The only chapter: Ogledalo, Ogledalo, na Zidu

Sweetie Belle lay awake on the floor of the clubhouse, going over what she had witnessed earlier.

It had started normally, the crusaders were sitting in the clubhouse, mulling over the list of activities they had tried in all those failed attempts to get their cutie marks. Pipsqueak ran in, asking for help. At the school, students were setting up for the class president vote. Cheerilee had forgiven Diamond Tiara and let her run in the election (though in hindsight it may in fact have been the threat of losing her job), but perhaps she shouldn't have, since Diamond's threats pushed all the other students to vote for Pipsqueak instead. Diamond ran off in frustration, only to be...

Her own mother would do that? Sweetie Belle knew some ponies could be cruel, but...

She had always thought Diamond Tiara was nothing more than a cruel bully, but to see that awful mare...

Diamond's mother may as well be dead.

Spoiled Rich? More like Spoiled Milk. She's as appealing as 11-year-old milk left out in the sun.

That's what it tasted like to her, anyway.

Sweetie's thoughts drifted to the only other time she had seen Diamond Tiara so upset. That day she was hunted by Silver Spoon as an act of revenge for the previous day. That day was when she discovered the truth about her synesthesia.

To her, every word had its own distinctive taste. For example, her own name tasted like warm, roasted, melted marshmallow, while Scootaloo tasted like chicken salt, and Apple Bloom like licking the skin of an apple left in the snow.

She had been unaware that this was unusual until that fateful day. That day Cheerilee had told her...

"Ponies don't taste words, Sweetie Belle."

However, her friends had showed her their support. Even with all that happened those two days, They stuck by her side through and through. She had even made some new friends: Plot Coupon, Wipeout, Tabula Rasa and Cardio.

The seven of them had been hanging out in the clubhouse earlier, but the new four had left, leaving Sweetie Belle with just Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

Her closest friends. Friends she could always count on.

Sweetie Belle nodded off, calmed by the magic of friendship.

Sweetie Belle abruptly awoke to the sound of a large explosion in the distance.

Looking around, she saw the others stirring as well. Apple Bloom had kicked her Mareisa Kirinsame plush clean across the room.

"Uhh... What just happened?" Scootaloo groggily groaned, "Did something explode?"

"Sounds like it..." said Apple Bloom, rising to her hooves, "It came from the direction of the Everfree Forest... I think..."

The Crusaders looked out the window. In the distance, a small plume of smoke billowed from behind the trees.

"What do y'all think?" Apple Bloom asked, "Do we investigate?"

"Sure, why not?" Scootaloo chirped, "Might as well since we're awake."

Sweetie Belle flinched, saying, "Are you sure that's a good idea, girls? It's dangerous!"

"Aw, come on, Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo chimed, "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"All right, then..." Sweetie Belle sighed.

This was going to be a long night...

As the Crusaders entered the clearing, the object came into clear view through the mist. A spaceship, a vehicle with no pony, was resting at the end of a small ditch to the right.

"This looks like it..." Sweetie Belle squeaked, "You girls wanna go investigate? I think I'll just look around here..."

"Sure thing." Apple Bloom said nonchalantly, "Just stay here, okay? Keep it company, Ah dunno."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cantered off to the other side of the ship.

There was no mistaking it. This was definitely the mysterious spaceship or forest hut from that day. It looked damaged, not to the point of beyond repair, but it had clearly been in a fight. Dents and scorch marks covered the left side, though the right appeared largely undamaged. Even then, the damage was mostly restricted to the lower portion and the wing. A structure on the underside of the wing appeared to be severely damaged, and looked like it was about to fall off at any second.

And on the sides sat three garish shields. Each one with its own unique emblem with a common base design: The shape of the new "Highway Shield" Sweetie Belle had helped pick the design for a few weeks ago, outlined in a mulberry border, featuring heliotrope on the aft side, piggy in the middle, and amaranth at the side facing the front of the ship; the aft featuring a lightning bolt inside a wing, the middle a heart inside what appeared to be an apple, and the front, and most interesting, a musical note inside a star.

Below them was strange, alien text. It looked like identification of some kind. Or perhaps a warning. There was a string of completely different looking characters on the wing, these looked freshly painted in a hurried manner. The symbols themselves appeared attached to a series of vertical lines attached to a horizontal line.

Sweetie Belle looked at the symbols again. Three garish shields, each with a different symbol inside: an apple with a heart, a wing with a lightning bolt, and most fascinating, a star with a musical note. Looking around, she looked at her flank. But why? Either way, it was still as blank as it had ever been.

Sweetie Belle looked back at the shield with the star. All of a sudden she felt strangely nostalgic for... Tomorrow?

What the Tartarus?

A feeling of accomplishment rushed through her.

A familiar voice emerged from the cacophony

"Xîpmyá, fim ìįïí mlp? Xîpmyá, fim ìįïí mlp?"

The voice hissed at her with the ferocity of a great serpent.

"I am your cutie mark, remember?"

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Upon reopening her eyes, she was no longer in the Everfree Forest, but in a strange void filled with stars. Not the dream dimension, but something similar.

"Hello? Anypony there?"

A voice came from behind

"/ʀɒ̈ʋɤr̼ki/?"

Sweetie Belle turned to the source of the voice.

What she saw shocked her to the core.

Behind her was a cage that appeared to be made of bright red lasers. Inside was a small white unicorn filly with a light pink and purple mane.

She was staring at herself. However, some things looked a bit different. First, her tail was much longer, with a long, whip-like section of white before the familiar pink. Her hooves were larger and more visible, and sported a painful-looking break in the middle. Immediately above, her fetlocks were wild and unkempt. Her mouth featured large, sharp-looking fangs. Her visible flank was covered by medical bandages. An IV drip was attached to the elbow of her left forearm.

Had the mysterious aliens done something to her? The poor thing looked less scared than anxious, like she was watching a scary movie and a scary part was about to come up.

To the right was a clipboard with several documents. Looking through them, Sweetie Belle noticed that, while the text was written in the same foreign squiggles, she was somehow able to understand them.

Captain, Administration, Medical Team
Code purple in sector 71519
At local QPU coords 5258813-Cyks217-553RkO7 enemy craft intercepted and QPU-misaligned a container frigate bound for the Jaredian Colonies. Wipeout tracked an Advent Interceptor detected at the site of the attack to an abandoned Combine outpost at local QPU coords 7737897-903qQqQ-Mu5Kr47 nestled within an ogledalo of the Everfree Forest. This houyhnhnm specimen was found injured at the scene. Apparently the Advent had captured her and locked her in a supply closet in the Combine structure they were occupying. She had several minor injuries and was bleeding heavily from one of her cutie marks. Unfortunately, before any medical operations could begin, the team was ambushed at the landing site and the Crusader was forced to space jump to the site of an autonomous mining facility at local QPU coords Re4dth3-07h3rSB-f4nf1cc constructed months ago (The one built to facilitate mining core fragments and was abandoned days later after a local houyhnhnm vandalized the defense silo). Sweetie Belle is remaining behind to mind and treat her ogledalo, who has been locked in a holding cage due to safety concerns. She will be released once her injuries have been assessed and she is back within her own universe. I will dismantle the old outpost posthaste.
Ship status report: Ship damaged and crashed but appears to be perfectly functional minus one turret.
Crew status: All have minor injuries, none debilitating.
According to Dinky, the specimen's IPA transcription is: /øʘæːʂk/ /ɧlɔi/ as opposed to our /n̼ʡɨ̯ə˧.ʑʕo˧˥˦ʁ/; she referred to me as /mǃɔʊː/ /dtøk͡piːt/, Scootaloo as /ʂkøːtæløː/ and an unknown entity as /mkɹɪtøː.ʂkʊː/, which may possibly be Rarity or another important pony, Dinky withheld the translation.
-Apple Bloom
P.S. Why do my ogledalos always have "m" somewhere in their names?

Sweetie Belle looked at her other self. She slowly turned around in a full circle, briefly revealing something on her other flank. Sweetie Belle swore it looked like one of the shields on the side of the ship.

The other Sweetie Belle looked at her, then spoke:

"/øʘæːʂk/ /ɧlɔi/?

Sweetie Belle jumped from the shock. She sounded just like a younger Mare Corlett.

She closed her eyes, breathing deeply. After opening her eyes, she found herself face to face with Apple Bloom.

"Sweetie Belle, were ya starin' at those symbols?"

"Yeah, I was..."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, "Sweetie Belle, those things are dangerous. Ah have no idea what they are, but knowin' what they do they appear to be wards of some kind, designed to repel intruders with frightening illusions. Like how there's a freaky mutant you in there."

"You saw her too, huh?"

"Ah thought it was your soul or somethin'. Those wards are scary. Ah dun' wanna mess with 'em any longer. Let's go, Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo's waitin' for us up ahead."

Sweetie Belle lay awake on the floor of the clubhouse, going over what she had witnessed earlier.

A crashed spaceship... A strange mutant unicorn in a cage made of lasers... And those shields... Wards...?

The notes: "Flurry Heart's eyes of independence", "The Advent had captured her and locked her in a supply closet in the Combine structure", and "When will Nim stop bugging me about fixing the flux capacitor's perambic merimbulantor's atomic nuclear reactor generator condenser turbine pinion gear?" immediately came to mind.

Those notes... Who owned this ship? Who was this "Flurry Heart"? Did she own the ship?

That thing she saw in her vision... Another version of herself? An... ogledalo?

And that thing on its side... At a quick glance it looked like a ward, but on closer inspection it probably wasn't. Was it a cutie mark?

If it was a cutie mark, it certainly didn't look like one.

Would her cutie mark be like that?

No... That would be silly. It looked too stupid to be a real cutie mark.

If she ever got her cutie mark, it wouldn't be so... well, garish was a polite way of putting it...

Yeah, if she ever got hers...

If only...

...

She then rejected the idea of ever getting her cutie mark.

It would never happen. Not tomorrow. Not this year. Not next year. Not in a million years.