Bleep! Bleep! Bleep!
I groaned and smacked my glow-in-the-dark alarm clock. I glanced at it. It was 6:30 a.m. I had to leave for school in an hour. But first, I had to do some research. I had stayed awake for hours after I climbed into bed, think about the video and Princess Luna. I had finally fallen asleep at 12:30 p.m. That was the latest I’d ever stayed up, even though I had a hard time falling asleep no matter what time it was. It was starting to make sense. If I was the daughter of a moon princess who ruled the night, it made sense that I would inherit a sense of night-owl-ness. It would also explain why Mom always seemed to absorb darkness. I leapt out of bed, ran over to my desk, and opened my laptop. It woke up and out of “Sleep Mode.” I clicked on the Safari icon, and turned on the Internet. When my homepage came up, I clicked the GoogleSearch bar and typed in “pony magic.” When I hit the “Enter” button, a whole slew of results popped up. There were articles about Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and something about a mirror portal. I clicked on the article and began reading.
“In the ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ feature film, ‘Equestria Girls,’ Princess Twilight Sparkle uses a magic mirror to teleport from the pony world of Equestria to the human world. She is transported to the human high school Canterlot High in order to regain her crown, which was stolen from her.”
I exited from the article and began a new search: “pic of my little pony magic mirror.” The picture that caught her eye was one of an intricate, purple mirror. It was encircled with delicate metal curves, and eleven pink gems were set into the rim of the mirror.
“What a beautiful mirror,” I whispered. I clicked and dragged the picture onto my desktop. I opened up the picture with the “Preview” app and examined the picture closer. I noticed that there was a purple pony walking through the mirror. That must’ve been Princess Twilight Sparkle. This picture explained a lot, like how Mom… Luna and Aunt… Celestia came here to Manetown, Colorado. It would also explain…
I suddenly realized something. I started a new tab on her browser and typed in “pic of princess luna and princess celestia” in the “Search” bar. When the results loaded, a smile crawled across my face. The “Princess Luna” pony had a blue mane and tail, and the “Princess Celestia” pony had a pink, mint-green, and blue mane and tail. So that’s where my blue streak of hair and Kristyn’s pink streak came from.
Everything was starting to make sense. Before I started getting ready for school, I wanted to search for one more thing. I typed one last thing: “pony magic.” I wanted to search this subject again because something had caught my eye earlier. When the page popped up, I saw the two pictures that I had noticed before. They were pictures of two crowns.
The first crown was golden with a purple gem in the center of it. The picture labeled “Princess Luna’s Crown.” The second was a smaller, plainer, black crown called “Princess Celestia’s Crown.” I kept reading.
“Not many people or ponies know about the power imbedded in the two princesses’ crowns. Princess Luna’s crown is full of magic that, when it falls into the wrong hands (or hooves), it can have devastating consequences. The purple gem in Princess Celestia’s crown, on the other hand, provides her with much of the magic she uses to raise the sun. It is meant to be used for good, but even good magic can become a force of evil in the wrong clutches. When Nightmare Moon tried to take over the night, her secret goal was to take her sister’s crown so that she could destroy any pony who got in her way. Thankfully, Celestia stopped her before she got too powerful. Celestia possesses the most powerful magical item in the world. Even Percy Jackson’s sword, Riptide, or Queen Elsa’s ice aren’t more powerful than Princess Celestia’s crown. Case closed.”
“Jicxie! Time to wake up!” Mom called.
I jumped. I turned in my swivel chair and looked at the clock. It was 7:00 a.m. I stood up and walked over to my closet. I picked out a blue, quarter-length-sleeved shirt and a black, leather skirt with two silver chains attached to the pockets. A white moon pendant was clasped to the end of the longer chain. I slipped out of my PJs and pulled on the skirt and quarter-length shirt. I closed my laptop and grabbed my backpack from my bed knob. I flung open my bedroom door and ran down the stairs, where a plate of omelets awaited my.
“”Sup, Susie! How are you doin’?” Kristyn cried. She ran toward her best friend, Susie Lyrica. They hugged. Kristyn twisted her friend’s hair. Jicxie looked up from the book she was reading. She stared across the blacktop and saw what Kristyn had noticed. There was a mint-green streak of color in Susie’s hair. “I love this,” Kristyn approved.
“Thanks, Kris,” Susie said. “I wanted to copy you… I guess.”
“What?” I whispered to myself. “’Kris?’ I thought that Kristyn was letting me call her that. Not that I would want to,” I added quickly.
“That’s totes coolio!” Kristyn replied. “Love that idea!”
“Ugh,” I sighed. “She always has to use that texting lingo. It gets kind of annoying.” I turned back to my book. I tried to focus on the story. It was about an evil witch who was angry with a king for taking away her dark magic, so she was plotting her revenge. I started to read.
“’He cannot keep my power forever,’ Diabolia muttered. ‘He thinks he is so great and powerful. Well, he is about to meet his match.’”
“I know how that feels,” I said under my breath. I glared at Kristyn. She was skipping across the concrete ground. It seemed that everywhere she walked, guys went goggle-eyed or people seemed happier. I bit my lip until it bled. Kristyn was too nice for her own good. I couldn’t watch this anymore. I slammed my book shut. I left the witch to her problems, but I had nothing. No magic, no friends, not even a normal family. I stomped toward the school building. An angry haze surrounded me. My mind was clouded with jealousy. As I pounded to the covered lunch pavilion, I thought about what a jerk Kristyn was.
Grrah! someone growled. Everyone gasped and stared at me. I stopped walking. Was that me? Had I growled? Everyone else seemed to think so, especially Kristyn. Kristyn was looking at me. A look of horror was pasted on her face. It somehow satisfied me to see my cousin so terrified. Brave, cool Kristyn was just a little scary cat! I yanked the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and ran for the pavilion. What was happening to me?
I sped out of the bus and threw open the front door. I ran into the second-floor bathroom. I dropped my backpack onto the tile floor and squinted into the mirror. I scanned my appearance. Was there something new about me? What would have caused all of the students to act the way they did? I was just about to give up when I noticed something. My four canine teeth were longer and sharper than they had been before. I gasped. I ran my tongue over my teeth. The four fangs left small cuts on my tongue. I tasted the bitter saltiness of blood. I saw one other thing. My eyes had changed drastically. They were now turquoise. My pupils had elongated and had become more reptilian. Even the whites of my eyes had changed; now, the whites were mint-green. My once-normal teenage face now sported fangs and reptile eyes.
“What’s happening to me?” I whispered as I touched one of my new fangs with my finger. I gently lifted my right upper eyelid and examined my new eyes. I looked like a monster, one I had seen before. Where had I seen these eyes and teeth before? I reached across the bathroom counter and grabbed a pair of extra-dark sunglasses. I slipped them over my ears. Now no one would be able to see my new eyes. I resolved to keep my mouth closed as much as possible so that I didn’t reveal my fangs, too. If I didn’t understand what was going on, surely no one else would.
Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!
I picked up my iPod Touch. There was a text alert. Who could be texting me? Of course. Kristyn. Mom had insisted that I keep my cousin’s cell number on my iPod so that we could text each other, but this was the first time Kristyn had ever texted me. I read the text.
Kristyn had typed, “U there?”
I debated responding. If I did reply to the text, Kristyn might want to see me and hang out. I was just about to push the power button on my Touch and ignore the message when Mom’s voice began echoing in my mind.
“It is important for you to be close to your family, no matter how different you may be,” Mom had said. I sighed and picked up my iPod.
I wrote, “Yes.”
I waited a few minutes, and then saw that Kristyn was texting again.
Kristyn replied, “Gr8! Mom just gave me a cool gift 4 my bday party! Wanna see it?”
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Such a showoff.” I began to text again.
“Why not?” I typed sarcastically.
Kristyn replied with, “K. Here it is!” About a billion smiley face emojis followed the text.
Attached to Kristyn’s text was a pixelated picture. I gasped. I had definitely seen this thing before. I had seen it this morning.
It was Princess Celestia’s crown. I gasped again. Kristyn’s next text was really surprising.
Kristyn wrote, “Mom said I was ‘ready’ 2 handle this crown thingie. Don’t know what she meant. Do u?”
I hesitated. “ Umm… not really,” I wrote back.
I pressed the power button on my Touch. What was happening? Did my mom have a crown, too?