Sparkle paid no heed to the lone figure running off in the pre-dawn light. The fact that she suddenly had fingers was far more interesting. “Ugh... what the buck happened?”
The three of them picked themselves off the ground, but all three found their pony-like stances very awkward. “I think,” Thorn remarked, “that these bodies are supposed to walk on two legs.”
Realizing that he was probably right, Cobalt and Sparkle corrected themselves, only to both wobble unsteadily. Cobalt’s hand shot out and grabbed Sparkle’s shoulder, steadying them. Then they took a moment to look themselves over.
Cobalt was by far the shortest of the trio, coming up to just above what Sparkle assumed were her strangely engorged teats, while Thorn stood a good head taller than both of them. The ex earth pony now resembled a monkey in form. His skin and hair were the red and pink of his coat and mane, respectively. While from head to toe, he was dressed in solid blue clothes. Blue hoodie, blue pants, blue shoes, and blue, fingerless gloves. On his hip, there was a sheathed blade hanging from his belt, one that matched his cutie mark.
Sparkle found herself in a loose, black cloak that covered her completely; the sleeves were longer than her arms, and hid her hands. Four of her eyes were obstructed, and upon investigation, she found herself wearing a skull-shaped mask of white porcelain with only two eye holes, a mask that mimicked the underlying bone of her new form. Unlike Cobalt, she had two arms emerging from each shoulder, though they were hidden by her billowy sleeves.
Finally, the largest of the trio stood with the least amount of clothing. A simple cloth, held aloft with a decorative ribbon, covered his groin and hips. On his wrists and upper arms, a thin band covered the otherwise bare limbs. And aside from some neck and head ornamentation (which reminded Thorn of Pharaoh Phetlock from the Power Ponies comics), Thorn’s upper body was completely devoid of clothing. His head, unlike Sparkle’s and Cobalt’s, was that of a six-eyed, purple-furred jackal, making him look more like a diamond dog than a monkey. He, unlike Sparkle, had only four limbs.
“It seems that we’ve been transformed into the native species, of wherever we are,” Cobalt remarked, glancing about. “Although I think it failed with you two.”
Sparkle snorted. “I’ll say.” She tried to reach out to the afterlife to check that her connection was still accessible in this strange dimension, but no portal opened. She tried to reach out with her magic, period, but found herself thwarted. “Buck... my magic.”
Now, magic is inherently a spiritual phenomenon. Thanks her training as a necromancer, her experimentation with Tirek’s magic-draining soul weapon, and experience as a death goddess, she was well versed in the manipulation of a soul’s magical energies. After about a minute of restricted self observation, she realized what was blocking her magic: the arcane equivalent of a condom.
It wasn’t even a good one, especially for somepony of her magical “size.”
She pushed and twisted and stretched her magic. With the feeling of a rubber band snapping, she freed herself of the bonds. Black magic surged from her hands (of all places), and the grass around them promptly died and browned. With a flick of her wrist, a portal to the afterlife opened, and then closed a second later. She then relayed her instructions to the other two so that they could free themselves.
With their magic free, the trio found their sense of the life and souls around them return to full capacity. In an instant, Sparkle recognized the feeling in the air as the same feeling that had drawn her to the mirror in the first place; she could feel the billions of souls of this world blurred together into one mouthwatering sensation. It made her feel similar to the sensation of not being hungry, but wanting to eat anyway just for the pleasure of it.
Sparkle gazed around. They were standing at the base of a horse statue in the yard of a large building, a school if she’d guessed right. Residential homes lined the other side of the street. In the distance, she saw some taller buildings that reminded her of Manehattan and Fillydelphia.
“Ok, I vote we go exploring for a bit,” Sparkle declared, still under the effects of her fear-suppression spell. “How often do you get to see a whole new world?”
Cobalt smiled. “That sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder what the inhabitants of this world are like? But...” Here he paused. His hand illuminated with red magic that quickly shifted to a bubbling black. An inky, pony-like shape poured out of his hands. “A specter to watch the portal for us.”
“Good idea,” Thorn remarked. Glancing to the side, he noticed that his mother had already started walking off. The two males jogged and quickly caught up to her. Once he was beside his mother, Thorn looked up at the dawn sky. “I wish I had my wings. How fun would it be to fly in an alien sky?”
The other two looked up as well. “Oh yes,” Sparkle remarked. “That would be fun.”
A vehicle raced past them on the paved road with such speed that it caused the trio to jump. Looking at it, the three of them realized that they didn’t know what it was. Sparkle’s eyes filled with glee. “Oh! I wonder what sort of magic and technology they have here!”
Thorn and Cobalt shared a knowing glance. It filled them both with joy to see the mare they loved getting so excited.
“That was Sunset Shimmer, a former student of mine,” Princess Celestia explained.
Honorary Princess Twilight and Spike stood before the mirror that they’d seen the orange mare vanish through. Having had the Element of Magic stolen, they’d alerted the guard, who had in turn retrieved all three of the Equestrian Crown Princesses.
“She began her studies with me not long before you did, Twilight,” the solar princess continued.
“But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked,” another version of Celestia said, this time to Crown Princess Twilight Sparkle, her assistant, and the other Element bearers, “she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies-”
“-and pursue her own path. One that has sadly led her to stealing your crown,” the first version of Celestia finished. Unbeknownst to her or any of the beings in that room, her doppelganger had given that exact same speech at the exact same time to the exact same individuals. The only difference here was that Twilight, the goddess of Life, was not surrounded by her friends, as the goddess of Magic was.
“But where did she go? The other timeline?” Twilight asked. Her doppelganger did not ask that.
The lunar princess was the one to reply. “No. While this mirror can and has been used to traverse timelines - as your sister can attest - its primary function is traversing whole universes. In order to maintain stability, the mirror opens to other worlds predictably and periodically, for three days at a time. And while it opens in time with the full moon, for three days at a time, any one world will only reconnect once every thirty. Since the mirror has only just opened, it is likely that Sunset Shimmer has spent several years on the other side.”
“And what is on the other side?” Twilight asked.
Celestia shrugged. “I do not know. I lost track of the cycles, and I am not familiar with all thirty of the worlds it connects to by default. Plus, it has been several hundred years since I ventured through the mirror. That said, all of the worlds are inhabited by life as we understand it, and all are generally safe enough to explore, but very few have ponies.” She sighed. “I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return, to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what happened.”
Here, Cadance spoke up. “Twilight, you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other Elements of Harmony are powerless and Equestria is without one of its most important defensive weapons.”
Luna spoke next. “Your crown does not belong in that world. The magic of one universe can wreak havoc on denizens of another world.”
“I know,” Twilight replied. “That’s one of the reasons paladins exist, to combat the outsiders that and demons enter our world.”
“Indeed,” Celestia replied. “And before you ask, the mirror has some safeguards that inhibit our magic on incompatible worlds. The Element of Magic, however, is far too powerful to be contained like that. Should she use it, the results could be catastrophic.”
“Now, are you ready?” Luna asked. Twilight nodded. “Good.”
Twilight stepped forwards. But, just before she pushed her hoof through what looked like a solid surface, she glanced back at her son. “Come on, Spike. Let’s do this together.”
Spike beamed and hopped onto Twilight’s back. Holding on tight, he said, “Ready!”
“Let’s go!”
Ungracefully, the goddess of magic and her number one assistant flopped onto the ground. She groaned and started picking herself off the ground.
A second later, there was a yelp from behind her.
Ungracefully, the goddess of life and her son flopped on top of the two that were already there. Groaning, they tried to untangle their many limbs. “Sorry, sorry,” the two mares cried in unison.
The two Spikes, both much smaller than their respective pony, hopped to the side. “Whoa, where am I?” one of them said.
“Wow! A talking dog!” the other said.
“You’re one to talk, mutt!” The first said.
Then they both looked down at themselves. “Oh. Twilight!”
“Yes?” Both mares said, looking over at the two purple and green dogs.
“Gah! Eyes!” One of the Spikes exclaimed, while the other simply walked over to his Twilight.
“What’s going on?” The two-eyed Twilight asked.
Behind them, a voice giggled. “Now, isn’t this interesting?” Like ink flowing across the ground, the specter slid into their common field of view. “Two of the same mare, two of the same dragon, and neither of them are the mistress!”
“A specter? Are you one of Spark’s?” The six-eyed mare inquired.
“No. I belong to Cobalt. Death is already here.” The specter did a playful loop-de-loop and then twirled around them.
The light mage nodded. “Good. Could you let them know that Spike and I are here as well?”
The specter twirled in place. “Sure!” It paused. “Ok! They know now. The mistress is coming.”
“Good. Thank you.” The life goddess tried to stand, but she felt awkward. Spike, her Spike, commented that she should try walking upright. Laughing, Twilight did, as did the other. Looking at her, the taller mare exclaimed, “Wow. That’s a bit freaky. It’s like looking at a time-bending funhouse mirror.”
The mare across from her did remind her of herself from before her ascension, albeit with some minor cosmetic differences. There were the same two eyes, the same mane, and the same fur color as skin. It looked to Twilight as if her doppelganger was a minotaur-monkey hybrid version of herself.
Looking down at herself, Twilight saw that she was dressed in a white cloak with long sleeves that covered her entire body. Her arms, all four of them, were completely hidden in her sleeves. Other than the extra arms and extra eyes, it appeared as if her body had the same basic shape and coloration as the mare across from her.
“Who are you?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Princess Twilight of Equestria, Goddess of Life, and bearer of the Element of Magic. Now, if I had to guess, you’re named Twilight, Twilight Sparkle, or Sparkle, and you’re also from Equestria.”
“I... yes. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’m not a goddess as far as I know, but I am an alicorn. And I also bear the Element of Magic. I still don’t know what’s going on, but...” she trailed off, looking at something over Twilight’s shoulder. “Oh, that can’t be good.”
The six-eyed princess and both Spikes turned. There, approaching rapidly, was an ominous black cloud with many, many eyes. The two-eyed princess stepped back, as did her Spike, but the other two relaxed. The advancing cloud stopped and shrank, eventually solidifying into not three, but four figures.
“Agh!” the smallest of the arrivals screamed. “What on earth was that!?”
“Dark smoke travel,” the second tallest replied. “Now, what do we have here? Yet another Twilight Sparkle, I assume?” Shaking her head, the dark figure muttered, “How many of us are going to keep crawling out of the woodwork?”
“Seriously, what’s going on here?!” The two-eyed princess and the glasses-wearing one shouted.
All three six-eyed figures answered back simultaneously. “How much do you know about alternate timelines?”
After a crash course in multiverse and timeline theory for the two who did not know, they had eventually debated and assigned unique names. Or rather, Cobalt insisted on giving them each a name. “You, you’re Science, since you’re the native without useable magic. You, you’re Magic, since you’re the generalist. Miss, you’re Life, obviously. And my mistress is Death. Science’s Spike is Puppy, Magic’s Spike is Blade, Life’s Spike is Spear, and Thorn is still Thorn. And incase anypony forgot, I’m Cobalt.”
“I’m still not convinced that you’re one of us,” Magic admitted. “And why does Thorn look like that, if he’s a Spike? Wow, that’s weird to say...”
Death smirked. “I stole this body after I was blown up, and Thorn’s a lich, empowered by my soul and part of a dragon’s soul. Why do you think I’m Death? I’m a necromancer turned reaper! Besides, he’s more pony than any of the other Spikes, so the mirror made him more... hey, Science, what’s your species named?”
“Human,” the quiet native answered.
“More human,” Death concluded.
“What’s the deal with Science anyway? How did you find her? And what are you doing over here anyway?” Life asked.
Death grinned, and then began her tale.
Earlier...
The Death trio was walking down the sidewalk, one which was steadily growing more crowded. The people that passed them kept their distance and gave them some very strange looks, but otherwise didn’t react as badly as Sparkle had expected. She figured that with Cobalt, who looked exactly like one of them, walking next to her and Thorn, they figured that the trio was simply an odd looking bunch and not actually anything extradimensional.
There were more vehicles on the road now, and Sparkle was watching their ebb and flow with rapt attention. She noticed how when they came to an intersection, they reacted to the lights hanging overhead. As they watched, Sparkle noticed someone odd across the street, and pointed her out to her companions.
“Look at her. She looks like Twilight. Even her soul looks similar to Twi’s - or, as Twi’s looked before she ascended.”
Thorn smirked. “I’m not surprised. Every world needs a Twilight. Look, she’s even got her face buried in a book like you and Aunt Twilight always do.”
“And she’s got that same, cute, this is fascinating face that you have,” Cobalt added.
The lights changed, and the native look alike started traversing the crosswalk, nose still buried in her book. Behind her, a leashed dog with the same coloration as Thorn followed close by.
At that same instant, a large vehicle was running the stop light. Now, had the Death trio not been there, the driver would have noticed the girl in the road and slammed on his brakes in time to bump her hard enough to bruise, but not break anything. But, since they were there, he had glanced their way, meaning that he was a whole second slower hitting the brakes.
The crunch of bone was sickening. Even though it was not her dimension, and she was not the local death god (provided there even was one), Sparkle was close enough to feel the struck girl’s life waver. It was like a punch to the gut, and more than enough to shatter their collective surprise and get the trio moving.
With speed unmatched and the strength of an adrenaline-fueled earth pony demigod, Cobalt heaved the truck off of the wounded mare, while Thorn and Sparkle worked to move her to safety. “Buck!” Sparkle exclaimed. “Broken bones, bleeding, and who knows what else. I don’t even know her physiology!”
Thorn flashed an image of a minotaur in her mind.
“Good enough.” An unspoken thought passed between them: keep her alive.
Thorn pressed his hand against her chest, near where her soul was located. He could feel her heartbeat below, weak and fading. Do not die, he ordered her soul.
It complied.
Meanwhile, Sparkle brushed one of her right hands against the girl’s forehead. Her patient relaxed, soothed by a numbing spell. Then Sparkle set to work. Magic erupted out of her four hands and began stitching the girl back together again.
“What the hell?!”
Cobalt approached the driver of the trick that had struck the girl. “Do not interfere,” the assassin commanded.
But the driver didn’t listen. “Whatever the hell you two things are, get away from that girl! She needs a doctor!” He stepped towards Sparkle and Thorn to pull them away, but Cobalt grabbed his hand firmly.
“Stop.”
Pain like nothing else shot through the driver’s hand. It only lasted an instant, but it was enough to bring the driver to his knees.
“Cobalt, I need life force, native life force,” Sparkle said, still working on the wounded girl. The combination of her unfamiliar anatomy, the differences between her body’s energies and what Sparkle was used to, and the fact that Sparkle was having to use her hands instead of her horn as a magical focus meant that she had to go much slower than expected. For the girl’s sake, and because of the gathering crowd, Sparkle didn’t want to drag this out.
“Right.” Cobalt turned to the driver. “You hurt her, now you get to help heal her.” He shoved the man towards Thorn. The moment the lich touched the man, he aged by half a dozen years.
“Here.” Thorn poured the gathered life force into the broken girl. Instantly, her body’s own healing abilities kicked into overdrive. With Sparkle coaxing it along, her wounds closed and her bones set and solidified.
The girl groaned as she returned to full consciousness. With a thought, Sparkle magically forced the girl to sleep. “Hang on, let’s get away from here.”
And with that, they, along with the girl’s dog, vanished into the darkness, leaving a very stunned crowd behind.
“I took her elsewhere and woke her up. I explained to her what happened, then convinced her that magic was real - yes, this world has no useable magic, but it’s not totally devoid - and then compared notes with her about our lives. Yes, we are otherworldly counterparts. I’m sure of it,” Death finished.
“I wouldn't have believed any of it if it weren’t for the scars and Spar- I mean, Death, showing me her magic. The extra arms and eyes helped convince me, too,” Science added.
Magic blinked. “Extra arms?”
Life and Death rolled up their sleeves, showing their four arms.
“The portal really messed you guys up,” Blade remarked.
“Actually, we did have extra forelegs and eyes back home,” Life replied. “You can thank Death for that.”
Death smiled sheepishly. “Hey, I couldn’t control what happened when we ascended.”
“To become alicorns?” Magic asked.
“To become goddesses, like you. What’s your domain, anyway?” Death asked.
Magic looked down at herself, as if trying to see something that wasn’t there. “I’m not a goddess, I don’t think.”
“Horseapples,” Death snorted. “I can see your soul, and Magic, that is not a mortal pony’s soul.”
“Really?”
“I promise that I’m telling the truth. Cross my heart, the end is nigh, stick a spearpoint in my eye.” Death grinned as she went through the motions.
Magic shook her head. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know.”
Death put a hand on Magic’s shoulder. “Then ask Luna to perform the identity ritual on you; that will show you for sure.”
“I will.” Magic said. “But right now, I need to find Sunset Shimmer.” Life blinked and perked up, as did Spear. “She stole the Element of Magic from me!” Magic continued, oblivious to Life’s reaction.
“She stole my Element of Magic as well,” Life commented. “Or at least, another version of her did.”
“I wonder if there are several of her running around as well?” Cobalt suggested.
“Probably,” the three non-native Twilight Sparkles agreed.
Death then added, “Well, since Trixie was nowhere near the Crystal Empire in my timeline, my world’s Element of Magic is safe.”
“Then why did you come here?” Magic asked.
Death shrugged. “I smelled souls.” She ignored her sister’s withering glare. Then, she remembered something. “Hey, can you two do magic?”
Both princesses tried and failed.
“Here, allow me. This is easier when I’m doing it from the outside.” Death then pressed her hands on Magic and Life, and charged her dark power.
“Wait!” Life exclaimed, but it was too late. A magical pulse rippled through their bodies and dispelled the spell holding their magic in.
“What?”
“Princess Celestia said that the mirror inhibits magic on incompatible worlds! You could have done serious damage!” Life exclaimed.
Death blinked. “Um... you know how I said this world has no useable magic?” At their nod, she continued, “Well, these humans have magic. It’s wild and unfocused and largely self-negating, but...”
“But what?”
Death blushed. “Well, when I used magic to heal Science over here, she sort of latched onto my magic and started mimicking it. Feel it. The effect’s still there.”
Life and Magic reached out with their senses, and found that Death was indeed correct. “You have alicorn magic!” Magic exclaimed.
Science blinked. “I do? How is that even possible?”
Death smiled, quite pleased with herself. “Draconic dark-alicorn magic, technically. I don’t know how that happened, but I’d like to find out. Buy me breakfast, and I’ll teach you how to use it, too.”
“But...” Science blinked, and then looked down at her watch. “Dangit! I’m late for school! I’m TARDY!”
Death extended her hand. “While those two are looking for their Elements of Rainbow Doom Lasers, I’ll give you a lift back to your school. I might even convince your teachers not to hold it against you. What do you say? You can learn magic after class.”
Science relaxed somewhat. “Sure. Yeah. Let’s go.”
“Cobalt, Thorn, you can go do whatever. I’ll keep in touch,” Death said. Then, without further ado, she grabbed onto Science’s arm. “Just focus on where you need to go. Keep a clear picture in your mind. Got it?”
Science nodded.
“Good. Later!” And with that, they vanished into the shadows. Cobalt and Thorn followed a second later.
Magic and Blade looked at Life. “Is she really us?”
“Who, my sister?”
Magic nodded.
“Yep. But also a little more. She’s grafted parts of other souls onto her, so she isn’t quite a pony, if that’s what you're asking. I know she doesn’t feel like anything else, magically speaking.”
Blade looked at Spear. “They’re weird.”
“Yeah, but Aunt Sparkle and Mom are great anyway,” Spear replied.
“Wait, ‘Mom’?” Blade asked. “You call Twilight ‘Mom’?”
Spear blinked. He couldn’t ever remember not calling the light mage his mom, though she said that he’d gotten the idea from Thorn. “Well, she did raise me and hatch me.”
“Huh... Mom.” Magic’s assistant let the word roll around in his mouth, as if he were tasting it. “Mom, mom... Twilight Sparkle is my mom...” Tears welled up in the dragon-turned-dog’s eyes, but his grin was anything but sad. “She’s my mom.”
“Spike!” the two mares called out. The two drakes looked over, and saw that they were heading towards the school. Happily, the two dogs bounded over to their mothers.
Sunset Shimmer number one sulked as she walked to school. It was bizarre how the mirror had cloned her, or how each of the clones had had a different experience on the other side. And unlike her sisters, she had failed to retrieve anything useful on the other side of the mirror.
In her mind, she didn’t believe in entitlement. She believed that those who succeeded deserved to reap the reward, and those who failed didn’t. Her whole argument with Celestia was over the fact that she thought she had worked hard and deserved the opportunity to learn more, to gain more power. And when she didn’t get it, she’d run to this world.
Now, having spent over a decade here in an artificial body that didn’t age right, Sunset Shimmer had gone back home to steal anything that could have been used here, anything that could have let her tap into her magic, to fulfill her cutie mark. And two out of three had succeeded. That left her, the failure, as the one without the reward. It was only fair. That didn’t mean she had to like it.
The other two were studying the crowns that they had gotten. Even with her magic blocked off, she’d been able to loosen it over the years, and on her return trip, had kept the inhibitor from fully activating. She couldn’t use her magic outside of her own body, but she could now clearly sense magic.
And so they were studying the crown, and she was headed back to boring Earth school. A school that just so happened to be next to the portal to Equestria. Gritting her teeth, she passed by the portal she’d exited in triplicate not a few hours earlier. She was late for school, but so what.
She stopped.
The grass by the portal was dead and brown. It hadn’t been that way yesterday. Actually, now that she looked around, there were a huge number of dead trees and plants. Suddenly wary, her heightened alertness let her realize that something else was amiss.
There was dark magic in the air. She could feel it.
Swearing, Sunset pulled out her phone and emailed herself. Her sisters knew to check their laptop frequently, just in case something came up. Something like this.
She swore again.
After all, why would Celestia let a dark mage through the portal?