> Mirror Image > by Libria > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1. Here Comes the Sun > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight looked at her clock as she paced near the door of her castle. Still?, She thought. It can't possibly still be only one thirty in the morning. Princess Celestia was coming at three in the afternoon that day and Twilight was already impatient. She was not normally like that, but the Princess had told her that she had something very important to discuss. *** Thirteen and a half hours later... Twilight's lack of sleep had finally caught up to her. She was just wondering if she should go and lie down for a couple of hours, when she heard the knock on the door. She opened it, and Princess Celestia gasped at the state of her. "Oh, my dear Twilight! What happened to you?" "Umm... I may have gotten up a little early waiting for you... And I may have not had breakfast this morning..." "*Sigh* Very well. Where shall we go to talk? As you know I have some very important news for you." *** Twilight and Princess Celestia walked into the castle's sitting room together. Twilight asked Spike to make them tea, and then magically closed the door. "What did you want to talk to me about, Princess?" Asked Twilight, barely able to hide the impatience in her voice. "Well, as you most likely don't know... Sunset Shimmer has contacted me with a letter to you. Apparently, there is a new teacher at her school. His name is Dr. Discord, he has a Ph. D in Chaos. Nopony knows why Principal Celestia hired him, but he likes giving rewards to misbehaving students, punishing hard-working ones and driving everypony crazy. I need you to go to Canterlot high to stop him!" Celestia exclaimed. Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof. "I will try to stop him, but I will need my friends at CHS. Oh! My friends! Am I allowed to tell my Ponyville friends about this?" Celestia considered this for a moment. "Yes." She decided. "Yes. You can tell your friends about this, because they will wonder where you are. You could be gone for a long time. However, you should not bring them with you, for the same reason as last time." *** Two hours later... Twilight looked at her friends, all seated at the round table. Pinkie was panting a little, after being asked by Twilight to tell all of the others to meet in the Throne Room, and insisted on delivering the message via singing telegram. Twilight had just told them the news, and was waiting for any reactions. Rarity spoke up first. "Don't worry, Darling. The last two times you were only there for a couple of days. This can't take too long." "Oh, I'm not worried. All the other times I've been over there, almost everything went smoothly. I have no doubt that this time will be the same." Fluttershy mumbled something about the portal nearly closing up after Twilight defeated Sunset Shimmer, but didn't voice this concern any further. *** It was time. Twilight readied herself in front of the mirror, Spike at her side, her friends behind her, saying goodbye. "Don't worry about a thing!" "You'll do great!" "You can't fail. You're awesome!" Then Pinkie Pie. "Eat lots of cake!" Twilight smiled at this and took a step forward, placing her directly in front of the mirror. She sighed, smiled, and stepped through with Spike. But something was wrong. The colored lights that usually swirled around them were gone, replaced with complete and utter darkness. Twilight's friends, on the other side of the mirror, turned to leave when they were hit with a flying dragon. Spike had been ejected from the portal. Meanwhile, Twilight got up on the other side. The first thing that she noticed was that she was not a human. She was still her pony self. Then she looked up and gasped. > 2. Dark as Night > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight looked up from where she had fallen on the ground and gasped. It was Ponyville. But at the same time, it was not Ponyville. Where her blue crystal palace had been, there was now a towering black crystal castle, that, unlike her palace, did not in the least resemble a tree. It was just a tower, rising into the air, far higher than her palace, and ending in a razor sharp point. The Ponyville blue sky had been replaced with a dark one, like night, even though the sun was out. This Not-Ponyville had black obsidian roads that were deserted, and the houses were crooked and dirty. Cloudsdale seemed to have disappeared, and clouds were moving all on their own. The town hall was gone, replaced with another towering black crystal structure that was covered in posters of a pony who appeared to be Celestia. Twilight immediately knew that she did not want to be where she was, and turned back to the portal. But the portal was gone, disappeared into thin air. She was trapped. *** The ponies looked at Spike where he had landed on top of Applejack. He had been knocked unconscious by the impact of hitting her, but he was not dead because he appeared to still be breathing. Rainbow Dash flew out of the room and came back with a bucket of cold water, which she dumped on top of Spike. He woke up with a start. "Huh? Wha-? Who's there?" Then he realized where he was. "Wait... Where's Twilight? I went through the mirror with her. And why am I wet? What's going on?" None of the ponies knew how to answer this, or wanted to, as they themselves did not know what was going on. Rainbow Dash hid the incriminating bucket behind her back. Then Applejack, being the element of honesty, spoke up. "Sorry 'bout this, Spike, but Twilight ain't here. Ya went through the portal together but ya... ya came flyin' back out. Ya got knocked unconscious for a moment there, so Rainbow woke ya up with water. That's why you're all wet. I'm awful sorry that we don't know where Twi is." Spike just sat there stunned. Then he jumped up. "I have to help her!" "But Darling, what if it spits you out again? I wouldn't want my little Spikey-Wikey to get hurt!" Rarity smiled. "And anyway, I used up all of my cold water." Said Rainbow Dash. Spike frowned. "I have to try anyway." He ran at the portal and jumped in. This time, the ponies moved out of the way for the flying dragon. > 3. Looking > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight looked around frantically and gulped. The portal was gone and she had no idea where she was. Then she frowned. "So if the portal to here was in Canterlot, in Princess Celestia's palace, then it only makes sense for the portal back to be there, too!" She looked up at Canterlot. She hadn't looked at it when she came through the portal in the first place, but it no longer surprised her that it was made of black crystal, with sharp pointed spires. For a second she wondered if the Celestia in this world was as evil as she looked on the posters, and if she wanted to find out, but she decided not to think about that, and began to trot towards where the train station normally would be. *** The ponies watched as Princess Celestia studied the mirror. "I honestly don't know what happened. Spike, tell me again what happened before the mirror rejected you." Spike looked down. "You know that I didn't see much. I went into the mirror with Twilight, all I saw was black and Twilight, and then Twilight kept going while it spat me out and knocked me unconscious. I don't remember a lot." Princess Luna came flying back in. "I searched all of Ponyville and the castle's walls, but I couldn't find anything wrong with them." Princess Cadence flew in a moment later. "I asked several ponies if they had seen anything strange, but none of them had." "I suppose that we can assume that Princess Twilight has not gone to Canterlot High School at all, as all of the other times she has been there, both she and Spike went through, and they described the portal as having swirling, colored lights." said Celestia. The ponies sighed. Then Applejack had an idea. "Hey! What if somepony tried to get through to Twilight! Ah mean, it's not like the portal coulda jus' disappeared." Princess Celestia nodded. "We shall do that. Which of you wants to step up and save Twilight?" "I will!" They all called at once. "Very well. You shall all go to save Twilight. Go now, for the sooner Twilight is back, the sooner Equestria has it's princess back. I just hope it lets you in." Once the ponies had packed a few necessities into their saddle bags, Rarity's bag being so full that she could hardly carry it, they stood together across the room from the front of the mirror. Fluttershy gulped. "On second thought, maybe we should just all go back..." Pinkie Pie was grinning madly. "Come on, ponies, let's go save Twilight!!" "Pinkie's right. Y'all just need to pull yaself together, an' let's get goin'." Applejack said. "Three two one go!" Rainbow Dash yelled, before they were ready, and shot towards the portal. The others quickly recovered and sped after her. The closed portal felt like a concrete wall as they hit it.