//------------------------------// // Not a Good Place to be // Story: Me Again // by Waxworks //------------------------------// The apparitions didn’t follow her back to her boutique, thankfully. When Rarity arrived, it was just her alone. She entered the boutique warily, scissors held high. There was a tiny spot of blood on the floor from where she had stabbed the other Rarity. Her coat was still sticky with the rest of it, but since it had shattered there were no other signs of a body, however, which was unnerving. Rarity stepped slowly through the rooms, going back up the stairs and down the hallway to her bedroom. She closed all the doors before she got close to them. The last thing she wanted was a Rarity jumping out at her, screaming in that awful language it spoke. Her bedroom was as she left it. The glass of the mirror on her vanity was intact, despite the shattering noise she had heard earlier. The objects on top were scattered on the floor, but it appeared harmless. The only disturbing part was her reflection. It stared out of the mirror at her, backward, but unamused. It wasn’t grinning like the one that had been running about and attacking her. She lifted a hoof, and it lifted a hoof. She winked, it winked. She combed her mane, it combed her mane. “Harmless,” Rarity said, then slapped a hoof over her mouth. “Harmless,” a voice said from the hallway. Rarity scrambled to the door and peeked out. There was a Rarity in the hallway, staring down the hall, not at her, but in her direction. Their eyes never seemed to focus on anything in particular. This one wasn’t walking, but it was sitting, holding a comb and a pair of scissors, combing its mane. Rarity stared at it for a moment, to make sure it wasn’t going to do anything, then slowly shut the door, just in case. She turned back to the vanity, and a hoof walloped her in the side of the head. Rarity stumbled, dazed. Then another hoof hit her in the jaw, pushing her the other direction. Rarity almost fell, but somepony grabbed her by the neck and held her upright. “.em htiw emoc woN !yllaniF” that strange voice said. Rarity was still trying to pull herself together to react, but the pony holding her was dragging her toward the mirror on her vanity. Through her punch-drunk vision, she could see that she had no reflection anymore, and her sluggish brain slowly drew the conclusion she had been searching for this whole time: her reflection was attacking her! Rarity pulled back, hooves scraping on the carpet as she tried to prevent herself from going closer to the mirror. She tried to twist her head to see where her scissors had ended up, but the headlock was preventing her from turning her head. She struggled, and punched the other Rarity in the side, trying to get it to let go, but its grip was strong and unwavering. Rarity was forced onto the vanity, and wrestled up to the glass. Her face was pressed against the mirror and she felt it bend and flex under the pressure of her face. She had intended to try to go through it when she got here, but now that the other Rarity was trying to force her through, she had to stop herself from going in at all costs! Rarity’s horn lit up and she just blindly grabbed at everything within reach. She heard bottles shatter, plastic cases bounce, and a few metal objects clink. She tried again, and this time a blanket thumped harmlessly against the other Rarity. Her hooves pressed against the frame of the mirror as the other Rarity tried to force her bodily into it, and she tried again. This time she heard something stick into flesh. Other Rarity flinched but she wasn’t letting go. The other Rarity managed to get her into a headlock, then struck Rarity in the head with her free hoof. Rarity’s ears rang and she lost her grip on whatever she had grabbed hold of with her magic. Her doppelganger punched her in the temple again, and Rarity lost her hoof grip. Her face pressed against the glass of the mirror, the cold surface stretching out and wrapping her face in its cold embrace. It bent for a short distance, then shattered, and Rarity tumbled through. She landed after falling a very short distance, and the sound of her body crumpling to the surface of it echoed many times. As Rarity pulled herself together, she heard a cackling laugh. “.ytiraR ,ti yojnE .emoh ruoy eb noos lliw tI” the other Rarity cackled. Rarity looked up and could see her standing in an open hole in a barren and dark sky. She grinned down at Rarity, turned away, and left Rarity to herself. Rarity pulled herself to her hooves, shook her head to clear the fuzz of the hits she had suffered, and looked around. Her doppelganger had dumped her in a bleak and empty landscape. There was darkness all around, and there was no color to distinguish between the ground, any walls, or the sky. Instead, the only thing visible were spots of light, situated all around, glowing in the darkness. They were not all the same color, but she couldn’t tell what the difference was from where she was standing. Rarity turned to the opening right above her, where she had tumbled in from. It was too high to reach, but she recognized her bedroom from where she was. The surface of the mirror looked cracked, but the cracks were disappearing slowly. The very edges had healed, but the center still looked as though it had been fractured. The fact that she had been tossed inside it meant the creature who looked like her was from this place, wherever it was. That would be useful to tell Twilight. Rarity jumped at the surface of light, but couldn’t reach it. She tried to grab it with magic, but there didn’t appear to be anything to really ‘grab’ per se. It was just an oblong of light in an otherwise dark area. She looked around for something to stand on, but couldn’t find anything. Everything was black, save for the other shapes of light, which she assumed must be other mirrors. If the creature was able to traverse one, it could likely traverse the others. “Are they all mirrors, then?” Rarity wondered aloud. “Are they all mirrors, then?” a voice said from somewhere in the darkness. “Are they all mirrors, then?” a quieter voice said from somewhere. “Are they all mirrors, then?” another, yet quieter voice said. Rarity froze. If the apparitions were in here, they might be more dangerous in their natural habitat than in her world. She waited for something to step out of the darkness, grinning with teeth bared, but she heard nothing else. No Rarity walked out of the darkness, spouting sentences. It remained just her. Rarity looked back at the mirror above her, and was surprised and pleased to see that as it was repairing itself, it also appeared to be floating back down to her level. Some unspoken mechanic of this strange place she was in. It would eventually be low enough for her to use it once more. But that gave Rarity pause. If the other Rarity knew how all this worked, then she might be assuming Rarity would try to enter. She wanted something from Rarity, and being predictable might get her killed. If she was going to defeat this thing and protect Sweetie Belle and her friends from it, she would have to be smarter and more clever than it. That meant she might have to take the long way home. Rarity looked around her at the other spots of light. Some were closer than others, and as she had previously noted, they were all of different shapes. Likely due to ponies owning mirrors of different shapes and sizes. She kept an eye on her vanity mirror, and walked to the next closest one. As she approached, she could see inside it to her own bathroom. She eyeballed the distance between the two mirrors, and found they were not equivalent to the distance between them in her home, but they were still closer to each other than any others. She looked inside the mirror and reached out a hoof to touch it. “!esirpruS” Her doppelganger leaped up from behind the counter, and Rarity jumped back with a squeal of surprise. The other Rarity laughed. “!ahahahhhhA .elbatciderp oS .ereh yaw ruoy no eb dna tuo ti erugif d’uoy wenk I .ytiraR ,that lla sa ysae sa eb ot gniog ton s’tI …wonk uoy wonk I that won tuB” She pushed a hoof on the surface of the glass, bending it in toward Rarity. It shattered, and the mirror flew upward, the cracks on the glass appeared and it slowly began to repair itself. “!ay ecaR” Rarity looked around at the other oblongs of light in the darkness. One of the closest ones, which was too small for Rarity to fit through, broke and flew upward. The shattering sound echoed in the darkness. Rarity knew she had no time then. The other Rarity had a much shorter distance to run, and Rarity didn’t want to wait to see the reason she had been forced in here and kept inside it. She needed to get back into that other world as soon as possible! She ran, heedless of whether there were any holes or other pitfalls in the darkness surrounding her. She needed to make it to one of the lights before all of them were broken, and whatever the other Rarity had planned came to fruition! She ran, but the distances between each point of light in the darkness were huge for her. Meanwhile, the other Rarity knew where most of the other mirrors were and was rushing to them one after the other. Rarity could see her stick her head inside for a brief moment, laugh at Rarity, then break the glass, taking the mirror out of reach. Rarity dashed for one, only to have her shatter it just as she arrived, cackling the whole time. She would then run for another, only to have it destroyed as the other Rarity cut her off. She almost made it in one of them, but when she leaped toward it, the other Rarity leaned in and punched her right on the snout as she approached. Rarity clutched her bleeding nose and curled up on the ground. The other Rarity leaned in and grinned that wide, infuriating grin, reveling in Rarity’s pain. She said nothing, but pulled her grinning face back out of the mirror and smashed the glass. As the mirror floated up out of her reach, Rarity rubbed her bleeding nose and sniffed. The coppery taste of blood ran over her tongue and she spat. Her eyes narrowed and she looked up at the mirror above her. Rarity turned away from the mirror that was out of reach, and looked around. There were many more, but the other Rarity was keeping ahead of her, mocking her efforts. She knew how this all worked. She could peek in and see where Rarity was headed, and get there sooner due to the difference in distance. Rarity needed something that could help her outsmart her doppelganger, but finding such a thing was going to be difficult in such a barren landscape. “Wait,” Rarity said. “Wait,” somepony echoed in the darkness. “Wait,” another responded. There were two mirrors, somewhere off in the distance that Rarity could see. If she had to venture a guess, she would say they were part of Sweet Apple Acres. Probably the bathroom mirrors in the Apple family home. Rarity stood up and looked around at what was left. There were still quite a few mirrors, but they were all clustered together. All the other Rarity had to do was peek in and see where Rarity was running, and then get there first. Rarity didn’t know what her doppelganger was waiting for, but she couldn’t worry about it right now. She needed out. “If only I knew which mirror to choose!” Rarity cried out. “If only I knew which mirror to choose!” an echo responded. “If only I knew which mirror to choose!” another mimicked. Rarity stood up and started walking, idly meandering toward the next mirror close to her. “There’s just so many,” she said. “There’s just so many.” “There’s just so many.” “I can’t pick just one,” Rarity lamented. “I can’t pick just one.” “I can’t pick just one.” “Nor can I get there fast enough.” “Nor can I get there fast enough.” “Nor can I get there fast enough.” Rarity finally saw one of the mimics. It coalesced dimly in the darkness, a mere shadow of herself, but it was there. It was walking along, blood on its face, repeating the same line time and time again at random intervals. Rarity smiled to herself and kept talking. Saying the first thing that came to mind. She kept narrating her experience as she walked. She approached one of the mirrors and saw the other Rarity outside smash it. She then turned and went to the next one, talking to herself the whole time, more Raritys appearing out of the darkness, getting more solid with each appearance. “If only I were faster or more clever.” “If only I were faster or more clever.” “If only I were faster or more clever.” “If only I were faster or more clever.” “If only I were faster or more clever.” More Raritys kept appearing with each sentence, and they were getting more solid, until one appeared that was just shy of Rarity’s white coat. It approached Rarity, and she balked at first, but it walked up beside her and kept pace with her, walking alongside. She double-checked its mane to make sure it wasn’t backward, but it was the same mane style she had, and it was parted in the right direction. It wasn’t the other Rarity. The next mirror Rarity approached, her doppelganger was no longer grinning. There were too many Raritys to respond to all of them getting close, so she had to smash it early, which was exactly the mistake Rarity was hoping for! As soon as it flew upward, she took off at a gallop, dashing across the darkness toward what she hoped was Sweet Apple Acres! There were mirrors over there, and that was all she needed. Her clone next to her kept pace, dashing alongside her toward the mirrors, while the others all stayed behind, spewing their single line over and over again, hopefully confusing enough that the other Rarity would have to search through them until she found the one separated from the rest. She looked at the one keeping pace beside her, and was concerned by her solid appearance. If she was going to attack Rarity, there wasn’t much she could do, but she would just have to hope that it was harmless. As Rarity left the cluster of mirrors floating in the Ponyville area and left the sound behind, new sounds started to reach her ears in the darkness. Other voices not her own, speaking to each other. She could hear voices she recognized; customers from her shop, and other ponies. She even heard Pinkie Pies shrill welcome to somepony in the darkness. She didn’t know if these sounds were a good sign or a bad one, but she couldn’t spend time thinking about it. Along with those came the sound of a high wind. She didn’t feel anything, but she heard it. In a dark place like this where Rarity couldn’t see anything other than shapes that had color, wind had a high likelihood to be a bad thing. She just had to hope whatever caused it didn’t catch her before she got out.