The Mirrors

The  Boutique’s shadow cast itself over the determined purple unicorn. Rarity was within. Well, Rarity’s statue, waiting to be saved. No doubt, with the elements of harmony restored, and their representatives freed from their mysterious prisons of reflections and time, The Mirrors would stand no chance. The world would be free.

She unhesitatingly charged into the fabric shop, unintentionally slamming the shining front door against the now opaque windows to its left. She looked across the front room, scanning for anything shaped remotely like a pony. Her eyes shone when she noticed something unusually shaped tucked under a nearby table, topped with a silver sewing machine. She approached, head cocked in attempted recognition. Just as she was upon the assumed mirror-pony, something caught her hoof.

She fell upon the statue, and saw no more.

She looked around. A field of patchy green was on her left, a recognizable, humble town to her right, and a bridge of stone and metal, casting its shadow onto a smaller, running river held her up. She suddenly jerked her head up, against her will.

Falling.

Always falling.

Two creatures reached terminal velocity high in the sky. They approached the unicorn and those around her; her friends. The two falling neared enough to be recognized.

Rarity and Spike.

Falling.

The memory returned to her in all its vivid terror. Falling. Always falling.

No pegasi were in the sky. No Fluttershy. No Rainbow Dash. They two just fell. And fell. The evil ground rising to meet them. She saw their mouths, open in silent cries for help. She saw their eyes shut in fear. In acceptance.

No.

Not again.

Screams were heard. Magic shone. The falling, embracing their bloody demise, were greeted by an impact absorber. The ground itself had become squishy, yellow and porous.

“Sponge…?”

“The ground just turned to sponge!”

“How is that even possible?!”

Shocked voices jumped from their owners. They blended together as the world lost its color once more. They echoed as one voice, until they were overpowered by one sound.

Screaming.

“…aaaaaaah! Where am I? Where is this? Why is everything purple?! Well, I suppose it could be worse… Purple is a fashionable color…”

Twilight jumped to her hooves, barely aware of the voice. She focused her clearing vision on the location the statue apparently was, and saw a familiar sparkle. She maneuvered around to it, and levitated a small, purple, diamond-cut gem, containing a small ivory unicorn.

“Rarity!” the exclamation came with joy upon seeing another familiar, living being.

“OH MY CELESTIA!” The mini Rarity figurine collapsed to the ground, hooves over her ears. “Twilight? Is that you? PLEASE DO NOT SHOUT! YOU ARE DEAFENING!”

“…Oh… Sorry…” the purple mare apologized.

“Uuugh...” she moaned, standing with eyes squinted in echoing pain, “it’s quite alright, dear. Just, if I may ask one question, I’d like to know where I am, because everything looks larger than life, and tinted purple..”

“Well… you’re in your element…” Twilight began to attempt to explain with Fluttershy-level quietness.

“In my element?” Rarity questioned, half shaking her head, half looking around inside the gem. “Well, I don’t see any dresses or cloth nearby for me to work with, so what do you mean?”

“…It’s… complicated…” Twilight gave up, deciding this was a bit too difficult to explain at the moment. “I’m sending you to Rainbow Dash… ok?”

“Rainbow Dash? Certainly. Anything is better than one of those falling dreams again,” the little white unicorn shuddered in apparent displeasure.

“Falling dreams…?” Twilight’s eyes widened, pausing her recently-started spell.

“Oh yes,” the gem spoke, “I recall being in my shop, working on a line of clothing I came up with a few nights ago. I heard a large whooshing noise outside, and after that, everything went black. I must have been dreaming, because all I can remember is falling… and falling…”

Twilight muttered under her breath, “…That’s odd…”

Something seemed unusual about everything going on here, and it was not just because Equestria was a lying mirror wasteland.

“Alright… I’m going to send you back to the library with Rainbow Dash…”

“The library? You mean she’s not with you? You’re just sending the Elements of Harmony and us with them to the library? The undefended library?” The little clothier distressed.

“…Get the red bolt. I’ll carry them for you,” an electric voice jolted, behind her as always.

The unicorn turned to look at the ghost, standing lifelessly by the platinum entryway to the Boutique. At first, she would have rather had the mastermind behind Equestria’s mirroring take the elements than this demon-ghost. But he seemed less… arrogant. More down-to-earth. Friendlier, really.

For some reason, she trusted him.

A moment of magic sparked and a wooden, locked box appeared. Twilight, not waiting for a second meteor, flashed her horn, and the red bolt appeared to the left of her head, holding itself next to the purple diamond gem. The box proceeded to disappear.

A small pony inside the gem shook her rainbow head, squinting at the sudden bright light. “Aah… Ow! That’s really bright…” it squeaked. In reality, it was quite dark. The sun seemd to have gotten darker.

“Oh, come on now Rainbow Dash. You’ll be just fine. You have to adjust first,” the purple gem chipped in.

“Rarity? Is that you?” the little gem questioned. “I know, it’s just that after being in the dar- uuh, Twilight, what are you…” Rainbow trailed off as she approached Beyond, floating by magic, and accompanied by Rarity. “NO! NOT HIM! ANYTHING ELSE! I’D RATHER BE A STATUE AGAIN! PLEASE!” the red bolt shouted tinily, with hooves and face pressed against the apparent walls of the gem’s insides.

“He’ll keep you safe,” Twilight reassured.

“NO! HE’LL TORTURE US!” she cried as Beyond held out a hoof to catch them. Moments later, the two elements and their respective representatives were in the possession of the ghost.

“Hey… why didn’t they pass right through your hoof? Aren’t they physical objects?” Twilight looked at the ghost, who was smiling with playful evil at the terrified miniature pegasus.

“Oh,” he pretended to fumble the lightning bolt, catching it at the last second possible, making a tiny Dash squeak in fear, “the elements are embedded with spiritual force. That’s how you conquer everything you use them on. The spirits are strong, and since I'm dead, I can touch them,” he laughed as Rainbow trembled.

"Rainbow, what on earth are you going on about?" the white unicorn demanded to the petrified pegasus.

The purple element took a moment to look around, and rather nonchalantly asked, “Um… Twilight…how are we floating? You're not holding us up, right?”

If Beyond’s eyes could shine, they certainly just did. “Aaahahaha, time to meet another,” he scratched. “Come on, little Dash. I’ll take you too,” he smiled a taunting smile.

The two miniature ponies within their individual elements began to look drowsy as the ghost influenced them, until their consciousness slipped away from them, with Beyond vanishing.

Mere moments later, the ghost re-manifested. Twilight noticed a certain two gemstones missing.

“Wh… where did you put them?!” Twilight demanded, a sense of betrayal pulsing through her.

“Oh, quit panicking! I stored them in my subconscious. They can still talk to me, and they’re in the safest place they could possibly be,” the ghost scratched, to the relief of the purple mare.

“Your subconscious? How in Equestria did you manage to acces-”

She paused mid-sentence to notice the door swinging back and forth violently.

And suddenly, like an unanticipated bolt of lightning, a violent tremor shook the tattletale Boutique.

“W-what’s going on?” Twilight panicked, twisting her head about in an attempt to discern the source, or any difference in their surroundings for that matter.

“It’s an earthquake, Twilight,” Beyond spoke soothingly, standing completely still on the moving ground, impossibly. “It’ll pass. Just relax.”

Equestria shook on, but nothing reacted. The silvery mannequins shook with the world, as though the two were one. Dressers stood tall, unflinching, against the tremor. Buildings swayed rythmically to what should have obliterated them. And Twilight Sparkle held onto the sewing table for dear life as the quaking slowly ceased.

As the natural disaster ended, the world outside the now wide-open doorway exploded into light. It shone across the reflecting landscape, with rays of unbearable brightness bouncing across the land. Twilight shielded her eyes, waiting for the lights to dim, which they eventually did. Beyond just chuckled, unaffected.

Twilight, a panicked mess, rushed outside and looked up at the bright silver sky. She gasped at what she saw. A familiar, gigantic, murderous, mysterious flaming ball of death was hovering in the sky next to the dimming sun. It had returned.

It came back.

The meteor of reflections.

The asteroid of lies.

The Bringer of The Mirrors.