The Reflection

by CrackedInkWell

Act 3

Since it became apparent that this dark mirror couldn’t be destroyed, the best that either stallion could do was to put it back into the attic. Even wrapped it in a sheet and tied it up until neither glass nor frame showed. But even when that thing had been removed out of sight, it already had planted a black seed in the couple.

It had been a few days since that incident that night. Neither Water Color nor Forest Green had dared spoken to each other. They both knew why there was a potential fight to come out of it if they had the audacity to speak up of what they found out. Not just of what the mirror does, but of that hidden secret that they saw of their spouse.

The artist noticed that the farmer hadn’t gone out of eyeshot from him. Watching him but still kept a distance as to not start that storm of words. Contrariwise, so did him for the sake of his own safety. While they tried to go on with their routine, they both thought about what exactly to say to explain themselves.

Eventually, one evening, while both stallions sat down at the tiny dining room table – did their isolated silence break.

“You know I would never hit you.” Forest finally said.

Water looked up from his meal, “And yet, you’ve thought about it.”

The earth pony narrowed his eyes. “Since when have I actually done it?” he questioned. “Water, for Celestia’s sake, you know that I never lay a hoof on you, even when we fought.”

“Then why did I see your reflection do otherwise?” the artist responded in an icy voice. “I saw that you wanted to hit me. I saw how angry you got. Just what they hay, Forest? What reason do you want to punch me for? I thought you wanted to marry me. I thought you wanted to move out here.”

“It’s not like that!” the green pony slammed his hoof on the table, making his husband flinch. Upon seeing that, Forest rested his hooves in his face. “And here I thought… I thought you were over your depression.”

“Fore-”

“I saw your reflection too.” The farmer pointed an accusing hoof at him. “After all that time in therapy, of all those medications and doctors… And how you told me that you were better now… And yet, I saw your dead body in that mirror.”

“But I wasn’t really considering it.”

“You were thinking of it.” Forest folded his forelegs. “I got a peek at what was going on inside your head, and how can… you scared me, Water. After seeing you hung on the end of a rope… How can I trust that you won’t act on it? How do I know that if I don’t turn around for a minute that you might…” He didn’t dare finish that sentence. “Why?”

Water got up from his seat, “I was going to ask you the same thing.” He said as he walked and slammed the door to their bedroom behind him.

The earth pony sighed. What exactly was he to do? This was supposed to be in the part of their lives in which they would be happy. But that mirror had to ruin it several times over! Of course, he knew that he can’t exactly break it… His eyes lifted towards the ceiling.

Getting up, he marched down the hall towards the bathroom, where after jumping for the cord, he pulled down the ladder and climbed into the darkness. In the dark, he retraced his steps until he was able to find the object of their misery. “If I can’t break you,” he said aloud while lifting the glass onto his back. “Then I can at least remove you from our lives.”

After throwing it down to the floor, hoping that the fall would break but since he didn’t hear any glass shattering, he climbed down and proceeded to take it into the hallway. By then, his spouse opened the door to their room, peeking out. “What are you doing?”

“Getting rid of it,” he told him. “I’m gonna leave this thing as deep in the woods as I can.”

“But you haven’t set hoof in-”

Forest turned to him sharply. “If we’re going to save our marriage, I must remove this. If I can’t break it then it must be taken as far away from the house as possible. You can cry all you want, but I’m going to do something about it.” With that, he dragged the frame down the hall, out the front door, banging on the steps and through the dirt towards the woods on the other side of the house.

Water trotted out to him, “You’re going to get lost out there! It’s almost dark.”

“I don’t care!” his husband called out as he drags the mirror through the sagebrush and into the woods.

---

Forest had a simple plan: drag the mirror away in a straight line from the house until he wasn’t able to see it anymore – and walk further than that. Sure, it was true that he didn’t exactly see what was behind him, as his flank kept bumping into trees and bushes along the way. And yes, it was also true that night was descending surprisingly quickly as he could hear the crickets making their songs. It was growing darker the further he dragged that cursed glass through the tall grass. But he couldn’t stop just yet. Not until it was far away enough to be out of their lives.

Here and there, his ears would pick up the wind, the rustling of leaves on its branches, the snapping of twigs beneath his hooves, and even the call of the owl. And in hindsight, he should have grabbed a coat as the wind was bitterly cold against his hide. He was getting tired of pulling it with his mouth, but he didn’t want to drop it to have it rot just yet.

“Forest!” he heard his husband cry. “Where are you going?” With a sigh, the earth pony rested the mirror against a tree in which, he saw in the reflection of the unicorn’s light. He turned around to see Water walking up to him. “Forest, what were you thinking? Go out here at night when you don’t know your way around.”

“I’m trying to get rid of this thing,” he pointed an accusing hoof at the mirror. “The further away that thing is out of our lives, the better it’ll be.”

“Oh for Celestia’s…” Water faced hoof. “Why are you acting like this? If anything, why are you angry at me for?”

“I’m not.”

“Are you?” the artist questioned, trying to see his spouse’s reflection in the moonlight that showed Forest’s anger in the glass. “I don’t understand what’s going on. In fact, I don’t get why I keep seeing your reflection that looks like that it wants to rip my head off.”

“Oh really?” Forest stepped back to see Water in tears. “Then why do I see you bawling your eyes out? Is there something that you’re not telling me?”

“Are we really having this right now?”

“Well, we’ve haven’t so much as talked about it. In fact, isn’t that what couples are supposed to do? To be honest with one another and work out problems?”

“By working out problems of course you mean not to stop to bothering to ask me about what should be done with the mirror?”

“Hey, you weren’t doing anything about it!”

“At least I’m not impulsively taking this thing out in the middle of the night where I could easily get lost!”

Forest stomped a hoof to the ground, “Dammit Water! What do you want me to do!” Instead of his spouse shouting back at him, the unicorn’s gaze was on the mirror. Puzzled, he turned his head towards the reflection and gave pause at what they both saw.

In the reflection, they saw their fight was continuing on – one stallion screaming at the other in silence. They were face to face, rage in their eyes until Water was the first to throw the first punch. In the mirror, Forest fell over. But before he could get back up, Water was kicking him again and again. But soon he slowed down, out of breath and in the light of the moon, his anger morphed to horror. Forest’s reflection remained motionless while the real one looked over to his spouse who was in shock.

Glancing back in the mirror, the farmer saw how the unicorn knelt down, trying to get his lifeless body up from the ground before Water’s reflection looked directly at him through the mirror. He limped over to the glass up close, eyes full of regret and silently begging for forgiveness.

“Water,” Forest spoke softly, “I think it’s about time that we leave.”

He heard his husband sob in which to see that much like the reflection; it did show that he was crying now. “I-I’m…” he choked on his own words. Forest swiftly embraced him, wrapping his hooves around the distressed stallion.

“Let’s go home,” he told him. The two of them turned away from the mirror, leaving it alone in the woods.

---

By the time the couple was able to reach the farmhouse, both of them didn’t feel like going to bed just yet. Forest and Water lay in front of a burning hearth in silence as one stallion was hugging the other until he was able to calm down. “Are you ready to tell me?” the earth pony asked gently.

Water sniffed, “I’m probably the worst husband ever.”

“Why?”

The artist looked at him, “You know why. That mirror… I saw that I’d… Oh Celestia, I’m so sorry. I was so angry about how you wouldn’t be honest with me that…”

Forest hugged him tighter, “I guess it’s safe to say that we’ve both messed up big time.” The two of them watched the flames dance for a few minutes before the farmer said, “Look. I think that the only way we can break this is that we finally tell each other the truth. The whole truth. And nothing except, the truth. So, if this relationship is going to be saved, I guess I might as well start.” He took in a deep breath through his nostrils. “Water, I have a confession to make. That mirror was right, I was angry at you.”

Water snapped his attention towards him, “Really? Why?”

“It’s… It’s hard for me to say this,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “That for a while, I was angry at you that you weren’t satisfied moving here. I mean, after all the expenses of the wedding and was finally able to move out of the city, you just kept telling me how much you don’t like it here. I mean, we’ve picked out the house so that we could be happy here. Then… when I saw your reflection in that mirror showing you were absolutely miserable, I had this impression that I had sacrificed my hard earnings for nothing. That I was given the impression that you were ungrateful or something.”

Water blinked, “And how come you haven’t told me this before?”

“I didn’t want to start a fight, not after all the work we’ve put into moving out here.”

“Oh…” the unicorn sighed in melancholy. “I guess I should have said something earlier. Forest… truth be told, I’ve misjudged this place.”

“What?”

He nodded. “You were right. I did want some peace and quiet, but I also want to interact with ponies too. We’ve been isolated here for weeks and I just… I didn’t want to show that I was depressed that I wanted to see friends or run into strangers now and then instead of this endless silence of boredom and how nothing going on around here. At the same time, you were so happy to be moving back into the country that I kept my mouth shut so that you won’t worry about what I think. Yes, I do want to move out here, but I didn’t think it’ll be so isolated.”

The earth pony nuzzled his husband. “I guess you’re really disappointed in me, huh?”

“I think we’ve really disappointed each other.” Water muttered. “Do you want a divorce?”

Forest hummed for a moment, “Nope. I’m afraid that your thoughts and not your actions to murder me isn’t a good enough reason to do so. Yes, we’ve messed up. Yes, we kept secrets from one another when we had noble intentions to do so. But you know what? You and I both suck. But I don’t think that would make me from not wanting to be around you. Yeah, we’re not exactly perfect for one another, but I’m loyal to what we’re committed to. And that is to live as long as I can with you.”

“You really want to stay with me?”

“I think if you’re trying to get rid of me by simplify thinking of killing me... I’d think you need to do better than that.” While both of them chuckled at this dark joke, Forest instantly became stern. “But seriously, for now on, we need to be honest with one another so that something like that doesn’t happen again. Now, I have one question for you.”

“What’s that?”

“How soon do you want to move?”

---

Their reflections of one another had taught both of them this important lesson: To hide the way the truth from the one you care for the most would not bring you any closer. While honesty can hurt, it could also set you free as well from disaster to one’s self, and your loved one. An important moral for any couples young or old, from the darker reaches of The Twilight Zone.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why not get an editor?

[CrackedInkWell]

8492412
I said this once, and I'll say it again. When it comes to my writings and editors, everything is volunteer work. You see, in the past, whenever I ask someone to proofread my stories, I'd be lucky to get a response within a week that they're interested in. And even if I do get one, there's no guarantee that they won't up and drop it without telling me why. Realize that editors have lives of their own, they're not there for mine, or anyone else's beckoning call.

Sure, some of my stories are unedited, and still are. But at least I have the curtiousy of telling the readers up front that it's unedited. If this, or any other story of mine is going to be edited, let it be from those that'll do it because they like the story itself.

So unless someone comes forward to volunteer to edit this, or is willing to point out its flaws, this is as good that it'll get.