One-Horse Town: A My Little Pony Story

The ponies stood dumbfounded in the middle of the street. They had actually successfully escaped.

“I knew you could do it,” Prose stated. “Now, we have to visit Twilight.”

“Like Princess Twi-” Chorus started.

“Yes, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Prose finished. “She was the one who solved the Mirror Pool debacle last time. Surely, she will know what to do. Also, I have something to return to her.”

Prose pulled The Legend of the Mirror Pool out of her saddle bag.

Prose led the group through the streets of Ponyville. The darkness of night made it slightly hard to navigate, but Twilight’s castle was rather hard to miss. Prose raised her hoof and firmly knocked on the door to the castle. It took a minute, but there was some audible rustling and hoofsteps coming from inside. A groggy Twilight opened the door to face the three ponies.

“Prose? What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night. And who are these ponies?” Twilight glanced at Ginger then at Chorus.

“Well,” Prose raised The Legend of the Mirror Pool into Twilight’s line of sight. “I found your book.”

Chorus made a subtle coughing sound, indicating he was ready to be introduced.

“Oh, right,” Prose gestured towards the ponies behind her. “This is…”

It had just occurred to her that they never introduced themselves.

“Chorus,” Chorus interjected.

“Ginger Blush,” Ginger followed.

“Why don’t you ponies come inside,” Twilight offered. “And you can tell me how you found my book.”

The ponies stepped through the door and into Twilight's castle. Twilight sat down at a table, and the other ponies took up the rest of the unoccupied seats.

“See, it’s a funny story actually,” Prose explained. “I don’t know if I can explain it concisely, but something super nefarious is going on. That’s why we came to you actually. We need your help.”

Twilight was struggling to keep her eyes open.

“Do you think I could help you in the morning? You all can sleep here and we’ll put an end to this ‘nefarious’ situation at the crack of dawn,” Twilight yawned.

“Well, I think it might actually be rather time sensitive-” Prose watched as Twilight almost completely dozed off. “Eh… sure, I guess we can tackle it in the morning.”

“Great! You all make yourselves at home, and I will see you three first thing in the morning.”

Twilight wandered back to her sleeping quarters.

“What if by morning is already too late?” Ginger Blush worried out loud.

“We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” Chorus assured her.

The ponies searched the castle for some empty beds, and swiftly dozed into a long-awaited rest.

“Good morning, everypony!” Twilight called to her house guests.

Chorus, Prose, and Ginger Blush all opened their eyes to the sound of Twilight’s wake-up call. Twilight stood near their beds with the brightness in her eyes clearly replenished.

“I’m ready to hear about that nefarious plot you were going to tell me about last night,” Twilight announced.

The three waking ponies climbed out of bed and followed Twilight back to the table that they all sat at the night before.

Prose slid The Legend of the Mirror Pool across the table towards Twilight. “We found this at the Mirror Pool last night.”

“The Mirror Pool? Isn’t that closed off?” Twilight asked.

“That’s just the thing,” Chorus interrupted. “It’s completely open. And there’s a whole operation running down there! There’s tents and tables and tools and like half of the ponies of Ponyville down there and-”

“I think he’s plotting to take over Ponyville or something,” Ginger Blush added.

Twilight stared in shock at the three ponies.

“You mean somepony’s staging a coup?” Twilight asked.

“It seems more intricate than that. I think this might’ve been going on for a while. From what we saw last night…” Prose began. “It looks like this pony, the ‘Dollkeeper’, is replacing the ponies of Ponyville with his own clones.”

Twilight shuddered at the thought. “How could I not notice this? How many ponies out there are just this ‘Dollkeeper’ at this point?”

“Too many,” Chorus clarified.

“That’s why we came to you, though. You were the one who fixed the issue with the Mirror Pool the last time,” Prose stated. “Can you do it again?”

Twilight’s expression turned to one of uncertainty and doubt.

“Well, last time, I just had to figure out who the real Pinkie Pie was. This time, there’s no telling who’s real and who’s a duplicate. I can’t risk sending an innocent pony into the Mirror Pool.”

“There’s a comprehensive catalog of who’s been replaced, actually. All of the replaced ponies are being kept comatose in the Mirror Pool cavern,” Prose explained.

“Who’s to say nopony is going to try to stop us when we go to check?” Twilight asked.

“It looked like they all follow their original version as their leader. If we can somehow stop the leader, it would be easier for us to stop the rest of them, probably,” Ginger figured.

“Yes! And yesterday, the Dollkeeper said he would be out on the town this morning. So, we could do a stakeout at the Mirror Pool, and catch him when he comes back!” Chorus devised.

“Spike, can you clear my calendar for the rest of the day?” Twilight called out to Spike, who was probably somewhere else in the castle. “All right ponies, let’s stake out the Mirror Pool.”

It didn’t take long for the ponies to find the Mirror Pool again; they had all now been there once before. Twilight, Ginger, Chorus, and Prose all struggled and fought through its surrounding vines as they inched nearer to the entrance.

“We should seriously consider pruning these or something,” Chorus half-joked.

One by one they came out on the other side, met by the entrance to the pond.

“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked the group.

All of them nodded their heads to Twilight.

“I’ll see you all down below,” Twilight said before she took a graceful leap down into the hole.

Chorus jumped in next, Prose following shortly after. Ginger paced the hole a couple times, trying to quickly move past her anxiety. Once again, she misstepped, slipped, and fell into the hole.

One by one, the ponies tumbled out of the entrance tunnel and into the dark cavern. Nopony else was there. It was a jarring sight to see the place so empty, even though nopony was technically supposed to be down there at all. Twilight held her hoof in front of her mouth, indicating that they should all still be quiet. She didn’t know who else might be lurking around here. She motioned for the ponies to follow her as she investigated the area. They walked around and got to see a closer look at all of the things that they’d only seen from a distance.

The tents and tables were lined and stocked to the brim with lists, blueprints, and plans. Every part of the Dollkeeper’s plan was laid out in excruciating detail. Ginger Blush took a close look at one of the blueprints. At the top of the paper, in bold letters, it read: Operation Dollhouse. She set down the blueprint and caught up with the rest of the group.

Twilight investigated the rest of the cave, peeking her head in and out of the tunnels on its outer walls. She peeked her head into one in particular and turned around with slightly widened eyes. She lifted her hoof, motioning for the other ponies to stay behind as she entered the tunnel. She disappeared into the entrance. Chorus, Ginger, and Prose each peeked their heads around the corner to watch Twilight work her magic. This tunnel seemed to be the base of operations, almost like the Dollkeeper’s office. The same blueprints and notes from outside lined the walls of this smaller chamber. A large stone desk lied in the middle of the room. A chair was placed at the desk, facing away from the entrance of the chamber. Sitting in the chair was a unicorn with an unmistakable maroon fur.

Twilight inched closer to the chair, careful to be as quiet as possible. As she neared the chair, she sparked some magic in her horn. The ponies outside watched as glowing pink magic shot out of her horn and flew towards the unicorn in the chair. The magic solidified into luminous pink chains and wrapped tightly around the surprised unicorn. Twilight used her magic to twist the chair around and see him face to face. The sitting unicorn’s mouth had twisted into a menacing, mischievous smile. Although the ponies outside couldn’t see Twilight’s face, they were sure they all shared the same confused expression.

“Why is he smiling? He’s been caught,” Prose questioned.

A faceless voice echoed through the small chamber. “A good leader always has a fall guy,” it remarked.

A cloud of sparkling red dust flooded the room. The ponies watched as their fearless leader, Princess Twilight Sparkle, toppled, unconscious, to the ground. As the mist cleared, the Dollkeeper appeared standing above the unconscious alicorn.

“Don’t think I didn’t know about those little spies you sent here yesterday. I’ll catch them eventually. But, I’d like to thank you for wandering so carelessly into my office. It’ll make my takeover so much easier,” The Dollkeeper laughed.

The ponies stepped away from the tunnel entrance. A horrified look was exchanged between them, which was immediately followed by an urgent run towards the entrance tunnel. The ponies scurried up the twisting tunnel, pushing and fighting the dirt walls, fighting to see the light of day. As soon as daylight was visible, the ponies clamored up the nearly vertical tunnel walls, bursting out at the top and onto damp forest ground.

As they caught their breaths, the realization set in that their best hope of saving Ponyville was now completely at the mercy of the Dollkeeper.