Merlin walked down the staircase in the sanctum. He made his way through some hallways and into a room, Celestia had requested him to come by her office earlier. When he entered the room though, she wasn't there. Instead, laying on the desk, was a small note.
"Merlin, I'm terribly sorry for not being here as planned, but something came up, I will send for you again when I need you, right now, go back to Ponyville: Twilight is waiting for you there.
-Princess Celestia, House of Royals.
Merlin folded the piece of paper in half and put it in his pocket. He made his way out to the carriage, where the guards were waiting for him.
"Where to?" They asked.
"Bring me to Princess Celestia's student's house."
"Yes sir." They said, Merlin smiled. He felt like some nobleman, getting all this special treatment. And he felt grateful for it. He wanted however, to get back to Twilight's house as soon as he could; the portal was still open, after all. And since he was the who opened it, he felt an obligation to make sure it was stable, so it wouldn't collapse when someone came through.
On his flight, he passed over the great, lush, countryside, he saw a large orchard where some Earth-Ponies were working on bucking the trees so they would drop their fruit. One of them, with a hat on, stopped to look at the carriage. surely they can't see me from down there, right? Merlin thought.
"So..."
"What?" Merlin asked, the guards broke their blank expressions again, and turned interested.
"What's... What's it like? Your home, I mean." One of them asked, Merlin grinned, he looked out the window again.
"Some parts of it are quite like this place- only overrun by roads and a bunch of buildings. Some are so high you can see the rest of the countryside if you stood on top of one." He said, the guards looked amazed.
"How does that portal you opened work?" The second guard asked.
"The portal I opened only closes when the moon is waning; that's when it's power is at the least. Then it re-opens again when it starts to wax." The guards looked even more intrigued.
"We have something like that here. It was called the crystal mirror- it lets you travel through to the human world- and turn into a human along with that, but, it doesn't open that often." The first guard remarked.
"Huh. So that's not a myth either... I read about such artifacts, the ancient alicorns enchanted them not only to pass into another realm, but take on the guise of one of the creatures there. My portal is the primordial form of the mirror's magic, as one would say. That's the reason I kept my human guise while traveling through; I didn't cast the transformation spell." Merlin explained, the guards stared in awe.
"We're almost here." The first guard looked out the window as they landed.
Merlin made a mad dash for Twilight's door- just in case there were any Ponies that saw him and wanted to crowd around him again. He knocked on the door. It opened shortly after.
"Oh, hi Merlin!" Twilight looked happy to see him, she let him in and shut the door, he looked up at the portal on the ceiling.
"It seems the portal's stable... I should probably move it to somewhere more convenient... otherwise we'll have more people 'dropping in.'" Merlin said, Twilight giggled. Merlin took out his cypress wand, aimed it at the portal, and slowly 'dragged' it down onto a wall close to the floor.
"So... is anyone else coming through?" She asked.
"Oh, yes... it's been about three days, so, we should be expecting more people coming through. If anyone's found out about the portal, that is." The portal began to spark and flash white, then red.
"Does that mean that someone's coming?" She asked, she stared at the portal excitedly.
"Uh... Yeah. We're gonna' be visited by somebody... but I normally don't see portals act up like this unless-" Merlin was cut off by a flash of light and a sharp boom. A boy dressed in a white robe tied with a purple cord, and adorned with a white cowl, flew out and landed face-first on the carpet, he looked up at Merlin, rather embarrassed.
"-unless my brother flies through one." Merlin finished, he walked over to the boy, he looked down at him.
"You really need to stay focused while crossing portals, Mordred."
"Ah... Brother, cut me a break why don't you? I don't do it on purpose!" Mordred said, his eyes quickly turned to face Twilight.
"Uhm... Hi?" She looked at him confused. Mordred looked up at him with a weird look.
"So you aren't insane after all..." Merlin shook his head.
"Okay, all those times I called you crazy, I take it back."
"Help me up, could you?" Mordred said, Merlin rolled his eyes, held out his arm, and helped his brother up, he turned to face Twilight.
"Who might you be?" He asked, Twilight loosened up.
"I'm Twilight. Twilight Sparkle." She answered, Mordred smiled.
"I'm Mordred. Mordred Pendragon." He looked over to Merlin.
"So... how's the first few days here been serving you?" Mordred asked.
"Well, I caused a crowd to gather two days ago... not the bad kind, but now I'm afraid to set foot outside lest everyone crowds around me again." Merlin said, half smiling.
"Seems you've become popular already." Mordred rolled his eyes, jokingly.
"Oh, forgive me. I hope we weren't intruding on anything coming through the portal, Miss Sparkle."
"Oh, no! I'm fine with it! More then just fine, though... I'm kinda' curious to see the human world." She said, smiling.
"I'll give you the grand tour later." Mordred then pulled out his wand.
"Good lord, it looks like a twister hit your library! May I try and fix this up for you?" Mordred asked.
"Really? Thanks! But, its a lot of books, I have magic, and even with that I've only put a fourth of it back on the shelves! "
"Then I guess you should be glad a human sorcerer's in the house." Mordred said, he smiled, turned around, outstretched his arm and aimed his wand at the books. A white mist flowed from his wand, and encased each individual book. Suddenly, they all started to fly around the room, organizing themselves onto there proper shelves and aligning themselves upright. Twilight and Merlin watched in awe.
"Dad's restoration spell? I thought you couldn't do it. Wow, Mordred." Merlin said.
"I practiced a little bit. The only downside is that it takes up a lot my power... I'll need to wait a little while... otherwise, I might end up stuck in bed again." He said, and he groaned.
"Huh?" Twilight looked confused.
"If you use too much magic, it can hurt you. You didn't know that?" Merlin asked, Twilight shook her head. Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
"Hey, what is happening? What is this?" Mordred said, struggling to stand up.
"Uh-oh! Mordred! Merlin! Hide!" She said, she focused real hard and shut all the window's curtains. Mordred and Merlin ran upstairs, and into the guest room. They pressed their ears up to the door.
A knock came from the porch. Twilight opened the door a crack. A bunch of ponies were standing there.
"What are you all doing here?" She asked.
"We thought we saw that human come in here! Can we meet him?" one said.
"I'm terribly sorry, I haven't seen him since yesterday." She said, trying to keep her cool. They all made a disappointed murmur, and trotted away. Mordred and Merlin came downstairs.
"What was that?" Mordred asked.
"That was the ponies that Merlin riled up the other day... they saw him in the streets, and, now, Ponyville's been pretty lively." Twilight said. What a strange name for a town. Mordred thought.
Knock Knock Knock.
"Oh no, are they back again?" Merlin whispered, Mordred and Merlin ran upstairs again.
"Hello?" Twilight asked, putting her mouth to the crack in the door.
"Sugarcube? Ya' all right in there?" A voice said.
"Applejack? Yeah I'm allright." She opened the door slightly more so she could see her friend, or in this case, her friends.
"Hello, Twilight." A soft voice said.
"Fluttershy? Rarity? Rainbow dash? Pinkie pie? What are you all doing here?" Twilight looked confused.
"Your the one hiding the human, aren't ya?" Pinkie Pie said.
"I don't what your talking about."
"Oh, come now, Twilight. You don't have to keep secrets from us." Rarity said, Merlin and Mordred looked at each other nervously.
"Uhm... not to be accusing, but, we did hear you talking to someone... is he here?" Fluttershy said, half whispering.
"I-I-..." Twilight was thinking rapidly, trying to find something to say.
"Come on, we aren't gonna' tell anyone! Promise!" Rainbow said, there was a period of silence. Then, the door creaked open, and multiple hoof steps could be hear in the front hall.
"Allright, fine, you girls got me." Twilight said.
"Well, where the hay is he?" Applejack asked.
Mordred and Merlin looked at each other very hard. Their minds linked and a translucent, gold cord could be seen between the two of them. "What do we do?" "I don't know, your the one who got here first! You handle it!" "ME!? I'm the one their looking for!" "Forget it, let's just walk out, they'll find us eventually anyway!" "Are you nuts!?" They mentally argued loudly, but then froze when they heard:
"Hello? Is someone there?" Rarity called, Mordred and Merlin cringed.
"...Damn it... I forgot, unicorns can hear telepathy..." Merlin said.
"Ya'll can come out." Applejack said. The two boys sighed. They opened the door slowly, and walked over to the railing.
"I knew it! I knew it!" Pinkie pie said, jumping up and down, Mordred and Merlin looked helplessly at Twilight.
"Sorry." She had a nervous smile on her face.
"It's fine. Not like we could keep our act together for long, anyway." Mordred said, he looked over to his brother.
"So... ya' both are the humans? I thought there was only one." Applejack questioned.
"My Brother here just came through." Merlin explained, they started down the stairs.
"My name is Merlin. Merlin Pendragon."
"I'm Mordred." The two boys looked down at the six mares.
"I'm Pinkie Pie."
"Rarity, at your service." She bowed her head slightly.
"Applejack's mah name."
"Rainbow dash, fastest flyer in Equestria." She stretched out her wings.
"And I'm... Fluttershy." She whispered, and hid her face slightly behind her mane. Merlin and Mordred exchanged glances.
"It's good to meet you all." Mordred said.
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The evening had been rather slow. The five mares Merlin and Mordred had met showed them around town, dodging the views of the other ponies so as not to cause another riot, the first stop was Rarity's place, while Mordred and the others looked around the shop, Merlin stepped aside to talk to Rarity, the white haired, purple-maned mare.
"So, you're a fashion designer?" Merlin asked, she turned from her sowing machine to look at him.
"Yes, I try to stay at the top of my game, as one might say. I could embroider something onto your robes if you want. You choose the thread."
"Thanks but, I'm allright." Merlin said.
"Are you sure? I could put a big gem on the front as a crest... Oh dear!"
"What?"
"You've got dirt on the back of your robes. If I may?" Her horn glowed blue, and the dirt came off, Merlin stared.
"What? It wasn't that big of a deal for me. I'd do it for anyone!" She said. She's a lot like Mordred... very... generous. And the way she talks... she's got that accent as well... strange. Merlin thought.
"Oh, it's nothing, thank you. Uhm- those gems over there; I've never seen those before." Merlin pointed to a glass display case.
"Oh, those? They are magical gemstones- enchanted by princess Luna herself!" Merlin shuddered, Merlin remembered the legend of the Mare in the moon, he swallowed, hard.
"What?"
"The mare in the moon... She's back?" Merlin asked, worried. Rarity smiled.
"She's reformed, I assure you." Merlin let out a sigh of releif.
"I hope your right." He said, Rarity frowned.