Do you want the long or the short of it?"

---~~---
-+-+-+-+-+-
---~

~---

Both Jason and Davis turned to the source of the sound. It had come from the back room. I'mma guess that's Starlight's doing.

"Aight, Davis," Jason said, "you stay out here, I'll see either what that was or what she wants." Davis shrugged and continued to play as Jason walked down his hall to the mirror.

He looked at the dent in the wall from yesterday, it hadn't gotten any bigger. That's a relief. A quick glance at the floor showed the same rock from yesterday, a note attached to it.

Hello again!
A friend of mine
The Princess thought it would be best if an old friend (not Twilight) and I were to investigate your world again.

We will be waiting for correspon
Write back whenever you have time, we'll be waiting.

Your friend,
Starlight Glimmer

Jason glanced to his work apron and took out a blue pen, writing on the back of the note.

Yeah, sure, just give me a couple of minutes so I can set some stuff up.

I'll send another note when I'm done.

And like that, he rolled the rock through the mirror. His eyes lingered on the spot the rock had passed through. I wonder if... He walked back out to the kitchen, grabbing some apples from the fridge and a knife.

"Was it Starbright?" Davis asked.

"It's Starlight, and yeah, she's coming over with another friend." Cutting board in place, he started dicing up the apples. "It's funny, I feel I should be more excited for this, y'know, magical aliens from another dimension..." Jason trailed off.

"I'm guessing there's a 'but'."

"But... I dunno, I just... I dunno..." He shrugged.

"You don't know... What?" Davis exited the game and started up Naruto Storm 4.

"Fucking... God, you know damn well I can't explain shit." Jason slid the little apple cubes into a bowl. "I guess I'm at a weird... Homeostasis right now. Like, I'm still a bit in shock that this is real, I guess."

"Oh! Like when you're having a dream and you can't tell if it is or not?"

"I mean, kinda?" He threw the knife and board into the sink. "It also doesn't help that I haven't exactly seen her world... Speaking of which," Placing the bowl on an upturned basket in the main room, he went to and opened the fridge, taking out a prepared gallon of ice tea, "what do you think her world looks like?" Davis sat up a little, tapping his foot on the carpet.

"Well... I don't wanna seem racist to an entirely new intelligent species from another world..."

"Specist?"

"That'll do, I don't wanna seem specist, but when I think 'talking magical candy colored tiny horse creature', I also think plains of daisies and wheat that they just frolic around." Jason couldn't hold in his chuckle.

"Alrighty then."

"Why? What do you think her world looks like?"

"Umm... Pandora, I guess. And not like Pandora from Greek mythology, I mean-" Jason was cut off as Davis spoke.

"Pandora from Avatar, yeah, I understand."

"But, like, the only way to actually know what her world looks like would be to go there, and I don't think I'm quite ready for that." Jason plopped himself onto the couch parallel to the TV. "I don't think k I'll be ready for that for while."

"Kinda like your sex life?"

"Go fuck off a cliff." Jason stood again and grabbed a piece of paper from the small table tucked away in the corner left of the entertainment center. +Alright, I think I got everything set up, feel free to hop on over.+ He wrote. Now, all he had to do was send the letter through the mirror.

He walked back down the hall to the mirror, looked to the note, back to the mirror, folded up the note several times, and gently tossed it through the mirror. Can anything go through the mirror? What if a mosquito decided 'Oh, hey, this looks fun' and just flew through the damn thing? He turned to his alarm clock, nine thirty on the dot. He sat on his bunk just as Starlight's familiar "purple" face came through the mirror.

"Hey, Star." Jason greeted with a two-fingered salute

"Hey Jason." She said, taking a step before pausing. "Wait, 'Star'?" Jason shrugged.

"Figured I'd give you a nickname." He stood from the bunk. "That- That's not a problem, is it?"

"What, no. I just wasn't expecting it." Jason let out a quiet sigh. She slowly took the drawer/steps down as another face emerged from the mirror. This one had an orange coat, a dual tinted red mane that belonged to a crack addict, a goatee of the same color, and a pair of glasses resting on the white bridge of it's snout. He couldn't exactly tell the gender this new pony, since the shape and overall feel of them was vastly different to Starlight. At the base of it's neck looked to be a the top of a blue and teal cloak or a robe with a tall standing collar. "Jason, this is my foalhood friend, Sunburst." Said pony adjusted it's glasses with a white hoof. "Sunburst, this is Jason." Sunburst stood at the edge of the dresser, showing more of the star-studded cloak, and extended hoof to Jason.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, uh, Jason." He said. Definitely a dude's voice, if a bit nasally. Jason thought.

"Pleasure to meet ya, too." Jason shook his hoof, thinking that was what Sunburst was going for. When the orange pony smiled, he figured he was correct. Huh, so that's what their fur feels like. He stood back as he watched the pony carefully maneuver down the substitute steps. He looked around at the new environment. "Alright, so, let's go to the living room, I guess. We can do another question session once we sit and get comfortable."

"Actually," Starlight spoke, "I was wondering if we could check something." Her horn glew that familiar shade of blue as some wires connected to metal rods were levitated out of her saddlebag, causing Jason to take a few steps to the right.

"And immediately I am concerned." He pointed at the hovering equipment. "What is that?"

"It's thaumetric equipment. We brought some over to measure the amount of magic this location has, as well as you and your friends." She left a small pause. "If that's alright with you, of course." Jason took a wary glance at the still floating wires and rods as he chewed on the inside of his cheek.

"It won't hurt, will it?" He asked. Sunburst shook his head.

"It shouldn't be painful, whatsoever, it's actually a pretty simple process. Though, it'd be easier to explain once we get settled." Sunburst and Starlight followed Jason down the hall and through the kitchen into the main room, where Davis was now playing MegaMan 1, the chiptune music playing at a suitable volume. Jason didn't look at Davis, as he no doubt had the face of a serial killer about to snap. The ponies, however, were more interested in what was happening on screen.

"Ooh. What's this?" Starlight asked, tilting her head.

"The bane of my existence." Davis seethed. He was on the Cutman stage, and was doing poorly, getting hit by the bullets as he ran up the ladders. With every hit, Jason could see Davis' eye twitch.

"Dude, maybe you should give me the controller." Jason extended his hand to Davis, who only gave it a glance before returning to the game.

"I can do this, I just need to believe and I can get past this-" A bullet catches him from the left, followed by the tell-tale sign of death in MegaMan. The game over screen popped up. "Stupid God damn bullshit! Fuck!" As he said this, Davis violently shot up as he gently tossed the controller upwards, letting it fall back into his hands. Jason had trouble keeping himself together as he covered his mouth, so as not to let Davis hear his quiet laughter. Starlight, on the other hand...

"Umm..." Starlight raised her hoof as she took a step back, "Are you... Is he alright?" In response, Davis flopped back onto the couch, letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Yeah." Davis said. "I just need to calm down for a bit." He let out another sigh and sat forward, looking to Starlight. "Sorry for the langua- I mean, 'forbidden words'."

"No need to be sorry," Starlight said, "those words don't mean anything to me."

"I'm sorry?" Sunburst spoke up. "Forbidden words?"

"Your friend, Twilight, told us that some words we use are apparently forbidden in your world." Davis said. "Ones she reacted to are fuck, shit, and I think damn." Davis gestured to the ponies. "So, what's in the bags this time?" Starlight levitated the same rods and wires she had before.

"Taumetric equipment. Used for measuring the amount, and the range of control, of magic you have." Starlight said.

"There's more to it than that," Sunburst continued, "it also measures-" He was cutoff by Davis waving his hand.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm gonna stop you right there." He said. "Neither me, nor Jason, are gonna a understand what you're about to say, and I don't mean to be rude, but I think it would be faster if we just got this over with."

"I mean," Jason spoke, "I'd like to learn about what's going to happen."

"Jason, I swear to Christ."

"C'mon, Davis. At least let them give us the cliff notes version."

"Fine." Davis said with sigh. He turned to the ponies. "So, how does this work?" Sunburst and Starlight looked to each other before the rods were given to Davis.

"Alright." Starlight took out a machine; looking to be a weird mix between a seismograph, a radar, and a typewriter, placing on the floor next to the overturned basket. Wires attached from the rods to the front of the machine. "First, you hold on to these rods, making sure the wires are coming from the bottoms." Davis did so. "Next," Starlight took out what appeared to be a colander with a black box on top of it, wires attached from the box-like structure to the machine, "we put this on your head."

"Woah!" Davis said in alarm. "You're not brainwashing me, are you!?"

"What!?" Starlight took a step back. "Why in Equestria would we do that!?"

"I've seen how this goes down," Davis said, "person agrees to be tested by alien technology, then in two hours the world is controlled by the aliens!"

"We're not! W-We aren't!..." Starlight continued to step back until she bumped into the counter that separated the main room from the kitchen, sliding down to the sit on the floor. She shook her head with obvious fear in her eyes. Sunburst was by her side in an instant, comforting her.

"Starlight," he said, "Starlight?"

Holy shit, Jason thought, this fucking escalated quickly. Uhh... He looked to Davis, who seemed confused, to Sunburst, trying to help his friend, to Starlight, who looked completely distraught. Fuck! Brain, think of something! Now is not the time to be stupid! His eyes were drawn to the rods as Davis sat them down on the couch cushion.

"Star? Sunburst?" Jason said, gaining Sunburst's attention. Jason grabbed the rods and the colander headpiece, examining them. The rods weren't much to look at, aside from the wires looking like they were part of the rods themselves. The headpiece, however, seemed much lighter than it should've been. It had dark-colored padding on the inside, clearly for comfort, and two slots on the side with a hole nearing the top. It looked about an inch in diameter. He spared a glance at the ponies and assumed the hole was for unicorns, considering the horn and all. This can't be a good idea. Guilt, doubt, fear, these were what Jason felt the most, the emotions pulling at his mind. He didn't know what the best course of action was. I never fucking do. He turned back to Sunburst and Starlight, trying to talk in calm tone. "Hey, d-do you guys need a minute. I'm sorry about this, but..." He trailed off, words escaping his mind as he tried to think of something to say, anything to say. Instead, he looked to Davis, turned to the ponies, dropped the equipment on the couch, and got up. He took slow, careful steps, before sitting to their left. "I'm really sorry about this. Humans don't have the... Best... Interpretations of aliens. Most of what we know is mostly, if not entirely, fictional. I know that's a terrible excuse, but it's honest. You guys can leave if you want, I'll understand." He turned to the rods and headpiece he left, an idea coming to mind. "Or, if you still want. You could test me." He looked back to the ponies, contemplating whether or not he should embrace the two to seem friendly, but decided against it. "I'd be up for learning something about magic, i-if you guys are still willing, that is." He waited for an answer as Sunburst turned back to Starlight, Jason's view of her being obstructed by the orange pony. He scooted to the left a bit to give them some space.

"...-t." Jason heard a sound come from his right, although he couldn't tell if it was a word or just heavy breathing.

"I'm... Sorry, what was that?" He asked.

"Alright." Starlight said. She stood and walked over to the machine, turning it so the radar-like screen was facing Jason. "You said you were being honest, so I'll trust you." Jason was taken aback by this.

"What? 'Trust me'?" He asked, receiving a nod from Starlight. "I think you've got this the other way around, I should be trusting you guys."

"Why don't we trust each other?" Starlight asked, giving a small smile.

"But," Jason continued, "what do you need to trust me for?"

"Let's... Not worry about that. Just get comfortable, relax, and put the equipment on..." Starlight said. "Not in that order, but, you get what I mean, right?"

"I... Guess?" Jason said. He got back to the couch across from the TV and put the headpiece on. "The weird hole goes in-front, right?" He pointed to the hole he suspected a horn went through.

"Y-Yes." It was Sunburst's turn to speak, apparently. "It's usually for ponies or other creatures that have horns in the center of their forehead." Jason grinned.

"Ha, called it." Jason grabbed the rods, trying to get more comfortable in his seat. "Alright, now what?" Starlight turned the machine's screen to face him again.

"Ok," Starlight let out a small sigh, "now, I just need to turn it on. You'll feel a slight chill when that happens. Or maybe a slight warmth, that differs from pony to pony."

"But I'm not a pony." Jason said with a light-hearted grin.

"You know what I mean." Starlight turned the machine on. Jason wasn't sure how, since she didn't touch it, and her blue magic glow didn't envelope it. What Jason was sure about, though, was that the second it turned on, every joint in his body felt odd. He could feel his muscles react to something that wasn't there, yet they stayed in their relaxed position by his side. Paper started feeding out of the machine, five different rows being visible. From left to right: he saw a green line that spiked and plateaued, reminding him of a heart monitor; a red line that made a constant back and forth, spiking to the right every once in a while; a black line that gave him a bit of a scare, completely erratic spikes to the left and right, almost touching the lines to its right and left, with no pattern, at least not one Jason could identify; a blue line that slowly went back and forth in a slow, wave-like pattern; and a row of, what looked to be, random Braille, as if someone had taken a Braille keyboard and just started mashing random keys. He couldn't make heads or tails of any of it.

He gave Davis a quick glance, seeing that his friend wasn't looking at anyone, pony or human. He had his arms crossed as he sat on the couch, his eyes turned away from the other three in the room. Jason felt that same guilt and doubt again. His mind began to focus more on his friend and the awkward sensation his joints and muscles were feeling. What if Davis had a point? He thought. I mean, it's not like it's out of the realm of possibility. Maybe I made the wrong call, what if this is the start of some weird conditioning experimant? What if my partaking in this situation is the beginning of some global enslavement plan. What if- He was brought out of his thoughts by a ticking sound coming from the machine. The valleys of the green line had lessened in length, the spikes becoming more and more common. The red line had shifted, once it stayed generally in the middle of its row, now it had moved to the right slightly, almost overlapping with the black line, which was still just as erratic as before. The blue line had stayed the same as well, including the random Braille-like pattern to its right. He saw Starlight and Sunburst rouse a bit, a bit of panic shaping their features. They both looked at Jason with, what he felt was, concern. What if I'm being stupid. He felt his breathing return to normal. Actually, he hadn't even noticed his breathing had become irregular until it already passed. No, stupid isn't right. Ignorant? That doesn't sound right either. Whatever it is, I shouldn't feel this way. At least, I don't think I should feel this way. I said I would trust her, and if I become some mind controlled pawn, then it's my own damn fault. He saw the green and red lines return to their earlier patterns and positions. Eventually, the machine was turned off and the paper stopped, a good fifteen feet of rolled up paper, relieving Jason of that sensation.

"Welp," Jason said, "that was an experience." Sunburst carefully tore the paper from the feed with his own yellow glow and scanned his eyes over it a few more times, before handing it to Starlight, who did the same. "Is... Is it good?" He asked. "Is it bad? Don't just leave me in suspense guys."

"Well," Starlight said, using her magic to turn the paper to Jason. "First off, we should explain what each column means. The green is your heart beat, which I'm sure you've already deduced. The red line is the rate at which information is carried and fired through the neurons in your brain." She paused, her hoof lingering over the black line. She bit her lip. "Would you rather have the others explained first before this one?" Jason didn't know how to answer that. The fact that she was dodging the black line in general could only mean something horrible.

"Save the black line for last..." He said.

"Ok." Her hoof went for blue. "This blue line here," she tapped the paper, "measures the amount of magic within you in wavelengths. The shorter the wavelength, the greater the amount of magic. This final pattern in the paper shows the amount of control you have over the magic within you. I know it may look random, and it kind of is, but this shows that your control over your magic is almost nill."

"Mind if I guess something?" Jason asked, receiving a 'carry on' gesture from both ponies. "Does a more regular pattern in the fifth row show more control over magic?"

"You hit the nail right on the head." Sunburst said. " Each set of three dot wide, four dot tall margins is different character. Now, think of each character as a number, from zero to nine. The range of control can go from an ever repeating number like one-one-one-one or four-four-four-four, meaning complete control over your magic, to... Well, this." He tapped the paper. "We're basically at the numerical value of pie(π), not a single number nor series of numbers repeats."

"One more question." Jason said.

"Yes?"

"What does the specific number mean? Like, if the pattern were to have the same repeating singular number, what do different numbers mean in that situation? What's the difference between two's and three's, between five's and nine's?"

"Well, the numbers was just an example. These characters don't really hold a numerical value themselves, but more of a meaning that would have to be deciphered." Sunburst scanned his eyes over the paper again. "There has never been a single pony, or creature for that matter, who has ever gotten a completely repeating pattern of the same character. At least, none that has been recorded."

"Oh..." Jason... Didn't quite know how to take in this information. On one hand, it was incredibly fascinating to learn the science of something that had been nothing but a fantasy until two days ago. On the other... He couldn't really understand much of it. "So... I guess that just leaves the black line." As he said this, the two ponies cringed.

"About that," Starlight said, "it regesters... Stability." Jason's stomach did a flip at that. While this whole thing felt like trying to learn a whole other language without a guide, two plus two will always equal four. The most erratic and chaotic line on the whole paper, the line that had the experts on magic cringe, was the line that showed how stable the magic within him was.

"Oh... Christ..." He said.

"The good news is," Starlight continued, her voice took on a more cheerful tone, yet contained a nervous laugh, "the amount of magic within you is small, so even though these are the worst stability charts I've ever seen, it doesn't mean much!" Immediately, she planted her hoof onto her face. "Wow, Glimmer, way to put that in the worst way possible."

"Hey now," Jason said, "I'm just happy that I do have magic." He took off the headpiece and placed it next to him with the rods. "So, why is my heart rate important?"

"To make sure you're alive." Starlight said with a smile.

"Don't be such a-" Don't say 'smartass'. "-wiseguy." Jason responded with his own smile.

"The first two lines are here to detect any irregularities in your vitals, specifically your heart and brain." Sunburst said, tapping the red and green lines. "In fact, the instability of your magic actually brings up an odd point." Jason didn't like the sound of that.

"What would that be?"

"Usually, magic this unstable would cause your vitals to be all over the place. Aside from that fear-induced spike earlier, your vitals are pretty steady." He took another look at the paper, his eyes narrowed at it as he inspected each end. "Wait, Starlight?"

"Yes?" She responded.

"Take a look at this." Both ponies studied the ends of the paper, bringing the most recent part of the paper above the beginning. He spoke to her in a hushed tone. "The end of his magic wavelength is just a sixteenth of an inch shorter than the beginning."

"But that would mean..." Starlight's voice became too quiet for Jason to hear, and he didn't like what that could mean.

"Shorter wavelengths means a higher amount of magic, right?" Jason asked, gaining the attention of the two ponies. "You said that earlier, right?" Sunburst nodded. "And if my magic is super unstable, and increasing... That's a bad thing, right?" The ponies looked to each other, then back to Jason.

"Well," Starlight said, "we won't know for a few days."

"... What?" Jason asked, receiving a sigh from Starlight.

"Within the time it took for a full scan, your magic only increased by a very miniscule amount. Considering the time it took for the increase to happen, I'd say we won't know the consequences for at least three days, maybe four." Starlight lowered her head.

"I... Guess I can wait that long." Jason said. "Actually, I may need to wait till next Monday."

"Why's that?" Starlight asked.

"I have to work the next four days, and I work closing shifts." Jason said, scratching his stubble. "Maybe we can meet early in the morning. Eight or nine sound good?"

"That... Sounds doable." Starlight said with a nod. Before she could speak again, Davis cut in.

"Starlight," he called her attention, "sorry about what I..." Davis didn't look directly at her, instead opting to stare at the floor. "I'm... What Jason said is right. About humans not having the best interpretations of other beings." He Dave a low sigh. "I'm not sorry about what I said, but I am sorry that I said it." His eyes trailed up to her own. "Sorry about the half-assed apology, but it's how I feel right now." Starlight turned her own eyes to the floor. "I'm still a bit paranoid, but I'd be willing to use the equipment if you want me to." She looked back.

"Only if you want to." She said. Davis held a hand to Jason, who then placed the rods and the handle for the headpiece in the palm of his hand. He put the headpiece on and got into a relaxed position, taking a sigh.

"Alright, I'm ready." He said. Jason, now on the viewing end of the experiment, couldn't really tell when the machine was turned on. He didn't even see Davis twitch, which would've been a good indicator. "Oh God," Davis said, "It feels like I'm laying in jelly."

"How would you know what that feels like." Jason asked.

"You ever dip your finger in a jelly jar?" Davis asked back, getting a nod from Jason.

"Let me guess, 'imagine that, but on your whole body'?" Jason asked.

"Yup." The paper began feeding from the machine again. Jason wasn't interested in the red nor the green lines. What he kept his attention on were the black and blue lines. The black line, he could tell, wasn't reaching to the left and right quite as far as his own. The blue line, Jason could hardly tell a difference between his and Davis', same for the row of dots. Eventually, fifteen feet of paper later, the machine stopped and Davis let out a loud sigh of relief. "Not gonna lie, I don't want to experience that again."

"Hm." Sunburst and Starlight began comparing the paper to Jason's. "It looks like Davis' magic, while still unstable, isn't quite as unstable as Jason's."

"Plus," Starlight said, "the amount of magic Davis has is also lower, the wavelength is almost an inch longer." This earned an unwholesome chuckle from the two humans. If the ponies heard, they didn't bring attention to it. "The control pattern looks just as crazy, meaning almost zero control." It seemed the ponies were talking more to themselves than to the humans. They kept speaking to each other in hushed tones.

"So, anything else you guys need to check up on?" Jason asked.

"Now we need to check the area for any ambient magic." Sunburst said, lifting his cloak a bit to access a pair of saddle bags underneath. He pulled out a smaller, similar looking machine to the one already sitting on the floor, with an absence of wires.

"You've had that on you this whole time?" Jason asked. "How is your back not in pain?"

"It's actually lighter than you think." He said as he extended an antenna from the top of the machine. "Hmm..."

"What's wrong?" Starlight asked.

"It's nothing. I was just wondering if it would be a better idea to test for ambient magic outside of the house."

"Uhhh..." Jason cut in. "I really don't think that's a good idea."

"Why's that?" Sunburst asked.

"I think I agree with Jason on this." Starlight said. "Humans in this world are unfamiliar to us. What if one saw us and immediately panicked."

"What makes you say..." Sunburst trailed off as he looked at Davis. "Yeah, forget I said anything."

"I mean," Jason said, "if you really want to, I'm sure we can think of something."

"Like what?" Davis said. "Are we gonna cover them with blankets and take them to the alley?"

"I dunno, maybe?" Jason shrugged "what time is it anyways?" Davis pushed the home button on the controller, bringing up the time in the bottom right corner of the TV.

"Twelve forty-two." He said.

"It's only been three hours?" Jason asked as he looked to the TV. "Feels like it's been longer than that." He rubbed his forehead.

"I know a cloaking spell." Starlight said. "It only lasts a minute or two, but that should be enough to get a reading from outside." Davis and Jason looked to each other, hesitation clearly on their minds.

"I don't know..." Davis said. "Every part of my body is telling me this is a bad idea." Jason stood and pointed to the hallway.

"Gimme a sec, I'll be right back." He said, storlling through the kitchen and down the hall. He stepped into his room and looked over his top bunk, finding a miriad of thin blankets. That may not be such a bad idea. He grabbed two, a light blue one, and a dark green one. While not big enough to sleep in, they seemed big enough to cover a large dog. Perfect. He walked back to the main room, where Starlight was munching on the chopped apple cubes. Oh, I actually forgot those exiested.

"What're you doing with those blankets?" Davis asked with narrowed eyes.

"Well," Jason began, "I figured we'd all go camping in the late hours of the night and watch fairies fly by- the Hell do you think I'm doing. We're going with what you said earlier." Jason placed the blankets on the couch Davis sat upon.

"What!? Dude, I was-"

"Joking, I know. But it's not that bad of an idea." Jason gestured to the TV. "It's not even one yet, the only neighbor I have that's still at home right now would be Judy, and she's most likely asleep. If we're quick about this, we won't even need the..." Jason paused before turning to Starlight, "you said 'cloaking spell', right?" She nodded. Jason turned to Davis. "Yeah, we won't need that if this goes right." Jason grabbed the blankets and showed them to the ponies. "Alright, put these over yourselves." Starlight and Sunburst glanced to each other before grabbing the blankets in their magic, Starlight grabbing the blue, while Sunburst grabbed the green. "Those blankets are pretty thin, so once we're outside, you should be able to see just fine." Jason, after awkwardly walking around the ponies, went and opened the front doors, allowing light to completely flood the room. "Hey, Davis, we're in luck. It's nicer out here than it was yesterday."

"Don't try dragging me into this." Davis said. "This was your stupid idea, I'm staying inside."

"Technically, this was your stupid idea. I'm just using it."

"Whatever, I'm still not going outside." Davis picked up the controller and switched over to Halo. "You still have Xbox live gold, right?"

"Nope."

"Ffffffff-" Davis switched over to YouTube, "There goes that idea, I wonder if Markiplier uploaded anything today." Jason stood there for a few seconds, waiting for Davis to say anything else. When nothing came, he just walked outside.

"You guys comin'?" He asked the ponies. After Sunburst placed the smaller machine back into his bag, the two covered themselves with the blankets and followed after Jason.

---~

~---

He wasn't joking when he said it would be bright enough to see through the thin blankets. In fact, calling what Sunburst and Starlight wore 'blankets' seemed a bit of a compliment, as they were more like a thin sheet compared to what Starlight was used too. Starlight, despite how green the grass looked, could feel how dry they were on the bottoms of her hooves. They weren't as vibrant as she was used too. She stopped for a second as she took a quick glance around her. To the left of Jason's... place... was a large, brown house surrounded by a cained fence, a small wire rapping around the top with a yellow sign saying 'Danger/Electric Fence'. To the right, was a large white house with a white plastic fence. Across the black road was a building that looked to be the seize of four three-room houses, an apartment maybe. She looked to the sky, but couldn't see anything other than the blue of her cover.

"Could you guys not gawk around and follow me, please?" Jason asked quietly. Starlight turned to see his basic figure, but couldn't tell the features of his face. "You guys look like a bunch of confused dogs walking around like that."

"It's hard to look at detail when your vision is obscured by something." Sunburst said.

"You guys can look later," Jason said, "I need you to follow me so you can do the scan." He began to walk backwards, moving his arms as if to say 'hurry up'. "Now, let's go." He led the two ponies through the long yard on the side of his place, leading them through a narrow space between the two opposing fences. The dirt and gravel of the alley didn't seem to Sunburst from what she could see, which wasn't very much since his face was covered. "Alright, I think this good enough." Jason said. Starlight and Sunburst uncovered their faces and got a good look around. They were standing to the right of a dumpster, which could easily fit five grown ponies. The alley was packed with heliotrope bushes, tiny light-purple petals occasionally falling and drifting through the air. Cotton also drifted through the air, landing and falling into clumps on the sides of the alley. Starlight got a good look at the sky, at least a good as look one can get in an alley way, and saw complete blue, not a single cloud.

"So, does the weather here work on it's own?" She asked.

"Yeah," Jason said, "why do you ask?"

"I just thought I should ask." She said. Sunburst took the machine out and pulled the antenna once again, carefully placing the machine on a level patch of gravel-free dirt. He started it up, a low clicking filling the air as paper fed out of it, only two rows on the paper, the familiar black and blue lines. She glanced to the side and saw Jason was leaning against the metal fence. It wasn't a relaxed kind of lean, though, more so scared. Although his arms were crossed and he tapped his foot, he seemed ready to run at a moment's notice. His gaze never left the machine. Moments later, the machine stopped its feed of paper, Sunburst quickly tearing it off with his yellow magic. Starlight moved to his side so she could see the details. Throughout the whole length of the paper, the blue line made half a wavelength, with the black line completely straight.

"Well," Jason asked, "how is it?"

"I... Don't really know what to say." Sunburst said. "It seems the magic in the air is so small, it can't even get a read on the stability." He looked up to Jason. "With a reading like this, I would be less surprised that this magic is emanating off of something rather than being natural to the air." Jason leaned into the fence more.

"That sounds bad." He looked to Starlight. "Is that bad?"

"Well," she said, "I don't really know." She scanned her eyes over the paper again. "Just like when we measured yours and your friend's magic, I've never seen anything like this. We..." she looked back up to Jason, "we may have to check back again, just to see if this is natural."

"Just like my magic?" He asked.

"Just like your magic." She nodded. An uncomfortable silence filled the alley way, only occasionally broken by the chirping of a bird a few feet away. After putting the machine back into his saddle bag, Sunburst spoke up.

"I think it would be best if we went back inside." He said.

"Yeah, probably." Jason agreed. He took the lead once again, Starlight and Sunburst following close behind him. The walk back was uneventful, aside from when Jason went to open the door.

---~

~---

Jason didn't know how to feel about this new information. He didn't really have anything to compare it too. Magic and magic wavelengths and instability, it was a bit much for him. All he knew was that Starlight and Sunburst didn't know much either, and that scared him even more. He grasped the handle of the front door, intent to open it, when he got pulled with it.

"Fuck!" He said as he bumped into something on the other side. He calmed down when he noticed it was just Davis. "Jesus, dude. You scared the Hell outta me."

"Same." Davis said, his hand over his heart. He let out a chuckle as he grabbed a longboard with a red bottom.

"You goin' somewhere?" Jason asked.

"Yeah." Davis looked around Jason, obviously looking at the ponies. "I need to cool off, so I'm just gonna board up to my girlfriend's place." He put in a red ear bud and tapped his pants pocket, starting up some music. Jason stepped out of his way and watched as Davis almost ignored Starlight and Sunburst when he passed them. He turned to Jason with a salute. "See ya, man."

"Deuce." Jason said. Davis took off down the street, singing the lyrics of the song he was listening too. Jason led the ponies back into his house, unsure of what to do next. He sat on the couch across from the kitchen, Starlight and Sunburst hopping onto the one across from the TV. "So... Uhh..." Jason tried to think of something to talk, anything, but nothing came to mind. "Nnn... Anything you guys wanna talk about?" Almost immediately, Starlight looked to the TV, the Game Over screen still present.

"Do you mind showing us what this game is like?" She asked with the teensiest bit of excitement. Jason chuckled and picked up the controller.

"Aight, I guess I can do that."

---~~---

"C'mon man! What kind of stupid- GAH!" Jason shot up, clasping his hands over his eyes as the Game Over screen played for the Nth time in row. "Stupid Yellow Devil." He flopped back onto the couch, massaging the sides of his head.

"How are you even supposed to beat that thing?" Starlight asked, pointing at the TV. "You barely have enough time to hit it once before it globs to the other side of the stage!"

"'Globs to the other side'?" He asked with a chuckle. "First time I've heard 'glob' be used as a verb."

"What else would you call it?"

"Good point."

"Is there a special method to beating it?" Sunburst asked. "You said the main enemies were weak too each other's weapons. What's Yellow weak too?"

"I think he's weak to Elecman's weapon." Jason sat forward. "And yeah, there's a method, what sucks though is that it involves the pause glitch."

"Pause glitch?" The ponies asked in unison.

"There's this thing with the MegaMan games that, when you shoot a certain weapon and pause, the enemy will take damage once you unpause. Doing that over and over again will cause the enemy to take multiple hits from a single shot." Jason looked at the TV, grinding his teeth. "However, the version of the game I'm playing doesn't have that glitch... As far as I'm aware, at least." He said with uncertainty. Jason hit the home button, bringing up the time. "Two twenty, huh?" He heard the sound of hooves hitting hard carpet.

"We should get going." Starlight said. "We need to run the information we got by Twilight anyways." Sunburst hopped off next to her. She was about to wave to Jason when he stood up.

"That reminds me!" He quickly maneuvered around the makeshift table and the ponies, grabbing a finished paper towel roll and a normal towel. "Follow me." They went to the back room to the mirror, Jason covering the paper towel roll with the towel.

"What are you doing?" Sunburst asked.

"I had this thought earlier today," Jason said, "it seems anything can go through this side of the mirror. When I tossed the rock back through the mirror, it looked like the mirror went around the rock, so..." Jason placed the roll on its side and slid one end through the mirror. At the halfway point, he slid the towel off. Everyone's jaw hit the floor. "I... I..."

"Whoa." Starlight said.

"I can't believe it." Sunburst said.

"Holy shit, it worked?" Jason said, slapping his hand over his mouth. Calm down with the cussing. He told himself. Through the paper towel roll, everyone could see the other side. "I wasn't expecting that to actually work."

"So... Anything on this side can go through the mirror..." Starlight said, if a bit quietly.

"Looks that way." Sunburst nodded.

"I'm sorry..." Jason said, "I... I'm still amazed that my stupid idea worked." He leaned forward, trying to get a good look through the new opening in the mirror. "Is that room?"

"That would be my room." Starlight said, rubbing her foreleg. Immediately, Jason grabbed the roll and flung it over his shoulder, hitting the wall.

"Nope!" He said.

"What? Did you see something?" Sunburst asked.

"I ain't comfortable with peeping into her room." Jason sat on his bunk. "I was thinking the mirror led to a forest or a laboratory, not someone's room."

"I can move it to somewhere else if you want." Starlight said.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to." Jason said with a wave of his hand. "I don't want you to feel obligated."

"Oh, it wouldn't be a problem. You don't have to worry." She insisted.

"Only if you want to." Jason said.

"Then it's settled," She said, "Sunburst, you may have to help me find a place for the mirror once we get back."

"Uh, alright." Sunburst nodded. "I think I can do that." He walked in the steps of the dresser. He paused and turned when Jason called his name. "Yes?"

"Nice meetin' you, dude." Jason extended a fist to Sunburst, to which the pony bumped.

"Likewise, Jason." With that, Sunburst walked through the mirror. Starlight walked up the steps and turned to Jason.

"Well, see you later, Star." Jason said, extended fist.

"You too, Jason." She bumped his fist and hopped on through, leaving him with an uncomfortable silence. He sat back on his bunk, unsure what to do. Davis had left, so dueling was out of the question.

"Maybe I should call up Dan, see if he wants to play some XenoVerse." He said to no one in particular.

---~

~---

Starlight hopped onto the floor of her room, taking a glance at the mirror. She grabbed it in her blue magic and popped it out of the frame, after taking the photos out of course.

"Wow," Sunburst said, catching Starlight's attention, "to think you had a portal to another world in your room."

"It's taken until now for that fact to settle in for you?" Starlight asked, a smile small adorning her lips. Almost immediately, he grabbed her face by the cheeks, bringing her face close to his.

"I've been waiting for a moment to let out this excitement for way too long that I feel like I could pass out!" He said. The door to her room opened, allowing Twilight to walk in.

"I'm not... Interrupting anything, am I?" Twilight asked.

"Why do you ask?" The unicorns asked in unison, Starlight's cheeks still in Sunburst's grasp. Twilight said something under her breath.

"Nevermind that," She said, "how was your visit to Jason's world?" The unicorns looked at each other again, before turning to Twilight. Starlight walked to her, three long sheets of paper in her magical grasp.

"I think it'd be easier to show you."

---~

~---
---~~---

"That's pretty cool." Jason said. Dan didn't answer when he called, so Jason decided to marathon some Fact Fiend videos. It had been a couple hours since Starlight had left, and Jason couldn't get rid of this odd feeling. Like, something just wasn't right. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. That feeling you get when you walk down a dark road in a notoriously bad neighborhood. He jumped when his phone played that familiar tune. It ended as soon as it began, being replaced by a ting. He picked up his phone and saw a message from Dan that led to a web article. The message sent with it said 'This showed up in my inbox after minutes ago'. He tapped the article, and what it said didn't sit well with him.

-+-+-+-+-
Six Kids Missing After Building Fire.

Six children, aged between twelve and nineteen, were reported missing, the first four on Friday at nine in the morning and the final two on Saturday at two in the evening. The names of these young individuals; Bobby Ruth, female, eighteen -- Alex Raes, female, sixteen -- Alan Raes, male, seventeen -- Yuna Olcceski, female, eighteen -- Edward Decker, male, twelve -- Chima Decker, female, nineteen.

The source of the fire appeares to be a ruptured aerosol can and a set of matches. A mirror was also found at the scene, althought it was broken when found, it has since been pieced together. Witnesses say the children entered the building just minutes before the fire consumed the building. It seems as though there was no attempt at escape, as every exit was completely sealed and undamaged. No bodies have been found.

Please, if anyone has any information on these individuals, contact either the Phoenix Police Department or your local Police Department.

-+-+-+-+-

Author's Note

You guys have heard me say that whole lazy thing for far too long, so let's talk about something else.

This chapter was originally going to be entirely different, with a different chapter name too. It was supposed to have Jason and Davis teaching Starlight and Trixie how to play a game, but that was thrown way out the window when I got to Starlight wanting to bring someone to the other world, then all of a sudden Sunburst popped into my head. Eventually, the chapter went so far from what I had intended in the beginning that I just decided to go with the new direction.

Anyways, sorry to those of you who have been waiting for this chapter to be finished, and thank you if you haven't decided to drop this story just yet. I will try my hardest to get the next chapter as quickly as I can. It might take a while, since I don't have much planned for this story at all, I'm just flying by the seat of my pants for now. I hope the unintended length makes up for the absence.

Peace and love.

PS: I really wanted to use the line "Hey, Davis, I'm a Feta-Jason Alfredo." When Jason put on the colander.

Sorry for uploading it at 1:30 in the morn.

Investigations Give Me Headaches

Jason had a difficult time sleeping that night. His week had gone from failed Satanic ritual, to feeding a unicorn a grilled cheese, to feeling an unending trepidation towards his potential magic. Top it off with what appeared to be a report of six children and young adults going missing after attempting the same ritual he had tried just a few days ago, he was not gonna have a good night's sleep.

That's for certain.

-+-+-+-+-

Thursday

The alarm on Jason's phone had gone off, waking him up immediately. He had slept on the couch again, this time of his own volition rather than passing out. He grabbed his phone and turned the alarm off. Seeing the time was six oh one, he rolled off the couch and unceremoniously fell to the floor. He sat bolt upright.

"I'm up! I'm up." He looked himself over, tied up in his bacon pattern blanket and hugging his orange feather pillow. He glanced to his phone, now by his side and off it's charger. Should I even go back to sleep? He turned his phone over, the time reading six oh three now. Today's Thursday, so I should have eight more hours until my shift starts. He turned to the TV, the black screen reflecting the ceiling. Maybe a small nap wouldn't hurt. His stomach chose this moment to growl, making his hunger more apparent to him. With a heavy sigh, he got up from his tangled mess and stumbled his way into the kitchen. A bowl of cereal and an apple should be good enough. Then I'll take my nap.

---~

~---

Starlight opened her window, taking in a lungful of fresh air. She stepped off the window sill and arched her back, stretching for the day she had planned out. Of course, popping a few joints here and there wouldn't hurt either. She was in a delightful mood today, but she couldn't discern why. Her week had gone from breaking a gift from her mentor and friend to finding a whole new world and making friends with an inhabitant. Not just that, Sunburst was here to help her study the phenomenon. That thought put a little hop into her step as she cantered out of her room. As she stepped out into the hall, she saw Sunburst walk out of the guest room he was given.

"Hey, Sunburst!" Starlight said jovially. "Glad to see you woke up early too."

"Early?" Sunburst looked at her in confusion. "Isn't it around seven?"

"Actually, it's more around six." She said with a tilt to her head. "Why do you ask."

Sunburst chuckled. "I guess I forgot to set my clock an hour behind before I got here." He stretched his back, a few pops sounding throughout the hall.

"Wow, that sounded like you've been saving up." She gestured toward him with a hoof. "Did you save some change at least?" This earned a quick snicker from Sunburst, to which Starlight mentally hoofbumped herself.

"Anyways, what's first on the list of things to do today?"

Starlight was about to answer, until her stomach decided to make clear it wanted food. "Hehe... First, we get breakfast. There's a great cafe close to Rarity's boutique. We could go there since it's on the way." She stood next to Sunburst, whom had a raised eyebrow.

"On the way to what?"

"Trixie said she found the mirror in the woods on her way here from Baltimare. I was thinking we should explore the area around there and locate where she picked it up. Examine the foliage, check for magic radiation in the area, etcetera, etcetera." She began walking her usual route to the main entrance of Twilight's Castle, Sunburst not far behind. "I'm gonna make a short stop by the mirror before we head out, though. Figured I should fill Jason in on what we're doing." Sunburst nodded.

"Sounds reasonable. Do you think we should get him to investigate on his end?"

Starlight turned to look at her foalhood friend. "I think he already is."

---~

~---

Steam leaked around the door of the bathroom, the sound of water hitting the shower floor drowned out Jason's singing. A small, metallic screech was followed by the pitter of water quickly dissipating. Minutes later, Jason emerged wearing a green shirt with blue and grey shorts. Voluntarily, he smacked his forehead into the door adjacent from the bathroom.

"God damn it. I'm just gonna have to change into my work clothes in a few hours anyway." He glared at the door in front him, quickly turning down the hall and walking to the kitchen. "Fuck it, too late now. I'll just wait for one o'clock to roll around and change then."

Thump

He stopped and turned to his bedroom, seeing a rock sway to and fro on top of his dresser, a note attached to it. Oh yeah, this is my life now. He quickly walked to the note and read it.

Jason,

Sunburst and I are going to the spot our side of the mirror was found to scout any other details. Wish us luck!

Starlight Glimmer

Huh, they are, are they? He took a mechanical pencil, wrote on the back of it, then gently rolled the rock back through the mirror. I wasn't thinking about it much before, but now... In the mirror, his reflection looked back with the eyes of someone lost at sea. He could almost make out the ocean waves within those eyes .

-+-+-+-+-

Six Kids Missing After Building Fire...

source of the fire...

aerosol can...

set of matches...

A mirror was also found...

fire consumed the building...

no attempt at escape...

every exit was sealed and undamaged...

No bodies have been found...

-+-+-+-+-

He stared at his reflection, those very eyes brightening as if finding the coast of an inhabitated island. He smiled at the man staring back at him.

"I guess I should do my part as well." He turned to his clock, six thirty-two, he walked with purpose down the hall and into the main room. He picked up his phone and quickly pulled up his chatroom.

-+-+-+-+-

+Jason:RedMagma+
Hey, @Daniel, I need you to send the URL for that subreddit about the portal to hell.

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
??? since whrn were you interested in this stuff

+Jason:RedMagma+
*When

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
fuck off

+Jason:RedMagma+
I know you sent that news article on purpose. Now it's all I can think about.

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
k k gimme a sec
-+-+-+-+-

---~

~---

The rock tumbled through Starlight's mirror, which was now leaning against the wall beside the mirror to CHS, and the note was grasped within Starlight's magic. She read aloud:

Cool, I'll be sure to tell you whatever I find on this side. Tell Sunburst I said "hey".

"Seems we're off to a good start." She turned to look at her friend. "With the three of us looking for details, we should be able to determine the cause for our worlds connecting."

"They were doing a ritual on their side, right?" Sunburst asked.

"That's the thing, our search showed that his world doesn't have a lot of magic, if at all. Even Sunset's world has more magic." She scuffed a hoof on the crystal floor. "We need to know definitively, whether or not the connection was brought about by our side or his." At this, a low growl passed it's way through both of the ponies, each of them gaining a shy grin.

"After breakfast?" He asked.

"Can't think on an empty stomach."

---~~---

"Breakfast is now, officially, out of the way." Starlight sang as she trotted out the front doors of the small establishment, carrying her saddle bags. Sunburst walked out after her, his own saddle bags beneath his cloak.

"You are scarily chipper this morning." He said, adjusting his glasses.

"Well, duh, it's because we get to catch up with each other." She came to a dead stopped as soon as she said that, turning to Sunburst with wide eyes. "A-And I mean properly this time, not... Not like last time." Her ears wilted with her posture. Sunburst trotted up to her and put a hold on her shoulder, gaining her attention. He had a calm smile.

"Hey, don't worry about that now. It's all water under the bridge for me." He retracted his hoof and stood taller. "Besides, I'd actually like to know more about what you've been up to."

Starlight's smile came back in full. "Well, you've seen what I've been up to the past few days, so I guess I could leave that out." She took the lead once again toward their next destination. "Oh, Trixie's been working on a new escape trick. It's actually pretty similar to that one you had to help her out of, only this one involves less chains."

"I swear she's going to get herself stuck into a ball."

"She allllready has. She was going to add a water tank to the trick but I dissuaded from it... After a few days of arguing over the safety of it, of course."

---~

~---

Jason scrolled down on his phone, reconnected to his charger. He wasn't having any luck, as the only comments that were under the instructions so far had been people saying "This doesn't work" or "You're full of shit". Seriously? What did these guys expect, of course it wouldn't work. He thought back to his own mirror. Maybe I'm just the exception... He kept scrolling,not finding a single helpful comment. He did pass by a flame war that amused him, but that wasn't even related to the ritual. Weird. You'd think people would be making up experiences with demons or something. That's literally every Ouija board story. His clock said eight twenty. He scrolled further until he saw a comment with a chain of over a hundred other comments.

They're not demons

---~

~---

"Ok, this should be around where she saw the pillar of fire." The pair stopped at a bend in the path. It was an hour's walk away from Ponyville.

"What makes you say that?"

"Trixie got the mirror the same day I broke mine, Monday, and her wagon was already set up underneath my window when I saw her, so with that knowledge, I'd say we have a radius of around three miles from this position." She took off her bag and started rummaging around in it.

"Banana!" Only to be startled when a blue mare with a white mane jutted her head out of a bush, loudly exclaiming banana. Starlight, with a cry of surprise, flailed her hooves as she tumbled back onto her rump. With a good look at the mare, she narrowed eyes in a scowl.

"Trixie!" Starlight scolded as she stood up, stomping her hoof as she did so. "What in Equestria was that for!?"

"Have you never scared anypony for fun?" Trixie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No! Why would I?"

"He seemed to enjoy it." Trixie gestured to the only stallion in the area, whom was currently failing to hide his own chuckles.

"S-sorry, it's just," he had to pause to keep from snrking, "I've only ever heard you make that sound when we were little." Starlight wilted and groaned in embarrassment, covering her face with her hooves.

"Trixie," Starlight mumbled from behind her hooves, "what are you even doing here?"

"Well, I, The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie, over heard you and Sunburst talking about the mirror Trixie gave you," She crouched, "so Trixie decided to quietly follow you and see what the fuss was about," She then sat on her own rear, "until she got bored following you, so she decided it would be fun to scare you."

"But why in Equestria did you say 'banana'?" Sunburst asked.

"Why not say 'banana'?" Trixie shrugged.

Starlight sat up with a groan, "Trixie, since you're here anyways, can you at least show us where you found the mirror." Might as well take advantage of the situation, this should make locating the area easier.

"But of course, Trixie knows very well where to start." She began walking back down the path toward Ponyville.

"Uhh, Trixie?" Starlight called to her friend. "Where are you going?"

"Here." Trixie pointed to bush that had a few broken branches on the side of it, broken in a way that it would be difficult to see if you didn't know what to look for. "Trixie ran through here when she saw the pillar of fire."

Starlight walked over to her friend, looking further into the woods. Her attention was grabbed by an upended tree root with a suspiciously Trixie shaped indent in a mud puddle a few feet ahead.

"Yup, you definitely went down here." She deadpanned.

"Ignore the mud." Trixie sneered through her clenched teeth. "Follow the Grrreat and Powerful! Watch your step!" The pair followed Trixie through the trail of torn foliage.

---~

~---

"They haven't responded to single comment..." Jason said aloud as he kept scrolling through comments. He had found that neither the OP nor the commenter had left anything other than the post and the comment respectively. Even their comment and post history showed showed nothing, aside from what Jason had already seen. All he had to go on were their names; Xx_DarkMamba_xX for the post, and Spork-A-Saur for the comment.

"Fuck." Jason looked to the top of his phone, the time reading eight oh one. I wonder if Dan could find anything? He brought up his chatroom again.

-+-+-+-+-

+Jason:RedMagma
@Daniel, can you look up info on people.

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
what do you mean

+Jason:RedMagma+
Like, if I got you someone's user name on reddit, could you find any other websites they use, maybe find any other accounts they use?

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
you finnally lookin for that shady shit i see ;)

+Jason:RedMagma+
Swear to Christ, Dan.

+Jason:RedMagma+
Also, *finally.

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
i've got a guy i can contact in florida who can do that

+Jason:RedMagma+
Wait, that's an actual thing? I was just shooting in the dark.

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
alright just need those user names you have

+Jason:RedMagma+
Xx_DarkMamba_xX and Spork-A-Saur on Reddit.

+Daniel:WaffleBandit+
aaaand the info has been sent. now we wait

+Jason:RedMagma+
Already!?

-+-+-+-+-

Jason looked on at his phone in shock. He thought his friend was going to send the info later on in the day, not immediately. That feeling he had last night came back in full as his breathing hitched. He read the time, eight fifteen. I feel like I've made a mistake.

---~

~---

"And if this root is correct," Trixie said, "the mirror was found... Here!" Trixie ran forth as she looked up to a singed hole, showing something had burned through the canopy above, Starlight and Sunburst right beside her.

"Wow," Starlight said, "is it wrong to believe something like that should have started a fire?"

"Well," Sunburst began, "if what we think is correct, the fire that started this was magical in nature." He moved toward the scene to better examine the leaves. "It's possible that the fire is supposed to serve a purpose, rather than burn things."

"But, what purpose would it serve?" Starlight asked, getting a shrug from Sunburst as a response.

"Beats me." Sunburst turned to the canopy and an orange light burst from his horn, making the singed leaves glow a bright green.

"What spell is this?" Trixie asked.

"I'm scanning for magical radiation..." He said, letting the light from his horn dim as two leaves were pulled down from the trees. "And the scan shows that the leaves closer to where the mirror was have a higher amount of radiation than the further leaves."

"Which would suggest that the fire really did stem from the mirror." Starlight finished. "That means the mirror was the cause, rather than the result." There goes my theory. She thought.

"Something's not right, though." Sunburst narrowed his eyes at the leaves within his magical grasp. Trixie took a few steps back while Starlight walked forward.

"Should I just go?" Trixie eyes shot left to right and back again. "I don't want to be here if there's something 'not right' with the magic."

"I don't know if it's dangerous or not," Sunburst said, "but I can't tell what kind of magic was used."

"What do you mean?" Starlight asked as she examined the leaves Sunburst held.

"Usually my spell allows me to determine what type of magic was used; whether it be something broad like dark magic or something specific like young unicorn magic." He lended the leaves to Starlight, her own glow enveloping the leaves as his dissipated. "I just can't make heads or tails of it."

"You're gonna have to show me how that spell works later." Starlight smiled at him. "Maybe we should take a few leaves to Twilight, see what she thinks about this."

"Sounds like a plan." Sunburst magicked out a small plastic envelop, gently placing the leaves inside and placing back in his bags. Following this, he brought out the small machine they used to scan magic in Jason's alleyway, pulling out the antenna and turning it on. "Now we just need to take a short read on the surrounding area."

"Trixie's confused," said the titular mare, "why is the mirror she gifted Starlight a thing to fuss about?" Starlight turned to her.

"It's because the mirror... Uh..." Starlight stopped herself, not wanting to accidentally let some information slip, lest she make her mentor upset. Ok, ok, think Starlight, how to say this to Trixie without lying... "We are... Umm... Studying an unknown magical phenomenon? Uh, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have royally tasked Sunburst, Twilight, and me with working to solve the reasoning behind the mirror and the pillar of fire..." Wait a minute... That's exactly what we're doing! Why was I so worried!? That's so easy to explain! With that said, Trixie's curious expression turned irritated.

"Why wasn't Trixie informed of this?" She raised a hoof to her own chest. "Trixie was the pony whom found the mirror, so she should have been invited to investigate as well." She finished with a huff and a stomp.

"Trixie..." Starlight chewed the inside of her cheek. She had to admit, it felt wrong keeping information from her current best friend. On one hoof, she was the one to find it, so she had every right to know. "If it makes you feel better, you're helping us now." Starlight offered with friendly smile. Trixie, after a short grumble, smiled back.

"I can't say it doesn't feel better." She said softly.

"There's a smile." A rip of paper drew the mare pair's attention to Sunburst, now holding a long strip of... Well, paper. Starlight saw his eyes scan over it a few times before he leaned in closer.

"Something amiss?" She asked

"I... Don't really know." His magical grasp traded with Starlight's. "I found a copy of this area's magical signature in Twilight's library, that way we could see if there were any deviations." He pulled a book from his bags and flipped through the pages, turning it around and tapping the black line. "The stability is the only difference I could find, and even then, the deviation is so small I barely noticed it." Starlight scanned over the page in the book and the paper in her aura, he was right. The paper showed a miniscule amount less stability than the book.

"So, other than the leaves..." She began.

"... There wasn't much to take note of." He finished with a shake of his head.

"Trixie has an idea!" Trixie gestured to the direction of Twilight's castle, hidden behind the miles of trees. "What if that small difference is from the mirror?"

"Trixie," Starlight shook her head, "that's exactly why we're here."

"No!" Trixie pointed at her friend. "You're here because of the magic the mirror already released, not the magic it is releasing."

"Where are you going with this?" Sunburst trotted up to the magician, interested in her direction of thought.

"The fire touched the leaves, which now have a higher differences in magic than the air did." Her eyes widened as she was allowed to continue. "The mirror touched the dirt! Scan the dirt!" Sunburst whipped around, scanning spell at the ready, and let loose on the unsuspecting dirt. His jaw slacked and his eyes sparkled.

"I'm guessing that's a good sign." Starlight said, though meant it more as a question.

"The ground has the same signature as the leaves." He took out a small plastic bowl and scooped a bit if dirt into it, topping it with a lid and putting it back in his bags.

"This could mean the mirror is spilling out magic right now!" Trixie yelled in excitement.

"And if that's true..." Starlight left the statement as is. The radiation, the questionable level of magic in Jason's world, the mirror. She looked toward the direction of the castle. "We need to tell Jason."

---~

~---

Jason paced in the main room, back and forth through the kitchen and living space. His eyes were glued to the phone in his hands. He had no idea how long it would take for Dan's "guy in Florida" to get the information. This is so illegal! What if I get caught!? What's gonna happen when I do get that information!? This is wrong! This is completely wrong! I can't go back now! No turning back! What if the info is useless!? What if this was all for nothing!? He could feel his own heart sinking with every passing second as doubts filled his mind. He roughly chewed on the corners of his fingertips. Stopping, he quickly slammed himself onto the couch and buried his face in the pillow, getting back up just as quickly and resuming his pacing. Another round of pacing and he sat back down on the couch, checking the time on his phone and gently tossing it to the couch perpendicular to him.

"I need to calm down, getting stressed as hell won't help." He Looked up to his yellow stained ceiling, finding an odd pattern in the shape of a rectangular dinosaur.

CLOP CLOP

"Jason! Are you still here?" He heard the familiar voice of his interdimensional friend, rousing him from the couch to look down the hall.

"Uh- Yeah, what's up?" He asked a little nervously. I thought she wouldn't be coming over until Monday. He saw Starlight hop off the drawer, and with a bright flash of blue, she vanished, reappearing in front of Jason immediately, causing him to jump and yell in fright. "Jesus! What the Hell? You can teleport?"

"Yes! But listen!" With a blue glow, she grabbed the front of the collar of Jason's shirt, bringing him down to her level, nearly muzzle to nose. "That mirror you have is releasing magic at a huge rate! We need to put it somewhere it won't make a mess of things!"

"Uhh... Ok?" He asked fearfully. "Could you let go, you're a little close." He pointed a finger at the blue glow surrounding the collar of his shirt. Her eyes widened as she backed up, releasing her magic.

"I-I'm sorry! I just- I- I don't want you to be hurt." She looked back toward the mirror down the hall then back to Jason. "Do you have any place else to put that mirror?"

"I mean... There's the shed-"

"No tools!"

"Th-there are no tools!" Jason held his hands up in defense. "It's completely empty, used to belong to my landlord but she stopped using it. She took all her stuff out of it."

"No plants?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Plants?"

"Magic and plants don't mix well." She shook her head, eyes still focused on his still. "Best if you don't ask."

"Uh... Maybe a crack or two with a weed, or, something..." His voice shrank as he thought about those cracks. "I knew I should've done a bit of weeding-"

"It will have to do!" Her horn glew that blue again as she magicked the mirror from the room, carefully floating it down the hallway into the living room. "Let's go." She magicked the door open, and it was quickly pulled shut by Jason.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!" He said, standing in front of the door, blocking her path. "This is all going WAY too fast! You're not going outside."

"What do you mean!? We need to do something about thi-"

"I need to do something about this!" He said as he pointed a finger at her. "I'm not having you be seen by people."

"What? Why!? This is not the time for this!"

"Cause I don't know what'll happen if people see you! What if people freak out that something like you exists?"

"Like who?"

"I freaked out! Davis freaked out! It'll be a bargain sale on freak outs if you go out there." He sighed and took a knee before her. "Just hand me the mirror, please, I don't want either of us to be in a hotter mess than we already are with the whole two worlds thing." He paused as he took a key from the counter to his left. "Plus, I've got the only key." Starlight stared at him for a couple seconds, before lowering her head and gently placing the back of the mirror into Jason's chest.

"Alright, just be as careful as you can be with that, alright?" She pleaded with pleading eyes (fuck this sentence).

"Hey, what's the worrrr-her-her-HER not finishing that thought!" He stood and opened the door. "Just tell me what the Hell is going on after I'm done, aight?"

"Aight?" She cocked her head. He sighed again.

"Alright?"

"Oh, heh, alright." She nodded.

"Aight then." He closed the door behind him and made quick trek to the shed he had passed yesterday to get Starlight and Sunburst to the alley. He took the key, unlocked the lock, opened the door, placed the mirror down, pulled a few weeds out of the floor boards, left the shed, closed the door, locked it, jogged back to his front door, and entered his house again, placing the key back on the counter. "Done."

"Ok, now I just need to get to Sunburst and... And..." The pair's eyes widened as they realised something.

"And the portal to your world is locked away. In. The. Freaking shed..." He licked his lips as he looked at the door. "I did not think this plan through." He opened the door. "Gimme a moment." He said as he opened it, taking the key with him. One trip to the shed and back, he brought the mirror back inside.

"Jason!" Starlight scolded.

"Again, not letting you get seen." He passed her and placed the mirror down in front of the couch. "Now, here's what's going to happen." He turned to look at Starlight. "You're going to tell me what's been happening to cause you to be antsy, I'm going to tell you what I found about the mirror, then we'll part ways until Monday, aight?" Starlight seemed to mull over this before she nodded.

"Alright, I probably should've told you right as I got here anyways."

She informed Jason about how they discovered that the mirror is constantly letting out magical radiation. They (being Starlight, Sunburst, and Twilight) tested their side first and found that it was letting out unidentifiable magic at a massive rate, like someone knocked over a bucket of infinite water. While they couldn't identify it, they did match it with the magical signature from origin site of the pillar of fire. Jason, in turn, told Starlight what he found, and what had been sent to him. This didn't go well for the purple unicorn.

"There's more!?" She said as steam huffed from her nostrils.

"From what I can tell," he said, trying to calm her down, "most of them didn't succeed in creating a portal. Most of what they were saying were uh... Along the lines of, like, 'hey, this didn't work' or 'wow, what a scam'. I don't think it's much to worry about..." He chewed the corner of his index finger. "Except maybe a couple things."

"Like what?" She asked with a nervous laugh.

"Well... Dan, you haven't met him yet, sent me this." He showed her the article that was sent to him last night, about the six kids who went missing after the building caught fire. As he expected, she caught on to the mirror detail as well. He took a sharp inhale. "From what I can gather from this... There may or may not be people stuck in your world."

"Oh joy." To Jason, she looked like she was about to mentally snap, like those asylum patients whom hadn't slept one too many days. She shook her head and looked back to him. "So not only do we have a mirror spilling out magical radiation, there's the possiblity we peo- humans running around our world possibly in danger." Her head sulked low. "This can't get any worse."

"Well..." Jason chewed on his finger again.

"Well... What?"

"I think I found someone who might have a connection to this mirror situation... But I have no idea who they are, where they are, or what they even look like." He shrugged his shoulders. "All I've got is an alias to try and find 'em with." Starlight sulked her head even further, almost touching the carpet with her muzzle as she let out a deep sigh.

"Okay!" She shot her head up to meet Jason's eyes. "So we may be in a bit of a bind, but at least you have some sort of lead, we can work with that! Now... Oh, I don't know what to do..." She walked passed Jason and sat on the floor in front of the three-seater. "Humans could be in danger and I can't even think of anything to help them." Jason took a seat next to her on the floor.

"Hey, it's not the end of the world. Maybe if we keep investigating this, we'll find them. We can't stop just because we hit a snag." He stroked his hand down her back.

"Easy for you to say, you've never been in a situation like this."

"Oh, and you have?" She didn't answer him, instead looking away from him. Jason thought of something. "Y'know, I think I just of something." Starlight 'hmm'ed as Jason stood up, taking his hand away from her. "You said the mirror was the cause of the pillar, right?" She nodded. "Which indicates the mirror was already in the forest before the pillar of fire even showed up, right?" She nodded again. "So, where did the mirror come from?" She cocked her head.

"What?"

"Mirrors don't just sprout from the ground, do they?" He asked, both as a leading question and a legitimate one. I have no idea if mirrors grow like grass in her world, after all. She shook her head, and a second later, her eyes widened. "Someone must've left that mirror in forest, whether by accident..."

"Or on purpose." She finished. She stood up. "We need to find out where our side of the mirror came from." She went to hop through the mirror, but stopped and looked to Jason. "I'll do my best to find those humans, make sure they're alright."

"And I'll do my best to get in contact with this alias." He gave a two fingered salute. "See ya later, Star."

"See ya, Jason." She hopped through. Jason, being the guy he was, picked up the mirror, and locked it away in the shed. On his way back, his phone's alarm went off, telling him that it was twelve forty.

"Time to get ready for work, I guess."

Author's Note

Happy Halloween every pony!

I'll admit, I thought this chapter would be a little longer(I thought it was around 10k), but then I import it and turns out it's only a little over 5k.

Anyways, I have no freaking idea where I'm taking this story, I originally planned out a scene in my head and wanted to write that, but then I decided it needed build up, so I wrote from I thought could be a beginning, which turned out to be an idea I had for another story involving Satanic rituals and other such junk.

It's going to be a slow ride until the point which I originally made this story for, but I'll try to make it as fun as possible along the way.

Thank you everyone who has been waiting for the next update to this story, I treasure each view this story gets.

With love, jrock117

Let's Continue

"That being said," Jason spoke into his phone as he sat on his couch, wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and a black apron, "I think it's safe to say our next meeting with them on Monday might be the last one for a while."

"Uh huh." Came the reply from Davis. Jason had told him about the problem with the mirror. "I'm failing to see why this should include me."

"Dude, you and I are the only ones that know about the mirror portal thing... Probably... Maybe..."

"That's a lot of uncertainty, man."

"Please? I just need someone to watch the Tincan today and I'm on short notice. I need to get to work in a couple minutes and you're the only other person I can trust right now."

"First off, you don't have to work in a couple minutes, you work in just over an hour and it's only a ten minute walk up there. Second, I have plans."

"No ho ho the fuck you don't."

"What?"

"I know for a fact your girlfriend is already working right now, her dogs are at her mother's since they got flees, and your grandmother is still in Kalamazoo. You've got no prior engagements today."

"... Uh..." There was a silent pause as Jason heard Davis shift around.

"Am I wrong?" Jason raised an eyebrow, despite not having anyone to witness it.

"... Fuck, fine, I'll watch the stupid mirror."

"I don't see what your problem is. They're friendly... Plus they haven't tried taking over the world or killing us or mind controlling us, those are all plusses in my book."

"I don't see why you're so enamored with them."

"Do... Hold up, do you even know what that word means?"

"Excuse me?"

"Enamored, do you know what it means?"

"It's a synonym for adamant."

"No. No it's is not."

"It's not?" Another pause. "Whatever, it's not important. I'm taking my longboard, so I should be down in half an hour." Jason's shoulders slouched in relief.

"Thanks, man. I probably won't be here when you get here, so..."

"So?"

"... Sorry, lost my train of thought. I'll just leave the rest to you, aight man?"

"Aight. See ya later."

"See ya." Jason heard the hang-up tone on Davis's end and put his into his jean pocket. He sighed as he looked up at the clock. I should leave a note for Starlight, tell her the situation. After finding some notebook paper, he took a pen out of his apron pocket and began writing down a note.

Jason chewed on the corner of his thumb, unsure if this note would suffice. He sighed and hung his head. Why is keeping contact with another world so difficult? Why does there have to be magical radiation? What's it's purpose? Why'd it have to open when I make a portal? Fuck magic. Magic can suck a dick... His brow rose as a thought came to mind. I am of filthy and impure thoughts. He threw his jacket on and put on his non-slick work shoes. With note in hand, he walked outside and went straight to the shed, opening it and turning the note into a paper airplane. He gently tossed it. Only for it to crash into the floor, the nose the plane crumpling in on itself as if it had taken a whiff of the filthiest rubbish in existence. Jason glumly picked it back up, muttering to himself as he smoothed out the nose. He lightly tossed it through the mirror and crouched as he waited for a reply.

---~

~---

"Not demons?" Twilight repeated.

"That's was he said." Starlight said with a shrug. "He's been trying to find more information but nothing's come up yet." Twilight paced around Starlight and looked at the two mirrors.

"There weren't any weeds when he put the mirror in the shed, were there?" Twilight raised her brow as she asked her graduated student. Starlight, for her part, didn't hesitate from answering.

"I'm fairly certain of it. I didn't check to see it myself, but he did spend a bit of time out there, so I assume so." Starlight nodded, signalling the end of her statement. Twilight took a noticeable sigh if relief.

"Good, I already know from first hoof experience, but magic and non-magical plants don't exactly mix together all that well."

"I made sure to warn him about that before he took his first leave." She trotted up to the mirror as Twilight looked to her again.

"First leave?" She asked.

"Well, yeah," Starlight stated as if it were common knowledge. That was before she mentally back peddled. "He basically went back and forth a couple times before I hopped on back here. Not exactly necessary information, is it?" Twilight paced around the area a bit, looking between the mirror which led to Jason's world and the mirror that led to CHS. She sped up her pacing to a little trot as she tore her eyes away from them. This raised a few alarms in the heads of Sunburst and Starlight. That can't be good. Starlight thought to her self.

"Is everything alright, Twilight?" Sunburst spoke up, however, before Starlight had the chance.

"What?" Twilight immediately stood in place. "What was that?"

"Uhh..." Sunburst and Starlight looked to each other, the former shrugging and taking a step back.

"Sunburst was just asking if you're alright." Starlight came up to her teacher and put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Oh... Well..." Twilight looked away from the two, back to the mirrors. "Sunset said she'd be able to come over and look at the notes we've taken so far," her eyes fell as she looked to the floor, "but after I asked her when the most convenient time for her to show up would be, she hasn't written back."

"She probably just got busy." Starlight rationalized. "She is basically a super hero over there, and she still has school and homework to deal with." That mare almost always has a lot on her plate, kind of like Twilight... She narrowed her eyes. Wait "Twilight, mind if I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Starlight." Twilight grew a genuine smile.

"How are you able to oversee the mirror and experiment with it AND take care of your princess duties?" At first, Twilight just looked at Starlight as if she spoke a different language. Slowly, her eyes widened, her feathers twitched to life. She made a quick turn and galloped to the door.

"The forms from the committee are to be returned today!" She barraled on through the door with out stopping, her yells echoed through the halls. "Spike! Spike! I need to review those forms!" Starlight and Sunburst stood, one with relative normalcy, the latter slack jawed in awe.

"She just forced that door open," He said to no one in particular, "without using magic."

"How would Jason put this," Starlight said to herself, gaining Sunburst's attention, "Earth pony is one hell of a drug?"

"Hell?" Sunburst asked. As he did so, the pair saw a paper plane woosh on by. With a flip and a little twirl, it landed right on the table. Starlight grasped it in her magic and read it aloud.

"Hey Star! Me again, Jason, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going be at work for the next nine and a half hours. Davis is going to watch my house in the meantime and the mirror by proxy." Her eyes scanned further and widened. "He doesn't seem to be in the mood to be bothered, so I wouldn't recommend sending any notes while he's here, not like he's gonna notice since the mirror is in the shed, right? If it's something I absolutely need to know right away," she saw the word run was scratched out, "teleport inside the house and tell Davis to contact my work number. Signed, Jason." She squinted at the smaller wording at the bottom of the page. "PS. I don't know what his problem is, and he most likely doesn't want to talk about it. I'll be sure to talk to him when I get the chance." Starlight looked to Sunburst. "That sounds like a friendship problem waiting to happen."

"Now let's not be hasty." Sunburst walked up beside her. "I doubt Davis would appreciate us trying to help him. You remember that look he gave us when he left, right?"

"Yes," she shivered as that particular memory resurfaced, "but this sounds like the exact thing to get us on his side."

"Can we at least wait to make sure this is a problem, the map hasn't even gone off."

"I..." Starlight did her best to think up an argument, but none came. She couldn't argue with that. "I guess we have to at this point." Sunburst shook his head and planted a hoof on her shoulder.

"It's not that we have to, it's that we should."

"Right, right." Starlight quickly nodded as she paced over to the table and set the note down.

"Is everything alright?" Sunburst asked. Starlight didn't respond, so he repeated himself, just a little louder this time.

"What was that?"

"I said "Is everything alright?"" He walked up his foal hood friend. "You've been worrying about Jason just as much as Twilight's been worrying about the whole situation."

"Oh..." Starlight looked at the note, scrutinizing it for any imaginary details she could think up. "I'm just... I made another friend without any help from my current friends. That's only happened twice before, and now I find that he could possibly be in danger just from being friends due to the radiating magic from the mirror, and there isn't a single thing I can do to help." She planted her face onto the table, covering her muzzle with her hooves. "All I can do is sit here and wait for something to happen."

"Starlight..." Sunburst gently placed a hoof on one of Starlight's own as they waited.

"Sunset!" A loud noise and a yell startled the pair of unicorns into looking at the commotion. Twilight had teleported in with a couple papers floating around her and a stack of papers just to her left. She took a glance at her surroundings and gave the pair a sheepish smile. "Ha ha, I guess I put a little too much oomph into that, heh heh." The papers vanished in a flash of magenta.

"I take it she wrote back?" Starlight grinned at her lavender teacher as the Alicorn continued to giggle.

"You could say that." Twilight responded. She stared back at the more beautifully crafted of the two mirrors. After all, it was created by Starswirl the bearded, so it stood to reason that it would be far more catching to eye. Standing proudly with it's elegant detail. "Turns out she just forgot about some homework and a had a "cram sesh" with her friends. She'll be here in a couple minutes." Her eyes shifted to the least grand of the mirrors. While it was much less conspicuous, looking like your usual rectangular pane of reflective glass, it left a bit if a hole of disappointment in whoever knew it as a portal.

Unless that portal happens to lead to another friend. Starlight thought. Not to mention how easy it is to hide it. That's a plus.

"There is so much we don't know about Jason's world." Twilight muttered to herself. Starlight's and Sunburst's attention we're drawn to her as she began pacing again. "The person that put the knowledge of the ritual out there is completely unknown to us, and the person that contradicted the notion of demons is also an unknown." She paced faster as she continued to mutter. "That, coupled with the report of the missing humans, suggests Jason and his friends aren't the only ones in his world who have attempted the ritual."

"Hmm," Sunburst tapped his chin as he thought, "from what Starlight shared about her first meeting, Jason reacted like magic shouldn't exist, and our own readings show almost zero magic within his area... Yet the existence of the mirrors is proof of the contrary."

"Do you think," Starlight paused as she thought a bit more about what she wanted to say, "do you think his world has some kind of magic even we haven't seen before?"

"We haven't exactly determined it yet, but what we've found so far points to the mirror being the cause of the phenomenon." Sunburst levitated a set of notes from a pack not too far away. "That, coupled with the ritual and the statement "They're not demons" points to Jason's side being the catalyst."

"All of that implies Jason's world has some form of magic." Twilight finished that particular line of thought. She walked around to Sunburst to look at his notes, Starlight following suit. Before Starlight could get a closer look, a familiar orange hoof stepped out from the elegantly crafted mirror. Twilight looked up with obvious glee to see a friend.

"Sunset!" She ran over to other orange Unicorn and greeted her with a hug. Of course, Sunset accepted the hug. Who doesn't accept hugs?

"Hey, Twilight." Sunset took a step back and looked over the room. Her eyes turned to Starlight and Sunburst as she trotted over. "Hey, Starlight. It's been a while since I've seen you." The two hugged.

"Eh, I've had my hooves full, what with being a counselor nowadays. Not much compared to you though, miss heroine." Starlight gave her friend a playful slug on the shoulder as they parted.

"Hey now, the hero stuff rarely happens. It's mostly just schoolwork for me." She turned to see Sunburst and walked closer. She held out a hoof. "Hey there, I don't believe we've met before. Name's Sunset Shimmer."

"Sunburst, it's a pleasure to meet you." He took her hoof and shook. "Any friend of Starlight is a friend of mine." Starlight felt her ear twitch as an ache took to her chest when he said that, but she refused to focus on it. Sunset's attention went straight to the princess in the room.

"Okay, have you guys found anymore information since I last checked the journal." She asked. Twilight lead her back to the table and sat right next to Sunburst as they began discussing what she had heard from Starlight. Speaking of the mare, Starlight turned to the smaller mirror.

I should go see if his end of the mirror is in the shed. Just to be safe. She nonchalantly walked up to said mirror and hopped through-

!BAM!

-right into Jason.

Author's Note

Really sorry for the short chapter, guys. My friends and I have been working on a little D&D esque Overlord thing and it's been taking up a good portion of my time. That and I've been playing more games than usual...

So, through a combination of lazyness and working on other shit, I present a very... Short chapter...

I started working on it after I posted the last chapter and got sidetracked by other stuff. Once again, sorry guys. Fingers crossed it's passable.

First Sight/Awaiting Correspondence

"Huh." Jason stood in front of his mirror, tapping his forehead, which now had one of those square skin colored bandages on it. He continued to poke at it, checking his reaction in the mirror. Doesn't even hurt now. I should still keep it on, maybe for the next few days? He hadn't spent more than five minutes to get the bandage, so he did his best to hurry on out of the house. Phone, right pocket, check. Piece of shit wallet, left pocket, check. Apron, check. Jacket... I won't need it today. He roamed around his living room for a solid minute before standing in the center. I still feel like I'm forgetting something... He turned to his front door, unsure of what it was he could be forgetting. It's not something I would need for work. It's like, something was supposed to be here by now- Davis! He took out his phone and checked his messages. Nothing. He sent a quick text to Davis asking where he was. I don't have time for this, I need to get to work, and fast. I'll check of he sent me any messages once I get up there.

Steadfast, he opened his door and to his surprise, he saw Davis boarding down the street. "It's about time, man! I was worried-" Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Davis' board get caught on a rock, sending the lanky rider flying. Just as quick, a car drove by, and when it passed, nothing was there. No board, no Davis, no rock.

"Wh... What the fuck." Jason rubbed his eyes and stared at the street with an intense gaze. He walked across the lawn to the sidewalk, checking to see from a different angle. Not a thing had changed. "Magic mirrors, ponies, seeing people that aren't there... Maybe I do have dementia..." He stared at the street for a few seconds more. He took a step back, still looking at the street. Two steps, three steps, four. It was after the fifth that he looked away and walked along to his work place, only two blocks away.

_____

Now, before we go further, let's take a short look back to the past.

_____

Jason, as a young boy, lived with a moderately sized family. His mother and father of course, two brothers from his father's side, and a brother and a sister from his mother's side. Growing up, before he really had friends, one of his favorite pass times would be guessing what his siblings would do or say. It always annoyed them, whether they were doing something as a surprise or just for fun, young Jason would show up and guess what they were doing with around eighty percent accuracy.

His sister wearing mismatched socks, she was going to a friend's place. Eldest brother checking his cords, he was about to rearrange his room. Second brother examining his shoes, he was going shopping. Youngest brother, yet still older than Jason, snapping his fingers at a steady tempo, he wanted to go bowling.

Through out elementary, he turned his sights on his teachers and fellow classmates. He could tell when a kid wanted to leave, granted that's not very difficult. He could tell when a teacher was about to leave the room. He could tell when a kid was about to ask a question that had already been answered. He loved guessing when things were about to happen, that he had evolved to what might be said. A teacher talking about a lesson, he could guess from a hand full of words what would be said and have seventy percent accuracy.

Coincidentally, his first year of school was when he met Davis, one of the easiest to guess. Davis could make a simple gesture or say something simple and Jason had the uncanny ability to understand what it meant or would mean. The two became close, though not easily, as Jason's guessing and inquisitive nature made Davis uncomfortable. Especially when it came to Davis pulling at his pockets, but that's for another time.

Through out that time, Jason was seen as the weird kid by his classmates, and his pass time distracted him from his work, resulting in lower grades and a year or two in a special education program. He didn't let either stop him from enjoying his little game. As he continued his studies, he kept hearing how Davis would score amazingly well on a test, or have the best behaviour in class, ultimately hearing about how his friend had been accepted into a gifted education program. Jason saw his friend excel at his grades and social circles, and it left him feeling inferior. He thought that he did his best, and yet someone whom he thought he knew was excelling in a way he didn't even see. He took a hard look at Davis' grades and achievements, and decided to work even harder. He began keeping a majority of his thoughts to himself, he began learning at how to properly act in a classroom and in public, he began to finally excel. After year five, he was brought out of special ed and began developing his own social circle, albeit a very unstable one, what with kids leaving it and entering it at their whim. He didn't care, so long as he wasn't left in the dust by Davis.

As middle school approached, his friend noticed something off about Jason. Just reading a book, not paying attention to every little detail about someone. Davis asked him a simple question.

"What color am I thinking of?" He asked. Jason looked at him with a raised brow.

"Uh... What?"

"What color am I thinking of?" Davis repeated with a wave of his hand. "Can't be hard." Jason looked at him and noticed the waved hand was clenched, holding a yellow pencil.

With a cocky grin, he stated "yellow" as if it were a fact. Davis stared at him for several seconds, before smiling.

"Blue." He said. Jason examined Davis, unsure if he was telling the truth or not. Unsure. It hit him, he was actually unsure if Davis was telling the truth. He had no idea what Davis was thinking in that moment. Davis then pointed at the book in Jason's hands, the cover of which was blue.

Middle school came, and with it, he made a friend in Ty, whom he met through Davis. During middle school, he saw it became increasingly difficult to guess what people were thinking or what they would do next. Months went by where he was unable to guess what someone else was gonna do. High school came, and he had eventually given up his favorite pass time. No more guessing, no more examining and studying others. He quit, and he eventually forgot it.

_____

---~

~---

"There could be people missing!?!" Starlight's ears were immediately assaulted by the explosive voice of one Sunset Shimmer. Twilight's ears wilted, as did Sunburst's, when confronted with the fiery unicorn. The hay-bacon-haired unicorn poked Twilight in the chest. "Why haven't you sent a letter to Celestia!? This is something that needs to be brought up with her immediately!"

"I-i-i-i-" Twilight stuttered as she was questioned. It occurred to Starlight in an epiphany. A sad epiphany. We didn't think about!

"Heeyy," Starlight tried her best to calm the situation, walking between the two like it was a natural thing to do, "so, I don't mean to be pedantic about this, but we only just learned about this a short bit ago." This received a huff from Sunset.

"How long is a short bit?" Starlight averted her eyes when confronted with this question.

"Maybe, around, a little while?" She laughed nervously as she rubbed her neck. Sunset continued.

"How long is a little while?"

"Somewhere around... Some time ago?" She, again, averted her eyes. Sunset continued.

"And how long is that?"

Starlight's eyes shot left and right before she deflated with a heavy sigh. "An hour." Sunset's eye twitched, creating a domino effect with Starlight flinching, followed by Twilight, followed by Sunburst. The angry unicorn took a deep breath and let it out, before staring at the table.

"First, we send a letter to Celestia about everything we know about this point, including our theory about the missing kids. She should have some insight." Sunset looked up in thought before turning to a window. "Hopefully."

"Hopefully?" Twilight sounded offended as she asked this, to which Sunset chuckled.

"Twilight, we're talking about the mare who sends you and your friends on dangerous missions while she makes sure Canterlot doesn't implode on itself." She took a look around the library and settled her sights on the newer mirror. "Starswirl made many mirrors to different worlds and dimensions, meanwhile, we have a world that may or may not have many portals into our world." She looked back at the ponies. "How does that even happen? And in a world with supposedly 'no magic' to boot." Sunburst shrugged.

"We're at just as much of loss as you are." He said.

"And we've been trying to figure this out for a few days now." Starlight followed.

"Well, let's not waste anymore time!" Sunset trotted to the table and, with her red magic, took a quilt and piece if parchment and began writing. At least, she was about to. She stood still, staring at the paper in her grasp. Quickly, she shoved over to Twilight. "You do it."

"Why me?" Twilight immediately asked before back pedalling on herself. "I mean, not that I don't want to send a letter to the Princess, but why don't you want to do it?"

"Oh, trust me, I do." Sunset placed a hoof over her geode, horn still lit. "It's just that I don't."

"Thaaat doesn't make sense." Twilight shook her head as get magic took hold of the writing implements, dissapating Sunset's.

Starlight, on the other hoof. "I can actually see where she's coming from." She gained the attention of the other three. "Even after making amends with my dad, I still have a hard time writing to him. I've only written to him twice since we met, and even then it's because he sent a letter first."

"I knew you'd understand me." Sunset pointed a thankful hoof toward Starlight. She than turned back to Twilight. "Please, I just need a little bit more time before I send a letter to Celestia."

"Okay, okay. I'll do it." The young Alicorn said a bit hastily. She cleared her throat and levitated the parchment and quill in front of her. "Dear Princess Celestia, we have reason to believe, or at least assume, that there may be more than one mirror between our world and the world Starlight found. If that's true, than we may have run into a problematic situation, as reports from the other side may suggest there are humans stuck on our side. We will wait for correspondence. Signed, Your ever faithful student and friend, Twilight Sparkle." She rolled it up and turned to the door. "I'm going to find Spike so I can send this letter."

"Don't forget about those forms for the committee!" Sunburst called after her, prompting the mare to run, full gallop, out of the room and down the hall.

"Life of a princess must be tough." Sunset spoke up. "So glad I don't want to be one anymore."

I Can Explain (Edited)

"Thanks, Trixie, you really came out for me this time."

"Ha! When has Trixie never come out on top when it comes to helping her dearest friend?"

Starlight sighed, "Humble as ever, I see."

The two mares walked down one of the many similar hallways within the crystal Castle Friendship. Between the two of them was a rectangular pane, covered with a magenta tarp, being held in Starlight's own blue glow. They were going at a brisk pace, as Starlight wanted to finish this as fast as possible, the less Twilight knew about it, the better.

"See what?" Trixie asked.

"Uh, what?"

"You said that you see, what did you see?"

"... What are you talking about?"

"Don't play games with Trixie!" She spoke, a little heated, "You said 'I see', What did you see?"

This only furthered Starlight's confusion. "What?"

"Starlight! Trixie is being serious!"

"So am I! What in Equestria are you getting so worked up about?"

"Because you won't tell Trixie what you saw!"

"I still don't..." Starlight's eyes widened in revelation. "Oooh. Oh. You're talking about, oh."

"Hm?" Trixie inquired, kind of.

"Trixie, saying 'I see' is just a phrase. When I said 'Humble as ever, I see', that was just me making a sarca- I mean truthful observation. I didn't actually see anything."

"Oh, well why didn't you say so sooner?"

"Trixie, I swear to Celestia-"

"Trixie's beginning to think she should've forgotten about the mirror entirel-Hrmph" Trixie is cut off as her purple friend shoved a hoof in her mouth.

"Shh shh shh shh shh..." Starlight, after quickly zipping her eyes back and forth, whispered in Trixie's ear. "Don't talk about the mirror so loud, I don't want Twilight to find out."

"Find out about what?"

A third voice drew panicked 'meeps' from the two mares as they quickly turned their sights to the third mare in the hall. Princess Twilight Sparkle, in all her purple-but-not-the-same-purple-as-Starlight glory, stood at the end of the hall, just a few feet away. Blocking the mares' exit.

"Oh! Uh! N-Nothing!" Starlight quickly spoke. "Ab-SO-lutely nothing!"

"Trixie agrees!" Trixie agreed. Twilight 'probably-the-thickest-book-on-the-shelf' Sparkle squinted her eyes in suspicion. She couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but the attitude of the mares in front of her was off. Maybe it had something to do with the mysterious rectangular shaped tarp.

"Girls, if something's up, you can just tell me. You know that, right?" Twilight said, using her calmest tone.

"Oh! Pfft, haha, nothing's 'up', Twilight. Trixie and I were just, uhh..." Starlight trailed off as she looked around. Her eyes landed on Trixie, whom was looking back, both silently asking the other to come up with something. Trixie, ever the brave one, sighed deeply. She poised herself and looked directly at the purple princess, clearing her throat to get Twilight's attention.

"Yes, Trixie?"

"... ... I CAN'T DO THIS!" Trixie reached her hoof back and tossed a Magical TrixieTM smoke bomb in front of her, before dashing into the nearest room and diving out the nearest window.

"Trixie you jerk! Get back here and-Hi Twilight, nice weather we're having, please stop staring at me like that."

Upon Twilight's face was a look between disappointment and curiosity. While she was annoyed that her student, one of her closest friends, still hadn't told her what the big deal was, that had only gotten her gears turning even more. Now she really wanted to know, but she still needed to hold back, she knows first-hoof that letting her curiosity get the best of her leads to disastrous results.

"Starlight, you know you don't have to hide anything from me. We're friends, so I'm sure that whatever happened we can get through this." Twilight coerced. Starlight's belief that Twilight wouldn't find out was beginning to dwindle, she couldn't hide it forever, she just needed to get passed Twilight.

"Haha, yeah, I bet!" Starlight, tarpped rectangle in her magic, began to shimmy her way around Twilight. "Good thing nothing's happened so we don't need to have a whole friendship speach. Ha ha... Ha..." She spared a look at her teacher/friend/savior and saw a hurt look on the lavender mare's face, a look that stabbed right through her heart. She sighed and flattened her ears. "Ok, I'll say it, but please don't be mad at me."

"Starlight," Twilight placed a gentle hoof on her lighter-purple friend, "nothing short of becoming an evil dictater would make me mad at you. I promise I won't be mad."

Starlight slowly inhaled as she turned her vision to the floor. "Ok. I may have broken a mirror, a very, very important mirror."

Out of Starlight's vision, Twilight's eyes slowly widened. "How... How important?"

"Incredibly." Starlight slouched. Twilight's breathing began to pick up as she started to panic. No, she couldn't have broken that mirror, right?

"W-What!? Y-Y-You don't mean-" Twilight spoke before she was cut off by Starlight rushing an apology

"I'm really, really, really sorry I broke the mirror. I was testing a new teleportation spell and a bird hit my window and my spell just shot off with the wrong force and the mirror shattered into a billion little pieces so I panicked and jumped out my window and landed in a bush and PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!!!" Starlight finished her manic monologue while cradling herself on the floor, still avoiding looking at her teacher.

"Starlight! How could you!?" Twilight yelled in both anger and panic. The young princess began a little dance of despair as a whirlwind of terrible thoughts ran through her head. "Why didn't you say anything earlier!? We need to contact Princess Celestia immediately! I hope the journal is okay, please, oh please let the journal be okay!"

Starlight stopped cradling. What does she mean by journal? She thought. She does know I don't keep my journal in my dresser, right? And even if I did keep it there, why would it matter? I could just buy myself another one. Twilight had forgone anger by now and went into full panic mode.

"What if the journal is destroyed beyond all repair and we can never use it again!?" Twilight pulled at her mane. "What if whatever spell you used sent the journal to another dimension and we can never get messages back!?" Her wings flared out as her feathers frayed. "What if Princess Celestia gets so upset that we lost contact with Sunset that she revokes my princess-hood and teacher-hood and I'm never allowed to see my friends or the friendship students ever again!?"

"Um, Twilight?" Starlight asked. Twilight, with her deranged mane, turned to Starlight.

"Y-Yes, Starlight?"

"Given that you said 'journal' and 'Sunset', I can sort of guess, but, what mirror do you think I broke?" She asked.

"The mirror to Canterlot High, of course!"

"Twilight," Starlight got up and sat on her haunches. "I haven't been near that for about, three weeks."

This caused Twilight to blink in confusion. "W-wha? But, you said you..."

"Twilight, I broke the mirror you got me as a gift." Starlight lifted a hoof. "The one with all of those pictures of us and our friends."

Twilight was at a loss for words. Needless to say she wasn't panicking anymore, but the blank look on her face made Starlight a little worried. Starlight was about to prod her purple teacher with a hoof, but the young Alicorn spoke.

"Oh, ha, ha ha ha, hoooo boy." Twilight shook her head with a chuckle. "Hehe, kinda wish you just said that instead of saying you broke an important mirror."

"What!?" Starlight said in shock.

"I mean, considering we have a mirror that acts as a gateway to another world, my mind went to that rather than the mirror I got you." Twilight sighed in relief and gave her purple student a gentle smile. "Starlight, you know that the mirror isn't what's important, what's important is the thought behind the mirror. I got it for you so you could see the pictures of our friends along with your reflection, as long as the pictures are ok..."

"Uh, Twilight? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Twilight's gentle smile didn't leave, but her right eye betrayed the gentleness as it's brow had shown anger, her other eye was just twitching.

"Starlight, what happened to those pictures?"

"Oh, I was cleaning my mirror last night, so I put them on my nightstand. I guess I forgot to put them back on. It's not often I say this, but thank Celestia I forgot something, right?"

Twilight exhaled a breath she didn't even know she was holding. She sat on to her haunches as well. "Wow, I guess we both got a little hysterical."

"Sooo..." Starlight began as she rubbed her little hooves together, "In other words, you're not mad that I broke the mirror you gave me?"

Twilight giggled. "No, I'm not mad, as long as the pictures are fine, I'm not mad." Before she could trot over and hug Starlight, said pony had fallen to the floor with an incredibly coherent sigh of relief. Twilight giggled in response. "So, now that that's settled, what's in the tarp?"

"Oh." Starlight sat back up and unfurled the tarp, revealing another mirror. "It's the replacement that Trixie's letting me use. She just had it lying around in the back of her wagon-trailer-thingy."

"Wait, she just happened to have a mirror lying around?"

"She is a magician." Starlight stated. "Actually, when she gave it to me, she said that her tricks-Wait, give me a sec." Starlight put a hoof to her chest and spoke with a more pompous tone, "Not all of Trixie's tricks are smoke and mirrors."

Twilight stood with a raised eyebrow. "Was... that your Trixie impression?"

Starlight rubbed a foreleg with another hoof, "It's not as good as your Pinkie impression, but I think it's good." She smiled a sheepish smile. "I may or may not have been practicing it." This brought a giggle out of Twilight, much to Starlight's chagrin.

"Starlight, let's just replace your mirror for now and worry about everything else later."

"Yeah, sounds good."

The two purple mares walked down the halls to the lighter mare's room, chatting away at how silly the previous situation seemed in retrospect. They eventually made it to her door and opened it, what followed was the most, uncomfortably loud crunch the two had ever heard. Twilight spoke.

"Starlight, why is your floor covered in glass?"

"Oops." Starlight looked to the side, "I... guess I forgot to get clean my room. Hehe..."

"Starlight," Twilight turned to face her student, "now that I think about it, why didn't you just use a reconstruction spell on the mirror? All of this could've been avoided."

"I... Didn't think about it at the time. I was probably too busy panicking and jumping out of my window and into a bush."

Twilight looked over the scene in the room. "I probably would've done the same thing, had Princess Celestia been in my position and I were in yours."

"Haha! That would be fun to see." Starlight said, which caused Twilight to give her a slight glare.

"Anyway!" Twilight rushed, "Let's clean up your room, you already have the replacement mirror, so I guess we can just get rid of the glass."

After a little song about how you should be upfront about mistakes and a few cleaning spells later, the room was, as Rarity would say, immaculate. The floor was cleared of glass, the new mirror was placed in the frame on Starlight's wall above her dresser, and the photos of their friends were placed back where they belonged.

"Hey, Starlight?"

"Yeah?"

"I just noticed this, and I don't know if you did or not, but what is it." Twilight pointed to a pattern that lay in the center of the mirror, a six sided polygon with each side being a different color. Clockwise, from the top side, pink, blue, white, purple, orange, and yellow.

"You know what, I'm not so sure. I believe that's called a hexagon? I may need to get my first grade math book to double check." Starlight replied with a sarcastic tone at the beginning and finished with a deadpan. She leaned back away from Twilight's glare. "Sorry. In all honesty, this is the first time I noticed it. It looks like a nice pattern to me."

"Hmm." Twilight squinted at the central pattern. "Yeah, I was just asking because I thought we damaged it, but it does look more like a pattern than a couple of scratches." Twilight felt a hoof lay on her shoulder and she turned to the other mare in the room.

"Twilight, thank you for helping out, I really should've just told you upfront, or rather just used a reconstruction spell and kept it to myself." She placed a wash rag that she was using to polish the mirror down on her dresser.

"Starlight," the purple princess hugged her purple friend, "it's ok, were passed that now. Let's just get something to eat, I planned on having lunch with the girls in just a few minutes, how would you like to join us?"

"I'd love too."

---~~---

Starlight awoke in the middle of the night, a blue glow interrupting her favorite kite dream. She sat up, and with her tired eyes, looked to her open window. She must've left it open in her panic. Her vision, while still hazy, allowed her to see just what she was doing with her magic as she closed the window and pulled the blinds, only making the blue glow stronger in the absence of Princess Luna's moonlight.

"Wha?..." She so eloquently asked. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she saw that whatever was causing the blue glow had an effect similar to shining a light through a water tank. Little ripples in the light shining on her wall gave her a calmed feeling. She turned to see what was causing the glow, her eyes settling on her new mirror. She slid out from under her covers and trotted up to it. What in Equestria is causing it to glow like this, why her mirror of all things? She noticed that she didn't even see her own reflection in the mirror, it felt like she was looking at a lake on a midsummer's day. No sound emanated from it, however. All she heard were her quiet breaths. I need to tell Twilight. She needs to see this. Starlight turned to her door to leave the room, but her attention was brought to the calming, rippling pattern of the light that shined over it. She turned her sights back on the mirror.

"Maybe..." Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I touched it. Starlight reasoned with herself. She trotted back to her dresser and hopped her two forelegs onto the top, now face to face with the mirror. Lifting her hoof, slowly, ever slowly did she lift her hoof, she touched the surface of the mirror, causing a ripple to spread across, not unlike when you thouch the surface of a bath filled with water. She pulled her hoof back and a little droplet of whatever her mirror turned into fell from it, back into the mirror, like gravity had affixed itself horizontally to the mirror. She breathed a heavy sigh, and before she could leave her dresser, she slipped on a rag and her upper body fell into the mirror, causing it to suck her in, no sound had escaped the mirror, not even her scream for Twilight. It hadn't even been a full two seconds before she fell face first onto wood, tumbled over, hit her back on a wooden corner, and finally collapsed onto a carpet that had seen better days.

"Ow... Ow ow ouch..." Starlight rubbed her pained head and looked around. She had fallen into a room of some sort, one that was lit with a lamp easily twice as tall as her. The carpet was brown, just as were the wooden walls. There was a bunk bed to her right, but it might as well have been one bed since the top seemed to be turned into a makeshift shelf. The ceiling seemed to have been white at some point, but was now a stained yellow, with a turned off ceiling light. There was a little nightstand at the head of the bed, atop it were a broken lamp and a stack of papers. To her left was a green dresser, what she assumed she hit her back on, and behind her was another dresser that was built into the wall. Above it, a non-rippling mirror. Before she could stand up, she heard somepony speak.

"What the hell was that?"

Author's Note

"and the photos of their friends were placed back where they belonged."

In the trash!

Nother Day, Nother Ache

Author's Note

Completely unrelated: what's your favorite cheese? Mine is good ol' Colby.

Nother Day, Nother Ache

"Sorry about that." Starlight said.

"Hey, no biggie." Jason rubbed a his forehead, the location in which Starlight accidentally rammed her horn into right as she exited the mirror. They now sat facing each other in the closed shed, and though it was dark, the mirror had the familiar water like glow from before, lighting up the shed.

"I'd say it's a biggie," she argued, "most ponies who got a horn jammed in their face would chew me out."

"Yeah, well, uh," Jason, hand on forehead, thought for a second, "I'm not a pony, now am I?" Despite her giggle, she still felt guilty. One glance at his hand showed the area underneath had turned red, it might have been even worse at the center. Yeesh, that looks bad! Please don't tell me I left a bruise. "Although, to be honest, had you been someone else, I probably wouldn't be so chill about this."

"Why were you even waiting here? I thought you left."

Jason raised his hands in defense. "I figured it would be polite to wait for a response."

"Huh." Starlight looked around the shed. The bare, small, dark shed. "Not really spacious in here, is it?"

"Nope." Jason leaned back. "Landlord used to use this to store her lawn mower, but then she built another shed and stopped using this one. It's no longer in use, so I thought 'ey, what better place to hide a magic portal?'"

Something ate at the back of her mind. Something Jason had said. She went back over it in her head. "Why me?" Starlight tilted her head.

"Huh?"

"If I were somepony else, you would be upset with me, but you aren't because I'm not somepony else?" Starlight inwardly cringed at her poor choice of wording. Jason actually ceased trying to soothe his forehead as he stared at her.

"... That is the most redundant sentence I've ever heard, but yeah, basically."

Starlight squirmed where she sat. "Could you, I don't know, elaborate?"

"Well, let's look at it this way: if you were someone I didn't know, I would be incredibly upset-"

"But we're friends!"

"Which is why I'm not as upset as I would be, however, if you and I were even closer as friends, I would be comically upset with you."

"What? Why would being better friends make you more upset?"

"No no, uh... Think of it like an upside-down bell curve." He raised a hand to demonstrate, "this point is where a total stranger would be: someone I have absolutely no history with. It is also the point where my "upsetness" when someone clocks me is serious." He raised another, "this point is where I consider someone as family, whether it be like a sister or brother or such and represents when my anger is more comical or jokey." He slowly lowered his hands and curved the imaginary line inward. "The lowest, middle-most point represents my lack of caring." Starlight leaned a little closer as she thought over the information. "Basically just an acquaintance near this point."

"Where would I be?" Jason looked up in thought as he raised a hand upward a little to the friend side of the curve.

"I'd say you're around here if I were to assign you anywhere." Starlight felt her ears droop as he said this.

"But that's only a little above the acquaintance point."

"Well, yeah," Jason brought his hands back to his side, "it's around the work bud area."

"Work bud?" Starlight narrowed her eyes. What is he talking about? Are we not friends? She couldn't point it down, but there was something off about his expression.

"Have you never had a work bud?"

Starlight shook her head. "I can't say that I have. No." She could taste the bitterness of her own attitude as it left her mouth. Jason noticeably leaned away.

"Well, it's basically what it sounds like; a bud that you have at work. Someone you just gravitate towards when you're on the job." He paused again, looking at a space beyond Starlight. "Like, uh, like... Like... Like..." His eyes widened. "I lost my train of thought." His posture weakened as he rose his hand to soothe his forehead. He winced, immediately retracting his hand to take a look. He said something under his breath, but she couldn't make it out.

"Did you say something?" Starlight asked as politely as she could. Jason opened his mouth to say something, but a loud ringing went off, startling Starlight to jolt up. Unfortunately-

"Hey now! Watch the horn!" Jason fell to his left, narrowly avoiding a second horn smack to the noggin.

"Sorry!" She shifted herself over closer to the shed, only now did she realise how compact it was in there.

From her new angle, as well as Jason's, she saw that it wasn't his expression that changed earlier. The light from the mirror cast something akin to a spot light on his forehead; the spot where her horn grazed his forehead began to bleed. Instantly, her heart felt as if a cold hand had firmly grasped it. Guilt, something she's all too familiar with. Did I do that? Of course I did that! It's right where I hit him! She saw reach for his right pocket, the light streak of a blood stain was on the back of his hand. He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen, putting the cease to the wretched ringing.

"Sorry, I need to get to work," he shifted over and opened the door, "got thirty minutes before my shift and it's a ten minute walk." He steadily got to his feet and walked out of the shed, going down a little wooden ramp. He turned to her and gestured at his forehead. "If you don't mind, I'mma go get myself a bandage for this thing before I go to work."

"Wait," Starlight trotted up to Jason, "I can heal that for you."

"You... You can do-" Jason, lightly, smacked his forehead before he could finish his own sentence. "What am I talking about, you have magic, freakin' magic." Jason crouched down to her level and pointed at his "wound". "Blast me."

"Now, just hold on." Starlight sat on her haunches. "Healing magic takes a lot of power and concentration, it's basically forcing the existing cells to work into overdrive to speed up the healing process. The best I can do is make it a scab if I don't want to be tired."

Jason put a hand on her withers. "And a scab means it's healing, hit me." With a nod from Starlight, she shut her eyes and envisioned Jason's... Scrape? It isn't a cut, and it's too shallow to be a gash. She envisioned Jason's scrape. She channeled her magic into her horn and opened her eyes, letting her blue glow wash over his forehead. "That — that's kinda cold."

"Just give it a second." In no time at all, the scrape had scabbed over, leaving the area slightly tender.

"Is it safe to touch it?" Jason asked as his brow twitched. "Cause I'm not gonna lie, it really itches now."

"It should be, but don't go opening that thing." She sternly frowned at him, but it only elicited a snort from him.

"I doubt very much that gently rubbing it will open it." He placed a hand over his newly "healed wound". "Probably, maybe. Could be opening right now." She stopped her hoof.

"Jason!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." He stood back up and lightly rubbed a finger along the small scab. "I should still put a bandage over this, my job needs me to wear a hat while I'm on shift, and I don't want to risk this getting infected." He grabbed the door, about to close it. "See ya later, aight?"

"Right." Starlight stood back and looked at the mirror before looking back at Jason. "See you in a couple days."

"Or sooner?" He asked with a grin. She couldn't help but giggle, thinking that something like this moment might repeat itself.

"Or sooner." She turned back to the mirror, "See you," and hopped through.

Work Day/Cheeky Diarch

Jason couldn't shake the feeling something was up. The previous events, not even half an hour ago, still played back in his head. Davis being thrown off his long board before just up and disappearing. He sat in an uncomfortable chair up in the break room of his work place. The sandstone colored walls and brown tables were specifically chosen to calm people down, to let the warm, inviting colors soothe the mind. Jason never did feel calm up there. In his mind, it was the calm before the storm.

"Hey, you alright?" Jason, without turning his head, looked over when he heard a sudden gruff voice. The man stood tall with a greying beard and a black hat, he wore blue plaid and blue jeans with white suspenders. This was one of the store directors, but Jason couldn't exactly remember his name, so he was just the boss for now.

"Huh, I-I think so. Why, what's up?" He asked.

"Nothing much, just thought maybe your leg and your hand might need a break." His boss gestured at Jason, bringing his attention to his current state. He noticed he was repeatedly tapping the heel of his boot on the worn floor as he alternated between checking the time on a microwave and chewing on the corners of his finger tips. He immediately stopped.

"Uh, sorry, guess I'm a little nervous." Jason placed his hands into his pockets, trying to keep himself from repeating the incident.

"Yeah, you sure nothing's going on home?" His boss sat in a chair further away. Jason felt a bit more comfortable after that, the distance between them giving him room to breathe.

"Yeah, things are pretty fine," Jason decided to distract himself from his thoughts. I need to stop thinking about what happened. What can I talk about that can set my nerves straight? "I just got a new game last week, but I haven't really played it yet." His boss just nodded and left through a door, leaving Jason alone in the room again. Almost instantly, the feeling of wanting to tap his foot came back like a wave of cold water. He looked at the microwave again just as he ground his teeth. Hurry up and let me start me start my shift!

---~

~---

"The kids at CHS have more magic than this." Sunset held the thaumic readings of Jason and Davis aloft in her magic, giving the papers a scrutinizing look before turning to Starlight as they both sat at the table, Sunburst having gone to relieve himself. "The old me would ask how something can have this little magic," she rose the papers higher to draw attention to them, "and not be classified as an inanimate object."

"Sunset," Starlight rubbed her at her temples as she looked at her friend, "we've said this before, we're at as much of a loss as you." She planted her hooves firmly before standing up and walking around the table, examining the strewn about papers. "We have absolutely no idea what's going on. All we have is that the mirror was most likely connected by their side, given the little amount of evidence we have, and the only clues we have further are aliases."

Sunset crossed her forelegs in front of her chest. Her lips tightened as she thought about something. "I don't really have much experience in tracking internet names. I really only did it once, but it was easy with the given context clues. If this situation is as big as we think it is on your friend's side, he could be at it for a while." This earned a worried groan from Starlight, prompting Sunset into damage control. "Hey, I don't mean to make the situation seem more difficult than it was earlier, but..." she looked up, as if a thought had flown by before she got a good look at it, "but it kind of is."

Starlight, for her part, groaned before huddling over the table and placing her hooves over her muzzle. "Why does owning a mirror that ends up being a portal to another world have to be so difficult?" She rose back up. "Why can't it just involve making friends and end there?"

"Because life would be much easier if all you had to do was make friends." Sunset rested her head on a hoof. "And as we know, life likes to throw obstacles whenever it wants." She straitened back up with all too cheery grin as she raised the pitch of her voice. "'Oh, gee, I can't wait to get that new tablet I ordered weeks ago'," she lowered the pitch of her voice as she hunched over, "'well that's a shame, because I had the guy set to deliver your tablet punt the box to your house like a football player trying to prove something, that's what you get for spending money'." She then slid back into her chair as it creaked with the throwing of her weight.

"'Oh, grocery shopping sounds so fun!'" Starlight joined in with her own high pitched voice, before following with her own lower octave. "'Sorry, Glim, but your teacher will choose this day, out of all the time you've known her, to have hoofwriting actually worse than yours.'" She shrugged, still keeping up the act, and followed with the most passive aggressive 'sorry' in history.

"'Oh,'" Sunset continued, "'you want to study the magic you and your friends have attained? Too bad, maybe have your very own tomb under a bundle of apples.'"

"'What's this? A friendship problem involving the princesses? Better make Starlight reflexively switch their cutie marks!'"

"Oh! Here's one!" Sunset said as she leaned over the table, Starlight doing so as well, the both of them speaking in unison.

"'Trying to take over Equestria through brainwashing a small number of individuals? How about we whip you into shape by throwing a purple princess at you.'" The two looked at each other before smirking, said smirks turning into giggles, then full blown laughter as they threw themselves back into their seats. Sunset wiped a tear from her eye before a thought struck her. She looked at Starlight, whom was still laughing, holding her sides while doing so.

"You did what to the princesses?"

---~

~---

Jason walked into his department, near silent as usual. It was a deli in the back of the grocery store near his home. The smell of both grease and vegetables hit him like... Well nothing, as he had been working there for a few months already, so he got used to the smell. The usual off-white tile floor of the rest of the store gave way to grey tile with deep grout lines, filled with a disgusting menagerie of different messes that the nightly cleaning process just couldn't get. Once in, he put on a black cap and after cleaning his hands and arms, got to work prepping the fryer area for the dinner rush. It was routine for him at this point, and it wasn't unusual for him to be alone at this time. After all, his fellow closer wasn't scheduled for another half hour, and the pre-closers almost always decided to go on break together. That usually left him, and luckily the deli was almost always calm between two and three. It gave him time to think to himself, something he always loved to do. For the third time, almost always. I haven't gotten a single message back from Davis or Dan. Davis makes sense, he hardly looks at his messages, but how long could it realistically take to get information on someone's fucking Reddit account and see if they have any other account. I mean, I can't exactly talk since I barely know how the phone in my pocket works, but still. And what was with that whole thing with Davis falli- Before he could continue, his disposable glove caught on the edge of the fryer he was at, tearing a decently sized hole in it. "Fucking." He tore the rest off, along with his other glove, and tossed them into the bin, taking a new pair to replace them. Maybe that's a sign I should just not think it. Difficult as hell since I, as a "healthy" eighteen year old, shouldn't be experiencing shit like that. Was it a hallucination? I don't fucking know, brain! Stop asking!

"Hey, Jason." He heard the familiar voice of the deli manager, Rob. He was a chill guy, and was actually friends with Jason's oldest brother, so getting the job wasn't all too difficult. "You're closest, I need your help. C'mere for a sec." Jason could barely turn before he saw his manager enter through the door to the walk-in cooler. Jason followed after, seeing Rob scratch at his little stubble. His manager wore the same outfit as Jason, regulations and all that. He looked over the many boxes on one of the shelves. "Do you know where the broccoli salad is? I can't seem to find it, and it's dated for tomorrow so it needs to be put in the fridge."

Jason shrugged as he looked over the boxes. Rather quickly, he found it, and it was indeed dated for tomorrow, written clearly in black marker. He decided to be snarky and wanted show how blind his boss is. "You mean this?" He turned, but his boss wasn't in the cooler anymore. "Uh... Rob?" Jason walked out of the room, box in hand, and looked out to the deli. "Rob?" No sign of him. A couple customers shopping for vegetables near the produce section, fellow employees taking carts filled with cardboard to a back room, but no sign of his manager. "Where the fuck did he... Whatever." He passed the fryers and sinks to a three door fridge near the entrance of the deli and placed the box of broccoli salad into it. Ask for my help then walk off, really? He stood off next to the fridge. Okay... What was I doing again- Fuck, the fryers! He went to return to the fryers, but noticed something amiss in the front case of the deli. The hot case, serving up fresh chicken, both friend and grilled, corn dogs, burritos, egg rolls, nuggets, Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and... The gravy container hasn't even been filled today... Are you fucking serious?

He went back to the fridge and opened the right out door, spotting unopened boxes of ready-to-cook gravy. He could feel his eye twitch as he saw this. Cool, guys, wait for the fucking closer to show up so they can make the gravy.

---~

~---

"Isn't it weird?" Sunset asked, examining the door to the library her and Starlight were still in.

"You mean how long Sunburst is taking or how long Twilight is taking?" Starlight turned to the door herself, looking for any movement beyond it.

"I guess both. Your friend doesn't have bathroom troubles, does he?"

Starlight shook her head at that. "Not that I know of." She tapped her chin in thought. "Although, now that we've been keeping contact with each other, I have noticed he goes to the bathroom more often." Sunset snrked upon hearing this. "What?"

Sunset gave a quick shake of her head. "No-nothing, nothing at all." Starlight could see her orange friend... Other orange friend holding back giggles, confusing her.

"Nooo, you definitely have something on mind." Starlight pointed a purple

Sunset, once more, shook her head. "It's nothing, really." She rested her head upon her hoof. "Just my sense of humor." At that moment, her ears perked, then flattened. Starlight saw panic in her friend's eyes.

"Uh, Sunset, are you alri-"

"Something's wrong. I don't know what's wrong but something is definitely wrong. I can feel it." Her eyes darted around as she looked in several directions, ultimately shooting underneath the table. Starlight crouched in her seat to get a better look at her shaking friend. "Don't judge me." Her now scowling friend said.

"I really don't see what the problem-"

"Oh~ my little Shimmering Sunshine~!" The familiar, and oh so melodic, voice of the solar ruler rang through the room, announcing her arrival into the library as she strode pass the door, cantering in with the most content of smiles that Starlight had ever seen. Said smile gave way to confusion quickly as the larger than life mare spun her head left and right, no doubt searching for her "little Shimmering Sunshine". "Sunset, dear, I know I heard you in hear." She cantered behind Starlight, almost nudging the smaller mare out of her seat. "Oh~ Where, oh where, could my little girl be~? Oh where, oh where has she gone~?" She, once again, skipped pass Starlight, resulting in the unicorn gripping her seat as to not fall off. The alabaster Alicorn then noticed the young mare. "Oh, dreadfully sorry, Starlight, have you seen my daughter around?"

Starlight, not even daring to move her head, glanced down at the mare in question, whom was repeatedly sliding her hoof across her neck in a "negatory" meaning, panic very visible on her visage. Her eyes darted left and right before landing upon the diarch. Okay, Starlight, you have two options. Hide Sunset from a situation that you faced with your father, or tell the Princess she's under the table and run from the inevitable ball of orange death that is an angry Shimmer. Lie to the Princess and stay friends with Sunset, or tell the truth and possibly not see tomorrow. "N-no-I mean yes-I mean-Have I seen your daughter!? Pfft." She quickly rested her foreleg on the table and propped her head on her hoof, scooching her chair in to better hide Sunset, all the while smiling in a manner that brought her back to her little dictator days. Princess Green Hearth's Warming tilted her head, like a puppy that didn't understand that her favorite toy had been put away. Please don't examine my smile! Nothing to hide hear! She felt a cold sweat accumulate on her brow.

"It's just that I got a letter from Twilight, and after reading that Sunset had returned, I wanted to coddle and cuddle my little girl before she decided to leave." The Sun Mover's expression remained calm as she looked at Starlight. "Are you sure you haven't seen her today?"

"I..." She looked around the room, racking her brain for any ideas. She got one, but it was a risk. "I... Have seen Sunset today." At that, she felt a strong kick at her leg, but she refused to react to it.

"Do you know where she might be?"

"I may or may not have no idea where she shouldn't be within this current juncture." To this, Celestia reared her head back. To Starlight's chagrin, she couldn't tell if it was because she offended the white mare or just confounded her, so she hoped it was the latter.

"So you... Don't know where she is?"

"I, in fact, can think of several locations in which an orange mare of her stature and personality could very well possibly be."

"So you do know where she is?"

"I can't think of where she isn't."

"So that's a 'no'?"

"On the contrary! I happen to have information on where she might or might not be, evidence would show I happen to know where Sunset should be, being that I could be where she shouldn't."

The door opened for Sunburst as he used a little cloth to wipe at his glasses. "Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way to the bathroom, luckily I found Spike and he-" He put on his glasses and blanched as he saw the matriarch standing in the room. "Princess Celestia!? What are you doing here!?" His eyes darted left and right before he bowed. "I mean, your majesty."

"Oh, there is no need to worry, Sunburst, you may stand." Celestia walked over and placed a hoof under his chin, rising him to his hooves. "I'm simply here to give my daughter some love, but I can't seem to find her." Princess Celestia leaned closer to the smaller stallion, almost hovering over him. She meant nothing by it, but Sunburst felt the wrong answer would topple this leaning tower of pony upon him. His gaze roamed over to the table, the last place he saw Sunset, and immediately found her huddled underneath it. She was so close to Starlight's chair it looked like she was trying hide even further underneath that. Right as they made eye contact, Sunset dragged a hoof across her neck in a threatening motion, making Sunburst gulp.

"Uh-uh, no, I haven't, y-your highness." His knees quaked as he stuttered, stuck between the rock that is Princess Celestia and the hard place that is a threatening Sunset Shimmer. He looked over to Starlight, his foalhood friend, his best pal, his partner in science, for any aid. Starlight, the ever loving mare she is, shrugged. Before the supposed schnitzel could hit the fan, the regal mare stood to her full height.

"Odd, I could've sworn..." Her words trailed off as she looked up in thought. She walked around the room again, her head on a swivel as she searched. Starlight felt Sunset move around her legs, both her attached legs and the chair legs, to better hide from Equestria's longest ruler. Starlight felt some guilt for lying to the Princess. Well, I didn't exactly lie. She reasoned. I did say I'm where Sunset is... In a roundabout sort of way. She had to admit, though, that this was a bit much. While she did expect Sunset to maybe be the tiniest bit unreceptive to her parental figure, she definitely was not expecting total avoidance of the issue. One look at Sunburst affirmed her that she wasn't alone in this thought process.

"Maybe I heard her from another room?" Celestia spoke at a volume that was just loud enough for the other occupants of the room to hear. She meandered her way around the table, her eyes catching sight of the mirror to Canterlot High, the mirror she knew lead to the world Sunset now called home.

"Uh, Princess?" Starlight asked, surprisingly gaining Celestia's attention rather quickly. She let her tail hang over the edge of her seat to act as a sort of curtain to better add to Sunset's attempt at hiding. "Not that I believe Sunset wants to avoid you, but I think she would rather, um, steel her nerves before reconnecting with you, so that maybe she doesn't explode into a ball of barely controlled emotion?" She finished uncertainly.

Celestia pursed her lips, looking as if in thought. "Yes, I believe you're right." She worked her way around the table, walking right by Starlight her eyes above wither level. She marched on right to the door and stopped. She looked back with a tiny smile, a smile that gave a slight crease near her eyes. There was something about that smile, that kind of smile, that just didn't sit right with Starlight. Before she had the opportunity to shiver or even let her nerves calm down, Celestia spoke up.

"If you do happen to meet Sunset again, be absolutely sure to tell her she ceased being Hide-and-Seek champion when she got taller than her hiding places." She then shot a wink and left the room, letting the door close itself.

Author's Note

Been trying to hit a nice mix between quantity and quality, not sure how well this turns out but I'm hoping.

Let's see if anyone knows where this is going, because I have a poorly thought out map of an idea on where to take this railroadless train. That's right! You heard me right, folks! I have a plan...ish...

If all goes according to plan, this should come out on April Fool's/Foal's day. Speaking of April, who all's excited for Persona 5 the Royal and Phoenix Wright Trilogy coming for PlayStation! I know I am!

Result of Second Sight/Further Discussion on Humans

"She knew the whole time," Sunset held her head in her hooves at the table, "and played along while I was more terrified than I had any right to be." Starlight gently rubbed the mare's back with a soft hoof, doing her best to ease her friend.

"At least you admit that you overreacted." Starlight hoped her tone conveyed a sense sympathy rather than awkwardness at the previous situation. If Sunset noticed her effort, she didn't show it.

"It's so stupid." She whined to herself, shaking her head left and right.

"To be fair," Sunburst began, "Princess Celestia does have a pretty intimidating presence."

"Ugh!" She gave a loud groan as she threw her hooves into the air. She leaned back her chair, pushing away with yet hooves on the edge of the table. She, very visibly, tightened her jaw as she held herself at a leg's length away from the table. Luckily, it seemed before she could blow a gasket, she reigned herself in. "I... I should go and apologize to her." She rested her head on her hoof. Both Starlight and Sunburst nodded in encouragement, trying to raise their friend's spirit.

Sunburst took the lead. "She came all the way down here just to see you."

"Probably wanting to make up for the years you two missed," Starlight followed. Sunset's face fell at that reminder.

"Years we missed because I was such a-" Sunset's voice didn't exactly trail off, so much as it just stopped. She looked at the table, bringing Starlight's attention to the spot. She knew it had been recently polished, and could only assume Sunset was looking at her own reflection. She roughly got off, the chair squeaking in protest, and trotted to the door. On her way, she looked back at Sunset and Sunburst. "I might need you guys to come with me. Just so, y'know, I don't break down or anything." She stopped at the door and stared at it. "There's a lot of emotional baggage I didn't get to unpack last time."

---~

~---

Can't even cook gravy without fucking something up. Jason stood at a microwave, brown stained paper towels in hand, as he cleaned it out. He tossed his current set of paper towels and grabbed another set, continuing to wipe away at the runny mess. How the hell was I supposed to know the customers would take so long?

You're in a super market, of course customers will take longer than necessary. It's your fault for cooking it that long.

I thought it would be fine!

Jason had spent his cleaning time mentally arguing with and scolding himself for the current situation. After placing the gravy in the microwave, a group of customers had shown up, so he put the timer for four minutes thinking it would be fine. It was not, as the current situation showed. He hadn't heard the beep, signifying that it was done, nor had he heard the pop from the gravy bag, yet here he was.

You can't just assume things will be fine if you do something differently.

I had customers, I didn't want the gravy to cool off before I got done with them.

Jason's train of thought came to a halt right there. With a heavy sigh, he tossed another set of dirtied paper towels into the trash and grabbed just one more towel, doing a small wipe to finish the job. That's fucking stupid, it has to go through several runs before it's even ready to serve, anyways. Why did I worry about something that stupid? With the wad thrown away, he closed the door and checked the time.

---~

~---

"Do you think she went to talk with Twilight?" Sunburst said as the trio rounded a corner through the crystalline halls.

"She did mention Twilight had written you were here." Starlight looked over the many doors of the hall, most of them filled with, as Twilight called them, mini-libraries, while others remained as fully furnished guest rooms. "What if there's a friendship emergency that requires the entirety of Ponyville to hole up in the castle? I can't just leave them be with cold, hard floors." That was her mentor's response when she asked about them.

"Still mad that she did that." Sunset noted. Her pace quickened as they rounded another corner, quickly closing in on Twilight's office, the one she used for signing official documents. "Though, I guess I needed that little nudge. Celestia knows I probably wouldn't have talked with her otherwise."

Starlight narrowed her eyes at the orange mare as she noticed that last sentence. "'Celestia knows' as in the saying, or 'Celestia knows' as in your mom?"

"Starlight." Sunset said a bit hastily, with a quick turn of her head and a tad bit of sharpness to her tone. It elicited a short snicker from Starlight, while Sunburst decided to hang back from the annoyed mare, obviously not wanting to be caught in the hypothetical splash zone. Before much could happen, their attention was brought to the door they were certain the princesses were behind. Light chatter could be heard beyond the door, the melodic voice of Celestia being the deciding factor to go in. Sunset, taking up the front of the trio, opened the door, immediately noticing the smell of tea. It seemed the pair of pony princesses weren't chatting about anything important as Celestia almost immediately ended the conversation, rather giving her daughter her attention.

By quickly cantering over and enveloping Sunset in, quite possibly, the fluffiest wing hug she could muster.

"Ah, there you are, Sunset. I was worried you wouldn't show up." She nuzzled into the smaller pony's mane, clearly content with the situation and not caring for any on-lookers. Sunset, however, had an expression frozen without emotion. Her annoyed glare from earlier turned into a blank stare, as if trying to bore holes into a wall behind the larger of the two. Starlight tilted her head at the display as she examined her friend a but mire. Sunset seemed almost unresponsive, as if this wasn't what she had expected. A small orange glow caught her attention, near around Sunset's chest, the light from her geode catching on newly formed tears. Sunset, without another second to waste, hugged her mother figure with all she could, a big goofy smile on her face as tears streamed down. Starlight couldn't help but daaw at the situation.

---~

~---

"You sure you're not crazy?" The silky smooth voice of his coworker came with no hesitation. His name was John, a big guy, standing just a little under six foot ten. Looked like he could throw Jason without much trouble. Much to Jason's discomfort, John's eyes always had this shifty quality, like he was always suspicious of something. This was the other closer, and he had come in not too long ago.

"Right now? No clue." Jason responded. He had told his coworker about how he saw Davis ride down the street, fall, then vanish. "I've told myself I've gone crazy before, but this might be the icing on the cake."

"You swear you saw him?" John's eyes shifted at him, making Jason uncomfortable.

"I swear I saw something," Jason corrected, "whether or not it was what I think it was, I have no idea." He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Who's texting me at this time?

"Hey, Jason." Jason turned and saw his boss, Rob, calling to him from near the back room, waving his hand in a "come here" motion. "You're closest, I need your help. C'mere for a sec." Jason turned to John, who offered little more than a shrug, and went over to the sink, conveniently filled with dishes to keep himself busy. Jason rolled his eyes and followed Rob into the back room, and again into the cooler.

"You looking for anything?" He asked.

Rob spent a second or two looking over the boxes. Did you forget something else? "Do you know where the broccoli salad is? I can't seem to find it, and it's dated for tomorrow so it needs to be put in the fridge." Jason immediately gave Rob an irritated look.

"Dude, that's already in the fridge." He felt the bite in his tone, but it seemed Rob hadn't noticed.

"Really?" His boss turned to him and back to the boxes before walking out of the cooler, Jason following along, to the fridge and opened the door. "Nice work, man." He gave Jason a thumbs up and a smile before walking back to the cooler. "I need to rearrange the rest of the cooler, so you stay on counter with John, good? Good." Before Jason could say much, his boss power walked back through the back room. Jason just stood there with a dumbfounded expression.

"What the fuck is he on?"

---~

~---

"We think the best course of action is to try and find these missing humans on our side." Twilight brought up a map of Equestria and placed it over the table. "The only problem we have, we don't even know where to start looking." With her magic, she grabbed an inked quill and circled a few locations on the map, mainly being woodland areas and towns near forests. "I tried searching as many newspapers and reports from different towns and parks as I could for any unidentified creatures, hoping to find any that looked primarily ape-like in appearance. I went as far back as a month," she crossed out the towns with her quill, "but I haven't found a thing related to mysterious creatures. I had a bit more luck with the parks, but they just turned out to be red herrings." With that, she crossed out the forests.

"Wow," Starlight walked closer to Twilight, examining her mentor's work, "you put more effort into this in an hour than I did in three days." A hum from Celestia caught their attention, the large mare looking thoughtfully at the map, Sunset still wrapped in a wing.

"Miss Glimmer?" Starlight did her best to give her utmost attention. "From what I remember of Twilight's letters, you said he had covered you and Sunburst in blankets when you tried to measure the magic properties of the surroundings?"

"I did." Starlight nodded. "He didn't want us to be seen by anypony. He said humans don't have the best reactions regarding aliens."

"What if somepony is helping to hide these humans?" Sunset said from the comfort of her mother's wing.

"One of three possibilities, I think." Celestia gave her little girl a smile, the middle part of her statement having been parroted by Starlight and Sunburst. A high pitched squee caught everypony's attention.

"I think I know where you're leading with this!" Twilight's magic levitated the map and rolled it back up, placing it back into one of the cubbies in the room, taking numbered cards from the same cubby and lifting three into the air, numbered one to three. "One, somepony is trying to protect the humans from being spotted." She rose the second a bit higher. "Two, they are trying their best to hide from the population." She rose the third one, her smile slowly turned into a more serious frown. "Or three, they aren't even in Equestria's borders."

Author's Note

I was planning on uploading this on the 17th, just a couple days before the first year anniversary of this story, as I thought that was when Ace Attorney would release for console... Not so, as it has released four days prior to the writing of this Author's Note. So, this chapter shall be uploaded on the 20th, the actual first anniversary.

I am so proud and happy with this story and what little attention it's garnered, and I know It can be better. I will be taking a break from writing further chapters so as to focus on my other projects (and beating the Ace Attorney Trilogy for the second time).

A friend and I have been talking and planning a little fanfic for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specifically for part four, so a majority of that time will into making that into a beautiful piece of work and possibly be the most planned out project I work on.

That being said, I will still be working on this story in some capacity. I have taken very much notice as to how bad the previous chapters are in terms of grammar and WORDS FUCKING MISSING!!! So, I will be editing these chapters and making corrections in word choice, grammar, and putting the actual words in the story to begin with!

So, thank you, to all of you who have been reading from a year ago and from today and everywhere in between. You have been a driving force as to why I've kept this up for this long. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Boy, if this ain't the biggest Author's Note I've written. Feel free to leave your thoughts down below.

Edit: I will be posting a little blog post related to Phoenix Wright the same day I upload this chapter, so look out for that if it might catch your interest.