Mirror: Book I - Mind

“You ever had a pet?” Silver Spoon asked.

“No.” Dinky answered quietly, shaking her head just as silently. “I always asked, but mom said we could never afford it.”

“Funny.” Silver Spoon forced a chuckle. “I never asked for a dog, yet my parents were willing to spend the bits.” She looked down. “It makes me wonder now why they did it. To keep me occupied while they go do much bigger and important things than tending to their daughter? It makes me wonder if they knew it would be so soon…”

The unicorn looked down with her, down they both peered into the hole, and down at the bottom of the hole they dug as deep as they could, was none other than Silver Spoon’s pet. Pearl. Of all the times Silver told her little white dog to sit still, he wouldn’t. Pearl would do everything but sit still. He would prance and dance and sing and bark like it was the happiest day of his life. After spending hours chasing your own tail, finally catching it would in fact be the happiest day of a dog’s life. Silver then found the second thing funny about this whole ordeal. She had not asked Pearl to sit still, and yet there he was in the bottom of the grave doing just as such.

Dinky tested the magic of her horn, determined to help bury her little dog the proper way, but one failure after the other Silver told her it was alright and sufficed for the shovel.

“The fact that you’re here-” Silver spoke, shoveling dirt. “That’s what matters to me. The fact that you decided to take the time out of your day to do this with me, that’s what is important to me.”

As Silver continued to shovel the mounds of dirt upon the resting place of her poor pup, Dinky took note of the stillness, the quietness, and the uncomfortable vacancy that lingered about the site. Only she and Silver were here for poor Pearl’s funeral. Why call it a funeral? Dinky thought. Weren’t funerals supposed to be a little more, I dunno, official than this? However, the stillness and silence is what made it feel like a funeral enough.

Dinky aided with what strength she had in her hooves to finish the burial, but marveled at the strength of the earth pony before her despite the pains and sorrows she burdened. She felt as though it were something her unicorn abilities would never match up to, that being the strength it took to shoulder such strife. Thus, as the minutes went by, the shoveling came to an end and the two sat at the paw of Pearl’s grave for one last quiet moment. The wind bristling by every so often gave signal to break the silence, and the unicorn was the first to speak with a simple question.

“Diamond Tiara…?” Dinky began.

Silver Spoon winced visibly.

“She couldn’t come?”

“She was always the kind of pony who looked forward in her work.” As positive as her words were, Silver shook her head. “It isn’t like her to find some time for old friends.”

Dinky opened her mouth, only for nothing to escape. She continued staring at her friend in anticipation of continuing.

“Still, I find myself missing those days.” Silver stared at the earth before her hooves. “When it wasn’t just coming up with ways to pester other ponies. We’d laugh together, play together, tell each other stories from our journals and write silly poems to read. We would invite each other to our houses and…and…”

Dinky could suddenly sense it. This poor little pony was in pain, on the brink of tears, and the unicorn’s soft heart quickly rode to fix the damage.

“Silver, do you…?”

“Huh?” Silver blinked hard, biting back tears.

“Do you want to sleep over, tonight?” Dinky asked her.

“What?” The earth pony’s gaze spelled confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I’m inviting you over to my house.” Dinky answered innocently. “That is, if you want to.”

Silver stared on, then slowly nodded. “Yeah.” She answered. “Yeah…I would love to.”

Dinky sighed with a high degree of ease. Anything to hold back those tears, she couldn’t bare to see her friend like that.

Silver Spoon knew there were many things in life she would regret. Now, she most certainly regretted not having a taste of Ms. Hooves’ special, home baked, lemon surprise muffins sooner than before. Dinky’s mother, Derpy, was most appreciative of the complements and made a mental note to send the little earth filly home with a basket full of the delectable pastries.

“Better than Sugarcube Corner’s.” Silver engulfed another mouthful.

“Don’t let the Cakes catch you saying that.” Derpy teased as she walked back into the kitchen.

“You get to have these muffins every day?” Silver asked her friend.

“Well, not every day, but most of the time.” Dinky swallowed her share. “Only when I come home from school.”

“You’re so lucky, Dink.”

Dinky was caught off guard. It was the first time the earth filly had called her by a nickname, something she believed was spared only between close friends.

“How so?” She wondered.

“Because you have this to come home to every night.” Silver gobbled another mouthful, hardly swallowing before she spoke again. “All I’ve got is a long, red carpet and elegantly crafted hallways. That, and a whole lotta’ homework to do.”

“I don’t understand, we don’t have any of that. All we have is this tiny home for me, mom and Amy.” Dinky gazed about the living room. “It’d be amazing to have a house like yours.”

“Trust me, a home that could hold twenty ponies but only houses three feels a lot bigger than it actually is.” Silver sighed. “Plus, you have homework too, so there’s that.”

“Doesn’t count.” Dinky shook her head.

“How so?”

“I don’t do mine.”

The two little ponies stared at each other in silence for a short moment, and the next they broke out into a fit of laughter.

“This feels odd.” Silver commented.

“What’s that?” Dinky asked.

“Sitting so close together at the dinner table.”

“Well, passing the pepper is easier this way.” Amethyst said, levitating the mentioned shaker towards their guest. “Here ya’ go, kiddo.”

“Thank you.” Silver responded politely.

“Pass me the butter, Dink?” Amethyst requested.

“You got a horn, sis.” Dinky slouched in her chair. “You do it.”

The purple unicorn rolled her eyes as she hovered the desired to her end of the small, round table.

“I’m sorry if we bother you with our, erm…’confined dinery,’ Silver.” Derpy spoke up.

“Not at all, I actually like it this way a lot better.”

“What’s it like at your place?” Dinky wondered.

“Imagine a ridiculously long boat in the middle of the sea.” The earth pony described. “I sit on one end, my parents sit on the other.”

“How the heck do you guys pass the pepper?” Amethyst asked.

“We call the pony who passes the pepper to come and do it.”

“What about salt?”

“He’s on vacation.”

Amethyst and Derpy looked to each other with bewildered expressions.

“Here, need the salt?” Dinky hoofed it over.

“Oh, thank Celestia! I haven’t had salt in months.” Silver squealed with joy.

Amy and Derpy’s expressions only grew all the more concerned.

“It’s so…simple.” Silver observed.

“Sorry, it’s not much.” Dinky apologized.

“No, it’s everything you need. Nothing over the top.” Silver continued gazing around the simplicity of Dinky’s room.

“Well, what do ya’ wanna do?”

“I thought you might’ve had some ideas.” Silver admitted.

“I usually just listen to music, or play games.” Dinky shrugged. “What do you usually do?”

“Do homework.”

“Let’s play some games.” Dinky decided.

It had been at least two straight hours since Silver Spoon picked up Dinky’s portable arcade, and she hadn’t let it down since. The little unicorn simply rested upon her bed, looking upon her friend, and for a moment she wondered…Exactly what kind of life did Silver Spoon live? What were her antics really like? What were her habits? What were the decisions she made thus far that led her to the point of marveling at the simple, dull, making ends meet kind of life that Dinky and her family lived? She thought for a moment more as she observed the bright light of the video game’s screen shine onto Silver’s face, casting a stark gray shadow onto the empty canvas that was the bedroom wall.

Maybe the poor aren’t the only ones who suffer, feel pain, and carry emotional strife. Dinky thought deeply. Maybe, deep down, the luxurious suffer too.

Midnight.

The chime of the clock had always struck so, its sound traveling through the house like a support of lumber yawning as it settled against the walls. Dinky had gotten so used to it by now that normally she would have slept right through, but it only wracked her nerves all the more. Having her partner next to her in bed only made it ten times harder to sleep, she had found. Silver Spoon insisted a number of times that she would be okay sleeping on the floor, but Dinky hadn’t quite gone short on her generosity just yet, and so she invited her friend to sleep in her bed. She’d be warmer that way.

As the grandfather clock’s chime came to a close, a still and little fear grew in the unicorn’s stomach as she wondered if the tune had awoken her friend. That is if Silver had already gone to sleep, the back of her head facing Dinky’s muzzle. She couldn’t quite tell.

What am I gonna do if I have to go to the bathroom? Dinky wondered.

She lay there for a minute more, unmoving and unblinking. Two minutes more. Five minutes. Ten minutes. She was sure by now the clock hadn’t awoken her friend, she was sure the little earth pony would go undisturbed for the rest of the night. She was sure that she was warm.

Then, Silver Spoon shuffled and turned over to face Dinky. She opened her eyes and their gazes locked, staring at each other for what felt like forever, and the uncomfortable quietness she had sensed at Pearl’s grave had returned to her. Dinky didn’t really know how to place it, but when Silver was without her glasses, she looked…different.

“Diamond…?” Silver squinted.

The unicorn did not speak, she only watched as her bedmate continued to squint at her. It became apparent that without the help of her glasses, Silver appeared to be confused at whom she was looking at. She just continued to squint, stare, and draw out her breaths. Dinky felt the soft, humid air of her friend’s breath upon the tip of her muzzle. The little unicorn felt herself breathing back. Silver’s eye’s fixed themselves into a slow, soft gaze, almost as though something alluring and lustful twinkled within them.

Before Dinky could come to register any further feelings or experiences, the plush fur of Silver’s muzzle pressed upon her own. Wet, slippery, warm lips squished and kissed upon Dinky’s, Silver’s tongue spinning webs of saliva across the rows of her friend’s teeth. She squished together and swallowed the spit that Dinky had unknowingly swapped into the earth filly’s mouth, and with that the blushing, gray-coated pony drew back with a graceful flutter of her eyes. A bridge of silky spit strung across their muzzles and rested onto Dinky’s sheets.

The little unicorn was shocked, confused, amazed, bewildered, mortified, so many feelings and emotions running through her mind all at once, and the only view in answer that she was granted was the sight of her friend quietly licking her lips in some sort of soft, giggly pleasure. Dinky didn’t know what to do, what to say, what to think or what to feel. All she knew in this very moment was that her friend and former partner, Silver Spoon, had just straight up french-smooched her in her own house, in her own room, in her own bed.

It took Silver a moment to blink out of her stupor of lust to realize what she had just done and the pony she had just done it to. Her eyes went to pinpricks.

“Dinky…?” Silver looked on, horrified.

“Silver, what was…?”

“Oh, no.” The earth pony stumbled backwards and shook her head. “No no no no!”

“Silver, wait.” Dinky sat up.

“I can’t believe I just…I just…” Silver bounced backwards and threw her belongings together, throwing her satchel over her back. “I’m sorry, Dinky, I’ve gotta go.”

“Silver!” Dinky flung herself from her bed and chased after her friend.

Down the stairs and bulleting past the door, she was almost sure she had woken up both her mother and her sister, but that didn’t matter to her now. Not as much as her friend doing the inexplicable the first second and then running out the door and into the night the next. She kicked up dirt from the path at her hooves and drove on into the night, searching into the night and calling for her name with every which way she turned her head. The earth filly was desperate to make her escape, but Dinky was undoubtedly fast, a tough little unicorn to shake. Making a beeline for her home, she decided, was the last thing she should do, and so instead Silver opted for a different destination. A place that only she and the very unicorn chasing her knew about.

The harrowing, cold breeze of the fleeting-summer night nipped in the wind and stung Dinky’s hide like pinpricks to a wetted, frazzled blanket of gray. Wide, golden eyes pierced through the murky night and focused upon every little figure in the distance she thought could possibly be her friend, but every time until the last she turned up being wrong. Every time until the last, she finally found the earth pony, slouched over the grass at the top of the small hill, prostrated before the small, stone block they had planted only hours ago in the day when the light was still out. Upon the small stone was a simple inscription.

「Here rests Pearl, a good boy.」

Dinky summited the hill in a matter of seconds, each step a slow and trudging drawl as she eyed Silver’s back heaving and sinking in unrhythmic contortions. The earth filly held both her hooves over her mouth and suppressed her wheezes and winces, the presence of her friend crawling closer and their distance shorter. She couldn’t bear it, she couldn’t bear to look upon the very pony who had helped her those few weeks ago when she was in her most desperate hour of need. Now, she beheld her hour of lament, and Dinky sought to rest a hoof upon her friend’s shaky shoulder.

“Leave me alone!” Silver broke. “Can’t you see? I don’t deserve you anymore.”

“I don’t understand.” Dinky stood by.

“After what I did to you, you’ll never forgive me.” She wailed into the night. “I’ll never forgive myself!”

“Don’t go running into the dark alone.” Dinky approached again, wrapping her hooves around the shaken earth pony. “You can’t just do something crazy like that and expect me not to follow you. I’m your friend, Silver Spoon, and I’m here for you.”

As the lengthy minutes of the veil of night went on, the wheezes and the whimpers slowly faded away and were traded for long, drawn out breaths. In the nose, out the mouth. Together, Dinky and Silver practiced this form of breathing, something the little unicorn mentioned that a certain swimming instructor had taught her about. She had found that it worked for many other applications apart from swimming. Just as soon as Dinky could feel the rise and fall of her friend’s back leveling out to a much more soothing pattern, Silver stared at the grave of her pet dog for a few seconds longer before deciding to finally lay down her confessions.

“This is the whole reason why, y’know?” Silver began. “This is the reason why Diamond Tiara and I aren’t friends anymore. Her mother…she caught us doing that.”

Something sickly lumped up in Dinky’s throat. She forced it back down, and listened.

“It all started out small and simple.” Silver went on. “Diamond and I would always meet back at her place to get ahead on school activities. But, something felt strange that day, I couldn’t quite place it. She said she just wanted to experiment, find out what it felt like. We would be kissing colts in the future anyways, so…why not practice on each other?” She shuddered and continued. “I didn’t like it at first. It felt weird, and I was afraid we were going to get caught but Diamond kept pushing. She said she wanted more. I was afraid to lose her, so I said yes, and eventually I…I…”

Once again, the shivers and the winces returned, Silver slouching over the dirt of the grave before her.

“Why do I keep doing this? What’s wrong with me?” She choked. “I’m sorry, Dinky. I’m so, so sorry. I never should have spoken to you that day. It would have been better for the both of us.”

“That’s not true.” Dinky persisted.

The little unicorn wished so much that she could say more or do more for her friend, but neither the words nor the actions would come. Those wondrous and miraculous sparks of inspiration would never come, especially at the times when they were most needed or desired. Instead, they would only show themselves when the time was right. It seemed as though now was not that time, and all Dinky could do was continue to hold her friend as she whimpered into her chest. She remembered those times when her mother had told her that she would come home from school bawling over the silliest, littlest, most insignificant things. But her mother was always there, no matter what those things might have been. Derpy was the shoulder for Dinky to cry on, and now it was Dinky’s turn to burden the tears for another.

It was in their following strife of silence that two things came upon their presence at once, one much more fouler than the other.

“Dinky~!” A distant voice called. “Silver Spoon~!”

Dinky slowly lifted her head. “Amy…?”

“Dinky?” Silver looked up. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Nothing. There was absolute silence. A dreadful silence.

And then, the stench.

The wind had fallen, the sound of the critters fell still, and all that lingered through the putrid air was the sting of copper flooding the noses of the fillies in the field. They threatened to gag as they held their hooves over their snouts, and a fearful realization stood the unicorn’s hairs on end. The slaughter at the chicken coop, the pig-nap at the farm. This was the same feeling, the same dread and the same fear. It was here.

“Dinky~!” Amethyst called from afar. “What in the hay are you two doing out here?!”

“There’s something out there…” Silver fretted. “Oh no, timber wolves!”

“No, it’s something else.” Dinky quickly drew back. “C’mon, we need to leave.”

Silver did not answer, staring ahead blankly.

“Silver?”

“Pearl…?” Silver looked past the gravestone, slowly trotting forward. “Pearl, is that you?”

Something sat at the edge of the treeline in the direction Silver had begun to trot, a faint little figure idly awaiting the arrival of the earth pony. Only, as Dinky looked on, something terribly wrong became apparent at its appearance. It’s limbs were like toothpicks, black and scraggly fur ridden all over its hide while the eyes were off center and misshapen, rows of teeth jutting out of its jaw like sick, slobbery fangs. Even if that was in fact Pearl, it was no longer the pet dog Silver had once known, and yet the earth filly couldn’t help but begin trotting faster and faster toward the thing.

“Silver…” Dinky breathed shakily. “That’s not your dog.”

Alas, the earth filly had broken into a full on gallop. The creature had taken her over in the midst of her emotional trial, and she was headed straight into the tunnel of its gaping, black maw. Suddenly, Silver stopped. She blinked hard and realized now where she was, standing vulnerable before the claws of the beast from the Everfree. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think, fear had frozen her solid. The darkness crept all around her like a sea of shadow ready to swallow her whole. Within the deep, black void, several of her nightmares came into fruition before her very eyes. Her parents neglecting her, Diamond Tiara rejecting her, and Dinky…she lifted Silver with her magic and cast her out into the middle of the pond. The water was thick and heavy, clawing at her hide like a weighted, thick, black sap. Silver’s head sunk beneath the surface, and soon she started to drown.

Is this it? Silver thought. Am I going to die here?

As if in answer, a gray-purple hoof plunged beneath the surface of the water and waited before Silver. It was Dinky, she had come to rescue her! She had one chance and one chance only to take the opportunity set out before. Without another second, she took it.

Amethyst pounded her hooves into the dirt and charged at the two fillies with a bright, beaming spell spiraling its way up to the tip of her horn. The shadow of the beast laid over the little ponies, but the young mare kept her sights focused on her little sister and her friend. Throwing herself over the two, a bright explosion of blue followed after, and with a quick sizzle and a crackle the trio vanished from the darkness of the night.

A crackle and a zap later, the Doctor’s laboratory illuminated to life with brilliant strikes of teal-white. Three ponies emerged from the other side of the teleportation spell’s explosion, two of them landing safely in the cockpit of the RC wingplane hanging high above the room. The spell caster met a rather generous fate at the mercy of the plasma coils greeting her entry with a sting to her head. Amethyst buzzed and contorted as her mane spiked alive like the back of a porcupine, and one smokey stupor later she tumbled down the side of the wall and into a pile of prototype butter peelers. Whatever those were supposed to be, the Doctor had been getting creative as of late.

Together, Dinky and Silver Spoon cautiously scanned their surroundings and peeked over the side of the shuttle they laid in, looking down at Amethyst’s crumpled form rolling around on the floor. She rubbed her horn and winced in pain at the sudden strikes of her headache taking its toll.

“What…?” Silver whispered. “What just happened?”

“My sister…” Dinky looked on, amazed. “She jumped us.”

Quickly, the two tucked themselves back into the cockpit as the clamor of hooves came tumbling down the stairs, and past the portal to the laboratory the stallion of the house appeared. He chomped down on a candle holder and readied the trinket as a weapon between his teeth, muffling obscenities and demands of identifications through the brass in his jaw. In answer, Amethyst rolled her way out of the tools and materials strewn across the floor, eliciting a jaw-dropped look of horror as the candle holder succumbed to gravity and clattered to the floor.

“Miss Amethyst, how in blazes did you clamor your way in here?” His eyes glanced one of many nearby clocks, fury blazing within his pupils. “By the royal sisters, it’s half-past midnight! You better hope you’ve prepared a good explanation, first to me, then your mother-”

Amethyst, curling around once more, could only respond with a sharp whine of pain. Whooves watched as her expression contorted into that of intensity, her front hooves clawing at one of the hind. For what the colt could see, the poor mare’s left hind hoof had suffered a deep, scarlet and black gash, matting her fur burgundy and oozing alarming amounts of blood.

“My word…what have you done to yourself?” The doctor quickly approached, far more caring and observant than only a second ago.

“I’m sorry, Doc…” Amethyst groaned, “but I had no other choice.”

“Save your breath, young one.” He reassured. “Let’s take care of that wound first, shall we?”

The stallion curled himself beneath the mare’s free foreleg and helped her hobble out of the laboratory and into the kitchen. As Dinky and Silver Spoon watched cautiously from above, the little earth filly drew back, placing both hooves over her muzzle as another veil of fret shadowed over her gaze.

“Oh, no.” She whimpered. “This is all my fault.”

“We made it out okay.” Dinky reassured. “Whatever happened back there, it’s done now.”

“But your sister got hurt, and it’s all because of my stupid, impulsive behavior.” Her face hid beneath her hooves. “I’m just going to keep hurting ponies from now on, aren’t I? I…I can’t do anything right.”

“Except me.” Dinky answered.

“Huh?” Silver emerged.

“No matter what you do, you can never hurt me, Silver.” The little unicorn rested a hoof to her friend’s shoulder. “And that’s because you’re my friend.”

“B-But…” The filly whimpered again. “I’ve done so many horrible things to you. I was going to let you drown in that lake. I turned my back on you and wrote all those bad things about the Doctor. And I…I…”

“And I forgive you.” Dinky leaned forward, and hugged Silver. “We make mistakes all the time, even the smartest of ponies do. That’s what Doc’s always told me.” The unicorn continued. “But that’s what I think friends are for, because if we’re gonna keep making the same, stupid mistakes, then we might as well make them together.”

“Dinky…” Silver pressed her eyes into her friend’s shoulder, and fought the tears.

Within the blink of an eye, the events of the day flashed back through the little unicorn’s mind like a sky-scraper of a roaring, rushing tidal wave. Though it had struck her with fear and uncertainty, Dinky felt that in the midst of it all she was beginning to learn what her mother meant when she said some ponies were born into lives far less fortunate than theirs. Though they did not have as big as a house as others might have had, or all the toys and games in the world, or all the friends and family one could wish for…Dinky knew all she needed now was Silver Spoon. More so, Silver Spoon needed her, a true friend.

“Now, c’mon.” Dinky said softly, parting from the other filly. “We’ve got another problem to face, together.”

The young, lavender unicorn rested easy on the chair with her hind hoof hanging over the edge, a pail laying underneath, and the Doctor studying his bandage work carefully as he applied solvents and pressured the gauze over the cut. After a moment or two of rest, prodding his chin, Whooves speculated over the sudden situation beholding his kitchen space.

“I don’t suppose you’ll want to explain yourself, now?” He asked.

“I wish I could.” Amethyst groaned again.

“I’m no expert on animals, but almost anypony can make out a claw mark when they see one.” The Doctor probed. “Just what was it?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know…” Amethyst attempted. “I knew it was there, but it’s like it was too quick for me to see, or even hear.”

“And you said you teleported here?” The Doctor went to correct himself. “Jumped?”

“All the way from the Everfree.” She admitted.

“What in blazes were you doing there? And in the middle of the night?”

Amethyst found just in time that such a question would need no answer, at least not from her end. As she watched the two, small fillies emerge from the dim light of the laboratory and into the quiet, cold illumination of the kitchen space, Whooves responded to the flickering of his ear by turning around and eliciting yet another jaw-dropped expression, blinking twice before recovering.

“Did I leave a window open, or something?” The colt questioned.

“I was wondering when you two were going to show yourselves.” Amethyst drawled, staring drowsily yet notably towards her little sister.

Dinky nodded back to her elder with a knowing, confident expression, and opened her mouth in preparation of a long, thought out and worthy explanation. Less than a second to spare, the gray little earth mare next to her erupted into a fountain of tears, bawling to the rafters and bumbling forward as she became a slobbery, sniveling mess.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Amethyst~!” Silver Spoon wailed on. “I’m sorry you hurt your hoof all because of me! Please don’t tell my mommy and daddy! Please, please, please, plea-he-he-ease~!”

Dinky shot forward and pried the snotty mess of a little earth mare off of her sister’s legs, patting her friend over the shoulder as she turned to Amethyst and the Doctor both, delivering a regretful stare. “What Silver means to say is, she’s sorry for the way she’s acted tonight and she promises it won’t happen again.” Dinky furthered. “And, for what it’s worth I’m sorry, too. We promise to make it up to you.”

“Just…tell me what exactly you two were up to.” Amethyst waited.

Silver’s blabbering flipped off like a light switch, the pair looking to each other for a short moment of fret before searching the floor for answers.

“We were, um…” Dinky began.

“Looking after…Pearl’s grave.” Silver decided.

“Because it needed…some company.”

Amethyst swept a hoof over her face and gave another groan. “Try to think of a better lie when you tell mom…”