The Mirror
1875, Victorian London. The city was as dull and meek as always. There was fog in the air, carriages being pulled, and people walking about in the streets. This was the home of Alice Liddell, or more specifically, the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth.
Recently released from Rutledge Asylum, she has been cured of her madness. Yet, she still sees visions of her strange visits to the mad place of Wonderland. She’s been taking several sessions with her live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Bumby, but that has hardly helped her to forget. Bumby has been trying his best and succeeded in helping his other young patients abandon their terrible memories, but it doesn’t seem to be helping Alice at all.
All she did all day was staring at the wall in her room at the orphanage. Horrid visions of her past kept appearing and she couldn’t help but feel responsible for her family’s death. The fire, her sister locked in her room burning to death. She always remembered her days in the asylum and her visions: having a tea party with the Mad Hatter with all of his madness and insanity, offering Alice tea while pulling a lever revealing a giant buzz saw about the cut Alice in half.
“What’s become of my Wonderland?” Alice asked herself.
Fish flying in the sky, gears floating about; nothing Alice sees is normal. Suddenly, she found herself in Queensland. However, all the card soldiers were creating chaos and burning everything; and the Red Queen sat on her throne.
“Fire, I’m in hell!”
Total blackness came again, then came a spotlight. There was something moving towards the light: a doll in a wheelchair, being pushed by a centaur. When it hit the light, both were suddenly engulfed in flames. Alice saw herself as her young 8 year old self. She was staring at something, but too many people were in the way.
“What’s wrong with her?” said one of the people.
“She’s badly burned.”
“Someone call for help!”
And on and on she kept hearing their voices.
When she finally made it past through the crowd, she saw it. Her house was on fire, everything was set ablaze and all she saw was her family burning inside during the process.
“No, it’s my fault they’re dead! Why can’t I forget!” she screamed. Then suddenly, waves of water came floating down putting out the fire, more than she could carry. Soon, everything was underwater.
Trees and grassy hills replaced the endless water. The burning house was gone and a river came up.
“My Wonderland, it’s dead to me”, she said sadly. But then she noticed something different about all of this. It wasn’t mad or crazy like before, instead it was calm and peaceful. She then found herself floating on a lily pad boat along the river with a familiar face. It was the white rabbit. They were both drinking tea.
“What’s this? I’m sailing, with a friend. Hmm, things have changed”, she thought to herself as she lifted her tea cup and made cheers with the rabbit. She was relieved, now that there was no need for panic.
But her happy thoughts were soon changed when she noticed something strange. The white rabbit’s head began to tilt, his left eye was throbbing rapidly, and his jaw looked like it was hanging out of his skull.
“Rabbit, what’s wrong? Are you mad?” she asked, but the rabbit didn’t respond. His eye kept on throbbing some more. It just kept going and going. His lower jaw hung out, making a disturbing squishing noise. His eye now expanded to the size of an eight ball.
“Is something wrong?” she asked the rabbit. Suddenly, POP, his eye popped out of his socket and blew up leaving an empty hole in his face. His jaw came apart as well, blood flowing out like a waterfall. Finally he responded.
“Something….wrong?......” He said with a creepy echo voice. “Raaaaaaaaather……” before he could finish, BOOM. His head exploded and his body was like a fountain spurting blood from his neck. The blood fell on Alice, dying her dress crimson. Alice tried to block herself from the blood shower, but it was no good.
But then the color soon went from red to black. Instead of blood spewing out of the rabbits decapitated head, it was now spewing mysterious black ooze: Ruin. Alice looked around and saw that the river was soon filled with the stuff. The rabbit’s body fell and sank into the Ruin, and she found herself sinking into the black water as well.
Suddenly, a cluster of puppet arms lunged out of the river, all aimed at Alice.
“No. Pollution, Corruption, its killing me! Wonderland is destroyed! My mind is in ruins!” she shouted.
The doll hands grabbed ahold of Alice and started ripping her face off. Every hand got a chunk of Alice’s flesh and pulled it into the river, ripping and tearing more and more bits of her flesh off until her muscle and tissue were exposed. They started to drag her entire body under the black water, and all she could let out was a shriek.
...
Alice snapped out of her daze and found herself where she always was: sitting in her room, staring at a wall. She was just gazing at the dank wallpaper, trying to forget the images she just witnessed. She sat there all day, her head waving side to side and back and forth.
She turned her head to the left and saw her reflection in the mirror in her room. She just looked the same as ever. Her usual pale apron, worn with age, wrapped over a black skirt and striped shirt.. It was the only attire that Alice owned at the moment, provided by her. caretaker, Nurse Witless.
“What has become of me?” she muttered quietly as she rubbed her eyes, blackened by a lack of sleep. Constant hallucinations of her former paradise left her more decrepit than ever.
“My head is exploding and there’s a spike in my chest.” She rubbed her temples, but her skull still threatened to burst.
How am I supposed to forget at this rate?
She looked out her window and saw all the normal activities that were going on in the city. People were purchasing goods at the markets, cats were running about, children were playing in the streets, pimps were hanging around the whorehouses; hobos were lying on the edge of the streets drunk, carriages were moving everywhere, all normal stuff. The clouds today made London gloomier than ever and the decaying, rusting buildings did nothing to lighten the atmosphere.
Perhaps, a nice stroll will help clear the mind.
She got up and walked out of her room, strolled down the hall, ran into some children she knew from the orphanage, walked down the stairs, and out the front door. She walked out of the gate and down the street. Everywhere she looked, everyone was their same horrible, miserable selves. Every day it seems that the cruel world is out just to makes things worse. Alice wandered for hours, but her visions still plagued her mind.
Eventually, she saw something that helped clear her mind, something she’d never see before.
On the corner of the street, was the old antique shop, owned by Mr. Hughes. Mr. Hughes was a very pleasant business man who looked like any other shop owner: top hat, coat, beard, very sociable. Alice knew that the antique shop has been there for years, but that wasn’t the thing she had never seen before. There were some men unloading something covered in a tarp from a carriage and bringing into the pawn shop. Nothing better to do, she decided to take a closer look.
“Careful with that you barmbots, do you know how many pounds that artifact has cost me?” he shouted at his movers. He then turned his head to see Alice standing there and gasped in surprise. “Ah, Alice Liddell. What’s brings you to this part of town?” Mr. Hughes asked cheerfully.
“Just a short stroll through the streets” she answered, she started to look at the mysterious covered object once more.
“What’s under that tarp?” she asked the owner.
The owner grinned mischievously. “Oh, it’s something very special. Would you like to see for yourself?”
“Delighted to.”
But before Mr. Hughes could walk Alice in, a stone hit the hop door. They were both startled and noticed that the door now had a dent. Immediately afterwards, laughter rang the air, snobby and boyish. They both turned around and saw who through it.
It was a group of familiar boys. They would always harass the owner and throw stones at his shop because they thought it was old, useless, and pathetic. The little delinquents loved to cause trouble and their ringleader, a tall red head boy with freckles named William, loved troublemaking the most.
“Ha ha! Nice shot! Hey, old man, still selling your ma’s cobblers for a pound each? What a berk!” William shouted rudely.
“Get the hell away from my shop you little buggers!” Mr. Hughes shouted back, shaking his fist as he limped his way menacingly over to them.
The little red-headed boy spotted Alice standing next to the owner sneered. “What are you doing around a mad woman? Hey, Alice, did you have fun in your Wonderland?” the boy teased, and the rest of the boys laughed with him.
“Get out of here! Or so help me I’ll blow your poxy head off!” the shop owner defended, now dangerously close to their throats.
“Don’t think we won’t come back!” shouted William as he ran off with his gang and disappeared into the city crowds.
Sighing tiredly, the owner turned to Alice.
“Never mind them, Alice, they’re just ruffians. Nobody important, they can’t hurt you.” However, Mr. Hughes didn’t know that the red headed boys could hurt Alice, maybe not her, but damage something that’s dear to her.
“I’m quite alright. It’s not the first time I’ve been called a mad woman.” replied Alice.
“Follow me inside” Hughes told Alice, and they went into the antique shop. The walked until they reached the very end of the store, where the object with the tarp was. The owner walked up next to it, getting ready to yank the tarp off.
“You ready to see?” asked Mr. Hughes. Alice gave him a nod and the tarp came flying off. Alice was a little baffled at what she saw. It appeared to be a simple mirror. It was tall, wide, purple, and the frame was in the shape of a horseshoe.
“A mirror?” asked Alice with confusion.
“Not just any mirror.” The owner chuckled at her confusion. “A magical mirror”.
“I beg your pardon?”
“This isn’t just an ordinary mirror. According from an old hermit, from whom I ordered this mirror from, this mirror, is also a portal to another world. A world filled with, not humans, but equines” explained Mr. Hughes. Alice was by far confused.
“Equines?” she asked.
“Yes, stallions and mares that has the ability to talk, as well as fly and use magic. They even run their own kingdom.”
“Sounds absolutely mad.” commented Alice. She knew madness more than most, but even the owner’s tale sounded something out of a fairy tale.
“You never know. Sometimes even the mad can provide some adventure and mystery. You should know that better than anyone, Alice. Now then, I’m going to finish unloading. Why don’t you look around in here for a bit and see if there’s anything you’d like to purchase?” The owner then left to bring in more boxes from the carriage.
Alice looked at the mirror and stared at her reflection, laughing to herself at what she was just told.
“A land full of equines, how ridiculous” said Alice to herself. “Still, it doesn’t sound as mad as anything I’ve seen and conceived.”
She leaned in closer to see if this mirror was really magical as the owner said it was but all she saw was her dull self. Her irritated frown reflected on the mirror. She turned around to leave, but she noticed the mirror giving off a dull glow.
“What’s happening?” she whispered in anxiety as the mirror began to glow as bright as a star. She stepped back while shielding herself from the light with her hands. Slowly but surely, her eyes adjusted to the light and she moved in closer. Her curiosity was getting the better of her again.
She squinted to protect her eyes, But then, she got to close, and the she fell in the mirror.
The light faded and the mirror returned to solid form just in time for Mr. Hughes to return, his arms ladened with his wares.
“So did you see anything that caught your eye?” the owner called out, but he soon realized that Alice was gone, nowhere to be seen. “Alice?”
...
Alice felt like she was twirling and spinning through a vortex. She clutched her head as nausea settled in. She saw bright colors all around and kept on falling until Alice saw something. It resembled the mirror she just fell through. Maybe it lead to the way out?
She can feel something change when that happened. She was now surrounded by light.
...
Next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground, her entire body sore from the trip. She groaned as she reoriented her sight and everything became clear to her. She stood up and noticed that she was in a dark room. She turned around and saw the mirror, but noticed something else that changed. She suddenly had new yet familiar attire.
For one thing, her dress was now white and blue, decorated with bloodstains here and there. Her hair was suddenly longer and much cleaner, the dark circles around her eyes were gone and her ragged shoes were replaced with brown boots. It was the exact same clothes she wore when she visited Wonderland; she just hoped she hadn’t ended up there.
“Well, that was rather an unusual trip. I just hope I’m not where I think I’m at.” She turned around and noticed a door and opened it. When she opened the door, she couldn’t believe what she saw. It seemed to be the inside of a castle, but made entirely out of crystals, reflecting her visage at every angle. She wandered around, fascinated by the architecture and observing her surroundings. She continued to walk down the crystal halls, wondering where she ended up.
Alice continued to wander down the halls, wondering where she was this time. She was fascinated by all the crystal, yet frightened that she might be in a new additional part of Wonderland. She didn’t know.
“Amazing, are all of these structures made out of pure crystal?” she asked herself.
She turned her head to the left and saw that there was a small window. She walked towards it and the peeked her head outside. She looked all around and noticed that there were green hills for miles. She thought that, wherever she is, it was nothing like her home. It wasn’t gloom or dark, instead it was rather bright and cheery looking.
She then looked down and found the source of the noise. When she looked down, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She thought she was going mad again. She saw a wide variety of small homes made out of shiny crystal.
But the thing that really shocked her was the residents. They weren’t people, no. They were-
“Ponies?”
Everywhere she looked she saw that every living thing that trotted by were, in fact, equines. They were small, multicolored, and each one had a very bizarre tattoo on their flanks. However, there weren’t just regular ponies. There were some with horns and some with wings. She could see them fly by and the unicorns’ horn glow.
Alice was speechless.
“Equines, stallions and mares with the ability to fly and use magic, able to run their own kingdom?” started Alice “My mind couldn’t have created all this.”
She stepped backwards away from the window trying to soak in all of this new scenery that she discovered. She backed up against a wall and sat down. She rocked her head back and forth, believing all of this was just an illusion and that she was just having another bad vision. On her knees, she made her way back to the window. All those ponies and color, surely she was in another world completely.
This is too unreal. What’s to say I’m not in Wonderland again and this is just one of my rickety sanity’s machinations? I admit, it’s a lot cheerier than my last visit, but what caused all this? Has that mirror truly sent me to this crayon-box of a world?
Silently but quickly, she ran back to the mirror, only to find it do nothing but reflect her body. It did not glow like last time and the glass did not make way for her hand to phase through.
“Strange. It worked perfectly, if this truly is a portal in the first place.” She looked around the room; it was foolish to stay in one place for too long. “Might as well explore the place, and hopefully find an alternative route back home.”
She walked down the crystal halls and admired all of the shiny beauty. Everything that she saw seemed to sparkle. Eventually, she found a pair of stairs and when she reached the bottom, she found another door, this one an exit outside. There were ponies trotting flying, and even talking everywhere.
“Lovely day this is-”
“-I learned a new spell today-”
“-I’m tired-”
“-what else is new-”
Alice was a bit surprised to hear the ponies speak human speech, but not too much. She also noticed that most of the ponies there were even sparkling.
“Weird. The equines seem to be sparkling more than the crystals. What else is there?” she said to herself.
She then noticed herself and how out of place she was. She was still homo sapiens and a bipedal among equines would stick out like a madwoman among gentlemen. She hid in the darkness of the alleys so none of the ponies could see her. While she was hidden she poked her head out of the darkness to see more crystalline objects. There were crystal homes, streets, and the clear sky accentuates the shimmer everything had even more. She couldn’t help but chuckle at all the ponies trotting by.
Alice compared this place to her usual Wonderland. For one thing, the citizens here do look sane. Second, she thought this place was a bit unusual, but nowhere crazy like Wonderland. Everything seemed to be in order and the residents there did look rather normal for equines.
Compared to her own world, one thing she noticed that, instead of most of the citizens being dull and gloom, they’re rather colorful and happy. There were no drunks on the streets or smoke-spewing chimneys, but instead happy citizens and gleaming shops. Her mood lightened immensely at this seemingly utopian place.
She thought if she just stayed hidden in the shadows no one would spot her, so that’s what she did. When no one was looking, she ran out of the dark ally and hid behind another houses.
She poked her head around the side and spied on few of the passing residents. They didn’t seem to notice her.
When the coast was clear, she ran again to the next house. When she stopped behind her 8th house, she spotted something that was just a few yards from her. She didn’t know what to make of it. To her, in the middle of the kingdom, it looked like some kind of generator with spinning heart in the middle.
She hid and hopped between houses, trying not to get spotted. She was just so close to the heart.
“How peculiar” she said to herself.
When no one was around, she walked on over to the mysterious object. She got closer and closer, and she was very amazed. Alice had never seen anything like it before.
“A stone heart? I suppose the heart could be symbolic, but why the centerpiece of this place?” she asked herself, poking it to see what would happen.
As she was admiring the crystal, she noticed a glimmer out the corner of her eye. Turning up, she saw a sharp object attached to one of the pillars holding the generator up. The object in the crystal began to move a little, jittering and jerking itself from its prison until it was finally free. It popped out of the crystal and floated in mid-air.
It started to float towards Alice. And when it was just a few meters in front of her, Alice knew what that object was. It seemed to be kitchen knife with blood and vines engraved on it.
The Vorpal Blade is keen and swift, and always ready for service.
Startled, Alice turned around, expecting a large striped cat with a malicious grin behind her, but there was nothing. Catching herself, she took a few breaths and returned to the weapon hovering eerily, as if eager to be wielded.
Calm down, Alice. Even if this place is some part of my Wonderland, Chesire doesn’t seem like the type to frolic around in such innocence.
“How on earth did YOU get here?” Alice said to the blade.
Alice gripped the handle. She then started twirling the knife around, wondering how it found its way to her. How could the weapon of destruction be in such a place of purity?
Right before Alice was about to leave, she heard a loud shriek. She turned around and noticed that it came from one of the crystal ponies.
“A human!”
Pretty soon, all of the residents lost it and caused more chaos than the mad people at Rutledge Asylum.
“Look out, she’s got a knife!”
“She’s going to kill everypony!”
“Call the castle guard!”
“Where did she come from?”
“Run for your lives!”
Alice just realized that she was out in the open, and so her plan to keep on hiding fell apart. Alice felt so stupid that she didn’t realize where she was.
Honestly? NOW of all times, they notice the biped in a dress?
Pretty soon, all the crystal ponies ran away to get away from Alice. Alice didn’t blame them. If a strange creature came to her world with a big bloody knife, her kind would do the same.
“You there, halt!” A voice said.
Alice turned around and saw a white stallion with a blue mane in silver armor, along with some other ponies in armor. They meant to be intimidating but Alice raised an eyebrow, mildly amused by such cartoonish outfits.
“What are these? Knights in shining armor?”
“Well, actually that is my name” answered the head colt in the silver armor.
“Your actual name’s Shining Armor?” asked Alice, scoffing at the though.
“Correct, and I am head of the Crystal Empire guard” he informed Alice. But all Alice did was laugh.
“What? Why are you laughing?” he shouted.
“With names like that, and a kingdom called the Crystal Empire, perhaps I am back in Wonderland after all.” she mocked, but Shining Armor felt insulted.
“I have no idea what Wonderland is, but no one mocks the name of the Crystal Empire!” he yelled. Alice felt a little shocked by his change in voice.
“I’ve not come here looking for trouble.” Alice reasoned. The emotion in the stallion’s voice meant business and she did not want to be found on the end of one of their lances.
“Oh yeah, then why are you holding that knife, and why is there blood on your dress? I’ve heard about you humans. I never thought I’d live to see the day where I actually take one down.”
“Now who says you’re going to take me down?” she asked.
“I am. Face it, human, you’re outnumbered”
“I have a name, and it’s Alice”
“Well then face it, Alice, you’re outnumbered. You will not terrorize my citizens any longer.” he stated authoritatively.
“I’ve done nothing wrong. You people were just scared because they’ve never seen anything like me before.” Alice said, insulted by Shining’s insinuations. She gripped her knife harder, in case they tried to take her by force.
“How do I know you’re not a changeling in disguise?” he asked.
“What’s a changeling?”
“I’ve had enough of this. Guards, seize her!” he ordered.
One of the earth pony guards charged at Alice with a lance. Alice knew that she had to defend herself; she got out her blade and waited for the right moment. Right before the guard was about to hit her…Alice ran up and sliced at him, her lithe form barely missing the tip of the pony’s own weapon.
They both remained still, but then, a huge splatter of blood came gushing out of the guard’s neck. His body fell to the ground and his head rolled off. Shining was disgusted.
Off with your head
Alice turned around for the next attack. Before she could strike again, Shining Armor shot a magic beam at Alice, knocking her to the ground. Alice got up, but pretty soon, she was surrounded by spears.
“What are you, mad?” Shining asked her, worry and fear evident in his voice as he took closer look at the dead guard.
Alice casually wiped the knife clean with her dress before getting into a stance, smiling softly. “If I had a pence for every time I’ve been called that, I would have moved out of London years ago.”
Author's Note
I will upload the next chapter as soon as possible, there will be more Alice.
