Balance

Halves and Opposites

Excited about her new cutie mark, Equinox decided to gallop home to show her mother instead of waiting 45 minutes for the bus. She knows that she should avoid the back streets and alleys, but she is too excited and takes a few 'shortcuts' on the way home. Little does she know that one of these faster routes is blocked by a gang that uses dark magic.

Turning the corner to the alley, Equinox crashes into dark magic spell circle. Due to a magical fluke, the spell is distorted as the casters are distracted by her sudden appearance. “ARRRGAAH!!” Equinox screams in intense pain before blacking out.

When she comes to, the dark spell-casters are nowhere to be seen, and she has a mind-splitting headache. She looks into the sky and sees that it is almost sundown. Galloping as fast as she can, Equinox tries to get home before the sun sets.

She takes off up the steps to her home, enters the house, and is immediately scolded by her mother. “Equinox, where were you?! You had me worried sick!”

“Sorry mom, I was out playing with my friends, but I did earn my cutie mark!”

“That's great! I bet you are excited about it.”

“Yeah, I am pretty excited. I got it when I settled an argument between two of my friends. They were fighting over who got to use a spell ball first, and I helped resolve the issue.”

“Well, how would you like to have a party this weekend to celebrate?”

“I would love that mom,” Equinox suddenly lets out a big yawn. “I'm tired, I think I am going to go to bed, and we can plan the party tomorrow.”

“Okay my little filly, you have a good night's rest and we can talk about the party tomorrow.”

Equinox climbs into bed about a minute before the sun sets, she immediately falls asleep. As the sun sets and the moon rises, a dark glow starts to emanate from Equinox. Her mane turns pure white, and her coat turns a deep black. The black half of her Cutie mark disappears, and the silver outline slowly fades away. She starts tossing and turning as she starts dreaming.

She is looking in a mirror, seeing her new black coated self as the reflection. The reflection's eyes are a striking electric blue, and they are glowing with a faint white aura. The reflection's cutie mark is the white half of her own. Suddenly, she gets sucked through the mirror. Looking back, she sees the exact inverse of her previous reflection, instead of a black coat and white mane, she has a white coat and black mane. She looks at the reflection's cutie mark, and sees the black half of her cutie mark. The white mare in the mirror opens her eyes slowly, revealing blood red irises and a faint black aura.

Equinox woke up with a start, then a sigh of relief as she realized that it was only a dream. Deciding that her throat is dry, Equinox makes her way to the bathroom with her cup for water.

“AHHH! This can't be happening!” she yells as she looks at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, only to see the black mare from her dream.

Her mother walks into the bathroom to see what has Equinox so upset, only to find a black mare in front of the mirror.

“Hello? What are you doing in my home?!”

“Mom?”

“What is going on here?!”

“I don't know, I was having a nightmare where I looked like this, then I woke up. I decided to get a glass of water and I seem to have changed”

“We need to get you to a doctor, this is not normal.”

“Mom, I think this can wait until morning, I feel fine, besides the surprise of not looking like myself.”

“Okay, but tomorrow after school we are going to see Dr. Health Point.”

Equinox goes back to bed, and has trouble falling asleep for some reason. When she finally gets back to sleep, it is almost sunrise. When sunrise comes, Equinox starts to glow bright white. When the glow finally fades, she awakens to find herself as the white mare in the dream.