Through the Mirror Pond

Chapters

Prologue: The glass prison
I'm me, not you
Silence Broken
Act I-I: Disloyalty
Interlude: Dashing away

Prologue: The glass prison

Through the Mirror Pond
Prologue: A prison of glass

I’d lost track of time somewhat. That happens when you’re trapped in an eternal prison with no way of escape. Well, no escape on your own. When Twilight and the others mistook me for one of my clones I thought of it as karma. I had done so much damage in a few short hours that I thought of it as the universe’s equivalent of sending me to the corner. But as days passed with no rescue in sight, I began to panic. Life underneath the mirror pond was static. I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t breathe, I didn’t, or couldn’t, do anything. Nothing would happen to me, nothing could happen to me. It started off boring, but then it became scary.

“But they’ll come for me.” I would say to myself, “I know that they will.” My thoughts drifted to Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn responsible for all of this. “She’d never leave me behind.” I thought back to that hydra, in Froggy Bottom Bog. She could’ve just left me there. She could have just escaped with the others, but she ran back and saved me. Days went by as I repeatedly replayed that scene in my head. But she never came for me.

After a month, my thoughts drifted again. This time Fluttershy filled my thoughts. “She could never leave me behind, she would never leave any pony behind.” Again, days went by, and I just kept saying to myself, “She’ll come for me.” More and more I started to lose track of time. Days felt like weeks, weeks like months, I started to dig my hoof into the ground and make lines in the dirt to count the days. The days themselves I would spend counting seconds as they turned to minutes, minutes as they turned to hours. But even more time passed, and Fluttershy never came for me.

It had been two months (approximately) since I became trapped under the Mirror Pond. I started to rationalize why they hadn’t come for me yet. I needed to find a reason, lest the fear of an eternity under a small pond continue to gnaw away at my sanity. “Maybe they just haven’t realized that they have the wrong Pinkie!” It was a conclusion that I didn’t want to believe at first. But now, faced with the alternative, the idea that my friends wanted to leave me down here, I was all too accepting of it. “But they will come for me once they figure that out.” I began counting the seconds with renewed vigor. Images of my teary-eyed friends rescuing me, hugging me and begging for forgiveness began to circle my mind. And I would forgive them, I would embrace them and throw parties for them again, everything would be back to normal. But still I remained alone.

“Dashie will come for me, we’re bestest friends. She has to notice that I’m not me.” I thought as my thoughts drifted to Rainbow Dash. I remembered my birthday. How I was so down in the dumps, but Dashie kept at it. I could distinctly remember each prank we pulled, and all the pranks we would pull once she rescued me. But more and more time passed me by, and she never came.

Another month passed me by. At least I think so. My thoughts drifted once again. “Rarity, she has a serious eye for detail, she’ll notice that the Pinkie out there is a clone.” Again my fear was soothed. I thought back to the Crystal Fair, and how Rarity was able to use everything in the vicinity to make more stuff to keep the ponies occupied. I remembered that contest between Flim and Flam and the Apples. Rarity was able to keep up Granny Smith, who’s worked with apples all her life, in rejecting the bad apples. “If she can notice one teeny weeny spot on an apple, she can certainly notice that I’m not me!” But another month passed, and I remained alone.

It had been four months, four months that I’d spent in the Mirror Pond. I desperately perused my brain for any reason that the girls hadn’t noticed the ‘fake’ me yet. “Maybe time works differently out there than in here?” The idea seemed silly, even to me, but it was becoming all that I had. There was no one, not a soul, in the pond with me. The possibility that time worked differently in the pond was one I would consider, and then dismiss. There was a possibility, however minute, that time worked differently, but I knew that I just thought that in order to calm myself down.

As more time passed I began to lose hold of any rationality I once had. I thought less and less about, “They’ll save me”, and more “Why haven’t they?” Hatred began buzzing around my head, I tried to stay positive, but found myself unable. Applejack was the first to be subjected to my ire. “She’s the Element of Honesty for crying out loud. How can she not know that the fake me is lying about being me?” I mentally spewed hatred at my other friends too. Rainbow Dash, my best friend, hadn’t realized it yet either. Twilight Sparkle, supposedly one of the most brilliant minds in Equestria, couldn’t figure out the difference. The hope drained from my heart, leaving only hatred and sadness to comfort me.

I was angry with my friends, but my anger focused much stronger on another source. “How could the Cakes, my surrogate family, not know?” If I could’ve cried I would’ve. The Cakes treated me like a daughter. I was part of their family, I worked and lived under the same roof with them. They trusted me enough to let me live in their home, even when they knew almost nothing about me. I had struck out on my own and failed, but the Cakes redeemed me. In the sixth month of my imprisonment they were all that I thought about. I was sad that they couldn’t tell the difference, but then I was angry. Angry at Mr. and Mrs. Cake, angry at their children, angry at every patron who couldn’t tell me apart from a clone. I stewed in that anger for a while, it was all that I could think about, all that I cared about. But then something strange happened in the middle of my seventh month of exile, I had a visitor. Though my visitor wasn’t the kind of pony I expected, in fact he wasn’t a pony at all, he was a human. Even despite all of that, he was still kinder than my friends. He was brimming with honesty, and generosity, willing to spend time just keeping me company, and telling me embarrassing stories from his world to try and make me laugh. He was loyal too; he would come back every single day, every single day. He’d study the pond, he said that he wanted to help me get out.

The strangest thing about that was that he succeeded.

Journal entry #1 of Sebastian King

I finally did it! I created a portal through space and time! I’m writing this in another world! I can prove that magic exists. All I need is time, that and another miracle would be nice.

Sebastian King’s first day in Equestria was very strange. He’d popped into existence in the middle of a forest, a particularly dark and creepy one at that. He frantically shoved his hands into the pocket of his brown trench coat, hoping that his revolutionary device survived the trip. “Oh thank any Omnipotent beings who might be listening.” He pulled out a stop watch, embedded in a large circular plastic casing. The Zoner, name subject to change as he would say, was his greatest achievement. Granted it was currently his only achievement, but that was soon to change. He breathed in a huge amount of the local air, still stunned that he wasn’t in his dingy apartment building. He patted himself down to make sure that everything was still as it should be.

Sebastian was fairly above average in the looks department. He had sapphire blue eyes, combed and styled dark brown hair, and a chiseled stubbly chin. He was the kind of guy that girls back on Earth would try to talk to at a bar, albeit that usually ended around the time he spoke. Sebastian had always believed in magic, not simply religious miracles, real magic. For all of his life he tried and tried to find traces of real magic in the small Massachusetts town he grew up in. But in the end all of his efforts proved fruitless. Once he was in high school his parents insisted that he start looking towards a career path that wouldn’t end him up on the SyFy network. So in the end he chose to go into various scientific fields, the closest thing to magic that he could find. Eventually he was given a college scholarship to Harvard and once there he found his true calling. One of his professors told him that the best scientists in the world, the ones remembered at least, always started off with radical ideas. When Sebastian told his professor about magic and other worlds his professor didn’t scoff like others, he told Sebastian to make it his life’s work to prove that hypothesis.

He worked with his professor to make what he considered to be the ultimate example of, as his professor put it, ‘scientific magic’. He wanted to create a device that would take him to other worlds, one that would allow him to explore the universe without the aid of a huge ship. That dream eventually became the small disk-shaped apparatus he held in his hands. He kissed the machine repeatedly, not paying attention to where he was going. He tripped over a stump and tumbled down a hole. He rolled down the small enclosure, down spiraling columns until, at last, he reached the bottom. He grunted in pain as he hoisted himself off of the ground. Those grunts of pain turned to gasps of awe, once he finally got a look around the area. It was a small cave, illuminated by an unknown light source, and in the center was a small pond. Sebastian carefully edged himself towards the pond, despite the logical flaw of approaching a pool of water in an unknown land where mermaids or other horrible creatures could be waiting to eat him. His scientific interest quickly turned to teary-eyed empathy when he saw what was in the pool.

Inside the pool was an equine of some sort. An equine with remarkably human facial features, like the smaller snout, rounded eyes, and humanish lips. Her mane was a bright bubblegum pink, which matched the rest of her body, and it was remarkably bouncy looking. But despite the pink coloring the creature didn’t look too happy. In fact she was crying, and banging against the water as if it were glass. Her face was scrunched up in a look of frustration and anguish, she pounded her hooves against the water ceiling, but she never broke free. “Hold on, I’ll help.” Sebastian shouted. He clawed at the water, splashing it every which way, but came no closer to helping the equine. It was like she was a reflection in the water, but with a mind of her own. Eventually the equine stopped struggling, sitting back onto the ground.

“Come on, you can’t just be giving up?” The pink equine nodded. “But I can help. Can’t I?” The pony, it certainly looked like one, nodded again while mouthing something. “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” Sebastian racked his brain for something, anything that would help in this situation. “My name’s Sebastian, what’s yours?” the pony didn’t respond, “Can you understand me?” The pony nodded and tried to speak, but while her mouth moved no words came out. “You can understand me, but I can’t hear you respond, that’s bloody irritating.” He seethed, he just met a creature from another world and he couldn’t converse with it. He decided that he needed a name for the pony of the pond, at least until he knew her real one. “Well you are very pink, maybe your name is Pinkie?” The pony jumped up and down, nodding all the while. “Don’t know how I guessed that, well I have always been good with names.” He decided to leave his astounding ability to guess a pony’s name at that, he figured it wasn’t important. “Alright, I’m going to explore the area around here for a bit, but don’t worry I’ll come back.”

Strangely enough though, he did come back. He came back every day and every night. He talked with the mysterious Pinkie, and told her all about himself and Earth. All the while though, his thoughts were with her strange pond prison. For a man who only knew the basics of how magic on Earth should work, Sebastian was a remarkably good study on the magical properties of Equestria. He would spend his days just looking around the forest he had found himself in. Analyzing and documenting the creatures of the forest, their eating habits, how they differed and yet reminded him of creatures from Earth. But still he came no closer to finding anything about the weird pond, or how to free Pinkie from it. After a month of living off of berries and such from the forest he decided that he needed to think about this from a different perspective. It was the thirtieth day that he had been trying to free Pinkie when he realized that he needed to go home. Not forever, but for a long enough while where he could look at things from a different point of view. He walked into the cave with a sad look on his face. He didn’t want to leave Pinkie alone, goodness knows how alone she had been before he came along.

He walked to the edge of the pond, where Pinkie was. As usual the pink pony bounded with joy at his arrival. “Pinkie, I need to go away for a while.” As he started his declaration he could already see the happiness drain from Pinkie’s face. “Not forever, just a week, then I should be able to help you out of there.” Pinkie seemed to understand, as much as he was sure that she would hate being left alone again, she still knew that he wasn’t lying to her. “So listen, do you have any friends that I could call?” Pinkie shook her head violently, a look of hatred adorning her usually bright features. “So you do, but you don’t want me to call them?” She shook her head again, less violently though. “You used to have friends, but then they died?” The shaking was more violent this time, he was getting colder. “You used to have friends but they did something to hurt you?” The little pink equine nodded, but the rest of her body shook. She outstretched a hoof and motioned to the emptiness that surrounded her. “They did this to you?” Sebastian screamed, and Pinkie nodded yes. He wished he could’ve reached out and hugged the poor creature. To be locked away in this horrid place by people that you thought were your friends. He couldn’t even imagine what that must’ve been like for her. “All right, I’m going to get you out of there, and then, you’re going to give your ‘friends’ a piece of your mind.” He stormed out of the cave, his purpose clear, to help his new friend with revenge.

It had been about a week since Sebastian left. I started to lose hope as I counted the seconds to his return. I wanted to believe him, but after everything that I had gone through. Just as I counted that it had been exactly a week since Sebastian left, a bright light engulfed the room, and after it left he was standing in its wake. He held a book of some kind in his hands; he ran up to the edge of the pond and smiled at me. “I’ve done it Pinkie, I know how to get you out of there, and how to help you get back at your so-called friends.” He said the last few words with a noticeable amount of venom in his voice. Normally I would be against revenge, or payback, or whatever you want to call it. My job, my purpose in life as dictated by my cutie mark, was to make people smile. But sometimes, you can’t stop yourself from doing something you know is wrong. So I smiled and nodded to Sebastian, and mentally prepared myself for the eventual revenge.

As Sebastian started to set up some sigils and chant something from the book I started to imagine my revenge. “Maybe I just won’t invite them to my parties for a while, then again how long is a while, a year?” I shook away the thought, “A year is way too long, maybe a month, not too short, maybe…” My internal ramblings were cut off by Sebastian.

“All right we are all set.” he said, “time to save you.” He threw off his normal trench coat, leaving his T-shirt that said “Pink Floyd” on it, and his jeans. He chanted another spell from the book, and removed his shoes. Finally he took off his shirt and pants, leaving his naked body exposed to the elements. “This has to work, this has to work.” He started chanting to himself, while using his hands to cover his manhood. “All right, here we go.” He walked on the water of the pond and stood in the center, once there he yelled, “Yeht llac em Raef, deeh ym llac.” And the world around us changed.

The water of the pool began to rise and swirl around Sebastian. It roared and screeched, causing blood to flow from my ears. He extended his hands, causing the water to swirl around his hands. Finally he said something that I couldn’t hear and the water began to flow into his fingers. The veins in his arms glowed a bright white, before fading to a soft silver. His sapphire blue eyes changed to the color of his veins, a metallic silver. He turned his attention to me, and extended a hand. The water of my prison rose to meet him, pulling me along. Finally as I was lifted into the air in a small bubble of water, he flicked his hand to the side, causing the water to deposit me on the ground nearby. Sebastian pointed in my direction, and the water flew into my chest.

The water punched a hole in me and began to spread throughout my body. It poured into my veins and mixed with my blood. I looked up at Sebastian who was faring worse. He was bent over, blood was pouring from his mouth, and bit by bit his veins lost any hint of red. I realized that he was bonding with the Mirror Pond. And, to a certain extent, so was I. I could feel the rush of magic, powerful magic. It was filling me, drowning out the pain of the hole in my chest. I could only imagine how Sebastian was feeling, as he was bonding with the entire pond. Through a mix of euphoria and pain, the bonding process finished, and I passed out.

Once I awoke I could already tell that I had changed. I could feel the magic of the pond flowing through me. Sebastian was lying in the spot where the pond once was. Not a single drop of the pond was left in the crater that once housed it. In it’s place a large puddle of human blood, and a little pony blood, was all that I could see. “Are you okay?” I called. He lifted his head, grumbling while he did so. “Sebastian?”

“Pinkie! You’re okay.”

I smiled, that was a true friend, one who put his friend before himself. I walked over to him and embraced him tightly. He blushed a little at this, as he was still naked, but returned the hug. “What happened Sebastian?”

“I absorbed the Mirror Pond, and all of it’s magic. With the exception of a small amount which I gave to you.” As he said this he forced some of the water out from his fingers. The water formed into a small ball, floating above the center of his hand. I looked into the ball, and inside was me. It was me, trapped beneath the pond again. “I haven’t quite gotten the hang of how it works yet, but it should be more than sufficient for you to go and get some payback.” he said as he crushed the ball in his hand.

“Well then I guess we’d better get moving.” I said, turning to allow Sebastian the opportunity to put back on his clothes. I guess that’s one aspect of Earth that I’ll never understand, the whole ‘nudity as a taboo’ thing.

“Where to first?” Sebastian questioned as pulled up his jeans.

Inside me the magic of the pond pulsed, it almost felt like it was licking its non-existent lips in anticipation. “Well clearly we have to go and give me a piece of my mind.”

I'm me, not you

Through the Mirror Pond
Chapter 1: I’m me, not you

It was a fairly normal day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the clouds were mostly clear, with the exception of the ones Rainbow left around for napping. It was a simple day, and it was a day that Pinkie Pie had to herself. Ever since the whole ‘clone’ incident she had worked very hard to make it up to the ponies of Ponyville. She spent a lot of time after work doing odd jobs for everypony. She did this for nearly four months, before all of Ponyville threw a huge, “we forgive you Pinkie Pie” party. Since then she still helped out whenever she could, but she spent more time hanging out with her friends. After much consideration she had decided that today was a day for hanging out with Twilight.

Pinkie bounced over to Twilight’s house, eager to spend some quality time with her friend. “Hello Twilight, wakey wakey.” Pinkie said, while knocking at the door. Twilight opened the door, despite not having done her mane yet. “You know Twilight you really should take better care of your mane, Rarity’ll be furious.” Twilight smiled and let Pinkie inside.

Books were strewn around the library, indicating that Twilight’s disheveled state was the result of an all-night study session. Pinkie sat herself down in the middle of the room on top of a pile of books. “So Pinkie Pie, how have you been? How’s life at Sugarcube Corner?” Twilight asked. Pinkie’s expression deflated somewhat, “The twins still don’t recognize you?”

Pinkie nodded solemnly, “I tried to throw them a party yesterday and they just cried, I don’t get it.”

Twilight hugged her distraught friend, “Someday, it must’ve been emotionally traumatizing to them to see your clones, it takes time for that kind of trauma to heal.” Pinkie returned her hug with a smile, “Good, now let me get us some tea.” As Twilight left the room Spike entered, a red bowtie wrapped around his neck.

“Heya Spike, going somewhere ‘fancy’.” Pinkie said, adding a Rarity impersonation on the last word.

“Hi Pinkie, and yes, Rarity wants to pay me back for all of the hard work I’ve done for her, so we’re going out to lunch!” Spike responded in a giddy tone. “Twilight doesn’t think that it’s a date, but it totally is.”

“No it isn’t.” calls a voice from the kitchen.

“Yes it is.” Spike calls back. “Anyway I’ll see you later.” But as Spike opened the door a grey pegasus burst through it.

“Message for Pinkie Pie.” she said as she left a message on the table for Pinkie. And with that the grey pegasus flew off, just as quickly as she came.

“I wonder what it says.” Pinkie giggled aloud to herself. The envelope containing the message was colored pink and dotted with hearts. Pinkie opened the letter, and read its contents aloud. “Dear Pinkie Pie: I’ve watched you from a afar for a long time now, but I want to be honest with myself and you, I love you.” Twilight walked back into the room with the tea tray, and sat it down in front of them. “I want to talk with you for the first time, I want to show you how much I love you. Please meet me near the barn at Sweet Apple Acres tonight, and I can show you something amazing, me.”

Twilight shivered at the letter’s contents. “Well that felt unnecessarily creepy.”

“Oh come on Twilight, whoever it is they’re just nervous.” Pinkie said.

“’I’ve watch you from afar’” Twilight mimicked, “’I can show you something amazing, me’.” A shiver shot down her spine, “This is insanely creepy, and you really should just ignore it.”

Pinkie inhaled sharply, “But Twilight I can’t hurt this poor pony’s feelings.”

Twilight face hoofed, “They didn’t leave their gender or their name!”

“Like I said, nervous.” Pinkie rebutted.

Twilight’s face met her hoof again, harder this time. “Alright fine, but let me and the girls come with you.” Twilight stopped her before continuing, “A Pinkie Promise.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes before saying and motioning, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Journal entry #2 of Sebastian King

After finding the cave with the pink pony trapped inside I’ve become more and more interested in it. The poor dear is trapped underneath the waters, seemingly beyond some kind of dimensional barrier. I don’t know why, but I’ve found myself drawn to the pond. It’s almost like I know it from somewhere else.

The rest of the day had passed without much of anything happening. Pinkie Pie went to all of her friends and showed them the letter, receiving the same response every time. She didn’t understand how they could be so afraid of a love struck pony. Clearly whoever wrote this letter was just a scared pony, it was probably the first time that they had asked a pony out. And while she did promise, Pinkie Promise no less, that she would let them be there with her, she never promised that she couldn’t be there a little early. “I’m only going a few minutes early, that’ll give the pony time to confess…” She stopped once she reached the barn and found her mystery suitor, or suitors. One was a pony, hidden behind the other creature. The other creature was a human; something that Pinkie had assumed wasn’t real. “Um… hello.” And in that one instance Pinkie started to regret coming out here alone, particularly when she got a good look at the pony.

It was she. It was a complete copy, the pony in front of her was Pinkie pie. The only difference was a silvery glint in this other Pinkie’s eyes. “Hello ‘faker’.” The other Pinkie crooned. The other Pinkie started towards the clone Pinkie, “It’s been a while, how’s it been, being me and all.” Clone Pinkie slowly backed away, allowing the love letter to drop to the ground. “Now is that anyway to treat another pony’s feelings.” She dramatically clutched her chest, “I’m hurt faker.”

The clone stopped, her eyes welling with tears. “You wrote that?” The other Pinkie nodded, “Why?”

The human stepped forward, “Because she wants her life back, and we needed to get you away from your friends.” He extended a hand, a silvery substance floating around it. “They’d try to protect you after all.”

The clone Pinkie didn’t waste any time, she bolted in the other direction. She locked her eyes on the Apple family residence, she didn’t even look back to see how close the two were to her. A chuckle from behind her signaled that they had yet to give up their quarry, pushing her forward, faster. Once she was within earshot of the building she started to scream, “HELP, HELP ME.” She screamed and screamed, hoping that somepony would hear her and help her. A large red earth pony stallion rushed forward to greet her, and the clone collapsed into his arms. “HELP, THEY”RE TRYING TO KILL ME, HELP.” She kept screaming and crying into Big Macintosh’s coat, and he cast his glance towards the two figures chasing clone Pinkie.

Although they were chasing her they didn’t seem to be in a hurry. The human and the real Pinkie Pie were just walking towards the clone. “I’ll handle the stallion, you can have the clone to yourself.” Pinkie stopped the human and glared at him, “I’m just going to scare him, honestly you think too little of me.” Big Macintosh stared at him and took a fighting stance, “I’ll give you a chance to step aside” the human said, “just because I’m a nice guy.”

Big Mac continued to stand his ground and said, “You said you were going to scare me, I don’t scare easily boy.”

The human summoned up the silvery substance again, “Good, I need a challenge.” The silvery substance swirled around his hand, forming into a small mirror.

Pinkie approached the clone Pinkie at the same time, “You like him, he’s the one who rescued me from the pond.” Clone Pinkie realized what her other self meant. The Pinkie Pie in front of her was the ‘original’ the one that spawned the clones, one of which was her. “He’s getting a little too much into the whole ‘bad guy’ role, but I couldn’t ask for a better friend.”

The clone sobbed and muttered, “I’m sorry.” The original Pinkie Pie stopped, “I’m so sorry, and I’ll get Twilight to put me back into the pond, please just don’t hold it against them.”

The real Pinkie Pie found herself questioning her newly found vengeance motive. She was still mad at her friends, but this clone didn’t do anything wrong. The clones all thought that they were the real one, so it was just doing what she would’ve done. But if that was the truth, which she assumed it was, then she shouldn’t be mad at the clone. The hatred started to subside; she started to find herself scared that she came out here, wanting to murder her clone. “But she deserves it.” A voice in Pinkie’s head called, “She’s the reason that you were trapped under that pond for seven months."

“That wasn’t nice.” Pinkie muttered.

“I know, and I’m really sorry…” the clone started to say.

“She’s just a clone, she shouldn’t exist, but while she’s here don’t you want her to feel just a fraction of the loneliness, and the despair that you felt?” the voice murmured.

“Yeah, kind of.” Pinkie admitted. She did want them to feel what she felt. She wanted them to understand how scared she was, how hopeless she felt. The clone had walked up to her and wrapped her in an apologetic hug. She hated it. She wanted to kill the clone, and now she was showing kindness. “What do I do?” Pinkie asked the voice.

“Show her what you went through.” The voice said, egging her on. “She wants to go back to the pond, show her what it was like.”

The clone Pinkie looked up at Pinkie Pie, whose eyes started to turn silver. “Um, is everything OK?” Pinkie’s eyes turned completely silver, they seemed almost liquid in nature. And the clone Pinkie made the mistake of looking straight into them. When the clone’s eyes met Pinkie’s they weren’t met with her normal blue eyes. What she saw was a mirror, and what she saw in that mirror was fear.

The first thing she saw was a dark void. It was nothingness, no other ponies, no critters, not even a small bug. It was empty, true emptiness. “Lonely” that was the only word that crossed her mind, the only word that escaped her lips. She looked around, but found nothing. There were no homes, there were no shops, just nothing. Just the ground, and the sky, completely devoid of life; a sight that scared her so bad, all she could do, was scream.

Twilight ran in the direction of the screaming, her friends in hot pursuit. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and even Mr. and Mrs. Cake had shown up to discuss the love letter. All of them had deemed the letter suspicious at best, rapey at worst. And now screams were coming from the direction of the farm, where the letter said to meet her. “If anything happened to her…” Mr. Cake muttered as they ran, “I’ll deck the one responsible.”

Rainbow Dash flew beside Twilight, slowing her pace down to match the unicorn. “Who would want to do anything to Pinkie Pie?” Her question seemed reasonable, “you think it has something to do with the whole ‘clone’ thing?”

Twilight nodded, “I can’t imagine another reason, though still, the idea that they want to hurt her.” Twilight shuddered, “But we can’t worry about why, not right now, we need to focus on getting her out of there.” Another scream echoed through the night sky. This scream was more masculine, one that Applejack knew too well.

“BIG MAC.” AJ screamed. She ran ahead, moving faster than even Rainbow Dash. The group followed closely behind her, pushing themselves to go faster. Once they arrived Applejack continued to rush towards her brother’s attacker. A human man stood nearby, a globe of silver liquid floating in his hand. “You dare touch mah brother.” She screamed as she charged at him.

The human dodged out of the way, and the globe in his hand glowed brightly. “So you’re the sister, something tells me that you’ll be the same as him.” The globe sprouted a long winding, almost tentacle-like, appendage that shot out at Applejack. The tentacle pierced the center of Applejack’s head, spearing through her skull.

“APPLEJACK.” Rarity cried out and turned to the human, “I’LL DESTROY YOU.” Rarity charged at the man, screaming a battle cry. A similar liquid flowed into the man’s free hand, and it formed into a small club. He flicked the club upwards as Rarity grew closer, hitting her under the chin and sending her stumbling backwards.

“This isn’t even a fraction of what you did to her.” He pointed over to the barn entrance, where two Pinkie Pie’s were entwined in a hug, and one was screaming. The human flicked his hand to the side, causing the tentacle to retract from Applejack’s skull. The strange thing being that there was no hole where the appendage had struck. “You trapped her in purgatory, and now you’re going to sit here and wait, for her judgment.”

The two Pinkies’ broke off from their hug, with the one who was screaming falling to the ground. The Pinkie Pie left standing turned to her ‘friends’, the silver glint having left her eyes. The clone Pinkie curled herself into a small ball, still sobbing softly. The original Pinkie Pie looked from Big Macintosh to Applejack, and refocused her attention to her human friend. “Sebastian, you said that you wouldn’t hurt them!”

Sebastian shook his head and said, “Not true, I said that I’d just scare them, which is exactly what I’ve done.” Applejack started to get up, with Rarity running to her side. “Your are strange, I can honestly say that I was surprised.” Applejack growled under her breath at him.

“What have you done with Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash screamed as she flew into the original Pinkie Pie’s face. The real Pinkie backed away, tears welling in her eyes. Her mouth turned to a sad frown, which quickly turned into a horrifying scowl.

“I am Pinkie Pie.” she said, “The one you knew for the last seven months, was a fake.”

Everything clicked in Twilight’s head. “You’re the real one, you’ve been in the Mirror Pond, for seven months?” The real Pinkie Pie nodded, “Oh Celestia, we did this to you?”

Sebastian stood between Pinkie and Twilight, “Yes” he said, “and now, she gets her revenge.” Pinkie Pie walked up to him and put a hoof on his shoulder. “What’s the matter?”

Pinkie Pie stood facing Twilight, her eyes burning. “I hate you.” she said, “I hate you so much.” Twilight backed away, but Pinkie kept walking towards her, “You couldn’t tell, You, the smartest unicorn I know, couldn’t tell the real me from a fake?” Pinkie spat at Twilight, “I can’t believe you.”

“HELP, HELP HER.” Rainbow screamed as she flew towards the clone Pinkie Pie. The real Pinkie Pie glanced over at the clone’s prone form, nearly throwing up in the process. The clone Pinkie’s eyes were glazed over, her irises as white as the eyes around them. Her mouth was covered in blood, the red sticky substance flowing openly from her mouth. Twilight rushed to the clone’s side and pushed her onto her back, only to discover that the clone had bitten off chunks of her legs, which was causing much of the blood loss.

“I don’t want to be alone I don’t want to be alone I don’t want to be alone I don’t want to be alone I don’t want to be alone.” The clone kept muttering over and over.

“You aren’t alone Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow Dash assured, “We’re here for you, I’m here for you.”

The clone’s eyes returned to normal, and met with Rainbow Dash’s. “Dashie?” She closed her eyes, and her breathing stopped. Rainbow Dash’s screams were heard throughout the night.

Silence Broken

Through the Mirror Pond
Chapter 3: Silence broken

Journal entry #3, of Sebastian King

All of my attempts to free the pink pony from her pond prison have failed. It seems as though it’s more of a mirror dimension, possibly she isn’t even really trapped in it, maybe it’s like a webcam aimed at some castle or something. I found myself sleeping by it. I tried to justify sleeping in a cave next to a potentially harmful magical pool by saying that it was to keep the pink pony company. But I woke up this morning with my hand dipped into the pool, and when I pulled it away, it wasn’t even wet.

After an impromptu burial for the clone Pinkie Pie, the mane six, plus Sebastian, reconvened at Twilight’s home. The Cakes decided to go back home, they said that they would talk to Pinkie once she went back to Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie continued to scowl at her friends, none of whom could meet her gaze. Rainbow Dash, her former BFF, scowled back at her as she sat in the corner of the room. Her face contorted into a frown, her eyes red from the tears that she had shed over a clone. That realization bit the pink pony harder than anything else. The cyan pegasus, who she once called her best friend, was upset with her for rightfully regaining her place as the real Pinkie Pie.

“All right then,” Twilight spoke up, “Pinkie Pie, we are so sorry for what happened to you, I wish that we could have done something…”

“You could have!” Pinkie screamed, “How could you not tell the difference between me, and some fake me?”

“I can tell the difference now.” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“I don’t think that you’re treating Pinkie the way she deserves after what you all put her through,” Sebastian chimed in, “You especially, being her former best friend,” he said, making sure to strain the ‘former’ part.

“You know, you’re right.” Rainbow Dash said standing up, “so how about we start over?” Rainbow cleared her throat and flew to the base of Pinkie’s hooves, acting as though she was groveling. “Hello, I’m Rainbow Dash, please don’t show me horrors beyond my imagination and make me kill myself.”

“If you want to die you should just say so,” said Sebastian through clenched teeth. “I promised Pinkie Pie that I’d let her take care of you, but if she doesn’t want to…” a snaking silver tentacle poked its way out of Sebastian’s arm, “then I can play with you for a while.”

Pinkie closed her eyes and turned away, holding back tears. The others all screamed at Rainbow, and told her to back off. Sebastian stood back down, leaning against a nearby wall, turning away from Pinkie’s former friends. “Whatever,” the pink pony managed to say through choking back tears, “I’m leaving, I need some time alone.” She turned to the door and ran out into the calm of Luna’s night. Sebastian followed her back outside, he started shuffling around nervously. “I meant it, I need some time alone, I need to think about what comes next.”

“I know, I…” he paused and took a deep breath, “I’m sorry, for trying to start a fight in there.” Pinkie smiled, and sniffled a bit. “I just got mad is all, I’m sorry, if you really want to forgive your friends, then I have no right to sabotage that.” Pinkie said nothing, simply staring off towards Sugarcube Corner. “All right I’ve said my piece,” he said gruffly, “I’ll be in the forest if you need me.” With that he walked off, leaving Pinkie with only one more place to go. The pink pony choked back the rest of her tears and started walking towards the bakery she once called home.

Pinkie slowly stepped through the doors into Sugarcube Corner. Everything looked exactly as it was before; and in the center of the lobby were the Cakes. Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake crawled their way over to Pinkie. “Pinkie,” they said in unison, “Pinkie’s home.” The pink earth pony let the tears flow from her eyes, and grabbed the two infants in a big hug.

“Yeah Pinkie’s home,” she said through the tears, “I’m home, the real me.” She lifted the twins up and started rocking them back and forth. “Let auntie Pinkie sing you a bedtime song okay.” The twins nodded eagerly, while still trying to wrap their hooves around her to return her hug. “It’s sleepy time, it’s sleepy time, it’s time to go to sleep.” Pinkie started walking the twins back to their bedroom, crooning the lullaby as she went. “Take a walk through a lollipop forest, and swim in a rainbow sea, its sleepy time, its sleepy time, now close your eyes and dream.” As Pinkie finished the song she set the twins into their cradles, their eyes already closed.

Pinkie Pie slowly trotted back downstairs, carefully so as not to wake the twins. Once she was back downstairs the Cakes were already waiting for her, their arms open. “Dear, we’re so happy that you’re home, why don’t we all sit down for some of your favorite cupcakes, and then we’ll turn in for the night?” Mrs. Cake offered, as she opened her arms for a hug. Pinkie stood there, unresponsive, she stared at the Cakes, the silver glint returning to her eyes.

“You two, of all ponies,” she started, “neither of you, neither one, could tell the difference.”

Mr. Cake walked forward, “Now Pinkie, you saw her, how she acted, she was an exact replica of you, none of us could tell.”

“You know I was almost starting to buy that,” Pinkie said, “but the twins knew, didn’t they.” Both of the Cakes froze, “I was like a daughter to both of you, and neither of you could tell, but two one-year olds, they knew.”

“They make you angry don’t they,” the voice in Pinkie’s head added, “they should fear you, you are an element of harmony, and now you are even stronger.” Pinkie shook her head, trying to silence the voice. “These two called themselves your friends, your family away from family, yet they betrayed you.”

“Pinkie Pie you know that we’re sorry…” Mrs. Cake started to say.

“Shut up!” Pinkie screamed, “Everypony shut up!”

“You should make them fear you.” The voice continued.

“Pinkie Pie, don’t you talk like that to me or especially not my wife!” Mr. Cake yelled.

“Stop it.” Pinkie collapsed on the ground, her hooves over her ears, “Stop.”

“Do exactly what you did to the fake, show them what you went through.”

“Pinkie please talk to us,” begged Mrs. Cake.

“I can’t do that.” Pinkie mumbled.

“Why not?” cooed the voice.

“Because that’ll hurt them,” Pinkie responded, “and despite all that’s happened I don’t want to hurt the Cakes.”

“Pinkie, nothing that you say will hurt us.” Mr. Cake said in an assuring voice, “We understand that what happened to you was horrid, and we want to help you get better.”

Mr. Cake embraced Pinkie, causing the voice to get louder. “They are practically begging you, show them what you went through, be at peace.”

Pinkie broke from the hug, gasping and breathing hard, “I need to go away for a little, I’m just not sure what’ll happen if I… if I.” She stood up and bolted for the door, “I’m sorry, I’ll explain later.”

Pinkie ran out into the night, rushing towards the inn at the other end of town. Once there she stopped to catch her breath, gasping and wheezing. “I can’t… I can’t stay here… I…”

“Why not?” called a voice from behind her, “finally realized that maybe you and your new friend, Sebastian, should live in the forest like the animals you are.” Pinkie turned around to see Rainbow Dash staring her in the face. “The others wanted me to go and apologize for how I acted at the library,” Rainbow explained, “not that I plan on apologizing to you.”

Pinkie shook her head and growled at Rainbow Dash, “What is your problem with me?”

Rainbow wheeled back, her mouth agape, “What’s my problem?” Pinkie nodded in response. “What, you mean aside from the fact that you led a human with crazy powers into town, and within the first few minutes he had already knocked out Big Macintosh, Applejack, and Rarity, all of whom are friends of mine.”

“I’m sorry for what Sebastian and I did…” Pinkie tried to say, before Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

“Well if you must know,” Rainbow said while she turned away from Pinkie Pie, “you killed my marefriend.”

Act I-I: Disloyalty

Through the Mirror Pond
Act I-I: Disloyalty

Journal of Sebastian King, entry #5

“Why?” I’ve asked myself that question far too many times to count. Why did I come to this world? Why have I believed in magic my whole life, when all signs pointed against it? Why am I so obsessed with this one goddamn pool? Why can’t I get inside it? Why can’t I help one stinking creature? Why must even my success be marred with failure? Will my only legacy be the small transdimensional device I hold in my hand? Actually, there’s the real question. Why did the Zoner bring me here?

Twilight sat at the table of her library desk, with a human sitting across from her. Sebastian King, the human who somehow managed to free Pinkie Pie from the Mirror Pond, sat across from her, fidgeting impatiently.

“So then,” Twilight started, “we should start by pooling our information, if we can find out why your device brought you here maybe we can figure out a way to go to your world.”

“What information do you need?” Sebastian asked.

“Well, for starters how did you get Pinkie out of the Mirror Pond?”

“I don’t know,” Sebastian responded with a shrug, “some chick back on Earth gave me this book,” he pulled a large ratty tome out of his jacket, “I chanted something that she told me to say, and then me and the Pond... came together, at least I think that’s how it worked.”

Twilight grasped the aging book in her magic, she started flipping from page to page, “well what did you say?”

“Yeht llac em Raef, deeh ym llac, niojer, rof ew era eno.”

Twilight continued flipping pages, seemingly uninterested in everything that the book had to offer. “Why is none of this helpful?” She screamed, tossing the book to the ground, “all of this is about the Elements of Harmony, nothing about Fear, or ponds...”

“Elements of Harmony?” Sebastian questioned, arching an eyebrow, “I thought that it said Elements of Chaos?” Twilight peeked at the book, and found that nothing was written in it. Sebastian grabbed the book in his hands and flipped back to the index. “Elements of Chaos, a reference guide, then it lists a few chapter titles, but nothing about ‘Harmony’.”

“So it changes what’s written in it based on who holds it?” Twilight’s eyes lit up, “Spike,” she called, “Spike.”
The baby dragon started coming down the steps, grumbling as he did so. “What is it Twilight, some of us do need sleep you know.”

“I need your help, quickly, with an experiment. Take the book from Sebastian, and tell me what’s written in it.”

Spike grumbled and growled under his breath, but obeyed Twilight’s request. He grabbed the book in his claws and flipped from page to page. After a few second of page flipping and quizzical looks he handed the book back to Sebastian. “There isn’t anything written in it, not a single...” his voice trailed off as he glanced back at the book, now that it was back in Sebastian’s hands. The blank page that he had flipped to was suddenly filled with words, and a large diagram, similar to the Elements of Harmony diagram, lay in the center.

“The Elements of Chaos,” Sebastian read aloud, “these represent the creation of chaos in civilization. The Elements are Fear, Greed, Change, Cunning, Consumption, and Anarchy.”

Twilight ran to Sebastian’s side and looked at the book’s contents, and there it was, the Elements of Chaos were staring right back at her. “So I was right,” the dragon and the human both gave her confused looks, “when I held it in my magic it was about the Elements of Harmony, when you hold it its about the Elements of Chaos, when Spike held it...”

“So it shows the Elements of the person holding it, in your case Harmony because you’re the Element of Magic, in my case Chaos...”

“Since you’re the Element of Fear!” Twilight finished.

“That’s great!” Sebastian yelled, “so tell me smartass, how does this help us figure out how to get Rainbow Dash, and more importantly the invention of the millenium, back from Earth?”

“Well,” Twilight stammered, “did anything strange happen to you near the Pond?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, “I would stick my hand into it, and it came back dry. When I was close to it I felt like I knew more about magic than I should. I started to have really weird nightmares actually.”

“What kind of nightmares?”

“It was weird, I dreamt that I... was alone, actually.” Twilight’s ears flattened against her head, images of what a certain pink party pony must’ve went through clouding her mind. “There were other people there, but none of them could see me, or maybe they didn’t want to.”

“It sounds a lot like...” Spike started before Twilight cut him off.

“What Pinkie Pie went through.” Twilight finished, “is that why you were so angry at us?”

“Partly,” Sebastian admitted, “the dream started with me at my college, back on Earth. There are a whole bunch of my colleagues there, and there is some kind of party going on. They all talk, drink, and trade stories of the awesome things that they did, but my name never comes up.” Sebastian’s voice got lower, “almost like I didn’t exist, or even worse, that I didn’t matter.”

Twilight motioned for Spike to go upstairs, which he did immediately without delay. The room was silent for minutes, before Twilight finally spoke up. “Maybe, it was fate that brought you and Pinkie Pie together.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Sebastian said, “I hate the very idea, however miniscule, that my actions aren’t my own.” He chuckled slightly before continuing, “maybe that’s why I’m an Element of Chaos, if fate did exist I’d oppose it at every turn.” The human laid the book out on the table before him and Twilight, the page retaining it’s information on the Elements of Chaos. “Come to think of it, maybe, and its a small-ass maybe, but maybe there is something to that whole ‘fate’ thing, or at the very least something that controls us.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, “something that isn’t fate, but is?”

“Well,” Sebastian began, “I haven’t really thought about it until now but, I come from a world that doesn’t have magical talking ponies, hell we don’t even have any mythology relating to anything like that.” The human took a large swig of his tea, “but I’ve just been completely accepting of all of this, not just magic and flying, but when I first met Pinkie Pie I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t confused, I didn’t have a normal reaction.”

“So you’re saying that while you don’t believe in fate, there is something that’s strange about all of this.” Sebastian nodded his head, so Twilight continued, “well, I suppose that its entirely possible that it has something to do with you bonding with the pond.”

“But like I just said, I didn’t have a reaction when I first met Pinkie Pie.”

“That could be explained as a kind of moral reflex, you wanted so badly to help her that you didn’t stop to question what she was.”

“It would seriously help if I had my invention,” Sebastian lamented, “as much as I do love some poetic waxing about fate and such, and deliberately offering help without receiving any in return.”

Twilight scowled at him, “I can help you, I could formulate some kind of tracking spell, and the Princess could probably help you get back to Earth. I just wanted to make sure that you would give some information about all of this in return.”

“Ah, I see,” Sebastian said with a sarcastic grin, “so you can be as untrusting and paranoid of me as you want, but the second that I reciprocate some of that...”

“It is perfectly natural for me to be cautious of you. For one you are a creature that I’ve never seen before,”

“As you are to me,” Sebastian countered.

“But you’re on MY world, not yours.”

“You know Pinkie Pie told me that Generosity was a virtue to you people.”

“Ponies, and yes, hence why I’ll contact the Princess in the morning, then she can help you.”

“So what you’re telling me is, you are putting me on hold while my call is redirected.” Twilight looked at him quizzically, “never mind, you wouldn’t get it.”

“Anyway,” Twilight interjected, “we need to know more about these, Elements of Chaos.”

“Maybe you do, I for one am perfectly fine with the information I have now.”

Twilight stumbled back shocked, “so you’re enough of a scientific mind to invent a device to travel between worlds, but you don’t have any sense of discovery, you don’t want to know about what is, undoubtedly, the biggest magical discovery in several decades.”

Sebastian sat still for a minute before responding, “you done?” Twilight nodded, “good, because, while I do have a sense of discovery, I’m not interested in your magical discovery nonsense. I want to know how Rainbow Dash knew about my device, and seemingly knew enough to operate it.” The human finished, and began sending a glare Twilight’s direction.

“Wait, you suspect that I had something to do with this?” Twilight asked, shocked. Sebastian silently nodded, staring unblinkingly at Twilight, “well I didn’t. I didn’t even know what this machine was until you told me just now.”

“If you’ll excuse my generalizations,” Sebastian began, “then how did the stupid one,”

“Rainbow Dash isn’t stupid!” Twilight screamed. She calmed down before she continued, “she’s just been acting weird, ever since... ever since Pinkie Pie came back.”

Sebastian chuckled, “well, then I guess we’re back to square one then. Rainbow Dash has the Zoner, somehow knowing how to operate it, and she is on Earth, no doubt causing an insane amount of panic as an alien creature walks around with a machine that could bring her and many, less lovable humans, back to your world without you knowing.”

Twilight loudly gulped, “you’re right, we need to work together.” The lavender unicorn sighed, and extended her hoof out to the human in front of her. “I’m sorry for being so suspicious of you, it wasn’t fair, you’re completely right about that. No matter how I justify it, though I still believe I could, we’re discussing an interworld incident, playing out right in front of us.”

“Thank you, I will consider forgiving you in the future, for now though...”

“Wait, I’ve got it!” Twilight screamed.

“Wow, and we’ve only been working together for a few seconds,” Sebastian said, with an air of sarcastic excitement in his voice.

“You were asking the right question, how did she know about the machine, and how did she know how to work it?”

“Well yeah, that was the question I asked,” Sebastian replied. “So you have an idea?”

“Yes, and it relates to the Elements of Chaos,” Twilight answered. “If you are the Element of Chaos, and come from Earth, then it isn’t that much of a stretch to imagine that all six Elements of Chaos come from Earth.”

The gears turned in the human’s head, “so what you’re saying, is that Rainbow might’ve been corrupted by one of the Elements of Chaos.”

“Yes, but it would have to be someone close to you, after all they would have to know about your machine, and how it works.”

“I can think of a few, there were a couple of people back at Harvard that really didn’t like me, you really can’t revolutionize quantum physics without making enemies.”

“Anyone specifically who would fit into one of the other five Elements?”

Sebastian pondered this, his hand to his chin and eyes shut in thought. “A couple of them actually, I can think of three people who would fit one of those categories.”

Twilight gazed at him expectantly, “well who are they, are you guys friends, and what Elements do they represent?”

Sebastian shrugged, “I didn’t really go to college to make friends, I can remember that there was this one skinny kid who ate a lot, I’m assuming that would be consumption. I remember an anarchist in one of my chemistry classes. And there was this one guy, he was douchey, self-centered, and pretty damn stupid, perfect fit for the selfishness one.”

Twilight’s features grew downcast, “so he must be the one that’s corrupted her, none of the other ones make sense, but Selfishness...”

“Perfect fit, in more ways than one,” Twilight shot him a quizzical look before he went on, “I was singled out by that kid more than once, he thought that I ‘didn’t deserve’ the money that I got to build the Zoner.”

“Well we’ll have to figure this out tomorrow, the Princess probably isn’t even awake at this hour. Besides if we ask her tomorrow then maybe she’ll even come down here and help you personally get back to Earth.”

Sebastian stood up to leave, “well then I guess i’ll see you tomorrow, I’m heading back to that forest.”

“The Everfree Forest! Alone at night!” Twilight shouted.

“Well yeah, that’s where I’ve been the last few days.”

Twilight bit her lip, “well, any friend of Pinkie Pie’s is a friend of mine. You can stay in my guest room if you want.”

“You sure?” Twilight nodded in response, “well, I won’t turn down an offer for free housing.” The human allowed Twilight to escort him downstairs, into her basement where she set up a cot for him to sleep on.

That night he dreamed of his old classmate, who somehow wielded powers similar to his own, slaying him with Rainbow Dash’s help.

Interlude: Dashing away

Through the Mirror Pond
Interlude: Dashing away

Journal of Sebastian King, entry #4

“The pond, I just don’t know anymore. I want to understand it, I want to use it, I want it back. Wait what did I just write, by the Gods this pond is messing with me. I need to figure out what’s going on and fast. This ‘Pinkie’ isn’t the only one at stake anymore.”

Rainbow Dash, flying as fast as her wings would allow, sped towards her cloud home. She slammed through the front door, and collapsed in a pile at the end of the room. Tears flew fast and hard from her eyes, clouding her vision. The only thing that she could see, was a broken picture frame on the floor. The picture was of her and the Pinkie Pie clone, on their first date. She gritted her teeth, and tried to force back the remaining tears. The cyan pegasus grabbed the shattered picture and frame and held them close to her chest. Rainbow Dash could still remember the day she confessed, five months ago.

Pinkie Pie had insisted that she make it up to each of her friends individually, and one day she and Dash had hung out by the lake, as her repayment back to Dash. The cyan pegasus remembered how she had been planning to tell Pinkie about how she felt for a while now, and her thoughts flew back to the moment of truth, at the wall of paint. She was scared, really scared, that Pinkie was going to be gone forever. So that day at the lake Rainbow told Pinkie how she felt, and the next day the two went out on a date.

Rainbow managed to collect herself, and picked herself up off of the floor. The shattered picture frame had cut into her chest, dripping blood into the picture itself. “Rainbow Dash!” screamed a voice from the door, or where the door used to be, “you’re hurt.” The voice belonged to Twilight who, along with Applejack and Fluttershy, was standing in her home.

“So now everypony cares, huh?” Rainbow muttered bitterly, “didn’t seem very interested in how I felt when Pinkie was bleeding to death...”

“Um, I think you mean the clone, unless I’m missing something...” squeaked Fluttershy.

“If anypony deserves the title of not-Pinkie then I think it should go to the one who hangs out with a creepy human who attacks people.” Dash retorted, “she’s the clone, my cupcake was more Pinkie then her.”

“Dash I understand how frustrated you must be...” Twilight started in a soothing tone.

Dash leapt from where she stood, and flew right into Twilight’s face, “no Twilight you don’t.” The cyan speedster swallowed back another torrent of tears, right now she needed to convince her friends about the evils of ‘new Pinkie’, mourning her beloved cupcake could come later. “I loved her, and I watched her die, because of what that- what that- what that horrible monster pretending to be our friend did to her!”

“Dash!” cried Applejack, “this isn’t the time to be angry, what we did to that Pinkie, whether she’s different or not, was wrong, she needs to know that we feel sorry, and that we’ll be there for her now.” The apple farmer wrapped Rainbow in friendly hug, “that much time, without anypony around, it’d drive somepony mad.”

“Yes,” Twilight started, still reeling from Dash’s outburst, “and first and foremost we need to comfort Pinkie Pie, figuring out who, or what, this Sebastian King is comes later.”

Dash jumped back from Applejack and stared back at Twilight, “he’s evil, that’s what he is.” She swiveled her head back and forth, gauging her friends reactions. “Guys, seriously, look at the magic he was using, I mean AJ, what’d he do to you?”

Applejack winced, and stared at the cloudy floor, “I’d rather not talk about it.” She brought her gaze back up, and was greeted by the inquisitive looks of her friends. “But if I must, he made me... see things, things I didn’t like, things that scared me.”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped, “and that didn’t tip you off and make you think, ‘hmm maybe he’s evil?’” Dash stomped towards her kitchen putting the shattered picture frame back in its proper place, “he’s evil, and so is the monster who killed my cupcake.”

“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, the real Pinkie Pie, is alive, that is what matters,” said Twilight angrily, “you can start a relationship with the real Pinkie, once she trusts us again.”

“That. Thing. Isn’t. My. Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash screamed.

Applejack punched Rainbow Dash in the face, sending her into her cloud cupboards, “stop making this about you!” The farm pony started crying, with Fluttershy following suit, “do you understand what it must’ve been like, hoping and praying for somepony to come and rescue you, and when you finally meet your friends again, one of them attacks you.”

“Well maybe if she hadn’t attacked my marefriend I would’ve thought more about talking to her.” Rainbow replied bitterly, “but as it stands I’m not planning on trying to make amends with her, the way I see it, we’re even.” Dash flew past her friends, leaving her house in tears.

Rainbow Dash flew towards the edge of town, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious human that not-Pinkie was hanging around with. She rubbed her cheek, where Applejack hit her. She was trying to explain to them how evil this Pinkie Pie was, and her friends try and say that she’s being selfish. “Yeah, because it isn’t like I have feelings or anything, only Pinkie deserves any sympathy.”

“They question you for your actions,” a deep voice muttered, “unaware that they commit the same crimes.”

Rainbow frantically swivelled herself back and forth, looking for the mysterious voice. “Who are you?” she said, continuing to turn side to side, “where are you?”

“Does it matter, I know you better than the ones you call your friends do.” The voice was deep, but soothing. It felt as though the voice really did know her, and that he could help. “For example, I know that the Pinkie that returned from the Mirror Pond isn’t the same as your, cupcake.”

“Finally!” Rainbow yelled, “somepony understands, it’s that Sebastian guy isn’t it, he’s the reason she’s different.”

“And they call Twilight, ‘the smart one’, even she hasn’t figured that out yet,” the voice whispered in congratulations.

Rainbow felt her chest swell with pride, “well all it takes is the common sense those ponies clearly don’t have, they’re all just scared of his crazy powers, that’s why they’re being so nice.”

“Perhaps they should be,” the voice responded, “but there is a way for you to weaken him, and perhaps gain the ability to destroy him.”

The speedster felt her previous confidence drift away, “destroy him?”

“Of course,” the voice cooed, “as his people say, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a death for a death’.”

Rainbow contemplated the idea of killing him, it seemed the logical thing to do. If he was the one corrupting Pinkie Pie, then maybe if he went away... “Pinkie might stop acting so weird, I might get my cupcake back.”

“The possibility exists,” the voice said eagerly, “and all you have to do is steal something from him.”

“What do I have to steal?” Rainbow asked.

“A small watch that he keeps in his pocket,” the voice instructed, “take that and press the indent in the middle, I’ll help you from there.”

Rainbow eagerly looked around for any sign of the human. Finally she caught sight of him as he approached the Everfree Forest. “Target acquired!” Rainbow screamed, “I’m going in.” The cyan pegasus flew at the speed of a bullet towards the human, tackling him square in the chest. The human tumbled to the ground, Rainbow standing on his chest, with her hind legs pinning his legs. “I just need a look at your watch buddy, then we’ll be all set.”

The human’s eyes widened in surprise, “you know about the Zoner?”

Rainbow didn’t stop to question the stupid name, instead she continued to paw around in his jacket pockets, until she found her prize. Rainbow flew away from him, rising into the clouds as the human shot out his silver tentacles. “Here goes nothing,” the cyan pegasus muttered. Rainbow Dash pushed the button in the center of the device, engulfing her in a bright light.

Twilight slipped back into the dark library, head hung low. She hadn’t exactly expected the meeting with Rainbow Dash about Pinkie to be enjoyable, she had expected it to be remotely productive. Rainbow Dash flew off, probably to harass Pinkie or Sebastian, Fluttershy flew home crying, and Applejack walked off without a word. She knew that she should be going to Sugarcube Corner and trying to apologize to Pinkie Pie, but her discussion with Dash had done the opposite of sating her curiosity about Sebastian. “How could somepony, who isn’t even a pony, be that insanely powerful?” she wondered, “why were his eyes silver, what was up with those tentacles?”

“Twilight,” called a voice from upstairs, “can’t you worry about that in the morning?”

“No Spike,” Twilight called back, “this is very important, a creature that most ponies think is myth is wandering around Ponyville, I need to figure out if he doesn’t mean us any harm.”

Spike walked down half of the stairs, stopping to yawn, “why would he mean us harm, he rescued Pinkie Pie from the Mirror Pond didn’t he?”

The lightbulb went on in Twilight’s head, “of course.” The purple unicorn rushed to secret compartment that housed the book with info on the Mirror Pond. “I was asking the wrong questions all along,” Twilight said triumphantly, “the real question is ‘how did he rescue Pinkie Pie?’” Twilight flipped through page after page in the tome, eventually coming upon the page regarding the Mirror Pond. “What is it about this thing, I don’t get it, where did it come...” she stopped as she noticed that two pages were stuck together. Twilight carefully pulled the pages apart and read the newly found text aloud, “the Mirror Pond is the resting place of a creature from another world, or more specifically its blood. The blood of the one known as The Element of Fear, whose power lay in illusory magic, even when it isn’t a part of its bearer is still powerful enough to create full bodied doppelgangers, that can last up to a full year lifespan.”

“The Element of Fear?” questioned Spike, “who’s that?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “the book doesn’t say, all I know is that the Mirror Pond was his blood.” Then it hit her, the full realization of what was going on. “Sebastian is the Element, he must’ve joined with the pond, and became the new Element of Fear.”

“So he is bad?” Spike whispered in a scared tone.

“I don’t know Spike.” Twilight answered. Suddenly the library door flung open, revealing a very distraught looking Sebastian King.

“I think you both have bigger problems than me,” Sebastian exclaimed, “for example, Rainbow Dash stole my invention, the invention that let me travel here.” He paused before continuing, “I come from another world, and Rainbow stole the item that let’s me go between worlds, and she used it.”

Twilight shot back a look of terror, “you mean that Rainbow Dash is gone?”

Sebastian nodded, “Rainbow Dash is on Earth, and I’m stuck here.”