The Mirrors

But they could do nothing.

They could only stand, paralyzed, upon the metallic earth, and watch as their sun was slowly destroyed.

The sky boomed in fury once more, and even Beyond began to look afraid.

“This is it…” his voice shook more than usual. “The sun’s final breath approaches. Run, Twilight Sparkle. Run. Run for your friends. Run for your life. Run for your world.”

“Run.”

And she did.

Nothing else could be done. Alone, she was helpless. With her friends, The Mirrors wouldn’t stand a chance. So she ran. She ran through the reflexive streets of Ponyville, stumbling over groundbirds, barreling through alleyways. A large building stopped her frantic charge.

Sugarcube Corner.

Pinkie Pie.

Twilight bolted around the shiny bakery, hooves slipping on the slick mirror roads, to the front door.

Locked.

Another rumbling, deafening blast shook Equestria to its foundations, this time accompanied by a burning red light, enveloping everything. The purple mare toppled over from the short, indirect earthquake.

Fighting the planet’s rocking, she stood with great difficulty, and struggled around the ground-joint bakery, searching for an alternate way inside.

Hope revealed itself in the form of an open window.

She leapt to it, barely clinging to the external edge of the slippery sill. With great determination, she defeated the obstacle and shot herself through the opening.

And the whole world went white as she made contact with the assumed ground.

A dream.

Falling.

Pinkie Pie.

Falling.

No. There was no time.

Her horn glowed. Magic burst.

The world turned to gelatin, and everything went white again.

Twilight had no time to shake her head. The ground did it for her, tossing her all about the room she landed in.

“Beyond! Grab Pinkie for me!” she shouted at nothing, hoping he would hear.

“…Wh-haaat? Where am I? Why is everything so BLUE! It’s so pretty!”

She barely heard the voice of the element as she bolted out the window she entered through.

“Don’t worry. I got her.”

Oh, so Beyond can speak through telepathy? Great.

Half way through Ponyville.

Applejack was next.

Twilight dodged the buildings, mailboxes, and statues of the once-living, charging toward Sweet Apple Acres.

But this impossible day was not yet prepared to yield its power.

And the sky, in its fight with The Bringer, lost.

The light that had dimly given hope to the dead landscape moments ago faded to nothing.

The sun had been defeated.

The Bringer had won.

“Twilight, where are you?” a voice echoed in her head.

She focused, magic building, until her horn illuminated a small area around her. She glanced around, pained and frantic, attempting to find something familiar in the dead, dark area around her.

“I’m over here! Where are you?!” the response eventually came.

Two moments later, a pair of glowing white circles appeared not that far from her. She breathed a quick sigh of relief.

They began to approach.

“Do you know where this is?” Twilight asked the circles. She had known her location moments ago, but with the death of the main light source of Equestria, everything seemed to have changed. Nothing had height anymore.

Everything seemed… flat.

The circles moved faster.

“…Beyond…? You there?” she asked, waiting for a response.

And a response came.

Twilight blinked, and found herself pinned to the ground by all four limbs. Her magic died, replaced by a struggle to break free from her deathly black captor. She attempted to kick at it, and felt contact be made with something. The creature jumped slightly, and applied crushing pressure to the mare.

She focused, and a beam of purple energy shot at the two circles that hovered over her. They disappeared, and a deafening scream of agony was heard.

The pressure on her was released.

In moments, she was gone. The circles reappeared, turned in apparent search of her, and vanished again.

Twilight had run panicked for a minute or so, fleeing from whatever unspeakable demon had latched onto her. She had no idea what it looked like, thanks to the sea of darkness that ate everything when that cursed meteor killed the sun. She slipped to a stop, gradually, panting.

A moment later, she realized how far she had run uninterrupted. Nothing had held itself in her path. No building. No tree. No lamp post. Nothing.

…Where did everything go?

“Chhhchngg…”

Twilight jerked her head upright, pupils massive due to the lack of light. She shivered from fear, and cold. It had been growing progressively further from warm since the sun’s death…

But she was far more focused on the screeching sound that had just been loudly produced from her left. She ducked, tucking herself as close to the flat, perfect mirror ground as she could, waiting to ambush whatever was coming.

Two little lights appeared nearby.

Twilight shot upright, and charged at them, horn fully charged to destroy.

Something white flashed before her. She took aim, shot a magic beam, and jumped at it.

And when she should have made contact, she passed straight through it.

“…Twilight? Lord, where have you been? …And what are you doing on the ground?” A familiar voice screeched.

“Beyond? I thought you were that monster out there!” Twilight recognized his voice, standing with pain at her failed tackle. She glanced at the ground, and noticed two small glowing elements of harmony laying at eye-width apart from each other. “Why are the elements of harmony out here?”

“Monster?” Beyond seemed oblivious to what was going on. “And I was making sure I still had them, and slipped. Not much is making sense today.” He ducked over, and lifted the elements. He then proceeded to disappear.

...Again.

“You’ve got to be KIDDI- oh.” Twilight rolled her eyes as Beyond reappeared, lacking the two gems.

“Well, I didn’t see any monst- OH LORD! BEHIND YOU!” Beyond’s eyes widened in terror, looking at something behind her.

Twilight spun around in fear, braced, horn glowing, ready to face the demon once more.

Instead, Beyond’s cracking laughter could be heard.

She spun around again, enraged. “HOW could you POSSIBLY make a JOKE like THAT right now?!” She demanded the ghost.

*CCCCCHRRRYING*

Beyond looked behind her again. His eyes were beginning to follow a very predictable pattern. Big, to small, to big, to small.

He blinked, turned tail, and ran.

“Twilight! RUN!”

She stopped dead. Slowly, she turned, and was met with the deathly, menacing, pure white eyes of her captor.

She blinked, turned, and followed Beyond’s lead.

The beast screamed. Twilight turned and shot a blob of light at the monster to see what exactly WAS trying to catch her. The bundle of illumination landed just in front of the creature, causing it to back away.

Twilight was still able to get a good idea of what was chasing them.

It appeared to be a hydra. But a very different hydra. It was made of mirrors, as was everything, and had five heads. While relatively small in size, it was incredibly fast. Even more disturbingly, it was literally fused with the metallic ground.

Twilight, still looking back at the beast, was completely unaware of the large structure before her. Especially when she slammed into it directly, knocking herself onto the chilling mirror ground.

“You done?” Beyond looked at her, pale eyes smiling despite the deadly darkness engulfing them.

She glanced over at him, glaring, and returned her attention to the giant structure that so rudely collided with her. All mirrors.

She shot another glowing blob to get a better idea of the shape of the structure. It floated up along the wall of the apparent building, casting tiny beams of light in all directions. Just as it seemed to reach the top of… whatever it was climbing, the sky exploded once again.

And light, in all its glory and hope, returned to the once dark and dead surface of Equestria.

The two looked up, hoping, with the reinforcement of the coming light, that The Bringer had gone, and the sun had returned.

But that great asteroid still held itself in the sky, replacing the sun. It hovered above them, allowing the light of the once-living sun to return to the world through it. And that same light cascaded down upon the unknown monstrosity before them. It shone pridefully in The Bringer's light.

A fortress.

A fortress of lies.

A tower of reflections.

A Castle of Mirrors.