Out of the Mirror, into the Fire

by Moonbeam Thought Writes

Ok, that happened.

Twilight was awoken by a gentle, yet somewhat erratic shaking of her shoulders. She groaned, as the moon above was unreasonably bright, and the grass beneath her was unreasonably itchy. Pinkie Pie-no, the pony form of the human Pinkie Pie, was standing over her, shaking her shoulders. Upon seeing her awake, the pink mare smiled and stepped out of Twilight’s current field of view. A sudden creaking sound from behind caught her attention, alerting her to the fact that somepony had opened the side door.

‘’Heya, Twi? You’ve been gone from the party and- Pinkie?! What in tarnation? I just spoke to ya inside!” Applejack sounded confused, but weary. She had seen enough of Pinkie’s antics over the years to warrant a level of caution.

“AJ, meet Pinkie.” Twilight pulled herself to her hooves. “Pinkie, meet Applejack”

“Did ya hit yer head there Twi? I know Pinkie. We’re related consarnit!”

“Hi Applejack. Oh wow, you look different from the AJ I know!” Pinkie smiled blithely at Applejack. The farm pony only raised her eyebrow in response.

Twilight rubbed her forehead blearily. “Yeah, this is Pinkie Pie… from the human world.”

Applejack’s jaw dropped. “Y’all can’t be serious. I’ve clearly drank one too many ciders. I’m hallucinating. This can’t be real!” She spluttered, looking at Pinkie with new eyes.

“See, there’s Pinkie! Inside! Dancing the pony polka! I’ve gotta be hallucinatin’, Twi!” She continued to ramble somewhat coherently, her eyes never leaving the pink pony in front of her.

It was then the cosmic powers that be decided to throw a curveball, in the form of one rainbow-maned pegasus named-

“RAINBOW DASH! YOU COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT! I HOPE YOU CRASH INT-“ the furious voice was cut off as a multicoloured blur shot through the door, smashing straight into Applejack, who was thrown up into the air in a small arc.

She was followed by an enraged, though slower unicorn, wearing a frilly blue dress with a large purple stain. Her scalding blue gaze was locked on the sheepish form of Dash, who was currently cowering behind Pinkie. Pinkie, on the other hoof, waved happily at Rarity.

“You are the most self-important, insolent, cheap piece of horsefeathers I have EVER SEEN” Rarity shouted obscenely. “You RUINED MY FROCK, RAINBOW DASH. NOT. VERY. LOYAL!”

RD chuckled nervously. “Hehe, uh, well, Rarity, Rares, Rara, uhm, how bad could it possibly be? Can’t you just wash it out?”

The seamstress’ face turned a deep shade of scarlet. “YOU SPILLED BLUEBERRY WINE ON SILK! WASH IT OUT? WASH IT OUT? ARE YOU INSANE!” She paused to take a breath, before continuing her vocal rampage. “THAT. IS. IT. NO MORE FREE OUTFITS. NO MORE FIXING YOUR WONDERBOLTS COSTUME WHEN YOU TAKE IT OUT FOR LARP. NO. MORE.” With that, Rarity huffed, and sat facing away from the group. On the bright side, Twilight noted, she seemed to be calming down.

“Is everything alright, girls?” Fluttershy timidly peered through the doorway at the growing congregation.

She let out a small ‘eep’ upon seeing Pinkie, her eyes wide as dinner plates.

“G-guys that’s n-not Pinkie… It can’t be! I was just dancing with her!” She exclaimed, her voice trembling a little as she spoke.

Rarity’s head whipped around to stare at the pink pony in their midst, and Rainbow darted out from behind her, staring untrustingly at this seemingly exact copy of her friend. It seemed the cosmic powers that be decided yet again to make life just that much harder. Because, the equine version of Pinkamena Diane Pie took that moment to step through the threshold of the side door, and join her friends out in the cool night air.

---

Pinkie awoke the next morning feeling… vaguely remorseful? She didn’t remember much of what had happened the previous night, and it wasn’t like she was entirely sober the entire time. But even as her other memories were as syrupy as chocolate sauce, one particular moment stood out from the rest. Launching herself at a pink pony, poised to strike the impostor who was wearing her face. Hmm. Weird. Maybe it was a changeling? Another memory hit her. A magenta wave filling her vision, then darkness. And was that Twilight’s voice chanting something weird in the background? ‘Iam quiescas, alta qiescamus, teque opacum quiescas!’ Well, that was what it sounded like. Sounded pretty archaic to her.

Bemused confused, and currently unamused, she decided that it was finally time to get up. A bright pink sticky note was stuck on the window next to her bed, and upon closer inspection, was written in an orderly font that was much too neat for Pinkie’s likings. That and the small, illegible signature at the bottom pointed to this note being written by another. She stepped closer, and took a whiff of the note. Hmm, Magnolia blossom with a hint of cologne? Definitely Twilight Sparkle. Speaking of whom, hadn’t she been… a fresh wave of memories washed over her. Memories of Twilight surreptitiously gazing over at the other Pinkie. Possessive thoughts. Awful thoughts, running through her mind as she looked over at the lavender alicorn. Not even bothering to hear out any explanation before a deep-seeded fury ignited inside her. Driving her to do something that didn’t make someone laugh. Quite the opposite in fact. Seeking to turn her mind from bad memories, she finally took a moment to read Twilight’s note.

‘Hey Pinkie, look, really sorry about last night. That other you? She’s from the human world.
I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for using an umbra somnum spell on you.
Just like I hope other Pinkie can forgive you for dealing her a savage left-hook. Love, Twilight Sparkle’

Pinkie felt a little butterfly flutter about in her stomach. Eh. She was probably just hungry. And what was that about ‘other Pinkie’ being from the human world? Ugh! Nothing ever made sense on an empty stomach! Pinkie took one last look at the note, before heading down the stairs to the kitchen.

Pinkie Pie was bored. Breakfast had long since passed, and now, with nothing to do (it being a Sunday, so Sugarcube Corner was closed), she sat staring out her bedroom window. An idea occurred to her. There was always one method that would provide an escape from boredom! Zipping to her supply closet, she hastily collected the needed items.
1 helium pump
1 pony harness
17 balloons!

A few minutes later, and she was ready to go. Pinkie stared down the open window in front of her, tensed her legs, and with one solid leap, she was off! Out the window! Gravity pulled her down for one worrying second, but she had guesstimated the number of balloons correctly, leaving her to soar through the domain of the birds! And pegasi, she guessed. And griffons, dragons, hippogriffs, alicorns, changelings, draconequui… she kept listing off airborne creatures as she floated over Ponyville. The few residents that saw her waved, unsurprised at her behaviour. She waved back with her trademark smile affixed to her face. As the breeze swept her over the Apple family’s property, she could make out the barn they had that sweet party in! And that area off by the side door. Oof. Still not a pleasant memory.

As she rose higher in the air, floating serenely over the Everfree Forest, a thought occurred to her.

“I’m on top of the world!” She proclaimed to no-one, and it did feel like she was on the roof of the world, up here in the clear sky. It felt good, in a way.

Ooh, what was that down there? Pinkie spied a beautiful little clearing, with verdantly green grass, and a ring of trees surrounding it that looked quite peaceful in the sunlight. She carefully mapped out a route to this spot in her mind. This would be the perfect place for an I’m-sorry-about-last-night party! Parties. Solved. EVERYTHING.

---

Twilight paced the room, thinking. A letter had appeared in her gold-plated mail slot after she returned from lunch. It had addressed her in a style of lettering that looped and curved like a roller coaster across the page. It smelled strongly of sugary sweetness, and combined with the eye-catching fact that the envelope it was posted in was covered end-to-end in confetti and glitter, made it pretty obvious who the sender was. Pinkie. Oh how her heart beat that much faster around that mare.

How traitorous of it.

And now she paced the confines of her bedroom, levitating the letter in midair in front of her. Reading and rereading the words over and over again. Innocuous as the letter may have been, it’s words failed, no, refused to remain in her mind after she read them. Twilight stopped pacing, and set the letter down gently on her nightstand. She needed a break.

“Hey Spike?” She called out.

“Yeah?” He sounded so far away.

Knowing Spike, he was probably reading one of his Power Ponies comics, or finding some new act of maintenance that needed to be done. He should really get out more, Twilight thought to herself, as she called back to him.

“Can you come and help me with something? I need help with a bit of reading.” She cringed a bit even as the words left her mouth. Since when did the Great and Terrible Bookworm Twilight Sparkle need help with reading?

She could hear steps quickly approaching her room, before a knock on the door alerted her to the fact that the door was closed. The gemstone-studded doorknob jiggling suddenly alerted her to the fact the door was locked. Weird. She didn’t usually lock the door. Dismissing it as a simple lapse in memory, she hurried to unlock the door with her magic. Spike opened the door with no trouble this time.

“Twilight? You ok? You said you need help with reading something. Again: are you ok?” He asked her.

Twilight smiled; a quick, almost mechanical motion, and reassured him that she was ok. She just needed help with this thing of hers. Twilight gestured to the note on her nightstand with one hoof. Taking the cue, Spike picked up, and began. Maybe it would be better if somecreature else read it, she reasoned as he cleared his throat.

“Ahem.
‘Dear Twilight Sparkle. This is your invite to my I’m-sorry-about-last-night party!
Please find the coordinates attached!
Fair warning, the party is going to be in the Everfree around sundown, so bring a source of light!
I hope you come!
Love, Pinkie D. Pie!
That’s it. Are you going to go, Twilight? I know I totally want to. Though, if it’s around sundown, we’re going to need more of a light source than just your horn alone.” Spike finished, his voice hopeful.

Twilight smiled. “If you can find that other light source, we just might!”

Spike gave a mock salute and ran off to do so. Now that she was alone once more, Twilight sighed. She stared out the window at that perfect blue sky, marred only by puffy white clouds and the occasional bird, or pegasus. Yeah, so the last party went south. But, she was fairly certain this one couldn’t go much worse than ‘your kind-of-marefriend shows up and looks exactly like one of your friends, who is also at the party, and attacks your kind-of-marefriend’. At least she was able to sort things out a bit with an umbra somnum spell. Even though those were, technically speaking, illegal. She was sure it’d be fine though. And if it wasn’t fine? Twilight was an alicorn, the Element of Magic. She had taken on Tirek. Chrysalis. The might of the alicorn amulet! Plus a few more dubiously (and barely) legal spells in her arsenal. Yeah. This would be just fine.

Author's Note:

This was a drag to write, but looking back, I really enjoy what I’ve created. And I really hope that you did too. Cheers to my friends for their support, and cheers to all of you for reading this far!
Love yourselves and bye til next time.
-MT