Beyond the Mirror
The day started like any other; I woke up, had my breakfast (waffles, in case you were wondering), said bye to my mom (she didn’t even look up from her magazine, just grunted at me. She’s been kind of a jerk lately, ever since she and dad divorced. It’s okay though, I can take care of myself), and set out for the Carousel Boutique. I was meeting with my fellow Crusaders, to plan out the rest of our activities for the day. Of course, I brought my scooter and the Crusadermobile- our wagon- along.
I had just turned off of Mane Street when all of a sudden, this stallion- I think it was Doctor Whooves- comes running out of nowhere, right into my path. I swerved to avoid him, but that just put me on a collision course with another pony, s then I had to swerve away from her, and, well, you get the picture. Anyway, I ended up hitting a rock with my front wheel, sending me flying off it. I landed on my face, and skidded right up to the waiting hooves of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.
“Well, that’s one way to make an entrance, ah suppose.” Applebloom said.
“Are you okay?” asked Sweetie, her voice cracking.
“Aghhh… no, my moutsh ish killing me!” I felt around in my mouth with my tongue. “I shink one of my theesh ish broken!”
“Let me take a look,” Applebloom said, opening my mouth. “Yep, it’s broken all right! Hey, ah know! Last time I chipped a tooth, Zecora was able to mix up a potion that fixed up my tooth in no time at all!”
So, they piled into the Crusadermobile, and we rode over to the Everfree forest. The paths in the forest are all bumpy and rocky, so we had to walk over to Zecora’s hut.
The first indication that something was wrong came when nopony answered after Applebloom knocked on the door. We waited a few moments, then opened the door. You know, it’s kind of odd that Zecora doesn’t have a lock on her door. I mean, she lives in one of the most dangerous places around, you’d think she’d at least have a chain. But anyway, she wasn’t there.
So, Applebloom went off to look for her; considering how often she helped out Zecora, she was our best bet at finding her. I would have gone, but Sweetie pointed out that it would be a good idea to stay, in case Zecora came back.
Besides, something else had caught my eye.
There, leaning against one of the wooden walls, was a mirror. It wasn’t the mirror itself that was drawing my attention, though; it looked just like any other, if perhaps slightly more ornate. No, it was this feeling I was getting, a feeling of dread that only seemed to become stronger as I got closer to it. And yet, it also felt strangely inviting at the same time, as if it was calling to me.
“Shweetie?” I asked.
“Yes, Scootaloo?” she replied.
“Do you… do you feel thath?”
“Huh? Feel what?”
“You don’t feel ith? I keep gething thish weird feeling…”
She was giving me an odd look now. “It’s probably from your tooth, maybe you should lie down.”
Instead, I walked over to the mirror. Sure enough, the feelings of dread increased, as did the feelings of
temptation.
I put a hoof on the surface.
Pain. Pain like I cannot describe. Imagine every piece of your body being torn to shreds, only a million times worse. It felt as if my entire being was being pulled apart.
And then…
Then it stopped.
I opened my eyes, and saw…
Grey. So much grey. There was no color, anywhere. No reds, purples, greens, anything, just… grey.
Looking around, I could see that I was in the Ponyville town square, but it was wrong. Windows were broken, buildings were falling apart, even the statue in the middle of the square was broken.
I was scared. It’s hard to explain, but there’s just something… special about the places you grow up in, and to see my home destroyed like this…
But anyway, after I had calmed down, it didn’t take long to figure out what had happened, I’d read enough comics with similar situations to guess (who says comic books aren’t educational?).
The mirror had obviously been a portal, somehow, to another world. Or something like that.
So, now the problem was how to get home. I figured, if the mirror was what brought me here, then it could probably get me home, too. I’d have to get back to Zecora’s hut. Too bad I didn’t have my scooter; it would have made everything easier.
I made my way through the streets of Ponyville, feeling steadily uneasier, but I couldn’t figure out why. All I knew was that something was off. It took me until I almost walked right into the door of Sugarcube Corner that I realized what was wrong. Two things, actually.
The first was the fact that on the way, I hadn’t seen a single other pony, or any other animal for that matter.
The second was that I was at Sugarcube Corner.
Now, I’ve been exploring the streets and alleys of Ponyville for as long as I can remember. I probably know more about the town itself then the mayor herself.
So I can say with complete certainty that Sugarcube Corner, the best bakery in town…
Should have been on the other side of town.
In fact, looking around, I could see that it wasn’t the only thing out of place. The Quills and Sofas store was on the left side of the street, and the jewelry store was just down the street from there. It wasn’t that the town was reversed, like you might expect in a mirror world, it was just… scrambled.
And of course, all the buildings were in disrepair.
So now I was officially lost, and to top it all off, I was hungry too.
So I did what any logical pony would do: I walked into Sugarcube Corner. The inside was in as much disrepair as the outside, the display cases broken and the tables lying on their sides. That, combined with the lack of color, turned one of the happiest places in town into a gloomy, depressing sight.
There was humming in the kitchen.
Somepony was here!
Giving up logic for the chance of no longer being alone, I made a mad dash into the kitchen. There was, in fact, somepony there.
Except it wasn’t a pony.
For one, her coat was black. No, I don’t mean like the color black. I mean black as in the absence of all light. No mere color could match to what I saw. Her poofy tail and mane were a dark grey, and as she turned towards me, I could see that she had no cutie mark.
She looked at me with glowing red holes where her eyes would be, the only color I had seen in this world. As she spoke, a long, serpentine tongue revealed itself.
“A visssitor? It’sss been ssso long sssince we lassst had a visssitor…” her voice was horrible, raspy and serpentine, with an odd echo to it. It sent chills through my entire body.
She said more, but I didn’t hear her. I was busy running for my life. I tore out the door and down the street. Risking a glance back, I saw that she was following me, but at a normal pace. I ducked into the closest building, the Library. Looking around for a place to hide, I spotted a storage closet, which I quickly jumped inside, pulling the door almost fully closed in order to still be able to see.
The library door swung open, and the creature walked in.
“Ssssscootaloo, where are you…”
‘Oh Celestia,’ I thought, ‘It knows my name!’
“Come out… We won’t hurt you… we jussst want to be your friendssss…”
She looked over at the closet.
“Oh, that’sss where you were hiding…”
‘Ohshitohshitohshitohshit…’
The door opened.
“Gotcha…”
She reached out a hoof and touched me.
It burned, like I was on fire. It started at the point of her contact with my flesh, then spread across my body. The agony was unbearable.
I blacked out.
“And that’sss what happened. Itsss not so bad here, not really. Theressss a whole bunch of friendly poniesss here, and I never have to go to ssschool. I misssss Applebloom and Sssweetie, but I’ve got a bunch of new friendssss now. It’sss kind of a sssshame I’ll never get a cutie mark, but I think it’sss a fair trade for what I got:
A family that caresssss.”