“Pinkie, what happened?”
Pinkie looked up to her friend, Twilight. Streaks of tears matted her pink fur as her large soulful blue eyes met the magenta ones of the purple unicorn.
“I couldn’t leave her. I had to bring her here. She was in so much pain.” Pinkie’s head lowered as more of her sobs wracked her body.
Twilight turned her head from the now straight haired pink mare to the small form laying on the bed nearby of the small but cozy room.
“So, what do you plan to do?” Twilight asked as she noted the breathing had become shallow over the course of time since she had arrived.
“I... I don’t know Twi.” Pinkie sniffled.
A light began to glow in the room, emanating from Twilight’s horn. The door to the closet slowly closed until the latch clicked into place. The large mirror that had been hanging on the inside of said door was now normal, just reflecting what was before it. Twilight wanted to take a moment to think things through.
Walking over, Twilight began to take mental notes on the strange female creature before her on Pinkies bed.
Bipedal, hair, but no fur, female, child. She leaned down spotting something dark in several places upon the body.
“Pinkie, what are these marks?”
“Bruises.”
“Bruises, did she hurt herself?”
Pinkie shook her head. She stood on shaky hooves, her legs not wanting to work. She felt exhausted, she knew she could do things other ponies could not, never questioned it, just accepted it, as others eventually did. But this, this was something different, bringing a being from a different world here into her own. Her body had reached a limit she did not realize she held before.
She stepped over to the bed and sat next to Twilight, her shoulders sagging as if bearing a great weight which threatened to crush her.
“These bruises on her are mostly from her father. There are more, and worse, but they are covered by her clothes.”
Twilight reeled back a little at the information. She turned back to the small child, one whom had been harmed by her own father. Twilight could not help but to close her eyes, and cover her muzzle with a hoof. She had to take a moment to recover from this. It sounded so far fetched, she did not want to believe it.
This started a few weeks ago, Pinkie had started telling Twilight that the mirror in her closet, how it had started glowing and then started showing this other world of beings that walked on two legs and wore clothes all the time. She thought she was just being Pinkie at first, but she was so adamant.
She had even dragged Twilight to Sugarcube corner and up to her room to show her the mirror. When inspecting it, it did not seem out of the ordinary. Pinkie had expressed that it did not show the other world all the time. Twilight had brushed it off.
Then when she began to tell Twilight more stories of things from this other world, it began to turn a little darker. Pinkie started appearing far less energetic, and would appear between days of absence fatigued and heavy bags under her eyes.
Tonight Twilight had been planning on getting the other girls together to help her with an intervention. Coincidentally just as Twilight was about to leave the library, the desperate pounding at the door had caught her off guard. More so, the cries on the other side, that emerged from the all too familiar voice of Pinkie Pie.
She had opened the door to find the pink pony wailing, near waterfalls of tears pouring from her. She had began trying to explain something, but Twilight could not understand her completely. She brought her friend inside out of the cold and tried to calm her. She calmed only enough to apologize, and then say that she did not mean to do it, it just happened.
‘There I was watching the mirror as I had been, her day started as it always did. She got up, fixed her brother and sister food, then her dad some food. Her mom was asleep from drinking too much hard cider again.
Then she went to school, and she had to go to the bathroom, suddenly, there were several other children there and they... T-they...’
At this point, Pinkie had paled, something Twilight would have thought an impossibility, except she saw it with her own eyes. Pinkie had ran upstairs to the bathroom.
Afterwards, Twilight had told Pinkie to take her to the mirror and show her what was going on. When she opened the door, that was when it hit her. The mirror was glowing, showing a dark sky, empty streets, and strange buildings. There upon Pinkies bed, had been the little girl, Twilight had been told so much about.
‘After I saw what had been happening, I am not sure what happened. I just woke up to seeing it night, it had been pouring rain, and she was walking down the street all alone, there was so much blood, and she looked so far away...
‘I stood against the mirror and screamed out to her, and suddenly I started falling through the mirror, and then part of me was there, all I know is she was right in front of me, turning her head and looking at me. Her eyes were so empty, I wrapped my arms around her to hug her and let her know everything was going to be okay, and then we were both here on my floor.
‘I didn’t know what else to do, so I came to you.’
That was a little over an hour ago. The mirror had stopped showing the other world, and then the glow faded until it seemed to just be a normal mirror once again. The clothes, or what was left of them was nothing more than a filthy shirt too large for such a small child. Twilight had used a small heat spell to dry the child so she would not catch a cold. Pinkie had explained that these humans normally wore clothes over their chest, and lower bodies, their legs, as well. This girl, whom usually did, had only the shirt, the bottom hem was covered in both dirt, and red spots from blood.
Twilight let out a sigh, for the first time she did not know what to do.
“Maybe I could send a letter to Princess Celestia about this. Pinkie, I know you want to help her, but I just don’t know what to do. I mean, what is going to happen when she wakes up and finds herself in a place strange and alien to her?”
Twilight stared at the bed, waiting for a response, when her mind suddenly registered there was silence, she looked over to see Pinkie sitting next to her. Her head lowered, her hair still flat and hanging over one side of her face, her other uncovered side showed her eye closed. Her chest moving slowly as she slept.
Twilight could not help but to feel a small pain in her chest at her friend, once more her horn glowed, though this time her magic lifted a small blanket from a corner and levitated it into the air before moving across the expanse of empty space and lower itself, to wrap itself gently and carefully around the pink earth pony.
Twilight did not want to leave, especially with her friend so exhausted, and this new creature alone together. Pinkie had expressed how nonthreatening the human child was, and so, biting her lower lip, Twilight made a quick decision.
Moments later Twilight vanished from the room to reappear in the library. She looked through all the many different shelves of books that were present and began picking up several with her magic to figure out which was best for the situation she found herself in.
The moment the purple unicorn vanished in her teleportation spell, a soft white glow began to appear from under the closet door, a distant male voice calling out softly. The handle of the closet door turned until it clicked opened. The door remained open mere inches as the voice and glowing continued from the closet.
The little girl that had been laying on the bed asleep raised up, her eyes half lidded, still holding an emptiness within them. Slowly she stood, her feet touching the wood floor of Pinkies room. She stepped around the sleeping pink mare, the bottom of her shirt just barely brushing the blanket that now rested over the pony.
The girl approached the closet, her small frame pausing momentarily as it swayed there. Her arms and legs very thin from malnutrition, her own hair a bright red, hung limply around her head, shoulders and back, in a similar fashion to Pinkie’s.
The voice emanating from the mirror seemed to intensify as it called out. The hesitation now being overpowered, the girl began to quietly shuffle forward once more. Her arm raising, hand reaching the closest door handle.
Just as the girl grasped the handle, there was a flash of light and a fizzling sound ending in a pop as Twilight reappeared in the room, a box over loaded with books at her side.
Upon seeing the empty bed and hearing the creaking of the closet door, Twilight turned just in time to see the glow from the mirror changing, almost twisting into a dark scene of flames and shadow in the distance.
“No! Pinkie, wake up, something is happening.”
With a snort, Pinkie jerked her head up to see the empty bed and turn to see a clawed hand reaching out from within the mirror trying to grasp the little girl.
Both mares screamed in unison and shot forward, Twilight’s horn lighting up, the air around her crackling with energy as a purple string of power struck the hand, while a pink blur shot under the light and tackled the girl.
A strange screaming bellow emerged from the mirror, followed quickly by more voices rising in pitch as if in pain and suffering.
Another flash of magic and Twilight hit the mirror, forcing the image to waver. A scream of rage, echoed with higher pitches of screams of pain and suffering erupted from deeper within the mirror.
Sweat broke out from Twilight’s brow as she had to now fight hard to try and close whatever portal had opened within the mirror.
“I want what is mine!” Came a deep booming voice, its voice distorted strangely, leaving a feeling of fear, curbed with a silent promise of intense pain and suffering.
Pinkie glanced over and saw Twilight slowly losing the battle against the mirror and whatever world had now opened within its rectangular frame of wood.
“Twilight!” Pinkie rushed to her friend, the very moment her hoof was placed on her shoulder, the pain Twilight had begun to endure became something fixed and shared between the two. Pinkie cried out in horror at the images within her minds eye, the squirming masses of bodies enduring such pain and suffering being placed upon them by this being and so many others.
Looking around, Pinkie found that she and Twilight were no longer in her room but now in someplace that only made her think, Tartarus.
As she looked to Twilight, the unicorns horn glowing, the beam vanishing off a short distance away, small creatures flitted around laughing, striking at her with claws, and a myriad of different things of pain, many drenched in blood.
“NO!” Pinkie cried out as she moved to her friend, she swatted at the creatures only receiving wicked laughter and strikes of pain herself.
As Pinkie tried to protect Twilight she realized there was a strange sound.
The being within the mirror came into view, his features now registering as familiar, yet in this hellish place seemingly distorted. A long crack in the mirror appeared splitting the frame in two. The being cried out in pain, before more cracks began to appear moving from the main fracture of the glass.
Everything around the two ponies began to change as if melting away, and Pinkie saw they were back in her room.
The difference now was that the room seemed quit crowded.
Five similar looking little girls stood about the two ponies in a semi circle, as if protecting them. Something within their chest glowed and the same glow surrounded the mirror, the image slowly being destroyed from the outside in, the crack still present.
Twilight collapsed in Pinkies hooves, her eyes fluttering open. Her horn had now long since stopped glowing, and shooting off the beam into the mirror, the tip of it smoking lightly as if burnt.
“What...” Twilight began before looking around.
Silence filled the air, the mirror, cracked and blackened, the image and the being gone now.
The two ponies looked to the little girls, each one different and yet so similar they could easily be taken as sisters.
The one in the center seemed to collapse, it was her, the girl Pinkie had been watching so intently for so long. The other four girls slowly turned and looked at the one laying on the floor.
Slowly they surrounded her, each placing a hand on the body, and slowly the form began to vanish. The mirror glowed and a familiar scene of a dark sky, empty streets and strange and foreign buildings appeared. As Twilight and Pinkie watched, the little girl who had been collapsed onto the floor of Pinkie’s floor appeared, as before, within the other world. Her world, the world of humans, where fathers can harm their daughters, mothers can fall asleep from too much hard cider, and peers can corner one small frightened child and commit frightening and painful cruelty upon another without recompense. The other girls still there within Pinkie’s bedroom each seemed to slowly fade, all going towards the mirror, and yet at the same time seeming to separate from one another. The last of them seen becoming one within the little girl. Once complete, a small hand mirror appeared over her head whole, at first.
As the two ponies continued to watch, cracks began to appear in the mirror over her head, and for each one that appeared on the little hand mirror, a crack from Pinkie’s mirror vanished as if never really there. Once all the cracks seemed to transition from one mirror to the other, the hand mirror over the girls head faded fro m view, and as if momentarily frozen or paused in place everything started suddenly, the girl slowly progressing her walk home. A strange rounded box with two white lights at its front, looking almost like eyes, and another set of lights at the top of its flat head, one red, one blue came to a stop nearby.
The red and blue light lit up, washing the scene on the other side of the mirror in the red and blue.
A man with blue clothing stepped from the rounded box and began to talk, calling out to the little girl. The sound began to distort, the image of the mirror fading as the man made his way over to the little girl, the last thing Pinkie and Twilight heard were two words they recognized, and left a feeling of hope in their hearts as the image from the mirror was now gone completely.
“Doctor.... Hospital....”
“Do you think we helped, Twi?”
“I... I don’t know, Pinkie, I really don’t even know, or understand what just happened.”
“Do you still want to write a letter to Princess Celestia?”
“No, I think... I think whatever happened, may actually have resolved itself. But, I, just don’t know Pinkie. This is something... In comparison, your Pinkie sense makes so much more sense than what just happened. What do you think Pinkie?”
“I think we helped.” She said, with a small smile.
A light came through from the window as Celestia’s sun rose over the horizon in the distance.
Pinkie closed her eyes, nose raised into the air, as she began to sniff.
“Oh, the cakes are up and they’re baking. Oh, it smells so good. I could use something sweet to lighten the mood. What do you say Twilight?”
Twilight smiled, seeing the wide eyed eager look she suddenly realized she had missed in her friend as she bounced lightly off the floor.
“Yes, I would love something sweet Pinkie, perhaps some cinnamon buns.”
“Ooh, ooey, gooey, sticky bun fun.” Pinkie giggled, her mane returned to its curly mass, she turned and began to bounce out of the room, Twilight following close behind.
As the two mares made their way from the room and down the stairs to greet the Cakes and offer the first sales of the early morning, the mirror had been left briefly forgotten.
The door to the closet was wide open, the large mirror still there, its reflective surface seeming to ripple from the center. As the waves, like those seen in water, swiftly rolled from the center, the reflection of the room vanished in a thick darkness.
Two glowing white eyes appeared, and a deep whispering voice faintly faded in and out.
“Her child shall be mine.”
The image of the eyes and darkness seemed to slowly be replaced with that of the girl and her world moving quickly, as though fast forwarding. There were more obstacles, and repetitions of pain and suffering for the little girl, and yet to one who had watched, had she been able to see what transpired now, would notice the subtle differences.
The change of manner, speech, and actions of the little girl. Yet, there was also something else there, a fragile strength, could be detected as each painful event transpired.
The image of what was reflected in the mirror slowed as the girl was now older, and was side by side with a thin and lanky man. The two were in a hospital, the man had been taken to another room after fainting from watching the process of a child being brought forth into the world.
A dazed, look was on her face, yet she smiled down to the small form in her arms.
The baby, born, one month late, was fully developed, extremely healthy, ten pounds, eleven ounces, his cries loud and persistent.
After some time, the thin lanky man came back into the room, followed closely by a large squat woman with a strange one piece fabric, her feet barely covered, filth covering her in various spots, showing her status in the world of these human, as one would consider white trash.
The man appeared beside the large woman and began whispering in her ear. Her face contorted into anger, then rage.
She turned the the thin lanky man, pretending to whisper, but purposely speaking just loud enough for the woman with the newborn to hear.
“You do realize that baby looks nothing like you, right? I know she is a slut, she was trying to mess around with your brother, and a lot of other men. She is nothing good for you, son. Listen to your mother, I know best. May as well say she is the devil.”
The woman closed her eyes, as the baby in her arms finally quieted his wails of life and began to drift off to slumber. The newly initiated mother shook, tears streaming from her eyes.
