//------------------------------// // 1.0 … How Things Began … // Story: Through A Darkened Mirror // by Dorath //------------------------------// It was an idyllic early summer afternoon in Ponyville, Celestia’s sun was shining, the weather patrol had cleared the skies of all but a few clouds, the birds were singing, and there had been no monster attacks or other excessive weirdness for weeks. Most everypony was out and about, enjoying the day. The Bearers of Harmony, however, were gathered at the Castle of Friendship where they waited, some with more patience than others, for Twilight to finish her modifications on the magic mirror she had “inherited” from Celestia. “Come ON, Twi’,” Rainbow Dash whined, “How long is this gonna take?” “Almost done!” the alicorn replied, as she made yet another adjustment to the array of mana crystals, magical amplifiers and magic inhibitors that should, theoretically, both enhance and stabilize the portal to the human world enough for all six of them to go through. “Are you sure this will be okay?” Fluttershy murmured uncertainly as she watched the princess work. “Sunset and I worked everything out,” Twilight assured her timid friend, “We’ve confirmed that there is a second Twilight over there, so having multiple copies of us walking about for a short period won’t destabilize the other world’s equilibrium. The school is closed for the summer, so we won’t have to worry about any unexpected witnesses to our arrival or departure, and Pinkie and AJ have assured me that they can put us all up for a three day visit.” The alicorn stopped for a moment and furrowed her brow, “I mean the other Pinkie Pie and Applejack assured me. Wow, that’s going to get confusing.” “Eh, we’ll figure something out, egghead,” Rainbow did a mid-air flip in her excitement, “We’re going to meet ourselves from another world! This. Is. So. Awesome!” “I know!” Pinkie Pie chirped, as she bounced in place, “We need to have a ‘Thanks For Inviting Us To Your World’ party, and a ‘Pleased To Meet Us’ party, oh, oh, and a slumber party and --” Applejack reached out a hoof to cover Pinkie’s mouth, “Simmer down there, sugarcube, we’ve got three days, an’ Ah’m sure tha ponies on tha other side of tha mirror have things they want ta do ta.” The farmpony cocked an eyebrow at Twilight, “Are ya sure that havin’ two Pinkies runin’ around together is such a good idea, Twi’?” “Not completely,” Twilight admitted with a giggle, as she double-checked her notes and diagrams for the fifth time, “Although I suspect it won’t be any worse than the concentrated “radicalness” of having two Rainbows,” she added, smirking at the blue pegasus, who responded with a raspberry. Rarity indulged in a small, disapproving sniff at her friends’ coarse antics, but even she was gripped by the exhilaration of the moment, “Just think on it, darlings, new fashions, new sights,” the unicorn leaned over to give Fluttershy a gentle shoulder bump and a smile, “New animals.” Rarity’s smile widened as the pegasus perked up, her nervousness now buried under thoughts of all the different and adorable creatures she could meet. “All set!” Twilight cried happily, “Now, did everypony read the primers I gave you about fingers and human behavior?” when all of her friends answered in the affirmative, although Rainbow rolled her eyes at having to do homework for their vacation, the alicorn eagerly charged up her horn. After taking a moment to focus, Twilight touched the mirror with her magic causing the portal to spring into life. Unlike its normal manifestation, the augmented portal bloomed out from the mirror that normally contained it to form a shimmering, vertical pool just past the mirror’s surface, “Okay, fillies, let’s go!” with a happy cheer, the mares headed into the portal. Unfortunately, the portal’s iridescent disk prevented any of them from noticing when one of the mana crystals overloaded. The resulting magical discharge arced into one of the magical amplifiers, and then flowed through Twilight’s carefully designed matrix to super-charge four more mana crystals before it finally struck one of the magic inhibitors and dissipated, but not before the impact knocked the inhibitor out of line. The six ponies shrieked in agony as magic surged through the portal, twisting its dimensional energies and resetting the exit point while the ponies where still in transit between the realms. Ejecting the now unconscious mares out into its new destination, the portal flared brightly … and then vanished. ________________________________________ Aurora Shimmer – usually known by her street handle of “Sunset” – sat on her idling motorcycle in the rain-drenched Tacoma night as she stared down the alley that the weird, blue flash had just come out of. When a few minutes of further observation resulted in nothing more interesting than some trash blowing in the wind, Sunset almost kicked her bike back into gear, but some odd feeling she couldn’t place stopped her. ‘Come on, Sunset, move it! Whatever that was, it’s not any of your concern, especially this close to the Puyallup Wall!’ Despite herself, Sunset remained where she was, her cybereyes straining to pierce the alleyway’s shadows, until finally, she extended the bike’s kickstand and locked down its controls while growling at herself for her own stupidity. Reaching down, she pulled her LA-15 from its scabbard, a tingle running through her arm as the smart-circuits in the assault rifle activated and a familiar amber targeting spot appeared in her vision. Striding through the murk, Sunset carefully avoided the piles of wet, rancid garbage that dotted the ground as she made her way deeper into the alley. Sliding around a rusted dumpster, she stopped as her gaze fell on the pile of bodies that lay sprawled in the shadows, “Oh, frag me, a dumpsite …” She almost turned to flee, when her brain finally processed what her eyes’ thermographic system had been telling her: the people, girls really, were alive! With a disgruntled sigh, Sunset reluctantly stepped closer and dropped to a crouch to take a better look at what she had found. ‘Six teenagers, none of them dressed for Seattle weather,’ reaching out her hand, she touched a few cheeks, checked some pulses and gently slapped a face or two, ‘They’re too well fed and well-dressed to be squatters or to have come out of the Zone, but they aren’t responsive. Maybe blitzed or tranqed?’ rising back to her feet, Sunset looked over her discovery as she brooded, ‘So what are six corp-brats, cute ones too, doing lying unconscious in a back alley? Some drekheaded prank? A ransom job gone sideways? Damnit, if I leave them here they’ll get pneumonia, assuming that a body bank doesn’t find them and turn them into fresh merchandise or some gangbanger doesn’t sell them to a bunraku parlor that’s looking for new meat puppets.’ Stomping irritably back to the mouth of the alley, Sunset activated her cranial cellphone and made a call, “Hey Doc … Yeah, look I need a favor … I found a half-dozen underage twinkies comatose in the alley on 7th street South-East, could you send Johnny and the van around to pick ‘em up? … I don’t know, sixteen, seventeen, maybe? … Thanks, Doc, I appreciate this … Yeah, I’ll play guardian angel until Johnny shows to collect them … What? Why? … But … Fine, alright, Doc, you win … Just tell Johnny to move it, okay? It’s nasty out here, and I want to go home.” ________________________________________ Twilight moaned as her eyes fluttered open, then immediately snapped shut again to keep out the fluorescent lighting that aggravated the headache pounding in her temples. Throwing an arm across her face for good measure, she groaned a second time as the sounds of people moving about encouraged her headache to strive for new heights, “Twilight, darling, how are you feeling?” Rarity’s cultured voice asked out of Twilight’s self-induced darkness, as a comforting hand rested on her shoulder. “Miserable,” Twilight replied, her sore throat reducing her voice to a rasp that nearly matched Rainbow’s, “Is everypony else okay?” Applejack’s drawl answered her question, “A'right enough, sugarcube, jus’ sore, cold, an’ a mite confused about where we are.” Finally forcing her eyes open, Twilight squinted over at the girls, only for her eyes to widen in surprise at the odd pinkish-peach coloring of their skins. Glancing down at her own arm, the academic blinked in confusion at the light-brown, almost chocolate milk-like, color her own epidermis had assumed. Her brow furrowed as she pondered their strange appearance, Twilight accepted the cup of water that Fluttershy quietly offered with a small smile as she looked around at her clustered friends and the room beyond. While the room had the medicinal smell that seemed to be universal for hospitals (although with a strange, bitter underlying odor that she didn’t recognize), it held several cots, including the one Twilight currently occupied, and portable dividers rather than proper beds and privacy curtains she would have expected. Dull grey walls, a few uncomfortable looking chairs and the small table holding a pitcher and some cheap plastic cups completed the scene. “Does anypony remember anything after we entered the portal?” Twilight’s stomach clenched unpleasantly as her friends all shook their heads helplessly, “Then how did we get here?” “Don’t worry your head, silly-billy,” Pinkie smiled at Twilight as she blithely waved off the former-alicorn’s concern and playfully poked her shoulder, “I bet that the pony coming down the hall can tell us.” The other five girls stared at the partypony for moment, before the sound of approaching footsteps drew their attention away from Pinkie and her smug grin to the door, where a red-haired, bespectacled woman in a lab coat and scrubs soon appeared. “Ah, you’re all awake, good,” the woman smiled at them as she pulled an odd device that looked rather like one of the “smart phones” Twilight’s human friends carried from a coat pocket, “I’m Doctor Reznik, although most folks just call me Doc Razor, and you’re in the Fife Free Clinic. Do any of you girls remember what happened to you?” Rarity glanced at the others before stepping forward slightly to address the woman, “I’m sorry, Doctor, but we’re all rather mystified about what has happened ourselves. Where did you say we are?” “Fife Free Clinic in Tacoma,” as the girls stared at her blankly, the doctor tried again, “Seattle Metroplex? Is any of this ringing a bell?” as her patients’ obvious confusion continued, she sighed and started typing some notes into her little gadget while mumbling to herself, “Definitely need to run a toxicology-screen on those blood samples,” raising her voice she continued on, unaware that the six girls had heard everything she said, “Do you remember anything? Your names, perhaps?” “Oh, my apologies!” Rarity blushed at her gaffe, “I’m Rarity, and these are my friends, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” each of the girls waved or nodded to the Doctor in turn as she was named. “Right …” Razor just raised an eyebrow and entered more notes into her device, “Well, most of you girls seem to be fine physically, other than not remembering how you arrived in the ‘Plex. You, however, Miss Sparkle,” Twilight gulped as the doctor fixed her with a sharp gaze, “Are suffering from Acute Synaptic Distress Syndrome, thankfully without any notable accompanying physical trauma.” Walking over to the cot, she fished a small packet of pills out of a pocket and handed them to Twilight, “Take these, they’ll re-balance your salt and electrolyte levels and help with the migraines and the light sensitivity.” Returning to her place by the door, the doctor rubbed her forehead tiredly as she muttered to herself again, “No credsticks or hardcopy ID, no cash, those names are handles if I ever heard one, and someone dumped them in that alley, oh, and one of them is an esper … What am I going to do with these girls?” “Er, pardon me, Ma’am,” Applejack smiled apologetically as she broke in on the doctor’s thoughts, “But jus’ how did we get ta yer clinic?” “How? A good Samaritan found you and called me …” Razor’s tired face suddenly broadened into a calculating smile, “Would you girls like to meet her?” After Twilight and the others eagerly agreed, she tilted her head slightly and began to talk to empty space as the girls watched in bewilderment, “Shimmer, come down to recovery, your baby SINners are all up and they want to meet their guardian angel.” ‘Who is she talking to?’ Twilight wondered, ‘Sinners? Shimmer? Wait, does she mean Sunset?’ fixing her eyes eagerly on the door, she was soon rewarded with the arrival of a familiar figure dressed in motorcycle leathers … only this wasn’t the Sunset Shimmer Twilight knew. She looked a bit older, her face was gaunt, as if she had missed a lot of meals, and her eyes … her eyes were empty, showing Twilight nothing but her own reflection, “S-Sunset?” the surprise caused by the older girl's troubling appearance caused Twilight to stumble over her greeting as her voice filled with worry. Sunset stopped at Twilights words, “How do you know my name?” she demanded suspiciously as she brought a hand up to the pistol slung under her shoulder. The room filled with tension as the six girls recoiled away from Sunset’s sudden hostility in surprise, only for Doc Razor to break it by casually backhanding the taller, flame-haired girl in the shoulder, “Knock it off Shimmer, you know I don’t allow fighting in my clinic,” dropping her voice, she continued urgently, “Esper, Sunset! And however she knows you, she seems concerned about you, so just mark this one in the benefits column and roll with it.” With a genial, if slightly forced, smile, the doctor made the rounds of the introductions, clearly trying to calm everyone down and put the recent friction behind them, “And that’s everybody, which brings us to the most pressing issue at hand. Where are you girls going to stay?” “Where? Aren’t they staying here?’ Sunset blinked at the doctor in confusion while the girls watched the exchange with open curiosity. “Shimmer, Shimmer,” Razor chided the younger woman while giving her a toothy smile that reminded Twilight of the one Celestia wore on occasion, “This is a clinic not a coffin hotel. You however, have your own doss.” Sunset’s voice sharpened in irritation as she glared at the doctor, “I don’t even know these twinkies and you want me to take them home?!” “They have nowhere else to go, and they don’t know anyone in the whole ‘Plex, Shimmer, they need someone to look after them,” the doctor fixed Sunset with a firm look, although her grin never wavered, “And you know full well that if you really didn’t care, you would have just left them back in that alley where you found them.” Sunset stared at her for a moment before she gave a strangled scream of exasperation and stomped out of the room leaving a trail of swearing to mark her path. Doctor Reznik just rolled her eyes in amusement at the younger woman’s behavior, and then turned a gentler smile on the six girls who were nervously watching as their fates were decided by these strangers, “Sunset will come around, she just has to get her frustration out of her system. She’s good people, even if we do have to occasionally kick her in the hoop in order to remind her of the fact.”