The Mirrors

A set of images replayed themselves in the unicorn’s mind. A dream. An awful, unrealistic, impossible dream.

She looked up, and to her horror, recognized a familiarly apocalyptic celestial object shattering the high atmosphere. It was moving incredibly quickly. Such a soft and happy world was in no way capable of standing up to an attack such as this…

And from that point, everything got hotter.

She froze, her eyes locked, terrified, on the doomsday device as it approached its destination. All of Equestria froze with her. How could this have gone unnoticed? How could something so ridiculously noticeable not be foreseen? Why were the Princesses not standing against this monster? Confusion spread through the minds of Equestria like a raging contagion as the deathsphere approached.

And within moments, contact was made.

In that one, frozen, terrifying, still moment, the meteor collided with the once green, pleasant, sprawling fields that separated their quaint Ponyville and the massive, majestic Canterlot. And as time ticked on, in eighths of seconds at a moment, the unicorn thought she was dreaming.

Her dream.

Her apocalyptic, impossible, murderous dream was unfolding in the real world, right before her eyes.

No one screamed. No one ran. They all stood in their places and watched as the eighth-seconds ticked by, as slowly as they could. They watched as their world was obliterated. They watched as the great pillar of burning flame, trailing behind the apocalypse, rose high into the sky, incinerating everything it touched. They watched as their own fiery demise approached them. They watched as death itself came upon them.

And they embraced it.

But the unicorn, not waiting for death, leapt into the air. Her horn glowed, and, just seconds before fire engulfed the tiny town and everything around it, a purple sphere formed itself around her.

And everything went dark.

The sounds around her faded as time passed, agonizingly, by. She thought of why she didn’t save the town with her spell. She tortured herself, imagining all of those who had just died because of her selfishness. But she couldn’t think of such things. What she did was just reflex.

And what was done, is done.

It felt like days. Days, at most. The silence of everything was just as painful as her dreams. She felt trapped. Stuck in eternity, as though escaping her small protective sphere was impossible. The only source of light she had was her lightly glowing horn, barely keeping up the shield that saved her from the same, painful fate as her friends.

But she was alive. And she would not let this go unpunished.

Whatever foul being, whatever demonic creature, whatever crazed spirit had sent such burning destruction upon such a quiet, happy land would pay. It would pay for its cruelty. It would pay for almost completely destroying the Equestrian race. It would suffer the same fate it almost bestowed upon her.

And she was certain of that.

Exhaustion washed over her from the hot tears streaming down her face, and from casting the one, same spell for so long. She couldn’t hold onto it anymore.

“…What else do I have to lose?”

All lights went out. The barrier faded. And even as it did, a sphere remained, trapping her. An odd sphere. Not of magic, or stone. Not of light or, darkness, but of something else. Something indistinguishable. And it didn’t want her to escape it.

But she needed to see what had become of her world. She needed to know how whatever being had so brutally killed everyone was to meet its own end. Struggling with burning desire and using the last of her energy, she summoned a purple, glowing hammer.

And she knocked upon the shell.

It broke within three knocks. Shattered. The unicorn fell upon the once dirt pathway, practically unconscious, and raised her heavy head to see what had kept her, and what her world had become. She saw that a sphere of mirrors had formed around her, saving her from the world's end.

And everything else she saw didn't surprise her.

A land of lies. A world of tattletales. An Equestria of Mirrors.

The first thing that came to mind was “impossible”. She had dreamed this just the night before. Dreams never came true. Dreams were only stories made up by the mind.

What happened to Equestria was literally impossible.

And at that, the unicorn lost conscious upon the reflective road, retreating into her mind.

She looked around. She was in her library, still colored and alive. Still a tree. But something seemed… off.  The walls were… undulating. The skies, visible through the windows high up near the ceiling, were pure black. No peppering of twinkling white stars decorated them. No moon shone its knowledgeable, illuminating brightness.

And most unsettling of all, she wasn’t alone.

She had tried to keep from looking, but another pony was leaning upon an oaken bookshelf not far from her, apparently reading a bright red book. An earth pony. It noticed her, made clear when it raised it's head to her, but made no attempts to communicate, lowering it's head once more. It simply stayed where it was, unmoving. Twilight was unsure whether the pony was reading or not, since it lacked pupils. Its eyes were of an unsettling, piercing pure white. In fact, its entire body, tail, and mane, were all white. Almost... wispy. And slightly, disturbingly transparent.

Actually, it may have been staring at her.

“Oh, hello,” the ghost’s mouth moved, but its voice was unusual. Unnatural. It had a buzz to it, and sounded almost… electrified? Definitely a stallion, though.

“Um… hi…” The unicorn glanced around nervously. “Do you know where this is?”

“You don’t recognize your own library? What, did one of those mirror shards hit you in the head on your way in here?” he laughed, scratchily.

“Well, I know this is my library,” she said in irritation at the sarcastic comment, “but am I dreaming?”

“Of course you’re dreaming! Nothing in your world is colored anymore,” spoke the ghost without any sound of sympathy. Perhaps because he was a ghost…

“Well, thanks for the newsflash. Why am I here?” She replied hotly.

“You did kinda pass out, you know. But you are here for a reason. Before I go on, let me introduce myself,” the ghost threw the book, rather violently, onto the hard wood floor.

“Beyond,” his voice spiked to an impossible screech, with loudness unmatched, “Good to meet you.”

“Beyond? Well, I’m Twili-”

“Oh, I know who you are, trust me." the ghost cut her off, moving towards her with terrifying continuity. "You're the one who saved herself and left her friends; her town; her world; to DIE. Twilight Sparkle. The one who lived.” He echoed, smiling slyly.

Twilight couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t stand what this evil ghost was doing. She leapt. And in one swift movement, went to show this "Beyond" whose boss.

And when she should have made contact, she passed straight through his transparent skull.

He laughed a defeating laugh, looking down at her with judging eyes. More or less. “You of all ponies should  know that ghosts are only spirits. Nothing else. We don’t have any physical form.”

“Then, tell me,” Twilight angrily challenged, standing back up, “how you were just holding that book?”

“This is a dream, sweetheart." he placed unnecessary emphasis on the final word. "Nothing here is real except you. Well, I’m real, but you’re only just meeting me now. That and I'm a ghost,” Beyond replied with a point to his voice.

“And what do you mean by that?” Twilight demanded, backing away from the ghost.

“You can only see or hear me outside of your dreams if you’ve met me in your dreams,” the ghost revealed, “So, guess who’s gonna be seeing a whole lot of me from now on!” he smiled, knowing her pain.

This is the last thing Twilight needed. She didn’t need some arrogant see-through pony following her around in her doomed world. She had to try to save it, not take advice from some... some demon.

“So then, Beyond, what so important that you needed to bring me here?” Twilight was getting impatient.

“Why, meeting me, of course! Anyone alone for too long goes crazy, so I’m here to keep the hallucinations at bay, until you save your first,” he said, an irritating smile plastered to his face.

“So you dragged me into this dream world so you could torment me? Thanks *so** much*!” Twilight shot daggers at the ghost. “But what do you mean by ‘save your first’?”

“Aww, calm down. You’ll be returning to your broken little world soon enough,” he snickered, beginning to move around her in slow circles, his dead eyes stuck to her. “But, your broken little world isn’t completely dead. Yet. There’s still grass under that smooth mirroring surface, suffocating. There are still birds, waiting to sing again, trapped in those little bird statues that now litter the roads. You can still save everyone.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?!” Twilight raged.

“Oooh, I’m sure you’ll figure it out!” he laughed echoingly.

The library, with its comforting wooden walls and and untold amounts of knowledge began to fade, along with the disturbing figure of Beyond, and slowly, pure, unending whiteness replaced it, conquered only by the electric laughing of the ghost, echoing off unseen walls.

The unicorn raised her head, and found herself upon the same road she was on that happy, sunny, bright, warm morning, when she was trotting to her friend Rarity’s Boutique to find her assistant. Her lost assistant, who was likely now just a mirroring statue of himself.

She struggled to her hooves, and looked at everything around her, hopelessly. Everything was lying about itself. Everything appeared to be something else. Everything was just a massive mirror, and everything looked just like her.

Everything looked like Twilight Sparkle.

She glumly walked over to a nearby once-occupied house, and looked deeply into one of its walls. She saw herself. But she saw a monster. An abandoning friend. And uncaring townsmember.

And in her own reflection, she saw one other thing, standing behind her ominously and staring at her with deadly, white eyes.

“Forgetting someone?” it asked, smiling with success.

The unicorn hung her head. “So, how am I supposed to save everyone?” she asked, hopeless.

“What would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash do…” he asked aloud before disappearing into nothingness, abruptly.

Rainbow Dash? Why would Rainbow Dash matter anymore? She was probably just a statue of herself. A mirror replica of the once-living element of loyalty…

But what the ghost had said before only connected with her now.

Rainbow Dash was still alive, waiting inside of her mirror statue. Waiting for a rescuer.

She closed her eyes in concentration, horn flashing, and appeared upon a large, now metallic cloud resting upon the fake ground of Equestria. It must have fallen from the atmosphere when the mirrors initially spread. “Mirrors can’t float…” she confirmed to herself. Though, oddly enough, the cloud wasn’t broken at all. Both the metal cloud and the shining ground were completely unscratched. Not a shard of the reflective surface had shattered. She raised her head to the sky and saw a sea of reflections, void of clouds.

But the sun was still itself.

Well, more or less itself. It shone dimly, but livingly, through the dark sky, casting tiny beams of light and hope across the mirrored world. But something about it was... off. The sun wasn't shining as much as it could have been. But it was still alive in this world of fakeness. The unicorn was thanking Celestia for as much.

Charging into the open metal cloud-home, she tore through room after room after vacant room, looking for the hiding statue of her pegasus friend. After five rooms of nothing but shiny furniture and disappointment, she came upon what appeared to be Dash’s bedroom. Immediately, a petrified, reflective version of the pegasus pony was recognizable, looking out a nearby window. She was likely watching as the fireball collided with Equestria earlier that day…

“Well,” she started, “Now I found her. What do I do..?”

“Hmm. My best friend's stuck in a mirror statue that looks just like she used to. I should probably just walk away, and not go up to it and touch it, or anything like that,” an electric voice behind her screeched sarcastically.

She spun around to confront the ghost, but found only her reflection, staring at her through the distorting, lying wall. She turned around once more, sadly, and looked at the statue of the pegasus. After a few moments of thought, she raised a cautious lavender hoof. She closed her eyes in preparation, and thrust it upon the statue. And suddenly, everything went white.

And silence reigned once more.