Faceplanting at the Starting Line
Neither of the girls said anything after my exclamation at first. After a minute or so of me looking back and forth between two and waiting for an answer, the silence was finally broken.
"... hey Jack?" said Starlight.
"Yeah?"
"When you first saw our skin colors and the musical number, did you also feel a mix of numbness and subtle existential horror?"
I blinked. Then a wide smile slowly spread across my face as her words sunk in.
"Yes!" I answered.
"Huh," Starlight murmured. "So this is how that feels."
I eagerly turned to Lyra, "You too, Ly?"
She absently nodded.
As bad as it sounds, seeing my friends have their worldviews shattered made me very happy. When you've gone through the sort of things I have, it's very discouraging to have no one to relate to. Friends and family can help, but love and reassurances can't get rid of the loneliness that comes with not having people who can look you in the eye and tell you that they understand. Now that the girls and I were on the same page, I felt like an invisible weight had been lifted off my shoulders. It sucked that they were in distress, but at least we could all suffer together now.
"Well, as someone who's familiar with that feeling, don't worry! Once you've had time to process things, you should be able to function well enough to pass as mostly stable. Just keep on smiling, and shove down the overwhelming dread whenever it sprouts up!"
Neither of them replied. I just sat there and smiled, reveling in our newfound sense of unity while I waited for one of them to speak. Eventually, my eyes landed on the crown that was still clutched in Lyra's hands. My mind wandered back to its sudden appearance, and then to Sunset's emergence from the mirror. I put two and two together, and realized that the crown must've come from the same place as Sunset.
With that thought, I spoke up.
"Hey Ly, do you reckon that that crown in your hands is dangerous? It probably came through the mirror, after all."
Lyra blinked, and looked down at the aforementioned crown in her hands. With a yelp, she dumped it onto the floorboard and brought her knees up to her chest. Starlight didn't take her eyes off the road, but she did tense up and grip the steering wheel tightly. We sat silently for a few minutes, waiting to see if the crown would cause something to happen. When nothing did for long enough that the silence started getting to me, I spoke.
"Well, if it hasn't disintegrated us even after tempting fate like that, I think we'll be fine,"
Starlight slowly relaxed, and Lyra cautiously picked it up again.
"This really did come through that mirror like Sunset, didn't it?" Lyra murmured.
"That's the only explanation that makes sense. There's nothing but open space around that statue, so no one would be able to put it there without us knowing. The only way someone could pull that off is by throwing it, and even if someone decided to chuck a solid gold crown for whatever reason, that would've caused more of a racket than it did."
Lyra absentmindedly nodded, and Starlight narrowed her eyes at me through the rear-view mirror.
"You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would."
I shrugged, "This isn't my first time. Don't get me wrong, I'm scared, but it's not as scary as the musical number. Of course, I might still be riding my sugar high, so maybe I'll freak out later."
"Wonderland..."
Star and I turned to Lyra, whose look of trepidation had transformed into one of excitement.
"Huh?" said Starlight.
Lyra turned to us, "People and objects traveling through a mirror. I knew I'd heard of something like that before; it's from Alice in Wonderland!"
"Well, actually it's from Through the Looking-Glass, which is the sequel," Starlight corrected.
"Do you know what this means?!" Lyra squealed, ignoring Starlight's unsolicited correction. "That mirror must be a portal to another world! Maybe even the one I've seen in my dreams!"
The two of us mulled the thought over. It was obviously a portal of some kind, the question was whether it led somewhere else on Earth, or whether it really did lead to another world like Lyra said.
I voiced these thoughts, and Starlight nodded.
"I think you're on track, Jack." She hummed, "I know we don't have a lot of information to work with... but I'm leaning more towards the latter option if only because of the crown. If a pricey replica of the school's prom queen crown doesn't scream 'mirror dimension', then I don't know what would."
"Mirror dimension?" I leaned back and turned the thought over in my head.
It made some sense. Aside from the obvious fact that the portal itself was a mirror, it would explain the crown being a near duplicate of the one in the school. Sure, we only had speculation and a connection to an old book I hadn't read to back our claim, but that was as good as we were going to get for the moment, so mirror dimension theory it was.
"If it is a mirror dimension, do you think that there are duplicate people there? The crown from the other side of the mirror was an authentic version of the one we have, so maybe there are versions of us on the other side too! They might even be mythical creatures instead of humans, just like in my dreams!" said Lyra.
That was certainly an interesting idea. Not the mythical creatures part, but the idea that there were duplicates of people through the portal. It made me wonder what alternate versions of people I knew were like. Starlight and Lyra would probably be even more eccentric, Jill would have an even bigger head, and the Principal Sisters would likely still work thankless jobs, but maybe they'd get paid a little better.
...
What's that smirk for?
...
Whatever. Now, Coach Spitfire would probably be a drill sergeant or something, Cheerilee would still be trying to stay sane after dealing with those three gremlins all the time, Pinkie would—
My breath hitched, a spike of fear plunging itself into my chest.
If the portal really did lead to a mirror dimension, and there were duplicates of people over there, that meant that there was another Pinkie Pie. If the Pinkie I knew was already an unholy abomination, what would a Pinkie who lived in a Wonderland-like world be like? My face paled as I recalled what little I remembered from the last time I watched Alice in Wonderland a few years ago, because if Lyra's comparison to that story was accurate, that meant there was potentially an entire world of Pinkie-like creatures just a few yards from the school's entrance. Darkness appeared at the edge of my vision, and the walls started closing in. Visions filled my mind of laughing, cake batter-scented creatures pouring out from the mirror and dragging me to a nightmarish party of madness, where my brain would eventually collapse under the strain and leave me as a smiling, giggling imp cursed to eat cake and play party games for eternity.
"Hey, Jack," said Lyra, giving my shoulder a light shake. "Are you-?"
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Starlight shrieked and swerved in response, nearly sending us through the guard rails. Luckily, she corrected course at the last second and kept us on the road. We all sat there, breathing heavily before Starlight spun around and glared at me.
"What in the name of Lenin were you thinking? You could've gotten us all killed!" shouted Starlight.
The combination of near death and Starlight's scream brought me back to reality. Shame flooded through me.
"I'm really sorry," I replied, staring down at my feet.
Starlight huffed, turning back to the road but still holding the steering wheel in a death-grip, "I'm not going to judge you for flipping out again, but I will judge you for doing that when we're hurtling down the road at 40 miles per hour! You promised you would let us know if you started spiraling when we're driving!"
I nodded, meekly submitting to Starlight's anger. She was completely right. In one of our many meetings, I'd promised that I would use any means necessary to not think about her (or mind-shattering subjects in general) when we were on the road, and then I went and almost got us killed by doing the opposite.
"I think we're all a little shaken," said Lyra, graciously suppressing her excitement about the portal for our sakes. She gently placed a hand on one of Starlight's almost-imperceptibly trembling hands. "Maybe we should stop somewhere for a bit."
Starlight took a deep breath, "Y-You're right. I think we're nearest to... Jack's house right now." She met my eyes through the rearview mirror, "Can we come in your house for a bit, Jack?"
I nodded.
"Yeah. Of course."
The drive to my house was silent, but mercifully short. When we climbed out of the car, I saw that the living room light was still on.
"Looks like one of my parents is still up and waiting for me. I'm sure they won't mind if you two step inside for a few minutes."
"Thanks. Although, is a few minutes enough? We're gonna need to talk about..." Starlight gestured to the crown in Lyra's hand.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," I answered.
I opened the door and led us inside, a canned explanation about my lateness on my lips before I froze at the sight of who had been waiting for me.
"You were supposed to be back by eleven," said Jill, her eyes sliding up from her phone.
"I—uh, we got a little side-tracked," I said.
"Side tracked," she repeated. "You told us that you'd be meeting me at the Halloween party, but you never came, and you didn't answer any of my calls. If Pinkie hadn't told me that she'd ran into you on her way back from buying some emergency Silly String, I wouldn't have known where you were! I told Mom that you were staying late to talk to some friends, so you won't get in trouble, but I want to know why you bailed on me, and why-" she jabbed her finger at the two girls standing behind me "-they are here."
"The girls are just coming in to rest for a moment. We went out trick-or-treating, and just... lost track of time," I said, putting more than a little effort into keeping my voice neutral. "And I skipped the party because the girl who organized it freaks me out; you know that."
She kneaded the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb, "Trick-or-treating... And Pinkie again? Really? I don't know what your deal is with her, but you need to stop acting like she has a disease. She's just a nice girl who just wants to be your friend. Maybe if you'd accepted her invitation and taken the opportunity to hang out with more than the same two people you always do, she would be."
This time, I didn't even try to change my expression.
"No thanks," I said. "Besides, nobody likes us. We'd just end up hanging out in the corner the entire time if we went."
"No you wouldn't; Pinkie wouldn't allow it. Besides, that's not true. That girl has been dying to talk to you."
I shuddered.
She pointed at Starlight, "Tree Hugger is always talking about how much she loves her conversations with you."
I could practically feel Starlight's scowl at that.
Jill turned to Lyra, "And Bon-Bon has been trying to talk to you all month. I know you know that, because you keep running away from her when she tries. She got her hopes up when she heard you'd accepted the invite, and it crushed her when-!"
"Alright, you're done," I said, stepping in front of an audibly growling Starlight to keep her from pouncing on my sister. "Stay out of my business, keep your friends out of my friends' business, and tell that bitch of a candy-maker that..."
I trailed off when I noticed that Jill wasn't paying attention to me. I followed her gaze, and my anger turned to fear when I realized she was staring at the crown in Lyra's hands.
"... Is that the Fall Formal Crown?" she asked.
"Ah—er—uh, of course not!" I answered.
I nudged Lyra hard, breaking her out of her thousand-yard stare. She blinked, realized what Jill was looking at, yelped, and hid it behind her back.
"W-What's a crown?!" Lyra exclaimed with a too-wide smile.
Jill scanned my face, a look of slowly-dawning horror appearing on hers.
"You-"
I yawned unnecessarily loudly, "Wow, I sure am tired! Why don't we go up to my room, girls?"
Without waiting for an answer, I grabbed them by the arms and led them up the stairs.
"Goodnight, sis!"
After calming Starlight down and making sure that Lyra was okay, I decided to address the elephant in the room.
"What now?"
They looked at me questioningly.
"I mean, how are supposed to react to this," I elaborated, pointing to the crown. "We found out that there's a portal in front of our school, Sunset knows about it, and we took a duplicate crown that she rightly stole from it. This is usually the part of the movie where we get a lore dump or a quest, but we've got neither. So, what now?"
The two of them looked at each other, then back to the crown.
It continued to sit there and do nothing. Though, looking at the growing excitement dancing behind Lyra's eyes as she continued to ogle it, one might think otherwise. As glad as I was to see her enthusiasm return, that look in her eyes rarely led to good ideas.
"Maybe we should return the crown to its world? I'm willing to volunteer to go through and-"
"No," Starlight and I interrupted.
"But whyyy?" Lyra pouted.
"Because we like you being alive and not trapped in another dimension," deadpanned Starlight.
"What, are we just supposed to keep it?" she shot back.
I started to respond, but stopped. She raised a good point. What were our options? Keep it? Sell it? Throw it in a river? For all we knew, the crown was cursed and would bring ruin upon my house if I didn't try to return it from whence it came. Even if it wasn't, my instincts and genre-savviness were telling me that nothing good would come from keeping it. Ironically, Lyra's plan was the best one we had.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Lyra might be on to something."
Lyra smiled radiantly.
"But we're still not going through the portal," I finished.
Lyra slumped, and her lips started to tremble.
"I'm so close to seeing my dream world, to seeing proof that I'm not crazy... and I'm just supposed to walk away from it?"
Starlight and I shared a look as Lyra's shoulders began to shake.
"Hey, Ly..." Starlight soothed, placing a hand on her back. "We just don't want you to get hurt or trapped. How could we hold HEH meetings if one of the founding members is absent? Besides, even if you can't go through, that doesn't stop you from getting proof! Why don't you use your selfie stick and take some pictures of what's on the other side?"
Lyra slowly perked back up, "yeah... Yeah! You're right! Everyone will have to believe me if I can show them photo evidence!"
I gave Starlight a thumbs up. She returned with a self-satisfied grin which was almost instantly ruined by the loud yawn that forced its way out of her throat. She shot me a dirty look when I laughed, and then laughed at me when I yawned.
"Guys," Lyra interjected. "After going through my fourth emotional roller coaster of the night, I think the exhaustion is starting to get to me. Star and I probably need to go in a minute."
Sure enough, her enthusiasm had finally burnt out, and she started swaying on her feet. Starlight didn't look much better, only keeping herself from dozing off through spite and her dwindling supply of Milky Ways. I didn't feel much better, but a glance at the crown convinced me to fight my pillow's siren song for a little while longer.
"We need to make a plan now. If we don't then Sunset's going to rip us a new one the second we step on campus."
The girls grimaced, but nodded.
"Alright," I began, sitting down on my bed, the girls following my example. "First, we need to figure out what we're going to do about Sunset..."
I woke up at six to the sound of my phone alarm going off.
"Turn that shit off," grumbled Starlight from where she'd curled up at the foot of the bed.
"I'm trying, it's stuck in my pocket," I griped.
I finally wrenched it free, only for it to slip out of my hand and tumble to the floor. I moved to reach for it, but Lyra, who was sleeping on the side closest to where it had fallen, snatched it up and hit the snooze button.
I gave her a sleepy smile, "Thanks, Ly."
Starlight gave an appreciative grunt.
"No problem," said Lyra.
We all laid back down and closed our eyes, hoping against hope that we'd manage to fall back asleep for a few moments before the alarm went off again.
A few seconds of silence passed before we all shot up.
"Oh fuck," said Lyra, giving voice to what we were all thinking.
Lyra and Starlight whipped out their phones, winced at all of the missed call alerts, and dialed their parents. I vaulted out of bed and cracked the door open, vainly hoping that no one else was awake yet. I was met by the smiling face of my mother.
"Good morning, sweetie! Did you have fun last night?"
A cold sweat formed on my forehead. Judging by the expression on my Mom's face, she didn't know that two girls had spent the night in my room, but it would only take a peek over my shoulder or a look at Starlight's car in the driveway to figure it out. I'd need to lie expertly to keep her in the dark long enough for the girls to slip away. I steeled myself for the difficult trial ahead—
"NO DAD, YOU DON'T NEED TO BRING OVER MY BROWN BEAR PLUSHIE! I'M FINE!"
—only for Starlight to immediately blow her cover.
Mom's eyes widened, and she peered into my room before I could try to stop her. She gasped at my room's very tired and disheveled female occupants, and then looked down at me with a stunned expression.
"It's not what it looks like," I said, flashing her a shaky smile.
Luckily, my family believed us when we said that nothing inappropriate had happened. Mom was suspicious at first, but I got bailed out by Jill of all people, who emerged from her room and interrupted Mom before she could start asking any uncomfortable questions. According to her, she'd checked in on us when the girls hadn't left after twenty minutes and saw that we'd passed out on my bed. After that, she'd called the Heartstrings home, told them what was going on, and asked them to pass on the message to Starlight's Dad.
As tense as things between the two of us were, I almost hugged her for that. However, I was too confused about why she was helping me to act on that feeling, so I settled for giving her a pat on the shoulder and shuffling away.
Dad just laughed when Mom told him what happened.
The next hour was a mad scramble to get ready. We wolfed down a plate of Pop-Tarts, used up all of the hot water, and, since we'd all fallen asleep in our Halloween costumes, scrounged through Jill's closet to get the girls a change of clothes. In the end, we got ready just in time to burst out the front door and sprint to the bus before it left.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "The bus? But don't you, Starlight, and Lyra always drive to school? Why would you ride on the bus with a bunch of grumpy, smelly teens instead of driving like normal?" Normally, you'd be right, but taking the bus was the first step in Operation Crown Jewel: our plan to return the duplicate crown to its home dimension before it could screw us over somehow.
...
Yes, we did fall asleep five minutes into the discussion, but that was enough time for us to come up with a basic plan.
The first and biggest obstacle to get past was Sunset Shimmer. Not only because she was probably still pissed off at us, but also because she knew pretty much everything about the students and staff that could benefit her. Aside from her infamous blackmail stash, she had a near-photographic memory about everyone's routines, including the place we would park every morning. Because of this, we had no doubt that she'd be hiding somewhere nearby, ready to pounce the instant we emerged from the car. Knowing this, we weighed our options and decided to avoid that by riding the bus for the first time in forever.
To our relief, it went off without a hitch. Sunset wasn't there to wring our necks when we got off, and soon we were standing a few feet away from the mirror.
"Okay, Lyra, remember the plan," I said.
"I know, I know," she replied, clutching her selfie stick like a lifeline. "Count down from three, stick my phone through at the same time that Star throws the crown through, take five pictures, and then book it to the front entrance. Can we do this already?!"
I scanned the area one more time to be safe. Nobody was watching.
"Alright, let's do this. Are you ready Star?"
Starlight patted her bag and nodded.
"Okay, grab the crown and start the countdown."
Starlight promptly pulled back the zipper and opened her bag. I started to get nervous when five seconds had passed and she hadn't said anything, and my heart rate spiked when she started digging through her things and opening up the other pockets.
"It's gone," she whispered.
I sputtered, "What do you mean, 'it's gone'?!"
"I mean that it isn't in my bag! Do one of you have it?!"
Lyra and I dug through our bags, but found nothing.
"D-Did we leave it on the bus?" Lyra asked.
"No. None of us opened our bags for the entire ride."
"Then where is it?!"
"I don't know!" cried Starlight. "I know for a fact that I zipped it up in my bag before I took a shower!"
I put my head in my hands, "We are so boned. We stole an inter-dimensional artifact, and we lost it!"
"Calm down, you two," said Lyra. "Sure, we lost an insanely valuable crown from another dimension that probably has our fingerprints all over it, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed that something awful is going to happen! Let's just... pretend like it doesn't exist! That works with a bunch of our other problems, maybe it'll work with this one too!"
I shared a glance with Starlight. We had no better ideas, so Lyra's was as good as any.
"Okay," Starlight took a deep breath. "If anyone asks, we don't know anything about a crown. We trick-or-treated, then went home. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Lyra and I echoed.
"Good. Now, let's—"
The mirror rippled, and an unfamiliar girl with purple skin and violet hair tumbled out. The three of us stared down, expressions blank.
"Well, shit," I muttered.
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I’m cool with whatever honestly, twins, a few months apart, I just love the dynamics that Jack has with the characters he’s met so far.
Do what you gotta do, I wasn't really confused by it. However if you feel like you need to that's fine too. 👍
Btw thx 4 the chapter <3
I just encountered this story and I love, I also wasn't confused by the siblings relationship but you do what you gotta. The only thing I don't like is the rate of updates where I could wait from anywhere to 1 week to 2 and half months. Also I got to ask are you going to add anything from the comics?
HAHAHAHAHA!
I love the group dynamics of this trio!
11818830
I haven't read the comics, so aside from the inevitable Anon-a-Miss omake, probably not.