What Lays Beyond the Mirror
In Case of Distress, Apply Headpats
The Great and Powerful Trixie was almost always the most confident creature in any room, often leaping faithfully with no double-checking and putting on a strong face when confronted with any of her many mistakes. She acted as a beacon of hope for anyone going through tough times, whether they be close to her and cataclysmic in scale or far and mundane, serving as an idol for young foals and motiveless teenagers to conquer their fears and insecurities so that they may accomplish their dreams.
However, one would find all of that difficult to believe if they looked at the unicorn mare now.
“S-Starlight?” Trixie breathed fearfully as she laid barrel-down in damp grass, her vision filled with stars and hearing numbed slightly from the psychedelic wormhole she just travelled through. Quickly casting a spell often used after firework misfires, she flipped onto her back and saw clearly the large silver mirror implanted on the base of a marble statue, the glow she recalled seeing on the other side vanished.
“No, no,” The sapphire-coloured magician muttered as she jumped to her hooves and galloped to the closed portal, slamming her forehooves on its cool surface, which decidedly didn’t let her back through. “Starlight!” She shrieked to her closest friend whilst banging on the mirror, hoping, praying that she could get something through.
Nothing gave, unfortunately, making the lonely pony give up and fall back onto her haunches, tears starting to stream down her face as she faced being thrust into this other world with no-one there to help her.
A sound from behind Trixie made her quickly turn around, pressing her back to the mirror and seeing the cityscape around her, with most everything from the massive buildings to the giant creatures being a shade of grey. In fact, one of those creatures stood before a short ways away to her left, its bipedal shape and clothed form unmoving as it stared at her.
‘Wait...’ The frost-maned mare thought as she more closely observed the creature, the grey-purple mane(?) of its flowing flatly down its head with a hard line leaving its face visible, the dull teal dress-like piece of clothing it wore covering all of it from below the neck to above half-way up its hind legs with a black belt cinching around its barrel(?), though not covering its other legs(?) that had claw-like appendages on their ends. It was a very familiar look...
‘Is that... Maud?’
“Hello,” The creature spoke in that dull, emotionless tone that her friend always did. It then paused as if to think before asking, “Are you okay?”
Trixie didn’t realize how much of a cold sweat she was in until that question broke her out of her thoughts. As much as the being in front of her resembled someone she trusted, some uncertainty still resided in her and began to pry the possibility of trust away, as this creature could easily abuse that trust to its own ends, leaving the mare worse off than ever before.
“Are you the pony version of Trixie?” The faux Maud asked tactlessly, even if without maliciousness clear in her tone. “Sunset Shimmer said ponies were to transform into humans when they went through the portal.”
Being called out like that, the fearful unicorn couldn’t take it any more, quickly shrieking out and darting away towards the large, expansive building in front of the broken portal, leaving the supposed ‘human’ there in confusion.
Maud was certainly not the best at dealing with emotions--her infamous permanent poker face was not an act after all--preventing her from being very empathetic. As such, she was not surprised when she accidentally drove the small blue pony away, though she was able to know that she needed to apologize for it and possibly help her.
She kept this in mind as she unlocked the school with a key that one of her sisters, Pinkie, had for some inexplicable reason, before heading inside and going to the music room at the back of the building. There, she searched around the desks and large instruments strewn around the midday-window-lit room, pieces of confetti and fallen balloons sprinkled everywhere from the party her sister must have had there just before the end of the semester.
Not finding what she was looking for, Maud then moved over to the storage room connected to the music room, opening the door with a loud creaking sound and flicking on the lights to a slightly musty grey room filled with chairs, microphone stands, and other miscellaneous equipment. However, as soon as the door stopped creaking, a faint noise could be heard from within the room.
Heading inside with as much caution she could (which was to say, not much), the girl quickly saw her sister’s inordinately pink backpack laid haphazardly on a large, cabinet-laden teacher’s desk, half open with party-related implements of all sorts pouring out of it. Glad that she was able to find the item, she let the door close behind her as she walked over to it with her heavy boots making loud, resounding stomps that echoed around the room, faintly eclipsing the odd noise that grew louder and louder as she approached the desk.
Stopping right before the piece of furniture, Maud listened to the sound, soon identifying it as a quivering against the floor with almost inaudible breaths irregularly being taken as well. It reminded her of her incredibly timid sister, Marble, who could sometimes be heard making those same noises in her room as she hid from the guests Pinkie had sometimes brought to their house.
The teenager attempted to quiet her footfalls as she moved around the desk, stepping over some of the equipment and a star-clad blue backpack that was on the floor near it, eventually arriving at the back of the desk where she could peek under it and see the same small blue pony she had scared away before hiding there.
Head in its forelegs, the pony quietly shivered and mumbled, eventually peered up out of the dark cover to see the grey girl staring at her again. Loudly shrieking, the pony then jumped back, hitting its head on the back of the desk and crying out a pained ‘Ow!’ before using a foreleg to rub its head while returning her fearful gaze to the human.
“I apologize for startling you,” Maud said in her usual monotone voice. “I only wanted to make sure you were okay and did not need help.”
The pony paused for a moment, seeming to think as she looked at the human for some time, squinting slightly as though she was attempting to remember something. “M-Maud?” It eventually asked for confirmation, tone tinged with hope.
“That is correct,” The teenager replied while she recognized the pony’s voice as that of her own blue magician friend.
“O-oh...” It then began to calm down, its shaking dying down and breathing slowing to normal pace. “T-Trixie thought you might h-have wanted to hurt her...”
Maud paused to ponder that for a few seconds, then asked, “Why?”
“U-um,” Trixie mumbled, blushing a bit in embarrassment, seemingly from being seen afraid. She didn’t say anything more before glancing up to the human with eyes that pleaded quietly for reprieve, an expression adorable to even the most emotionless of people.
Maud would know, after all.
Trixie turned her gaze towards the grey girl’s hand as it moved from it place by its owner’s side to near the unicorn’s lovely frosty mane, her mien becoming somewhat wary.
A short pause before the human asked, “May I?”
The pony shook her head. “No. Trixie will not have her mane ruined by you.” Her voice picked up a bit as she continued, “Trixie brushes her mane one hundred times to attain this beauty and she shall not have some foolish alien dishevel it!”
That boastfulness, while common in the magician and her counterpart, was usually gone around friends, with the only exception being when she was worried or embarrassed about something. Given the furry nature of the creature before her, it was rather obvious how to handle this issue.
Maud quickly moved her hand onto the mare’s incredibly soft mane and stroked it from the apex of her head down to the peak of the forelock, repeating the process of petting the little blue pony.
Trixie shrieked at having her mane handled by such a creature, and tried to pull away, but the other hand from the human quickly came around her withers and stopped her. “S-stop it! Trixie shall n-not allow this!” The unicorn shouted with a blush on her face as she wriggled in the strong grey hands of the teenager, but was unable to break free while she kept getting petted.
How adorable this blue pony was was Maud could never truly explain; the embarrassed pouting expression on the mare’s face, the stuttering denial she shouted that she ‘would use her magic to vanquish the grey beast’, and the flailing of her forelegs as she tried to escape, it all told her why her sister’s friends so often were around other animals. Perhaps she herself could be around living creatures more often if it meant feeling this warm fuzziness inside her...
Eventually, the girl noticed the pony had stopped shouting and attempting to escape, instead folding her forelegs over her barrel and pouting while looking away. It did seem she took some comfort in this act after all, given how regular her breathing was--it was just that her character and attitude prevented her from showing it.
Maud continued to pet the magical pony she held in her hands, taking in the softness of her coat and silkiness of her mane while continuing to ponder the merits of life that she had so often stayed away from due to its unpredictability and messy nature.
However, it didn’t seem like all to long before a loud banging drew her attention away and stopping her petting, both girl and mare looking up towards the door of the storage room, the sound seeming to come from beyond it. Quick steps were heard approaching the door for a few seconds before it was thrown open, revealing a wide-eyed Trixie holding it open, looking around the room and shouting, “Where is Trixie’s bag?!”
The blue-skinned human quickly saw her friend and counterpart on the far side of the room, making her gasp in shock and bewilderment. “I-is that a... pony?”
The pony Trixie was shocked as well, though had remained silent in her wide-eyed state as she stared back at the other version of herself.
“Yes, I believe so,” Maud said, then looking down to her side to see the backpack she had stepped over earlier, using the had she had petting the unicorn before to grab it by a strap and pick it up. “This is your backpack.”
“Oh, thank you, Maud,” Trixie the human said offhandedly while glancing to the backpack, but her attention was immediately pulled back towards the pony, questions seeming to spew forth in her mind.
The unicorn squirmed slightly under the intensely fixed gaze of her counterpart, glancing around as she tried to see someway out of this scenario. She eventually was perturbed enough by the lingering silence to ask, “Um, what are you-”
“Magic...” The other Trixie cut her off quietly, slightly leaning forward in the threshold of the room.
The mare blinked, then squinted and asked in bewilderment, “‘Magic’?”
“You can do magic...” Trixie said, leaning even closer with an even more intensifying gaze.
“U-um, yes?” The pony Trixie replied, a bit unnerved by the staring.
“Actual magic...” The human grinned widely, “Trixie’s magic shows haven’t been the same since she discovered magic, but now...”
The unicorn wanted to back away from that intense look, but was still held by Maud. That didn’t seem to make much of a difference to the other Trixie when she quickly darted over and grabbed her, lifting her into the air and making her shriek out in fear.
“Hehe, and so cute, too...” The obsessed-looking human chuckled while feeling the soft coat of the mare with her hands. She then turned around and ran out of the room, calling out the skies, “WATCH OUT WORLD, HERE COMES THE GREAT AND MAGICAL TRRRRIXIEEEE!!”
Maud, however, was still left in the storage room with the two backpacks of her classmates, befuddled by what had just happened.
