The Reflection

by CrackedInkWell

Act 2

Several days later, Forest Green had spent all morning tending to the garden to uproot the weeds that had been growing there. This gave Water Color some time alone with his canvas and the landscape that the front porch looked upon. He had spent his time adding one layer of color upon another, enriching the texture of the forest and mountains.

It was strange to him how jarringly still this unfamiliar land was. For the past few hours after breakfast, only the chant of insects and small talk of birds were heard on that cool morning. The unicorn hoped- wished that something resembling civilization would break this calm. Sure, he and his husband have slept better than any time in their lives. But this natural silence was strange to him.

Eventually, setting his brush aside, he decided to go inside to have a drink. As he walked in through the front door, the mirror from across the hall caught his eye. It reflected his tired face, the truthful exhaustion of continuous work. But after going into the kitchen, gulping down a cup of icy water from a pump controlled sink, he was about to return to his canvas when he paused at the mirror again. This time, he spotted his earth pony spouse.

In the reflection that showed what was outside of the open front door, Forest was walking towards the farmhouse. It wouldn’t give Water any alarm if it weren’t for the look on his husband’s face. It was that of pure rage. The kind that combined with his calm steps indicated that he was ready to rip his throat out. But a quick glance towards the front door itself, it only showed Forest with the opposite expression: exhausted but glad.

“Your painting is coming along,” he told him after pushing past the screen door. “And I must say that it’s gorgeous for what you got so far.”

The unicorn looked between him and the mirror, “Hey hon, mind if I ask ya something?”

“Well shoot,” Forest replied as he trotted into the kitchen. “I could use a break from all that weeding.”

“Have you noticed something funny about the mirror?”

“In what way?”

The artist turned his attention towards the mirror once more, walking forward to it. “I don’t know really… Have you seen it reflect something that isn’t quite there?”

No sound came from the kitchen.

“I mean,” Water continued, “Like sometimes it would show you in a completely different mood or something like that?”

Hoofsteps rounded over until his spouse was sticking his head into the hallway. “Wait, you’ve seen it too?”

“Again, I’m not exactly sure,” the unicorn said as he lifted the mirror off from the nail in the wall, turning it over to examine it. “Maybe it’s because of how old this thing is or something, but I could have sworn that whenever I see your reflection in this thing, it looks like you were about to murder me.”

“Really?” Forest walked out into the hallway. “That’s weird, because sometimes when I see your reflection in that mirror, I saw you as incredibly depressed – as if you were balling your eyes out for some reason… You don’t think that the mirror is enchanted or something?”

“I don’t think so,” the artist put the framed glass back on the nail. “Otherwise, I would have picked up something wrong with it. But at the moment, I don’t sense anything out of place with it. Again, it could be because this thing is so old that the reflection might have become warped over time.”

The earth pony stood with his husband, side by side, “Water, look in the mirror and tell me what you see.”

He did so. “Well… I see you, and me. Two newlyweds standing in a hallway with the front door opened behind us. And beyond that is some of the most beautiful country that I’ve ever seen. What do you see?”

“Looks to me the same,” the farmer turned to his spouse. “I guess it might be because our minds were playing tricks on us. Ya know since we’re in a new place and all that we could be imagining things. Like, have you read about that… what did your therapist call at that group session again?”

“What do ya mean?”

“Remember how we were in a room with a fella that would sometimes hear his mom call for him when it gets really quiet, but half the time he’d find out that she didn’t do so in the first place?”

The unicorn tapped his chin with a hoof in thought. “I think it was called Phantom Calls. If I remember right, the doc said that sometimes we get used to seeing or hearing something so often that when we’re in a place that, while we’re completely cut off from it, our minds would fill in the gaps with something that we’re familiar with.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” he nodded. “Perhaps that what’s happening? That we’re so used to seeing ponies that are depressed or upset so often that for some reason that mirror is filling in that missing gap.”

Water raised an eyebrow, “So what? Are you suggesting that we’re going crazy?”

“No, I’m just trying to give an explanation with that mirror thing…” he pointed to the object, but he also looked at it too in which, as clear as day, he saw his husband’s reflection in which he had a look of terror. Not only that, but he saw him take several steps away from him.

However, a quick glance back at his spouse to not only see nothing but confusion on his face but that they were still side by side. “What?” he questioned.

“I think it did it again. Only your reflection moved.”

Water looked at the mirror for a moment before turning to him saying, “You know, I don’t think that this whole isolation thing is doing either of us any good. Maybe we need to see new faces so that we don’t go catch cabin fever in here.”

“Hey, I’m not going crazy.”

“No? Forest, we’ve been here for four days and while we may have each other, I think we do need to have contact with someone, like some of our friends for example.”

“But we don’t know anypony here.”

“All the more reason to get us to socialize so that we don’t go…” now Water trailed off as from the corner of his eye he saw his husband’s reflection. He saw his teeth clench, eyes razor sharp as he snapped his head over to him, took a step back to lift a hoof in the air, ready to strike. Upon instinct, the unicorn immediately moved out of the way. About to shout what Forest was doing when he saw that his spouse was more startled than furious.

“What?” he inquired. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you…” the unicorn looked in the mirror again, only to find nothing but their reflections, “Ugh, you know what? I think that this place is really getting to me too. I think that I’m going to start writing letters to see if any of our friends could come. I think at this point we’re going to need it.”

---

Water Color awoke in the dark. He wasn’t sure why either, being it sometime in the middle of the witching hour, he should still be asleep. But for whatever reason, he just woke up feeling like something was out of place. At first, he couldn’t put a hoof on why. He didn’t feel thirsty or wanting to go to the bathroom. However, it occurred to him that the bed he was resting on was missing a certain presence. A gently feel confirmed that Forest was vacant.

Flipping over towards the other side of the bed is blurry eyes picked up the glow of candlelight coming from the crack underneath the bedroom door. Curious, he lit up his horn slowly until it was a soft glow so that it didn’t hurt his eyes. Quietly he got out of bed and made his way towards the door to silently open it.

“Forest?” He asked meekly. His husband was in the hallway, a candle in his hoof, just standing right there, facing the mirror. “Forest, what are you doing up this late?”

“I didn’t wake you, didn’t I?” His spouse was quick in giving him a nuzzle. “Sorry if I did. I couldn’t get myself to sleep tonight.”

The tired unicorn glanced at the ancient glass for a brief moment, “Were you staring at that thing all this time?”

“Not really. I just thought I saw something in the glass.”

Water yawned, “Please don’t tell me that you’re seeing ghosts now, are ya?”

The earth pony shook his head. “I said I thought I did… like a lot of other things with this mirror. I swear, ever since we found this thing it’s like it has a mind of its very own like its haunted or something.”

“Says the pony that told us that we’re just seeing things because of the isolation,” the artist rubbed his eyes. “Since the mailpony doesn’t get here until tomorrow, it might be weeks until we could get someone to visit us. I just hope our sanity holds up until then. It’s just been way too quiet here.” A sigh later, Water Color stepped right into the hallway, going behind his husband. “I think I might wanna take a drink of water since I’m-”

He was suddenly cut off when his spouse screamed.

“AH! What?” The unicorn was about to swing around when suddenly, Forest was right in front of him, grabbing both sides of his face to hold him still.

“Don’t look!”

“What?” Water tried to turn his head but his husband’s hooves wouldn’t budge. “What’s going on?”

“Just don’t turn around.” He saw in Forest’s eyes that he was in shock. Horrified at whatever was behind him. “Just keep looking at me.” At the same time, he saw tears were running down his face. “Walk back into the bedroom, don’t look at it.”

Of course, Water was confused as to what had gotten his spouse so startled like that. However, he did walk backwards into the bedroom, taking notice how Forest tried as hard as he could to block whatever reflection that was in the mirror. And as he quickly slammed the door behind him, the unicorn lit up his horn for light when unexpectedly his husband was hugging him.

“Hey? Are you okay?” However, from the tears that were dripping on his shoulder, it was obvious that he wasn’t. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

This made Forest hug tighter. “I love you. You know that, right?”

Water got a hold of him and was able to break the hug to see his spouse’s face. “Of course I do. Why are you crying?”

For several minutes, the earth pony stallion couldn’t respond. His sobs hiccupped in which it took a long time for him to finally be calm enough to say to him without his words being broken. “We need to get rid of that mirror.”

“Why?”

“Water…” He gulped, trying as hard as he could to keep himself together. “I… I saw your reflection… but you…” There was a pregnant pause. Forest covered his muzzle as if he didn’t want to finish that sentence. “You were dead.”

“Huh?”

The farmer sniffed, “Hung from the ceiling. With a note around your neck that said that you… wanted to be free… and when I saw those eyes… It was so real looking.”

Water’s expression paled. “How-” Before he could realize his slip-up, Forest’s eyes went wide.

“How… what?” This time he grabbed him. “What were you going to say?” he questioned him.

“It’s… It’s nothing hon. Really it-”

“I KNOW WHAT I SAW!” the earth pony shouted. “Apparently you know something that I don’t. So out with it! How, what?”

The unicorn showed all the signs of being really uncomfortable: folded ears; his eyes won’t look at his, and even his hooves were trying to turn away from him. It was like watching a frightened animal in a cage that just realized what he has gotten himself into. “I hope I’m wrong,” he said. “Because…” he gulped, “Because I think you’ve… just saw what I was… thinking…”

Forest covered his mouth in total shock. “What?”

“Let me test this,” the unicorn pulled his spouse towards the bedroom door, flung it open and stepped into the hallway towards the mirror. “Think of something.” While Water was looking at him in disbelief, Forest watched his husband’s reflection in which it had a completely different expression entirely. That of heartbreaking betrayal, and watched his reflection mouthed out a series of words like he was watching a silent film. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary in the mirror right now?”

The Earth pony only glanced at it. “No.”

Then it clicked to Water. “I think I know what this thing does: it shows to the other what we're thinking. Only I can see your thoughts and you can see with mine.”

In the reflection, the artist saw his spouse with a hammer in his mouth as he reared up in order to smash the glass. At that same moment, Forest turned around, trotted into the living room and came back with a heavy book. “This thing must be destroyed.” And before Water could say anything, he threw as hard as he could at the mirror.

While there was a loud bang, making the glass instantly crack out like a spider’s web, the reflection slowly reversed it until it was whole once more.

In the mirror, he saw Water was backing away in fear while the real one stood still in shock. Forest couldn’t blame him. He was scared too.