"What do you mean, there aren't any?"
"Twilight, it means that there should not be any mirrors that remain, besides the stable one that you study now. At least none that I am aware of. Where is this mirror that the fox saw?"
I didn't respond. I was rooted to the spot in shock.
This "pony," if it even applied to this "Celestia" person anymore, was like nothing I had ever seen, or even expected to see, even from a wizard, given that magic existed here.
The sudden appearance in the middle of the library shortly after the letter was sent completely negated my shock at the lizard Spike breathing green fire. But something like teleportation, while certainly not something I was prepared to see, was nothing compared to her actual presence.
Waves of power were radiating off her with great intensity, and her mane and tail, colored like an aurora borealis, were pulsing in time with that power. The only fact that kept me from immediately bolting in the opposite direction is that the power itself felt undeniably right. It felt like warmth, love, and hope.
That didn't stop me from being terrified, though.
"His name is Shining Light. He said it was in the old castle, but didn't say where."
"Ah, yes. I suppose I did not... well, I didn't search the most carefully when I moved to Canterlot." She turned to me. "Would you please... oh."
She paused slightly, and the energy suddenly muted. Her hair slowed. "I am sorry. Most often I am in contact with creatures who already know who I am. Creatures who can already trust my character. I apologize for frightening you."
Twilight looked between us, a clear look of confusion on her face. "Princess? What are you talking about?"
She continued to look at me, a reassuring look on her face, but answered the question anyway. "Most ponies are used to my presence, and I doubt many notice the difference. And most neighboring nations have heard of my deeds, and know my character, even if they have not met me, personally. But my aura can be quite intimidating to those with little magic." She eyed the ball in my tail. "Or to those that store the majority elsewhere."
By now, I had gathered most of my wits. Still, there was no desire in my mind to be anything but cautious around her.
Still, a thought had entered into my brain, and it wouldn't leave.
"Are you the sun? In the old castle, I mean."
Surprisingly, instead of Fluttershy translating for me, as I had expected, Celestia answered me directly.
"You are perceptive. But not fully correct. I am not the Sun, but he is a friend, and I share some of his power."
Oh. Well, I was more asking about the coat of arms, given the mark on her rump. But that works, too, I guess.
Does this mean she's actually immortal as well?
I noticed that she, too, had both a horn and wings. She was a lot different than Twilight, though.
"Does someone else share power with the moon?"
Celestia smiled. "That would be my sister, Luna. I am lucky to have her back after so long. But if you wish to return to your old lands, we must not delay. There are many possible complications with dimensional travel, some of which include precise timing. If you would, could you tell us the location of the portal you arrived through?"
I blinked, suddenly reminded of the reason Twilight had brought her here in the first place. "Oh, uh, yeah. It was in this room below the throne room."
She nodded. "Ah. I see. His study. I wonder why it was not collected, if that is the case. Regardless." Her horn flared with light. "We must go there immediately."
I reeled, but not from the sensation, or even the flash of light. Given the pony's entrance, I half expected something like that. No, it was the sudden onslaught of smells, sounds, and sensations.
For a brief moment, I could smell the mold between the stones, the age of the dust, and even the grass far outside. I could hear the insects crawl in their dens below, and feel the smallest imperfections in the stones.
And then it was gone.
Celestia was already walking over to the mirror. "I apologize once again for the discomfort. But the right time may be anything from a few seconds away to a few years."
She frowned. "The enchantment is quite... rudimentary. It gets the job done, but there are practically zero safeties here for dimensional travel. Given the lack of ornamentation on the mirror itself, there is a very good chance this is one of his prototypes. I wouldn't exactly recommend traveling through it, even if it was currently active."
"But-"
She held up a hoof. "If this is indeed the only option available to you, I will not stop you from using it. But it is not a convenient option. It will not open for another thirty years."
Both Twilight and my eyes widened significantly. "Thirty years‽"
I looked at the mirror in apprehension. "Thirty years... I don't think my family will last that long..." And then there were the few friends he had actually made at work. They could certainly live without him, but still...
Celestia nodded. "That may be the case, but there is still some amount of hope. While instability is a significant liability, the spell on this mirror has a rather weak grasp on time. While what you say has a good chance of happening, there is a smaller, but significant chance that only a few years will have passed, or even none at all.
"Still, it is probably more productive to search elsewhere. After all, there is also a nonzero chance of simply not showing up at all, and being stuck between dimensions."
Twilight looked critically at the mirror. "What about the one in my basement? That one opens much sooner, and is much safer." She looked at Celestia uncertainly. "At least, I hope it's safer."
"One can hope that it goes to the same place. Still, Starswirl was never one to be easily predicted. And yes, Twilight, it is safe. It was the only one of his devices I considered safe enough to remain active." She looked over to me. "That is, of the ones I knew about."
"I really hope it does go to the same place. Twenty-two months is a lot better than..."
"Than half my life, yes."
Fluttershy looked at him oddly. "You only live for sixty years?"
"Eighty, but that doesn't matter much."
"Still, I wish he didn't have to wait that long to even see if it works." She looked at Twilight. "Is there any way to tell if it's the right world before the portal opens completely?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, sorry, Fluttershy. There is no connection at all when the portal isn't open. Even if I knew what his world was like, I couldn't get the spell across to check."
"There is one thing we could do."
"Princess?"
"When Sunset Shimmer was my student, we had a set of paired journals that we could use to communicate, just as easily as you do with Spike. She hasn't used it in... a long time." She sighed. "But I do know that it still works across the portal. Perhaps we could ask her questions about this world, and see if they match his experiences."
"But, umm... Twilight? Princess? If the portal didn't let any magic through, wouldn't Sunset's journal stop working once it's closed?"
All of us looked at Fluttershy.
"Um, I mean... I don't really know all that much about magic. I could be wrong."
"Fluttershy, you're a genius!"
"...Sorry?"
As it turned out, Twilight seemed to be quite the mad scientist. Except with, you know, magic instead of electricity. And based on what she seemed to be babbling about, advanced magic seemed to require a reassuring amount of math behind it.
Just, you know, the fundamental forces being different.
From the little bit I understood, she was using the small connection made by a set of paired journals (kinda like a very specific texting setup that could only transmit to one phone) to guide the main mechanism of the portal and give it a proper destination. And then power it with a bunch of magic machines I had absolutely no idea how to decipher.
Other than they looked really cool.
Still, I might be going home today.
Twilight explained to me (or rather, explained at me) that I should change back into a human, as the portal actually transformed you into your "correct form" in that universe.
Okay, so there are actually humans there. Good to know. Probably should have asked that sooner. Before they opened the thing.
"All right. You ready?"
I nodded. She wouldn't have understood if I had talked anyway. Fluttershy had already left, as apparently she had a double on the other side. Celestia did too, though Twilight did not.
We stepped through, and rather than the immediate and smooth transition, I was assaulted by strange and nonsensical colors and smells, and my body felt like it was being stretched like taffy.
I was no magical expert, but this felt less stable.
But we stepped onto concrete, which was a good sign.
Okay, I stepped onto concrete. Twilight kinda did a somersault in the air and landed on the concrete.
"Ow."
Oh, and she was also a human.
She looked at me. "Oh." It sounded disappointed.
She was also a human with light purple skin and the same dark blue hair as she had in pony form.
And now I noticed that I was quite close to the ground.
"Damn it."
Twilight blinked. "Wait, you talk here, but not in Equestria? I mean, Spike could talk here as a dog, but he could kinda already speak."
I rolled my eyes. "I could talk in Equestria, you just couldn't understand English. I find it more odd that you speak English now."
She started. "Wait, I'm speaking a different language?"
"Yeah, you are."
"Twilight! You're back already? I thought the portal wasn't going to be open for a while."
"Hi Sunset!" Twilight shrugged. "Well, Celestia told me about this connected journal thing, and then Fluttershy-"
"Wait, Fluttershy?"
"Yeah."
"Right, right. I keep forgetting the worlds parallel each other so closely."
"Well, long story short, we were able to force the portal open early."
Sunset nodded. "That's great, of course. It's definitely nice to see you, even though we left under... interesting circumstances. But why force it open now?"
"That would be me."
Sunset blinked, looking over at me. "You're a fox here. That's certainly interesting. What were you in Equestria?"
"A fox."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "No, seriously."
Twilight stepped in. "He was a fox, a sacred fox named Shining Light."
"Actually now that you can speak English, it's really Ryan. There were some weird translation problems with Fluttershy. Still have no idea what you mean by 'sacred fox,' though."
Sunset looked at me more closely. "You were a human, correct? Like, originally?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"Speech patterns. Oh, and I think you might know the term 'kitsune' better."
I blinked. Suddenly the things Fluttershy were saying made a whole lot more sense. I didn't exactly know a whole lot about Japanese legends, but I knew what they were. "Oh. Right. Okay then."
"Kitsune? That's an odd name. Do sacred foxes exist here?"
Sunset shook her head. "Nope. But I got very interested in human mythology once I realized that a lot of the creatures that existed in Equestria are stories over here.
"Though it is strange you aren't a human right now. Most of the time the portal is consistent about these things."
"It was a different portal." I said simply. "But Princess Celestia says it is not only unstable, but there's going to be an obscenely long wait until it opens again. This was pretty much my only chance."
"That's not completely true," Twilight noted. "There's a chance that we could find a way to safely stabilize it, and that would most certainly increase the opportunities it would have to connect the worlds." She frowned. "Still, that's an insanely risky and delicate operation."
"Risky?"
"Not risky to us, but if we rush the job, and mess up, we could lose the original connection, and without knowing the original target, we might be able to create a portal, but not the one you need."
Sunset looked at me critically. "Still, I'm not entirely sure why you would want to become a human again. I stay over here, because... well, I kinda burned down my bridges in Equestria. And even then, now I have good friends over here. But all I get from your expression is just a sense of vague disappointment. Not a whole lot of drive."
Twilight glared at Sunset, but I shook my head at her. "No, Sunset's question was warranted. In all honesty, I was already an adult with my own life, and I didn't stay super close with my parents. I had a few friends, but they can take care of themselves."
I took a deep breath. "I do want to see them again, but the thing I'm actually worried about is the nature of my disappearance. If I had just died, then there would be a body. Everyone would be sad for a while, but get over it. At this point, though, I'm just an unsolved missing persons case, and nobody will ever know for sure."
She grimaced. "I understand the feeling. I have had similar thoughts myself, but at this point, it's been so many years, I'm sure coming back would only cause more trouble than it's worth."
Twilight moved over to put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure Celestia can forgive you, and you know that in Equestria, her opinion means a lot for ponies. You won't be the pariah you left as. And I'm sure your old friends would understand why you were gone for so long."
"I know, but... it's hard for me to even be able to make up for the stuff I did here. And I can't abandon my new friends."
Now that I knew that this world was not my own, and the conversation no longer revolved around me, I started to look around more closely. We appeared to be in front of a large high school, which was easy to tell, because it was all in English. Behind me was the portal, which was at the base of a rather impressive statue. Wherever this was, it was most likely not a public school.
Or maybe this world just had a better education system.
Concrete sidewalk still smelled and felt like concrete sidewalk, and a freshly mowed lawn of grass still smelled and felt like freshly mowed grass.
There seemed to be a lull in the conversation. "Sunset, is there a flower or something I could look at? Clover?"
Sunset looked at me oddly, before making a noise of appreciation. "There are some bushes near both sides of the school, but I can tell you what you need to know. One, two, thee, five, eight, thirteen-"
"Right, thanks."
Twilight looked at Sunset like she was crazy. "What-"
"He was asking for the Fibonacci sequence. It doesn't exist in Equestria, or at least the significance of it doesn't, due to magical interference in evolutionary traits. Those numbers appear quite frequently in Earth flora."
"And you know this off the top of your head... why?"
Sunset shrugged. "It's a common thing to be taught in high school mathematics. And... well, the plants bothered me a bit when I got here, so when I figured out why, it just kinda... stuck."
"Right, I'm going to head back. You two catch up. As much as I'd love to explore, I don't want to be caught by animal control or anything."
Twilight looked at me oddly.
"I'm still a fox."
Sunset looked at me critically. "I wonder what would happen if you came here after you turned one hundred."
"If. I don't plan to be in Equestria that long."
"Well, you said you would visit home. That does not mean you might eventually return under your own volition. I'm being hypothetical. Would you still turn into the same fox you are now, or would you turn into Tails? I mean, that mutation is technically possible without magic."
"God, I hope not. I attract enough attention just by being a fox. And, you know talking. Now, I'm going to get going before someone with a smartphone starts recording video."
She blinked. "Right. That's a good point. I sure hope none of the videos of my... magical mishap have been taken that seriously by the U.S. Government."
I nodded. "Good luck with that. See you later, if I'm not home before then."
I turned to the portal, and Twilight started to follow me, but I held up a paw. "Twilight, I'm sure there's more you want to talk about now that you don't have a time limit on your head or anything."
"But Celestia-"
"I'll just tell her that you'll turn the thing off when you come back through. I'm sure she'll understand."
I didn't give her any time to argue. I certainly didn't want to risk it much longer, myself. I jumped back through.
The sensations were just as unpleasant, but landing on the other side, I felt the comforting presence of the ball in my tail once more. It just felt... better.
"I see. It was not the same world, was it?"
"No, it wasn't. It was very similar, from fundamentals to technology level. Or at least it looked that way. But the people themselves were slightly different." I put a paw to my chin. "Unless ponies turned human have fundamentally different skin colors..."
Celestia shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. Twilight gave me quite the detailed report when she came back the first time."
I tilted my head. "Why couldn't you have just, like, read that out to me or something?"
She gave a light chuckle. "Believe me, this was faster. Besides, you really needed this. You can now speak proper Equestrian."