//------------------------------// // The Other Side of the Mirror // Story: Order In Equestria // by Bowenross //------------------------------// Celestia was the first thing I saw when I stepped through the doorway, but thankfully she hadn't seen me. The door I had opened led straight into the throne room of Canterlot Castle and it was positioned behind the throne. The one part I wasn't lucky about was that the guard ponies on either side of the throne room door had seen me and they shouted out for me to stop where I was. I was too shocked with what was happening to even move. Stupid door! Celestia heard the guards shout at me and turned around to see who they were shouting at. She stared, flabbergasted, at the sight before her. There was a slightly hairless ape standing right behind her throne and it had gotten there without her even noticing. She quickly moved in front of me and pulled me into the throne room, away from the door that led into my home that closed as soon as I had left the frame behind. "What or who are you and how did you get into my throne room?" She stood me in front of her throne as she went to sit down. She sat in her throne and waited for an answer. "Your majesty, what if the creature doesn't speak our language or if it can't even speak at all?" One of the guard ponies asked, rubbing his hooves nervously on the red carpet that led up to the throne. "You may go back to your posts, Storm Front and Dawns Rays, I am sure I can handle this creature on my own. And if it does not speak our language, I can just read its thoughts and memories if need be." With that comment, I put a barrier in my mind to block her out. I did not need a ruler of a country or world getting into my head and seeing all I had seen on the future development of said world. "I can speak your language and I am pretty sure that you could not handle me alone or with another, young Tia." I snapped my fingers and changed places with her, me sitting on the throne and her standing before it. "By the way, has Lu-Lu come back? I would be surprised if I got here before she did." She just sat there and stared. When she finally recovered enough to speak, she asked incredulously, "How did you do that? Only Discord could do that, and he is still trapped in stone in the gardens. Also, no, Luna has not come back yet from her trip to Ponyville. Why did you call me Tia and her Lu-Lu? And why, of all things, did you call me young?" I stared at her through a half lidded gaze, making it look like I was tired. "I am an all-powerful being sent here by Tim; I can do anything I want. I called you Tia and her Lu-Lu because those are shorter than saying your actual names. And to me, everypony on this planet is young compared to me." I thought I would change it up somewhat so that the guards would not know what I was saying. I started to use the language of the dragons, assuming that Celestia would know how to speak it because she had dragons within her borders. "Dreh hi mindok fos zu'u saag ges nu, kulaas do krein?" (Do you know what I am saying right now, princess of the sun?) She looked surprised, I would have been surprised if a creature I had no knowledge about started to talk in a known language to very few creatures other than dragons. "Vir dreh hi mindok daar deinok? Fos los hi? Tinvaak vahzen!" (How do you know this language? What are you? Speak the truth!) I glanced over to the guards who were giving us strange looks. I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture towards them but they didn't seem to get the gist of what I was trying to tell them. I turned towards Celestia again, to ask her a question. "Fund hi qiid hin deiniik wah lif? Zu'u naram laagus mii daar deinok." (Would you ask your guards to leave? I grow tired of using this language.) Celestia turned to the guards that were just standing there, waiting to see what would happen between Celestia and me. "Storm Front and Dawns Rays, will you go and wait in the hall. He asked that we speak in private rather than having an audience." Storm Front spoke up, "But your majesty, what if this creature intends to harm you as soon as we leave? There would be nopony here to defend you!" "Believe me, Storm Front; I have no intention of harming your princess. I just hope to have a conversation that is not listened in on by others. Also, if you see Luna coming in the castle, please send her here. She will help me explain things to her sister." I sat back in the throne. "Now, if you two will leave us, I will start explaining myself to Celestia." They both looked at me and then to their princess. She nodded to them and they both left their posts by the door. Dawns Rays had thrown me a glance saying 'If you harm her, I will hurt you'. I just looked at him and gave him a smile, making sure not to show my teeth. I did not need ponies seeing my teeth right now, I needed their trust. As the guards left, I could feel Luna enter the castle, and she made her way towards the throne room as soon as she had entered. "Well it seems that we do not have to wait long for Luna at all. She just made it back." I got up and made my way towards the throne room's doors. Celestia just looked at me like I was crazy. I opened the doors right as Luna had made her way to standing right in front of them. "Come on in, Lu-Lu, I need your help explaining things to your sister. And please hurry, we don't need any more ponies knowing that I am here. That reminds me, Storm Front and Dawns Rays make sure that this information is not spread to others within the castle or the city. We don't need panic or this becoming public." The two guards just gave me a look and shrugged. They gave me a salute signifying that they wouldn't tell anypony about what had happened and what was happening. I gave them another smile as I let Luna in and closed the door. We walked up to the thrones, which Celestia was sitting in the one I previously occupied. Luna went to sit in her throne and I just conjured a simple, but comfortable, chair to sit in. "Now this can be a somewhat long tale, so make yourself comfortable. I will try to tell you everything I can and Luna will fill in any of the blanks that I may have forgotten." As Luna and I told Celestia about myself, she had very few questions. She mostly just sat there and absorbed the knowledge we were giving her. When we had finished, I made three cups of hot chocolate and gave Luna and Celestia theirs. "So, that is how I got here and such. I also wish to know where that mirror is so that I can get myself some coffee." Luna, who had told Celestia about my armor in the retelling of my story, piped in with her own two bits. "He may look intimidating, but when you get to know him he really is just a big softie." "Luna, there is no need to say that. You may embarrass Ordeus here. And for the mirror, it is still here in the throne room. I will allow you to use it as long as you tell me how a former student of mine, Sunset Shimmer, is doing." With that she got off her throne and went around behind it. A golden glow enveloped her horn and a small panel came down, revealing a mirror hidden below her throne. "Um, question. How do you think your former student could come back if you hid the mirror in a cramped space like that?" I looked into the space; it was only wide and deep enough to fit the mirror and nothing else. Celestia looked embarrassed; she obviously hadn't thought about that when she had the mirror hidden away. She then had a revelation, how would I get through to the other side of the mirror? It was closed for another two years. I would have to wait that long for it to open again. "There is a problem with the mirror; you can't get in through it right now. It has another two years before it opens again." "That's no problem at all. I can make it activate whenever I want to. So now that I know where it is and that you know who and what I am, I shall have to bid you adieu. To the other side I go!" I jumped into the mirror and vanished before Celestia or Luna could say anything. AN: I couldn't end the chapter here, so I decided to just keep going. The swirling vortex around me reminded me of something; I just couldn't put my finger on it. And as soon as the ride had started, it had ended. I came out of the other side of the portal; just beneath the statue of the horse. It was night when I had exited the portal, and it was rather chilly. Some leaves covered the ground; it was probably sometime around September here. The worlds had different time spans, so it was only natural that the seasons in one did not coincide with the other. I looked at my watch; it was one-o-clock in the morning. I looked around to see if anyone was around and gave a sigh of relief when I saw no one. I saw that a window of the school was opened, so I decided that I would spend the night in the school. I climbed in and saw a whole load of lockers. It wasn't a hall, so it must be a locker room. I slid down one of the lockers and closed my eyes, letting sleep overtake me. ~0~0~ When I woke up, light was streaming through the window and a few birds were chirping outside. Just as I was about to exit the locker room through the door I could hear a group of girls coming towards the door. I panicked and ran towards the locker I slept against. Luckily for me, I had kept my slender frame. I fit inside the locker and closed the door as soon as the door to the room had opened. I really hoped that this locker wasn't about to be used. Lady luck, pun intended, was definitely not on my side. A girl with poofy pink hair hopped towards the locker I was hiding in and started to try to open it. I quickly wrote on a sticky note 'Closed for maintenance' and I stuck it through one of the slats and stuck it to the locker. The girl, I assumed it was Pinkie Pie, looked at the note and shrugged. She moved over to one of the other girls and asked if she could use her locker as well because hers was under maintenance. The girl just laughed and agreed to let her use her locker. There was a bullet dodged, but very narrowly. If it hadn't have been Pinkie's locker, the person would have just ignored it. I waited for the girls to exit, and then I made my hasty escape from the locker room. As I entered the halls, students around me whispered that they hadn't known there was a new teacher. It felt weird being in a high school again, but it felt even weirder that students were mistaking me for a teacher. I kept walking until I found the principal's office. I knocked and heard a "Please enter." I entered and saw that both Luna and Celestia were sitting in the office, going over what they were going to say in the morning announcements. "Hello there sir, what is it you would like to talk about?" Celestia rested her hands on her desk and arched an eyebrow. "I would like to work here, if that is alright with you. I am in need of some cash and I believe that I could be a good teacher." I pulled out some certificates, stating that I was a licensed teacher in the musical arts. Both Luna and Celestia looked surprised, I didn't look like a person that specialized in the music that was printed on the papers I handed them. I was still in the clothes I had worn when taking to Luna, Celestia, and Pinkie. "Well, it seems that everything is in order. It also fits what we need, a new music teacher. The previous one we had retired a few weeks ago and the students have been wondering when we would get a new one. Now, Mr. Ordeus, when can you start working?" "I can start work immediately. I just need a map of the school so that I know where I am going and I need a list of the students that I will be teaching." I was surprised that they were already hiring me. In my world, it would take months for a new teacher to be hired at a school. "Well that's perfect then. Here is a map and here is the list. The days are broken up into four blocks, each about an hour and forty minutes long, all except the lunch block. The thing is, you have a class during the lunch period, so your lunch time is lunch C which is the third lunch period. Now, please go to your class and we will make an announcement that we have a new teacher." "Okay, to the new room that shall be called mine! Away!" I walked out of the room, leaving behind the two 'rulers' of the school giggling. I noticed that there were three pictures of Sunset Shimmer on the wall, and I realized that the portal put me in a much different time than when I had entered it. As I navigated the halls, I greeted the students that passed me. They greeted me with smiles on their faces; I could grow used to the happy atmosphere of the school. I walked up to the door to my new room and opened it slowly. I noticed there was a chalkboard, but there was no eraser sitting on the place where it was supposed to be. I grinned; this trick was not going to get me. I opened the door all the way, caught the eraser that was supposed to fall on me, and kicked the bucket I was supposed to trip in into the closet all the way across the room. The students all had looks of disbelief plastered on their faces. I chuckled and set the eraser where it was supposed to go. I grabbed the chalk and started to write my name on the board while I looked at the list of students I had first block. I automatically saw who had tried to prank me, Rainbow Dash. I was surprised that she would actually take a music class. Even as a human, she hadn't seemed like the type of person that would be interested in music. "So, it is my pleasure to say that I am now teaching here. Therefore, to keep my image as a good teacher, I will probably punish the person, or people, who tried to prank me. It is definitely not a smart idea to try to prank a teacher, I learned that from experience." I glanced around the room and watched as some students nervously averted their gaze from mine, trying to make it look like they weren't the one who had tried to pull the prank. Rainbow was much less obvious about her attempts to get out of punishment. She grabbed a history book and started to pretend to read out of it. She was definitely about to read a history book just for the fun of it, that's what eggheads do. As I looked at the list to take roll, the announcements came on. "Good morning, students, and happy Tuesday. It is our pleasure to announce that we have a new teacher in our school, filling the spot of Mr. Staccato who retired a while ago. Please welcome Mr. Ordeus into the Canterlot Wondercolts family. Please remember that all dues for the Fall Formal are due by Friday this week. Voting will begin on the day the dance is and will end an hour before the dance starts, and that is in one week. And since we didn't have school yesterday, I will congratulate the Canterlot Wondercolts on their win in the soccer game that was Friday. That is all for this morning, have a great day." "So you really are here to stay?" A student asked, leaning forward in anticipation. 'Yes, I am here to stay. And now I am going to start roll, so please quiet down. I will point at those who tried to pull the prank as I call names." As I went through the names, I called up the ones that had tried to prank me. When I called up Rainbow Dash, she grudgingly got up and stalked to the front of the class. "I don't see how he knew it was me," she whispered to Golden Harvest, who was standing next to her in line. "I knew because I was once like you guys and girls. That's why I'm letting you off with a warning and a minor punishment. Don't try to do it again. And for the punishment… clean one instrument properly after school. You may sit down now." I moved behind the desk in the front of the room. "I hope that this will be an interesting class, and I plan on making it as fun as possible. I started in band in the sixth grade, and I have been involved in the musical arts all my life since then. I can play almost every instrument, and I listen to all genres of music." "So you're telling us that you listen to classical but you also listen to something completely different, like dubstep?" One of the pranksters, one with electric blue hair, asked. "Of course that's what I'm saying. I like to be diverse in my teachings of music, which is why I listen to many different types. Who in this room knows how to play an actual instrument?" Some hands went up in response. "Good, that makes my job much easier. I want to know something about all of you, so let's go around the room and tell me one thing about yourself." I listened to every student tell me something that they liked to do, which they had some pretty interesting things to say. When it was Rainbow Dash's turn, she jumped on her desk and shouted, "I'm awesome!" She sat down after that and we all moved on with the activity. After the last student had said something about themselves, I went back to my desk and sat in the chair. "Okay, now that we're done with that who can tell me what kind of music you guys were studying before I got here?" "We were studying country," Rainbow explained. "We had it for about two weeks." "That is a really long time spent on country music. What did you learn about it in that time you spent studying it?" "Well if you play it backwards you get your dog, your wife, your tractor, and your house back." She grinned, probably egging me on to disagree with her. "It seems that Miss Dash here has the gist of it. So let's move on to… what do you all want to do?" I looked at them, expecting them all to shout out their ideas all at once. When none of them said anything I shook my head and sighed. "If you don't tell me what you want to learn about, we are going to have to learn about classical." "Dubstep!" Vinyl Scratch yelled out. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon started to giggle and point at Vinyl because she had spoken so loudly. Students were whispering to each other, thinking that Vinyl would get in trouble because she hadn't raised her hand before she spoke up. She started to slide down in her seat, obviously embarrassed. "Heck yeah! Great answer there Miss Scratch. Any preferences for a song or two today?" "Yeah, I have a few…" "Then come on up here and use my computer to look them up. Make sure they are clean though. I don't need Celestia or Luna to come in here and were listening to something that should not be listened to in a school classroom." We listened to a few songs until I glanced down at my watch and realized that the bell would ring in fifteen minutes. I got up from the seat I had taken at the back of the room and made my way to the front. I nudged Vinyl out of my seat and pointed her towards her desk as I sat down behind mine. I stopped the song that was playing and addressed the class. "Okay, the next fifteen minutes will be your time until the bell rings. Tomorrow we will let someone else come up and find some music for the class to listen to. If we have time, which we probably will, we will also start to make some music. Those who I assigned punishment, forget about it. I'll let it slide this time. You may talk quietly amongst yourselves at this time." The rest of class, for the students, was spent quietly talking about what they were going to do the rest of the day and what music they were going to show the class tomorrow. I spent the rest of the time looking at the schedule for the day. My third block, the one that lunch was in, had the advanced music students. In that class, there were a few names that caught my attention automatically. Mic, Flash, Kenobi, Gryphon, Forest, and Final Verse. It seems that some music producers from my world had their own alternate beings in this dimension. There was also Flash, who was a person I recognized because of his role in the movie. The bell rang, releasing me from my quiet musings about what to do for that third block class. The students filed out and Rainbow came up to my desk. "Thanks for getting rid of that punishment, Mr. Ordeus. I have soccer practice after school and I need to be there." "Don't mention it. And don't call me 'Mr. Ordeus' that was my father. Just call me Ordeus, I like to be on the same level as my students most of the time. You should probably get out of here before you're late for your next class." Rainbow thanked me again and pushed past the students who were making their way into the room, most of which had annoyed looks on their faces because they were being pushed. I smiled at them and they smiled right one back. I could get used to being a teacher, especially if the students here were so nice. I asked the students to just sit down wherever they wanted to because I didn't care about assigned seats as long as they didn't talk too loudly to one another. As the students filed in, I noticed that there were three I could tell who they were right away. Pinkie was in this class, as were Applejack and Big Mac. Applejack and Big Mac sat in one corner of the room while Pinkie sat in the complete opposite corner. Pinkie was bouncing in her seat, planning on throwing a huge party for the new teacher. I walked over to her and whispered to her, "Hey, Pinkie, maybe it's not that great to be bouncing in your seat if you're in the front of the row. It disturbs those who are sitting behind you. And please don't speak about any 'hunches' you may have about me." She just looked at me, settling down in her seat and making a motion of sealing her lips and throwing away the key. I gave her an appreciative nod. This was definitely going to be an interesting few days before Twilight got here.