It was a sunny summer day in Ponyville. The birds were singing, the pegasai were gliding around, and almost everypony was treating this like a holiday. In fact, the only ponies that seemed to be in a hurry were the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were running an impromptu race towards a small tree-house on the Apple family farm. Scootaloo was ahead of the others, but she was struggling to maintain her lead. The rest of the crusaders were currently in a three-way tie and nipping at her flanks.
“I’m beating you, cousin.” Applebloom called out. “I’m about to win this race.”
“I only let you win so far. I’m about to pull out all the stops.” Babs replied.
“You both need to keep up.” Sweetie Belle yelled, glancing over at the others. The momentary distraction, however, was all it took for her to fall behind. She tried to catch up, but could only watch as the other fillies ran into the clubhouse seconds before she did. Internally acknowledging her loss to herself, she joined the others in a good laugh.
“What’s so important that we had to come over right after lunch, Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle inquired, after they had a chance to catch their breaths.
Scootaloo tried to answer, but she had just grabbed something out of her saddle bags that the other crusaders couldn’t identify. Wasting no time, a space was quickly cleared on the table, and Scootaloo gently placed the item down. From a quick glance, her parcel didn’t seem to be anything but a simple mirror. Upon closer inspection though, they saw an indecipherable scrip running along the outside edge of the glass and an ornate design on top that looked like a multi-colored scale.
After a couple of minutes, something clicked in Sweetie Belle’s mind and she exclaimed “It’s a viewing mirror!”
“What kind of mirror?” Babs asked.
“A viewing mirror. Rarity told me about those once. They are supposed to be able to communicate with far off places using just a simple charge of magic.” Sweetie Belle replied.
“Wow. Are they rare?” Scootaloo cried, realizing what she had been carrying.
“Yep. There’s only a few left that still work. In fact, the only ones that anypony has seen in years are currently in the royal museum. But where’d you come across this one?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“I found it while helping Fluttershy locate some lost animals in the Everfree Forest.” Scootaloo responded.
“Are you sure we should be messing with something like that? I think we should show it to Twilight.” Applebloom said.
“I’m sure it’s fine. It’ll probably just fizzle out if it doesn’t work. But don’t you want to try for a cutie mark in communicating with other places?” Scootaloo replied.
“I guess that sounds good, but how do we activate it?” Babs inquired.
“It’s easy. You just need to focus some magic on the glass part to charge it up until the writing becomes legible and speak the revealed phrase to activate the mirror.” Sweetie Belle answered.
“Go for it.” The others encouraged.
Wasting no more time, the other crusaders backed up to give Sweetie Belle room to work. Locking onto the glass part, Sweetie Belle poured as much magic as she could into the mirror. After a couple of minutes, she had to cut off the flow of magic due to exhaustion. For a moment, the crusaders didn’t notice any difference with the mirror, but before their eyes, the letters slowly reformed themselves.
“I can read it now.” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
“What’s it say?” The other three asked, getting as close as they could to the mirror.
“I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a land apart.” She intoned.
At the verbal exclamation of the phrase, the jewel at the top of the mirror started to glow, captivating Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, the latter picking up the mirror for a closer look. Scootaloo, looking away for a second, noticed that a bunch of holographic dragons seemed to be spinning around the four of them. Nudging her three friends, she pointed at the
dragons and asked “Is it supposed to be reacting like that?”
“I don’t know. Rarity never said anything about it doing this.” Sweetie Belle answered.
Suddenly, the mirror started sending off a flurry of sparks.
Dropping the mirror, Applebloom cried “Let’s get out of here”; but she was too late, for in the next moment, the mirror sent out a bright flash, and all four crusaders covered their eyes as they disappeared. Its task accomplished, the mirror settled down to wait for its next users….
Several minutes later, the crusaders finally managed to open their eyes again.
“Where are we?” they thought, as their vision slowly readjusted. Taking a look around, they say that they were in a large cavern with a narrow tunnel leading off into the distance and a wooden door right behind them.
“You girls alright?” Sweetie Belle asked the others.
“For being a communication mirror, it sure didn’t act like one.” Babs replied in an upset tone.
“I just don’t know what went wrong with it. I did just as Rarity said.” Sweetie Belle tried to explain.
“It felt like when Twilight’s teleported us.” Scootaloo remarked.
Looking at each other, the crusaders realized that something else was wrong.
“Where’s the mirror?” Babs asked her cousin.
“A’h don’t know.” Applebloom replied.
“Do you girls have it?” The Apples asked their friends.
“No, sorry.” The other fillies replied.
“Well now what’ll we do?” Applebloom shouted, in a visibly upset manner.
“If that mirror brought us to this cave, maybe there’s one around here that’ll get us back to our clubhouse.” Sweetie Belle interjected, trying to cheer up her friends.
Hoping that Sweetie Belle was right, the crusaders commenced a frantic search of the immediate area, but had no such luck in locating anything but rocks. They even tried knocking on the wooden door, but got no response. Dejected, they finally regrouped in the center of the cavern and started to sulk.
It was some time before Scootaloo finally broke the silence by saying “I just realized: we’re in a cave system. If we head to the surface, we could find out where in Equestria we are.”
“But what if we’re not in Equestria?” Babs replied.
“Well then we could try for a cutie-mark in exploring.” She suggested.
“That’s a great idea, Scootaloo.” The others acknowledged, their troubles temporarily forgotten to the new pursuit of those elusive marks.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Explorers Go!” They shouted as they headed off through the distant tunnel. As they rounded a curve, the wooden door swung open and a large shadow fell on the ground….
Back at the clubhouse, Applejack had just come over to see how the girls were doing.
Entering the clubhouse, she called out “Alright girls, y’all ready for some cider?” Surprisingly for her, she was not assaulted by the screaming of four noisy fillies. This got her a little worried. Glancing around, she saw no sign that any of the crusaders were still in the clubhouse. As she turned to leave and look for them elsewhere, she caught a glimpse of
something in the back corner.
“What the hay is this?”
Seeing that it was a mirror, Applejack reached down and picked it up, but dropped it immediately due to receiving a shock big enough for her mane to temporarily resemble Pinkie Pie’s. Being a little more cautious, she wrapped her mouth in a nearby cloth before tentatively picking the picking the mirror up again.
“I’d better take this to Twilight later.” She muttered, putting the mirror in her saddlebag. “I’m leaving the cider for you here. If y’all want something more to eat later, come find me or Big Mac. We’ll be in the southern field.” She called out. Sighing to herself, she started back towards the fields to rejoin her brother….
Sometime later, the four fillies climbed out of a low hole and plopped down on the edge of a field strewn with mushrooms as big as a full-grown stallion.
“Whew. I thought we’d never get out of those caves. But where are we now?” Applebloom asked.
Looking around, the fillies noticed a sign next to a path of yellow bricks.
“It says Mushroom Meadow.” Sweetie Belle read.
“Are you sure?” Scootaloo remarked.
“Of course I’m sure.” Sweetie Belle replied.
“That sounds like it came out of a foal’s storybook.” Babs snarked.
“Well maybe this is just a magic garden or something. I bet if we could get up higher, we’d see a farmhouse or barn and maybe find somepony to tell us where we are.” Applebloom suggested.
Scootaloo, being the only semi-flyer of the group, was immediately chosen for the task. Without a moment’s hesitation, she climbed on one of the mushrooms to get a better view, but quickly found out that the mushroom tops acted like springs when a misstep launched her into the air.
“Isn’t this place great?” She laughed as she started bouncing higher and higher on the mushrooms.
“But shouldn’t we be trying to find a way back? My sister will be looking for us soon. I’m sure it’s close to dinnertime.” Applebloom called out.
“Hopefully she’ll be able to find us. I’m starting to think the mirror brought us to the Forest of Leota, judging by how similar those mushrooms are to the ones Rarity and Applejack encountered.” Sweetie Belle mused.
“When did that happen?” Babs asked.
“Back when the changeling queen tried to take over again, she kidnapped us and tricked my sister and her friends into coming straight to her thru this forest.”
“Now that you say it, I think I’ve seen this forest on some maps in school. If we’re in that forest, I think we should follow this path north towards the Macintosh Hills.”
“But what about the Diamond Dog mines?”
“Then do you think we should go south?”
“You mean towards the changelings?”
“Well, when you put it that way….”
Seeing that Babs and Sweetie Belle would not stop this back and forth questioning for some time, Applebloom moved over to where Scootaloo was resting after her bouncing. A couple of minutes later, Applebloom said “I hope we can find our way out of here. I’m not keen on staying lost in a place as bad-sounding as Everfree.”
“Well, from what I can see, there’s nothing around here that attacks ponies.” Scootaloo reassure her.
“Except for that!” Applebloom suddenly called, pointing up at something in the sky. Turning their heads, the other three crusaders looked and got a big fright. A very large purple and green dragon with two heads had just jumped out of the hole the four of them had recently emerged from. Catching its multiple eyes, the fillies suddenly realized that the dragon was hovering right above them.
“Hide!” Scootaloo cried, as the dragon descended. Just before it landed, the crusaders took advantage of the dust it was kicking up and managed to hide under a distant berry bush.
Upon landing, the dragon looked all around for what it had seen in the air, but to no avail.
“Why did you want to come this way, Wheezie?” The green head asked in a deep male voice.
“I saw some ponies down in our knuckerhole, Zakie; and something did knock on our door.” The purple head responded in
a high female voice.
“I think you’re a little confused. Eunice and the others are setting up for tomorrow's unicorn race over at the Crystal Cave. Why would they be over here?”
“I know what I saw.”
“Well, even if they were here, you managed to scare away with how loud you were.” He said in a tone that was a little too harsh. Wheezie let out a gasp and turned her head away from him. He quickly changed to a calmer tone and said “Sorry, Wheezie.”
“It’s alright … If we can go bouncing on the mushrooms.”
Zak normally hated spontaneous acts of mayhem, but the desire to cheer up his sister quickly won out.
“Ok, Wheezie. But only for five minutes. We promised Quetzal we’d help around the school this afternoon.”
In no time at all, the twins were jumping back and forth between several of the largest mushrooms.
“I can do this with my eyes closed.” Wheezie cried, as she started putting more and more force into her bounces.
“Careful, Wheezie.” Zak cried as Wheezie bounced higher and higher, but his warning was a little too late. In her blind revelry, Wheezie had misjudged the angle of the last bounce and was sending them straight towards a tree. Zak tried to gain enough height to clear it, but without Wheezie working her wing, he could only generate a tiny bit of lift. Trying to avoid hitting the tree head-first, Zak managed to bank enough to only skim the side of it. That was enough to snap Wheezie out of her revelry, but it also sent the twins crashing into a berry bush….
At the same time, the crusaders were in the middle of a debate whether they should remain under cover or try to sneak out while the dragon was distracted.
“…I’m sure that dragon will get bored and go away soon.” Sweetie Belle finished saying.
Just as she spoke though, the three fillies were started by the sudden appearance of the two-headed dragon crashing into their bush.
“Aaaahhhh” They all cried, scampering out of their hiding place. Seeing nowhere else to go, they ran underneath a nearby mushroom.
It took Zak and Wheezie a few seconds to recover from the crash and process what they saw.
“I guess you were right, sis. There are ponies around here. I’m sorry I doubted you.” Zak said.
“It’s alright, Zakie.” Wheezie replied. Turning towards the mushroom, she called out “It’s okay, little ponies. We won’t hurt you.”
Back under the mushroom, the crusaders were more than a little shocked to see that the dragon could talk. Her fear quickly leaving her, Applebloom started to move out from under the mushroom.
“What are you doing?” Sweetie Belle asked. “That’s a dragon.”
“I can see that, but the only dragon who acts as silly as that is Spike, and he’s the friendliest dragon in all of Equestria. Besides, we need some help to get back to Ponyville.” Applebloom answered.
Not wanting to argue with their friend, the four fillies slowly crept out from their hiding spot.
“So who are y’all?” Applebloom asked, once the crusaders were out in the open.
“I’m Zak, and this is my sister Wheezie.” Zak answered.
“Hello. And who are you cute little ponies?” Wheezie replied.
“I’m Applebloom, this is my cousin Babs, and these are our best friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.” she replied, pointing to each pony in turn.
“If you don’t mind, can you show us the way out of the forest? We want to get out of Leota and back to Ponyville as soon as possible.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Ponyville? Where’s that?” Zak asked.
“And we’re in the mushroom meadow, not in a forest of Leota, wherever that is.” Wheezie added.
At this, the crusaders’ eyes bugged out.
“You mean we’re not in the forest of Leota?” They all cried out, nearly deafening the dragons.
“I’ve never heard of that forest, and we’ve been all over Dragon Land.”
“Dragon Land? Where in the wide world of Equestria is that?” Babs asked.
Comprehension slowly dawned on the dragon’s faces.
“If I may ask, were you playing with anything that looks like this?” Zak said, reaching into his side of their pouch and pulling out a multi-colored gem.
“Hey, that looks like the design on top of the mirror.” Scootaloo cried out after a couple of seconds. “But what is it?”
“This is a dragon scale enchanted with a special spell. Our friends Max and Emmy use one to come between our world and theirs all the time. If you used something like that, then it’s easy to get back home.” Wheezie explained.
“How can we get back?” Sweetie Belle asked, in a bit of a pleading tone.
“All you have to do is say “I Wish, I Wish, to use this rhyme, to go back home until next time.”
“Is that all?” Babs chirped, expecting more.
“That’s all.” Wheezie repeated.
“Y’all want to try it?” Applebloom asked her friends.
“Sure.” The others replied.
The dragons stepped back to give the fillies some space.
Wrapping their hooves around each other for support, the fillies chanted “I wish, I wish, to use this rhyme, to go back home until next time.”
Nothing happened.
“Huh?” Wheezie wondered. “Why didn’t that work?”
“Maybe whatever they used works on a different magic than the scales?” Zak offered.
“Now what can we do?” Scootaloo called out.
“Well, we’d better go see Quetzal.” Wheezie said without missing a beat.
“Who’s that?” Babs asked.
“He’s our teacher. You’ll love him. He’s super kind and super wise.” She answered.
“Okay, let’s go.” Sweetie Belle called out.
“But where’s the school?” Applebloom asked
“It’s just a quick flight over that way.” Zak answered, pointing towards the west.
“But we can’t fly.” The crusaders said, crestfallen at not getting to meet the cool-sounding Quetzal.
A few seconds later, Wheezie called out “I have an idea”, measuring the fillies with her eyes.
It took a little effort, but before long Scootaloo was secure in their pouch, Applebloom and Babs were supported by the twins’ arms, and Sweetie Belle was nestled on their back between their wings.
“You ready, friends?” The twins asked.
“Ready.” The fillies called back, and with a couple flaps of their wings, the dragon twins were aloft again and heading towards their school.
It was late afternoon by the time Applejack finally finished her chores and walked to the Golden Oaks Library in the center of Ponyville. Stopping for a second, she lifted her hoof and knocked on the library’s front door.
“Come in.” She heard her friend call out.
Accepting the invitation, Applejack pushed the door open and stepped into the central hub of the library. A couple seconds later, Twilight appeared from a side door.
“Oh, hey AJ. How can I help you?”
“Hey, Twilight. I found this here mirror on the floor of the girls’ clubhouse. It gave me quite a shock the first time I tried to pick it up, so I was wondering if you could help identify it.”
“No problem.”
Reaching back, Applejack grasped the mirror and carefully laid it on a nearby writing desk. She then stepped back to give her friend more room to study it. A few minutes later, Twilight looked back up turned back towards Applejack, not even bothering to hide how excited she was.
“It’s a travelling mirror.” She declared.
“A what now?”
“An ancient device used to travel between Equestria and different worlds. They were mentioned in a book on magical charms I read back at Celestia’s school. I never thought I’d see the lost one.”
“Well I found this one on the floor of the crusader’s clubhouse, but I haven’t heard hide or hair of the girls since lunch. If this here mirror has that kind of power, I hope my sister and her friends didn’t manage to do anything with it.”
“There’s only one way to tell.”
Picking the mirror up in a light telekinetic grip, Twilight angled it just right so that the light was directly overhead. Peering deep into it, she caught the reflection of the letters around the border. A couple of seconds later, she looked back at her friend.
“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re holding one of the most ancient relics in Equestria. The bad news is that the girls activated it and transported themselves.”
“How’d they manage that?”
“I can only guess that they thought it was a communication mirror and tried to call somepony. The procedure is the same for both devices. I’ll need to have a talk with them after they’re back.”
“But why'd it shock me?”
“It probably must have been dormant until Sweetie Belle charged it up.”
Setting the mirror down on a nearby writing desk, Twilight called out “Spike.”
Appearing from the top of the stairs, her number-one assistant swiftly came down and stood beside her.
“Yes, Twilight?” He asked.
“Could you please find The Faustian Guide to Other Worlds for me?”
“Sure. Just one second” He called as he ran towards one of the bookshelves. After a quick search, he reached up and grabbed a black leather-bound book and placed it next to the mirror. His task done, he picked up a book from another shelf and sat down in the corner to read.
“What’s that book talking about, other worlds? It sounds like something I’ve heard Pinkie ramble on about a couple of times.” Applejack inquired.
“Like Pinkie said, it turns out that there are many other worlds out there besides Equestria. I didn’t believe it myself until Celestia gave me this book as part of her lessons on early pony history.”
Turning back towards the book, she continued.
“I thought this would be a simple atlas until I realized what she gave me.”
Twilight could hardly contain her glee as she kept speaking.
“This is a journal written by the Fausticorn herself. There’s an interesting story behind it I could tell you later if you want. I haven’t yet managed to translate the whole book into modern equestrian, but it should still be helpful.”
Taking the book in a telekinetic grip, Twilight flipped pages back and forth until she managed to locate a symbol matching the one on the top of the mirror. Quickly skimming through her notes, she turned back to Applejack and declared “I’ve found the world this mirror is connected to.”
“Which one?” Applejack asked, with a little nervousness in her voice. It wasn’t everyday somepony found out that they weren’t alone.
“Dragon Land.”
“Oh, that’s ok … Dragon Land!” She echoed with full panic.
“Don’t worry, Applejack. Here, read what I’ve managed to translate so far.”
While I have had the misfortune to encounter several worlds where the inhabitants will attack for no reason at all, the opposite holds true for this one. In my travels here, I was always greeted by young and old with a warm smile and offers of relaxation and play. I’ve not been in such a peaceful place since Discord came to Equestria….
The residents here consist primarily of dragons, but there are an assortment of other beings I have never seen before, like Nodlings, Giants, and the occasional Children (who could use some Equestrian influence for their world). I was even delighted to stumble upon Alicorns like myself, though the ones I met sadly lacked control of magic. I was told that the number one rule of this world is No Violence, so I was able to relax without having to worry about my safety….
I must make a special mention here of Quetzal, the dragonlings teacher at the School in the Sky. He told me a legend of powerful jewels capable of unleashing true harmony, and how they were used to make this world the paradise it is now. I kept thinking that such jewels would be at least a temporary deterrent against even the god of chaos. While I was eventually granted the honor of seeing the jewels in person, I knew I could not remove them without threatening the stability of this world. I will toy with creating a version for Equestria, should I return home without finding a way to stop Discord….
For a time after Discord is stopped and peaceful trade can be established, I have left instructions for contacting Equestria with Quetzal. I could not leave a lingering connection back to my beloved world and daughters for fear of what Discord would do to this paradise. I hope I will be able to return to this world soon….
“Well, the sound of that world makes me feel a mite better. So the crusaders just need to find this Quetzal fella and you’ll be able to use that there mirror to get them back?”
“I’m sorry, Applejack. Even if they find him, I can’t bring them back. While any unicorn can send themselves to another world, the mirror will only open the way back to Equestria for its rightful owner. After King Sombra used a stolen mirror to increase his power, this failsafe was enacted by the princesses in order to prevent ponies from unknowingly bringing something worse than Discord into Equestria. I’d have to be an Alicorn myself in order to override that level of enchantment.”
“So let’s just go out and find the owner. Something like that must be traceable.”
“It’s probably not going to be that simple, Applejack. They were rare back when the princesses started their rule, and the art of making them has been lost to time. According to reputable sources, there are now only three known working mirrors left in existence, and they are all bonded to particular bloodlines. I’ve heard that the one connected to the Faust line is permanently buried in the royal vault, and the one connected to the Cadenza line was broken by Sombra during that Empire attack. Nopony knows anymore which bloodline the third one was bonded to, much less if any members are living today.”
“Well how in the hay are we supposed to find them? We can’t just go around and ask every unicorn in Equestria if they recognize this mirror.”
“How about this, Twilight?” Spike called out, holding up the book he was reading.
Twilight levitated the book over to the desk and quickly read the pages. “You’re right, Spike. This’ll really help us. Thanks.” She called over.
“What now?” Applejack asked.
“According to this book, A Guide to Gems and Other Enchanting Items, all devices capable of performing Alicorn-level spells must carry an enchantment to identify their rightful owner, in case they are misused or misplaced. I just have to identify the owner, and then we can scry for their current location.”
“Well, get to it then. I want to get the crusaders back as soon as possible.”
Moving the new book to the side and turning the mirror over, Twilight sent a spell onto its frame and waited. A couple of seconds later, they saw an image of a blue crescent moon overlaid with a star-tipped wand appear. It didn’t take but one glance for them to recognize who the cutie mark belonged to.
Turning back towards Spike, they both said “Could you please go get the others? We need to talk.”
Just after twilight, a solitary blue unicorn with a silver mane was standing in the middle of a forest clearing and admiring how pretty the sky was during the last moments of the day.
“The princesses must have enjoyed themselves; it’s evident they put special effort into their duties tonight.” She thought.
Her mind prepared for her task, she levitated off her travelling attire and hummed to herself as she started weaving several spells together. As she let loose her magic, the air around her was becoming more and more distorted, like waves of heat radiating off a fire. The distortions soon assembled into the life-like image of a nearby village. Her warm-up completed, she dismissed the town and started conjuring up another image.
The mare continued for some time, summoned images depicting places from more and more exotic locations; from high mountains and clear blue oceans, to sandy deserts and jungle ruins, and of many other locations, both well explored on maps and only seen in storybooks and legends. She did not stop until the moon had fully risen, at which point she ended her spells in a burst of color and sound. Her practice over, she re-donned her attire and took a last look at the heavens. Satisfied with her work, she walked back to her shelter to enjoy a simple meal and a well-earned rest.
“For you, Luna. Thank you for the beautiful night.” She said to the star-lit sky.
To Be Continued….
Author's Note
Yes, this is a crossover with the old PBS show Dragon Tales.
