Chapter 1: A Dark Reflection
Chapter 1: A Dark Reflection
Perhaps I once had desires. Right now though, I simply want to know my name. I just want to know something.
I look back at my blank flank. It tells me nothing.
A sigh escapes my lips. It echoes the room.
I look up, taking note of how the area approximately right around me is illuminated, permeating light into the inky, black darkness that seemingly stretches endlessly outward. I look around, seeing naught but the darkness and a large mirror. I close my eyes and listen, hearing naught but my own breathing.
I feel alone.
I open my eyes and walk up to the mirror. I gaze into its cracked, muddled surface.
The reflection is wrong.
I look down at my pink coat and back up at grayish blue coat that adorns the mare in the mirror. She is wearing a purple suit. Her green hair seems almost alive.
I frown at the mirror. The reflection smiles at me.
The mirror’s surface ripples for a moment. I back up, and the mirror seems to stretch like rubber.
It stretches outward for a few seconds before shattering.
I instinctively close my eyes and shield them with a foreleg. My ears are ringing from the sound of glass shattering. For some reason, no shards hit me.
Once it is over, I put my hoof down and open my eyes.
I am no longer alone.
The mare in the reflection is standing right in front of me with her green, prehensile hair waving chaotically in the air. Her red and green eyes stare intently into mine.
She lets out a laugh that echoes the room.
I back up. It is not from the volume but rather the way she laughed.
“Going somewhere?” she asks.
I stop moving. Her voice is like mine, but everything else about her is different.
“Stranger,” I say. “May I ask as to who you are?”
She glares at me. “You can call me Mane-iac. I’d prefer it if your speech didn’t make me want to rip my mane out though.”
She lets out a gasp and brings a part of her mane to her face, gently caressing the hair with a forehoof. “Oh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. You can forgive me, can’t you?”
Her tone shifts as she turns back to me. “Look at what you made me do. I would strangle you to death if I had a choice.”
I bite my lip and try not to look afraid. I decide to humor her strange name.
“Mane-iac, you claimed that you have no choice. What do you mean by that?”
She rolls her eyes and mutters to herself before looking back at me. “I guess I should fill you in on the details.”
She clears her throat. “We are in your mind. For whatever reason, you seem to have some amnesia.”
“But—” I start to say.
“Don’t interrupt. I know what you are probably thinking. I am a part of you after all.”
“As I was saying,” she continues, “we are in your mind because you just got electrocuted in a vat of chemicals.”
I look at her blankly.
She sighs and walks close to me. “Perhaps I should just show you.”
I try to back up, and one of my back legs touches the darkness. Tendrils of dark energy grab at it.
I pull my leg back into the light, and the darkness retreats away from it.
Biting my lip, I turn to look back at the stranger. Before I can react, she taps me on the forehead with a green tentacle of hair.
Images—extremely vivid images of memories, feelings, and thoughts—assault me.
I feel the warm splatter of blood on my face as the sound of her cries fill the air. I feel gnawing pain as I mourn for her. I feel a twinge of pain and then nothing as I leave her.
Silence pervades the room, only to be broken by the sounds of somepony running.
The familiar scent of copper lingers in the air.
I see a happy pink filly smiling.
I remember.
Ever so slowly I return to the dark room, as I see one last image. I see myself falling into a green vat. I see myself afraid for once.
“So, how was the trip down memory lane?”
I am looking down at the floor, but I can see her smile. My expression hardens.
“It was rather lacking in execution,” I say. “Now, supposing we are actually in my mind, I demand that you take your leave.”
She laughs again. “I do apologize, but I can’t just leave so easily. I already said that I am a part of you. It isn’t as easy as lying or walking away to rid somepony of a part of themself. You would know. After all, we have had experience with that, correct?”
I look up into her insane eyes, ignoring her question. “What must occur for you to leave me?”
“I suppose I could leave if we play a game.” Mane-iac’s smile grows impossibly wide. “If you get through five trials, then I can leave. Just keep in mind that after the last trial you will likely not walk out of here.”
For a moment, I ponder and then bite my tongue. The pain feels very real.
“You would kill yourself before waking up from pain,” she says.
I ignore her and look around the place for a moment. Upon further observation, it appears almost dream-like, yet it feels too real to be a dream.
The mirror shards aren’t anywhere. In fact, the mirror itself has vanished.
There isn’t even a source to the light.
Everything just feels wrong. Nothing makes any sense.
I bring a forehoof close to my face to examine it. It looks more real than anything else.
I look back at the stranger…
No, she doesn’t feel like a stranger.
Mane-iac suddenly seems familiar, and it isn’t just her voice. I know I haven’t seen her before though.
“I suppose you won’t just let me go?”
She chuckles for a moment. “What fun would that be?”
I sigh. I suppose I can learn more if I play along. I don't exactly have much of a choice.
“Very well. I accept.”
