In Reflection, The Same

by Faedelaide

Kindred

A long metal plank extended from the deck of the galleon and landed on the humble wooden dock with a heavy thud. The griffons continued making final adjustments to the ship's sails while twilight's friends hopped of the boat with varying levels of excitement. Pinkie bounced her way down the plank, flugelhorn now happily in hoof. Applejack practically sprinted off the boat, no doubt grateful to be off the water and back on to dry land. Rainbow stayed back with Rarity, Spike and Fluttershy, carrying as many of her friends' luggage cases as she could.

Twilight lagged behind, carrying her own assortment of bags down to the dock. The image of what had just transpired between her and Pinkie was still crystal clear in her head. Was everyone else just as weirded out by the ice as she was, or was she just paranoid? It couldn't have been just her, she'd never seen Pinkie act that way unprompted. A sharp pain suddenly coursed through her head, forcing her to drop her belongings. Great, now she was getting a migraine. That was just what she needed right now.

"Twilight, are you ok? You look tired." Fluttershy asked, picking up one of Twilight's bags with her wings.

"Yeah, I think I just need some more rest. I've got such a bad headache," Twilight responded quietly.

"Well the cabin is only a short walk away, princess." Gaine suddenly spoke from behind Twilight, startling her. "The griffon Head of Inter-kingdom Relations will be here later today, so feel free to take a nap once we get there."

"Wait, cabin? I thought we were staying in Griffonstone!" Rainbow dash yelled.

Gaine let out a chuckle, though the look on Dash's face convinced him to contain it. "This is Griffonstone, not one of your pretty little pony cities. You get what you get."

"So we're gonna have to stay out here... n-near the water?" Rainbow dash fumed, though she stumbled over her words when she spoke about the sea, shooting a quick, worried glance towards the ocean. Twilight saw Rainbow Dash's glance, and felt the slightest bit of relief despite her friend's feelings. At least she wasn't the only pony who found that ice uncomfortable.

"That's how it is. But... if you really wanna try renting a house in Griffonstone, I'm sure that one of our lovely homeowners would be willing to let you stay for a couple hundred bits."

"A couple hundred!?" Rainbow put down her friends luggage and flew up in a flash. "Meet you guys at the cabin!" she called down, and with a fwoosh, she was gone.

"Dag nab it, Rainbow," Applejack muttered, picking up Rainbow's dropped bags.

The walk to the cabin only took about half an hour, and Twilight was relieved that her headache had managed to dissipate in that time. The cabin was more than large enough to accommodate all eleven of them, and from the singular light in one of the upstairs rooms, Twilight had already guessed which room Rainbow chose as hers.

Twilight set her bag down near the front door as her friends inspected the house with curiosity. Spike was also carefully setting down her luggage, so she walked up to him.

"Why don't you figure out which room you and I will be staying in, ok Spike? I'll be out for a little while."

"Where are you going, Twilight?" Spike asked with confusion.

"I think I'm just going to take a short walk, clear my head a little bit," Twilight responded.

"Ooh, that's a good idea, Twilight! Nature always calms me down when I'm stressed." Fluttershy remarked.

Twilight exited the house with a passing wave, then began to walk off into the nearby forest.

Behind her, she could hear Gaine shouting, "Don't go too far, princess. We don't want you getting eaten before you fix our ice problem!", followed by his echoing laughter.

The forest was quiet and serene as Twilight walked. With many of the animals already in hibernation, Twilight only had the calm wind and delightful crunch of snow under her hooves. The trees, though stripped of their leaves, still held a sense of beauty as the simple browns, dull greens, and all encompassing whites gave of a feeling of cool tranquility. Twilight walked on into the forest, the stripped canopy beginning to thicken as the leafless tree branches began to overlap one another. Twilight let out a long sigh. She didn't have to think about that ice, or any jerky griffons, or the seemingly impossible problem that she would soon have to face. It was just her. Alone.

Twilight picked up the faint sound of a running stream nearby, and decided to investigate. Walking purposefully through the snow, she found a small stream that flowed towards the sea. With nothing better to do, she followed the stream, seeing if she could find it's source before the cold convinced her to head back. To her surprise, it didn't take very long at all.

The small stream was one of many connected to a large, slow flowing estuary. Some of the smaller streams were frozen over, and it looked like the estuary itself was already showing signs of freezing. Twilight pushed away the snow in front of her, sitting down to watch the stream flow gently along. For a moment, she sat, watching the water flow past her, when something caught her attention.

Further upstream sat a tall chunk of ice. There was no way it could have ended up here from the Wall, which was miles away in the middle of the sea. Nothing seemed immediately out of place, although this particular chunk seemed impressively smooth, as if it had been eroded... or melted.

She walked towards it to further inspect the anomalous piece of ice. There wasn't anything interesting about this piece of ice, and it didn't give her that same hopeless feeling that the Wall did. However, as she looked into the ice to try and see inside, she noticed a faint yellow light from deep within it's center. She squinted her eyes to get a better look at this mysterious light, and it's radiance increased in response. It continued to increase in brightness until it was easily visible, even as Twilight backed away. She stared at the glacier as the yellow light revealed the faint, blurry silhouette of something inside. Then she looked back down at the light, and in the blink of an eye it disappeared, and the block of ice returned to normal.

Twilight breathed heavily, her voice wet, as if she had come down with a debilitating illness. She continued to breathe, even when she realised the sharp, ragged sounds of her breathe didn't match the slow, even movement of her chest. Something was off about th-

"Hello?" A voice called from out of nowhere, causing Twilight to jump in surprise.

"Hello," it spoke again, "I can hear you. My name's Twilight Sparkle, and I need your help!"

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

11262976
I don't get it. What's overdue talking about?

[Faedelaide]

11264468
If I'm correct, they're referencing Learn To Fly, which was an old flash game about a penguin trying to break a glacier by flying into it really fast.

[Mr cold ghost]

I’m interested to learn what’s talking to twilight from the ice!