Chapter 1: The Tour

The six Elements of Harmony slowly trotted through the halls of Canterlot castle. They had no idea what they were going to be shown, but Celestia had said in her letter that it was urgent, and could come in handy should Discord return, or worse. Twilight was eager to learn about whatever her teacher was going to show her and her friends, but everypony else, especially Pinkie Pie, were bored.

"Are we there yet?" Pinkie moaned, her hooves starting to get tired from walking through the castle for nearly an hour already.

"Not yet Pinkie" Twilight said quietly. Even her hooves were starting to hurt from all the walking. This was a part of the castle she hadn't seen while she was studying under Celestia, so she was too interested in the decor to care about her hooves hurting. Meanwhile Rarity was jumping around, yelping every now and then as she noticed a cobweb or a large patch of dust, and Rainbow was slowly flying above the group in circles, much to Applejack's annoyance.

"Can you stop doin' that Rainbow?" Applejack asked quietly, getting annoyed with the number of colors flying across her vision every few seconds.

"I'm not stopping until we see-" Rainbow said before looking ahead of her, seeing Celestia watching her with interest. She immediately landed, smiling nervously.

"Hello Elements" Celestia said in her royal voice, causing the six ponies to snap to attention.

"Hello Princess" the ponies said as they bowed to Celestia. Celestia calmly walked over and motioned for them to rise.

"Please, follow me" Celestia said as she turned to continue down the hallway. The mane 6 got to their hooves and followed Celestia down the hall, stopping at a large onyx door. They watched as Princess Luna flew down the hall, landing next to her sister, the two of them working together to open the door. When it was open Celestia turned to Luna.

"Thank you sister" Celestia said, quickly hugging Luna.

"Are you sure you do not want help with this tour, this wing is dangerous" Luna said, worriedly looking at the Elements. The six ponies looked at each other, each of them now worried about what they were going to be shown, except for Pinkie Pie.

"Why is it dangerous?" Pinkie asked energetically, making Twilight facehoof.

"Pinkie don't ask the Princesses that" Twilight said tiredly.

"Don't worry Twilight, is it perfectly fine that she asked" Celestia said sweetly, making Pinkie smile happily. She started to bounce around happily as Celestia motioned for the Elements to follow her through the large door. They quickly followed her, but something caught Pinkie's attention.

At the end of the hall there was a large pink door, all by itself at the very end of the hall. As the rest of the group walked into the first room, Celestia beginning to explain about something she called the "Serpent Staff". Pinkie quickly bounced towards the end of the hall, as if the door was begging for her to open it.

"I wonder what's behind you..." Pinkie said slowly as she stared at the door, seeing a small hole which she guessed was meant so only Celestia or Luna could open it. Since Pinkie wasn't going to take no for an answer she looked around for something that was going to fit in the hole, hoping that it would work the same as Celestia's horn. Of course there was nothing around the door that would work, so she decided to try and use her hair to open it, shoving the end of it inside the hole. After a few seconds of her fiddling around with her hair there was a loud clicking noise as the door unlocked.

"Hey it worked!" Pinkie said happily as she hopped back letting the door open slowly in front of her. She jumped inside as soon as it was open enough for her to fit through, the door quickly closing behind her. As she looked around the room the only thing she could find was a large mirror sitting in the middle of the room.

"I wonder what this does?" Pinkie asked as she looked around the mirror, trying to find something that would explain why it was here, but for all intents and purposes, it was a normal mirror.

"Hello Pinkie" a strange, yet familiar voice said from around the mirror.

"Who's there?" Pinkie asked quickly, worried that somepony might have found out she broke into the room. She looked around the mirror, not finding anypony but her, until she looked into the mirror...

"Ah, you found me" the pony said from inside the mirror. As Pinkie looked at her she noticed that the pony looked like her, except with flat hair and seemed slightly darker and creepier.

"Who are you?" Pinkie asked cheerfully, reaching out to shake the pony's hoof, forgetting that she was standing in front of a mirror, "I'm Pinkie Pie!". Pinkie suddenly felt her hoof get pulled towards the mirror, but instead of breaking it she was pulled inside, into complete darkness.

"Hello?" Pinkie said slowly, scared and confused by what was going on. Shouldn't she have broken the mirror? How did she get pulled inside? Where was the other pony?

"You should get comfortable Pinkie" the pony said from far away, her voice sounding like an echo.

"Why?" Pinkie asked sadly, her hair deflating somewhat as she realized there was no way out of, wherever she was.

"Why?" the voice said evily, "Oh, it's really quite simple...". The voice paused for a second to laugh maniacally before continuing her sentence.

"It's Pinkamena's time to play!" Pinkemena said as a small hole opened up in front of Pinkie, showing her an image of the other pony, but this time she was in the room. Pinkie quickly thought about what it meant before blurting something out.

"Am I in the mirror now?!" Pinkie cried, her fear getting the better of her as she scrambled around looking for someway out. Her hair slowly deflated as she searched, not finding a single way out.

"Sorry Pinkie, but you have to stay in there until I've had my fun" Pinkamena said, mocking Pinkie as she continued to search for a way out.

Creak...

Pinkamena quickly turned around, seeing Celestia and the other Elements looking at her in confusion.

"What are you doing here Pinkie?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"Sorry Pinkie Pie is not here at the moment, please leave a message after the beep" Pinkamena cackled before shouting, "BEEP!"