//------------------------------// // Previously... // Story: Golly Interrupted // by Golly4Ever //------------------------------// "Cozy?" asked Flurry. She looked back to see her trailing behind as they cautiously moved forward. "Are you ok?" The two fillies were working their way through a long and winding tunnel. It had been a trivial effort for Flurry to remove the stone sealing the entrance. Finding the correct spot had been the most difficult part of the current mission they had set out on. On entering, Flurry used her magic to place the stone seal back behind them in hopes that they wouldn't be discovered where they didn't belong or interrupted. There was no natural light in the tunnel, so Flurry had to illuminate the area with the magic from her horn. The air was clammy, cold and musty without a hint of a breeze to carry it away. Cozy snapped out of her daze, vigorously shaking her head. "Yeah! I just- I was just thinking about something." Their hoofsteps and voices echoed off of the walls and down the tunnel into the darkness, blurring together into a continuous eerie low drone that would eventually fade away if they ever stopped moving or speaking long enough. "Oh, yeah?" "What we're doing after this. You know the statue I came from? I think something might have happened. That's our next mission after this, I guess. I want-- I need to go see it. Hopefully, I'm wrong." "Oh! Well, try to keep up. I can only make so much light, you know." Flurry turned to face forward, lighting up the tunnel ahead. The light from her horn would only go so far down the tunnel before it was cut off by the wall as it constantly curved around in all directions. Cozy trotted up to walk beside Flurry. "How did it go again?" Flurry slowly recited from memory as they walked along, "Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find, um," "Um!" teased Cozy. "Shut up!" nudged Flurry. "Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find, um shut up!" "No! A pond for the most twisted of minds?" "Gifted at times?" "Dumbest of rhymes?" Flurry wasn't sure how it ended. She just knew that ponies had been warned to stay away, so naturally, she had to go explore it. The curving of the tunnel walls steadily grew less and less drastic as they continued forward, leading to longer and longer straight-aways as the overall size of the space widened. Most of the echoing reverb left to be heard was now behind them as the sound ahead seemed to sound more and more dampened. The air was getting lighter and more pleasant to breathe. A soft light could be seen ahead as they neared the end of the corridor. "Hey look! It's opening up!" exclaimed Flurry. The tunnel ended in a vast space. It was softly lit by bioluminescent plantlife resembling miniature palm trees. The ground was soft, covered in a blanket of short smooth cave grass with patches of spotted mushrooms here and there. Moss clung to the walls, giving the entire space a musty damp scent of a forest in the rain. A small stream snaked its way from a tunnel on the far end of the space to the center where the water collected into a still pond in the center. Two tiny identical lizards disrupted the surface in a shimmer of ripples as they exited the pond to scurry off behind a large boulder off to the side. There was an aura of magic surrounding everything, even the mushrooms seemed to softly glow with it. "This is it?" asked Cozy. "It kinda looks like your filly cave," she commented. "No glow stones," observed Flurry. "This one is supposed to be special. The water here. It's different, I hear." Flurry went around to examine the walls, floor and plant life more closely while Cozy made her way up to the pond in the center of the space. She peered over the edge into the seemingly bottomless water. The ripples finally settled, allowing her reflection to come into focus. She looked into it, and it looked right back at her. She had seen her reflection before but this one seemed different to her somehow. This one carried a feeling of melancholy. 'Is this really how I look to the world?' she thought to herself. Was it really how she felt? The reflection's eyes called to her as both sides of the mirror stared into each other. "Stop!" shouted Flurry, alarmingly loud. "Don't touch it!" Cozy found herself reaching for her reflection, her reflection reaching for her. She quickly retracted her hoof, stepping back and shaking the confusion out of her head. "I- I don't know what happened." "What did you see?" asked Flurry as she approached the pond to take a look for herself. Flurry's reflection wore a confident, proud smile, if not the slightest defiant and mischievous. She gave her reflection a proud wink before straightening her face and looking back up at Cozy on the far end of the pond. "It's... Me. I think," said Cozy, unsurely. "Well, of course, it's you!" Said Flurry. She opened her saddlebag, levitating out a few vials with her magic. She uncorked them and carefully dipped them into the pond until the air bubbles stopped before recorking them and putting them safely away. "Thanks again for these. They came in really useful!" "Yeah. ...Sure." Cozy cautiously peeked back into the water, her reflection cautiously peeking back. "Have you ever wondered... If on the other side of a mirror, if it was really just another world, doing the same things we were?" "No," dismissed Flurry as she turned and walked away from the pond. She began peeking around and under small and medium-sized rocks, looking for the pair of lizards she had spotted earlier. "Oh. Ok," said Cozy, disappointedly, not taking her eyes from her reflection. She wasn't sure if it would look away when she would. She waved at it, the reflection mimicking her perfectly. She forced a smile at it, it smiled back in its melancholy. Cozy could feel tears in her eyes. Why were they there? She hoped at least her other self would know. She didn't like the thought of there being two lost Cozys in the world. Flurry sighed, gently setting down another large rock with her magic. "Where could they be?" She looked around the walls and ceiling, away from the pond. "Cozy? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just blow off your question like that." The young alicorn lit her horn to try and get a better look at the ceiling where it met the wall. "I don't really know what's on the other side of the mirror. They could be windows into other worlds, other possibilities." She shrugged. "...Or maybe they're just really shiny. My big question is what color they really are. Sure it's easy to think they might be silver, but do you ever really see silver when you look at one? You don't! It's always the color of what's in front of it. ...But how does it know what colors to be where and when, you know?" It was quiet, Cozy did not reply. "You know?" Flurry followed a thin crack as it ran down the wall from the ceiling all the way down to the floor. "Cozy?" Flurry first looked back at the pond, then all around the open area but she wasn't in sight. * * * The world came rushing back to Cozy as her lungs burned. She was Dangling in the air from her tail, suspended in Flurry's magic. Enchanted pond water gathered in her mouth and dripped from her nostrils as it drained from her lungs, the filly coughing violently in an effort to expel it from her airways. "Breathe, Cozy!" cried Flurry. Cozy coughed and coughed, only stopping to blow her nose into the air as she cleared her sinuses. "What happened?!" she asked, finally able to catch her breath. "You went in, you crazy filly!" shouted Flurry with relief. She shook the water off of Cozy in the air. Cozy flailed to and fro, "Hey! Woah!! Stop that! I'm gonna be sick!" "Oh. Sorry," said Flurry, gently setting Cozy on the ground. "You scared me! You weren't floating, you just kept sinking. I had to find you with my magic and pull you out with it. You were deep!" Cozy shook her body one part at a time, ridding herself of excess water droplets before sitting to wring out her tail. "I... I was trying to get closer. And then the ground broke. That's all I remember." She looked over to the pond, to the spot where she previously stood. "What-- what does it taste like?" asked Flurry. "It tasted like... Like water," replied Cozy. "Refreshing, in a magical sort of way." A third voice made its presence known, flat and monotone. "You girls shouldn't be in here," warned Maud. Cozy and Flurry jumped, looking behind them. Maud stood quietly, expression seeming to be as neutral as ever. "This is an enchanted place. If you're not careful, there could be trouble, you know. Lots and lots of trouble. Just ask my sister." Maud's voice was too smooth and monotone for Flurry and Cozy to determine whether or not they were being scolded. Maud turned to Cozy, "You didn't pull yourself out, did you?" "I pulled her out, with my magic," answered Flurry. "Hmm," said Maud, looking them over. "Hmm?" asked Flurry. "Hmm," replied Maud. "We should probably go now," suggested Cozy. "Yes. You two can follow me back to my place, there are stairs to the surface. As for anypony else," She said, glancing around the cave. "Hmm..." Maud started down the far end of the space towards her own cave. Cozy and Flurry took one last glance around before catching up to Maud, following her out. * * * "A mirror pool? You mean like in the legend?" asked Flurry. "Not like. Is," replied Maud. Cozy, Flurry, and Maud sat around the central living space in Maud's home, in front of a small fire Maud had set up for the three of them. She had offered Cozy a towel to dry off with before they headed on their way. "So it's real..." said Cozy with astonishment. "Yes," said Maud, flatly. "So how come there aren't two Cozy Glows now?" "She didn't do it right," said Maud, looking from Flurry over at Cozy. "According to Nana, the saying goes: 'Into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly dared.'" She finished with a light not. "Oh," said Flurry. "Were you yearning?" Maud asked Cozy. Cozy looked up in thought, "Um, no, not really." "Were you scared?" Flurry asked Cozy. "I don't know. It all happened so fast." "My sister reached in and pulled herself out. You went all the way in, and then Flurry pulled you out. So that's different." "Oh," said Cozy. "So what happens now?" "I don't know," said Maud, flatly. She turned to Flurry, "Did you touch the water?" "No. Not with my hooves," answered Flurry. "I just used my magic to find Cozy and pull her out." "Hmm..." hmmed Maud. "Hmm?" asked Cozy. "Pinkie said her doubles always seemed undercooked. I think it's because she pulled them out before they were ready. I've been doing experiments with Boulder." "Boulder?" asked Flurry. "It's ok. He volunteered. He has lots of friends now." Maud motioned to the corner, filled with a pile of rocks. "The longer they stay in the pool, the more developed they become. Tell me, Cozy, what happened yesterday?" Cozy detailed her visiting Flurry the previous day, the chess game they both lost and even the train ride she took to the Crystal Empire. "I'm pretty sure you are you," said Maud. "Pretty sure?" asked Flurry. "Mostly pretty sure. You two should get going, now. I need to see something and then talk to my sister. Tell Twilight I said 'hi'," instructed Maud as she got up. She walked the two visitors to her cave entrance, showing them the way out.