Through the Mirror Pond

by donceluzza

Act I-I: Disloyalty

Through the Mirror Pond
Act I-I: Disloyalty

Journal of Sebastian King, entry #5

“Why?” I’ve asked myself that question far too many times to count. Why did I come to this world? Why have I believed in magic my whole life, when all signs pointed against it? Why am I so obsessed with this one goddamn pool? Why can’t I get inside it? Why can’t I help one stinking creature? Why must even my success be marred with failure? Will my only legacy be the small transdimensional device I hold in my hand? Actually, there’s the real question. Why did the Zoner bring me here?

Twilight sat at the table of her library desk, with a human sitting across from her. Sebastian King, the human who somehow managed to free Pinkie Pie from the Mirror Pond, sat across from her, fidgeting impatiently.

“So then,” Twilight started, “we should start by pooling our information, if we can find out why your device brought you here maybe we can figure out a way to go to your world.”

“What information do you need?” Sebastian asked.

“Well, for starters how did you get Pinkie out of the Mirror Pond?”

“I don’t know,” Sebastian responded with a shrug, “some chick back on Earth gave me this book,” he pulled a large ratty tome out of his jacket, “I chanted something that she told me to say, and then me and the Pond... came together, at least I think that’s how it worked.”

Twilight grasped the aging book in her magic, she started flipping from page to page, “well what did you say?”

“Yeht llac em Raef, deeh ym llac, niojer, rof ew era eno.”

Twilight continued flipping pages, seemingly uninterested in everything that the book had to offer. “Why is none of this helpful?” She screamed, tossing the book to the ground, “all of this is about the Elements of Harmony, nothing about Fear, or ponds...”

“Elements of Harmony?” Sebastian questioned, arching an eyebrow, “I thought that it said Elements of Chaos?” Twilight peeked at the book, and found that nothing was written in it. Sebastian grabbed the book in his hands and flipped back to the index. “Elements of Chaos, a reference guide, then it lists a few chapter titles, but nothing about ‘Harmony’.”

“So it changes what’s written in it based on who holds it?” Twilight’s eyes lit up, “Spike,” she called, “Spike.”
The baby dragon started coming down the steps, grumbling as he did so. “What is it Twilight, some of us do need sleep you know.”

“I need your help, quickly, with an experiment. Take the book from Sebastian, and tell me what’s written in it.”

Spike grumbled and growled under his breath, but obeyed Twilight’s request. He grabbed the book in his claws and flipped from page to page. After a few second of page flipping and quizzical looks he handed the book back to Sebastian. “There isn’t anything written in it, not a single...” his voice trailed off as he glanced back at the book, now that it was back in Sebastian’s hands. The blank page that he had flipped to was suddenly filled with words, and a large diagram, similar to the Elements of Harmony diagram, lay in the center.

“The Elements of Chaos,” Sebastian read aloud, “these represent the creation of chaos in civilization. The Elements are Fear, Greed, Change, Cunning, Consumption, and Anarchy.”

Twilight ran to Sebastian’s side and looked at the book’s contents, and there it was, the Elements of Chaos were staring right back at her. “So I was right,” the dragon and the human both gave her confused looks, “when I held it in my magic it was about the Elements of Harmony, when you hold it its about the Elements of Chaos, when Spike held it...”

“So it shows the Elements of the person holding it, in your case Harmony because you’re the Element of Magic, in my case Chaos...”

“Since you’re the Element of Fear!” Twilight finished.

“That’s great!” Sebastian yelled, “so tell me smartass, how does this help us figure out how to get Rainbow Dash, and more importantly the invention of the millenium, back from Earth?”

“Well,” Twilight stammered, “did anything strange happen to you near the Pond?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, “I would stick my hand into it, and it came back dry. When I was close to it I felt like I knew more about magic than I should. I started to have really weird nightmares actually.”

“What kind of nightmares?”

“It was weird, I dreamt that I... was alone, actually.” Twilight’s ears flattened against her head, images of what a certain pink party pony must’ve went through clouding her mind. “There were other people there, but none of them could see me, or maybe they didn’t want to.”

“It sounds a lot like...” Spike started before Twilight cut him off.

“What Pinkie Pie went through.” Twilight finished, “is that why you were so angry at us?”

“Partly,” Sebastian admitted, “the dream started with me at my college, back on Earth. There are a whole bunch of my colleagues there, and there is some kind of party going on. They all talk, drink, and trade stories of the awesome things that they did, but my name never comes up.” Sebastian’s voice got lower, “almost like I didn’t exist, or even worse, that I didn’t matter.”

Twilight motioned for Spike to go upstairs, which he did immediately without delay. The room was silent for minutes, before Twilight finally spoke up. “Maybe, it was fate that brought you and Pinkie Pie together.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Sebastian said, “I hate the very idea, however miniscule, that my actions aren’t my own.” He chuckled slightly before continuing, “maybe that’s why I’m an Element of Chaos, if fate did exist I’d oppose it at every turn.” The human laid the book out on the table before him and Twilight, the page retaining it’s information on the Elements of Chaos. “Come to think of it, maybe, and its a small-ass maybe, but maybe there is something to that whole ‘fate’ thing, or at the very least something that controls us.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, “something that isn’t fate, but is?”

“Well,” Sebastian began, “I haven’t really thought about it until now but, I come from a world that doesn’t have magical talking ponies, hell we don’t even have any mythology relating to anything like that.” The human took a large swig of his tea, “but I’ve just been completely accepting of all of this, not just magic and flying, but when I first met Pinkie Pie I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t confused, I didn’t have a normal reaction.”

“So you’re saying that while you don’t believe in fate, there is something that’s strange about all of this.” Sebastian nodded his head, so Twilight continued, “well, I suppose that its entirely possible that it has something to do with you bonding with the pond.”

“But like I just said, I didn’t have a reaction when I first met Pinkie Pie.”

“That could be explained as a kind of moral reflex, you wanted so badly to help her that you didn’t stop to question what she was.”

“It would seriously help if I had my invention,” Sebastian lamented, “as much as I do love some poetic waxing about fate and such, and deliberately offering help without receiving any in return.”

Twilight scowled at him, “I can help you, I could formulate some kind of tracking spell, and the Princess could probably help you get back to Earth. I just wanted to make sure that you would give some information about all of this in return.”

“Ah, I see,” Sebastian said with a sarcastic grin, “so you can be as untrusting and paranoid of me as you want, but the second that I reciprocate some of that...”

“It is perfectly natural for me to be cautious of you. For one you are a creature that I’ve never seen before,”

“As you are to me,” Sebastian countered.

“But you’re on MY world, not yours.”

“You know Pinkie Pie told me that Generosity was a virtue to you people.”

“Ponies, and yes, hence why I’ll contact the Princess in the morning, then she can help you.”

“So what you’re telling me is, you are putting me on hold while my call is redirected.” Twilight looked at him quizzically, “never mind, you wouldn’t get it.”

“Anyway,” Twilight interjected, “we need to know more about these, Elements of Chaos.”

“Maybe you do, I for one am perfectly fine with the information I have now.”

Twilight stumbled back shocked, “so you’re enough of a scientific mind to invent a device to travel between worlds, but you don’t have any sense of discovery, you don’t want to know about what is, undoubtedly, the biggest magical discovery in several decades.”

Sebastian sat still for a minute before responding, “you done?” Twilight nodded, “good, because, while I do have a sense of discovery, I’m not interested in your magical discovery nonsense. I want to know how Rainbow Dash knew about my device, and seemingly knew enough to operate it.” The human finished, and began sending a glare Twilight’s direction.

“Wait, you suspect that I had something to do with this?” Twilight asked, shocked. Sebastian silently nodded, staring unblinkingly at Twilight, “well I didn’t. I didn’t even know what this machine was until you told me just now.”

“If you’ll excuse my generalizations,” Sebastian began, “then how did the stupid one,”

“Rainbow Dash isn’t stupid!” Twilight screamed. She calmed down before she continued, “she’s just been acting weird, ever since... ever since Pinkie Pie came back.”

Sebastian chuckled, “well, then I guess we’re back to square one then. Rainbow Dash has the Zoner, somehow knowing how to operate it, and she is on Earth, no doubt causing an insane amount of panic as an alien creature walks around with a machine that could bring her and many, less lovable humans, back to your world without you knowing.”

Twilight loudly gulped, “you’re right, we need to work together.” The lavender unicorn sighed, and extended her hoof out to the human in front of her. “I’m sorry for being so suspicious of you, it wasn’t fair, you’re completely right about that. No matter how I justify it, though I still believe I could, we’re discussing an interworld incident, playing out right in front of us.”

“Thank you, I will consider forgiving you in the future, for now though...”

“Wait, I’ve got it!” Twilight screamed.

“Wow, and we’ve only been working together for a few seconds,” Sebastian said, with an air of sarcastic excitement in his voice.

“You were asking the right question, how did she know about the machine, and how did she know how to work it?”

“Well yeah, that was the question I asked,” Sebastian replied. “So you have an idea?”

“Yes, and it relates to the Elements of Chaos,” Twilight answered. “If you are the Element of Chaos, and come from Earth, then it isn’t that much of a stretch to imagine that all six Elements of Chaos come from Earth.”

The gears turned in the human’s head, “so what you’re saying, is that Rainbow might’ve been corrupted by one of the Elements of Chaos.”

“Yes, but it would have to be someone close to you, after all they would have to know about your machine, and how it works.”

“I can think of a few, there were a couple of people back at Harvard that really didn’t like me, you really can’t revolutionize quantum physics without making enemies.”

“Anyone specifically who would fit into one of the other five Elements?”

Sebastian pondered this, his hand to his chin and eyes shut in thought. “A couple of them actually, I can think of three people who would fit one of those categories.”

Twilight gazed at him expectantly, “well who are they, are you guys friends, and what Elements do they represent?”

Sebastian shrugged, “I didn’t really go to college to make friends, I can remember that there was this one skinny kid who ate a lot, I’m assuming that would be consumption. I remember an anarchist in one of my chemistry classes. And there was this one guy, he was douchey, self-centered, and pretty damn stupid, perfect fit for the selfishness one.”

Twilight’s features grew downcast, “so he must be the one that’s corrupted her, none of the other ones make sense, but Selfishness...”

“Perfect fit, in more ways than one,” Twilight shot him a quizzical look before he went on, “I was singled out by that kid more than once, he thought that I ‘didn’t deserve’ the money that I got to build the Zoner.”

“Well we’ll have to figure this out tomorrow, the Princess probably isn’t even awake at this hour. Besides if we ask her tomorrow then maybe she’ll even come down here and help you personally get back to Earth.”

Sebastian stood up to leave, “well then I guess i’ll see you tomorrow, I’m heading back to that forest.”

“The Everfree Forest! Alone at night!” Twilight shouted.

“Well yeah, that’s where I’ve been the last few days.”

Twilight bit her lip, “well, any friend of Pinkie Pie’s is a friend of mine. You can stay in my guest room if you want.”

“You sure?” Twilight nodded in response, “well, I won’t turn down an offer for free housing.” The human allowed Twilight to escort him downstairs, into her basement where she set up a cot for him to sleep on.

That night he dreamed of his old classmate, who somehow wielded powers similar to his own, slaying him with Rainbow Dash’s help.

Comments

[Theclockmaker]

Wait is there bronys in his world?

[donceluzza]

1833544 Nope, the show, nor its predecessors never existed.

[Vigriff]

I can't wait for some Michael Bay style explosions (if that's possible) to happen in this story.