There was a burst of light, and then a pony came tumbling out of the mirror, hitting the ground and rolling before coming to a stop at the feet of a unicorn wearing a hat, cape, and a ridiculous number of bells. There was silence for a few moments as the unicorn’s horn lit up while he checked the younger pony for injuries. Thankfully there were none, and so he simply sat back and waited while levitating a tea set over for when the young colt awoke.
After a minute or two the young pony who came through the mirror groaned and sat up. Blinking, he blearily looked around, taking both stock of his surroundings and the proffered cup of herbal tea. “So it really works…”
“That it does colt. That it does.”
The young pony’s head snapped around at this, as if realizing for the first time that he was not alone in the room. His eyes wandered around the room, searching for the source of the voice until his gaze settled upon the unicorn. He choked on his tea.
After pounding himself in the chest with a hoof to clear out his throat, he looked at the unicorn again. “Starswirl? Starswirl the Bearded?”
The unicorn looked amused. “Yes, I take it that I do not look the same in your world?”
His younger companion burst out laughing, “Nope, not in the slightest. My word, if my Starswirl knew that his counterpart was a unicorn…”
The old stallion cocked an eyebrow, “Racism? I would have thought you of all ponies…” he trailed off at the younger colt’s waving hoof, opting to wait for the full explanation.
“No, it’s not that,” the colt finally gasped out, “It’s just… you see, in my world, the unicorn is a symbol of… well, maidenhood.”
“Maidenhood?”
“Umm… female virginity…”
Starswirl blinked as he registered this. Then he began to chuckle as bits of his youth traveled across his memory. Soon he was throwing back his head and roaring with laughter just as loud as that of his apprentice’s counterpart.
A quarter of an hour later the laughter finally died down. Starswirl wiped a tear from his eye, chuckling, before asking, “So obviously some cultural differences between our two worlds, how about physical differences?”
“Well, you’re a unicorn here, and that’s obviously different… do you not have humans here?”
“No… I’ve never even heard of a ‘human’ before.”
“Well, there’s that then, on my world humans are really the only sentient species… one or two magical beings attained sentience, but they’re few and far between…” Here he paused, staring off into the middle distance before turning back to his mentor’s counterpart. “Speaking of magic, do I… can I use magic here? I mean, I’ve got my ambient magic and spells, but real magic, the kind that can be cast, can I do that here?”
The old stallion felt a pang in his heart, so the colt wouldn’t be able to learn real magic on the other side after all… He made eye contact with the pony in front of him, he gave a small, sad smile and sighed. “I’m sorry colt, you won’t be able to cast spells on this side either. You know more about magic that anypony I know twice, even three times your age, but you can’t use it. I’m sorry.”
The colt in front of him smiled, “That’s alright, it’s not your fault. Besides, it was never really all that likely anyway…” He shook his head and stood up. “I should really just go ho—”
To backtrack a moment, when he stood up, he stood on his hind legs, and then attempted to walk to the stairs. He made it halfway there before he overbalanced, tripped, did several somersaults in midair, and then landed with a dull “thud” in a heap at the foot of the stairs. For the third time since he woke up that morning, he found himself groaning as he picked himself up off the ground.
He looked at his hooves. He brought his front ones to his face, felt around it a bit, and then began examining the rest of his body. “Right, physical differences in the world…” He looked at Starswirl. “Have you got a mirror? Besides well…” He gestured to the mirror through which he came.
In response, the old stallion levitated over the tray that the tea set from before had been resting on. The young colt took it from his magical grasp and gazed into its reflective surface.
“I’m… a horse.”
“Pony.”
“Alright, pony then.”
“You seem to be taking this rather well…”
“It’s not my first time being Equine.”
Starswirl cocked an eyebrow at him.
“I… wasn’t always as careful with magic as I should have been… although it did come in handy when you needed to bring in those supplies from town to add another room off the top floor… I’m going to stop talking now…”
The old stallion chuckled. “So there are obviously a number of things you’ll need to be brought up to speed on. Let’s start with you, from what you’ve mentioned there are some differences between you and your counterpart, so why don’t you tell me about yourself, and then I’ll fill you in on what to expect in this world.”
“Alright, well to begin with my name is Inkwell, and even though I know a lot of magic, I can’t really use it. To compensate, I created a new kind of magic that worked by redirecting ambient energy around me. This new ‘Ambient Magic’ provided many opportunities, since even though it wasn’t as fast or effective as real magic, we managed to prove that anybody could use at least some form or part of it…”
They stayed up long into the night, trading stories and talking of their worlds. Starswirl was surprised by various facts about the world Inkwell had come from, and Inkwell faced both good news and hard truths about the world he now found himself in. after a brief five minute tirade about some of the things that particularly aggravated him, Inkwell surprised Starswirl again. Instead of merely finding a way to live with the problem as his own apprentice had, this Inkwell was determined to find a way to change things. What’s more, Starswirl actually began to believe he could do it.
A week later he had theoretical models designed for a dozen separate issues. Within two weeks they had formed into a single cohesive project. Before the month was out he had a working model.
Six months after he arrived he would find himself in a situation where his solution would be put to a use that would make even its original purpose of letting Inkwell lead a normal life pale in comparison when an ordinary market day was interrupted by a full grown unicorn stallion being flung into a fruit stand by a mare not yet in her majority.
And then the rest of his designs would find their homes…