An Unpleasant Reflection

by Tumbleweed


Chapter 2

My reaction was, in retrospect, predictable. Presented with the sight of my very own doppelganger, eerily close to the same reflection I saw in the mirror every morning, yet subtly different enough to be wrong, there was only one thing I could do.

Scream.

“Changeling!” I cried. Unfortunately, with Princess Twilight standing in the doorway, I couldn’t bolt out the way I came in, so I grabbed the nearest chair sitting around the Cutie Map and hurled it at the bug wearing my face. My counterpart let out a girlish shriek (at least the bloody Changeling had gotten that part right) and ducked out of the way as the chair smashed into the wall behind him. I beat my wings and lunged for the next chair. All I had to do was make enough noise and buy enough time for Carrot Top to show up and start dispensing Special Agent Golden Harvest brand beatings.

It was a good plan, except for the Princess hanging about.

“Flash, stop!” And before I could so much as beat my wings, I found myself trapped in a cocoon of glowing magic energy, barely able to breathe, much less chuck furniture about. Faintly, I registered the tingly haze around me as purple, not Changeling green. My mounting terror only grew as I realized that Princess Twilight must have been suborned, or mind controlled, or otherwise compromised. I would’ve screamed even louder then, except Princess Twilight’s potent magic kept my mouth locked shut. The Princess of Friendship trotted around in front of me, horn aglow.

“I know you’re just trying to protect me, but he’s not a Changeling.” Princess Twilight said. “Not to mention that the Changelings are our friends now, but given your service record, I can see why you’d be a bit … nervous. So now I’m going to put you down, and you’re not going to throw anything else, and we’ll all have a nice laugh about it later. Okay?”

I made a vaguely affirmative grunt.

“Good.” The purple aura around me snapped out of existence, and I flapped my wings for balance. By the time I got my hooves back under me again, Princess Twilight had trotted around to the other side of the table to comfort my doppelganger. “I’m sorry, Flash. Flash-- er, the other Flash has been through a lot, and this is probably quite a shock.”

“I’m okay.” The other-me said. His voice was surprisingly young-- and, once I had the chance to eyeball him properly, I realized the rest of him was just as youthful to match. Oh sure, the broad strokes were there; the square jaw, the lush mane, the broad wings, and all those other elements of my innate handsomeness that made me so popular with mares. But the clone-pony didn’t have a uniform decorated with medals, or a frame decorated with battle scars, or even the sharp, wary look in the eyes stemming from the traumatic collection of said medals and scars. It was me, but … younger. Softer. More innocent, even.

I didn’t like him.

“Now then, as I was saying--” Princess Twilight composed herself to conceal her annoyance. “Flash Sentry of Equestria, I’d like you to meet Flash Sentry of, um, Canterlot High.”

“Hi.” The other Flash raised a hoof in greeting. Unfortunately, I hadn’t hit my counterpart with the chair-- the color of his blood would have confirmed if he really were a Changeling or not. Princess Twilight swore he wasn’t a bug, so I was left to consider the other possibilities. The lad was too old to be some long-lost bastard I might’ve sired, though I supposed he might have been some sort of far-distant relation, the same kind of thing that’d gotten me into so much trouble in Perchertania some years prior.*

*See: The Prisoner of Zebra.

“Hello?” I offered, for lack of anything better to say.

“Now you can see why I said this was … delicate. It’s not every day that I bring over someone from the other side of the mirror portal. I’m sorry to spring this on you-- I really should have given you a better lecture on the principles behind all of this. I don’t suppose we could start over? I promise I’ll do better the second time. I’ll even make you a reading list.”

“Hold on,” said I. “What was that about a magic mirror?”

“Oh, so you did understand my lecture!” Princess Twilight perked up in academic enthusiasm. Naturally, I didn’t correct her, instead recalling a previous drunken misadventure.*

*See: Absinthe Makes the Heart Go Yonder.

“But yes, the mirror portal acts as a semi-permeable gateway through trans-dimensional N-space, and it acts as a morphological cipher, which is why Flash Sentry-- Flash Sentry of Canterlot High, that is –looks like a pony, and not a … well, you don’t know what a ‘human’ is, but think a hairless, bipedal ape.” Princess Twilight yammered on, having completely forgotten about my earlier outburst now that she got to lecture someone. Or perhaps that was just my punishment. “And! As it happens, a friend of mine told me Flash Sentry of Canterlot high was having a friendship problem, so I thought who would know Flash better than himself? Or, well, an alternate universe reflection of himself who’s slightly older due to chrono-flux misalignment, but still. You two might not exactly be the same, but you’re similar enough that I’m sure you can offer some valuable insights into Flash’s situation and help his journey of personal growth!”

“What she said.” Other-Flash raised a hoof again.

“This … is not what I expected when I received your letter.” I said.

“I know, I know.” Princess Twilight sighed, then affixed me with a pleading, wide-eyed look that might have been more convincing had she not effortlessly paralyzed me with her magic mere moments before. Princesses are dangerous, I tell you. “But please, Major Sentry-- please, Flash, can you help Flash out? You’re the only pony who can.”

“When you put it that way, I guess I don’t have any choice, do I?” I stood up a little straighter and smoothed out the rumples in my uniform, falling back to the ‘dutiful soldier’ mask that’d gotten me so many undeserved accolades. At least Princess Twilight wasn’t about to send me off to some miserable corner of Equestria again.

“Great!” Princess Twilight clapped her hooves together in girlish glee. “Okay, now that we’ve got the awkward introductions out of the way, I’ll leave you two to work out your problem in private. I don’t want to spoil the process by standing by and taking notes. Even if it would be super interesting to do a comparative study on--” she shook her head, dismissing the thought. “Nevermind. I’ll be in the library if you need anything. You two have fun!” At that, Princess Twilight trotted out of the room and shut the door behind her, leaving me alone with my younger counterpart.

We stared at each other for several long, silent moments, until I shrugged, and sat down in one of the chairs I hadn’t had the chance to throw. “I’d say this is the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me, but I’m afraid fate would take that as a challenge.”

“You’re telling me.” The faux-Flash said. “I’m still getting my head around, like, having four legs. And wings. And stuff. How’d you manage it when you went to my world?”

“You … know about that?” I said, very carefully.

“Kinda? Like, I wasn’t there, ‘cause I had the flu, but Sunset Shimmer just told me to tell everyone it was my identical cousin from Europe who showed up and got into all that trouble.”

“Does … Princess Twilight know about that?” I chanced a look at the door, in case the Princess of Friendship were to barge in again. Considering I hadn’t been arrested yet, I could only presume she remained ignorant of my myriad misdeeds.

“I don’t think so? Sunset Shimmer didn’t want to tell anybody about everything that happened, ‘cause she said it was embarrassing that she wasn’t able to handle it herself.” Other-Flash said.

“Fair.” I nodded. “But enough about me. I’m where I’m supposed to be. What’s so important that you’ve literally crossed into another dimension to talk to me?”

“Okay, like, so--” Duplicate-Flash stumbled over his thoughts and words without even the excuse of several empty winebottles. Which made me suddenly aware that Princess Twilight had neglected to provide appropriate refreshments. Which made me even more thirsty. Damn.

My counterpart went on. “Once I heard there was another me here, and that the other me, like … did stuff, I wanted to learn more about me, so I could like, do stuff.”

“Stuff.” I said.

“Yeah, that!” My copy nodded. “Like, look at you! You’ve got a cool uniform and a bunch of medals and Twilight-- this world’s Twilight, it’s complicated –thinks you’re neat. But, like, back in my world, I just play guitar and go to school and do football and, like, that’s it? And I know I’m not good enough at guitar to be a rock star, and I know I’m not big enough to play pro ball, so, like, what am I supposed to do with my life?”

“And you’re asking me.”

“Yeah!”

I groaned. “Lad, I’m … notably more seasoned than you are, but I still don’t know what I’m doing.”

“You don’t?”

“Of course not! How could I? Equestria’s a madhouse, surrounded by the sort of horrors that’d make you soil yourself. Don’t let the pleasant décor and all the talk of Friendship fool you. If anything all the pastels and engravings are a deliberate effort to distract everypony from the myriad array of terrors and calamities just waiting to sweep the whole nation into darkness. Again.”

“Whoa.” Other-Flash said. “But you, like, help people? Ponies? Whatever? Protect them from all the bad stuff?”

“I suppose?” I said.

“Then maybe I should do that.” My younger clone nodded with stomach-turning enthusiasm. “I could help people like you do!”

“What? No!” I blurted. “Haven’t you been listening? You’d be better off doing the exact opposite of everything I’ve done.”

“Why?” Other-Flash blinked at me with the perfect naivete of youth.

“Because I’m--” I bit the words back before I could incriminate myself. Further, at least. “Because-- look, lad. Have you ever killed anyone?” My counterpart’s eyes went wide. “To judge from your expression, I’ll take that as a ‘no.’ It’s not like I’m some kind of psychotic serial murderer, mind you, it’s just that … well, to spare you the messy details, but every time I’ve killed anything, it was them or me. I’m not sorry for what I did, but it would’ve been nice if I’d never been put in that situation to begin with, you know?”

“Whoa.” Phony-Flash said. “That’s … pretty heavy.”

“Damn right it is.” I rubbed at my face. “And I am entirely too sober for this sort of subject matter.” At that, inspiration struck. “So why don’t we go get a drink?”