Life is an undiscovered mystery with a greater purpose on our hooves. The real question is not what we can do, but why we do what we want to. The paths, the contingences of unpredictable events, chaos, harmony, peace, war. Everything is complicatedly connected between decisions of millions of minds. Don’t you get it? Once we make a choice there is no coming back, and what triggers after that event creates a new whole universe! Right now I’ve created one for recording this whole thing!
I’m pretty sure you are asking ‘how does he know that?’ or ‘How can you prove it?’
Well, my curious spectator. The answers you are searching for are right behind me…
…And…about….
……....
….......
Is this still recording? Hey? Oh right. Where was I? Ah, yes, about my findings.
I present you, the crystal mirror. A magical artifact that I have discovered back in my trip to the winter lands. This unique and probably old relic has the ability to connect all kind of different realities between ours. As far as I can tell, the mirror has no limits. What I’ve seen into it throughout these ten years of exploration, I found out all types of species and time lapses. I’ve seen Equestrium being destroyed by my apprentice, Celestia. I’ve seen my own death in claws of a monster. I’ve seen biped creatures being destroyed by their own greed.
Unfortunately, the mirror is incapable to open out after thirty moons. That is one of the reasons that my research has been lacking of information. The second one is that the crystal surface is attached to its wooden rim, and, with the amount of power it has, it cannot be taken off nor that it can be affected by any source of magic, but can be easily moved if the magic is concentrated around the wooden edges. And the third and most problematic one is that the mirror is unpredictable. Once it is moved out from its original position, it will send you to wherever or whenever the mirror wants to.
Whoever made up this incredibly powerful artifact had capabilities beyond understanding.
My name is Starwirl, and this is my research.
“SHIT!” Anon said as he threw down the crystal recorder with all his might. The crystal bounced off onto the floor without any crack being made.
“Language, Anon.” Twilight remarked, still looking down to her book.
“It’s just that I don’t get it, Twilight!” He yelled as he paced in sign of despair. “First off, he talks about this artifact like being revolutionary, something powerful enough to reject everyone’s magic, but then he just cut off his own research with no further information. The question is, why?? This is Starwirl we are talking about! He wouldn’t dare to dump out ten years of search without any trace! It doesn’t make any sense at all! “He stopped his pace, grabbing his chin. “Unless… Of course! How could I’ve been so stupid?!” He whipped his neck down to look at the recorder. Rushing to it, he lift it up, displaying the hologram once again. “I know how Starwirl is, based on the books he’s written during his mortal life. He wouldn’t dare to destroy such helpful material, much less to the ones that seek out knowledge.”
Twilight closed her book, touching her chin. “So, he hid it to the ones that were capable to find out the mirror and its hideout! Anon, you are a genius!” She concluded, spreading her wings to fly towards him to look at the traces he‘d probably left out in his last record.
“Exactly. Now, I need you to find something off about everything. Signs, marks, whatever you see that looks suspiciously strange from its appearance.” He stated. She simply nodded, to once again play the hologram, this time in reverse.
.Hcraeser ym si siht dna ,lriwratS si eman yM
.gnidnatsrednu dnoyeb seitilibapac dah tcafitra lufrewop ylbidercni siht pu Edam reveohW
.ot stnaw rorrim eht revenehw ro reverehw ot uoy dnes lliw ti ,enod ecnO .noitisop lanigiro sti morf tuo devom si ti ecno elbatciderpnu si rorrim eht that si eno citamelborp tsom dna driht eht dnA .segde nedoow eht dnuora…
“Wait! I think I saw something.” Twilight said, displaying the hologram onwards.
around the wooden edges… “There!” She cried out, pointing out at the reflection of the mirror, to see what looked like a symbol of two circles, connected by to lines. “I’ve seen that mark before.” Turning her gaze up to the giant bookshelf, she used her magic to grab a book with the tittle of ‘The introduction of magical portals’, skimming the pages to look up the drawing. “Here!” She pointed out at the book with the exact same symbol of the recording. “The symbol of infinite. The rarest and most powerful portal ever performed. We don’t know much about this symbol, since Starwirl the bearded was the only one capable to use its full power. What we know is that this portal can teleport everything almost immediately, no matter the distance. Some of us believe that it was able of time traveling, but it was just a theory, and thus, it was never confirmed. The amount of magic it needs to be performed is so huge that only an alicorn is able to utterly maintain it. If the power is not measured correctly, the symbol will consume the host’s magic till it completely drains off his\her life source.” She finished off, closing the book with a bang.
He sighed, his hopes drowning down in a sea without depth.
“That, if your best friend isn’t the most powerful alicorn of all Equestrium.” She stated with a smile.
Without any warning given, Anon jumped up to give her a hug without making her fall down. “Which makes me the luckiest man of all Equestria.” He whispered on her ear, nuzzling against the top of her shoulder. She only blushed, doing almost exactly what he did. After ten seconds, he gently broke the hug, giving Twilight one of the most purposeful looks he could ever show off.
Clearing her throat, without the red color trailing off from her cheeks, she looked down to the crystal to see if there was a similar mark onto the surface, which she easily spotted. She sighed, knowing what that meant. “It will be more complicated than I expected.” She said, lifting up the circular crystal with her magic.
“Why do you think that?” He asked, looking at the crystal confused.
“Portals are rarely made out of symbols, and when they are, it depends on where it was drawn onto, making it more difficult for me to see how much of my magic will consume.”
“And if they are drawn onto crystals?”
“Then it will consume twice the magic it needed to be performed, since crystals are known as magic storages.”
“…How long do you think it will stand?”
“Less than five minutes, that if I don’t use any other kind of spells or physical effort.”
“Which means that I have to get the mirror before the portal shuts down. What will happen if that happens?”
“You will be trapped there until I regain conscious, that if the crystal doesn’t consume my life source.”
“And we don’t know where it is, or what kind of creatures are protecting the cave.” He sighed. “Wait, you told me about an invisibility potion you’ve working on before my arrival. I can sneak out to get in there, meanwhile you can stay here, safe, and keep the portal functional for me!”
“I don’t know, Anon. Like you said, we don’t know what’s in there, which means that there would be tons of magical traps within.” She said skeptically. “Not to mention that my potion will only last for two minutes.”
“Enough to see the mirror, and then come back safely with it.” He replied, placing both hands onto Twilight’s shoulders. “Come on, Twilight. Just give it a try. This is the last resort I have to get back to home. Please.”
She sighed. “Okay, but you better bring something useful to study it!” With that said, she teleported the potion from the laboratory to his hands, using her magic to focus on the crystal’s symbol, opening up a portal in the library’s bookshelf with a loud sound, a variety of colors surrounding the portal like a rim.
Drinking the potion until there was none, he watched as the portal was starting to open, revealing the cave Starwirl used to work with his experiments.
“And, Anon. Please be careful.” She said, eyes filled with concern and pain, as the portal was already consuming her magic. He just smiled, giving her a thumb up in the air, making his way in through the portal.
Already invisible by the potion he drank, he took a confident step into the not-so-dark cave, looking at the vast collection of weird tools Starwirl had been saving throughout his years of investigation. The cave was big enough to be compared with a bedroom’s size, but not equally on his features, as Starwirl only had a bed, a table to work with as well as his rare tools hanging up on the dirt walls, and some of the crystal recordings onto his flat surface.
But what he took his utmost attention was a mantle covering what looked like a mirror-shaped thing. Taking a long breath, he raised his hand to take off the mantle, revealing the crystal mirror right in front of his eyes. “Found you.” He said with a hint of pride in his voice.
Before he could touch it, he took a look at the cracked mirror, with some flaws on its rim. The crystals it surrounded it weren’t green, they were pink! He thought.
“Anon!” He heard Twilight scream from the other side of the portal.
And then he noticed it.
The portal was closing down with a great speed. I must have triggered a trap just when I took that mantle off! He tried to run, but then he looked at the table. I can’t just go with empty hands. Maybe some of this recordings can explain what happened to the real crystal mirror. With that, he took as much as he could, rushing to the now four feet size portal. Come on, legs. Don’t fail me now! He jumped as far as he could, his whole body barely reaching the other side of the portal, to finally close down from both sides.
Anon was frustrated, angry and sad for the mirror. But he knew that feelings wouldn’t get him anywhere, noticing that the potion had already wore off. So, standing up and sweeping off the invisible dust on his clothes, he looked down to see the five crystals randomly placed on the floor. At least I have those with me. Maybe I can find something else besides the mirror.
“A-Anon..?” Twilight said, snapping him from his thoughts. Just before Anon could react, she blacked out, not after she last saw him, standing up to run at her position.
“Come on, Anon! It’s only a small hill! What’s taking you so long?” The not-so-young princess said, sitting down the hill with a basket of picnic on her left side.
“Easy…for you…to say that… Uff, I should really do some more work-out.” He replied, finally at the top of the hill with her, sweat dripping down from his hair. “Besides, I’m not the four-legged creature that could easily outrun a human.”
“You are just simply out of shape.” She said with a chuckle, preparing the meal that they were about to eat, sitting down beside him.
“Perhaps, but at least my belly is not as big as yours, you little fatty.” He stated, pointing out at her stomach. She didn’t blush, instead, she hit him with his sandwich on the back of his head, hmming at him, looking to the other side. “Yep, I deserved that.”
There was an awkward silence after that, leaving the two of them with the sounds of nature, accompanied with theirs chewing up their meal, until Anon decided that it was enough. “How did you do this, Twi?”
“What do you mean?” She asked, finishing off her sandwich.
“I mean, all this.” He said, spreading his arms towards the town. “The peace, the chilling that I am still not used to feel… How can only a princess is able to do so much, and less at the same time?”
She sighed, remembering the sore moments, back when her friends were still alive. “It wasn’t only me, Anon. My friends were part of my actual success. They helped not only bring peace to Ponyville centuries ago, but to save all Equestria from Celestia and Luna’s most powerful enemies. We brought Tirek back to Tartarus. We defeated Celestia’s most hated enemy, Discord. We released the crystal empire from the grasp of the tyrant king, Sombra.” She sighed once again, glancing up to the skies. “Sometimes, I wish they were still at my side, just like the old times.”
He chuckled, lying his body down to the grass, looking up to the skies and placing both of his hands on the back of his head. “Silly Twilight. They are not death. They never were, in fact, I think they are just right here.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because, as long as you can remember them, as long as you treasure what you shared with them, then they will always be there for you, Twilight. Here” He pointed out at her chest. “You just have to make sure where they actually are, then the rest will be easy.”
She smiled, looking down at her chest and closing her eyes, doing what he said.
And then she saw them, just after she opened her eyes, she saw them all. Pinkie pie playing around with Rainbow Dash’s tail. She saw Rainbow Dash trying to escape from Pinkie. She saw Fluttershy talking to bunny who was on top of her head, as well as Rarity trying to convince Applejack to do her a make-up.
And then she saw him. To anyone, he was only an alien brought into the peaceful lands of Equestria without any purpose in life, feared by the averaged but graced by the most powerful.
But, to her, he was the most perfect creature she had the pleasure to meet. The man that made her forget about her sore past, reminding her that she wasn’t alone anymore as she used to think before his arrival.
And he was all hers.
“Anon…”
“Twilight?” Anon said once he heard his name being mentioned. Soon after he spoke, the purple alicorn opened her eyes almost instantly, trying to take a sitting position from the bed but being stopped by a headache. “Don’t push yourself up, Twi. You are still recovering from that little incident.”
“What happened?” She asked, rubbing her head to cease the pain.
“You fainted for the lack of magic inside your body.”
“Where are we?”
“In your bedroom.” She looked around to see that they were indeed inside her room. Looking at the window, she saw that it was already night. “You’ve been off for seven hours. I was getting worried about you, Twi. I shouldn’t have pushed you that far, even if that meant coming back to my home.” He said with a guilty tone.
She smiled, ignoring the pain on her head. “Don’t be, Anon. I understand how you feel about your family, and believe me when I say that I would’ve done the same thing to see them back at least once.”
“Guess we are even, then.” He joked. “But still, you need to get some rest. That crystal really did a lot to your magical supplies.”
“What about the other ones?” She asked, glancing at the other five crystals that were at the top of her furniture.
He sighed. “Nothing. They all talk about some theories and discoveries about the mirror, but nothing about its real location. What he tried to do with that replica that I saw before was only a failed prototype. I guess my quest to find my way back to home is still up.”
“I’m…sorry to hear that, Anon. I really am.” She said with a hint of… lie in her voice?
“It’s okay, Twi. Maybe another year of search won’t hurt me.” A lot. “Well, I gotta go to bed. It’s been… a long day. Rest well, star-butt. I will see you tomorrow.”
“Night, Anon.” With that said, he left her room with the five crystals, not looking at the now smiling Twilight Sparkle. Maybe I should bring him some food since he’s been taking care of me to cheer him up a bit. She thought with lusty intentions in her mind.
“God, why!?” Anon screamed, after making sure that his door was closed. “I was so close! SO CLOSE!” He looked at the five crystal recorder lying down his bed, hatred filling up his mind as he instinctively threw them off one by one through the window, except the last one. He looked at it determinately, and then he sighed. "She has to know this, even if we don’t find the mirror." He said to himself, as his slippery hands dropped the crystal down his bed. Can this day get any worse?
Bending over to look after it, he saw something off in the corner of his eye below his bed. A button. He thought. But what the hell is it doing under my bed? Twilight told me about how her castle was built up from the ground like a giant tree. These must be one of the secrets she didn’t find out. He pressed the button, hearing a sound from his back, which made him cringe a little. Turning around, he saw a secret door opened, with its stairs leading down to a strange source of light. I should really tell Twilight about this entrance right away…then again, what is life without a little risk involved?
“Anon, you there? I brought you dinner since-” She looked at the secret door opened, her eyes wide open as she mindlessly threw down the food onto the crystal floor, flying towards her secret laboratory as fast as she could. As soon as she was down the base, she looked at him, standing still, looking directly at the mirror that she has been hiding since…
“…How long has it been?”
“Listen, I-”
“Tell me, Twilight. How long has it been since you’ve been lying to me? Since you’ve been hiding this from me!?”
She couldn’t find any coherent words for a logic lie, so, instead, she chose to say the truth. “… about three years ago.”
He kneeled down onto the floor, realizing that his only friend had betrayed him, but…“Why?” He murmured. “Why would you do that!? I…I could have returned back to home… to see my family again… my son… and you… you took that away from me… for three years…”
“I can explain-”
“WHAT?? WHAT CAN POSSIBLY BE SO IMPORTANT TO YOU FOR KEEPING ME AWAY FROM EARTH?” He shouted out loud. “Just tell me already….Twilight.” A pause. “TELL ME!”
“I didn’t want to lose you!!”She snapped. “I just couldn’t...!” Her eyes were starting to get wet. “I’ve lost almost everything I loved a century ago…” She sniffed. “My parents, my friends, my number one assistant…” Tears were dripping down her chin, looking down to her hooves. “I… didn’t want to live anymore Anon… I lost hope…” She started to cry, leaving traces of tears onto the dirt.
Anon was agape, his mind still processing what he had just heard seconds ago, his eyes wide open looking down to the floor.
”But then…” She looked up at him with teary eyes. “You arrived… like a fallen angel sent from the skies to save me…like some of the stories you used to tell me…You understood me… You made me laugh… You liked the way I was...” She wiped off the remaining tears from her eyes. “At first, I-I thought you being a good friend to me… but, as the time went by… I felt something more towards you…” She smiled at him. “I fell in love with you…” She walked towards Anon’s position. “Please Anon, let’s forget about this whole misunderstanding, and go back to the castle, to be happy once again. To be happy for the rest of our lives.” With that said, she reached him, giving him what looked like an honest, warm and caressing hug.
Anon was too shocked to even breathe. All this time, and I couldn’t see it through my eyes. The hints, the walks around the park, the picnics. How could I’ve been so ignorant?
At first, he wanted to hug her back, to forgive her for her past sins, to live the life of an immortal being, beside of the most powerful entity in this world. Imagine all I can be able to do. The magical artifacts, the magic, combined with my technology plus immortality. A unique opportunity in life. He thought, the greed of infinite knowledge, slowly trying to consume his will to go back to earth.
However…
“You betrayed me, Twilight Sparkle.” He whispered. “You lied to me for more than two years, and you are expecting me to say yes!?” He pushed her off from the hug, standing up to face the mirror, and then her face. “To forget about my son? My wife? My planet home?”
“Anon, wait-”
“Too fucking late, Twilight.” He snapped. “Two. Years. Late. “ He walked past her to the portal, reaching its wooden rim with his right hand, turning around to see her one last time. “No one dares to betray my trust, pony. Not even a good friend as you.”
“NO, please! At least…l-let me go with you!” She cried out, lifting a hoof.
“Goodbye, princess.” Just after that last world was pronounced, he jumped off into the mirror, and, before Twilight could react, the mirror almost instantly shattered into pieces, to after powdering one by one by themselves, leaving a completely heartbroken Twilight Sparkle, lying her face down onto the dirty surface of the cave, crying as loud as she could, aware that she will never see him.
Ever again.