//------------------------------// // Chapter 1|Lost // Story: Inverted // by meepify //------------------------------// Part I Abyss. Nothing is more horrifying than The Abyss. Ponies say they have entered. But nopony ever has. Because that is the way ponies are. Cowardly creatures. I, too was like them. Before that horrible mishap. Before I flipped. what am I? Please. Tell me. I am so lost. Memory wheels around me. My mind is in pieces. I just don't know. Please. Help me. I am lost in my own head. Please. I just want out. I am trapped I am broken. I am lost. .... .... ...Is that.. light? I want to cry out. I want to be free. I want to be happy. I am headed for it. I want to cry out in joy, but I have no body to do it. I am five feet away... Four... Two... One... the light envelops me. I am free. I am happy. I am found. I stood in the park, my white mane flowing in the wind. I was a plain white unicorn, with a stark white mane and a perfectly equal number of clashing black highlights. My eyes were grey. I looked around, and saw a filly. I walked over to the filly, I knew I was beyond. "Is this heaven?" I ask. The filly laughed at my face. "No, this is Equestria." My heart sank. I stumbled backwards, and ran, the filly calling after me. I had finally run a good half-mile when I stopped to think, and collapsed near a puddle. I looked into it. There was no reflection. I screamed at the puddle, my voice sounding off. That is when I noticed I was missing my male features, and that my voice was empty of happiness or sorrow. I had also lost my cutie Mark, which had been replaced by a cutie mark of a chessboard. I looked at my flank, bewildered. I then went to the bathroom. Not that I could use it, I just wanted to try something. I cast my teleportation spell, and found I could not remember it. Nor could I remember any other spells from before the abyss. I was neutral. Neither. Nothing. I was out of the abyss, but I was as broken here as I was there. I was still lost. I would have screamed again, but people were staring at me in the bathroom. one of them must have noticed I was not in the mirror, for he seemed scared of me. They all did. one cried out "LOOK, IT HAS NO REFLECTION! RUN FROM THE DARK SPIRIT!!!" Everyone did just that, screaming bloody murder, and crying out to celestia. I sighed. This was going to be a horrible life. I exited the bathroom, where the royal guards of the princess of friendship were speaking with my witnesses. Fearing for myself, I ran. But being the stupid me I am, I ran into a royal guard, toppling backwards in the process. The royal guard looked at me funny. I stared back, fear in my face. "You are... not a mare... or a stallion... that is very creepy... what kinda magic mishap did you get into?" I sighed in relief. Maybe they would be willing to listen after all. "Wait a minute..." he said "You are that dark spirit..." He picked his shackles out of his belt slowly, ready for any sudden resistance. I sighed again, this time in submission. I put my head forward, waiting to be shackled to the guard so I would not run off. My cooperation weirded him out a bit, but he did what I expected, and took me through town. I looked on at the scenery for what was probably the last time. I saw the gardens where I played as a filly, my favorite restaurant, and canterlot, which I used to marvel at from the distance. All too soon it was over, and I was standing before the castle. The watching guard looked at me, and something in my mind stirred. He was wearing a uniform, but his broken ear, and half-glider wings were familiar. "Vortec?" I asked. he looked at me. "How do you know my name, demon?" He spat the words "But Vortec, It's me, Thain Ravensong!" I said in a hurt tone. His voice stung. His rejection stung. everything hurt. He glared at me "Impossible, she disappeared 15 years ago!" He spat back, this time more forcefully. "Don't you remember that one day? In the ever free forest, by the abyss? I don't know what's happening, but I am sorry. sorry for all I caused..." That was the last thing I said before the guard leading me kicked me. "Get going, demon! No brainwashing of any kind!" Vortec's gaze softened. "Let the demon go." "Sir... Did it get to you?..." "even if it had, even if it was controlling me, this is not kind at all. we live under the princess of friendship, who has employed the royal potions master Zecora, and even Discord. Yet we imprison someone because they have no reflection? Let the demon go." "But.." "That was an order. Now stand down." the guard shrunk back, and left. I stood there. I hugged him suddenly "thank you so much" "You could be a bit more grateful y'know, y'know." was his response. "The new voice I have is incapable of producing feeling." was mine, and the flat, annoyed tone I was stuck with fit well here. "New voice? Oh no, I don't believe your story. You are quite probably a demon. But I know prejudice when I see it. Now, perhaps we should see the princess about this situation? after all, a new demon species is serious business" He wrote a report on his paper, and sent it through the "Friendship railway", a message service that used the princess of friendship's dragon's fire. "Now, demon, we wait." Part II I stood in the chamber, nervously awaiting the arrival of Princess Celestia. I had never met royalty before, and my manners were crap. I waited, the clock counting down. Random things roamed my mind. Then, just when I believed she would not come, Vortec slammed open the door. "The princess will see you now" he said "good luck" He left the room, leaving unsaid what we both knew. I would need much more than luck. while I was thinking, in came a regal figure, rainbows flowing from her mane. I nearly died. I felt like I was inadequate next to the royal figure, and it did not help that she was frowning at me. She sat down in front of the cage, taking out a notepad with her horn. Celestia looked up. "what are you? you are like a pony, yet everyone claims you are a demon." I responded as truthfully as possible "I have no idea. I have no reflection, and no male or female parts. I also have no magic" She wrote something down, and looked at me confused. "No magic? than why are you here? have you used physical prowess to start trouble?" I answered that truthfully too. "No, I am just a victim of prejudice. I entered the abyss, see, and then I escaped. I got here through a light." Her ears perked up at the word "abyss", but she let me continue. "Then I saw my older brother, Vortec." memories came crashing back. His horrible rejection of me being me. His mention of the time I had been gone. his old smile, that I longed to see again. Princess celestia must have noticed the face I made. "I am sorry. I can't imagine what you went through, losing his happiness, and his care." She was, truly sorry. And I was too. the memories welled over me, like a sea, choking me to my last breath. one day stood out. that one day... "Vortec! what happened!?" I rushed over to him, looking at his crutches. "Nothing..." he said, trying to smile through the pain. His wing was missing, and half his ear was gone. His weak smile reflected my weak stomach. "The important thing is I'm back from the changling war." He smiled, and grimaced from the pain. "But vortec, I didn't want you back like this... you are all wrong... your wing is missing, for crying out loud." I looked at the hospital garb "why did you have to go... why did you have to come back like this..." vortec looked at me, serious. "Sister... I had to help. That is what I do. Even if I have to get hurt, I always help. I want you to know something. When I help someone, I do it for them. Not for me or you. But for them. And when I do, I grant a wish. Every time I give an orphaned cat a home, I grant their wish. Whenever I give a starving child food, I grant a wish. And if you do this too, you will grant my wish." "And I never did... the abyss took that from me. The abyss took my brother's wish." Celestia looked at me. She smiled. "Welcome back to ponyville, Flipside. Enjoy your new world, life, and name. Oh, and do me a favor. Grant your brother's wish." Celestia got up, and left the room.