It's been a week now. A week since I became a pony. A week since I made my first friend in this world. A week since I made my first enemy in this world. A week since I was almost sent into a pool of pure magic, not knowing what would happen after that. Yeah, my life is weird.

Hello. My name is Alexander. Or rather, it was. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have found myself as a Pinkie Pie clone. Trying to fit in I took on the name Diane, still getting used to being of the opposite sex... Anyways, since I came to this world I've had a rough time. I'm a clone, a magical construct, not a real pony. That's how everypony else sees me, or at least most did at first. The nicer and more accepting ponies have warmed up to me over time as I have now been around for a week and have yet to do anything to give anypony any reason to dislike me. Well, maybe not... I might have taken Pinkie Pie hostage only a few hours after my arrival here, but it was in self defense, I swear! Besides, she's forgiven me.

Speaking about forgiving ponies, I can't. I have a pony I can't forgive or trust as she was this close to send me to my doom. And the only thing stopping her is a Pinkie Promise. One made thanks to the quick thinking of Pinkie Pie. She most likely saved my life by stopping that purple demon. After a week however, she seems to have accepted me, but I'm still not taking any chances. Even if I know she actually is a very sweet mare. That is, if this world really follows the timeline I know of.

Back to the important part. Appearance wise I am indistinguishable from Pinkie Pie in all but my mane and tail. I have colored them to have three other colors beside the basic pink, a streak of light blue, orange and yellow. The others don't know it yet, but my mane and tail look just like Pinkie's when she uses her rainbow powers. The ones that she will eventually obtain and use together with the others to beat Tirek. It's a secret between me and myself for now.

I currently work together with Pinkie Pie at Sugar Cube Corner. I don't get paid as Cakes wouldn't be able to afford paying twice Pinkie's paycheck, but I'm fine with a roof over head and a few warm meals a day. I refrain from eating any of the sweets I bake. Pinkie however eats them anytime she deems it to be a good time for taste testing the product, meaning every time a new batch is made we have one less of the baked goods. I myself would much rather sell them so that I can actually pull my own weight so to speak. About room arrangements I'm sleeping in the same room as Pinkie Pie. It is an interesting... what do you call it... experience. I don't know how Gummy manages to sleep through her loud bursts of dream speaking but he does. I find it hard to ignore what she says when she sleep talks, you can find out quite a lot of interesting bits. I didn't know that she knew neighponiese for example. Yes, that's what it's called here.

Earth. The planet I came from. I can hardly call it home anymore, seeing as I now live in Ponyville and am better set than I was back there. Now I'm here and stuff seems to work out for me. Not that I could return anyway. My closest bet wou-

"No you silly, that's not how you pull a hat out of a bunny!" Pinkie suddenly exclaims in her sleep, interrupting my train of thought. Bless her and her antics. I smile to myself as I think of how bright my future seems right now. I guess that's to be expected from Equestria. But I've been having thoughts about the show. If things really do play out like how they were in the show, what should I do? Should I hang around as one of the background ponies, or should I help them with the situations? I could most likely prevent the return of Tirek and many other dangers and problems could be solved. But then they wouldn't learn anything, would they? I shook my head as I once again decided against thinking about it. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Now, I was currently awake for two reasons. One: I was being kept up by Pinkie's sleep talk. Two: I was getting worried about the next episode. I had yet to see any signs of the episode called "One bad apple." It was both worrying and interesting at the same time. I mean, I for sure didn't know how much time usually passed between episodes, and now I was able to experience such a thing firsthoof!

Deciding to find out if Pinkie had marked something special for this day I took a look at her calendar. Ignoring the words "Party!" filling every single day, for the whole year, I searched the calendar for days with additional pieces of writing. I quickly found one during next week labeled "Summer Harvest Parade". So that meant there was a gap of almost two weeks between those two episodes? I'd guess so... I have to wait another week until then.

But while I was looking through the different days in the calendar I eventually noticed something that had been added in rather recently. And on an already passed date as well. As I took a better look at it I felt tears spring up in the corners of my eyes and a smile form on my face. It was a day, about a week ago marked "Diane's Birthday". I looked back at Pinkie and wiped my tears. She really was the best friend a pony could have. I hoped such a relationship between us could last forever. But as I thought about it I came to realize something. I didn't know about her or her friend's birthdays!

I quickly looked through the calendar once more and committed to remember all the birthday dates I could to memory. If I was going to be friends or at least with good terms with everypony in this town, I could at least wish them a happy birthday. But no matter how hard I looked, I could not find the date for Pinkie's own birthday. And I knew for a fact that she had one from an episode where her friends plan a surprise party just for her. It would be-

"That's it!" I almost exclaimed out loud but managed to catch myself as I remembered I wasn't alone in the room. Close by were both a sleeping Pinkie Pie and a young alligator named Gummy. If Pinkie's friends knew the date of her Birthday, then I could just ask them! Now with a plan of how to find out about Pinkie's Birthday, I decided I would try and ask Pinkie's friends tomorrow.

During my little exploration of the calendar Pinkie had seemed to settle down, possibly into a deeper slumber where her dreams didn't leak out of her mouth. I trotted over to her bed and picked up the cover that had fallen off from her moving around in her sleep. As I settled it on top of her I could swear I saw her smile widen a little. I then went back to my own bed that we had gotten for me only a few days earlier and went to try and sleep myself now that Pinkie was finally calm enough to let me sleep. And as I began falling asleep my thoughts returned to the fact that I had used my mouth to both pick up and settle Pinkie's cover and how weird it was that I was already this comfortable in using my mouth as often as I once had my hands. I shrugged it off as part of the additional instincts I recently started discovering and fell asleep. Falling into my dreams that were full of sugar, cupcakes and frosting. Lots and lots of frosting.

I would have to get that checked.

The Everfree forest; A forest known for its chaotic nature with unpredictable weather, dangerous beasts and many still unsolved mysteries that are hidden within. Only the brave, foolish or truly cunning choose to enter this forest. And among these few, even less would dare to live in the forest. A place home for monsters and beasts. But for this one that is not the case, as Zecora is merely a zebra. A zebra that is both cunning and brave enough to keep the forest at bay and live safely within her own clearing. Zebras, for those of you who don't know, are fairly rare to be found in Equestria. But no matter how cunning, how brave or how foolish she was for staying in the Everfree. She would soon be having a lot more to consider.

A pony, wearing a black coat was walking between the trees of the Everfree. This pony however was neither cunning, nor brave and neither was it foolish. And yet, any beast or monster the pony encountered retreated as they felt the aura of this pony. This pony's coat was stained and smeared in dried blood was something that only added to the feeling of dread the pony invoked into any onlooker.

Eventually the pony stopped at what any other pony would call a normal rock. But this pony knew far better than any other common pony that this one rock held a secret. Walking around the rock the pony seemed to be looking for something. It traced it hooves along the sides of the boulder and muttered something to itself. After a long time the pony finally stopped at a certain point and put a hoof on a crack barely visible without having to squint. The hoof of said pony was a nice pink color.

As the pony seemed to have found its intended target on the rock, it pulled back the hood to reveal its face. Before the rook stood Pinkie Pie, clad in a black coat, stained in dried blood just like her coat and with a wide smile on her face. Around her neck hung a black amulet with a red gem, complete with a unicorn's head and a pair of wings. She was wearing the Alicorn amulet.

The pink mare continued to grin her wicked grin until she finally spoke. "Soon my family. Soon. We will be free and we will see to it that these ponies learn their lesson!" the mare said as she turned around and bucked the previously found crack with both her hind legs. The effects were immediate as the rock crumbled and fell into the hole it had been blocking; the entrance to 'the mirror pool'. Her smile widened at the sight, looking as if it was going to split her head in half.

"Seems this mare's knowledge about rocks came in handy after all," the mare said out loud. Slightly chuckling to herself, the pony experimentally took a step forward. Immediately she screamed as a purple barrier appeared and started eating away at her hoof. Quickly retracting her hoof she inspected it with tearful eyes as it slowly reformed back to its previous shape.

"Damn, I thought definitely the Alicorn amulet would do it. I mean, it did it before!" The mare complained to herself as the pain in her hoof subsided and it reformed completely.

"But it seems I'll have to find another way... I swear, as soon as I'm able to get down there, as soon as we're all back... Let us say that there will be two specific shades of pink less in this world!" The mare said before bursting out laughing to herself. It was not a nice kind of laugh that would spur others to laugh as well. It was a dark evil laugh that would force others to flee in fear of their own safety.

The pink pony took a moment to think to herself. There were a number of methods to quickly increase her own power to repel a ward such as this, but most of them only applied to unicorns, something she wasn't at this moment.

"Well, guess I'm going for the blood draining one this time. They scream less from that one." The mare thought out loud to herself, once again grinning as she began to walk away from the entrance. Once again donning the hood back on, the mare became concealed by shadows and disappeared from sight. Her mad laugh echoing between the trees of the Everfree forest.

Equestria was in for a surprise, one it hadn't faced in far too long and had since long forgotten. The real threat of the Mirror Pool was back. And it was back for revenge.

Author's Notes:

Finally I managed to write a version I feel confident enough to upload.

So, now tell me, does this story already live up to the expectations or have I failed miserably?

Now, yes I know this is a bit darker than what some of you were hoping for, but this is what I came up with. And it is also the idea I'm sticking with. Also, I'm going to say this right out. These stories will be a trilogy with a possible alternate ending for the thirds story. Just a heads up. I have most of the plot worked out and Now just have to spend time writing it out and setting up the mood to be correct.

Proof-read by: Greycait and Kingdom Harmony