Chapter 27

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I sigh as I get out the car and lean against the crutch.

“Now, Mel, tell Will that, while I’m fine with her taking her studies seriously, if she plans on staying over at Irma’s again, she needs to tell me, not you. You’re not just a go between,” Aunt Sue says, winding down the window as I close the door.

Putting on a smile, I nod. “Sure, Aunt Sue. I’ll be sure to tell her.”

“And make sure she comes home tonight,” she calls as I start to limp towards the school. “We need to discuss the trip and we can’t do that without her there, after all.”

“Got it, Aunt Sue,” I call back cheerily, though my face does not match my tone, so I’m glad she can’t see it.

I make my way instead, heading for my locker.

“Mel!” I turn as I’m opening my locker to see Alchemy running towards me.

“What’s up… Alchemy?” I trail off as I notice she has a worried look on her face.

She looks to my crutch, then back to me, before frowning. “Mel, are you doing okay? After last night…”

I blink, before it all comes back.

With the craziness of the whole triple Pony of Shadows thing, stopping Cheese Legs and learning there’s an Equestria out there with anthro ponies and Peni Parker is in, the way our talk ended last next totally slipped my mind.

Alchemy had to be worrying all night about me.

“I… well… it’s I…” Ya know, for someone who was so good at coming up with small lies to handle situations on the spot in my old life, I’m wondering why I’m clamming up so easily whenever it’s Alchemy I have to lie to.

I can’t tell her the truth, the fact I’m using the crutch is already lying to her face without even needing words… but I don’t like lying to her.

I know I have to, I know it’s for her own safety, but…

After a few moments, Alchemy gives me a firm look. “Do you have a twin sister?”

I almost drop the crutch, which would’ve blown my cover immediately.

“I— but… why would you ask something like that? I’m an only child in this world, I assure you.”

Inwardly, my expression goes blank and I’m kicking myself.

Why the hell did I word it like that? Who says they’re only child that way? What the hell was I thinking?

Alchemy watches me for a moment, before looking away. “Yeah, I… I guess I just dreamed it.”

“Dreamed… what?” I ask, readjusting the crutch’s position.

“It’s… it’s silly,” she says, waving a hand… something about her smile and cheery tone feeling… off.

I open my mouth to ask when the bell rings and Alchemy heads off for class.

I quickly get my stuff from my locker and hobble after her as fast as I can. Keeping up the recovery act already is really annoying me.

When I get to class, I see Will is already seated.

I make sure to pass by her, whispering, “Will, we’ll need to talk later. Aunt Sue… she’s got a surprise for you.”

Will heaves a loud sigh, causing the kids next to her to glance her way in confusion.

I sit down next to Alchemy, who’s getting her books for class out.

“Alchemy, what… what was this dream?” I ask as I sit down, setting the crutch to rest against the table.

Alchemy doesn’t speak for a moment, before sighing and her eyes look to her other side.

“Remember that day we went to the park and I… passed out?”

I nod, hoping she didn’t catch my sudden stiffening.

That was when Miranda first approach us and nearly blew not only my cover, but the whole magic secret altogether. Alchemy passing out had been a blessing.

“Well… in the dream… you have a twin,” she says, holding her book in both hands, but not seeming to really see it. “She was… she seemed like an evil twin. So evil she… she turned into some kind of monster.”

Inwardly, I sigh. Phew. So she really did think that was just a dream. Thank goodness.

“It… it was just a dream, right?” she looks to me… and I’m suddenly worried by the intensity in her stare. “Right? You don’t have an evil twin sister who turns into a monster?”

My brain blanks.

I know the obvious answer I should give here, it’s the one any sane person would give if asked that question.

But… but something’s not right here.

Alchemy’s a kid, a teen. Imagination is still a wild thing at her age, but… but she would know not to ask something so ridiculous sounding in any normal context.

Why would she ask that so seriously, when she knows the answer is so obvious?

After a few moments, I finally get my brain working and start to speak.

Giving a sad laugh that is only half acting, I shake my head. “No, Alchemy. In this world, I have no siblings. No brothers and no sisters, especially no evil twin sisters.”

Inwardly, I’m immediately kicking myself for letting my emotions make me answer honestly.

You idiot! Stop saying things like “in this world”, you absolute dumbass! Are you trying to blow your cover? Because constantly brining up terms like “this world” are going to lead to exactly that!

Alchemy looks at me, her stare still more intense than I think it should be, when I suddenly feel my centre of gravity shift, my chair seeming to be moving out from under me.

I fall forward towards Alchemy, her eyes widening at the sudden movement.

We fall, myself wincing from the pain.

Shit. What the hell… was… that?

I’m pressed against Alchemy… not just my body, though.

There’s something soft pressing against my lips… and I’m staring back at a pair of eyes just as wide us mine.

Time seems to freeze for eons as we both just stare into each other’s eyes, my brain somehow processing and not processing what’s going on.

After what feels like an eternity, reality finally seems to catch up and I quickly pull off of Alchemy, backing away and tripping on her book, which had fallen with us, sliding backwards, slamming my head against the floor.

I hiss, blinking frantically to get the stars out of my eyes.

It takes a moment, before I’m suddenly aware of the sound of laughter. A single voice of laughter.

“Uriah!” the teacher’s voice yells loudly.

That’s as far as I remember though.

My hands are on my lips and I’m staring back at Alchemy, or rather, what I can see of her through the desk legs from where I fell.

There’s a long, long pause, before Alchemy rushes up and run out the classroom.

“Miss Ethel? Miss Ethel, wait. Uriah!”

Will putting her hands on my shoulders causes me to tune out whatever else is going on as Will gives me a firm look.

“What just happened?” she asks, but I don’t answer, just staring at the door where Alchemy ran out.

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“Definitely not the best way I’d recommend a first kiss.” Irma says as she, Will and Matt sit with each other at lunch. “At least take her out on a date first.”

“Irma!” Will hisses, while I try to make myself as small as possible, certain my face is bright red.

“I kid, I kid,” Irma holds up her hands, before looking to me, her expression serious. “So, Alchemy doesn’t think that encounter with Miranda is anything but a dream?”

“Could you try to be serious?!” Will scolds, before putting an arm around me.

Irma pauses for a moment, before sighing, resting her head on her hand. “Yeah, sorry. Just thought I’d bring some levity to it. My bad.”

I kissed Alchemy. I kissed Alchemy!

Accidental or not, there’s no other way of looking at it. Alchemy was my first kiss.

I bury my head in my hands. “Why would I rather be fighting Cheese Legs’ army again, all on my own, instead of this?”

“Relationships are tricky. For us magical related people more than others,” Matt says in what I’m sure what meant to be an encouraging tone.

I run my hands down my face. “What am I going to do? How in the world am I supposed to even talk to Alchemy now? Kissing your friend isn’t something you just brush off to the side like it was nothing!”

“Was it nothing?”

My head snaps towards Irma, my eyes wide. “Ex-cuse me?!”

She waves a straw at me. “Like you said, it was an accident. Alchemy’s a smart kid. She’d know it was an accident. If it was nothing, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“I… well… you have a point, I guess…” I mumble, not noticing I start fiddling with my hair.

There’s a pause, before I somehow know without seeing it that Irma’s eyes widened. “Wait. Mel, do you have a crush on Alchemy?!”

My head shoots up and I hate how my face feels so hot. The weather isn’t supposed to be that high today, is it?

Irma’s face lights up. “Oh. My. God. You do! You totally do!”

“No, no! I don’t! I can’t!” I wave my hands frantically. Would they turn on the AC, already? It’s freaking hot in here. “Irma, You know I used to be a dude, but I was also an adult. I can’t have a crush on a teen!”

“That’s just it, though, isn’t it?” Irma points her straw as she leans over the table, a sneaky grin on her face. “You used to be an adult, but that’s all you know. You don’t know how old you were. You could’ve barely been an adult before you got yanked here. And you’ve been a teen yourself now for over half a year.”

“That doesn’t change anything!” I really hate how my voice squeaked several times there. “I was still an adult. Having any kind of romantic relationship with someone Alchemy’s age is wrong!”

“Is it, though?”

I can almost hear the creaking of my neck as I slowly turn to look at Will with wide eyes.

Will hesitates, before giving me a friendly serious look. “Mel, if you were still the you from before, I can understand your worries. But, if age were really the issues, we don’t know how old Miranda really is, so she’s probably older than you were.”

I put my hands on my head. How the hell is that supposed to make this any better? Fuck!

The rest of the day does not go any better.

For one, Alchemy doesn’t show up for class again at any point.

When I ask the teacher, they tell me she went home because she said she was feeling sick.

Great. If that’s not a word choice to tell me my friendship with her is over, I don’t know what else would.

By the time the school day is over, I just wanna curl up in bed and pretend this day never even happened.

We don’t get to chat with the girls at Redstone. We tried and the only thing we got out of them was they were exhausted from the day and then fell asleep mid-call, so we just hung up and Will and I headed home.

Will and I don’t get the full details of what Aunt Sue wanted to talk with us about due to a suddenly call from work keeping her late, so Will and I just sit and watch TV, myself hoping it will drive out any thoughts of the day… and it’s like the world hates me.

There’s nothing on TV but movies or episodes of shows featuring friends and talks about romantic situations.

I groan, putting my head in my knees as we’re sitting on the couch.

“Mel, it… it’s going to be—”

“Are you seriously going to tell me it’s going to be alright, Will? Seriously?” I snap, looking over at her. “I kissed the first friend I made here outside of our main group. How, in any sense, is it going to be alright after that?”

“Well… how do you feel about Alchemy?” Will asks, quickly holding up her hands as my eyes narrow. “Now, hear me out, okay? This isn’t a problem so long as you and Alchemy don’t actually have feelings for each other. Then, it’s just an accident you’ll both laugh about later. So… do you have feelings for Alchemy?”

I want to punch my face for heating up.

I quickly shake my head. “I can’t have feelings for her. Will, I used to be an adult. Don’t care that I don’t remember how old, I know I was an adult. Alchemy’s not even sixteen! I can’t have feelings for her!”

“But… if you really think about it… do you?” Will asks earnestly.

I grab a throw pillow and bury my face in it, groaning loudly.

I… I don’t know. I never gave those kinds of feelings a thought. Not in my last life and not once since I became Miranda.

I don’t think I ever had a real relationship with anyone before. Blank as my memories are on my old life, I do get the feeling I was never in a serious relationship in my past.

I never gave these kinds of situations a thought, but, now…?

A vibrating from the couch makes me jump, before I glance around to see it’s just Bree, my phone.

Irma’s name is on the caller ID.

“Pretty sure this is important,” Bree says as I pick her up.

I click answer. “What’s up, Irma?”

“WE NEED TO FOLD TO EQUESTRIA, NOW!” Irma voice screeches at us, causing me to quickly hold Bree away as much as my arm will let me, Will wincing as she covers her ears.

“What do you mean?” Will asks, annoyance passing over her face. “Didn’t The Oracle tell us to wait a bit?”

“I must’ve accidentally put Mel’s journal in my bag by mistake!” Irma says, her voice still as frantic. “Twilight just wrote. While they’ve been preparing to rebuild, a bunch of ponies in black armour attacked a the camp.”

I blink. Ponies in black armour? Why would anypony being wearing black…?

My eyes widen and I put Bree to my ear. “We’ll be right there!” I hang up and turn to Will, nodding.

She doesn’t question and we teletransport to Irma’s room.

“Guardians, unite!” Will and I say, transforming, before opening a Fold and we fly through, the scene we see on the other side shocking us.

The camp is overrun by ponies in black armour, fighting or capturing those in the camp.

“Lay off, ponies!” Tirek yells.

We turn to see the centaur throwing several armoured ponies off of him, looking a mixture of frustrated and winded.

“Tirek!” Will cries as we fly over. “What in the world’s happening? Where did these armoured ponies come from?”

“The north!” Tirek shouts, before bucking several armoured ponies who’d been coming at him from behind. “It’s like they were waiting for the Changelings to be defeated. They took us completely by surprise. They attacked a wagon earlier this morning and we only got news aft— AHH!”

Tirek cries out in pain as he’s blasted from behind by a purple, green and black beam of magic.

He tries to resist it for a moment, before he falls forward, out cold.

“Well, well, well. Isn’t this a nice surprise?”

A large group of armoured ponies marches towards us, those in the middle with a large palanquin covered in gold, red and black decorations carried above them.

Sitting in the palanquin is a black unicorn wearing armour and a red cape, his head topped with a pointed crown and his horn red and curved.

I snarl. “Sombra!”

“Oh, mutant spider speaks knows the name of its king? How wonderful?” he sneers at me, before looking to Will and Irma with a mocking smile. “I must thank you, Guardians of the Infinite Dimensions. I didn’t even believe you were real at first, but I am grateful for your getting rid of those bothersome bug ponies. For that, once you hand over your power, I shall grant you the honour of being my highest-ranking slaves. You’ll only have to do backbreaking labour twenty-one hours of the day. Quite the generous offer, don’t you agree?”

“Oh, shove it, Sombra!” I snarl, thrusting an arm out. “Like we’d ever give you the Heart of Kandrakar just like that!”

He laughs. “Yes, my generosity does tend to confuse those of lesser minds than myself at first, so they refuse. I have come to accept that. It isn’t your fault you’re so unintelligent.”

“What makes you think we’d willingly serve a tyrant like you?!” Will shouts as she and Irma knock away several armoured ponies who clearly thought they were being sneaky.

Sombra gives a wistful, fang toothed smile. “I am merely preserving the natural order. Isn’t that what you Guardians are meant to be all about? I think you’d want to help me in my endeavour to bring unity to this world. My power is absolute, after all. Even the Royal Sisters couldn’t keep me back for more than a thousand years. And I look forward to finding my new bride. I hear there’s a new Alicorn in town.”

He gets a wicked sneer.

“I look forward to breaking her and making her my obedient pet.”

My nostrils flare. “Not on your life, Sombra. Yeah, we Guardians are about peace and balance, but your version of unity is just being a tyrant! We’ll never help you! We’ll stop you!”

He looks annoyed for a moment, then curious. “You speak for the Guardians as if you are one of them, mutant freak. Is that so?”

I blink, before noticing something about his energy… and sneer. “Yeah. I’m the newest Guardian. Wanna know my power?”

He rolls his eyes, but does seem interested. “I’m all ears. It couldn’t possibly be something to do with spiders, could it? Your appearance is so mysterious.”

I telestransport right in front of him, taking him of guard. “I’m the Guardian of Shadow, Lord of Shadows. Get the picture?”

His eyes widen, then widen further eyes what I said seems to properly process, but it’s too late.

I’ve both my hands out and Sombra’s shadow energy is being sucked towards them.

“No!” he cries out, scrambling in his throne, clearly trying to get away, but it does nothing. He really designed it poorly for escape attempts. Guess flaunting your power in front of you has its drawbacks.

“No! No, no, NO!” he cries as more and more of him is sucked away. “You can’t do this! I am king! King, I say! You can’t do this to me!”

“And yet, here I am, doing just that!” I cheer, before trying to pull harder on his energy, blinking as a certain piece of information suddenly presents itself in my mind, given by the shadows I’m consuming. “Goodbye, Former King Cobalt.”

Like the Ponies of Shadow, he’s pulled towards me, his entire being sucked into my own.

Once he’s completely sucked up, I feel a pulse, before breathing out, a faint and wispy “No” seeming to fade away with my breath.

At once, all the armoured ponies halt in place, looking around in confusion.

“Well, that was surprisingly simple,” Irma comes over as I land on the ground and start helping ponies remove their helmets. “Could you always do that?”

“And, will you be able to do that to all the other Sombras in those other timelines, just like with the Pony of Shadows?” Will asked, looking between stunned and impressed.

“Only to being like Sombra and the Ponies of Shadow, I think,” I smile, tossing a helmet aside. “I wonder if I can do it to Nightmare Moon too. That would make our job a lot easier. And, the more Shadow Magic i absorb and purify, the stronger I’ll get. Maybe I can even get back to my orgiinal level I was at before my Heart split its power amongst you guys. I’d likely still be weakest among us by default, but being close to your strength at least means I’ll not be holding you girls back again. Though, I doubt I could do it to Miranda or— Gah!”

I kneel down, my head pounding.

“Mel?” Irma and Will’s worried voices cry out.

What… what is this… pressure? It… it feels like…

___________________________________________________________

I’m standing in a field of some kind.

In front of me, there’s a large tree blooming with cherry blossoms.

What? How did I get…?

“Mommy! It’s blooming! It’s blooming!”

I blink. I know that voice. It’s higher pitched, but…

Turning around, I see two figures coming towards me.

They’re wearing either yukatas or kimonos, it’s hard to tell which.

One is a woman, Caucasian, with black hair and blue eyes, the former tied back in a style that reminds me of ancient Asia. Her attire is a very light pink.

The other, a child of maybe four or five runs past me towards the tree, as if not even seeing me.

She shocks me the most.

Her clothes are red… but, if I didn’t know better, I’d say she looks like Miranda if she were that age.

I… no, but… what the hell is going on here?

“What…? What is this?!” my voice says, despite my mouth not moving.

Whirling around, I see Miranda standing behind me, her eyes wide with rage.

“What is this nonsense?!” she screams, a powerful wind seeming to blow from out of nowhere. “Enough! Get out of my head!”

Something dark passes over my vision and the world goes black.

Author's Note

Here's what will very likely be the last WITCH update for the year.

My biggest hurdle with this chapter is the fact Mel and co need to move forward through the school day without too big an incident, but Mel needs to get a new internal conflict now that she's gotten over feeling worthless.

Romantic shenanigans are a good way to worry the mind, no?

And is Alchemy aware the incident with Miranda in the park wasn't a dream after all? Is she trying to get Mel to come clean, without outright telling her she knows something's up?

Granted, I feel Sombra got beaten pretty fast, but I wasn't really sure where else to go with that chapter, so I felt ending it quickly was better than dragging it out in a way that wouldn't have made any sense, making it sound like it was just meandering around.

What other dangers does the now not Changeling timeline have left the Guardians will deal with?

And will the T.C.H. inform W.I.M. what's been going on at Redstone?

Might some investigating be in order once they do?

And what is the wierd vision Mel had after abosobing Sombra's power?

Why did she see an younger human form Miranda? And why did current Miranda seem to be there too?

The plot thickens, but you'll have to wait til next year to find out more.

Hopefully not too late into next year, but next year all the same.

Attempting to do another update to this fic this year is just not in the cards, especially given what's going to be happening for me after Christmas.

I'll elaborate more on that, though, in my final general update of the year, so, be on the look out for that.

Anyhoo, as I said, it's after midnight, almost 1am, actually, so i'll be wrapping up here.

I only decided to post this now instead of waiting til later this mroning because I was being kept up as my phone charges and, instead of watching a DVD, i choose to post this instead.

So, I'll stop now, need to head for bed soon anyway.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and, til next time, stay safe, stay strong and see you later everbody.