//------------------------------// // Prologue: Into The Mirror // Story: One Bolt, A World Displaced // by Boltsinger //------------------------------// Inside the Castle of Friendship, a bright orange Pegasus stallion trotted through the halls. He had a long, windblown blue mane and tail with electric blue streaks erratically placed all about. The Cutie Mark that popped off of his flank showed a black microphone, where what should have been a cord was instead a streak of lightning that coiled around the device. He wore a white, topaz-encrested pendant in the shape of a lightning bolt that spread out with the jewel. He cradled an Alicorn colt of a darker orange in his wings, who had a straight yet wild purple mane with a jagged cyan stripe running through it. He looked up at his father with violet eyes, who brought his purple ones down to look back. All around him, his friends scrambled to prepare for the coming events. The time was finally approaching for the School of Friendship to open, and there was an air of excitement all around. “Do we have the cupcakes? I can’t teach my first lesson without cupcakes!” a pink Earth Pony mare called. She had a poofy mane and tail of a darker pink, blue eyes, and a Cutie Mark of three balloons. “They’re in the oven, Pinkie Pie!” another mare replied, running past. She was a lilac-coated Alicorn with purple eyes. Her straight, uniform mane and tail were a deep purple that featured a stripe of dark purple running next to a pink one that popped out in comparison. Her Cutie Mark was a six-pointed magenta star that ran perpendicular to a white one, surrounded by five smaller, sparkling stars. On her neck hung a pendant in the same design as the central star of her Cutie mark with a hair clip on the back. She looked around the hall, catching the only pony in the castle that wasn’t in a rush in her gaze. “Ah! Boltsinger!” She trotted up to the orange stallion, giving him a ginger kiss on the cheek, then repeated the gesture with the foal. “How has Nova been?” “He’s been missing his mommy.” Boltsinger answered, holding the foal up to his mother. Nova reached eagerly for the mare with a giddy laugh. “Does head-mare Twilight Sparkle have the time for her wittle boy?” “Aww…” Twilight leaned in, blowing raspberries on the baby’s belly, sending him into fits of laughter. “I wish I could do more, but I need to go over all of the EEA guidelines and make sure the school is totally up to code! Plus there’s the curriculum, getting the students here…” “I get it, you’ve got a lot to do.” he affirmed. He pulled the foal close again, giving her a quick kiss. “You’d best get back to it, then! I’ll go make sure the other staff members are good to go, ‘kay?” “Thanks.” the Alicorn said, starting into a canter past him. Boltsinger propped his son up on his back, looking around, then up at the colt. “You wanna see what Aunty Rarity is up to?” Nova nodded, putting his forelegs around his father’s neck as Boltsinger spread his wings, taking off at a moderate speed down the hall. After a while of searching, the stallion heard the sounds of stewing, skidding to a halt in front of one of the castle’s many rooms. “Let’s see… Twilight says these lessons have to be up to a certain ‘code’, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make my room gorgeous, yes?” Boltsinger opened the door, where a white Unicorn mare stood over a drawing. Her expertly coiffed purple mane and tail ended in the fanciest ringlets Boltsinger could think of, with a Cutie Mark of three brilliant diamonds. Her horn was lit up in a blue glow, floating a large number of decorative items around the room. She peeked over her shoulder, looking at the entrance through half-lidded, cyan-shadowed cerulean eyes. “Ah! Boltsinger! What are you up to?” “Hey, Rarity. The little Prince and I are helping Twilight make sure everypony is ready.” he informed her, bucking the baby up into the air. Nova giggled, spreading his wings and gliding towards the fashionable mare. She caught the colt with her forelegs, nuzzling him and holding him up. She squished the colt’s cheek with her magic. “Are you making sure your daddy does his job right?” she cooed, planting a kiss on his forehead and looking at the foal’s father. “Well, everything is going well. Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are having a little trouble getting used to the kind of teaching they’ll have to do, but Starlight is giving them a lesson on lessons.” She floated Nova back over to the Pegasus, turning back to her work. “They should be in the library.” Boltsinger waved his hoof, settling his son on his back and heading out the door. “Thanks. I’ll go check in with them.” One of the largest rooms in the castle, lined from top to bottom with books. The library was a place the castle residents spent most of their time in. At the moment, it held four ponies. One was a bright pink Unicorn with purple eyes and a darker purple mane and tail, a cyan stripe running down the middle with the hair coming to a flip at the end. Her Cutie Mark was a magenta four-pointed star overlayed with a white one, with two blue streaks of glimmering light trailing off of it. In front of her sat three more mares. One was an orange-coated Earth Pony with green eyes and white freckles. She had a blonde mane and tail that was tied at the ends with a red hair tie, a brown stetson hat resting on top of her head and a trio of bright red apples making themselves known on her flank. Another was a yellow Pegasus, her soft blue eyes showing more of a droop than those of the other ponies, with a bright pink mane and tail that was kept so long that the hair had begun curling up at the ends. Her Cutie Mark showed three pink butterflies flying happily. The last of the seated mares was a cyan-coated Pegasus, whose medium-length mane and tail featured a veritable rainbow of color. She rolled her hot pink eyes, scratching her Cutie Mark, a tri-colored lightning bolt coming out of a cloud, with her wing. “Okay, Starlight, I get it! We’re supposed to sit at the front of the room, read from some book on the subject, and ask the students a bunch of questions involving what’s in the books!” The rainbow-maned pony stated, her tone giving off an air of frustration. “Yes, Rainbow, but you need to have a good grasp of the material.” the pink mare replied. “And your material is…?” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Loyalty.” The orange mare raised her hoof. “I’m teachin’ honesty, right? Ain’t we teachin’ the students about our elements?” Starlight nodded. “Yeah, Applejack, that’s pretty much the case. But Twilight is insisting that we follow these rules.” She pointed to a book that lay on the floor in front of the three. With that, the yellow mare raised her hoof. “What’s up, Fluttershy?” The pink-maned mare retreated her hoof, looking at the floor. “Um… I was just wondering… Do I have to teach like this? The way it tells the teachers to address the class feels kind of… well… mean.” “Honestly, I agree with you.” Starlight assured, floating the book over and skimming through it. “But, Twilight insists that we follow the guidelines to a ‘T’. Apparently the school can’t be accredited unless we do.” “Sounds pretty strict if you ask me.” a baritone called from the entrance. Boltsinger approached the group, taking a seat next to Fluttershy. “How are things going here?” “About as well as can be expected.” Starlight answered, putting the book aside. “We were just about to take a break if you’d like to join us.” Boltsinger chuckled, extending a wing as his foal walked out onto it. “No such thing as a ‘break’ anymore. Unless… you ladies want to look after him for a while?” Nova looked out at the mares with pleading eyes, fluffing his wings adorably. Fluttershy perked up instantly, fluffing her wings and reaching out to take hold of the colt. “Oh I would love to take care of your little one!” She gave the baby a soft hug. “Do you want to spend some time with Aunt Fluttershy, Nova?” The little Prince laughed out loud, pulling Fluttershy’s mane close and nuzzling it. She smiled at the stallion, settling Nova in her wing. “I think we have things handled.” she told him. Applejack stepped up next to her kind companion, leaning in close to Nova and taking a whiff. “Hoo, boy! You got some good timin’, Fluttershy!” “What do you mean?” she wondered, bringing the baby’s bottom close to her muzzle. She took a sniff, recoiling from the odor. “Oh… I see… Well, I guess I’ll go take care of that…” Boltsinger reached his hoof out. “I can do it if you don’t wan--" Fluttershy put her wing up “No, no, I can do this! I volunteered to watch him for a while.” she insisted, heading out the door with the colt held at wing’s reach with Applejack in tow. “Yeah! Break time!” Rainbow cheered, racing to the shelves and grabbing a book, landing in a nearby chair. “I’ve been wanting to dig into some Daring Do all day!” Boltsinger looked at the shelves, hungrily eyeing the spines of the books. “A good book does sound good…” He flew around the room, finding several familiar titles. “Let’s see… Something I’ve not read before…” Every genre, he found nothing new, driving home the fact that he spent a lot of his time reading. He landed with a sigh, walking to another corner of the room. “Okay, then… no new…” A strange noise met with his ears, sending his eyes towards the source. “What was that?” Rainbow Dash looked up from her book. “What was what?” His ears twitched as the sound came again. “Sounds like… vibrating…” He looked around some more, noting a light coming from a book on a far table. “How many of the books in here do that?” Rainbow looked to the light, marking her book and putting it aside. “Oh, that. Don’t worry about it. I’ll go get Twilight, she’ll know what’s up.” She jumped out of her chair, flapping her wings and flying out of the room with a streak of rainbow light following behind her. Boltsinger cocked his eyebrow, turning back to the glowing book. “Okay, but… I’m still gonna worry about it.” He galloped over to it, using a wing to move the cover. “Dear… Princess Twilight?” he read aloud. “Is this some kind of letter?” He kept reading, seeing a number of exchanges between Twilight and this ‘Sunset Shimmer’ in the book. The name rang a bell, but he couldn’t quite place it. Finally, he came to a blank page. “Dear Princess Twilight… I need your help… I know it’s weird for you to come to this world now that… other Twilight? How can there be another Twilight? Where was I…? Need you to come here and help us get a grasp on the Equestrian magic that’s taking hold in… Where is this all taking place?!” His wings shot up with a tingling sensation, letting out sparks of blue lightning that hit the floor beneath him. He looked back at the extended appendages, his eyes going wide as they began to flap. His body rose into the air, turning towards an odd-looking mirror with strange devices surrounding it. Before he had time to think, his wings flapped again, rocketing him into the glass. No crash. Not something Boltsinger expected upon flying into a mirror at full speed. He opened his eyes, seeing a large building towering over him. All around walked a number of strange bipedal creatures. Like Absynnians, they had arms and opposable digits, but he wouldn’t call them paws. He positioned his foreleg to push himself up, but quickly retreated it. Something had felt off. It was as if his hoof had gone soft. He used his elbow to bring himself to his knees, then took a look at his… “What the…?” he began, staring at the… things he held up. They were just like the digits on the ends of the other creatures’ arms. Stranger still was the fact that his own… arms… were covered by sleeves. He looked down, seeing a black jacket with electric blue stripes down the sides of the sleeves. Under the jacket was a white shirt that his pendant rested upon, and on his legs was a pair of blue denim pants, black shoes covering the things at the ends of his legs. On the back of his head, he felt a tightness in his mane that felt like having a hair tie pulling it back. He brought his… digits… closer to his nose, finding an emptiness where it normally was, then found one of them on a nubby thing in the middle of his face. Out of all the questions he had since he opened his eyes, there was one thing he was certain of as his eyes grew wide. Whatever these creatures were… He was one of them.