//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Mirror, Mirror, in the Pond // by AhriSafari //------------------------------// I really wish I could say something exiting happened after that, like ‘Rarity rushed for the door so I tackled her’ or ‘Rarity used her magic to assault me with random items from around the room’ but nope, none of that happened. Instead we both just stared at each other, mouths limply hung open, her standing over me as I lay sprawled out on the floor in a pool of extraordinarily dirty water. Not a sound was made except the clatter of the hose falling to the ground as it was released by the magic that was holding it aloft. This went on for about 10, maybe 20 minutes, neither of us daring to move. “Um… Hello… ” Rarity hesitantly broke the silence. “… Hi… ” I responded in kind, doing my best to put a smile on my face, and failing miserably. “Well, why don’t you stay here Pi… Dusty… And I’ll go get Twilight… ” Rarity mumbled as she backed up towards the door, watching me but not making eye contact with me. “… OK… ” I replied. It had been a fun ride, being alive, but at that point there was no use fighting it anymore. It was bound to happen eventually, you couldn’t just walk around with someone else’s face without being noticed. Even back then I knew that. I decided that I just wouldn’t fight it anymore, yep, I just gave up. I mean what was I supposed to do? Kill Rarity? No, I didn’t have the heart for that, and anyway she was supposed to exist, and I wasn’t. Strangely enough I also thought about how I’d actually MISS the ponies I’d met, because they’d been nice to me. I mean I knew I’d probably see them before they killed me, but they’d hate me then. I looked down into the pool of water and saw that my reflection was obscured by the small ripples created as the tears streaming down my face hit the water. I just sat there, sobbing with my head held low, thinking the dressmaker had already left me to find Twilight. After a few moments, however, I looked back up to see Rarity standing over me again with an odd expression that seemed to combine the worst aspects of confusion, pity, and sympathy. “Why are you crying?” She asked. “*sniff* Why do you think I’m crying? Your about to go get *sniff* that purple friend of yours and she’s going to kill me *sniff* just like she killed all the others!” I said, sobbing. Why was she even pretending to care? She knew exactly what she was doing, or so I thought at the time. “But… but you’re not real! How can Twilight kill something that isn’t real… ” Rarity said as she sat down so she was eye-level with me. I didn’t feel like she was looking at me however, it felt more like she was staring through me to something right past me. “Well I think I’m real *sniff*!” I said, “And the other clones thought they were real too, but you killed them all anyway, I SAW YOU DO IT!” “But we had to, you were all destroying the town, what were we supposed to do?” “We had no memories, no knowledge, no directive other than to have fun… We were just following orders… You never even tried to talk to us!” As I finished my statement Rarity’s head jerked a bit and her eyes finally focused on mine, as if she had no clue I was there and was startled by my presence. “Please excuse me for just a moment,” she said as she jumped up and walked out of the back room, I assumed to go and get Twilight like she said she’d do. Boy was I surprised when she returned not two minutes later, alone, carrying with her magic a towel and a tray with two cups of tea. “Here darling, take this and dry off. Then we can talk over tea like civilized ponies,” she said while levitating the towel over to me. “Just *sniff* talk?” I replied pathetically. “Yes just talk,” Rarity said, her expression blank and unreadable. And that’s exactly what we did, for an hour I talked and talked about exactly what had happened to me. My smile returned when I talked about having fun with all the other clones. I shook with fear as I talked about the events I had seen at the town hall. My heart raced as I talked about my daring rooftop escape and subsequent discovery. Then finally I ended my story with AJ’s tour and our arrival there at the boutique. I turned my head and found to my surprise that tears were streaming down the face of my unexpected confidant’s face. I’d been too focused on my story to hear her sneezing and sniffling. I just stared dumbly at the strange instance of empathy. Could she really have been sorry for ME? “Oh dear that is absolutely the SADDEST story I’ve ever heard!” she said while embracing me in a giant hug, “It’s all my fault! I should have stopped that wretched test before it even began! I am a HORRIBLE PONY!!!” “It’s alright… Please don’t cry,” I said. Before I knew it I was hugging her back and felt her tears stream onto my shoulder. Wait, why was I comforting HER? I was the one who had come close to dying the previous couple days more times than I could count, not her. But she’d listened to me, and NOT immediately wanted to give me the old zap-o-death, and I guess that made her my… friend? Something inside me just told me that that was the right thing to do when a friend was upset. “But, you must HATE ME! I helped Twilight do that horrible thing… My hooves painted that dreadful wall! Oh how could you ever forgive me?” “Well, I probably shouldn’t, but you could’ve gotten that purple friend of yours, yet you didn’t. I don’t really have anyone else right now, so it doesn’t really make sense for me to hold a grudge with you,” I said honestly. “Really?” Rarity finally stopped her crying and released me from her vice-like hug. Suddenly she squinted her eyes and began examining my drenched coat, “Hmmmm, this won’t do at all.” “What?” I asked defensively while crossing my hooves in front of myself in a vain attempt to shield my body from her inquisitive eyes. “Well we need to hide your appearance somehow; you can’t just keep covering yourself with soot for the rest of your life. Plus what if you were to get wet again? Or encounter some wind? The pink coat is a dead giveaway, even if your mane isn’t poofy like Pinkie’s is.” She did have a point, with the exception of my straight mane and lack of a big goofy smile I still looked exactly like Pinky. If I had kept my old disguise it wouldn’t have been long before ponies started wondering why I wasn’t washing myself. “Ok what do you have in mind?” Rarity met my eyes and gave me a smile that was probably meant to look innocent, but something about it scared the living daylights out of me. *** The next few hours were so torturously boring that I’m leaving them out of the story for your collective sanity, you’re welcome. However I had to say, Rarity did a great job. She dyed my coat a dark grey that more or less matched that of the soot. She dabbed a few darker spots on my cheeks to simulate freckles and on my flank to exactly replicate the splotches that had been there before (Rarity insisted that it would give me away in a heartbeat if anypony noticed my cutie mark was different than it was this morning). She dyed my mane and tail a much lighter grey and braided them. She insisted that this made me look like a monochromatic version of Applejack at the Grand Galloping Gala but with straighter bangs (this last part was very important to Rarity for some reason, apparently the bangs made it just original enough so that she felt that she wasn’t copying her own work). I wasn’t alive at the time, so I can’t say for myself; all I knew was that I looked good, and more importantly nothing like Pinkie Pie. I walked back out to the main area to find Applejack asleep on one of the chairs. I walked up and gently nudged her with my hoof. As she came to she didn’t seem to recognize me or the surroundings before suddenly remembering. She jumped out of her seat and started apologizing, “I’m sorry! I musta dozed off! Ya look nice by tha’ way.” “You know you could’ve left right?” I said, choosing not to acknowledge the complement as my appearance was entirely Rarity’s doing, not mine. I would have been content to roll around in soot every day until I got caught! “Not on your life sugarcube! I promised I’d see ya around Ponyville and I meant it!” The farmer stomped her hoof on the ground for emphasis. “Well it’s kinda late,” I said, motioning to the windows, which now filtered Luna’s moonlight into the room, “And Rarity already offered me a place to stay, so you can go home now.” Rarity had thought it better to use physical dyes instead of doing it magically, as while magical dye can be permanent if the wielder wishes to make it so, it also leaves a bit of a magic signature. The dressmaker was pretty sure that Twilight Sparkle, being so magically inclined, would notice it. Rarity insisted that once the studious pony noticed, she’d be too curious to resist trying to find out why. So I was given a dye that needed some upkeep every few days from Rarity otherwise it could be washed off by water, but was indistinguishable from a natural coat. So it made the most sense for me to stay at the Boutique. Plus it didn’t hurt that she was the only pony not currently trying to hunt down and kill me. “Ok… Tomorrow you should come by and see Sweet Apple Acres! My family would love to meet’cha!” Applejack said before walking out the door into the cool night air. After she left I went upstairs to the guest room that Rarity had been busy setting up for me and I got my first nights rest in an actual bed. And let me tell you: it. was. amazing.