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// Black Magic Classroom 
// Story: Split Second: An Eternity Divided 
// by wille179 
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	The mare and woman, known as Death and Science respectively, materialized on the grounds of Crystal Prep Academy. Less than a second later, Cobalt and Thorn materialized behind them. The fact that they had just done that in a world that had no functional magic, in plain sight of the other students arriving at the school, seemed not to bother most of the group.
Science stumbled, still very disturbed by the feeling of temporarily lacking a physical form. And as she regained her bearings, she couldn’t help but look around and notice that she wasn’t being stared at by the student body. In fact, nobody seemed to be noticing her at all. “Death, why aren’t they looking at us?”
“Do you want them to be?” The goddess countered.
“No, but...” The true human looked around again. “What we did was impossible by normal standards! Shouldn’t people be reacting?”
“The notice-me-not charm is very practical for situations like that.”
The human Twilight Sparkle blinked. “Oh. I should have guessed you had something to do with it.” She shook her head. “Anyway, thanks for the lift.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Well... see you later, then?” Science then quickly turned to walk towards the school building. Death and her companions followed suit. It only took Science a second or two to realize that she was being followed. “Um... why are you following me?”
Death walked up and put her hands on Science’s shoulders, while the other two walked past and on into the building. “Well, I’m not sure about the other two, but I need to make sure you make it through school today without blowing someone up or eating someone’s soul.”
Science blinked. “You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding.”
Death shrugged. “I ate my parents souls when I was eight years old.”
“What!”
“Yeah, I coughed them up later, but I still went years thinking I’d killed my own parents. Which I did, technically. They’re ghosts now.” Death shrugged again. “Anyway, I’m just going to follow you and make sure you don’t accidentally kill someone in a horribly gruesome way until we can sneak off and I teach you the basics. Got it?”
“You're not making me feel any better.”
Death grinned, though it was hidden behind the skull mask. “Just stay calm. Dark magic feeds on both emotion and intent. As long as you calmly wish for nothing to happen, nothing will.”
The true human frowned, but said nothing more, instead choosing to continue on into the school. Death followed her in, only to stop a few steps beyond the door. “Wow. This is familiar.”
“Oh?” Science muttered, neither stopping nor looking back.
“My world has the Crystal Empire. The architecture is similar.” Death picked up her pace a touch to catch up to her counterpart. “Say, does the name Sombra mean anything to you?”
“Dean Sombra? He was arrested a few years back after he molested a student.”
Death shook her head. “That’s disappointingly ordinary. My sister’s version of Sombra was blown up, and my version, I trapped in a parallel dimension before I got blown up in the same explosion.”
Science stopped and gave Death an incredulous look. 
“What? I got better.”
Now walking again, Science made her way to her locker. “Are you going to give me commentary all day? Because I have class in three minutes, and I really can’t afford to be distracted.”
The dark goddess waived a pair of hands dismissively. “Don’t worry about a thing. Seriously, don’t worry. Worrying will get someone killed. You know, boom.” She made a little exploding motion with her hands.
Of course, such advice would inevitably make her worry more. But then again, that was exactly what Death wanted Science to do in the first place. Thought the true human didn’t know it yet, Dark Magic 101 had already begun.
The pair entered a classroom, a biology lab by the looks of it. On the teacher's desk were several potted plants, likely intended for the day’s lesson. Twilight Sparkle took her seat, while the dark goddess strolled to the front corner of the room, unseen by any of the other students or the teacher. The electronic bell rang over the intercom system, and the remaining students took their seats.
The teacher took roll, and then began the day’s lecture. Death paid little attention to the teacher — she’d already read more medical textbooks and dissected more dead bodies than most of these student would ever see in in their life. What she did pay attention to was the students, specifically their souls. Unlike in Equestria, their souls had a much narrower range of colors they could be, and while that was interesting to the goddess, it was ultimately little more than an interesting piece of trivia.
However, she did notice that the average human here was easily on par with souls of a similar age in Equestria. They clearly had magic, and an abundance of it at that, but they couldn’t access it. If her counterpart was any indication, they needed to be exposed to it first. Behind the mask, Death frowned. If that was correct, Death theorized that everyone Twilight Sparkle used enough magic on would also gain magic, as would any child she gave birth to. And any people they interacted with, and so on. Assuming that the humans expressed magic similar to ponies, the dark goddess realized that she may have just unleashed a dark magic STD-like plague upon the human population.
Whoops.
She walked to a student sitting behind her human counterpart. With a thought, she extended out a tendril of magic towards the boy. Neither he nor his soul reacted. When the tendril touched his body, he shivered, but did nothing more. Only once her magic reached his soul did it react; the magic of his soul slowly unwound and stretched towards her magic.
She withdrew her power, and the human’s magic quickly curled back up into its original ball-like shape. Death glanced at Science’s soul, which burned like a pony’s and fluttered like a dragon’s. Repeating the experiment with Twilight Sparkle, Death stretched out her magic and got the same results as the boy, up until her magic made contact with the human girl’s. There, instead of the human soul reaching out for the foreign magic with its own, it slid towards the magic like metal towards a magnet, just as a pony’s soul would have done. That told Sparkle a great amount of information.
The teacher lectured on, unaware of her concealed guest moving towards the front of the room. Death looked back at Science and made eye contact. Then, she reached out towards one of the potted plants. The moment her fingers made contact, the plant wilted and browned. The class, which had been charmed to not notice the goddess, was under no such influence regarding the plant, and collectively gasped.
The teacher floundered for an explanation, but since nothing seemed to quite make sense, and nothing else of the sort happened again, class eventually resumed. At the end, when the bell dismissed the students, Science glared at Death but said nothing, instead choosing to go to her next class. Death followed behind.
In the classes that followed, the dark goddess made a point of disrupting every class. In anatomy, she animated the model skeleton. In calculus, she bewitched the professor into saying “death” every dozen words. And in history, she caused the class to subtly hallucinate.
The human Twilight Sparkle, for her part, just grit her teeth and dealt with it silently until lunch time. As she stepped out of the class, she turned on Death and pointed her finger. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Over all? Stress testing you. But currently, I’m making you look like a madmare.”
“A what?”
“A loon, a psycho, a crazy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, everybody can see you and hear you. Nobody but you can see or hear me. You’re talking to yourself.”
Science blinked and looked around. Sure enough, there were people giving her a strange look. Death just chuckled. “I tell you what, you just walk on to your next class, and I’ll explain what I’m doing. Got it?”
The true human nodded, then turned towards the cafeteria. Death, following behind, said, “I can see souls. I can see your magic, as it’s a part of your soul. I was purposefully disturbing your classes to see how your magic reacted. I’d stop it if anything got out of hand, and I can fix almost anything you can do accidentally. But I needed to know how you dealt with stress. And, assuming you like learning as much as I do, that was pretty stressful for you.
“Good news for you: you passed. You didn’t explode. So, on to round two — how do you do without me watching over your shoulder?” And before Science could answer, Death faded away, leaving her all alone. Or, that’s what Death wanted her to think. In reality, she’d just adjusted the perception filter so that Twilight Sparkle couldn’t see her, and hadn’t moved at all.



Meanwhile, the assassin-turned-demigod, after wandering the halls of the school, found himself in the room he was looking for: the library. With a devious grin, he walked into the nonfiction section and pulled a book off the shelf. After confirming that he could, in fact, read this world’s language, he created a book-sized bubble of magic around the book he was holding. One silent command later, and an identical book appeared in the afterlife. 
He put the book back on the shelf and expanded the magical field to cover all of said shelf. Suddenly, he shot forwards with super speed, dragging the bookshelf-sized magic bubble with him up and down the rows. For each book that entered the bubble, a copy was made. And in less than ten seconds, he'd copied the entire nonfiction section. 
He paused for a moment, shrugged, and then continued his replication in the fiction section. A few seconds later, that too was wholly copied. Grinning smugly at the thought of having “checked out” an entire library, he pulled a random book off the shelf and plopped down in a chair to see if was any good (and to rest his legs, not that he’d admit to that).
There was a girl staring at him. 
He blinked. “Can... Can I help you?”
“How did you just do that?!”
“Err... Do what?”
“The super-speed thing!”
“I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“No, I saw you do that! You were like, whoosh, zoom! Are you a super hero?”
Realizing that he wouldn't be able feign ignorance any longer, Cobalt decided to play along. “No. Of course not. Super villainy is much more rewarding. See, I just stole and hid forty books. That's as many as four tens, and that's terrible.”
“Well, aren't you a smartass,” the girl deadpanned. 
“I try.”
The girls stuck out her hand. “Name’s Indigo Zap. What's yours?”
“Well, I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. You can call me Cobalt.”
Indigo blinked. “Wait, like the serial killer? Really?”
Cobalt’s brow furrowed slightly, but only for an instant. Then he struck an overly dramatic pose. “Ha! As if some lowly serial killer could compare to me! I am an assassin, a refined killer for the refined individual!” He held the pose for a second longer before snorting mirthfully. “Bah! I’m just messing with you.”
“Oh? Then what's that?” Indigo pointed to the dagger strapped to his belt. 
Cobalt looked down, having honestly forgotten that it was there. “Oops. My bad.” He then proceeded to unsheath it, tip his head back, and swallow it. In actuality, he just opened a small portal to the afterlife just behind his teeth, but the effect was the same as far as Indigo Zap was concerned. “Mmm... So, where were we?” He asked the slack-jawed girl. 



As for Thorn, he’d quickly gotten bored of the school and had wandered into town. There, he stumbled across an all-you-can-eat buffet. After sneaking in with a simple application of a notice-me-not spell, the Anubis-shaped-dracolich came to a very important realization.
“They have so. Much. MEAT!”



For the teen nicknamed Science, who could feel the alien energy thrumming under her skin, the absence of the dark goddess was certainly worse than her presence. The tall alien had given her something to focus on, to direct and suppress her anger and fear with and at. 
Now that Death was gone, Science was about ready to try to rip off her skin and dig out the dark, twisted magic. Her nerves were so frayed that she was visibly shaking to such an extreme that her sixth period teacher had sent her to the nurse. 
The nurse had let her lie on one of the beds while she calmed down, and had excused herself to care for another student that had come in. Twilight Sparkle, now alone, tried the breathing exercises that Dean Cadance had shown her. 
A set of footsteps heralded the arrival of someone into the clinic’s back room, but it wasn't the nurse that turned the corner. Death had returned. The dark goddess moved up to the human’s side and placed a hand on her shoulder. In that instant, Science’s stress and anxiety melted away with almost supernatural ease. 
Momentarily dizzy from the sudden drop in blood pressure, Twilight Sparkle only managed a confused “Huh?”
“Sorry about that. I didn't expect you to get so worked up without me,” Sparkle lied, having known full well that she would. “But at least we now know that you aren't leaking magic when you get stressed. That's good.”
“I can feel it under my skin,” the human remarked, clearly disgusted. 
“Yeah, that happens,” Death replied. “It's normal. All that means is that you just have to pull your magic in tighter, which is one of the first things that I am going to teach you.”
“Can you teach me that now?” Science asked. “I can't stand that feeling any more.”
“Of course. All you had to do was ask.” She offered a hand. “Shall we?”
Hesitantly, the human took the goddess’s hand. Suddenly, and without warning, Science found herself being pulled off the clinic bed and falling into a white void.
The Reaper pulled off her mask, letting Science see her six-eyes face for the first time. “Welcome to the afterlife, my personal playground. No, you aren't dead. In here, time flows differently, so while we could work for as long as you like, only a few seconds will pass in real time.”
Twilight Sparkle looked around at the featureless void. “I thought there would be more here.”
A massive amphitheater built of obsidian formed around them. At the center, a gargantuan throne of skulls formed, framed by fountains of blood. The sky darkened and lightning flashed. The wind howled with the screams of the damned. From atop the throne, Death asked, “Is this more what you were expecting?”
The human flinched and nodded meekly. With a flourish of her hand, the Reaper vanished the morbid architecture and abyssal storm, replacing it with a grassy field and a sunny sky. “This is a world of imagination, a world I built. It's also the safest place you could possibly be when learning dark magic. So, let's get started. Any opening questions?”
The human nodded. “Why dark magic? Why not just magic?”
“Because I am a natural dark mage, and you copied from me; the magic our souls produce is of the dark type, rather than masculine, feminine, or light type. Well, for us, it's a bit more complicated than that, but we're only worried about projected, external magic at the moment, since that is the most dangerous for you and for those around you.”
“Got it.”
When it was clear that the human had no more questions, Death began teaching. “Right, let's start off with a really basic exercise: drawing out your magic. We’ll get into the theory later, but for now, imagine that energy in your chest as a limb. You can move it, and so long as it remains attached to your soul, you can also sense with it. Now, currently, it is balled up in your core; this is the default position. Let the energy up, down your arms, and out.”
“And how do I do that?”
“The same way you move any limb. It's the same part of the soul, and thus mirrored in the same part of the brain,” Death answered, tapping her head. 
A determined look bloomed on the human's face. Sparkle watched as she started to bring forth her power. But then, everything went weird. A blinding burst of light stunned Death and obscured Science from view. When it cleared, Death was shocked by what she saw.
Before her eyes, Science was floating in mid air. Long, skeletal wings with membranes of smoke protruded from her back, and a curved horn made of solidified darkness jutted out from her forehead. Her eyes were glowing green, with purple smoke billowing from the edges, while her hair whipped around her head as if caught in a gale. Even her clothing had changed, having gone from a conservative school uniform to a more provocative purple dress.
“Well, that’s new.”
The suddenly transformed woman looked down upon herself. “Was that supposed to happen?”
“No, not at all,” Death replied. “Hmm...” She walked closer to the transformed woman and grabbed hold of the wing. Science gasped at the contact, but Death paid it no mind. She examined it closely, both with her eyes and with her magic. Finally, she let go and said, “Fascinating. You conjured all that as a manifestation of your power. Try suppressing your magic — just pull it all into your core and wrap it up tight.”
The same look of determination reappeared on Twilight Sparkle’s face, followed a second later by all the changes on her body reverting back to normal. She quickly inspected herself again. “At least I’m not stuck like that.”
“Let out your magic again,” Death commanded. “Let’s see if that happens every time.”
“Right.” And then Twilight Sparkle flashed and transformed.
“Hmm... Pull it back in again. Let me show you how to levitate things, and we’ll see if you transform when casting spells instead of just letting your magic flow freely.”
Long story short, the human kept transforming so long as she was actively drawing her magic, much to Death’s irritation. The fact that the transformation was so visible annoyed her, as according to Death, it ruined the subtle aspects of being able to use dark magic. “Well, at least the somebody-else’s-problem spell will take care of that. And hey, you’ve got a built-in costume, if you ever want to be a superhero.”



Earlier that day, one of the ex-Equestrians by the name of Sunset Shimmer made her way into her first class of the day. This particular Sunset Shimmer was currently the only one of the trio anywhere near Canterlot High School, and the only one without an Element of Magic. And while the other two Sunset Shimmers held on to the Elements, she clutched her smartphone as if it were just as important.
Yes, Sunset Shimmer was paranoid. There was no doubt about that. After all, she’d felt dark magic by the portal, and she was stranded without magic in a world that had no defenses against dark mages. As soon as she’d realized it, she’d emailed the other two versions of herself and told them to lay low and be ready to move if needed. They’d emailed back almost immediately, telling her that they had decided to not use the elements in case the mage could detect the burst. That didn’t surprise the Sunset at the school; it’s what she would have done.
Unfortunately for Sunset, her paranoia worked against her. While she may have been an excellent liar, that was only while she felt she had control over the situation. Thus, it didn’t go unnoticed by the student population of CHS that Sunset Shimmer hadn’t been mean to anybody that day, nor did it go unnoticed that she was looking around every corner and jumping at every loud noise.
Perhaps it had something to do with the guilt of what she’d tried to do, or perhaps it was because of her imagination running wild, but either way, when someone bumped into her in the hallway between fifth and sixth period, she screamed.
“Sunset Shimmer!” The soothing voice of Principal Celestia exclaimed, startled by her student’s extreme reaction.
Sunset looked into the concerned eyes of her principal, the same eyes as her former mentor, and relaxed, slumping back against the lockers. “Hooo boy....”
“Ms. Shimmer, are you alright?”
She nodded. “Yeah... just a bit jumpy today, is all.”
“Alright, if you say so.” The extremely tall woman’s tone said she doubted that very much. Regardless, Principal Celestia didn’t push the issue. “Actually, I was looking for you, Ms. Shimmer.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Two women came by my office just a little while ago, asking for you by name and if you went here. They said they were looking for their lost possessions, and that you might know something about them,” the administrator explained.
“Umm... who were they?” Sunset asked.
Celestia blinked. “Oh, you know, I never caught their names. They were both purple-skinned women, one in a blue shirt, the other in a white cloak, of all things. Does that help?”
Sunset shook her head. “I don’t recognize anybody by that description, no.”
The principal hummed. “Well, they might still be in the front office.”
The unspoken command was clear. Sunset nodded and headed towards the front of the school. The moment she was out of sight of the principal, she whipped out her phone and shot off a warning message to her other selves.
Now, she had no intent to actually talk to the people in question, but she would at least get close enough to take a peak and perhaps feel their magic, if they actually had any. And if they looked to be a threat, she would just back away before they noticed and be on her merry way.
Sunset nodded to herself, as the basic outline of a plan gave her confidence and lended a vigor to her step. Too bad for her that confidence didn’t protect from sensory overload, for as she turned the last corner to the hall that would lead to the principal’s office, she spotted the two women Principal Celestia had described, and felt their magic.
Now, imagine living in a place where everyone spoke in the faintest of whispers that you had to strain to hear, only to suddenly have two people shout at the top of their lungs straight into your ear. Replace sound with magic, and you have what Sunset Shimmer was feeling at that very instant. The sheer, radiant energy unconsciously spilling off the two was than most humans would actively express in their entire lives.
She jumped and shouted in surprise, drawing attention to herself from the two Equestrians standing in the hall just outside the office. “Sunset Shimmer?” the shorter one asked.
The ex-unicorn shook her head. “Yes?”
“May we talk to you in private?”
Now that she’d had a second to rebalance herself, Sunset realized that neither of them radiated dark magic; in fact, the taller one — who was currently hiding her face under her hood — radiated light magic. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed; it was best not to make a scene. “But who are you two?”
They moved towards a less visible area of the hall. “Princesses Twilight Sparkle, of alternate timelines,” the taller one replied. “Blame the mirror,” she added, knowing that Sunset would be confused. Then, she pulled down her cloak’s hood.
“Eye!” Sunset balked at the sight of the princess’s six eyes. “...don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sunset, don’t play coy with us. We know you’re an Equestrian, and that you went through the mirror portal and stole something very important from both of us. It would be in your best interests to return them to us.” The six-eyed woman’s hands started glowing with magic.
“I’m not a thief; I didn’t steal your crowns,” Sunset honestly replied; it was the other two versions of her that had stolen from the princesses.
But the six-eyed princess grinned. “I have good news, and bad news, Sunset Shimmer. The good news? In my sister’s timeline, nothing was stolen, and I think that Sunset Shimmer is you; you didn’t commit a crime. Bad news? I never said it was a crown that was stolen. In fact, I never said what was stolen at all, either to you or to your principal. So, care to tell me how you knew?”
Sunset flinched, as if she’d been struck, but composed herself quickly. “No, I don’t care to tell you anything. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have class.” She started to leave, but the shorter princess grabbed her hand.
“Those crowns are the Elements of Magic, an important part of Equestrian defense. Without them, Equestria’s in danger.”
“But we aren’t in Equestria right now. Let go of my hand right now, or I’ll scream and make a scene. I’m sure the police would be very interested in two women who are threatening a highschool student.”
The shorter princess let go, but the taller one chuckled. “You’re right, Sunset. You’re absolutely right. If we were in Equestria, you could be charged with high treason for endangering a national defense and stealing a national treasure.”
“Treason?” Sunset squeaked.
“But we aren’t in Equestria right now. Obviously, there are at least two other Sunset Shimmers running around, each with an Element of Magic-” Sunset’s Twitch told the goddess she was right on the money, “-and they have taken refuge in a foreign country that neither recognizes Equestrian Law, nor has an Extradition treaty with Equestria.” She pointed at Magic. “And since Twilight Sparkle and I technically illegally entered a sovereign foreign nation, we have no authority to compel you to give up the location of the other Sunset Shimmers or the Elements of Magic beyond simply pleading with you. So can we have the Elements back?”
Sunset just stared at the six-eyed princess.
“I take that as a no, then. Well then, here’s what’s going to happen. Twilight Sparkle and I are going to start walking away. I am going to remark that in the capture of traitors, the use of any magic is allowed. I am also going to say that as crown princesses, neither of us can use magic to attack an innocent mare without seriously damaging our reputation. I am also going to say that since there is no functional magic in this world, this nation has no laws regarding its use. And finally, Twilight Sparkle and I are now going to find this mural on the wall very fascinating, and if you just so happen to be compelled to speak your mind, well, we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
Despite being a light mage and a princess, Twilight easily pulled off her sister’s malicious grin. Then she quickly grabbed a confused Twilight Sparkle’s arm and spun her around to face the mural on the wall.
Behind them, Sunset Shimmer made a choking noise, stopped, coughed once, and then spoke. “The Mistress is rubbing off on you, Ms. Twilight. You are a very naughty filly.”
“I don’t know what you mean, Sunset Shimmer,” Life told the specter that wore Sunset’s skin, the same specter that Cobalt had created earlier. Magic started to speak up, but Life grabbed her hand and squeezed, silencing her.
“Hmmm.... well, the other Sunset Shimmers have the two Elements of Harmony. They are in a house only about twenty blocks southwest from here. 212 Cherry Street. They know that this meeting is happening, and if they don’t hear an all clear message soon, they will assume that the worst has transpired, and that the dark mage that they knew came through the portal was to blame.”
“I see. Well, you just let them know that you’re alright, Sunset Shimmer. Also, would you be so kind as to inform anyone else that needs to know? That would be great, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Of course, Ms. Twilight. Master Cobalt will be informed. Oh, and by the way, the phrase is ‘Would you kindly?’ Just F.Y.I.”
“Of course.”
“Now, I’m going to walk to 212 Cherry Street and you're welcome to come and visit me.” The possessed mare’s tone shifted midway, so that she no longer sounded possessed at all. “You two clearly have good intentions. I’d be happy to have you two over as guests.”
Life turned back around and looked at Sunset Shimmer. Aside from slightly grayed sclera, she looked perfectly normal. “Thank you for the invitation.”
Magic, for her part, had managed to hold her tongue quite well up to this point. However, even the tremendous willpower of any Twilight Sparkle was not infinite. “What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Plausible deniability.”