A Mirror of many Faces

by Jyuuma

EPILOGUE: Redemption

Thump-thump…

Thump-thump…

Heartbeats, amidst the darkness.

Thump-thump…

A sudden flash of light appeared in front of Corona Bright, as he was thrown out of the portal, hitting the ground with an audible thump. He took a deep breath, as if he had just come out of the water. His ears were ringing. He turned around just in time to see the portal he had come from closing behind him, leaving no trace. He remained sitting down, regaining his breath and his senses. He held his head in slight pain.

It took him a moment, however, to realize something strange.

His body had changed.

He was larger, and no longer had hooves. His mane had become shorter, and he didn’t have a tail either. He was also wearing a jumpsuit.

“…Huh. This is…most curious indeed.” He whispered to himself, taking a better look at his body, waving his hands and fingers in front of his face, noting his nose was smaller as well, and that he was also missing his horn. Then he looked at his legs, grabbing his thighs.

“So I guess this is how a bipedal feels.” He pondered. “Strange, though I can’t say I dislike it.” He then tried to concentrate, as if trying to utilize his magic, but nothing happened.

“…That can’t be good.” He mumbled, then looked around. He quickly found a bag near him, and proceeded to check on its contents. “…Ok, good, it seems my gear still works somehow. I could certainly do with my magic though…”

Noticing he was still sitting, he tried to stand up. On all fours at first, then attempting to raise his body, putting his weight on his legs. After a few minutes, he was finally standing up, though still wobbling a little.

“This…is gonna’ be tough.” He thought. “At any rate, this is where he ended up, huh?” He said, looking around. He was standing in the middle of a green hill, overlooking a town, and a city nearby. “…Certainly not as advanced as Corona, but they both seem bursting with life.”

He whispered. As he continued to look over the scenery, a whirring sound came out from his bag, and he hurried to seek one of his tools.

“What is it now…hmm…September 26…huh, wait a second, this is…” He was surprised by the readings on his device. At the same time, he could hear a similar whirring noise coming from somewhere close…

“…could it be…could it really be…?” he heard a familiar voice say. Walking towards him, was his brother, Corona Sky.

It felt like time itself had frozen around the siblings as they stood still, looking at each other. After what felt like forever, the two rushed towards each other and shared a tight embrace.

“Sky! Oh god, are you…are you alright!?” Corona Bright asked, looking his brother all over. He was wearing the same kind of jumpsuit he had on, though a little dirtier, a few minor cuts here and there.

“Y-yes, I’m fine, bro, I’m fine…” Corona Sky said. “It’s just been a week, and I somehow managed to keep under the radar…but anyway! How did you manage to make it here? Does this mean our portal worked after all? Do you know what happened back then?” Corona Sky bombarded his brother with all these questions, and he couldn’t help but hunch over, sighing.

“It’s…it’s a long story.” Corona Bright replied, clearly ashamed. “I’d rather not talk about it right now. At any rate, first things first. Now that we’re reunited, we have to figure out a way to return to Corona.”

Corona Sky raised an eyebrow. He was tempted to keep asking, but decided to let it go for now. “…Right. Hm…We should have just enough gear to make a simple portal back, but unfortunately we don’t have a way to power it. There IS magic in this world, but it’s very faint, and it doesn’t look like people use it at all.” He said, rubbing his forehead, right where his horn would have been.

Corona Bright checked another one of his gadgets, something like a tablet. “Yeah…there is magic present in this world, but it’s not strong enough, at least not as present as in Corona or even--” he stopped for a moment. He remembered Equestria and all the problems he caused back there. He shook his head and focused again. “Anyway, looking for a way to power our portal will take us a while, so we better get started.”

“Yeah…we might be able to start picking up some stuff at…wait, what’s going on over there?” Corona Sky said, pointing at a large red building not too far from the hill they were standing on. The sky had darkened around the place, and a large sphere of light was shining from just outside the building. Corona Sky picked one of his tools and pointed it towards the unfolding scene.

“What the…brother, these readings…” he said, astonished.

“They are indeed off the charts.” Corona Bright began. “Almost like the thunderstorms beyond the citadels in Corona…”

The brothers looked at each other for a moment, nodded, then rushed in the direction of the building.

---

“What…is going on…?” Corona Sky pondered.

The brothers passed through the scattered crowd, students and school staff running away from the scene. In the middle of everything stood a smaller group and what seemed like a creature which handled powerful yet unstable magic. All over the place, tears in space were opening, seemingly mirroring another dimension.

“I…I recognize that place. That’s Equestria, the first place I ended up at, while looking for you.” Corona Bright said to his brother.

“Equestria?” Corona Sky asked. “Hm…could it be possible that this world and Equestria have a stable connection?”

“From what I gathered, that seems to be the case.” Corona Bright pointed out. “Anyway, as solid as that connection may be, this magic doesn’t look as safe.”

“Yeah, all these tears in space…our gear is going crazy here…However…maybe if we were able to secure one of these rips…” Corona Sky trailed off, before his brother interrupted him, holding him by his shoulder.

“Sky, no, it would be too risky, we are not going to end up separated again.” Bright said anxiously. “I’m…not losing you again.”

Sky stared at his brother, surprised. Bright was the kind of person to take risks whenever they presented themselves, and for him to be this worried about his safety, it certainly caught him off guard. Not that he doubted about his brother loving him, but still…“I…alright then, but other than these we still don’t have a faster way to return to Corona…”

“I know, I know…” Bright trailed, still swinging his device around, ignoring the fact they were approaching the core of the commotion.

“Brother, watch out!” Sky screamed, pushing his brother out of the way as a beam of magic brushed very close to him.

“Sky…thanks.” Bright nodded at his brother, then looked around. They were too close to the center of this mess, and from here, he could catch a glimpse of the people involved. And they looked quite familiar. Particularly the creature that was causing the disaster.

“…Aren’t they…?” he began to ponder, before his thoughts were cut short. “Wait, what is this?”

His device began to whirr once more, this time to point in the direction of a now-broken statue near the entrance of the building. As he walked closer to it, followed by his brother, the tool would ping more loudly.

“This…it looks like this statue has some sort of portal in it….it seems dormant though.” Bright pointed out.

“Yeah…think this is the actual link point between Equestria and this world?” Sky wondered.

“That seems to be the case indeed.” Bright answered. “However, with all the unstable magic around, this link may be unstable as well. It would be too risky to use this one as well.”

“True…besides, we still need to make preparations so the portal takes us straight to Corona.” Sky stated.

With a nod from his brother, they turned around and rushed back to the hill, pushing through the still panicking crowd.

---

It seemed relatively hard to believe that, just the day before, a creature with uncontrollable magic power was unleashed upon this location, ripping open unstable portals. As the brothers returned to the broken statue, carrying their gear in their backs, they could see the remainder of the now-gone chaos, smaller pieces of debris scattered everywhere, with no people in sight.

“And here I was thinking this was an entirely magic-less place when I first arrived.” Sky pointed out, putting his bag down.

“What surprises me more is that they managed to control the situation in such a short time notice.” Bright replied, placing his bag down and taking out some metal pieces. “Not even in Corona were we able to keep an event of such magnitude under control so quickly.”

Silence settled for a short while as the brothers began preparing their gear around the stone pedestal, talking only to properly arrange their tools. After a couple of minutes though, Sky decided to break the ice.

“So…Equestria, eh?” he addressed Bright. “You mentioned you were there before you found me…How was it there?”

Bright looked up at Sky, deep in thought. He was perfectly aware of what he had done in his blind stubbornness. What could have happened if he actually went and further messed with reality, warping it beyond repair. He wouldn’t be standing right here and now, next to his brother, about to return home.

“It…was a nice place. Lots of magic.” Bright began, still nervous about the topic. “It sure was different to actually see it, compared to just checking the readings we have back at Corona.”

”True…according to our studies, Equestria seemed to be a rather stable place to travel to and from, right?” Sky pointed out.

“…Stable. Yes.” Bright blurted out. He was aware of the pun, yet his guilt overpowered his sense of humor at the moment. To avoid an uncomfortable silence, he pushed himself to keep talking.

“It…felt like Corona in reverse, somehow. We do have magic, but rely the most on our technology. Equestria’s the opposite. There’s magic in everything and everypony, even in their pegasi and earth ponies. They also seemed to have some more…diversity. I’m pretty sure I saw a baby dragon…and I think a draconequus too.”

“A draconequus!?” exclaimed Sky, surprised. “We haven’t seen one of those in millennia back in Corona! Lucky you…”

“Well…luck is a word. If anything, I could tell, firsthand, he was as powerful and resourceful as we expected from those old books…” Bright said, then stopped for a moment. He felt he might have said a little too much.

“Firsthand?” Sky wondered, perking up. “You mean…he attacked you?”

Bright remained quiet for a moment, trying to dismiss the question by focusing on his task with the stone pedestal. Just as he expected, though, Sky insisted shortly after.

“…Brother, there is something you aren’t telling me, isn’t it?” Sky inquired.

Bright stared at his brother, unsure of how to begin. What he was sure of, however, was that Sky would learn of his crimes sooner or later. He’d rather tell him right here and now. He took a deep breath and looked up at his brother.

“…Right, it’ll be better to tell you now that I have the chance.” Bright started, collected his thoughts for a moment, then proceeded. “After you got sucked into the portal during the experiment, I got…desperate. I felt responsible for your disappearance and took it to myself to bring you back, no matter what I had to do. Literally.”

Sky remained staring at his brother. “What…what did you do?”

“I…I put a lot at risk, including innocent people, ponies and other beings alike as well.” Bright sighed. “The experiment back at Corona should have been a sign for me to stop for a moment and look for other solutions, but as I said, I was desperate. I felt that if I waited too long, I’d lose you forever.”

“So I took it upon myself to find you, regardless of what I had to do.” Bright continued. “By the time I realized my actions were negatively affecting the dimensions involved, bringing them to the danger of breaking the very fabrics of space and time, I couldn’t stop. I had to continue or risk losing you forever. I simply couldn’t allow that, and I couldn’t think of anything else either.”

At this point, Bright was holding Sky by his shoulders, gently but not letting go. Sky wasn’t walking away either. He remained there, processing everything his brother was confessing.

“I’m…not sure what to say. I can barely believe you went through all that just to bring me back!” Sky claimed, feeling himself on the verge of tears. He wiped his face with his sleeve and took a deep breath before he continued. “…however, you do know you’ll have to deal with the consequences once we return to Corona, right?”

“I know.” Bright whispered. “I’m willing to take whatever punishment that committee of old geezers see fitting.” He remained quiet for a moment, then let out a chuckle. “But to begin with, we have to get back first.”

Sky nodded at him, then the siblings returned to their work. After a few more minutes, their setup was complete. As they took their gear back and stood back from the pedestal, they could already see a portal, waves forming on the surface of the stone. After a few seconds, they could now see an image in the waves, that of a futuristic citadel.

“Well, if these readings aren’t wrong, this seems to be it.” Sky started.

“Indeed. It’s time.” Bright said. He remained silent for a moment. He knew the people at Corona would be aware of everything that had transpired and the consequences of his actions. He had put the very fabric of time and space in jeopardy, and all because he had been too stubborn all along.

These thoughts got cut short by his younger brother, who walked by his side. “The return won’t be easy considering everything that you said went down…but remember, whatever you have to face, you aren’t alone.”

“Sky…” Bright whispered, looking at his brother, then they both nodded reassuringly at each other. “…Right. Let’s go, don’t wanna leave Misty waiting any longer.”

The brothers took a deep breath, gave one last look around the place, and turned around, walking into the portal, which closed right behind them.

Shortly after, the door of the school building nearby opened, and a young girl with red and blonde hair looked outside, thinking she had heard something. She looked around, then shrugged and went back inside.

Comments

[Iamsorry]

makes me wonder if this will continue.
if another story will be made about this X3

[Jyuuma]

8638363
I do intend to pick up this timeline/universe/etc later in the future, and as of this moment, I have just one idea for a short story.

[Iamsorry]

8638445
good. good