The Mirrors

It was a fine morning. The sun was warm and friendly, able to brighten even the dreariest beings alive. Its soothing rays spread for eternity across the rolling mountains, spanning great, flat green plains, and the massive, craggy chasms which scattered the light all about, casting ominous shadows in all directions, and all the way to the very edges of the great blue expanses of seas, and undyingly beyond. They also warmed the long-trodden dirt pathways of a quaint little town, as well as its cheerful inhabitants. Most of the town had risen to greet the sun, and carry about their daily lives like honey bees, moving about frantically, and all trying to accomplish something..

But there was one who did not.

A building that was located at the Western end of this town was silent. Dead silent. It was a library, so some may not be concerned. But it did contain a living being. Two, as a matter of fact. And as one small dragon rose from his slumber to meet the day, his roommate shuffled in her sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed restlessly, all the while unable to awaken. The small dragon glanced at her, and, upon seeing nothing alarming, left her to sleep on. He prepared himself, and left to wander about the town, and warm in the exceptionally bright sun.

But his roommate was deep in trouble’s agonizing grip.

In the mind of the restless one, a world of nothing aside from chrome existed around her. There were mailboxes, streetlamps, buildings, as well as other ponies, but all chrome. Even the sun itself, in all it's once-great blazing magnificence, was reflective, incapable of warming anything, but somehow still sending its light across the land of mirrors.

Or was it?

The shadows were casting against the location of the chrome sphere dominating the sky…

...Something else had taken the sun’s one purpose away from it.

The unicorn turned around, and looked into the expansive, gray sky. Her eyes grew so wide, it seemed impossible was no longer a word. She rested her panicked gaze upon a single object hovering, still in the air, threateningly close to the mirroring landscape. It appeared to be a giant meteorite. The gigantic, porous, igneous core of it was entirely static, while the flames sprouting from all sides of it were active, and violently licked at the sky, threatening to melt it.

The unicorn moved closer.

The gigantic meteor was the only thing aside from herself in this universe of lies and tattletales that was truthful about what it was. It showed its true colors, no matter how violent.

She admired that.

        But after a few moments, It began to break its static bonds and shake, and rumble, and tremble, until the final connection of its essence was broken.

And it began to shoot toward the ground.

Twilight blinked, and it made contact with the suddenly blindingly bright metallic ground. It was absorbed into the mirror world, like a gold ball falling into a pail of water. Its gigantic impact sent tidal shock waves across the landscape, which undulated impossibly in response. They towered overhead, threatening to engulf everything in their path, including the tiny purple unicorn. They swallowed buildings, mountains, canyons, valleys, and everything they made contact with. Everything was flying past the unicorn’s face. Past friends; gone. Immense knowledge; wiped out. Even the sky shook to its pure metal roots, threatening to collapse and crush the platinum world below. The unicorn was running about the small area she could, frantically, and darkly as her world was reduced to one thing. One infinite, eternal thing.

Herself.

All she would ever see was her own reflection until the day even she ended.

The shaking stopped. The world froze in its place, solidifying. It all seemed to end.

Everything. Absolute, painful, blissful silence.

And then it shattered.

And all of the whole world broke in a single movement. A fluid, quick moment, and the world had color. It regained itself.

But that fireball that ended everything came back into being.

It emerged from the ground itself, pushing the land like liquid metal.

And it smashed into Equestria’s pure green grass once more, engulfing everything and everyone in a massive fiery apocalypse. It sent rings of pure, moving heat across the once-living world. The rings of pain advanced with the speed of the meteor. They were unrelenting, eating the world to an incinerated oblivion. The unicorn braced.

And consciousness hit her like a brick wall.

She sat jolt upright in her bed, panting in terror. She glanced around frantically, and verified that she was, indeed, not a flaming, charred corpse. “Dreams are not meant to terrify the beholder,” she though, with a shaky sigh. “They are meant to dispose of unneeded thoughts kept in the subconscious.” She recognized the familiar dark blue, celestially designed sheets of her warm, soft bed, and the bright, burning, living sun climbing slowly through the sky. The world around her had color, and was not a lying wasteland. She breathed a heavy sign of pure relief. Terror was not a desirable sensation, especially in the early hours of the morning.

Or was it even morning? The unicorn was unsure. She rose from her bed, landing as gracefully as a panicked mare could, upon the strong wood floorboards. She moved slowly and drowsily to the nearby transparent wall, through which she looked upon the sky to tell the time of day.

After a moment of careful consideration and judging, the unicorn settled upon 9:36 a.m.

Yes. That would do.

She trotted from the window off through the only doorway existing in the room, and proceeded down the stable wooden staircase. She did live in a hallowed out tree, and trees were quite reliable, so the unicorn had no problem with the building being structurally sound. She advanced toward the small wicker basket in the corner of the large, wooden room that kept Spike, her assistant baby dragon. She noticed from a small distance that the purple and green being was not where he normally was. “Probably off to see what Rarity is doing,” she considered aloud, though no one else was near.

She moved away from the basket, and progressively approached the large rectangular exit to the tree. Opening the lightly decorated red doorway, she moved through it, her horn glowing as she entered the outdoors. A slam was heard behind her.

She exited the shadow of her tree home, the warm sun touched her, and she closed her violet eyes, reveling in its warmth. She continued through the dusty streets that connected Ponyville to itself. She might visit Rarity to see if that was where Spike went. Usually, he informed her of his destination before he exited the tree.

Normally, Twilight would have allowed her horn to glow and closed her eyes as the Boutique appeared before her, but she felt a desire to absorb as much of the wonderful sunlight as she could. She trotted through the calm, warm Ponyville streets, smiling at passerby. The outdoors sections of cafes and restaurants were crammed with sunbathing townsfolk, chatting, playing cards, and enjoying the warmth in general. She felt that this was one of those days. One of those happy, joyful days, where absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong.

And as she slowly came upon the location Rarity’s Boutique claimed, she felt it get a little warmer. And warmer. And warmer. The ground began to swelter. Something was off...

She looked at the boiling ground, and what she saw would change her fate, and the fate of everything that existed around her.

Everything had two shadows.