//------------------------------// // Remember the events so far - story_resumes // Story: A Certain Magical Friendship - MIRROR_NOISE // by Sora2455 //------------------------------// There was a party well underway in Ponyville. If you were to flag down a passing pony and ask them why this was so, most would tell you that it was merely the Summer Sun Celebration, slightly delayed this year. If you hunted down a smaller number of ponies who had been in right places at the right times, they would tell you that they were celebrating the defeat of Nightmare Moon, the legendary Mare in the Moon. (Some would know that somepony named ‘Luna’ had been rescued from her evil clutches, or something. They were very fuzzy on the details.) Most ponies were content with one of those explanations. They trusted that they would hear an official explanation for the weirdness of the night in due time. For now, they just wanted to party. But if you asked a much smaller group, you’d get a much more detailed story. A story about how Nightmare Moon, breaking out of her seal after a thousand years of banishment, had descended to the Earth. They would tell you how she had banished her sister Celestia to the same moon she had just escaped from, intending to forever shroud the world in Eternal Night. But there had been one pony present last night who had been from out-off-town. While everypony else had been panicking at the defeat of Celestia, Satin had panicked in a slightly different way. While most of the ponies had wanted to run away, Satin had a particular destination in mind to run to: a mysterious glowing hole, just inside the boundaries of the Everfree forest. From there, things had gotten weird. They’d jumped into this hole, and fallen so far that by the time they reached the other end, they were falling up. And on the other side of that hole had laid a city full of people with talents and abilities that none of those ponies had ever heard from before. They had helped defeat Nightmare Moon and her minions, and the ponies had helped defeat an aggressor from ‘over there’. But at the moment, five of those mares couldn’t care less about what was on the other side of the hole. They were full concerned about what was on this side. Because, after everything had been said and done, Twilight still wasn’t attending the party. “Twwwiiiilllliiiigghhhtt.” Pinkie Pie whined. “Come oooonnnnn. Most of the ponies have gone home already. Even the princesses have left! If you don’t come now, there won’t be a party left for you to attend!” “The princess is gone?” Twilight’s voice came out slightly slurred, before she caught herself and shook her head vigorously. “I mean, the princesses are gone?” She corrected herself, sounding much more awake this time. Having two princesses was going to take some getting used to. (Well, there was Cadence, but she had only just finished school a year ago, so nopony thought of her as a ‘real’ princess yet.) “Yup.” Applejack said. “Said ya could stay as long as you liked, an’ come back to Canterlot when you’re ready.” “Oh.” Twilight said. “That’s nice.” Rarity moved closer, inspecting Twilight’s muzzle close-up. “Dear, your adorable little dragon said that you haven’t slept since the night before last. If you aren’t going to join the party –” “Which you should!” Pinkie insisted. “– then you should be sleeping, dear.” Twilight squinted at the three mares confronting her. “…haven’t you been awake since then as well?” “Ya can’t sleep though a Pinkie Pie party, sugercube.” Applejack said. “S’not possible.” “Why would anypony want to sleep though a party?” Pinkie looked honestly confused. “Well, I appreciate your concern girls, but I can’t come.” Twilight shook her head. “That ‘hole’ in the Everfree – something isn’t right about it, and I need to figure out what.” “Twilight, dear, the princess – I mean, princess Celestia already said that she’d take care of that.” “Princess Celestia conjured a fence around the hole with a sign saying ‘Danger: probably magic’.” Twilight deadpanned. “’xactly.” Applejack nodded. “So if anypony falls in, it’s their own fault.” Twilight turned around, looking down at the scroll she had been reading when the other mares had come in. “But there’s more to it than that.” She insisted. “Listen. I wrote down what happened last night, and it doesn’t make any sense!” Applejack opened her mouth to say ‘Leave magic to the unicorns and go to sleep’, remembered who she was talking to, and closed it again. “You mean like how we saw the sun rise twice, but the ponies here only saw it rise once?” Pinkie noted. Twilight turned her head back just enough so that she could look Pinkie in the eye as she nodded. “More than that. ‘Over here’, Satin knew the legend of Nightmare Moon even better than I did, but on ‘the other side’, she didn’t know anything about it!” Rarity frowned. “Yes, that was rather unusual, wasn’t it?” “And Applejack, you got hurt fighting a Shadowbolt, right? Do you remember how you got better?” “Nope.” Applejack answered. “Next thin’ ah remember, we were bein’ swarmed by th’ Nightmare Forces.” Twilight turned around, facing the three of them again. “Well, I asked Fluttershy, and she said that she healed you with magic!” Applejack’s mouth fell open, as did Rarity’s and Pinkie Pie’s. “Come again?” Quite aside from the fact that Fluttershy lacked a horn to be casting spells with, there had been exactly one pony in the last millennium who could cast healing spells. That was a super-rare Talent. “I know!” Twilight exclaimed. “Fluttershy couldn’t explain it either – she clearly remembered healing you, but she couldn’t explain how!” “Land sakes!” Applejack swore. “Tha’ is weird.” “That’s still not the weirdest part.” “There’s more?” Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity said together. “Girls, do you remember the name of where we were, on the other side of the hole?” The three mares opposite Twilight looked uncertain. “I was just thinking of it as ‘Satin’s home’.” Pinkie admitted. “Did anypony actually say…?” Applejack asked. “We all had other things on our minds, darling.” Rarity said. “Where we were exactly didn’t seem so important.” “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy remembered.” Twilight said. “They called it ‘the Academy’. And they both remember being shocked to find that out, though they can’t remember why now.” Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity shared uncertain looks. “I, uh, don’t think we’ve every heard of a place like tha’.” Applejack admitted. “You wouldn’t have.” Twilight said, her tone serious. “Seeing as how it doesn’t exist.” “Doesn’t…? Darling, you must be pulling my leg.” Rarity protested. “We were all there mere hours ago. You can’t just say that we were in a place that isn’t real.” Twilight’s head swung around to look at the bookshelf behind her. “I checked everything – ‘Great schools of the world’, ‘Where to get research done’, ‘Grand faculties of the globe’… I even had Spike send for ‘The complete guide to Neighpon’ from the Canterlot library. Girls, none of the academies in the world look anything like where we were!” “So they got the name wrong.” Applejack said. Twilight shook her head. “No. Something is wrong with that hole.” Telekinetically gathering up the stacks of books on the table, Twilight started walking up the stairs. “And I’m going to figure out what!” Entering her bedroom, Twilight dramatically slammed the door shut. “Hole’s not going anywhere, though.” Applejack told the door. “Honestly, ya need ta sleep.” The door, being a door, did not answer her. “Well, shoot.” “She doesn’t want to attend my party?” Pinkie sounded slightly shell-shocked. “I’m sure she wants to, dear.” Rarity sighed. “It’s just that she thinks this is more urgent, though. It’s not like she’s forgotten there’s a party going on.” Pinkie’s wide eyes slowly narrowed in confusion. “Forgotten there’s a…?” She gasped suddenly in a huge intake of air. “That’s right! I almost forgot! I kinda need to got back and check on our new friends because they also haven’t come to the party and actually I’m not sure they can read Equish so they might not have understood my invitations and they’ve gone all this time without a party, and –” “Breathe, Pinkie.” Applejack interrupted, which seemed to break Pinkie out of her run-on sentence. “Right! I’ll be right back!” Pinkie dashed out the door of the Golden Oak library so fast she left a smoky after-image. Applejack rolled her eyes. “Honestly, that mare.” “Wait a minute.” Rarity said. “When she said ‘our new friends’, you don’t think she meant the ones over there, do you?” Applejack and Rarity shared a worried glance. “...those are your orders. Do you understand, 9748?” “Misaka understands, Misaka replies as she begins to prepare for deployment.”