The trip through the mirror portal was the same for Metamorpha, with the only exceptions being her hooves became feet, her muzzle shortened, and her wings and horn vanished. The clothes she was wearing when she went through the portal, a lavender shirt and black colored jeans, changed little, really only accommodating the changed to her body, with a pair of  boots that went just above her ankles appearing. On her back was a backpack, which carried spare clothes and, much as she didn't want to, but decided to play it safe, given her destination, her Element, which, for some reason changed from a gem stone to what she recognized as a kind of class ring, with the Element being in the gem at the center, with her cutie mark from before her secret was revealed on one side, and the symbol of Chrysalis, her mother's, hive, a green shield with a bee over it, on the other.

As the end of the portal began to brighten up, she looked at her two companions. The first was John, her boyfriend, even if he still rarely showed his emotions to where any not close to him thought he was an emotionless robot, and Cortana. She definitely had a complicated story, as she was once an AI, but the Nexus, and her presence there eventually allowed her to go between her data form and her physical form.

One thing Metamorpha noticed just before they exited was that her skin color was the same as her lavender chitin, only slightly darker, and her hair now had a streak of green in it along with the usual stripe of fuchsia.

Just before the three of them exited the other end, Metamorpha braced, in case she had to roll upon exit.

It was a good thing she did, too, as that was exactly the case. When she came out of the portal, she came out headfirst, and, with that, her combat training from the time when she, regrettably, had been controlled by Plasma and the three months since then for the upcoming tournament in the Nexus, which, if she remembered right, the first round was in a year.

She tucked in as her arms hit the ground in front of her into a ball, and, when her momentum stopped, she twisted her body, and stuck her right leg out in her path, stopping her slide.

"Whoa, Twilight, is that you," she heard her friend, Sunset Shimmer say.

Metamorpha got up and stood, stretching, and said, "Hey, girls. Sorry I couldn't visit sooner, stuff was happening." She looked at her friends from Canterlot high, and was surprised to see six other girls standing there, including herself.(1)

One had silver hair that was in long pig tails, orange glasses over her purple eyes, black heeled shoes, dark purple stocks and pants, with a dark red, almost maroon like shirt, a black bow tie, and a skirt with slight checkerboard designs.

The second one had a similar outfit, but she reminded Metamorpha of Lightning Dust. She had sporting goggles on, just above her forehead, her socks slightly loose, with her just having a skirt on, in contrast to the first, but it went down further.

The third had on an outfit almost exactly like the second, but her socks were pulled up as far as possible. She had long, green hair, and red headphones resting on her shoulders.

The fourth had short, light purple hair, very light blue skin, and an outfit just like the last girl's.

.

The last had a more, well, human skin tone, like the second, and had three, light purple freckles on her cheeks, with light purple hair with a dash of cyan to accent it.

"So," she said, "what have you guys been up to?"

"That's all you have to say?" Sunset asked. "What we've been up to since last time?"

"Sunset, do calm down," Rarity said. "It's clear Me- I mean, Twilight's been up to a lot since the last time we saw her. After all, look at her outfit, as well as her hair."

"What are we, chopped liver?" Cortana asked, as she and John walked over.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Metamorpha said. "Girls, this is Cortana," she said as Cortana nodded, "and my boyfriend, John."

As the mouths of the others dropped, Metamorpha chuckled.

"You got a boyfriend?" the human Twilight asked.

"Yep," Metamorpha said, nodding. "So, who're the new girls?"

"That's a lng, story, Twilight," Sunset said. "We were actually about to go to sugercube corner. If you guys want to come with us, we can explain it there."

Metamorpha nodded. "Sure."

Lone and the others appeared in a small flash if light that Lone recognized as one of the various briefing room for any soldier of the Nexus before they went on missions. "Might as well take a seat," he said, and the six of them sat down.

"So, what do you think's going on," Nightengale asked, Octavia sitting next to him.

"No idea," Lone said. "All I know is that Harmony said it would be best explained with six total, and here we are."

"Well, whatever it is," Chitinia said, "I'm sure we can handle it."

"Agreed," Applejack said just Harmony, accompanied by one of the few other Nexus soldiers Lone knew, Scout-16, which caused him to sit straight.

"Scout," he said, giving her a nod before saying to Harmony, "So, what's up?"

"Hello to all of you," Harmony said, ignoring Lone. "And there is still one more needed to answer your question, Lone."

Fortunately for timing, at this moment, a second door opened, and a woman with blue skin, glowing, blue irises. Her hair stopped just above her shoulders. Her outfit was, well, interesting and hard to describe, so here's a picture.

"Everyone," Harmony said, "This is one of the Nexus' most recent arrivals, Mara Sov, Queen of the Awoken."

"Greetings," Mara said.

"And to you too," Luna said with a head bow of respect to a fellow ruler.

"Now, to answer your question, Lone," Harmony said, "I asked both Scout and Mara to help me explain."

"Okay, just what's going on," Lone asked, to which Scout answered.

"An ancient being from our universe arrived in our solar system," she said, with a holo-projection of the Sol system, which is the one you and I live in, if you didn't know. "He's come seeking vengeance."

"For what," Nightengale asked.

"Two reasons," Scout said before she turned to face Mara. "Your highness?"

"One is revenge."

"Why?" Octavia asked. Mara glared at her, but answered.

"His son was killed by six individuals, a team of Guardians, as they are called. He has come to get revenge on them. That is how I was killed. I gave my life to give them a chance of getting to him and killing him," she said. "They succeeded, but only in rebuking him from our world to one of his own making."

"Now, he's trying again, but not just there," Scout said. "According to Nexus sensors, he's taken individuals from the human version of Equis."

"But why that?" Chitinia said.

"Because," Harmony said, "Lone killed his brother." Next Chapter: Fire team Specter Estimated time remaining: 38 Minutes