Mirror Blue

by Crowne Prince

5 - Mirror Blue

“From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.”

Nothing happened. Twilight expected that. It was an unfinished spell, after all.

The next morning, the unicorn woke up to pounding on her door. She tripped down the stairs rushing to see what it was.

“Girls! What’s wrong?”

Applejack covered her face up with her hat. “Twilight, this mornin’ my family woke up to Pinkie Pie trying to fix a gutter on the barn that wasn’t even broken, and when they found me, I was making dresses!”

“It was quite frightening,” Rarity interjected. “The dresses, I mean, not the fact our cutie marks got switched around.”

“Yeah, well,” Applejack went on, “Applebloom brought me back to the farm and from there we managed to work the problem out on our own. Except.”

Twilight was still trying to comprehend that the spell she’d cast without thinking had altered her friends’ lives. She could have ruined everything! “Except…?”

“I think you’d better take a look for yourself.” Applejack backed out of the doorway. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity moved aside as well.

Twilight stepped out into the bright, clear day. In fact, everything was perfectly normal except the one cloud left in the sky. Kicked back and relaxing on it was a brightly colored mare. Even though she wore no uniform, the Wonderbolt emblem was blazoned on her flank.

“Oh no. So if she’s here, then Soarin’ must be…”

“It gets weirder, Twi.”

---

Spitfire said in a low voice, “It’s like he’s been here the whole time. He knows everything Rainbow Dash knows. Her room, her schedule, which performances she’s training for, everything about us. How did he even find his way to headquarters?”

Spitfire, Rapidfire, and Fleetfoot gathered in a small group apart from their new guest. Rapidfire’s eyes darted back and forth between his teammates and Soarin’, who sported Dash’s cutie mark. “Something isn’t right. There’s magic at work here.”

Suddenly Surprise was there too. “Dark magic,” she said in a wobbly ghost voice. Shadows blackened her features.

Rapidfire rolled his eyes. “Oh posh, it’s not dark magic Surprise.”

Her ears drooped in disappointment.

Fleetfoot shook her head. She’d been a Wonderbolt longer than anyone on the team, and she did not recognize the spell. “I can’t even think of what it might be. Only the most studied unicorns can cast mind-altering, chaotic, or dark magic, and I’m not sure this is from any of those classes.”

Spitfire snorted. “He hasn’t tried to kill us yet, so that’s a start.”

By now Soarin’ knew his friends were doing their best to ignore him, so he strolled out. He had more fun things to do at the moment besides be excluded.

“I’ll keep track of him,” Surprise said and bounced after the stallion.

“They could be pranking us,” Spitfire suggested.

Fleetfoot overturned that idea on the spot. “Dash can’t come up with that elaborate of a prank on her own. Plus, I don’t think she knows Soarin’ well enough to tell him everything. No, we’re going to have to get some help.”

Nopony felt like trying to get in touch with Princess Luna, which was notoriously difficult to do since she didn’t stay around Canterlot like her sister. Their other options, then, were Princess Celestia, the Canterlot Archives, and the School for Gifted Unicorns. Fleetfoot departed to see if she could find the Headmistress.

Spitfire looked at the doorway Soarin’ had exited not a few minutes ago. “What are we going to do about him in the meantime?”

“If he’s the same as Rainbow Dash, we may as well let him fill in for her. I’ve got a feeling that somewhere, somepony is as confused as we are," Rapidfire said. He left to speak with the librarians at the magic wing of the Canterlot Archives.

Down the hallway, Surprise and Soarin’ kept talking like they were longtime buddies. “Hey Soar, where did you live before you joined the team, anyway?”

“Los Pegasus. I thought you knew that already.”

Surprise tapped her hoof and looked around. Wrong question. She was pretty sure Soarin’ and Rainbow Dash were not both from Los Pegasus. “Ooh! Do you know Rainbow Dash?”

“Who? Are you alright Surprise? I guess you’re probably on a super secret mystery case right now, but if I can help I will.”

“You are helping, I’m just not asking the right questions.” The Wonderbolt ruffled her gold hair with her wing. “I mean, I guess all the Elements of Harmony are from… Ponyville.”

“Yep.”

“Ponyville! I’m so silly; I don’t know how I forgot. Of course that’s it.” She bounced off, and Soarin’ was left to his own devices.

The Wonderbolt opened the door to his room and went to pick up where he’d left off in Wings and Blades, but his collection had been replaced with Daring Do. Even better, somepony – probably Lightning Streak – had replaced the awards he’d won with convincing duplicates bearing Rainbow Dash’s name.

“Very funny guys.” Soarin’ puzzled over the name. Rainbow Dash? Did he know it? There must be an inside joke going around that he hadn’t figured out yet.

---

Zecora stared into the liquid boiling inside the cauldron at the center of her home.

“You say there are two ponies, both of them blue, that have switched not just cutie marks, but memories too?”

“Sure seems that way,” Applejack said. “’Course there’s something batty about it. Rainbow Dash gets most of the details, but she’s just plain wrong about some things. She seems ta think Cadence and Twi’s brother defeated the changelings, and she was even there for that part! Plus, she don’t remember Soarin’ at all.”

The five friends minus Rainbow Dash (and Soarin') clustered around the cauldron, trying to make sense of the concoction inside. Zecora hid her smile. The ponies failed to realize they were looking at a simple vegetable stew.

Zecora left the bowl and began to chop up some Everfree vegetables while she thought over the problem. She didn’t know either of the pegasi in question well enough, but kindred spirits did have a way of getting their lives tangled. Or untangled, as it may be. One small event could send someone down a path better suited to another, and sometimes it created ripples in history.

“Have you considered the possibility that you have righted a wrong? That perhaps these two ponies were meant to be this way all along?”

“What, that’s ridiculous,” Rarity protested. “The colors of Soarin’s cutie mark clash with Rainbow Dash’s mane.”

“How you helped each other applies to them too. Reunite these two racers and see what they do.”

The sun began to dip to the edge of Equestria. By the time Fluttershy searched Soarin’s house, the friends had run out of places near Ponyville to look. Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found.

---

Rainbow Dash raced, driven by a sudden need to soar in no particular direction. No, it was more than that. She had that gut feeling that she needed to do something, but no clue as to what that could be. It was instinct that drove her out of Ponyville and away from the Elements of Harmony enclosed in the glass case at Twilight’s library.

The closer she got to Canterlot, the stronger the sensation grew. Her heart felt like it might burst in two, or grow wings of its own and take off. Her wingbeats grew stronger. Something was calling her. A speck in the sky that became another pegasus.

Dash drew closer to see who it was, and somehow she knew. Even though she’d never seen him before she knew. He noticed her as well, and without thinking they found themselves standing face to face in Celestia’s final minutes. Reds and oranges glowed over their sky colored fur like copies of the sunset.

The stallion in front of her was a Wonderbolt. She’d rescued him at the Best Young Flyer Competition, and tried to show off for him at the Grand Galloping Gala because she wanted to be a Wonderbolt too. They’d danced at the royal wedding. He’d rescued her at the Gala. But also, he’d entered the Wonderbolt Academy in pursuit of his dream and she’d trained him. He was the Element of Loyalty.

How could she know all of this and yet not remember who he was? He couldn’t be all of those things, could he?

As one they reached out like reflections of each other, not sure if the other was real or not.

She saw her own confusion play out in his clouded green gaze. Rainbow Dash’s hoof drew closer to his. “Why do I feel…”

“…like I know you?” he finished.

They touched. For an instant they were there together, two ponies with the same dreams, a mirror of possibilities. Then the fabric of reality swallowed them up, as if they’d never been there at all. Only a lone cloud was there to meet Luna’s field of dreams.

---

This was not like any sky she had flown before. In fact, as Rainbow Dash regained her senses, she realized she was not flying at all. She floated in place amongst teal mists and stars. A glowing path below beckoned. Her feet stretched for it and she landed on the ethereal plane.

“Hello?” The call echoed into the endless expanse. “Is anypony there?”

“Just a second!” A familiar male voice responded. The sound of it made her head swim and she put a wing to her forehead to clear her mind.

Out of the mist two ponies emerged, footsteps trailing with stars.

“Princess Celestia!” Rainbow Dash forgot to bow. “Did we… die?”

The great alicorn chuckled and her voice sparkled with mirth. “No. It just seems my student has gotten the two of you into an interesting situation. Walk with us. There is something I need to show the two of you.”

As they traveled the illuminated path, screens with moving pictures spread out before them. Dash saw both of her sets of memories played out through them, right up to the moment she'd woken up here. The pictures thinned out and disappeared. An empty trail of shimmering light stretched out ahead.

“The reason you both are here is because you must make a choice.” Celestia stepped out from between the two ponies. She stood between two doorways brimming with white light.

“All around us are countless possibilities. Even a small change can set any of us on a different course. The two of you happen to share a link so close that your paths can tangle up or even coexist. I must admit I am a bit surprised, though. Of the things that could have resulted from Twilight Sparkle casting Star Swirl’s unfinished spell, I was not expecting this anomaly.”

Soarin’ took the information in stride. “What can we do to fix it?”

“Choose which life you want to return to. This,” Celestia indicated to one of the doorways, “leads to the one you came from.” She lowered her wing and turned to look into the other doorway. “This leads to the one you remember.”

“Where I’m a Wonderbolt,” Soarin’ said.

"And I'm the Element of Loyalty," Dash said.

“Once you choose that will be it. The realities will be split.”

Rainbow Dash was trying hard not to turn into Twilight and over think it. “Are you saying that there are two more of us out there who don’t even know this is going on? Is there another you? What happens to all of them when we choose?”

The princess held up her hoof to stem the tide of questions. “Do not worry. This choice is for you. Think about what you want, and know that either way you go, things will work out.”

Both doors were the same at every angle. Dash checked to be sure. “Alright, I’m going to go with this one!” She stood by the door where she was already a Wonderbolt. “I really don’t want to take that test again. I remember how awful it was.”

Soarin’ looked from one door to the next. “Oh come on, Dash. It wasn’t that bad. Still…” His eyes lingered on the path not yet taken, the one opposite Dash. “I’m already a Wonderbolt too.” He walked over to his choice, the door where he was a Wonderbolt.

In that pocket of eternity, the two small ponies stared at their feet. How could they choose either way, when both lives were so real? What happened to their friendships with everyone when they went one way versus the other? Could they not have both at once?

There was something more, though. Rainbow Dash brought her head up and met Soarin’s gaze. They had memories of the time they’d spent together. Small things. Teaching each other, training, dancing, striving to achieve a Wonderbolt dream not yet met. What happened when they walked away from that? As they stood there, some of those moments got clearer and others started to fade away.

Green and magenta eyes shimmered. Will I remember you?

“Wait!” Soarin’ tore free from the light enveloping him. Even though both options were ultimately equal, the real Rainbow Dash was right there in front of him. He’d go with her. It didn’t matter that he had to pass the Wonder Trial again. As he watched her rainbow colors filter into the white light and disappear it got harder to remember. What was he thinking about? He hadn’t even become a Wonderbolt yet, how could he be thinking...

Celestia watched them go. The doors blinked out behind them.

Reflecting on what had happened, she decided it was probably best not to send that portal mirror to the Crystal Empire after all.

---

The herd of Ponyville friends gathered outside Twilight’s home. Still no sign of either Rainbow Dash or Soarin’.

At that moment, rays of light poured from the night sky. Everypony looked up to the descending, blinding ball of light. It shot down and struck the ground. Applejack shielded her eyes while she tried to get a better look.

“Soarin’? Is that you?”

The stallion leapt into the air. “It’s me!”

“Where they hay you been? We’ve been looking all over for you and Rainbow Dash.”

“Rainbow Dash? Why were you looking for her? I woke up this morning with this funny feeling, and I went back to bed. Somehow I ended up here.” He swished around in circles, checking to make sure everything was still in place. Two wings, two cutie marks, four hooves, tail, yep yep. “Did I sleep all day?” He started laughing. “I feel fine now. Better than fine. Man, you guys are the greatest friends ever.”

Twilight’s eyes shone. “Friends, of course, that’s it! I know how to finish the spell.”

At that point, nopony knew what was going on, so they all followed Twilight into the library. She pulled out a yellowed notebook and started writing. “From all of us together. Together we are friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end.”

Twilight closed the notebook, returned the Elements to their case, wished everypony goodnight, and went to bed.

---

The day came when Soarin’ was no longer the Element of Loyalty, and the magic stones belonged to the forest again. Maybe he should have cared more about giving up that power, but the fact was that not having to save Equestria every few months created a lot of free time, time that he used on one pony in particular – at least as often as he could come up with excuses to visit Equestria's capitol.

“Guess I never have to prove I can be an Element of Harmony and a Wonderbolt at the same time, huh Dash?”

Behind them, the streets of Canterlot bustled with activity. Delicious aromas wafting from the various vending carts around the festival had brought the two racers down to earth.

"Hold your horses Soarin', you still gotta prove you can be a Wonderbolt in the first place," Dash teased as she shoveled the desserts they'd just ordered into a pair of saddlebags.

Neither of them made any mention of the letter sitting on Soarin's living room table back in Ponyville. The Wonderbolt seal on the front was ripped open.

"Alright," Dash said, securing the clasp over the bags and tossing them over her back while Soarin' dished out bits to the familiar earth pony vendor. "Let's blow this doughnut stand."

Both pegasi flared their wings open. Pony Joe's eyes went wide, but as usual he was too slow to stop them. In a flurry of feathers, Soarin' and Rainbow Dash whipped into the air so fast all the doughnuts sitting out for display on his cart whooshed up and rained down onto the crowd below. Fillies and colts at the festival laughed in delight as they caught frosted delicacies or watched them splat over some unsuspecting noble's face.

"Darnit you two! This is going on your tab!" Pony Joe shouted, hoof raised to the sky.

Comments

[TaylorSky]

awww....over already
Nice ending n.n

[CursedKitty]

Brilliant! I really enjoyed this. :)

[Burnasius]

AU workd romance ending...
Worth it.

[djthomp]

Huh, and again, that was an interesting twist on the canonical episode.

[SoarinDashSpaz]

I knew it. They title and cover art gave it away -smirks-

[Axis of Rotation]

Boy was I behind on this haha but I'm glad I caught up. I enjoyed how you took canon events and twisted them in unexpected ways, like when the wonderbolts helped the mane six reach the elements during the changeling invasion, leading them to actually win sooner this time. And it's been quite a long while since I read Loyalty, but I would swear that the scene where Rainbow trains Soarin was a mirror version of what happened in that fic. It felt very familiar.

I also liked the twist in the end, where their destinies get mixed up and they end up living each other's original lives. I liked it because the story was actually addressing the fact it was about a mirror universe, and began exploring those implications. It made you start thinking about the whole thing, about the premise of the story, as opposed to simply accepting it and enjoying the ride. I think this essentially worked by forcing the mirror idea to the forefront of what was happening and making the characters themselves have to consider it, which then made us consider it; the fact this was a mirror universe wasn't just the foundational rule behind the story, it was now directly involved. It's a shame you couldn't go more in depth with that.

And overall I think that applies in general here; this story could easily have been a lot longer and more in depth. That's not at all a strike against it, I'm simply saying that there's room for expansion, that, you know, you had more material to use than you actually did. If you ever wanted to, you could expand it a great deal. After all, many key canon events were glossed over, we only saw Dash and Soarin together a handful of times, and only one chapter was spent on the story's sort of self-evaluating concept of a mirror universe being un-mirrored, which is interesting in part because we the readers don't automatically know if that's supposed to be a bad thing or not (after all, we love the original universe and care for its version of the characters), as well as getting us to consider the whole idea of a mirror universe in a deeper way.

I'm not saying that the story should be expanded, and obviously you didn't have massive plans for it and were only aiming for a shortish fic (I assume, anyway), but it could be. Personally, I would have enjoyed some more time with Dash and Soarin as well as with the universes being mixed up, but overall it was a fun ride.

Keep it up Prince! And of course, you know what story I'm looking forward to next.

[Crowne Prince]

3735476 I actually wanted it to be shorter! But I'm glad I managed to end it here. Even though it would be easy to write more for this one, I had to end it because I didn't want to spend all of my good Dash & Soarin' moments in this particular story.

[Axis of Rotation]

3735889
Haha well I totally feel ya on that one. Sometimes ya gotta make those types of calls.

[Commander Rainstorm]

Wait, Soarins the Element of Loyalty"
Sorry, got a little confused at the fabric of time.

[CP_BEN]

4292856 They swapped.

[110calligraphybrony]

This story blew my mind... I only just got to it, but the final chapter had a cool ending like the futurama series finale. Awesome story!

[Midnightpurple Sparkle]

Does it have a sequel? If it has, I AM really gonna read it. not missing any beat.

[Yoshifan30]

“Sure seems that way,” Applejack said. “’Course there’s something batty about it. Rainbow Dash gets most of the details, but she’s just plain wrong about some things. She seems ta think Cadence and Twi’s brother defeated the changelings, and she was even there for that part! Plus, she don’t remember Soarin’ at all.”

I see what's going on here it looks like both Rainbow dash and Soarin has the original memories from how we remember the episodes

[Yoshifan30]

Wow that actually blew my freaking mind so apparently this is during the time of season 3 finale when Twilight read the spell of Star Swirl book not only it did switch the Cutie Marks of her friends but also their memories including Rainbow Dash somehow but she did regain their Memories Back but unfortunately both rainbow and Soarin still don't remember and apparently their mind remembers that we remember in the show's basically it's the original timeline but in an alternate universe again really blows my mind but then they finally meet each other again and it looks like both of them are in the Universe where Princess Celestia is waiting for them said something about how destiny can be very tricky but it looks like she gave them a choice to go back to the original or back to alternate one but after that it looks like they made the choice they stayed where they were and no matter where they are it feels like they always have each other and soarin is happy where he is with his friends and how his life gos this was a pretty awesome story and how the alternate take on switching ponies of the destiny so that was pretty good keep up the good work