Nightmare in The Mirror

by Ardent Wing

It's about the Mirror

Equestria is a strange land. Or, at least, it is full of strange characters. Ponies of all different respects and professions, all trying to live their lives, all trying to do the best that they can every day. Yet within each pony is the potential to do the opposite. The ability to strive against a path that some would believe has been set before them. Within each pony is the ability to do both good and evil.

So, if one were to propose that a very specific pony, with very specific traits were to act towards a different end then the one that they have chosen, a question must be asked. Does changing a pony’s destiny change their qualities? Which is to say, does destiny define the traits of character, or is destiny merely an accent to the already existing traits of a character.

Perhaps destiny is merely an illusion, something that we create for ourselves in order to understand why we exist in the state that we do. Perhaps by believing in destiny we force ourselves down the paths that we believe we are supposed to follow, and thus see the end result as us having fulfilled our destiny. Or, perhaps destiny is real, but it merely exists as a tool to create the personalities that we have in ourselves today. Yet, then that brings up the question of; who intends for our personalities to define themselves in the ways that they do? That is certainly a big question, and I am certain that the answer is even bigger.

-Musings of Starswirl the Bearded

The storeroom of the castle was covered with a film of dust, from the floors to the shelves. How? The castle was new, brand new! Yet dust was covering the storeroom, it’s not as if no-pony ever came into this room, which would account for the dust. However, she herself came into this room almost every single day, to gather the materials that she required for her experiments. So how was it always covered in dust?

Twilight Sparkle thought this to herself as she glanced around the storeroom of her castle. On the ceiling above the high shelves sat a hanging lantern that she had installed when she had learned that glowing crystals just weren’t enough light for a storeroom. Despite these moves to improve the storeroom, most of the shelves remained empty, barren of any materials, excluding food of course.

These empty shelves were to be as expected, it had not been very long since her defeat of Tirek and as such the castle was very new, and had continued to this way even with the new changes she had been making. Twilight wanted to make this place useful. Even now she and the others all had yet to sit on their thrones in the main hall at the same time, and Twilight felt that this was very specifically because there was no usefulness to this castle. Well, she would fix that, in due time.

“Spike, could you grab the large beaker from the chemistry supplies shelf to bring with us.”

Spike ran across the deep blue crystal floor as fast as his little legs could take him. On he ran past shelf after shelf of supply and stock, most lacking any sufficient lighting, let alone actual supplies. At the very end of the rows of shelves, for some reason, was the chemistry supplies shelf. Thankfully the large beaker sat on the bottom shelf, leaving Spike with no much unwanted climbing. As he picked up the beaker, he noticed that the coloring of the glass of the beaker was darker. Turning the label to face him he read the words “High Energy Containment” written on the large white label. Why would Twilight ask him to get this beaker? Regardless, Spike returned to the front of the storeroom, panting and out of breath from his running. Looking up, Spike saw Twilight brushing off the top of one of the supply shelves with her wing. She looked, confused.

“Why do we keep the chemistry supplies at the end of the room?” Spike asked, breathing heavily.

“Did you grab the beaker, Spike?”

“I got it, Twilight.” Spike answered.

“Excellent, then let’s get going.”

Twilight turned to leave the storeroom, she didn’t have much time, she had scheduled the rest of her day to be devoted to scheduling the rest of her month, and it took time to organize dates, especially when cooperating with a pony like Pinkie Pie. She needed the time she had allotted for herself, which left her little time to run this experiment. Just the thought of finally being able to perform this experiment gave her the shivers. Would she find her answers? Finally solving a question asked for over a thousand years? Twilight didn’t know what the experiment would bring, but she was prepared to find out.

As Twilight made for the door to the room Spike asked her a question stemming from his own confusion, “Uh, Twilight, where are we going?”

“We’re going to the castle’s Anti-Chamber. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Twilight walked out of the room and up the short staircase into one of the multiple large hallways that marked the main passages through the castle, spike following behind. They would need to travel down this open hallway until they came to the door with red paint on it. Spike was incredibly happy the day Twilight had decided to colour code the doors in order to help ponies tell just where in the castle they were, it helped create order from the castle’s generally confusing layout.

The two friends continued their journey down the cavernous hallway of the castle, Twilight’s hoofsteps echoing throughout the building, Spike’s steps less so. As they walked, Spike became somewhat lost in his thoughts. The walls of crystal around them mesmerized Spike, causing his mouth to water. He couldn’t help it! All these years he had spent eating gemstones and now he was living in a building made of them. Although the crystal of this building was much tougher than any gem he had ever eaten, he had found that out the hard way. Spike would NOT attempt to bite one of the walls! He had learned his lesson from last time, and the time before that…

Yet as he and Twilight walked through the halls of the palace another question occurred to spike.

“Twilight, why are we going to the castle’s antechamber?”

“Not the antechamber Spike, Anti-Chamber. We’re going to the room that I cast a magic shield over last week, didn’t you listen at all when I told you what I was doing?”

“I totally listened, Twilight.” He hadn’t.

Twilight sighed, she had known Spike her whole life, even raised him. Yet still he thought that he could fool her. ”Oh, Spike. Last week I cast a spell on one of the rooms in the castle in order to make it magic proof. As of now, no magic can get into the room, and none can get out.” Twilight had her head raised and eyes closed when she spoke this. Magic proofing a room was no easy feat and she was very proud of her achievement.

“Wow, that’s impressive, so… why exactly did you make a magic proof room in the castle?”

“I’ve been having an idea for an experiment with the mirror that leads to my Canterlot High friend’s world. Today we will see the results.”

“Then I can’t wait to see whatever the results are.” Spike said.

“Good. Scientific curiosity is what allows us to improve both ourselves and Equestria as a whole.” Twilight stated.

“I’m sure it does.” Spike replied.

“It does.” Twilight responded, and, taking a moment to pause, she looked at all of the crystals that made up the walls and windows of the castle hallway. These crystals were so strange, irregular, in that they were completely regular. When she had observed and compared these crystals to some that Cadence had been kind enough to send from the Crystal Empire, she noticed that the molecular structure of the two were drastically different. In particular, her castle’s crystals were structurally perfect! As in every molecule was placed an exact distance from one another, and though they didn’t appear symmetrical, on a molecular level there was the presence of exact symmetry. This was relatively uncommon in naturally grown crystalline structures, though symmetry in crystals was not a completely uncommon idea. It was just the fact that these crystals were too regular, too symmetrical. It made Twilight uneasy.

Twilight was just standing in the center of the large hallway, lost in her own thoughts. She had read all kinds of philosophical pieces about the world in her day, and most seemed to agree that nothing was completely perfect. Of course, that was closed mainly just the older philosophers.

One particular philosopher that Twilight had fallen in love with went by the name of Harry Spinroza. What he had said was that the world was perfect, existing in its perfect state in everything. That also meant that the imperfect was also perfect. Yet it lead to a much deeper idea. Spinroza had also talked about free will, and he stated that if everything existed in its perfect state as it was, then there is no free will. Everything that happens is a necessity to perfection, it happens because it is what the universe demands of it, not because it chooses to. This system Spinroza talked about had lead Twilight to some thoughtful ideas. If everything is perfect, then everything that exists does so through necessity, meaning that it needs to be that way to be perfect. By that standard, then there was a reason that the crystals in her castle was perfect, wasn’t there? It needed to be that way, for some reason. Perhaps the necessity comes from destiny. Perhaps something is to happen and by necessity for the universe to remain perfect when that thing happens the crystals in her castle had to be completely symmetrical. It was such an interesting thought, it-

“Twilight, are you okay, because you seem to be just standing there.” Spike interrupted.

“You’re right, I am just standing here, and I should go to run my experiment.”

“You haven’t actually explained what that experiment is, by the way.” Spike mentioned

“That’s because it will take a long time to explain.”

“I still deserve to hear it!”

“There’s no time, besides, it would just bore you.” Twilight said.

“Please?”

“No, Spike.”

“Pleeeeeaaaaseee?”

“We should really just run-

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssseeeeeeeeee?”

“Alright! I’ll tell you, we’re almost at the Anti-Chamber anyways. We’ll get to the reading room and then we’ll both sit and I’ll explain exactly what my experiment is.”

“Awesome.”

“Hop on, Spike!” Twilight said, motioning with her wing for him to hop onto her back. Upon doing so, Twilight bolted down the great hallway, galloping all the way to the red door at the end to the left. When she stopped galloping in front of the red door, Spike noticed a new sign at the top, which read “Reading room.”

The door to the room sparkled and pushed open, moved by the force that ponies called magic, and it revealed to Spike a very small room with a single bookshelf and a fireplace on the opposite wall. Twilight looked at the fireplace, and it burst to full flame, lighting the entire room with an orange glow.

Twilight took a seat by the fire, and motioned for Spike to follow her lead. “C’mon Spike, we have some extra time for me to tell you.”

“Why do you have this room again?” Spike asked.

“I sometimes like to read in privacy and quiet, and this is one of the smallest and quietest rooms in the whole castle. I keep my favourite books on that shelf.”

“I just feel like you have so many rooms now that you’re just finding reasons to make rooms. Do you remember the ‘thinking room’?” Spike mentioned.

“Oh, don’t be so boring about it, the thinking room was a great idea. Now are you going to sit here and let me explain my experiment to you?” Twilight asked.

“Okay.” Spike sighed as he sat down beside Twilight by the fire.

“Fantastic, okay, first I’ll explain what gave me the idea for my experiment, and then I’ll explain just what the experiment is.”

“Have I just gotten myself into a really long story?”

“You asked, remember.”

“Alright, continue.” Spike waved his claws around as though telling someone to move along.

“Here we go. So I was reading Starswirl’s journal-

“Do you mean the journal you used to fix the elements of harmony when every-pony’s cutie marks got switched up?”

“The very same book. As it turns out, the journal is full of musings about spells that Starswirl had only toyed with, or didn’t care much to finish.”

“If he didn’t think they were important, then why do you?”

“I find all kinds of magic important, besides, it was a way to pass the time. Either way, among these musings was one that caught my eye in particular. Listen to this-

“Wait! You have the journal with you?” Spike looked, and sure enough, the dark journal came floating off of the shelf at the back of the room to hover before Twilight.

“Yes, I do, now I know you want to ask questions but let me read this part.”

Twilight looked at the book, flipped through the pages until she stopped at one in particular, and began to read.

“Is a mirror a mirror or a window? If I wanted to know what sat on the other side of a wall would I use mirrors, or make a window? Perhaps the method of making a window coincides with the method of making a mirror. In that case, a mirror is a window. Not a window into the unknown but a window into the mirror.
I know there are gateways to other worlds. Ones where things differ along their own paths, but what about gateways into this world? Mirrors of what we have here, different but the same. I must remember to look into this idea in the future. Perhaps Celestia has some notion that I do not.”

Spike was very confused by this passage, “It’s all very cryptic, Twilight. I don’t really see what gave you the idea for an experiment.”

“You will, I admit this section is a bit cryptic, but it shows that Starswirl was tapping into the idea of mirrors and portals, just like our very own. However, though this section was interesting, I found it very uninformative. The next part is where I began to plan my experiment. Listen-

‘I have reached some understanding of the portals and their power. I have some reason to believe that the catalyst, or object defined as a portal, merely acts as a medium for the portal to exist. I also assume that the spell cast on such a portal would need to be much generalized, as a specific spell would only be required to reach a specific place. So, assuming that the spell is what does it then the spell to open a portal into one’s own world should be easy, if I actually knew how to cast the spell.”

“This is what began my research into the mirror, perhaps Starswirl was right. I kept reading, and in some of the later passages I found this:

‘I think I may have found my answer. The legend of baelion is what gave me the idea. Perhaps the gateways aren't gateways at all, but simply openings in the cracks revealed! In that case, the magic used on the portal would be irrelevant, because the magic would not be used to open a portal, but to reveal what was already there! I may be able to devise a revealing spell, but it will take time. I must look for someplace where a natural crack is likely to appear.”

Spike looked up at Twilight when she paused in her reading, he had so many questions! “So what happened? Did Starswirl write the spell? What about that legend, about bel-something?”

“I don’t know anything about that legend he mentioned, there wasn’t even a hint of it in any of my books.”

“But what about Starswirl’s spell, did he write it?”

“That’s where things got a little hazy, listen to this.

‘Recent events have brought the sheer folly of my spell to light. In the end it took one cast, and two little friends to help me see that. From now on I shall refrain from further deliberating over the ideas of portals and their nature. Besides, some new objects of great power have come to my attention from the east.”

Spike looked down at the ground, feeling a slight disappointment. He had gotten excited by Twilight’s story, and now he learned that it never worked out in the end. “So it was all for nothing?”

“Of course it wasn’t!”

“But you just said that he never wrote the spell.”

Twilight looked at Spike, her eyes twinkling. He was so young… and so innocent. “I didn’t say that Starswirl never wrote the spell, I said I didn’t know if he wrote the spell. However, while he may not have written the spell, some-pony else did!”

Spike looked into Twilight’s eyes, “who?”

“A great philosopher by the name of Carla Von Clovenhoof.”

“A Goat?” Spike asked, looking confused.

“No! A pony Spike!"

“Well, you can’t really blame me for thinking that.”

“Yes I can, and I do, Carla was an amazing spell caster. She helped develop many of the light and magnification bending spells that we use in our scientific instruments. She is by far worthy of much respect.”

“Okay, okay. So what did she write?”

“A spell, though she never fully worked it out. In her book, ‘Of Spells and Spindles’ she discussed the importance of new magic in a cyclical magical paradigm. Several chapters discusses the ability to view reality and the magical realm that exists underneath the physical one. She said that one can separate the twining of the magical seams and expand them into full visibility if her revealing spell were to be aimed at the right catalyst. The only problem was, she didn’t know which catalyst she should use. This is where my experiment is. Depending on the results I get, I may be lead to reasonably conclude that a mirror, or other reflective surface is the perfect catalyst for her spell!”

Twilight sat there for a moment, saying nothing, until Spike intoned, “So what’s your experiment.”

“Oh yeah, I may not have been very clear about that part. Remember that Starswirl concluded that it must be the portal and not the magic that made a gateway to another world work?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he said that the spell needed to reveal these ‘cracks’ that lead to another world was to be very basic, which Carla’s spell is.”

“So?”

“So if I were to use a render on her spell in use it would appear as a series of strait lines on the device. However, if the spell were more complicated than that it would not appear as strait lines. So I looked to the mirror, which is a gateway to another world.”

“So you want to make another portal to that world?”

“No Spike. Starswirl wanted to travel deeper into THIS world. He said that to do this would require a much simpler spell that I believe the one cast on the mirror is. If I can extrapolate some of the magic of the mirror, put it under a render, and were to find the magic complicated and not simple, then it would suggest that the portal does not travel to a different spatial dimension, but operates in a different location in our own dimension. That would mean that the self dimensional portal would only require Carla’s spell in the right place on the right catalyst. I already tested her spell on a mirror, and it worked! I was able to see the spaces between matter through the mirror. This, however, did not reveal any cracks to me. I can only assume that the spell must be cast on a mirror right in front of one of these cracks that Starswirl mentioned. But to be able to go through with that I must first confirm that our mirror portal is a product of the spell and not that specific mirror itself. If I can prove that the magic is complicated, and not simple, then I will be able to move to directly testing Carla’s spells in specific locations, trying to locate one of the cracks. I built a magic proof room in order to contain the powerful magic that will roam free from the mirror as I observe the properties of the spell cast on it. In just a few short minutes we will run the experiment to prove if Starswirl’s theory about simple portals is true.”

Spike stared at Twilight, speechless. It was all a lot of information to take in. so she was running this experiment to clarify an issue before she ran her NEXT experiment. That was why they were going to the Anti-Chamber?

“Whaoh… that’s… not very inspiring.”

“What!”

“I mean, the experiment is… cool and all, but it just seems like you’re prepping for a bigger experiment.”

“Don’t you realize the implications of this? If I am wrong then the whole experiment is scrapped, I need the magic of the portal to be complicated, because if it’s not then it means that the gateway to my Canterlot High friend’s world is the key to that portal. That means that their world is in a separate spatial dimension from ours, which means that Starswirl, genius that he was, was wrong! I NEED THIS TO WORK! So why is it unimportant?”

By the time Twilight had finished her small rant Spike was crouched down, trying to make himself seem as small as possible. Sure, sometimes Twilight overreacted to things, but this was just bonkers! She was too absorbed in her work. She needed to do something else to take her mind off of this experiment. Then he thought, perhaps helping her finish the experiment would help take her mind off of it. The sooner done the better, right?

Twilight was panting, obviously angry, it was easy to see now that she had not slept in some time. Her eyes were red at the edges, dark underneath, and her temper was raging. Spike stood up to talk to her. “Okay, Twilight. This experiment is important. I just didn’t realize how. So why don’t we go and run this thing!”

This seemed to snap Twilight out of her anger, her wings drooped down to the floor and her eyes partially closed. She was realizing what she had just done. How could she yell at Spike like that? This was taking a toll on her, which was why she was happy she would be able to prove her theory today, that way she would get to rest. “I’m sorry Spike. I… this experiment has just been so stressful and… there’s no excuse.”

“It’s not a problem. Now what do you say we prove your theory right... uh, right now!” Spike said in a peppy tone.

“Okay, let’s see how the mirror is doing in the Anti-Chamber.”

As the two friends stood up, the fire snuffed out, and the door on the opposite side of the room opened. It was through this door that a side-hallway led to the Anti-Chamber. Through this door, was the answer to a question that Starswirl had asked long ago.