Broken Mirror

by GMBlackjack

I - The Pinkie Principle

>> The word beginning is a lie.

'The start. The moment from which everything afterwards comes.' Many would say their story started when they were born. Wrong. They existed for a number of months before they were born, and the biology used in the conception existed countless years before that. The sequence of events cycles back even further, to the grandparents, great grandparents, deep ancestors - even to the atoms themselves, forged in the fires of the Big Bang.

Even that isn't a beginning, it is rather an end - an end to our understanding. And even then, endings are lies as well. Something has to have caused that fiery explosion at the forge of creation, but at that point philosophy, religion, and science become intermingled and everyone has to ask if they really want the question to be answered. Those who try ensure that things will get ugly rather quickly.

The idea that events have a start is an illusion perpetrated by minds that don't know better - cannot know better, in most senses. The concept is so fundamental to them that it is never considered.

My solution is simple: absorb the entirety of a sequence of events at once. Take the limited information available and attempt to remove the temporal bias. For obvious reasons this is likely not an option for anyone else, so sadly a 'beginning' must be arbitrarily established.

What follows is a lie. <<

~~~

Twilight Sparkle awoke with an annoyed whinny. She had evidentially forgotten to draw the curtains the night before, and was now being assaulted by an intense ray of solar energy. She was consciously aware of the bright sunbeam on her eyelids, but was not yet awake enough to realize that opening her eyes was a bad idea.

"Ackpth!" she blurted, flailing around as her eyes were scorched with the brilliant image of the sun. The afterimage was engrained into her mind despite the rapid resealing of her eyelids. Closing them tighter didn't help matters - it only made Twilight's head hurt.

In her continual semi-groggy state she managed to fall off her bed and land face first on the floor, wings and hooves splayed. "Ow..." she muttered. She slowly stood up, wobbling slightly from the rude awakening, and shook her head to clear it - though this only turned Twilight's minor head pain into a full-blown headache.

"Okay..." she said, flapping her wings to loosen their tight muscles. "This is not a good start to the day." She glanced at her reflection in her bedside mirror just to make sure nothing was bruised or scratched, relieved to see that the worst was a messed up mane. Well, and the headache, but there wasn't much a mirror could help her with in regards to that.

She set out, marching down the crystalline stairs to one of the many halls inside her castle. Spike was already there, setting out two plates for breakfast. "Morning Spike," Twilight said, sitting down at the table, "what's for breakfast?"

"Toast. Lots and lots of toast," Spike said, smiling sheepishly. "I burnt the hash browns."

Twilight smirked. "Is Celestia dealing with an unexpected breakfast?"

"Ah, no, the stove caught fire this time. I have no idea why." There was a loud ding from the kitchen. "That'll be the toast!" Spike stood up quickly, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. He never made it into the kitchen, for a bright pink presence blocked his path.

"It isn't the toast, silly, it's the cupcakes!" In a bright rush of elastic energy, a third plate was set, and a pile of cupcakes were deposited on top of each setting.

The pink presence itself sat at a third chair that hadn't existed a moment before. "Enjoy!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Cupcakes for breakfast? Really Pinkie?"

The pink cotton-candy like earth pony giggled. "Why not? Better than just toast right?" She tossed a cupcake into the air and caught it in her mouth, seeming to swallow it whole.

Spike narrowed his eyes. Then he threw his hands into the air and sat back down, admitting defeat. "Yeah... Better than toast..."

Twilight lifted a cupcake to her mouth and bit in - it tasted like sugar and laughter, as always. "So, why are you here Pinkie?"

Pinkie grinned. "I sensed a breakfast emergency! So I heeded the call to action, and am here to provide delicious breakfasts!" She leapt onto the table, standing on her hind hooves, as if ready to pounce on some unsuspecting prey. She reached into her mane and produced a plate covered in pancakes - or, more accurately, a plate covered in whipped cream that Twilight assumed had pancakes underneath, somewhere.

Twilight stared at the giant mound in fascination. "You know, Pinkie, sometimes I still wonder."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Really Twi?"

"Yeah, I know, it's just 'Pinkie being Pinkie.' Still..." She pulled a pancake out of the stack and munched on it. "I wonder about it a lot."

Pinkie shrugged. "Well, I don't know how it all works either, so I don't know what to tell you."

"Don't worry about it, not a problem, it's just who you are. Though aren't you a little curious as to how you work?"

"Sometimes," Pinkie admitted, "but thinking about what I can do just makes my itty bitty brain hurt!"

Twilight chuckled. "I know the feeling... Both physically and mentally, as you know." Twilight paused for a second, eating another cupcake while she took a moment for some retrospection. "Regardless, that isn't important, anything interesting going on with you lately?"

"Hrm... Well there's a birthday tomorrow, and I was going to see if I could tie a million balloons to Sugarcube Corner... But nothing major going on. Don't even have to work today! Weekend!" She produced a party blower and blew it. Twilight and Spike covered their ears a little late, unable to muffle the sharp noise.

Twilight shook her head. "Ow..." She rubbed her temples, trying to calm her headache. "Well, sadly I am extremely busy, princess duties and studies day after day..." She furrowed her brow, unable to come up with the tasks she had to do today. "Spike, what is on the list today?"

Spike reached under the table and puled out a scroll. "Let's see... Today..." He blinked. "Nothing. It's not even a 'vacation' or 'hang out with friends' day. It's just blank."

Twilight stared at Spike in disbelief. "...What?"

"You have nothing to do today."

Twilight sat back, stunned. "...That never happens."

"Yeah, I'm surprised too."

"Yay!" Pinkie cheered. "That means we can do stuff! Oooh! What would we do? Fight some monsters? Fly through the sky? Have a random dance party for no reason!?"

Twilight was about to choose the random dance party when another idea occurred to her. "Pinkie, you said you were curious about yourself right?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Why don't we see what we can find out? I don't really expect to find any answers, but you and I might learn some things about what you can do."

"Oooh! Sciency bonding time! To the lab!"

"Woah, hold it Pinkie!" Twilight reached out, grabbing the pink blur with her magic. "We can finish breakfast first! And I don't think we'll do it here anyway, I know someone who has a bigger lab..."

Pinkie grinned. "I think I know who it is!"

~~~

"Great Wickering Stallions!" the Doctor yelled, jaw dropping. He hardly recognized his laboratory anymore. All of his favorite things were still there- the plasma ball, the central tank, the flying machine mode, the bookshelves - but everything looked organized. The pages were well stacked, the loose objects were grouped by function and appearance, and to top it all off the chemistry station looked clean. It never looked clean, the vaguely circular room always looked like a disheveled mess with random experiments and materials thrown around haphazardly, the Doctor always praying something wouldn't spontaneously combust.

"Who...?" the Doctor wondered aloud.

"Oh!" Rarity said, poking her white head out of the basement. "That'd be me, dear."

The Doctor cocked his head. "But wait... You weren't supposed to do this until tomorrow... And I just wanted a spruce up, not a complete reorganization..."

"I had nothing to do and I figured I'd help out a friend. Plus, I lost sleep last night over how disorganized this was. I just couldn't let it wait another day."

The Doctor let a grin come to his face. "Why, thank you. Here, let me pay you more-"

"Think of no such thing," Rarity interrupted, stalling his hoof with her own, "I enjoyed making this place beautiful. You simply have so many wondrous pieces hidden here!"

"I didn't think I even had this much room."

"You just need to know how to arrange things, Doctor. I'm not quite done with the basement, but that shouldn't take much longer. You should be able to invite ponies over soon." With a toss of her mane, she descended back down the stairs.

The Doctor could see it now. Actual scientific discussion in his house - with all the areas easily accessible and presentable. The other scientists would take him seriously, along with those pretentious Canterlot mages, and he could finally revolutionize how Equestria perceived science. The Doctor's smile widened at the thought. "Thank you so much miss Rarity! I can't imagine how difficult this must have been... Did the spacial anomalies give you any trouble?"

Rarity answered from the basement. "Doctor, Twilight's castle is also bigger in the inside. The space was liberating, if anything."

"Well, I'll let you get to it." Humming to himself, he walked around the central tank, examining his abode more closely. It really did look like a completely new place. Now he just had to remember not to let it fall into disarray again. That would be a challenge. He gulped, realizing the daunting task before him for the first time. Luckily, he was spared further contemplation by a knock at the door. "Yes?" he called, opening the door.

"SCIENCE TIME!" Pinkie yelled, barreling into him. He yelled in surprise, falling flat on his back, the impact knocking a model of Equis off a nearby table.

Twilight came in after the pink menace, the sparkle of experimentation in her eyes. "Yeah, it's science time. You busy Doctor?"

"Not at all," he said, standing up and brushing himself off, "what's the scientific emergency?"

"Me!" Pinkie said, bouncing around like a rubber ball. She ducked behind the plasma ball - appearing next inside the tank, squealing out a trail of bubbles. She swam upwards, far into the ceiling, and then popped out of Twilight's mane. "Woo!"

The Doctor shook his head. "Why is she so excited?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Because we're here to try - and probably fail - to answer a question. How do Pinkie's powers work, and why?"

The Doctor put his hoof to his chin. "You know... That is a good question. Wondered it myself, from time to time."

"Well, I have too!" Pinkie said, "so let's science it and see what happens! What are we going to do!? Huh? Will there be explosions?"

Twilight laughed. "Maybe later. Right now, we just need to take some samples and see if anything's weird about them. By the way, Doctor, love what you've done with the place. Looks better than I ever thought it could!"

"Thank Rarity, she's the one who organized the entire mess. Anyway, you want science? Well then - to the basement!" the Doctor said. He marched down the starts to the large space beneath his house. It was a location in the process of renovation - objects and gizmos were moved into various piles - metallic, wooden, plastic, machinery, plus a few others - and half the floor was adorned with nice rugs with geometric patterns while the other half was barren. Rarity hummed to herself as she laid another rug down.

"Hi Rarity!" Pinkie waved. "Thanks!"

"Hm?" Rarity said, looking up. "Oh, Pinkie! Uh... You're welcome?"

"...Where'd you find these rugs?" the Doctor asked.

"That closet over there. Seems to be an endless amount."

"Ah," the Doctor said, not surprised in the least, "well, do you know where the medical station is?"

"Against that wall for now," Rarity said, pointing. "It will be placed in the center of the room next to your novels eventually. You have good taste in fiction, by the way."

"Er... Yes," the Doctor said, deciding it wasn't wise to continue with that subject. He trotted up to the medical station, glancing at the vials, needles, popsicle sticks, petri dishes, and other implements that were strewn across the desk alongside a built in microscope and centrifuge. "Let's see..." he muttered.

"Hair and blood samples," Twilight said. "Isolate the DNA as well and... any thing else we'll need?"

"Not that I'm aware of," the Doctor said, grabbing a blood drawing needle. "Ready Pinkie?"

"STAB ME!" she shouted, thrusting her leg towards the Doctor. She giggled at his startled expression. Twilight rolled her eyes and motioned for the Doctor to go ahead. He looked at Pinkie, unsure, but did stick the needle in and drew the blood. Pinkie shrieked, swooned, and fell flat on the ground.

The Doctor panicked. "Wh... Pinkie? What? What did I do?"

Twilight put a hoof to her mouth, failing to stop the chuckling. Pinkie joined in quickly afterwards, and soon the two were laughing uncontrollably. "Gotcha!" Pinkie said, touching the Doctor on the nose.

"I... I suppose you did." He shook his head, putting the blood into a vial. Twilight plucked a hair from Pinkie's mane with her magic, handing it to the Doctor. "Thanks," he said, "I'll be getting the results for the next little while."

"Okay," Twilight said, "Pinkie! It is time to see what you can do!" She levitated a camera from one of the piles, setting up its tripod with a quick flick of a switch. The camera's screen sparked to life, displaying a monochromatic image of Pinkie. It proceeded to color parts of the image purple as it detected magic, brighter shades representing higher concentrations of magic. On the screen, Pinkie appeared almost white, the color was so intense.

Twilight examined the screen, a knowing smile on her face. "You are still the earth pony with the highest saturation of magic I've ever seen." She raised her wing, hitting the 'record' button. She cleared her throat. "This is Twilight Sparkle speaking, and this is the first tape on what I am calling... The Pinkie Project. Say hi to the camera Pinkie."

Pinkie waved her hoof around rapidly. "Hi pony scientists from the future!"

"Yes. Anyway, we are here to record the various 'impossible' feats Pinkie can perform. So... Go."

Pinkie sat still, smiling at the camera.

Twilight facehooved. "That means do something, Pinkie."

"Oh. Right." She pulled a sapphire-blue accordion out of her mane and started dancing to the instrument's noise. "Acooordion soooooong!"

"Ability one: object summoning," Twilight said, studying the image onscreen, "there is a minor surge of magic when it occurs, of a pattern I don't immediately recognize."

Pinkie twisted her body around, rolling her blue party canon out from behind her.

Twilight's eyes flew wide open. "Pinkie wait-'

With a mischievous grin, Pinkie launched the party cannon. The confetti burst out with a swirl of colors, knocking Twilight and the camera over. Twilight shook her head and stood back up with a groan, lifting the camera up alongside her. After checking to make sure the device wasn't broken, she let out a sigh of relief. "Try not to knock over the camera, Pinkie Or do anything else that could damage it."

Twilight blinked. Pinkie wasn't where she had just been. Instead she was on the completely other side of the basement, juggling some bean bags

"...Ability two: unusual travel speed. Or teleporting. Or something. It's hard to tell."

Pinkie ran back to the camera. "Ooh! Ooh! What next? This is fun!"

"...Hide behind that broom over there," Twilight suggested, pointing one of the most pathetic brooms ever to exist. The tool only had a few dozen bristles left on it, and the handle was bent at an unusual angle, splintering all over.

Pinkie leapt behind the broom and vanished. Twilight swore she could hear her giggling as if the pink pony were right behind it.

"Ability three: hiding behind impossibly small objects."

Pinkie appeared behind Twilight and tapped her in the back of the neck. "Boo."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Back in front of the camera, Pinkie."

Stretching herself like a noodle, Pinkie threw herself like a slingshot back in front of the camera. She giggled, leaping into the air and did a backflip. Instead of falling to the ground she just kept flipping - and flipping, and flipping...

Twilight shook her head, tearing her eyes from the mesmerizing infinity of the backflips. "Ability five: elasticity. Ability six..." She paused, furrowing her brow. "...That." She looked closer at the magic readings on the screen, shaking her head at what she saw. "Okay, this isn't making any sense or helping us get to the bottom of this." She quickly shut off the camera and collapsed the stand. "Sorry Pinkie, I didn't learn anything."

"It's okay, that was fun!"

"Great Wickering Stallions!" the Doctor called from the medical station, "this isn't normal!"

"We were expecting that," Twilight said, walking over to the Doctor and his microscope, "how is it unusual?"

"Take a look!" he offered. Pinkie leapt in front of the microscope, her eye bulging towards the main lens. "Woooah! That's so cool! I have no idea what I'm looking at!"

"Your cells," the Doctor explained while Pinkie let Twilight have a look. "They... aren't acting like normal cells."

The image Twilight saw was of several pink-tinted cells moving around. Besides the pink color, they looked like normal cells - but they didn't move like normal cells. Pony cells would usually drift around lazily, go after specific chemicals, or not move at all. Pinkie's cells were all moving, vibrating, stretching, and mingling with each other with excess energy. It looked like a microscopic party. It occurred to Twilight that it would cost a lot of energy to keep this level of activity up. No wonder Pinkie ate so much.

"...Yeah cells don't do that," Twilight said, looking up with a smile. "Maybe the answers are in them? Perhaps they are tied into a sort of magic that, when combined as one, turns into what Pinkie has?"

"Maybe," the Doctor said, "more study is warranted... Rarity, where's the magic scan box?"

"Next to your life size cardboard cutout of Newton," Rarity called from across the room.

The Doctor had the grace to look sheepish. "Er... Yes. Right. Of course." He quickly grabbed the small black box and placed it on the medical station. "Let's see what we have here..."

Pinkie decided she'd had enough science for a moment, and it didn't look like they needed her right now. She bounded over to Rarity, knocking over the cardboard cutout of Newton as she did so, paying the historic pegasus scientist's visage no mind. "Hi Rarity!"

"Oh, hello Pinkie," Rarity said, placing another rug down and dusting it off with a feather duster. "I've been wondering... Since when do you like science?"

Pinkie shrugged. "Eh, Twilight was curious, I was curious, and we had nothing to do today. So we figured 'why not?' and rushed right here for some fun! I haven't been disappointed yet!"

"Yes, I saw you over there with that camera..." Rarity frowned. "...Are you sure you want to do this?"

Pinkie cocked her head. "Why not? It can't hurt, and I'm a little curious. Plus, I get to spend time with Twilight, and that's almost always fun!"

"It's just..." Rarity bit her lip. "I thought you liked the mystery, the carefree element, having no need to know, just to be."

"Pfft, it isn't a need, it's just something to do. Twilight doesn't even really expect to find an answer. She's just having fun, like me!"

Rarity shook her head. "If you say so, Pinkie. Even so, perhaps give some more thought in the future?"

Pinkie gave her a confused look. "Uh... Okay?"

"Good. That's all I ask. Now, mind helping me with these rugs?"

"Not at all!"

While Rarity and Pinkie set to laying down more rugs on the bare floor, the Doctor examined his magic box closely. The boxes six faces displayed ever-changing white glyphs, the circle-based symbols approximating the structure of the magic. On the primary face were a lot of question marks. "It's unable to recognize the magic pattern the cells are exhibiting. Which is odd, this thing is calibrated to recognize even exotic magics, like that of a sphinx..."

"So she's unique. No surprise there whatsoever." Twilight squinted, examining the readings closely. A smile slowly creeped up her face. "I think I can recreate this."

"Really? You can mimic a magic signature?"

"Well, my special talent is magic, so it shouldn't be too hard. Don't expect me to be jumping behind brooms anytime soon, you probably need experience for things like that." She closed her eyes and lit her horn, creating a bundle of pink energy in midair. It vibrated energetically, shifting space in a ripple pattern. A few loose papers flew around, and a few bottles were knocked off their shelves.

"Please don't break things!" Rarity called from across the room, but otherwise paying them little mind.

"Woah..." Twilight said, cocking her head, examining the pink energy. It looked like a soft, shifting cloud moments away from releasing rain. "I didn't channel that much energy... It's drawing energy from somewhere else..."

"What do you suppose it is?" The Doctor asked.

"It's pink and it feels weird." Twilight shrugged, watching as several papers flew into the pink energy, and vanished. "Huh. Looks like it's taking them somewhere."

Across the room, Pinkie suddenly stood motionless, her expression going completely blank.

"Pinkie?" Rarity asked, putting a hoof on her frozen friend, "are you okay?"

Pinkie made no response. Her eyes didn't even register Rarity's presence - they just stared far into the distance. She might as well have just been a statue.

"Twilight, something's wrong with Pinkie!" Rarity yelled.

Twilight turned to look at Rarity. "What?" In doing this, she lost focus on the pink cloud for an instant - and that was all that it needed. It increased in size tenfold, becoming less of a cloud and more of a swirling vortex in the fabric of reality. The magic box, camera, and several other loose objects were devoured within a second. The intense tidal forces began to pull at Twilight and the Doctor, inching them towards it.

Twilight acted quickly, encasing the vortex in a bubble shield before anything else could be pulled in. She felt the pull of the vortex wane, and allowed herself to relax. "Well... That could have been bad."

And then Rarity and Pinkie were inside the bubble shield. Twilight was sure they had been outside when she cast it - but there was no denying they were inside now. "Rarity!" Twilight yelled, dropping the bubble shield in an attempt to free the two of them. Rarity screamed in response, flailing her hooves in futility. She was sucked into the vortex despite Twilight's attempts to pull her out, her body stretching into a thin white swirl. Pinkie maintained static and expressionless while the vortex folded her into itself.

The moment Pinkie passed through the center, the vortex let out a soft popping noise and vanished.

Twilight and the Doctor stood motionless, horror plastered on their faces.

Author's Note:

Roll opening theme

-GM, master of the falls.

Comments

[Keywii_Cookies55]

*clap clap clap*

Kudos on the intro my friend. I'm excited to see more.

For anyone interested in reading the original version written by me, I suggest you click the following link: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/295634/the-broken-mirror

[Tangerine Blast]

Oh man this is like... all of my favorite things rolled into one

[BleedingRaindrops]

An excellent beginning, though I suppose given the introduction it's not really a beginning. Still, I enjoyed it, and hope to see more.

A few things I would like to point out:

He never made it into the kitchen, for bright pink presence blocked his path

There's a word missing here I believe.

this thing is calibrated to recognize even exotic magics, like that of the a sphinx..."

There's an extra word here.

"Great Wickering Stallions!"

Ha!

"Who...?" the Doctor wondered aloud.

Ha!

[GMBlackjack]

8093072

Thanks! Edits that are't from me are always welcome! Cause I aaaaaalways miss SOMETHING.

Will fix!

-GM, master of fixalit.

[Mocha Star]

Are you fishing?
Cuz I'm hooked!

[Draco Dei]

"Next to your life size cardboard cutout of Newton," Rarity called from across the room.

Consider a search-replace to change his name to Neighton.