Shadow Through the Mirror

by King-Mac-13

Through the Mirror

Author's Note:

Now, with this, I'm caught up to the fanfiction.net account. I will release the chapters simultaneously from now on.

Twilight was standing by the school’s statue waiting for her friends. They each had something planned for their various clubs and hobbies, and after that they had band practice. After all of that, they were all going to go out to Sugar Cube Corner for a treat. For now, however, Twilight waited for them. As she sat on the statue’s base, she couldn’t help but look around. The school was getting ready for a celebration for 50 years in operation, so there were a number of banners hung on the walls. There were a few select decorations, but most of them were inside. When she looked back to the statue, she was just reminded of her power trip as Midnight Sparkle during the Friendship Games and it did nothing for her mood.

A metal clanking sound caught her attention. She looked down toward it and found a little metallic object on the ground in front of the statue. She jumps down to pick it up and examine the object. As she does so, the portal area of the statue starts to glow a deep red. She turned to the base and backed away.

“Uh… Sunset?” She hoped that her friend could hear her.

A skeletal hand stretched out from the portal.

“Sunset!” She cried again, still no verification that she was heard.

The rest of the skeleton’s upper body flowed from the reflective surface. It had a pair of blue flames in place of eyes and the fires spewed forth from its mouth. Its skull was surrounded by a bright red, blood-like mist. It turned its head to face Twilight. As Twilight reeled back in horror, it spoke, “Will you hear my song?”

Twilight was frozen in fear. She couldn’t move and was on the verge of tears.

The skeleton tilted its head and called out again. “Are you there, Twilight?”

“How do you know my name?”

“Twilight!”

“What do you want?!”

“Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!”

“TWILIGHT!” This finally roused the sleeping brainiac from her dream and caused her to fall from the statue’s base only to be caught by Rainbow Dash.

“Uh… Hi.”

Rainbow helped Twilight back on her feet. “Have a nice nap?”

“I’ve had better. Sorry. I guess I fell asleep waiting.”

“No problem. Actually, Sunset said she wanted to talk to us back in the music room. Come on.”
\/

When Rainbow Dash and Twilight arrived, Sunset nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay. I just received a message from Equestria.”

“Oh my.” Rarity placed a hand dramatically over her heart, “It’s not another magical creature trying to take over again, is it?”

Sunset smiled. “Don’t worry. This time it’s something nicer.”

“Thank goodness. Perhaps this time my wardrobe will finally go through an Equestrian event without any wear and tear.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and continued. “This time, the Princess is sending over a sort of new student.”

“What do you mean by ‘sort of’?” Applejack questioned.

“She didn’t really explain that part. But she wants us to help him understand both our world and the power of friendship.”

“So it’s a he?” Rarity flipped her hair a moment and started to think. “I wonder if he’s a handsome prince…”

“When is he getting here?” Pinkie interjected.

Sunset opened the book and skimmed it before answering. “Tomorrow morning just before school.” The book started to glow, indicating a new message. Sunset looked through the pages and found the new piece. “…make that less than five minutes.”

The group rushed to the statue as it started to glow. The portal was open and the visitor was coming through. A single hand stretched out from the mirrored surface. It seemed to be feeling around for something. It grabbed the upper edge of the base. With a new found leverage point, the arm showed signs that it was pulling something out. After a moment, the head of the figure popped out. He took in a deep inhale and pulled his other arm out from the mirror. He reached out to the side, toward the group.

“A little help, please,” he seemed both distracted and focused. This guy wasn’t quite right… “Seriously! Dimensional shifting is not as easy when you have more than one base form back home!”

The group rushed toward him and pulled him out of the mirror falling over in the process. When they looked back up to him, they found a dark grey young man with bright red hair. He was dressed in black pants and boots paired with a white, button-up shirt under a black lab coat. A messenger bag crossed his torso from his left shoulder. As he tried to stand up straight, he started to fall over.

“Woah boy…” He was able to catch himself and strained to stay upright. “Okay… new center of gravity and transportation method. Quadruped to biped… Alright.” He stretched a bit and audibly cracked a number of joints in his arms, legs, and spine. After a moment of cracks, he stood without issue. “There we go.” He paused a moment, “No inherent magic…” He reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a notebook and pen. He opened the book and started to write something down. “This requires more research.”

“Uh…”

The new face looked over to the group. After a moment of motionless silence, he closed the book with one hand and cleared his throat. “Hello there. Nice to meet you!”

Sunset looked to the visitor and had to pause. He was too familiar. But it hardly seemed likely… right?

“Sunset?” The new face snuck up to her and looked her in the eye.

This caused Sunset to jump back a bit. “Uh… hi?”

The visitor picked her up in a tight hug. “It’s so great to see you again!”

“Grimoire?!”

After returning her to the ground, he replied. “The one and only!”

“You know him?” Applejack interrupted.

Sunset took a breath before answering. “He was an old classmate back in Equestria…”

“Yeah. ‘Classmate.’ Says the prize student of the princess at the time.” Grimoire pulled out his journal again and started to write things down again. “I’d like to speak with all of you at some point and, hopefully, ask a few questions about this world. But first, I’d like to speak with Sunset.”

The group looked to Sunset, who nodded, “Start practice without me. We need to… catch up.” After the rest of the group went back inside, she turned back to Grimoire. “You know… don’t you?”

“Perhaps you could be more specific…”

“Don’t start. You know what I mean.”

“You mean, do I know that you were the one to inform the dean about my use of Dark Magic, thereby getting me expelled?”

“Yeah… that.”

“I always knew.”

“Well… I wanted to say I’m sorry…”

“No need.”

“What?”

“There’s no need to apologize. I made the most of my situation and became more than I could have at that school. That said, it’s not for everyone and it was far from easy. So I’d avoid a second attempt.”

“Okay… I… honestly thought you’d be angrier…”

“Don’t get me wrong. I was absolutely livid. But, I chose not to let it hold me back in my life and experiments.” After a solid ten seconds of silence, he continued. “Were you expecting some dramatic, angry outburst when I saw you again?”

Sunset chuckled nervously, “Actually… yeah. I kind of did…”

“Hmm… maybe next time you’ll remember that I’m never so straight forward. Now, I need to hand in my paperwork to the school’s administration.” With that, he handed her a folded paper and walked off into the school.

Sunset’s friends, who were not so secretly hiding in the bushes nearby, walked up to Sunset. Rarity grabbed Sunset’s arms, “What did he say?”

“Rarity… calm down. It was a simple discussion.”

“Hardly! Sunset, not only did he recognize you despite… a different look, but he remembered you after all this time and where he remembered you from. You were clearly on his mind.”

“I doubt that…”

“Trust me, I can tell these things.”

“Well, if I was on his mind, it’s not for what you’re thinking.”

“What do you mean?”
“I ruined his chances in the academic field… His dream to teach… I robbed it from him because I was jealous and paranoid he would take my place as Celestia’s student. I found out he used Dark Magic and used it to get him expelled him. I was finally able to apologize. Oddly, he forgave me pretty quickly.”

“What about the note?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Sunset took the note and unfolded it. When it was open a quarter of the way, she found a quick note, [My thoughts on Sunset Shimmer]. The group crowded around her to read the note. She finally opened the note completely. Inside was one word, [Cute].

“Oh my God!” Rarity nearly jumped for joy for Sunset. “I told you! He actually likes you.”

Sunset’s face was far from happy. She clutched the paper, causing it to crumple slightly.

“What’s wrong? This is a good thing, isn’t it?”

“No… He’s looking down on me…”

“What?”

“Back then… there was one thing I was able to figure out about him with certainty; to him, ‘cute’ is only used for things he is beyond. It’s a condescension…” She pauses a moment.

“Come now, Sunset. He can’t think like that. He hadn’t seen you for a long time. He doesn’t know what you’re capable of.”
Sunset became distracted. “Seen… See… Wait…” She looks at the paper again. “Never straightforward…”

“What do you mean?”

Sunset holds the paper closer and closes her eyes. After a quick whiff, her eyes burst open and she makes a b-line for the school. When the others caught up to her, she was setting up a Bunsen burner system in one of the labs.

“Sunset? Um… What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked.

Without stopping setting up the burner, Sunset replied, “We see the world with our eyes. We experience the world with our minds. Yet we will always be blind to something.”

“Um… what?”

“That was one of the ideals of Star Gazer, a career philosopher back in Equestria. That was his discourse on reality and it was something Grimoire followed practically as law. When Rarity said he hadn’t seen me in a long time, it reminded me about that old saying. Reading the letter, I was blind.” With the fire up, she held the paper up to the light and smiled. “There we go.”

The page had filled with a full letter.

“Invisible ink?!” Rainbow looked over Sunset’s shoulder.

“Sort of.”

“How could you tell there was more on there?”

“A faint scent of lemon on the paper. It’s the primary ingredient of the ink.” Sunset looked over the letter.

[Dear Sunset, I congratulate you. You have remembered the fundamentals of Star Gazer and can now see the truth. I left one word, ‘cute,’ visible to gauge the reactions of you and your friends. It also helped to test whether you really remembered me, or at least remember my old outlook. The old you would remember the condescension the phrase held in my voice and disregard the hidden possibilities to confront me directly. The fact that you’re reading this shows that you’ve grown beyond what you were while retaining your intuition over this time. I look forward to our time while I visit this world. Signed, Grimoire Maleficarum.]

Sunset sighed with a smile before folding the paper and putting it in her pocket. “Alright. Let’s get to practice.”
\/

After an hour of practice in the music room, the group left the school. As they walked down the courtyard, Sunset had to stop and look to the right.
“You cannot be serious…”

Set up on the grass off to the side of the school was a large white tent, a 20 feet by 20 feet base and 10 feet tall. Emblazoned on the side of the tent was an open black book with a bright blue fire ball hovering above the pages. Moving around the tent was Grimoire with a number of pieces of equipment. He was placing the instruments down, each measuring something different.

Sunset walked up toward the tent, “I’m pretty sure you can’t just set up a tent on school grounds.” Grimoire took a moment and calmly handed her a paper before continuing his set up. The paper was a permit to set up an operation for a survey of the environment of Canterlot High. “Why do you have this?”

“Simple.” Grimoire kept working as he answered her. “I can’t learn anything here through conventional means. If I want to learn about the world, I need to take the lesson into my own… hands? I think they’re called… It’s how I really learn.”

As the rest of the group approached, Sunset just sighed. “You can’t be serious… How did you even get away with this? You’re basically the same age as the rest of us and you need credentials to set up as a researcher.”

Grimoire held up a set of papers. “Credentials.”

“How did you…?”

“Never doubt what I am capable of.”

“Uh… Sunset?” Rarity pulled Sunset to the side, “Was his hair always that long?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. When she looked back, sure enough, Grimoire’s hair was now accented by a long red ponytail. Sunset ran up to him and when she got close enough, she saw a pair of pony ears sticking out of his hair that were easy to miss at a distance. “How do you have that power?!”

“Hmm?” He turns back to Sunset. “You mean the magic? Easy. There’s enough coming from the portal to use it at will. Granted, using it like I do would require a certain level of understanding of the system… Not like the system of the portal, but more like the system of the magic. And the only reason I know that, is because I have a serious understanding of both Light and Dark magics which gives me an advantage.” With his job done, he reverts the ponytail and ears to normal.

“So… you can just pony-up whenever you want?”

“Pony-up? What a weird phrase… Then again, I don’t have a better one for a magic induced hybridization of human and Equestrian. So, we’ll go with yours. Anyway, yeah. I can. It’s nothing new. I can turn alicorn whenever I want back home, so this just makes sense.”

What he had just said took a moment to process in Sunset’s head. When it was done, she burst out in shock, “WHAT?!”

“Yeah.”

Sunset was speechless. It took her friends to shake her from her shock and collect herself. “So, let me get this straight, you became an alicorn?”

“Um…” Fluttershy chimed in, “What’s an alicorn?”

Grimoire was the one that answered her. “A sort of amalgamation of all three pony types, with a horn and wings, traditionally taller, and basically a symbol of unity and regality. The current alicorns are all the princesses of Equestria.”

Rarity gasped hearing this, “Does that mean you’re a prince?”

“No. I don’t like the idea of the regality. It makes my job more difficult if the citizens around me think I’m some kind of prince. I prefer to remain as a unicorn for the day to day. But that’s not the point right now.” He ducked into his tent and returned with a set of papers. “Each of you take one.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “And what is this?”

“A survey. It’s a sociological approach for my mission here. I need to learn more about this world and these will help me, if you’re willing to fill out the form. At least for the first experiment. After this, we’ll need direct interaction. I am here to learn about friendship, after all.”