A Mirror of many Faces

by Jyuuma

Chapter 10: Leap of Faith

Everypony remained in silence for a few moments after Corona Misty had finished her story. It all sounded just so fantastic, even though everypony present in the Royal Hall, from Twilight’s friends to the Princesses, was perfectly aware of the existence of, at least, one other world besides Equestria. They all had questions, but one unicorn in particular seemed particularly stressed.

“So…everything that’s happening all over Equestria…it’s because of that experiment going wrong?” Fluttershy asked, with Discord at her side.

“That, and the very fact that all of us are here, coming from different dimensions, all at the same time.” Corona Misty affirmed. “Normally there wouldn’t be much of an issue, at least not on this scale, but a non-analogue world was involved in the mix this time, and your world is struggling to keep everything in place. Imagine it as a bucket that’s already full of water: Trying to fill it more will cause it to overflow, and some may be spilled.”

“I don’t understand, though.” Applejack began. “Twilight here traveled to that other world, not once but TWICE, just recently, and yet nothing strange had happened until now.”

“I…think I can explain that.” Twilight stood up. “But before that…could you tell us the date the experiment happened, again?”

Corona Misty stared at Twilight for a few seconds, then answered. “It was September 27…why?”

“And the date you guys traveled from Stella to Corona?” Twilight asked Stella Misty this time.

“It…was the same. September 27.” She answered, looking at her older brother, blinking at the realization.

“…Oh no…no no no…” Twilight began to whisper to herself, sweating profusely.

“Twilight? What’s the matter?” Celestia asked, noticing her student and friend was getting increasingly anxious, walking from one side to the other.

Twilight stopped for a moment, then stared at the group. “…This is all my fault.”

Everypony stared back at her. “What do you mean, dear Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked this time.

Twilight took a deep breath before she continued. “September 27…was the day I traveled to the human world for the second time. The difference with the first time, however, is that I sort of forced the Mirror portal to open that time, using the diary of Sunset Shimmer. The Princesses had mentioned, the first time I traveled, that the gate opens once every 30 moons or so, and with all that you guys have told us just now, I’m guessing that was some sort of safety feature…I was excited that I had managed to find a way to open the portal at will, and in such a hurry to go help my friends there, that I didn’t think about the consequences of forcing the portal…” she explained, getting more and more anxious. ”This whole deal is my fault! Your brother going missing, the anomalies occurring all over Equestria, all those other missing ponies, EVERYTHING…”

“Miss Sparkle, please stop.” Stella Misty interrupted her. “None of this is your fault.”

“My sister is right!” Stella Bright stood up. “If anything, it’s all a huge coincidence!”

“Indeed, miss Sparkle.” Corona Misty said this time. “You said it yourself: You had to travel to help your friends in the other world. You had no idea something like this could happen. Besides, if there is someone to blame, it’s us at Corona. We were too confident on our ability to discover and explore worlds, so we didn’t take into account the possibility of such an outcome…”

“At any rate, this is not the time to look for culprits, but to look for solutions.” Stella Bright pointed out.

“…You are right.” Corona Misty looked up at him. “We must find our brother before the anomalies worsen, or else our worlds may be in an even greater danger.”

“There’s just one more thing that doesn’t make sense.” Celestia pointed out. “How did he know the Diary was important to activate the portal?”

“Some of our equipment allows us to find objects with traces of magic or any other form of energy that may belong to a dimension different than the one we are on.” Corona Misty said. “It is not too far-fetched to imagine my brother carries such equipment as well, and used it in hopes of finding anything that could help his quest.”

“He might not yet know the exact function of that Diary, but he knows it carries magic that connects this world and the world the other Sky ended up at.” Stella Misty said.

“Anyway, how will we find him?” Twilight asked. “We can’t just wait for him to start another disaster for us to know where he is!”

“…I’m afraid to say this but, with no way to actually track him down, that’s all we can do.” Luna said, feeling helpless.

“Even our equipment would only bring his approximate location but only if it picked large enough amounts of magic.” Corona Misty continued, in a sad tone.

A few quiet seconds passed, before the contents of her saddle bag began to shine and whirr, making everypony in the room jump slightly.

“…Good riddance.” Corona Misty said, taking out some of her gear, something that looked like a radar. The device was making a whirring noise, as it had activated all of a sudden. Just as they were all approaching Corona Misty, a couple of guards broke into the Hall.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, an emergency has risen I the Everfree once again!” one of the guards shouted.

“…And that’s our cue.” Luna said. “Let us go and bring your brother to his senses once and for all!” she addressed at Corona Misty as the group departed.

(timeskip, around half an hour or so, the group arrives at the Everfree)

Half an hour passed and the group was still rushing towards the location Corona Bright had been spotted at. As they ran, Twilight directed another question at Corona Misty.

“Now that I think about it, how comes your brother was able to hide himself so well, and even managed to escape strong and skilled magic, like Discord’s?” she asked, catching his attention as well.

“…One thing that we discovered along our travels, Miss Sparkle, is that no matter how far we go, or for how long, we always retain some of our own magic with us.” She began to explain. “It’s complicated to detail, even for us, but it seems each different world abides by its own rules, even for magic. Or, I should say, especially for the way magic works.”

“However, it weakens depending on how far, or for how long, we travel. For this, we train ourselves to make the most of our magic, and when we lack power of our own, our gadgets do the trick.” She continued, pointing at her saddle bag. “Normally I wouldn’t wish any ill will towards my brothers, but in this particular case I’m afraid to say our Bright was one of the most proficient at this endeavor, so no matter who or what he faced, he would always figure out a way to prevail.”

“Even against Chaos magic?” Discord pondered. “How are we going to capture him then?”

“…Just in this case, I’m hoping that he won’t be able to deal with several opponents at once. Let us hope for the best.” She sighed. Just as she finished talking, they began to see a clearing ahead of them. What they saw as they left the dense trees behind was astonishing.

In front of them, on top of a hill, was a finished portal: A round gate in a platform, on its side was a panel and 2 devices, one holding the stolen battery, and the other the Diary. Standing by the panel was Corona Bright, the Mysterious Stallion.

“Brother!” Corona Misty shouted, making Corona Bright jump on his spot, turning around and throwing a menacing grimace. He rushed to press buttons on the panel, bringing the portal to life, beginning to produce white shining ripples within its frame. As it did, however, they could see the entire scenery beginning to shift in strange ways: The surrounding trees and plants began to produce after images, faint yet ominous echoes could be heard all over, and even a crack in the sky began to form, right above them.

“We need to stop the portal!” Celestia shouted. “Who knows what else could happen if we let it run?!”

“The Princess is right, if we let it be, the barrier between this world and the other world will break down for sure!” Corona Misty said as well, rushing towards the panel. However, once she got close enough, a magic blast pushed her back violently, Corona Bright’s horn glowing and at the ready.

“Mister Bright, you gotta’ stop this!” Stella Misty yelled at the Stallion.

“I WON’T! Not now that I’m so CLOSE!” Corona Bright exclaimed. “You should be helping me, Misty, this is OUR brother we are talking about here!” said to Corona Misty, catching her off guard. Still, she brought herself to respond.

“I WANT to help you, but not if it means hurting others like this!” Corona Misty replied, her voice sounding desperate at first, then taking a stern tone. “And as much as I want to help, for the sake of our brother, you don’t get to just ASK for my help, after YOU stubbornly ran away like you did!”

“Your sister’s right Mister Bright! If you don’t stop the portal it will only cause the links between dimensions to become more unstable! If those barriers break, it will cause chaos for EVERYPONY, not just here, and saving your brother will, unfortunately, become the least of our problems!”

“SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP!” Corona Bright roared angrily. “If you won’t help me, then stay out of my way! I’m bringing him back myself, and you won’t stop me he-”

His chatter was cut short as Applejack and Pinkie had sneaked around and pinned him down from behind, with Rarity, Fluttershy, and the Princesses running in to help, keeping him down with their magic. As they did, Stella Misty and Sky, along with Twilight and Corona Misty, rushed to the panel and the Diary.

“Come on, come on, it can’t be late…” Corona Misty whispered to herself as she hurried to press buttons on the panel in an attempt to shut down the portal.

“We can help with the battery, go ahead and remove the Diary, Miss Sparkle.” Stella Misty said to Twilight, as they saw to dismantle the devices holding the battery and the Diary.

They worked diligently for a few minutes, amidst the shifting scenery around them, and the noises of a disgruntled Corona Bright, struggling under Celestia, Luna, and even Discord’s combined magic, with Twilight’s friends rushing in to see how they could help. After a few more moments, however, the entire machine began to shine and sparkle violently, with the scenery warping as well. Everypony near the devices had to step back, as it began to sparkle even more, apparently struggling to keep the portal open.

“That’s the best we could do…I couldn’t shut it down immediately, but it should begin to power itself down now.” Corona Misty said, exhausted.

“Since we couldn’t remove the Diary, we made it so it spends the battery faster…it should be a matter of time…” Stella Misty continued.

Just as she said, the device holding the battery began to slowly power down, consuming the battery’s charge faster than what it was supposed to. After a few moments, the portal began to sparkle a little more, still trying to maintain itself, before it slowly began to shut down.

“No...no…NO!” Corona Bright roared, finally breaking free of the magic holding him down in a violent burst, and rushed towards the vanishing portal. Stella Bright turned around just in time to spot him, making one last stand between the enraged stallion and the device, his horn glowing at the ready. However, before he could react properly, Corona Bright teleported himself right behind him. The next few seconds felt like an eternity, everypony standing on their spots as the stallion jumped into the portal, right as it closed.

A heavy silence fell as the device finally shut down, with the forest warping no more. A few more moments passed before anypony would speak up.

“He…he just jumped in…” Corona Misty said, astounded.

“Darn, I could have stopped him…” Stella Bright sighed. His sister approached him.

“Don’t beat yourself over this, bro’.” Stella Misty said. “We knew he was being quite stubborn, but indeed, to have this much determination…”

Twilight blinked, shaking herself out of the commotion. “…well…what now?” she asked.

Corona Misty walked towards them, deep in thought. “I’m…not sure yet. As things are now, we can only hope he did make it to the other world. One way or another, it will be a while until we see him again…”

Twilight approached Corona Misty, placing her hoof on her shoulder. “I’m terribly sorry we couldn’t stop him in the end.”

“Thanks, Miss Sparkle.” She said. “It’s…certainly not the best outcome, but it could have been worse. If we allowed the portal to keep running, who knows what amount of damage it would have caused. You all saw it, the entire place was getting warped. If we hadn’t acted immediately, none of us would have made it out of this.”

“Miss Sparkle, the Diary.” Stella Misty said, bringing her the Diary. Twilight nodded and picked it up. “For now, let’s disassemble the device. We can’t risk it activating again.”

Everypony nodded and began to walk towards the device, getting to work.

---

Only a few days had passed but it felt like it had been longer. Twilight and her friends helped deliver the battery back to Cloudsdale, and briefed Dash on all that had happened. The Princesses had returned to Canterlot to continue with the rescue operations. Corona Misty had assured she’d give them all the support she and her team could give them, since it was likely some of the missing ponies could be at Corona, Stella, or any other dimension, or that after the source of the chaos ended, they managed to return by themselves. At any rate, there was much work to do.

“I’ve been thinking…couldn’t we just open the portal in the Mirror and look for your brother in the human world?” Twilight asked Corona Misty. They were standing in a separate room in Canterlot’s Castle, along with Stella Misty and Bright, where they had assembled a stable portal to Corona, and were making the final arrangements before leaving.

“I was thinking about that too.” Corona Misty said. “But let’s wait it out just a little longer. As things are right now, this portal is stable enough to bring us back and forth between Corona and Equestria because they are similar worlds. The human world, however, is not. While there may be some similarities, the changes between that world and ours are bigger. From what our people at Corona have gathered, dimensions work in a smart way provided that one doesn’t force them too much. That said, they will sort of “fix themselves”, but it takes time. So for now, it would be wise to not travel to the Human world just yet. Let’s wait until things are more stable.”

“Still, I must say…” she continued, approaching Twilight. “The very fact Equestria had developed a link to such a different world, AND that you managed to stabilize it enough to travel at will…it’s a commendable development. And before you ask, don’t think too hard about it: this whole mess was just one huge coincidence. None of us had any idea all our experiments were happening at the exact same time, nor did we know they would cause such repercussions. I trust this won’t stop you from continuing your experiments. Now more than ever they will be necessary, not just for the sake of science, but to avoid another catastrophe.”

Twilight looked at Corona Misty for a moment, then nodded and smiled. “You are right. If anything now it’s the best time to see this as an opportunity. There’s much to do, for all of us.”

“That’s the spirit, Miss Sparkle!” Stella Misty cheered. “There’s just so much to learn and discover for everypony now…the sky’s the limit!” she said excitedly.

“Talk about that, we better return with our Sky first.” Stella Bright said. “He’ll be glad to hear about everything that has transpired.”

“I take it we are all ready then.” Corona Misty said. “Miss Sparkle, I *know* I’ve said this too many times already, but…Our deepest apologies for all the trouble we caused. You have no idea how grateful we are for your patience and cooperation.”

“It’s alright, don’t worry.” Twilight smiled. “It was a bumpy beginning, but in the end, we all got to meet new friends, new worlds, and new possibilities, right?”

“You are right, Miss Sparkle. It’s time to move on.” Corona Misty said, with a gentle smile. “Shall we, then?” she continued before turning to the panel and bringing the portal to Corona to life.

“Here’s hoping till the next time we meet!” Stella Misty said. They all bowed to Twilight one more time before walking towards the portal, with it closing shortly after they were all through.

Twilight remained standing still for a little longer, staring at the now-closed-portal, holding Sunset Shimmer’s Diary tightly.

“…Until next time.” She sighed. While they were all right about the opportunities in front of them all after this incident, she couldn’t help but feel a little guilty still. As she held the Diary close to her, she couldn’t help but wonder about the brothers, still stranded.

She let out another sigh, hoping with all her heart that they all would manage to reunite safely.

Comments

[Iamsorry]

nice chapter again. was really exciting at the end x3
i cant wait to see how this all ends.