The New Problem

The streets were quiet within the city of Canterlot, not a single human was out late at this hour by the order of the police. Because of attacks by creatures known as aberrations had been happening with greater frequency at night, the populace was afraid. One gray skinned aberration moved through the city looking for his next meal. He feasted upon the magic of others, but was effective enough to not leave a trail for people to follow, or so he had thought. His case was being thoroughly investigated by a group of people known only as the Special Investigators.

One Special Investigator, a dark blue skinned woman with faded yellow hair patrolled on the streets for her target. She worked alone as usual, a baton at one side and a pistol a the other. In her line of work, she had to be prepared for anything. Some aberrations came quietly, others had to be put down. This particular one was the case she had chosen and had been pursuing for her entire adult life. She wasn't about to let the aberration get away from her.

A device in her pocket alerted her to the presence of dark magic near her, and she was immediately put on high alert. She knew the cravenness of those who had willingly been consumed by the dark magic they chose to practice. They rarely attacked from the front. She kept her head on a swivel, knowing full well that her choice to work alone had put her in more danger simply by not having someone to cover her back. Her steps echoed through the empty streets, the only sound that she could hear. Except for a rustling of leaves.

Her intuition told her to investigate the rustling. She pulled her baton out and pressed a button to electrify it. The soft crackling of the electricity running along the baton reached her ears and she knew that it would tell anything that was intent on attacking her that she wouldn't go down without a fight. She slowly walked towards the leaves, which continued rustling. The wind wasn't blowing, so she had no reason to believe that it was a coincidence. She stepped even closer, her heart started to race. Despite the fact that her face showed no fear, she felt it and she knew that some aberrations were able to sense that, but not the one she had been following.

She reached the pile of leaves and the moment her foot hit the ground, a mouse moved out of it. But her intuition told her that the real threat was behind her. She turned around only to be tackled to the ground, her baton thrown from her hand from impact and she was pinned to the ground. Her assailant reached into the holster and removed the pistol from it, tossing it away as well. He lowered his face into her's, opening his mouth to reveal his fangs. The smell of the breath on the aberration was putrid, as if he hadn't brushed his teeth in years. The woman would've vomited at the smell if she wasn't struggling to get free.

"Ah ah ah, Agent Moonlight. You know that you normal humans aren't strong enough to free yourself from us," the creature threatened.

Moonlight knew he was right, she wasn't strong enough, no normal human was. But she opened her mouth to start to talk, but it was covered quickly by a hand. "Tsk tsk, we can't have you casting any spells, can we?" the creature taunted.

The creature made one critical mistake by covering her mouth with his hand. He had to free up one of her's. She didn't need to chant to cast a spell, but she did need to make the hand gestures. She swiftly made a few gestures for a basic fire spell. It wouldn't do much, but it would create enough light and heat to scare her attacker off her. Predictably, the moment his clothes caught fire, he was startled and let go of her. This gave the investigator enough of a window to get back up and start to prepare a better spell.

She started moving her hands and her fingers to form gestures for a spell that would allow her to form a cage of light magic around the aberration. This would prevent it from accessing or using its dark magics and would allow her to bring him in. Her opponent however saw what she was doing and instead of attacking her, he fled.

She had no time to continue the spell, it was something that was only supposed to be done while they were dazed and they had enough time as it was a very complicated spell. The investigator was furious at herself for letting her long time target get away, but there was no time to feel sorry for herself. She had to get the creature before it hurt anyone else. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, but the aberration was superhuman. This naturally, was normal for their kind.

She chased it to a school, the very same high school she had once wanted to attend, but because of having moved during the eighth grade, she went to Crystal Prep instead. She started making gestures with her hands once more, vines creeping out of the ground and heading towards her target's legs. But her target suddenly walked into a statue, but didn't emerge from the other side.

This gave her pause, forcing her to stop where she was. She confused as to what happened. She used a detect magic spell, one of the few spells she was able to do without any hand gestures or chanting. There wasn't any red glowing of dark magic anywhere in the vicinity, it was as if it had completely disappeared. She silently cursed herself for letting this happen. She turned to walk away when it dawned upon her, people don't just vanish and teleportation spells were unheard of in their world. Moonlight turned around and walked back to the statue, it was glowing a bright blue. This wasn't dark or light magic, it was just magic.

She looked into the mirror and saw her reflection, she placed her hand on it, curious as to what kind of magic the statue had. To her surprise, her hand passed through the mirror. "This must be how you escaped from here. Well, you're not going to get away from me," she stated with a smirk on her face.

She knew that the only way forward with her investigation, the only way that she could continue to track down the aberration that she had been trying to find and stop was to enter this mirror. With a deep breath, she steeled her nerves. A single step is all it took for her to enter and then everything went black.