“Where the hell am I?” Ryan asked as he found himself in what seemed like the white room from the matrix.
“So where the hell are we?” The familiar voice of Orion said to Ryan.
“No clue. But wherever we are there sure as hell seems to be a whole lot of nothing.” Ryan said as he looked around the expanse of white.
“Ah good to see that you have arrived.” A female voice said, her voice emanating from all around Ryan.
“Um who’s there?” Ryan asked not seeing anyone in any of the directions he faced.
“Maybe you’ll recognize me when you see my physical self.” The voice said before a white coated alicorn with a blood red man appeared in front of him. “Recognize who I am now?”
“Holy crap is that Fausticorn?” Orion asked as Ryan was left speechless by the sudden appearance of the alicorn.
“I believe your kind knows me as Fausticorn if your looking for a name for my face. Or would you rather call me by my human counterpart’s name of Lauren?”
“Wait you know about…” Ryan said not wanting to talk about what he knew.
“Your kind’s knowledge of ponies? Yes, I do.” She said before noticing why Ryan was being so quiet. “You can talk to me about your kind’s knowledge of Equestria. For many years I have looked upon your kind with interest. Besides your god told me of your mission here so don’t fear being sent back to earth for talking to me about what you know.”
“Okay then.” Ryan said letting out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he was holding in. “That takes a load off my mind.” He said with a chuckle before looking around his surroundings. “So exactly where are we Miss Faust?”
“Please call me Lauren. As for where we are, we are in the space between realities.” Lauren said.
“So this place in the space between Equestria and the human world?” Ryan asked.
“Yes and no. This is the space between the two realities but it is also the space between multiple other realities.” She replied before her horn began to glow and magic mirrors sprung up around the duo.
“What’s with the mirrors?” Ryan asked examining the mirrors to see they were all the same.
“These aren’t just mirrors, these are doors to each of the different Equestrias.”
“Wait there are different realities of Equestria?” Ryan asked as he realized what she was implying.
“Yes there is.” She said before walking over to one of the mirrors. “Take this Equestria for example, in this Equestria a human arrived 1000 years before the days of the Equestria you know. He became a knight in the service of my daughters.”
“So the rumors of you being Celestia and Luna’s mom are true?”
“Yes.” Lauren said before turning her gaze from the mirror back to Ryan. “So then let’s talk about the Equestria you know.”
“What do you… Oh.” Ryan said. “Hi mom.” He said sheepishly realizing who exactly he was talking to.
“Don’t call me that Ryan. Not until you are married to my daughter. Now seeing as how my husband isn’t here I’m going to have to scare you a bit.” She said before her horn began to glow and Ryan was surrounded by a ring of fire. “Now if you recall from how you humans describe me I am a god. And guess what those stories are true, so keep in mind if you even think about hurting Luna, Celestia will be the least of your worries. Got. It?”
“Got it ma’am.” Ryan said giving her a salute. “If you don’t mind me asking Lauren who exactly is Luna and Celestia’s father?”
“Ever heard of the Alicorn of Death?” She said a small sly smile on her face.
“She can’t be serious?” Orion said to Ryan.
“I am.” She replied catching both Orion and Ryan off guard.
“Wait she can hear me?!” Orion said.
“Yes I can. I’m the pony version of your god I have infinite power, that helps me hear you perfectly clear.” She said. “But as I was saying my husband is the Alicorn of Death.”
“How?” Ryan asked.
“When he died he found out that when an alicorn dies they become the spirit of death. His spirit appeared to me and told me of what he had discovered about our kind. So he asked me to make him the Alicorn of Death, this in turn would make it so that no other alicorns could be the spirit of death. When I asked him why he wished for me to do such a thing he told me that he did not want our daughters to collect the spirits of those they loved or cared about.”
“Wow. He sounds like one heck of a father.” Ryan said after hearing her out.
“Thank you. He really was.” Lauren said memories dancing in her vision.
“So I have to ask how did you end up here?” Ryan said gesturing to the space between realities.
“Star Swirl the Bearded told me that through his research he found that tears in reality would appear overtime. So with his help I found that the only way was to make the magical mirror that he had designed and then make my way into the space between realities. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t see Celestia and Luna.” She said the last part coated with sadness.
“I’m sorry to hear.” Ryan said placing a hand on her withers.
“Thank you Ryan.” She said holding back her tears. “I can already tell that you’ll make Luna a very happy mare.” She said before her horn let off a slight glow. “Now it is time for you to leave and go back to the Equestria that you know.” With that said a magic mirror appeared to the right of the duo.
“Yeah good plan. Everyone’s probably wondering where I am.” Ryan said with a chuckle.
“I highly doubt that. I’ve frozen time in that Equestria so it’ll seem like you’ll arrive back through the mirror exactly when they expect you too.”
“Wow that’s pretty cool.” Ryan said making his way over to the mirror.
“Ryan before you go I want you to promise me that you will tell Celestia and Luna that I always have and always will be with them.”
“I promise.” Ryan said before taking another step towards the mirror. “Hey Lauren I gotta ask what’ll happen to me when I go back to Equestria? Will I be a pony or a human?”
“If you wish to be a pony I could make it so the portal turned you into one. What race would you like to be?”
“What’s the chance you’ll let me be an alicorn?” Ryan said with a sheepish grin.
“Sorry no can do. But you could become one if I turned you into another race of pony.”
“Well in that case I’ll decline the offer. I’ve spent my whole life getting used to my human body so I think I’ll keep it.”
“Suit yourself.” Lauren said with a warm smile.
“Got it. See ya Lauren!” Ryan said before leaving through the mirror.
“Ryan you’re back!” The voice of Twilight said as Ryan found himself back in the magic mirror’s room in the Crystal Palace. “What took you so long?”
“What do you mean?” Ryan asked as his vision finally stopped spinning.
“Well you were gone long enough that I gave everypony here a quick rundown of what happened.” Twilight said.
“No you didn’t silly I did.” Pinkie said bouncing up next to Twilight.
“Well I was just saying my goodbyes is all.” Ryan said before noticing Stealth was standing near the door to the mirror room his eyes glazed over and his horn giving off a faint glow. “What’s with Stealth?” Ryan said pointing to the changeling.
“Stealth? Are you okay?!” Twilight said running up to him as his eyes return back to normal.
“Yeah I’m fine Twi.” He said before turning to Ryan. “We might want to head back to Ponyville as soon as possible.”
“How come?” Ryan asked.
“We have a guest waiting for us.” Stealth replied.