In a house, there stood a mirror… The Potter family had come across the mirror lying abandoned in a shop, where the owner simply gave it away, as he had no use for it… The mirror had ended up in the shop after the previous owner had gotten severely ill after keeping it in his home, the man was starting to lose hair and said that he felt dizzy when he stood near it for too long, so figuring some dark curse was upon it, he sold it… That mirror had previously been in the possession of another wizarding family, who were inspecting the magic enchantments placed upon it, but they were unable to understand how the alien magic woven into it functioned, so they had given up and gave it away to their friend… Before that, the mirror was found in a room in an old castle, where it had mysteriously appeared almost two hundred years ago.
There it stood, with a frame of gold, and a reflective panel made from silver-backed glass, a rather strange design, even by Wizard standards... Regardless, it, by some miracle, survived the blast that ruined their home… And, as the giant of a man rescued a baby from the rubble, there the mirror remained, unharmed, minutes later the police arrived and took that mirror away as possible evidence linked to the crime scene, suspicious that it alone had remained intact when almost everything else had been torn to the ground… Later, when no connection between the mirror and explosion was found, it was given over to the deceased family’s closest relatives, normally they abhorred anything having to do with the family, but this item, coated in gold and silver as it was, caught the greedy husband’s attention, who proudly kept it in his room and used it every day, at first wary of it, but he grew more and more comfortable with the item as days, months, and years drew on… Unknown to him was that this item, in particular, was not native to this world, or even this universe…
A person, or rather, pony, on the other side of that mirror would have noticed the insignia upon it, a six-pointed star, and the words, written in a language that the human occupants of the house couldn’t understand, “MAS Experimental Gateway Model A-12”, not that such words would make any sense to them, even if they could understand them. On the other side, an exactly identical mirror lay inside an ancient ruin, not some old, crumbling castle, but a massive underground complex, made from concrete and steel, littered with the bones of ponies who fled into the facility’s depths to avoid a quick but painful death… While no sapient creature had been in this place for centuries, a hive of ravenous and horrifying creatures now lived down here, coming out at night to prey on small animals, and lost travelers, but whispers spread of an ancient ruin, with steel doors as thick as a cart and filled with ancient technology, and that attracted those who sought such things, for profit and for preservation…
On the night of January seventh, nineteen-eighty-nine, the gilded mirror, sitting in a bedroom on the second floor of a home on Privet Drive, a small gemstone on a corner of the mirror, that the current owner of the mirror had tried to pry out several times to no avail, had suddenly begun to glow with a soft light…
Chapter 1: The Gilded Mirror
Harry Potter, sleeping under the stairs, woke suddenly to his aunt’s shrill screaming… He couldn’t tell what time it was, but it was certainly very early. He then heard his cousin’s door click open, and his uncle yelling in surprise… Harry, scared of getting in trouble, which always meant a beating from his beast of an uncle, but driven by a slight worry and some curiosity, picked open the lock on his cupboard as quickly as possible, and threw it open, marching upstairs… Dudley was staring through a crack in the door, he didn’t notice Harry coming up behind him, he just stared in surprise… Now closer, Harry could hear a loud buzzing, and someone, presumably Vernon, hastily pulling himself out of bed, still shouting incoherently at the top of his lungs.
Harry tried to get a look without attracting Dudley’s attention, which proved rather easy as he was completely engrossed in whatever was happening, inside, Harry pressed his face against the crack in the door, his rather rotund cousin failing to notice him, even when Harry nearly stepped on his foot, and pressed his legs against Dudley’s head… Or perhaps he didn’t even care… Inside was a… Thing… A grotesque abomination on mismatched and spindly insectoid wings, like a sphere, bloated and covered in spines, with glowing eyes and sharp teeth inside a round alien jaw… Vernon drew a shotgun from under the bed and frantically shoved a shell into the barrel… Harry didn’t even know Vernon had a shotgun… The thing was gnawing on the bed and bobbed around to face the overweight man when it heard the shotgun being snapped shut, the monster opened its maw, dripping with slime, and Harry screwed his eyes shut as Vernon pulled the trigger, and a horribly loud bang, followed by a gross plopping noise, and an onrush of horrible smells, strong enough to make even Dudley gag… At last, Harry opened his eyes, and saw the torn open body of the monster, bleeding a thick greenish ooze that bubbled and hissed, tinted with a rainbowish shine, like motor oil… Harry pulled himself away from the horrible scene, wishing he hadn’t gotten out of his cupboard.
Suddenly, he found himself underneath the stairs again, as if he suddenly transported himself downward… Thinking he must have fallen down the stairs getting away from that horrible scene, or been knocked out by Dudley when he realized Harry was practically on top of him… He quickly closed the door and tried to go back to sleep, pretend that nothing happened… Rather, he heard Vernon shouting some more, “Horrid thing, we should have never accepted this bloody mirror, damn them Potters, putting this cursed thing in here!”
He heard his relatives storm out of the room, Petunia marched downstairs, nearly tripping over Dudley, and Vernon was storming off, Harry heard crashing noises from Dudley’s second room as something was loudly thrown into the room, “Damned mirror, should have known better to accept rubbish from them!”
Half an hour later, sirens could be heard and police cars could be heard driving into the road… Vernon argued with Scotland Yard about the shooting, before taking the officers upstairs to investigate the slimy husk… The officers dragged the thing off, and Petunia marched upstairs saying “Here’s the bleach, should I grab more, or do you think one jug will be enough,”
“Certainly not enough to get rid of that bloody stench!” Vernon huffed angrily. “Won’t be able to sleep in there for a week!”
Harry sat there, wishing now that he had stayed rather than return to his cupboard, he may have gotten yelled at, or even gotten a beating, but curiosity was gnawing at the back of his head, how the hell had whatever that thing was gotten inside, and what was that Vernon shouted about a mirror… It took hours, but everything eventually grew quiet, save for Vernon’s uneasy snoring, and Harry slowly slid open his cupboard door once again… It wasn’t as dark as it was before, morning was coming, but he carefully worked his way up the stairs… One step creaked, and he heard his uncle shake himself awake in his room. Harry froze, standing perfectly still, unwilling to make another move… Minutes passed, but everything returned to silence, and so he continued forward, finding the door to Dudley’s second room locked, but Vernon had left the key in the hole…
Being as silent as possible, Harry pulled the door open, and closed it behind him, holding the knob open so it didn’t click on being closed… There, in the dark, was his Uncle’s rather gaudy mirror, gold and silver, with a few gemstones on the side, one of which was now glowing brightly… Harry always thought that thing was kinda dumb, who needed a mirror that shiny. He stumbled forward, approaching the gem, now that he was up close, he could see the scrape marks where his uncle had tried to pry the stone out of the socket, but, there were also other markings on there, they almost looked like letters, but certainly not English ones. Behind the gem, Harry saw little silvery wires that poked into the crystals… Odd, he didn’t think mirrors normally had electronics in them, it looked a little like the inside of Dudley’s old busted television.
The mirror, otherwise, looked like any normal mirror, save for a horrible smell coming from the glass. Not a single drop of slime from that… Thing… Could be seen anywhere on the glass, so he moved his head forward to see if he could figure out where the scent was coming from… To his surprise, his head moved through the glass as if it wasn’t there, quickly followed by his body as he lost balance and tumbled forward… Feeling strange, as if his bones hand broken and reformed in several places, and as if his head was twice his normal size, he tried to get back to his feet, but with little success, instead, he just tumbled forward, caught in his own oversized clothing… Then he heard the buzzing…
Loud, painfully loud, buzzing… Harry pulled his head out of his clothing, cutting it up a bit as he felt something sharp sticking out of his head, and worried for a moment that he had a shard of glass in his face after the mirror broke, but he swore the mirror simply fell out of his way. After ripping his way out of the collar of his shirt, he looked up…
Bugs, hundreds of bugs, hundred of large and bloated spheres that drooled slime with sharp teeth and sickly wings and- Harry screamed as a few of them started spitting at him, a slimy substance that stung when it touched him, luckily his pile of clothing protected his body from the sudden assault, but also kept him from moving anywhere fast, he tried to get out of the mess his clothing became, not caring if he was naked, just worried about survival, ripping apart what remained of his shirt, although the pants where tougher, they didn’t fit right, it felt like his feet were half way up his pant leg and horribly elongated, but that didn’t matter at that moment, he stumbled up, feeling slightly dizzy, but got on his hands and feet and crawled to safety, or at least tried to…
He had no idea where he had suddenly found himself, this was just like the time he ended up on the roof of his primary school… Except, he felt like he was well and truly in a place he really shouldn’t be. He could think about that later, now he just wanted to get away, far, far away… He was starting to feel sick… He splashed his face down into a puddle of some slimy stuff, he dared not open his mouth, he twisted his head to get out of it, but it made his face burn… Away, just need to get away!
There was a flash of light, bright enough to be seen even through his closed eyes, and suddenly the buzzing sounded distant and quiet… He slowly opened his eyes, and panicked as he thought he had been suddenly thrown into a metal box, he scurried around, trying to get his bearings, hearing hollow thumps as his arms and legs and head slammed into the sides of the box, then he looked upward, or was it forward, downward? He couldn’t tell anymore, and saw that it wasn’t a box, but a square-shaped tunnel… It was nearly pitch black, save for a pale bluish light, coming from somewhere just above his head, but when he moved to get a look at it, it seemed to move with him, was it that thing stuck in his head? He tried to move an arm, but his joints felt all wrong, and the space was too small to move… Something, multiple somethings, was brushing up against his chest quite painfully, and he tried to scramble backward, to little effect. Finally, he saw a series of metal bars, or plates, where his chest was, then it came together…
He was in a vent… Somehow he must have gotten sucked up into a vent shaft! But… No, he couldn’t feel any rushing air, in fact the air was rather dusty and stale, it made his mouth dry and his nose sting, but that pain was nothing to the growing itching across his face, or the burning marks across his back… Everything, in fact, was in very mild pain, and he was dizzy, very dizzy, and tried all of a sudden… Very, very tired… Adrenaline was wearing off, and-
He was shocked awake by a roaring sound, like a billion small bangs one after another, and then a million small pings. He realized everything that just happened was just some weird dream, that sound must be a broken car outside, or Dudley playing with some weird toy… But when he opened his eyes, all he saw was pitch black, and he still felt metal pushing against him from all sides… He was breathing hard, scared, warm and wet between his legs… He wanted to get free, this wasn’t his cupboard, this was some metal hell! But he was still so tired and weak, he couldn’t move, not even if he had any space to move. Suddenly, there was a creaking noise, and then the sound of metal tearing apart, some shouting in a deep voice he didn’t recognize, then-
He was sliding backward, and then falling… Everything hurt as he splashed to the ground, he was suddenly a lot more wet and cold than he had been before, there were bangs and crashing sounds of metal on stone, splashing noises and the feeling of water slapping against his body, he felt very furry for some reason and he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his arm, his head still hurt, and the tickling feeling was worse, and now all across his chest, there was more, louder, buzzing, then some more shouting followed by a few metal pings and loud bangs!
Everything was getting blurry, but he could hear someone, a deep voice, “We got a foal over here!”
“What’s a foal doing down here?”
“Don’t know, but they look hurt…”
“Check to see if they’re still alive…”
He felt something big, heavy, and hard grab a hold of him, and lift him onto a rough metal surface that seemed to move slightly, he was tired of the feeling of hard metal... Then, blackness…
Harry’s eyes slowly opened, but everything was still dark and hazy, he was alive, he thought… Someone must have found him, saved him from those bugs, he must have fallen down a hole in Dudley’s room into the sewer or something, he must be in the hospital, but it was too quiet and dark, no, he was somewhere else, but he still couldn’t see anything. “Hey, the mystery foal’s still alive, look at that…”
“Wha- Ah- Coffff!” Harry tried to ask what was going on, but coughed heavily, feeling sick, he turned over and hacked up something nasty, he was glad his vision wasn’t back yet.
Another voice, far more feminine, said “Hold on, I’ll go grab a vomit bucket…”
“No use, just grab some Med-X and a dose of tranquilizer, we can talk back at the Stable,” A third voice said, but Harry was too tired and confused to begin to understand what they were talking about, all he knew was that they were talking about him, and he didn’t like people talking about him like he wasn’t there, it always meant he was about to get in trouble…
“Fine, but the Star Paladin won’t be happy”
“How many foals just appear in a pre-war sealed ruin?”
“Couldn’t have been that well sealed with the amount of cooked bloatsprite we’ve got on our hooves…”
Harry soon felt something cold stab into him, then the pain faded, and he was back into inky blackness.
Beep… Beep… Beep… “Subject 004, neural activity registered,” A mechanical voice drawled.
Harry woke to strange sounds, was all that a dream? No, still in pain, he hissed as he rolled over and hit his arm against some metal thing, even moving hurt.
“Well, the mystery filly is awake, finally… Thought you had died there for a sec…”
A voice, female, the same one from back in metal-hell, “Who-” He tried to say, his voice a hoarse whisper, he opened his eyes, then shut them again at the bright light shining down into his face, there was someone standing over him, someone with a massive head, and a stubby neck, leading to a round body, with their arms on the bed… No, not arms. He opened his eyes to get a better look, and then screamed. “What! What are you!”
The vaguely horse-like creature looked dumbfounded upon being asked that, “Well, certainly not a ghoul, or some mutant monster, if that’s what you’re asking, I’m a Steel Ranger, and provided you behave yourself, an ally.”
That didn’t answer Harry’s question, “You’re blue!” He continued.
“So are you?” She asked, confused, “Never seen a blue pony before, because I’m looking at one right now…”
“I’m not a-” Harry began, then looked down, and saw a small puddle of dark and pale bluish fur over his chest with patches of tender red skin, with a plume brass-colored hair extending out from his rear. With dawning horror, Harry realized why his arms and legs felt so weird.
Harry tried to pull himself up and bolt toward a door, if there even was one, the room seemed to be made entirely from metal with patches of rust and chipped pale bluish paint, he turned over, seeing a huge bulkhead door, like the kind he had seen on battleships from documentaries he caught bits of when Vernon fell asleep with the telly on. He tried to make his alien legs work, but something cold and hard grabbed his left arm, and both his legs, “Good work autodoc, keep her restrained, don’t want her breaking that foreleg again, not after it healed so quickly…”
The horse… Thing… Marched over to a table filled with bandaged, needles, bottles and flasks filled with brightly colored and glowing fluids, and retrieved a small assortment of what Harry assumed to be medicines, or possibly alien mutation goo that turned him into the horse-monster he was now. “What did you do to me!”
“Saved your life, duh, you have no idea how close to death you were, it took something like ten packs of RadAway just to keep you from dying of radiation poisoning, also all the acid burns, you were lucky you didn’t swallow any of that sludge back there, plus you-” The she-horse paused, as if she was inches away from saying something she shouldn’t, “Well, never mind that now, you’re fine… I think… I mean, you survived, and you’re here now!” Something about her tone did not fill Harry with confidence, not that he really had any left over at this moment, all his confidence vanished the moment he saw he had been changed into a horse. “Umm… I need you to swallow some of this, or I can have the autodoc inject it into your stomach, whichever you want.”
Harry looked at the thick red goo and paused, “Autodoc it is!” The horse said after a minute of Harry making a slight whine in the back of his throat.
“No! No, I’ll swallow,” Harry said timidly, the needle sticking from one of the machine’s many arms looked even less inviting. He put the bottle to his equine lips, getting used to the feeling of having a muzzle, and drank the surprisingly tasty goo, even if it had that bitter medicinal aftertaste. “What did that do?” He asked, trying to steady his nerves.
“Mixture of a class-1 healing potion, some Med-X, some mild sedatives, some anti-mutagenic compounds, I was working on it while you slept, should help keep you steady as we purge the last of the contaminants from your blood, as well as fight the-” She paused again, looking worried, “Oh, yeah, you also got a few of those cuts and gashes in that pool of chemicals back there, nearly died of septic shock too.” Harry’s stomach suddenly felt upside-down, and he felt like he was about to gag when the horse put a hard hoof against his throat, “None of that now, don’t want to throw back up all that potion mix…”
Harry’s head was forced back to the bed as the horse pulled up some blocky computer screen attached to the bed as she pressed some keys with her hoof-tips, he felt a sudden cold sting as something jabbed itself into his thighs, “Alright, autodoc, hold her still, we don’t want her moving while running her blood through the filtration loop,” Harry, in the back of his mind, amidst all the other questions he had, wondered if the machine was actually taking voice commands or if the horse was just talking to herself… If it was the latter… Sheesh, she needed some friends. Another needle stuck into his neck, and a mechanical arm quickly grabbed his head to keep him from moving. “Alright,” The horse stepped up next to him, “This process should take about half an hour, so we have plenty of time to talk!” She announced excitedly, “So, my name is Silver Heartstrings, what’s yours.”
“That’s a silly name,” Harry muttered.
“Silver is a bit stereotypical I guess, but I don’t mind…”
“Hmm..” Harry huffed, “Name’s Harry Potter.”
“Funny name for a filly, but if that’s your name, that’s your name!”
“Any idea how to get back to Privet Drive?”
“Hmm… Never heard of it, certainly doesn’t appear on pre-war maps, nor on any lists of modern settlements, and trust me, I’ve memorized them all, nothing better to do when your only job is caring after the wounded, the half-dead and dying don’t make for good conversation.”
Every moment Harry spent with this horse made him more and more uncomfortable, “Well, it’s in Little Whinging…” More blank looks, “Surrey?” More blank looks, “England?”
“Nope, still doesn’t ring a bell… We found you in the Las Pegasus MAS Hub, in sub-level eight… No idea how a ten-year-old filly like yourself found your way into the vents of some pre-war ruin…”
Harry’s mind raced, then suddenly a door slid open, and Harry tried to tilt his head, with no success as the machine’s arms just grabbed him tighter. There was a great stomping noise, and some mechanical whirring, then a voice, hard, masculine, and semi-mechanical, spoke, “How is the filly doing?”
“Says her name is Harry Potter, she’s doing amazingly well, in fact, her broken leg mended itself in record time, and her body seems to be purging most of the toxins itself… Some of the arcane scanners picked up a low-level arcane-neutralizer field around her body, which I’m guessing is the reason why she survived the high levels of magical radiation recorded inside the ruin.”
Harry was getting more and more annoyed that they kept calling him a “her”, but magic wasn’t real… This horse was even crazier than he gave credit.
“Fascinating, I’ll take over the interrogation from here.”
“Umm, excuse me, Paladin Seighelm, but the blood filtration process isn’t done yet, and this particular subject seems rather… Perturbed… I’d rather not have a dead filly on my hooves, thank you, so please wait for the filtration process to finish, she is a unicorn after all, and if she rips that needle from her neck before I seal the wound, well, they’ll be blood everywhere…”
“Fine…” The voice moaned, “But once it’s done contact me immediately.”
“Yes, yes, go and play with the other paladins and let the medical scribe do her job…” The door slid open and shut again, and the horse muttered, “Soldiers…” She then trotted back over to Harry, “Sorry about that.
“Why do you keep calling me ‘she’, I’m a boy!” Harry scoffed.
“Umm… Not according to my examinations, or even the autodoc, and trust me, little doc over here is much better at the whole examination thing than any living pony~” Harry blushed as he realized he didn’t have any clothes on, and the machine was holding his legs apart, meanwhile, the horse gave the computer screen a hug with her front hooves, which looked rather awkward to him, and further reinforced his belief… This horse was crazy.
He sighed and closed his eyes, “Where in the bloody hell am I,” He whispered to himself, too quiet for the other horse to hear.