"That being said," Jason spoke into his phone as he sat on his couch, wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and a black apron, "I think it's safe to say our next meeting with them on Monday might be the last one for a while."
"Uh huh." Came the reply from Davis. Jason had told him about the problem with the mirror. "I'm failing to see why this should include me."
"Dude, you and I are the only ones that know about the mirror portal thing... Probably... Maybe..."
"That's a lot of uncertainty, man."
"Please? I just need someone to watch the Tincan today and I'm on short notice. I need to get to work in a couple minutes and you're the only other person I can trust right now."
"First off, you don't have to work in a couple minutes, you work in just over an hour and it's only a ten minute walk up there. Second, I have plans."
"No ho ho the fuck you don't."
"What?"
"I know for a fact your girlfriend is already working right now, her dogs are at her mother's since they got flees, and your grandmother is still in Kalamazoo. You've got no prior engagements today."
"... Uh..." There was a silent pause as Jason heard Davis shift around.
"Am I wrong?" Jason raised an eyebrow, despite not having anyone to witness it.
"... Fuck, fine, I'll watch the stupid mirror."
"I don't see what your problem is. They're friendly... Plus they haven't tried taking over the world or killing us or mind controlling us, those are all plusses in my book."
"I don't see why you're so enamored with them."
"Do... Hold up, do you even know what that word means?"
"Excuse me?"
"Enamored, do you know what it means?"
"It's a synonym for adamant."
"No. No it's is not."
"It's not?" Another pause. "Whatever, it's not important. I'm taking my longboard, so I should be down in half an hour." Jason's shoulders slouched in relief.
"Thanks, man. I probably won't be here when you get here, so..."
"So?"
"... Sorry, lost my train of thought. I'll just leave the rest to you, aight man?"
"Aight. See ya later."
"See ya." Jason heard the hang-up tone on Davis's end and put his into his jean pocket. He sighed as he looked up at the clock. I should leave a note for Starlight, tell her the situation. After finding some notebook paper, he took a pen out of his apron pocket and began writing down a note.
Jason chewed on the corner of his thumb, unsure if this note would suffice. He sighed and hung his head. Why is keeping contact with another world so difficult? Why does there have to be magical radiation? What's it's purpose? Why'd it have to open when I make a portal? Fuck magic. Magic can suck a dick... His brow rose as a thought came to mind. I am of filthy and impure thoughts. He threw his jacket on and put on his non-slick work shoes. With note in hand, he walked outside and went straight to the shed, opening it and turning the note into a paper airplane. He gently tossed it. Only for it to crash into the floor, the nose the plane crumpling in on itself as if it had taken a whiff of the filthiest rubbish in existence. Jason glumly picked it back up, muttering to himself as he smoothed out the nose. He lightly tossed it through the mirror and crouched as he waited for a reply.
---~<P>~---
"Not demons?" Twilight repeated.
"That's was he said." Starlight said with a shrug. "He's been trying to find more information but nothing's come up yet." Twilight paced around Starlight and looked at the two mirrors.
"There weren't any weeds when he put the mirror in the shed, were there?" Twilight raised her brow as she asked her graduated student. Starlight, for her part, didn't hesitate from answering.
"I'm fairly certain of it. I didn't check to see it myself, but he did spend a bit of time out there, so I assume so." Starlight nodded, signalling the end of her statement. Twilight took a noticeable sigh if relief.
"Good, I already know from first hoof experience, but magic and non-magical plants don't exactly mix together all that well."
"I made sure to warn him about that before he took his first leave." She trotted up to the mirror as Twilight looked to her again.
"First leave?" She asked.
"Well, yeah," Starlight stated as if it were common knowledge. That was before she mentally back peddled. "He basically went back and forth a couple times before I hopped on back here. Not exactly necessary information, is it?" Twilight paced around the area a bit, looking between the mirror which led to Jason's world and the mirror that led to CHS. She sped up her pacing to a little trot as she tore her eyes away from them. This raised a few alarms in the heads of Sunburst and Starlight. That can't be good. Starlight thought to her self.
"Is everything alright, Twilight?" Sunburst spoke up, however, before Starlight had the chance.
"What?" Twilight immediately stood in place. "What was that?"
"Uhh..." Sunburst and Starlight looked to each other, the former shrugging and taking a step back.
"Sunburst was just asking if you're alright." Starlight came up to her teacher and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"Oh... Well..." Twilight looked away from the two, back to the mirrors. "Sunset said she'd be able to come over and look at the notes we've taken so far," her eyes fell as she looked to the floor, "but after I asked her when the most convenient time for her to show up would be, she hasn't written back."
"She probably just got busy." Starlight rationalized. "She is basically a super hero over there, and she still has school and homework to deal with." That mare almost always has a lot on her plate, kind of like Twilight... She narrowed her eyes. Wait "Twilight, mind if I ask you a question?"
"Of course, Starlight." Twilight grew a genuine smile.
"How are you able to oversee the mirror and experiment with it AND take care of your princess duties?" At first, Twilight just looked at Starlight as if she spoke a different language. Slowly, her eyes widened, her feathers twitched to life. She made a quick turn and galloped to the door.
"The forms from the committee are to be returned today!" She barraled on through the door with out stopping, her yells echoed through the halls. "Spike! Spike! I need to review those forms!" Starlight and Sunburst stood, one with relative normalcy, the latter slack jawed in awe.
"She just forced that door open," He said to no one in particular, "without using magic."
"How would Jason put this," Starlight said to herself, gaining Sunburst's attention, "Earth pony is one hell of a drug?"
"Hell?" Sunburst asked. As he did so, the pair saw a paper plane woosh on by. With a flip and a little twirl, it landed right on the table. Starlight grasped it in her magic and read it aloud.
"Hey Star! Me again, Jason, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going be at work for the next nine and a half hours. Davis is going to watch my house in the meantime and the mirror by proxy." Her eyes scanned further and widened. "He doesn't seem to be in the mood to be bothered, so I wouldn't recommend sending any notes while he's here, not like he's gonna notice since the mirror is in the shed, right? If it's something I absolutely need to know right away," she saw the word run was scratched out, "teleport inside the house and tell Davis to contact my work number. Signed, Jason." She squinted at the smaller wording at the bottom of the page. "PS. I don't know what his problem is, and he most likely doesn't want to talk about it. I'll be sure to talk to him when I get the chance." Starlight looked to Sunburst. "That sounds like a friendship problem waiting to happen."
"Now let's not be hasty." Sunburst walked up beside her. "I doubt Davis would appreciate us trying to help him. You remember that look he gave us when he left, right?"
"Yes," she shivered as that particular memory resurfaced, "but this sounds like the exact thing to get us on his side."
"Can we at least wait to make sure this is a problem, the map hasn't even gone off."
"I..." Starlight did her best to think up an argument, but none came. She couldn't argue with that. "I guess we have to at this point." Sunburst shook his head and planted a hoof on her shoulder.
"It's not that we have to, it's that we should."
"Right, right." Starlight quickly nodded as she paced over to the table and set the note down.
"Is everything alright?" Sunburst asked. Starlight didn't respond, so he repeated himself, just a little louder this time.
"What was that?"
"I said "Is everything alright?"" He walked up his foal hood friend. "You've been worrying about Jason just as much as Twilight's been worrying about the whole situation."
"Oh..." Starlight looked at the note, scrutinizing it for any imaginary details she could think up. "I'm just... I made another friend without any help from my current friends. That's only happened twice before, and now I find that he could possibly be in danger just from being friends due to the radiating magic from the mirror, and there isn't a single thing I can do to help." She planted her face onto the table, covering her muzzle with her hooves. "All I can do is sit here and wait for something to happen."
"Starlight..." Sunburst gently placed a hoof on one of Starlight's own as they waited.
"Sunset!" A loud noise and a yell startled the pair of unicorns into looking at the commotion. Twilight had teleported in with a couple papers floating around her and a stack of papers just to her left. She took a glance at her surroundings and gave the pair a sheepish smile. "Ha ha, I guess I put a little too much oomph into that, heh heh." The papers vanished in a flash of magenta.
"I take it she wrote back?" Starlight grinned at her lavender teacher as the Alicorn continued to giggle.
"You could say that." Twilight responded. She stared back at the more beautifully crafted of the two mirrors. After all, it was created by Starswirl the bearded, so it stood to reason that it would be far more catching to eye. Standing proudly with it's elegant detail. "Turns out she just forgot about some homework and a had a "cram sesh" with her friends. She'll be here in a couple minutes." Her eyes shifted to the least grand of the mirrors. While it was much less conspicuous, looking like your usual rectangular pane of reflective glass, it left a bit if a hole of disappointment in whoever knew it as a portal.
Unless that portal happens to lead to another friend. Starlight thought. Not to mention how easy it is to hide it. That's a plus.
"There is so much we don't know about Jason's world." Twilight muttered to herself. Starlight's and Sunburst's attention we're drawn to her as she began pacing again. "The person that put the knowledge of the ritual out there is completely unknown to us, and the person that contradicted the notion of demons is also an unknown." She paced faster as she continued to mutter. "That, coupled with the report of the missing humans, suggests Jason and his friends aren't the only ones in his world who have attempted the ritual."
"Hmm," Sunburst tapped his chin as he thought, "from what Starlight shared about her first meeting, Jason reacted like magic shouldn't exist, and our own readings show almost zero magic within his area... Yet the existence of the mirrors is proof of the contrary."
"Do you think," Starlight paused as she thought a bit more about what she wanted to say, "do you think his world has some kind of magic even we haven't seen before?"
"We haven't exactly determined it yet, but what we've found so far points to the mirror being the cause of the phenomenon." Sunburst levitated a set of notes from a pack not too far away. "That, coupled with the ritual and the statement "They're not demons" points to Jason's side being the catalyst."
"All of that implies Jason's world has some form of magic." Twilight finished that particular line of thought. She walked around to Sunburst to look at his notes, Starlight following suit. Before Starlight could get a closer look, a familiar orange hoof stepped out from the elegantly crafted mirror. Twilight looked up with obvious glee to see a friend.
"Sunset!" She ran over to other orange Unicorn and greeted her with a hug. Of course, Sunset accepted the hug. Who doesn't accept hugs?
"Hey, Twilight." Sunset took a step back and looked over the room. Her eyes turned to Starlight and Sunburst as she trotted over. "Hey, Starlight. It's been a while since I've seen you." The two hugged.
"Eh, I've had my hooves full, what with being a counselor nowadays. Not much compared to you though, miss heroine." Starlight gave her friend a playful slug on the shoulder as they parted.
"Hey now, the hero stuff rarely happens. It's mostly just schoolwork for me." She turned to see Sunburst and walked closer. She held out a hoof. "Hey there, I don't believe we've met before. Name's Sunset Shimmer."
"Sunburst, it's a pleasure to meet you." He took her hoof and shook. "Any friend of Starlight is a friend of mine." Starlight felt her ear twitch as an ache took to her chest when he said that, but she refused to focus on it. Sunset's attention went straight to the princess in the room.
"Okay, have you guys found anymore information since I last checked the journal." She asked. Twilight lead her back to the table and sat right next to Sunburst as they began discussing what she had heard from Starlight. Speaking of the mare, Starlight turned to the smaller mirror.
I should go see if his end of the mirror is in the shed. Just to be safe. She nonchalantly walked up to said mirror and hopped through-
!BAM!
-right into Jason.