Mirror Finale

For one terrible, heart-stopping moment, nothing happened.

Then reality twisted. There was a sickening crack and the world tore open, a painfully blinding lack of light filling the Portal. I covered my eyes and shrieked, feeling something unnatural burning into my retinas. All around, cries of pain and surprise rose up, and then the Portal itself shrieked, a noise like breaking metal echoing up to the sky...

And then, nothing. Nothing but a soft blue glow.

One by one, we uncovered our eyes and looked. The interior of the Portal glowed an opaque blue, softly swirling within the spiked metal confines. There was no sign of the Element of Magic. Princess stared at it, slack-jawed. From the look in her eyes, I guessed that this was exactly what she’d been hoping for.

Shimmer recovered first, picking up her phone and scrolling through it. “Alright,” she announced. “We have a connection. No way to tell what’s on the other side. It’s... shit.” She tapped a few times. “Alright. It's decaying quickly, but not too quickly. You have maybe ten minutes to say your goodbyes.”

Princess stepped forward like she was being pulled. From the desire on her face as she stared into the swirling blue, I half-thought that she was about to charge straight through it, but she hesitated on the brink and turned back. Spike rushed up to her ankles and stood there jumping from paw to paw, glancing at the Portal anxiously. “Everyone...” Princess began, biting her lip. "I want to say thank you. Even though I'm from another world, you've all been the best friends I could have ever asked for. You've all loved and supported me made me feel at home here. You're wonderful people... better than I deserve. And that's why..."

Amidst a few quiet awwws, Princess paused. Time fluttered and froze as I realized she was looking at me. "Ready, Twilight?" she asked.

I blinked. "For what?"

Princess smiled. Applejack tossed her her duffel bag and she stepped forward and put it in my arms. "To go."

Realization built in the pit of my stomach and then crackled through me. My eyes widened. "You want me to...!?"

"We talked it over," Princess went on, stepping to the side and looping her arm through Flash's. "Equestria needs a Twilight Sparkle. No one ever said it had to be me."

I stood still, gaping like a goldfish while she and her friends nodded. "It really works out for the best," she continued. "You'll be a Princess, Twilight. No more loneliness. No more demons from your past haunting you. You'll be one of the most important ponies in the whole world. And you'll be loved."

"But-" A thousand objections flared up in me, my brain still reeling. "But you wanted to go back more than anything."

"More than anything, I want the ponies I love to be safe," she answered back. "It won't be the same as being there myself. But as long as you're there to watch over them in my place... that can be enough."

"But I'm not you," I countered. "I still don't know anything about friendship, or... or magic! I can't possibly-"

"You activated the crown, Twilight," Flash spoke up. His voice choked up mine. "I didn't think you could do it. But you did. You're ready, whether you believe it or not. You can keep Equestria safe."

I stared at him gormlessly. Around him, people were nodding, smiling encouragingly. As a last refuge, I looked to my study gr- to my friends. They were huddled in a small circle, whispering in what sounded like confusion. Seeing my gaze, Colgate cleared her throat and stepped forward slightly. "We... we'll miss you if you go, Twilight," she said in a small voice. "It feels like we just got to know the real you, and... there's so much more we wanted to do together. But we know what this offer means to you. If you decide that you're truly unhappy with your current life, and you genuinely feel that you'd be better off somewhere else... We understand, and we'll support you."

"Better choose quickly," Shimmer added with a sneer. "Clock's ticking."

I felt a flash of anger, and a pang of guilt. Princess wouldn't leave her friends behind, surely. How worthy could I possibly be if I was willing to selfishly abandon mine?

Wait. I wasn't actually considering this, was I?

For the second time that night, everyone was staring at me expectantly. I took a deep breath and shrugged off their gazes, more easily this time, and thought. Was I truly unhappy with my life? Everything was just starting to change. My once restrictive schedule no longer had any hold on me. Sunset, the reason for it in the first place, was no longer any threat. I had friends who cared about me and would support me every step of the way. My brother was back in my life again...

...and dating Shimmer. Hm.

I weighed this on one side of the scale, then turned to the other. Leaving for a new world wouldn't be easy. I would have to relearn everything I knew. I would suffer from body dysmorphia for maybe my whole life. The responsibility of a world would fall upon my shoulders, a responsibility that I wasn't sure I was ready for.

But I would have friends. Princess Twilight's friends, sure, but mine as well, ready and waiting for my return. And a brother who'd never broken up with Cadance, who would be there for me every minute of the day. And a mother who loved me unconditionally, with no perverted misunderstandings hanging over us. And a mentor who could take me under her wing all over again. And no Sunset. And no Shimmer. And suddenly, it didn't feel like I had much of a choice at all.

Before I consciously realized, I was nodding. "Okay. I'll go."

Princess' face lit up. "But on the condition," I said, "that you protect my life the same way I'm protecting yours. Make my teachers proud. Give my mom a daughter she can love. Keep my brother safe. Feed Spike. And make room for my friends in your life. They all need you now."

"Agreed," she said, then let go of Flash and hugged me tight. "I'll miss you," she whispered to me. "Stay safe, Twilight."

The next minute was a blur - I was rapidly passed from person to person, each of whom hugged me, or patted my shoulder, or whispered something in my ear. Twinkleshine picked me up and spun me around, nearly knocking several people over. And finally I found myself in front of the Portal, the crackling and swirling blue light, with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Of course, it was possible that Shimmer was wrong, or lying, and the portal wouldn't work. Or I could die. Or a million tiny things could go wrong and I could land in a different world altogether. Or, again, die. How much did I really trust Shimmer? Was it too late to change my mind?

Spike broke away from Princess' ankle and nosed up to mine. "Don't forget me," he yelled over the increasing volume of the Portal, pawing at my leg. I shouldered the duffel bag and picked him up, cradling his familiar yet unfamiliar weight in my arms as I faced the blue glow down.

"Goodbye, Twilight!" someone yelled behind me. Others joined in. I glanced back, once, to see Princess and Flash holding hands and waving. I waved back as best I could, then took a hesitant step forward. Then another. I winced as I experimentally touched the electric blue swirl with my foot, expecting to feel cold stone on the other side - but nothing was there. I tried to put my foot down, only to hit nothing and-

fall.

As I tumbled forward into the Portal, everything faded away into screams and roars. Lightning crackled across me, through me. All I could see was blue. My body twisted and broke, and I screamed as I was spaghettified, curling and elongating through impossible dimensions down an unseen corridor. Something exploded behind my eyes as my head split apart, and then-

Then, something crunched underfoot. Then silence.

I was on all fours, breathing heavily, my eyes shut tightly. Spike was no longer in my arms, and the weight of the duffel bag had shifted to my back. I tried to stand, but my body didn't seem to want to move properly. My head felt heavy.

"I'm me again!" a voice yelled nearby, prompting me to finally open my eyes. I was in... a room? A room with purple walls and golden trim, with a pearly door at the far end. Next to me, some sort of squat, tubby lizardlike thing that didn't immediately register as Spike was flexing and kissing its own biceps. As I looked around, my hair fell over my head and neck in an unfamiliar way, making me shiver. Behind me was the remains of a fancy, decorative mirror that looked like it had been shattered from the inside. Glass littered the floor, crunching under my foot as I-

Under my hoof. My pony hoof.

My heart leaped into my throat. I whirled around, trying to stand up and almost falling over, realizing over and over that I was a quadruped now but instantly forgetting as my muscles rebelled. At long last I found myself face-to-face with what was left of the mirror, and even shattered as it was, it gave me a hint of what I looked like. I was short - it didn't feel as though my mass had changed, only been rearranged. My long arms and legs were gone, replaced with four stumpy legs capped with hooves. My clothes had vanished, replaced by a pelt of fluffy purple hairs that felt perfectly natural on my skin. My crest was printed on my flank, melding perfectly with the hairs there. I had a round belly and a long mane that fell over my eyes and a muzzle and a horn.

I was... I was adorable. If I'd been six years old, I would have shrieked in delight and tried to cuddle the thing that stood before me in the mirror. Now, I only stared in dumb shock.

My awe was broken by the sound of footsteps - hoofsteps? - coming closer. As I awkwardly shuffled around again, the door flew open and an armoured unicorn burst in, his horn glowing with light. "Who goes th-" he began, then sputtered to a halt and stopped dead in his tracks. "Princess Twilight!" he burst out, hurriedly bowing. "You're back!"

Something about that voice was familiar. Unmistakably familiar. And combined with the colour of his coat... "Flash?" I hazarded, the name coming out as a croak through an unfamiliar throat.

His head perked up. "You know my name?" he asked.

The fear and reverence in his eyes threw me for a loop. Part of my brain screamed to cover myself up in front of him, while another insisted that it was perfectly normal to be naked. "Yes," I said, growing more confident with each word. I thought back to what Princess had told me about the Mirror Portal. "Is... is my brother here?"

"Yes. I'll awaken him immediately." He started to move, then hesitated. "If... if that is your wish, Princess?"

"I'm not a princess," I told him. "I'm just Twilight." He looked at me in confusion and my heart melted. Inner six-year-old aside, this version of Flash actually was kind of cute. "And yes. He'll want to see me, and I've got a long story to tell." He started to take off, but my voice found me again. "And... I'd appreciate it if you could be there, too."

"M-me, Princess?"

"Yes, you." I smiled kindly. "Don't worry. I'll explain everything."

He nodded desperately and then shot out of the room like a firecracker. "Hey, I see what's going on here," Spike said smugly.

I blushed. "Sh-shut up," I said. Then I took one step and fell face-first into a pile of broken glass.

--- Three months later ---

I half-stood in a train car, leaning out the window and swishing my tail as I watched the countryside go by.

Despite all that had happened, my life was surprisingly calm now. The first few weeks had been a flurry of activity, of course - being whisked to tearful reunion after tearful reunion, telling a tastefully edited version of my story over and over again. Most ponies had been understanding of the decision Princess and I had made, and those who weren't generally admitted that they simply would never understand. Chief among these was Princess Celestia, who admitted to me in private that there must be something uniquely human about her decision to stay in my world. I had my suspicions, but said nothing.

I wasn't entirely clear on how Equestria had survived in Princess Twilight's absence. Princess Celestia had summed it up in a long speech about the "power of Harmony" and the "Magic of Friendship" and after a while it all began to blur together. I'd resolved to get to the bottom of it once I was caught up on elementary magic. In the meantime, it sufficed that friendship had found a way.

Swish, swish went my tail. The cabin door opened and I could hear hoofsteps clip-clopping toward me.

As for myself, no princess was I. I was Ambassador Twilight, representative of my people in a strange new world. The eventual plan was that I would shuttle around Equestria, giving talks about humanity and revealing the more positive aspects of our sciences and culture to help the ponies here with their own lives. I wouldn't be alone in that regard; the books and gadgets that Princess Twilight had sent with me would be an enormous help. I tried to imagine Equestria once we'd reverse-engineered the cell phone and laughed at the concept.

For now, however, I was seeing the sights, getting acclimatized to the world before choosing a new home. Ponyville, Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, Manehattan; all places that sounded familiar but were anything but. It was an unending holiday, a reward just for existing, one that I wasn't entirely sure I deserved. Presently I was being shuttled back to the Crystal Empire for another visit to my brother. From another world he may have been, but I did all I could to spend as much time as possible in his company.

The hootsteps came to a halt behind me, and I cooed eagerly as a tongue drew itself over my hindquarters. Flash Sentry had been named my honour guard for the duration of my travels, and it was an open secret that he was something more as well. I sighed happily as he mounted me, lifting my tail aside in preparation for his entrance.

It was funny, really. The sudden switch from a menstrual to an estrus cycle had really thrown me for a loop. By the second week of my arrival Flash and I were semi-officially dating, yet we'd done nothing more than cuddle and nuzzle noses, and progressing further hadn't even crossed my mind. Then my unseasonal heat had hit. By the end of the first day I'd blown him four times, and by the end of the second I'd spent so long being mounted that I was sore both inside and out. When Princess Cadance checked up on us on the third day and caught me sucking him dry, she took me aside and gave me a very awkward and informative talk about pony sexuality. After that she gave me some herbs to take the edge off and something called a 'scent-sponge' to keep nearby stallions from getting excited.

Neither of which I'd elected to use on this particular journey.

As usual, Flash liked to tease me before we got into the act, nuzzling at my mane and ears as he wrapped his forelegs around me. His girthy erection slapped against my stomach, sending an excited shiver through me. "I can smell you all the way across the train," he whispered to me, his lips tickling against my skin. "You turn me on so much."

"You do the same to me," I whispered back. I teetered on my hooves, leaning my head back to rub against his and grinding my rump into his pelvis. He groaned and flexed eagerly, then drew back and thrust deep, deep into me.

My cry of pleasure echoed across the countryside. Flash's breathing turned ragged, his eyes rolling back as he rutted me with an animalistic frenzy. I melted and struggled to remain standing, bracing against the windowsill. Yes, it felt weird, and kind of wrong, having sex with a pony like this. Nothing was the right shape or in the right place, nothing felt right. But in that moment, it didn't matter. My body was so incredibly turned on, I knew with instinctual certainty that a huge, thrusting horsecock was the only thing that would satisfy it.

Our tryst was brief; Flash came with a moan that had my heart skipping, pumping what felt like cups of semen deep inside me. I leaned back and perfected the moment by drawing him into a deep kiss, wrestling tongues with him. I didn't mind that I hadn't finished - not too much, anyway. I wasn't even certain that I could in this body. But we had hours of train ride left to go, and I knew from experience that this was just going to be the first pounding of many.

Nights were calmer in Equestria.

I lay in bed beside Flash, my hindquarters pleasantly sore but still twitching. We'd had two quickies before bed, but part of me wondered if I should wake Flash up for a third. Maybe I should have taken those herbs after all.

I rolled over and sighed. Maybe, when my heat ended and the hormones died down, I'd chastise myself for what a slut I was being. Maybe then the sickness would finally sink in, the disgusted realization of what I'd done, the hatred of my new body. Maybe I'd bypassed it entirely. Or maybe it was only a matter of time before I would be just like Princess. For the moment, all I felt was tired and horny.

Flash snored gently. Idly, I wondered if Princess and her Flash were sleeping in the same bed too.

That shut my nethers up for a bit.

Groaning, I rolled over and out of bed. The crystal palace was too large, its walls disquietingly sheer. I took a walk over to the balcony instead, looking out at the new world. After three months, I still couldn't confidently name the landmarks nearby, nor the cities I saw in the distance. I looked up, but even the stars had changed, the miasma in the sky entirely the wrong shade of dark blue.

Was this what Princess felt whenever she looked up at the sky?

Thoughts turned to my friends. To Shining. Did they miss me? Did they think of me? How many people had noticed the swap? Did it matter? Were Sunset and Shimmer up to their old tricks in my absence? I thought of Flash. Was he truly better off without me? Was the world a better place, now that I was no longer in it?

A noise startled me. "Thinking about home again?" the pony Flash asked, coming up beside me.

Of course he knew. He always knew. "Flash..." I said. I gulped. I'd asked it before, but the question still hung over me. "Do you think I made the right decision? Coming here in Princess Twilight's place?"

He chewed his lip, not immediately answering. I looked back to the malformed stars another time. "Equestria never needed Twilight," I said. "She thought she had some great destiny for me to fill. But she was never the key to anything. Just part of a whole that moved on without her. I'm nothing more than a science project here. She never mattered."

"She mattered," Flash said with unusual force. He quieted. "And you matter too. You're going to change the world, Twilight. It can just be hard to see sometimes."

I didn't argue. "I miss them," I said, surprising myself with the words. "I gave them all up, and it feels like it was for nothing."

"It wasn't for nothing. Princess Twilight is safe. Just by being here, you've brought happiness to so many ponies." He nuzzled me. "It was a lonely world without you in it. I can't imagine a future where you didn't arrive."

We looked out at the stars together. "If you could go back," he asked quietly, "would you?"

"Don't ask me that." I shook my head. "I can't go back. It's wrong to think about it."

"Okay." He paused. "Would you, though?"

I turned my gaze to the ground. To the world that loved me, purely and unconditionally. "I don't know," I said.

"Then let's focus on the present. What's past is past. You're going to do great things. You've brought peace to everyone who missed you." He raised my face toward his. "And I love you."

Despite myself, I smiled. "I love you too," I lied.

Together, we retired to bed. For another quickie, and to await the new day to come.