Chapter 4:
The day after Twilight’s meeting with Celestia progressed very slowly indeed. When she’d first returned back to her treehouse after her brief trip to the Crystal Empire, Spike had been in a complete panic, as she had apparently accidentally woken him when she’d teleported out, and it took quite a bit of explaining to convince him where she’d been (collecting some cooking ingredients from a local apothecary who only operated at night), because Spike didn’t believe hardly a word she said. But eventually, he was forced to accept Twilight’s story, for there was nothing else really he could do.
The others noticed something different about their friend too, from the moment she set foot back in Ponyville. No one had mentioned this to her when they’d met the day before, but in the next it became very obvious to them.
“Come on Twilight!” Pinkie Pie had called to her friend, as Twilight walked thoughtfully down the main street of town. “Let’s help watch them set up that carnival that’s coming!”
“Oh, no thank you, Pinkie” Twilight replied. “I, uh, promised Rainbow Dash that I’d fly with her today. But I’ll see you later though” and with that, she departed hastily down a less-used avenue.
“Hey Twi, let’s see some of those flying skills you’ve got now” Rainbow Dash shouted down to her from an overhead cloud, later that day.
“Well, I, uh, sorry Dash, I’ve got some, you know, things I’ve got to help Pinkie with for, uh, you know, the carnival” Twilight had responded
“Oh, well, that’s alright I guess” and Rainbow Dash too watched her friend go, her eyebrows knitting themselves as Twilight disappeared from her line of sight.
‘I’ve got to be less conspicuous to the others, if I’m going to keep them from suspecting me’ Twilight said to herself firmly as she made her way back to the treehouse. And so, the rest of the day was spent as inconspicuously as possible, although her friends did begin to question what had become of her. Mostly, it involved careful research, in regards to the dream she’d had, but nothing very impressive turned up, that is, until she was about halfway into a book entitled ‘Our Vast World’.
“Hey, come take a look at this, Spike!” Twilight shouted eagerly. About halfway down page 143, there was a detailed diagram of a mirror, similar to the one that resided at Crystal Palace. Reading the text aloud to her companion, Twilight recited, “It is said in ancient mythology that, when the three pony tribes were first united thousands of years ago as Equestria, there were five magic portals granted to the world as well, one for each race of pony. Nopony knows where they came from, or what they were originally for, and so they were largely ignored by the population. As history progressed, four of these portals were lost to the ages; the ones for the Crystal Empire, the Alicorns, the Pegasi, and the Earth Ponies. The only one that remains is that of the Unicorn, and its location is a well-guarded secret, even to many high-ranking Equestrian officials”.
“Well, I guess it’s not so secret anymore. That looks just like the one you went through to get to the human world!” said Spike, jabbing a finger at the carefully created illustration on the page. Twilight continued reading hastily,
“It says that each portal explores a different reach of the mind, with the surviving portal being that of other species. Each will behave differently according to the realm you are entering, but only a handful knows its magic well enough to effectively use them for purposeful reasons, the most notable and capable of these being Celestia, Princess of Equestria.” At this, Twilight stopped suddenly, the words caught in her throat.
“What’s the matter?” asked Spike. “Do you really think that she’d send you through that thing without knowing its magic? Come on Twilight! Celestia would never risk you like that.” Twilight could see the sense in this. Celestia was very old after all; it was likely that in her time as a ruler she would have discovered the secrets of many ancient artifacts. But all the same, Twilight couldn’t help wondering why her former mentor hadn’t mentioned this in the past. Looking back, it would’ve saved a lot of time and close calls if Celestia could have just blasted the mirror with some spell or something that would’ve helped her defeat Sunset Shimmer. Very strange.
The rest of the book wasn’t much help; mostly it talked about the history of Equestria and how each of the portals were discovered by the ponies, and eventually lost. When Discord came to power, he had confiscated each of the portals and attempted to destroy them, believing that they could be used to overthrow him in some way or another, succeeding only with two. The remaining two were cast away on Discord’s orders, to locations unknown, but before the final one could be displaced, Celestia and Luna’s coup d’état turned him to stone, and the portal left where it was. Celestia ordered that the portal be moved to the Crystal Empire and kept under very close protection, though said not why. Her motive for this was thought to be that she could foresee a time when it would be needed.
At this point in her reading, Twilight discovered that the book was not, in fact, a new issue, and it spoke of how after the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, travel between dimensions was rendered impossible; but it’s relatively recent return to Equestria meant that that was no longer true. Other than that; it said each portal was created to allow transport to a set realm, but with the right magic, an able caster and a pure motive, it could be changed…
***
Later that night, after Spike was snoring soundly and the sun was dipping below the horizon once again, Twilight gathered up some basic supplies, wrote a quick note explaining her disappearance, and slipped quietly out of her room. Deciding that it would be best to put some distance between herself, and anyone who might wonder why she was teleporting away in the middle of the night, Twilight left the comfort of her treehouse and walked into the dark streets of Ponyville. The night was warm, and not a breeze disturbed the air. Looking in at the shops and firms and various other businesses that lined the streets of downtown as she passed them, she wondered how long it would be before she saw any of them again.
After a while, Twilight spotted an outlying hill roughly a mile or so to the south, and decided to use it as a waypoint for her teleporting cite. Although she was eager to get started on another adventure, Twilight hesitated for a moment, probably because she no longer had the comfort of her friends; but she knew that it couldn’t be helped. This dream, this vision, was nothing like she’d ever experienced before, and another trip through the mirror could be very dangerous. At the very least, it was her duty to go through first and observe the world before allowing anypony else to come in after her.
Once she had left the main downtown area, Twilight turned and looked back at the colourful village that had been her home for so long. The thatched roofs and packed earth streets seemed like her kin now, that as well as her friends, for these had made her who she was today; the pony that she was always meant to be.
After turning away from the scene, spreading her feathered wings, and running forward, Twilight curved her airfoils upwards so that the currents of the wind gently pulled her up off the ground. She was still not quite used to having them; after all most of her life was spent as a unicorn, but it was coming to her, slowly and surely. Once she had drifted lightly through the air and positioned herself in the air above the chosen rise, Twilight ceased flapping and instead used her wings to slow her decent as she landed gracefully atop the broad grassy summit. From her vantage point there, Twilight looked up and could see that only the very last rays of sunlight still hung in the sky, leaving a light purple stain over the lands of Sweet Apple Acres; Ponyville and the surrounding area having fallen into a deep, pitch darkness. It was twilight.
With a great sigh, and one last look at the scene around her, she bent her head, and with the same summon of power and Crack!-ing noise as before, was transported via magic to the room with the mirror, within the walls of the mighty Crystal Palace. Once solid ground was beneath her hooves again and the sensation of teleporting had ceased, Twilight lifted her gaze from the strange glassy floor, and saw that the two famed rulers of Equestria were already there, side by side a few meters in front of her, waiting patiently in the dim light for her to arrive.
“So, I see you have decided to make this journey after all?” questioned Celestia; a look of… something like concern on her face.
“Yes, I have” Twilight responded. She paused, wondering whether it would be wise to ask her former instructor about why she had concealed her knowledge of the portals from her, since her last trip, but decided against it.
“Are you ready then?” asked the more regal voice of Luna, with an odd, rushed tone, which Twilight couldn’t quite understand.
“Well, I guess I am. Whenever you’re ready to send me” Twilight replied.
Stepping forward from Luna’s side, Celestia announced, with slight hesitation; “There is, indeed, a spell we can cast that will allow you to travel to this other dimension you described”. Twilight remembered her book, wondering how many things like this Celestia could do that she’d not told her, even after years of trust between them. “It is a difficult spell that we have never found need to try before, but today is the last of the next 30 moon cycle opening since your last adventure. In order to return before the next cycle arrives, you must cast a similar spell on the alternate portal, which will signal to us to let you travel back again. Do you understand?”
“Yes” Replied Twilight, while accepting an ancient-looking piece of parchment from her olden teacher’s extended grasp. It was a spell of some sort; written in carefully constructed Equestrian texts. Twilight placed it into her saddle bag before looking expectantly back at Celestia and Luna.
Regarding each other meaning before stepping aside from in front of the mirror, the two sisters allowed Twilight to come forward and stand before the mysterious portal, between, and slightly in front of them.
“Now, simply close your eyes, and project these visions you spoke of into the mirror, as we’re casting the spell” Celestia told her. Twilight nodded in confirmation. Closing their eyes, and bowing their heads in unison, the sisters began their mysterious incantation.
After a few moments of low murmuring from both Luna and Celestia, two bright beams of magic suddenly erupted from both their horns; yellow energy from Celestia’s and a deep blue for Luna. The light beams curved in an arc above them until they contacted one another, creating a turquoise bead of power and a loud electric zapping sound. From the bead, a turquoise beam discharged; striking the frame of the mirror. Upon contact with it, the magic bounced and swirled around the frame, engulfing it entirely until even the reflective glass was glowing with power. And then, just as the loud sounds of the spell and glowing energy seemed about to destroy the portal altogether, Luna shouted to Twilight; “Now, project your thoughts! Quickly!”
Twilight did as she was instructed, trying to ignore the scene in front of her and focus on her image of the mountain. And sure enough, soon felt a mild change in the atmosphere in the room. She continued focusing hard on it for a few moments in order to ensure that her part had worked effectively, and when she looked at the mirror again, Twilight no longer saw her own reflection staring back at her from within the frame, but rather a dark sky on a cloudy night. Near the edge of the right side of the image, several of those trees with the odd needles for leaves reached up into the air, a silent, intimidating spectacle. Everything was still and dark; the only illuminating light was that which was travelling through the portal.
“We won’t be able to keep this open for very long” Celestia told Twilight loudly, over the violent sounds of the magic. “Nor will you be able to come back through without this spell, which Luna and I must cast together. You will know when your mission is complete, and when the time is right to return. Until then, have faith”
“But I –” Twilight started.
“No, the stage for talking is at an end!” Luna interrupted forcefully, with that same tenseness as before. “Take this with you; we have no doubt that you will do your best to learn what you are meant to there” she handed Twilight a small lamp with her hoof.
“And this as well” added Celestia, extending to her an ornately carved silver bracelet. It was evident by the trembling of her hoof that the strain of continuing this spell was becoming greater by the second.
“But, but what is it for?” asked Twilight, slipping it delicately onto her front, right leg.
“The powers of magic are weak in this world you are about to enter. It will allow you to cast spells while you are there” Celestia’s words sounded confident, and reassuring. “Now go. Your friends will ask where you’ve gone, and I will try to keep them here as long as it is needed, but you must set a strong hoofhold in this alternate land first”
“Thank you… for everything” said Twilight, embracing her instructor, her speech akin to that of a departing soldier who knew they would not be returning home.
“Now, you’ll want to take a running start” Luna suggested – with some difficulty – while gesturing towards the other end of the room. The tendril of light from her horn was beginning to stutter ever so slightly. “The alternate mirror is embedded in a flat, level sheet of ice, where you will be going”
Trotting back halfway across the room, Twilight turned back hesitantly to face the portal, and, taking a deep, shaky breath, began to gallop towards it. Faster and faster she sped, until she was only meters from it; the figures of Luna and Celestia growing larger every moment, and then quite suddenly she reached the mirror, and her entire perspective was shifted.
The moment she passed through, her whole body felt like it was being rearranged as she took a human form once again; splashing through the surface of the portal, Twilight was tossed out of the other side into the cold night air, before being immediately yanked backwards, as gravity was now going in another direction. She thought she was going to fall right back through the portal, but instead, hit something cold and solid behind her with a jarring shock.
Twilight laid there for a minute, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened to her, with the reality of all this beginning to truly sink in, as her thoughts were no longer half-obscured by her intense desire to travel through dimensions again.
Then, turning where she lay, with a pained groan to face the portal, which was now below her, where the faces of Celestia and Luna gently faded away into the distance, far into the ice and far below her until she was just lying there, alone on a flat plane of ice, with a small oil lamp lying on the snow somewhere beside her and small pack of supplies slung around her shoulder. And, of course, there was the silver bracelet.
Shakily getting to her feet, Twilight looked around her. The light from the lantern cast a shallow orange glow across the snow. There appeared to her only a world of dark; that and the snow, beneath her shoes. Stooping to pick up the lamp and raise it to illuminate more, Twilight saw that she stood on a large flat area with no trees, which continued on into blackness to her front. Behind her a ways, there was the edge of a great forest, the tree trunks still and cold, and rising up behind them was none other than her mountain; the very one she had dreamed of. It was even more impressive in person; a huge yet silent mound of darker night, looming just ahead, backed onto the cloudy sky.
Looking away from the spectacle for a moment, Twilight took a small forward to see if it was possible to make it over to the treeline, when her foot suddenly slipped on the bare ice. She staggered backwards several steps (as her sudden change of body form was unbalancing), and while she tried frantically to recover her footing on the slippery ground, a cable that was strung at about knee height caught her legs in a stumble, and tripped her.
Twilight toppled face first onto the cold and snowy ground, and almost immediately she realized that the cable must have been some kind of early warning system, for as soon as it was pulled from its tension a loud ding-ing from unseen bells echoed out into the dark night.
‘Oh no’ Twilight thought to herself while recovering her bearings, for all the way up the mysterious mountain of her dream, a chorus of ghostly bells did their damndest to raise the dead.