Chapters The other side of the Mirror Pool
I sat with all of my clones in the town hall and watched the paint on the wall dry. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that two of my clones disintegrated and flew out of the window, their screams still being heard. Three more got sent back to the mirror pool, then four more got sent back. There was only about seven clones left and then me, Twilight was ready to zap the clones that stopped watching the paint dry. One of my clones shaped her head to look like a more grotesque version of me. Twilight zapped three of the clones that laughed at the molding of my head as well as the one that had molded her head. I felt a slight tickle rise in my nose, and I held in the sneeze as much as possible, while watching the clones around me get zapped. There was now just me and another clone, one that looked rather sad about the whole ordeal. I felt the sneeze get too strong for me to hold it back, I sneezed and watched Twilight point her horn at me and I watched the purple beam travel at me and connect. I felt my arms and legs vaporize and then my body, and finally my head. I screamed extremely loud as I watched my surroundings fly by me. I watched the Sugarcube Corner fly by, then Fluttershy's cottage, and finally the hole where I found the mirror pool. I felt the cold water of the mirror pool rise up my still disintegrated legs and then up my body and finally submerging my head. I blacked out after my head was forced under the water.
"Are you coming, Jackson," my older brother, Tyler, called from downstairs.
"Give me a second," I yelled back. I grabbed my backpack and threw some things in it. I threw three water bottles, my phone, and a Glock M23, after ejecting the clip and turning on the safety. I threw the backpack over my shoulder and made my way downstairs to see my brother chugging a water bottle. "Are you ready?"
"I've been ready, are you?"
"Let's go," we left our house and made our way to Tyler's cherry red pickup. I jumped inside and waited for Tyler to get in.
"So where are we going again?"
"A beautiful lake that I found last week, the water is so clear, It's like a mirror," he told me while we backed out of the driveway. The drive was rather short as we talked about school and music. We approached a small clearing in some tree's that looked like it had been there for ages without getting touched by human hands. The grass was bent from Tyler driving his truck up here once, but other than that it was pristine and beautiful. Tyler stopped the truck next to an outcropping of rocks that looked like they were placed there by humans. I got out of the truck and followed Tyler down a steep hill. "We're here."
"We are," I asked him, to which he stepped out of my way and I saw the beautiful lake, that was so reflective that I could see myself perfectly. "This is beautiful."
"Yeah," Tyler said as he sat down and chugged another water bottle. I put my backpack on the ground and grabbed the Glock and the clip. "God dammit Jackson, I told you not to bring your gun."
"Whatever, I'm going to look around see if I can find anything cool," I told him while walking on the lake's bank. I walked a little closer to the shrubs to see if I could find anything that would represent humans have found this place before. I found a fern that looked like it had been munched by something.
"Jackson, come on we need to go," Tyler yelled. I turned around to head back when I heard a slight sniffling sound coming from the bushes and shrubbery. I walked over to where I heard the sniffling coming from.
"Hello," I asked while turning the safety off on my gun. I pulled back the shrubbery to see a small Pink pony sleeping. "Tyler, come here a second!"
"What do you want," he asked while running over to me. He looked at where I was looking and rubbed his face in thought. "Let's pick it up and take it home, I guess."
"You guess, what if it's dangerous and was out down here to keep out intruders," I asked him.
"No, why would they put a pony that's about two feet tall down here and not a guard dog," he told me while walking over to the pony. He picked the pony up like it was a baby and started making his way back to the truck. I ran over to my bag, picked it up, and ran back to the truck. I jumped into the passenger seat and looked into the back seat to see the pony laying there, every so often whimpering. I looked over to my brother who was resting his head in his hands before starting the truck and backing out of the grotto and returning home.
"What are we going to do," I asked Tyler.
"We are going to look after for awhile and then we can figure something out from there," he told me while putting a cigarette into his mouth and lighting it up.
"I thought you were going to stop," I asked him. He was supposed to stop smoking as a new years resolution.
"I need one right now, so don't give me shit for it," he told me. I thought about where today went so wrong. If we never went gone to the lake we would never have found this pony. I slid my hands threw my hair and waited for the truck to stop. Today was crazy.
The other side of the Mirror Pool
"Okay, so what the fuck are we going to do," I asked Tyler. We just got back from the mirror pool with our unexpected guest. "I mean it's a fucking multicolor pony, I can't take care of it when you're at college, I can barely take care of myself!"
"Calm down, for the time being, you'll have to take care of it, we'll tell mom, dad, Riley and Serenity, and maybe they'll figure out what to do," he told me. I stared at the sleeping horse that was on the couch in the other room. "First we should figure out its gender."
"I think it's a girl."
"Okay, what do horses eat?"
"Pony, and hay and stuff, I'll leave that one up to mom, as I could barely take care of a dog for a day."
"Really, damn, you really aren't an animal person."
"You don't say."
"Okay, when does mom get off work?"
"At 2," I told him. He looked at the oven clock to check what time it was.
"We have 45 minutes to wait until mom gets off work, so until then go online and try and find information on horses," he told me whilst walking past me into the living room and sitting down on the floor and staring at the pony. I turned around walked towards the stairs. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go take a nap," I told him while walking up the stairs. "Wake me up in an hour or whenever mom gets home."
I walked into my room and threw myself on my bed, the warmth of the blankets and the softness of the mattress pulled me into a deep sleep.
I woke up when I heard the garage door open. I rolled over and checked the time on my alarm clock. 3:13. I uttered nothing to myself and crawled out of my bed. I shambled to my door and wandered downstairs and started preparing my excuse as to why we have a pink pony in the house.
"Mom's home," Tyler called over to me. He was sitting across from the pony, drinking a bottle of Dr. Pepper.
"Yeah, I heard that," I responded as I walked into the kitchen and headed for the garage door. I grabbed the handle as soon as my mother came in. Following her was my other brother, Riley, and my sister, Serenity. I closed the door only to get stopped by my dad. I finally closed the garage door and slammed my head into the refrigerator. I followed my family and stopped when they finally realized the pony on the couch.
"Tyler, Jackson, why the fuck is there a horse on my couch," my dad asked me and my brother. My mother was staring at the pony with a gaping mouth, Serenity and Riley stared at it like it was an early Christmas.
"Well dad, me and Jackson went to the grove I found a few weeks ago and when we went we found the pony," Tyler told them. "I said we couldn't just leave it there so I brought it home."
"Okay, that's fine and all, but how is it pink," Riley asked. "And how is its hair so fluffy like that?"
"I don't know how it's coat color is pink or how it's mane is so puffy," I told him. "All we know, or at least guess, is that it's a girl and that it's a horse at all."
"Why aren't you sure of the gender," my mother asked.
"No genitals," Tyler said.
"How is that anatomically possible, it has to have reproductive organs," my mother said. She looked as lost as the rest of us, even though she was the one that knew the most about animals. My mother was a vet, and she knew more about animals than anyone else in this town. "What's with the tattoo on its flank?"
"I don't know, and before you ask any more questions that aren't obvious, I don't know those ones either," I told her.
"Jackson, it's moving," Tyler called to me.
"Wait, what, know," I asked while walking up next to him. The pony was starting to wake up. "Guys back up."
"Yeah, we don't know if this thing is dangerous," Tyler told them, to which the rest of my family moved back into the kitchen. The pony groggily looked up and noticed us and sprang to attention. It backed into the corner of the room and switching between me and Tyler. "Hey, calm down, we're not going to hurt you."
"Where am I," the pony asked. I patted Tyler on the back and walked away from the entire ordeal. Tyler grabbed my shirt collar and pulled me back to him. "Where am I and who are you?"
"Okay, why the fuck is thing talking," I asked Tyler, just barely louder than a whisper. "It's a god damn horse, not a robot."
"I don't know, but maybe we should answer its questions," he told me, I wanted to smack him as hard as I could, but I didn't as I knew he was right. "You're in my parent's house, in downtown Denver, Colorado, I'm Tyler and this is my brother Jackson, know who are you?"
"My name is Pinkie Pie," she told us her name, and this visibly calmed her down. "How did I get here?"
"I brought you here from this little, secluded lake," Tyler told her. "What were you doing there?"
"I was brought there by my friends," she told us with a tear coming to her eye. I looked from the pony back to my brother, both seeming very nervous about this entire conversation.
"What do you mean brought here by your friends," Tyler asked.
"I was sent through the mirror pool back on my world," she told us.
"Hey, I know this is cool and all but I'm going to make dinner," Serenity called from the kitchen. "Ask the pony what it can eat."
"How are you cool with this," I ask her, nearly shouting. "I mean how can you be so calm about this entire ordeal to a point where you just accepted the pony without a second thought?"
"Easy, it's because I know who that pony is," she told me. "Her name is Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter, Equestria is her home planet, cutie mark ass tattoo, hell even friends with a few princesses."
"When were you going to tell us this," I asked her.
"I don't know," she told me.
"ENOUGH WITH THE VAGUE ANSWERS," I yelled. I ran upstairs and slammed my head into my door a couple times before passing back out on the ground.
The other side of the Mirror Pool
I woke up on my family's leather couch, face down in a puddle of my own saliva. I lifted my head up to get it out of the pool on the seat. I sat up and stretched my arms out and my legs out, waiting for the spine-tingling pop they gave off when the joints popped together. I stood up and stumbled into the kitchen, to see a plate with pancakes, and a note written in black ink. I ate the waffles, then read the note. The note stated that when I read it that I go to the basement and join the family. From the wording of it, I guessed it was written by my mother.
I headed for the basement, as the note had asked of me. I opened the door and heard giggles from my brothers, my sister, and a fourth voice. I stepped down the steps, one step at a time. I reached the bottom and saw my family sitting in the giant open living room we had in the basement.
"Ahh, Jackson, welcome back to the land of the living," my mother teased as I sat on the couch. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing to stare at me. I started getting nervous and played with the pillow that was next to me.
"Why is everyone staring at me, stare at her," I told them. I was getting anxious from all the eyes on me. "You see me every day anyway, but her, why is she here?"
"Well, Jackson, that's a sensitive subject for her," Tyler told me while looking over at the pink pony. The pony had finally stopped but was now staring at the ground, tears forming in her eyes. Tyler came over to me and got on his knees. "Her friends sent her here because there was a lot of her so they were killing the clones, or at least sending them back to the mirror pool, and sadly her friends sent her to the mirror pool."
I sighed. I wasn't one to be easily brought to tears, but stories about people losing friends and families always got to me. I wanted to get up and give the pony a hug, but I stayed in my seat.
"Since nopony wants to introduce me I'll do it, My name is Pinkie Pie," She told me.
"I know you and my sister told me before I passed out," I told her while rubbing the spot where I slammed my head into my wall. "Why do you know Pinkie Pie?"
"I know her because of the My Little Pony TV show," she told me with a "you should know this look".
"Okay, so why the fuck is an animated, cartoon, pastel pony from a little girl's show talking to me," I asked her. She shrugged at me and looked at the pony.
"I don't know," she told us. "What I do know though is that your sister's cooking is not good."
"Hey," Serenity yelled at the pony. "You said it was good earlier."
"Girls, none of this," my dad told the two.
"Wait, so we're adopting her," I asked my parents. They looked at me like I had another solution.
"Yes, Jackson, we are keeping her, or at least we can find a way to send her back to her world," my mother said. I groaned my disapproval.
"Oh come on cheer up, I'll throw you a party," Pinkie bribed me. I was done with this, first I had found a pink horse, now we are taking care of it. I stood up and walked back upstairs and threw myself back into the position I had been in when I woke up. "So, do you want that party or not?"
"Oh god," I screamed, at the sudden startle of the voice that was supposed to be downstairs. "No, I don't want a party but I will consider cheering up if you do me two things."
"Aww, I wanted to throw a party," she cried. "Alright what are your two things you want me to do?"
"One, don't sneak up on me and give me a heart attack, two make yourself useful somehow, okay," I told her. After I finished my sentence she seemingly disappeared from in front of me, leaving me alone. "Oh, thank god."
The other side of the Mirror Pool
"And I said oatmeal, are you crazy!"
"Pinkie, we have listened to your story five times now, can you be quiet for a while," I asked the excited pink horse. I was sitting at the dining table poking at a stack of pancakes. The pony had so many things to talk about that her stories started to morph together, to a point where we had to either get her to stop or slow down.
"I'm going to take Pinkie to the vet's today, to do a check up on her make sure she's healthy and not broken," my mother told me from her room, which was down the hall from the kitchen. She came back out and walked over to the table. "When you finish your pancakes, could you wake Tyler up for me, I'm going to be leaving in 20 minutes to get to work and won't be able to wake him up."
"Yeah, I'll wake him up," I told her. Pinkie was bouncing up and down like had done all last night. My mother left the room, to continue getting ready. "Why do you bounce like that Pinkie?"
"I don't know, I just do it cause I find it as fun," she told me while still bouncing up and down. "Why do you eat really slowly, you haven't even taken a bite yet?"
"I'm just not hungry," I told her. The truth was, I was starving. I was just curious as to why my family got stuck with a pink fluffy pony from an entirely different dimension. I stood up and went to through my pancakes away before Pinkie stopped my and grabbed the plate. She devoured the pancakes in less than a second and sat on her haunches her belly comically jutting forward. I grabbed the plate and made a subconscious note to let Pinkie eat my leftovers. I threw the plate into the dishwasher and closed the dishwasher's door. I left the kitchen and walked into the living room and laid on the couch, grabbing the remote and turning the TV on. "What was the name of the show that Serenity had suggested I watch?"
"My Little Pony, and why do you want to watch that show, it's for little girls," my mother told me getting a jacket on. I was about to ask why she was wearing a coat until I looked outside and noticed the downpour. "Strange, it was clear yesterday and now we're two inches deep in rain water."
"Yeah, strange, bye," I told her. She grabbed an umbrella and left. I heard the garage door open and her Subaru start up. I looked back to the TV and flipped through the endless list of channels and TV shows. I finally spotted what I was looking for. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. I looked at the info on the episode, which was episode 3 of season 3. Too Many Pinkie Pies. I turned on the episode, but it was nothing like what the info had said it was. Instead of Pinkie Pie creating hundreds of clones of herself so she could be in more places than one, her friends, I guess, were looking for Pinkie Pie, they stated that they didn't know where Pinkie had gone, but that they would find her. I felt the cushion next to me shift. I looked over and spotted a teary-eyed Pinkie watching the episode intently. The rest of the episode was the Mane Six looking for Pinkie, but inevitably going back to Ponyville. The episode ended with her friends crying over their lost friend. The episode clicked off and I heard a sob from next to me, then rivers of tears came from the small pony. I hugged her and told her we'd get her home to her friends. She eventually fell asleep, so I laid her down on the couch and went to wake up Tyler. I had a lot to think about.
