“Just a little bit more, Miss Lulamoon. You’re doing a great job, even better than Twilight was when she first tried to learn how to do this.” I urge Twilight’s student on while I also try to keep an eye on my two kits at the same time. With the winter months here there was much less for me to do, even after dumping a majority of duties onto the Sionnach Council, that I was able to spend some time teaching Triguna a few tricks. This was made easier with the presence of Surprise as she was keeping the two distracted along with her pet platypus, Ducky. I sorely wanted to ask her where she even found that creature, but knowing the Pie family I’d probably end up with a migraine if I did. Still, her help was a welcome distraction as I taught the unicorn the trick to hiding ones magical aura when casting.
“I-I’m trying, but it’s just so hard to do it.” She really is doing a great job at it as shown by there only being a couple flickers of energy around her horn. I was only able to make it look effortless myself as I had years of practice before I even found Ponyville. While it didn’t cost any extra energy to hide the aura, the exact opposite in fact, it took a lot more concentration and mental stamina to hide it due to the extra control required.
“You’re doing just fine; in fact once you master this most other spells should be a piece of cake. If they can’t see you actively using your magic than it makes your illusions that much more believable. Not only that but once it becomes second nature you can use the skills learned mastering it towards your other spells.” She doesn’t say anything but just nods as she tries even harder to follow through with the lesson.
While Twilight was good at what she did, her way of teaching was a bit too orderly for someone training in illusion magic. It isn’t like other fields that require you to learn one thing before learning the next as if it was all in a line. Instead it was more like a web in that you could learn one thing, which leads to another and another until it seems like you have mastered it just to learn something else that would be elementary to someone else. In fact many books on illusion magic were contradictory as there were many ways to go about casting spells of that type.
In fact that was really the one thing I had to teach her that Twilight didn’t and that there was no one correct way to deal with the illusion branch of magic. After a while I’d probably ask Selene or Luna to come along and teach her for a couple days since they also had some experience with illusions and could help her come up with her own way to do things. Either way Twilight did at least do a good job of teaching her the basics of what was needed to control her abilities.
I look around the library, where we were performing this lesson, and wonder what books have been added since I was last here. I could tell that it had been expanded a good amount over the centuries even though the tree hadn’t grown much, if at all. I’d have to make a note to talk with Twilight about growing the tree more as it was obviously of kitsune origin. Twilight may have been good with her enchantments, but a spacial expansion spell is still limited by the amount of space truly available.
In fact there was something odd about the library that I couldn’t quite place for some reason. It felt rather familiar but it hadn’t been bothering me on any of the previous days I was here for some reason. Even worse is that the strange feeling was steadily getting worse as I looked around the room trying to find the source of the feeling. My eyes were drawn to the large mirror that was on the other side of the room that my kits were playing with Surprise in front of. “Hey Triguna, do you know anything about that mirror over there?”
She catches her breath as she stops with her latest attempt to look over in the direction that I nodded in. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know much at all about it. I asked Princess Twilight about it once, but she only said that it was a gift from Princess Cadence and the book stored behind it went with it.” It didn’t tell me much, but for some reason an old memory was trying to come to the surface but I couldn’t quite grasp it. I was about to ask one of the two ponies to see if Twilight was free to talk about it but I was once again distracted when the mirror started to ripple.
My eyes widened when a black appendage started to come through the mirror into the library. My breath caught in my throat and my heartrate increased dramatically when I realized just exactly what the thing was. “No, not again, not here.” I jumped to a standing position and faced the creature that was threatening my children. “Surprise! Grab Dawn and Dusk and get away from the mirror!?
With that warning given I called up my magic and fired a beam of white energy at the creature, shredding it apart. When Surprise saw what I did, as well as more coming out of the mirror she grabbed the two with her tail and hid behind me. “Triguna, go and find Twilight and tell her we have an Elements level emergency in here. I’ll hold them back until she gets here and we find out what is going on.” Since I don’t know how many more are going to come through the mirror I throw up a shield around the front of it to contain the shadow creatures to a small area in front of it.
I channeled some positive energy into the shield so that when a creature touches it has the same effect as the directed spell. I then tried to calm myself down at seeing the creatures that nearly destroyed my kind while thinking up a plan. There was a strange buzzing sound in my ears as I waited for Twilight to arrive when another idea came to mind. I grab a scroll and quickly write a message on it requesting the presence of Selene or Luna immediately to help contain the problem before sending it off to Spike to relay to Celestia.
“Flarie, what are those things, they don’t seem very fun to be around?” I turn to look at Surprise to see my children trying to hide in her tail while shivering in fear.
“They aren’t Surprise. In fact I may need you to watch my kits for an extended period of time depending on what we need to do to stop them. I’m not going to let what happened to my kind happen to this world as well.” She seemed to be a bit relieved at this though she still watched the creatures warily.
There may have been more said but we were interrupted by a brilliant magenta flash as Twilight teleported into the room. “Flarenza! What’s the emergency?! What is it that needs the Elements of Harmony?!” I just point a paw behind her at the mirror and her jaw drops when she turns around to see the creatures. “Are those what I think they are? And why are they in front of the old mirror that leads to Canterlot High?”
At her words the memory of why the thing was bothering me came flooding back and I slapped a paw over my face. “Yes they are, and they came through that mirror for some reason. And what in the world is that buzzing that I keep hearing?” Twilight looks at me in shock before she looks towards Surprise who nods in confirmation.
“But that’s impossible, the portal hasn’t worked for centuries and even the journal hasn’t…” She trails off as her eyes widen as she skirts around the shield to the back of the mirror. When she came around the front again she was carrying a book in her magic as she flipped through it towards the back. “This isn’t good Flarenza, I’m not sure who has the other journal but it sounds like the need help.”
She passes the book over to me and I page through to the last entries in it. There are multiple calls for help and on the very last page is what looks like streaks of blood. I was about to say something else when another bright flash filled the room revealing both Luna and Selene who immediately turned towards me. “We came as soon as we got your message, what seems to be the problem?” I just point behind them like I did with Twilight to see the same reaction she had.
“I was hoping that this was just a fluke, but if they are coming through from another world then that means that not only this world but that one is in danger. And before you ask why the portal is only opening now…” I hold up the journal that Twilight passed over to me, “This thing is partially to blame.”
Twilight just looks between me and the book before she speaks up. “But how can that be to blame for the portal being sealed? There’s nothing about it that should cause it to do such a thing.” I just shake my head at Twilight as I knew differently.
“Actually the fact that it was linking the worlds together as well as it being used to force open a portal that caused it to seal. You see I’ve learned that there is a reason that there is a period of time where a portal stays open or closed. Each universe or dimension or whatever it is has a different frequency that it vibrates at. When the portal is kept open the two sides come into contention as they try to separate again. I’m not sure all the effects that can happen when they finally pull apart, but the most common one is that the connection snaps in a way that the two sides are thrown apart violently. At the very least the portal between the worlds needs time to heal as they try to come back into balance, though sometimes they’ll never be connected again. My kind learned those lessons the hard way over the many millennia they were gone.”
Twilight just stares in shock at this as she looks down at the journal that caused all of this. I remember how she used to talk about it and her friends on the other side of the mirror and wondered if those years of use caused any other problems. “What are we going to do about it then? Do you know how to shut the portal down?”
I look at Luna who asked this and see Selene nodding at her side. “If it was just this world then I probably could, but if those things are bleeding into another world then there is no guarantee that another portal from there can lead somewhere else on this planet. I’ll have to go since I know how to close the portal, and Twilight as well since she is familiar with that world. I asked you two to come as you can keep this side secure as whatever these things are they react as if they are undead.”
At hearing that the creatures may be a type of undead being Luna scowls as she jerks her head towards the portal. I nod as I make it where the shield can be clearly seen before opening a small hole in it which the creatures immediately try to take advantage of. Before any of them can get too far through it though, Luna sends a burst of energy through it which rips them apart before I seal the hole again. “I see, while there may be others that could do the same we are the best choice for something like this. The portal still isn’t common knowledge and we’d like to keep it that way.”
Twilight raises a hoof and I nod to her. “How long do we have to prepare? If these things are as dangerous as you say then we should take time to make a checklist of what we need.” I give her a deadpan stare before I shake my head at her.
“I’m sure you’ve probably got a few emergency travel kits ready in case something happens, grab one of those, as well as a good selection of gemstones, and get back here. I remember you saying that there was a time limit on the portal and if these things are coming through then the longer we wait the more beings are lost and turned into more of them.” She blushes a little before nodding and teleporting out and back seconds later with two pairs of saddlebags. After adjusting them to fit, we both stand on the other side of the shield and I turn towards Surprise.
“Be sure to take good care of them for me, and if you need anything send a message to Oraiste to come help.” I quickly head over to give Dawn and Dusk a quick lick before returning to Twilight’s side. “Well, here’s hoping that things aren’t too bad to stop these things over there.” With that I drop the shield and blast the creatures that are standing there before putting up another shield around me and leaping into the mirror.
I immediately can tell something is wrong as I feel a large amount of turbulence as I travel through the portal. Using my senses I get a feel of how the thing operates and spot the problem before I exit it on the other side. “How has this thing lasted as long as it has? The connection is barely stable enough to open as often as it should. I’m going to have to fix that after we get back before something else goes wrong with it.”
Surveying the area I don’t see any more shadows which is a relief which means the ones we saw were either a fluke or scouts. Looking down at myself I find myself unchanged which seems odd considering what I was told of the portal before but before I can ponder this further Twilight stumbles through. Looking over her I find her in the bipedal form that she described many centuries ago but she has two additions that she never mentioned before. She shakily stands on her two feet as she rubs the side of her head. “Ugh, I forgot how disorienting it was to go through that thing.”
Her hand brushes against the small horn sticking out of her hair and she fumbles a bit as she prods at it. “Wait, this isn’t supposed to be here, why do I have a horn now? And why do I have my wings as well without having to sing?” She starts spinning in place while trying to get a better look at her wings as she tries to figure out what is going on. I have an idea myself, but I need more information before I can go any further with it.
While Twilight was trying to figure out what was going on I spotted another bipedal being peering out of the nearby building. On seeing us she looked around the area before quickly making her way over to us. I had never seen her before, but her two-toned yellow and red hair and leather jacket rang alarm bells in my mind. My suspicions were confirmed when she got close enough to speak.
“Twilight? I thought I told you to stay with the others in the gym, so why are you out here with one of these… things?”