//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Mirror, Mirror, in the Pond // by AhriSafari //------------------------------// “An’ that right there is the hospital,” Applejack said as she pointed to a very wide three-story building at the end of a winding path that branched off the main road. Pinkie and I were already about halfway through her tour of Ponyville… and I swear I remember nothing of it before that besides the orange pony’s long rant about how the Apple family “made this here town with nothing but their wits and a bag of apple seeds,” and oh god was it tedious. I was beginning to realize that while I didn’t have any memories of any of these places, they all did have a sort of unnamable familiarity to them, as if I only had to see them at a slightly different angle and I would suddenly remember being there before. Now one might THINK that that would be a good thing for my continued survival, having a rough layout of the area in my head and all, but because of the monotony of being shown places I already knew I was almost more afraid of dying from sheer boredom. I thought about how I could sympathize with the clones that were forced to watch paint dry, but at least I could tune her out and focus on passing butterflies and the like. “Uggghhh, this is SUCH a waste of time,” Pinkie said, proving that Applejack’s tour guide routine was just as tedious with memories as without, “I should be starting my planning for Dusty’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville, we Hope you Remember us Soon Party’! Oh it’s got to have party balloons, streamers, cotton candy, apple bobbing, a scavenger hunt, hide and go seek, refreshments, streamers, party balo-” “Umm excuse me Pinkie, but what’s a party?” I interrupted my bouncing pink double. At this point neither her, nor our rustic companion, were particularly surprised, as it’s very hard to shock somepony with questions when you’ve already asked them who their immortal god and ruler is (its somepony named Celestia in case you didn’t know. Oh and her sister Luna too, but nopony seems to care as much about her). I didn’t even bother to ask what some of the other things Pinkie mentioned were, there was a limit to how dumb I was willing to look to satisfy my curiosity. “Parties are the absolute best, most wonderfullest thing EVER! Everypony gets together and plays games, and has sweets, and dances, and acts all crazy, all NIGHT!!” Pinkie exclaimed as she put her face right up into mine, so close that out eyeballs almost touched, “You are going to have SO. MUCH. FUN!!!” “Well that sounds…”amazing! I almost said, but then stopped myself right as I got to the damning word. No, I couldn’t like parties, even though it seemed every fiber of my being just perked up at the idea, like it was my very reason for being. But that was just it; it basically WAS my reason for being, because it meant so much to Pinkie Pie. Obviously I couldn’t be honest with them, or myself, as doing so would have blown my cover out of the water. So I did the only thing I could do, I pushed my living reflection out of my face with my hoof as I ended my pause, “…dreadful.” Pinkie just stood there with a shocked expression for the second time that day as I walked away from her. This time, however, she recovered quickly and yelled after me, “You just wait and see! I’m going to put on the best party you’ve ever seen! It’ll be so good you’re gonna want a party every day FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!” She then made a quick turn and began walking away, muttering under her breath. I even saw some steam come out of her ears, even though I’m pretty sure that’s physically impossible. “What?” I asked as I noticed Applejack stare at me with a disappointed look on her face. “I’m all for honesty, but you might have taken that a bit too far,” she said, “Ah expect ya’ll to apologize to her next time ya see her.” “Whatever,” I said as I tried to keep my face as deadpan as possible. I found myself feeling guilty for my harsh words, as if I had insulted myself just as much as I had insulted Pinkie. I didn’t have much time to ponder this though as a recognizable multicolored pegasus streaked out of the sky before touching down right in front of my companion and I. Yes, it was Cheater McCheaterpants herself, my fake displeasure suddenly became very real. “Oh hey, I’ve been looking all over for you two!” the cyan pegasus said, more to Applejack than myself, “Twilight told me to tell you that Doctor Whooves saw one of the Pinkie clones escape yesterday…” “WHAT?!” Applejack yelled out in surprise, interrupting Rainbow Dash. “Ya I know! I thought we’d gotten them all. Anyway, Twilight and your brother went to go block the entrance to wherever Pinkie went to go copy herself to make sure whichever one got out doesn’t go make more. So ya I’m supposed to tell you that she won’t be able to work on that healing spell today,” Rainbow said, “Well sorry I can’t stay and chat but I gotta go get Pinkie so we can search the town for the runaway. Bye!” Rainbow bounced up and shot back up into the sky, leaving a cloud of dust where she once stood. She seemed to have so much energy and excitement at the prospect of tracking down a ‘dangerous renegade’ that, had she not had wings, I might have mistaken her for another Pinkie clone. “Well that was rude, she didn’t even introduce herself,” Applejack said, her eyebrows crossed in frustration, “that was Rainbow Dash, our local weathermare. She was talking about an… incident we had yesterday that I THOUGHT we already had taken care of, but apparently not.” She then muttered something under her breath and roughly adjusted her hat with her hoof; obviously the rodeo horse was upset by more than Dash’s lack of manners. I didn’t mind at all, in fact I was thanking my lucky stars that the pony hadn’t given me a second look. Assuredly the copy this “Doctor Whooves” (silly name, but he’s a nice colt once you get to know him) had seen was me, and that meant that they were all looking for me RIGHT NOW. I stood there with my pupils as small as pins, roughly breathing in and out. I thought about how it wouldn’t take very long for a pony that could fly that fast to search the entire town, along with a pony who arguably knew me better than myself. It was just a matter of timing before they found me and then… Bing. Bang. Zam. “Hey are you all right sugarcube?” I realized Applejack had turned and was looking at me with a confused expression. I knew I couldn’t seem too shocked by this revelation or else I might be discovered. I forced my mouth into a creaky smile that looked more like I was attempting to snap my own teeth off with pure biting power and nodded my head up and down much too aggressively. It was less of a nod and more using my head to imitate a jackhammer. This just made the freckled farmer’s confused frown deepen, but apparently it was enough to satisfy her as she just shrugged her shoulders and continued her tour. *** A short while later Applejack shoved me into a building she’d identified as the Carousel Boutique, a dressmaking shop owned and operated by her friend Rarity. AJ insisted that I meet her, though I tried to get out of it for reasons of my own safety as most of her friends were currently busy trying to find and kill me. Unfortunately the fact that her long hours working the farm had made her stronger than me greatly increased the persuasiveness of her argument. “Now I know makin’ friends can be a scary business, but I’m sure you and Rarity will get along just fin-” “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” the white-coated unicorn who was present at the town hall massacre the day before rounded the corner, saw me, and started screaming at the top of her lungs. “What in the name of Princess Celestia were you THINKING bringing her in here!?!” This is it, I thought, she’s figured it out, I’m going to die “What in tarnation are you talking about Rarity? This is our new friend Dusty and I’m taking her on a tour of the town!” Applejack said, stomping her hoof on the ground, “Why’s everypony being so rude today?” “I don’t care who she is! YOU just let a pony absolutely, positively, COVERED IN DIRT into MY shop!!” Rarity got right up into Applejack’s face and started randomly gesturing to me. The unicorn appeared to be trying to burn a hole in her friend’s head with her gaze, fortunately she didn’t appear to be succeeding. “If THAT is not rude I don’t know what is!!!” “Well… I… uh… ” Applejack began to blush in embarrassment as she pulled the brim of her hat down over her face. “You just stay out here and think about what you have done while I get Dusty cleaned up,” Rarity said before turning around with a huff and walking towards the shop’s back room. I felt myself get lifted up by a light blue aura dragged me along through the air behind the neat-freak. I wildly kicked around in an attempt to get away, but the magic held strong. “Don’t worry dear, I’ll have you all fixed up before you know it!” Once we’d gotten to the back room she set me down. I let myself breathe out, if she was going to kill me she would have done it right there, right? But then what DID the unicorn have planned for me? “Excuse me Rarity, but why did you bring me back here?” I asked, my voice squeaking in fright. “Oh, just for a little wash… ” she replied with a scheming smile on her face as she backed up away from me towards the wall. Suddenly I saw that same blue glow that she used to carry me appear behind her as a large hose reared up behind the dressmaker. It moved almost as if it was a snake, its ‘body’ rolling back and forth, yet its ‘head’ stayed in place, as if staring me down with its non-existent eyes. “Now stay still for juuuussssttt a minute!” “Uh oh,” I barely had time to utter before I was hit with a giant blast of water that threw me across the room and slammed me into the opposite wall with a loud bang. The pressure held me there for a solid minute before my assailant stopped the flow of water and I fell to the ground, dazed and confused. The entire world spun around me as I coughed up copious amounts of water from my lungs. “Oh dear, perhaps I may have overdone it a lit… oh… ” I looked up to see an absolutely stunned Rarity staring at me with an expression of pure shock on her face. Only then did I notice the black water pooling beneath me, and how pink my coat was.