The Mirror Pool [Event]

It was a quiet morning, not unlike any other. Golden sun rays glittered across treetops, where the forest was at its thickest. What little sunlight did manage to poke through the canopy danced along the leaf-littered floor. Flocks of birds sang the morning's praises, harmonizing with an assortment of small bugs and frogs. A few rabbits and squirrels scuttled amongst tall grass and weeds. An outsider would never guess something was amiss. But Phantom was not an outsider. 

Cloven hooves expertly picked their way among tangled root systems and carpeted moss. Even mirror-sight didn't do him much good here, given the density of the foliage. Not to mention, terrain changed alarmingly fast in the forest depths; the path was already nigh unrecognizable since his last visit here. Instead, Phantom relied on what little echolocation skills he'd developed to navigate. 

"It took you long enough." The unfamiliar voice gave him a start. Perhaps more unsettling though was at it's source was a long-known friend.

"Scarlett?!"

"What's the matter? Don't recognize me?" A certain slyness radiated from the unfamiliar voice that didn't belong to this familiar echo. The sarcasm was certainly familiar, though. 

"Your form, of course I would never mistake. but your voice... you... speak? Did you...?" Phantom quickly drew his attention to the shopkeep's famously cracked mirrors. Dozens of mirror shards clung limply to her arc just as he recalled, and no image or sound emanated from their remnants. The voice certainly was not her own. A wistful pain glazed her eyes as she felt his gaze linger over her sightlessness.

"No," the voice said plainly. Although she herself could not see, Scarlett suddenly refused to face him, perhaps attempting to shield the hurt reflected in her face. Phantom found this odd- she had long ago come to accept this injury. It wasn't usually such a tender subject. "Come." She? it? The voice barked crossly before turning to lead him on further into the wood.

"Then how?" Phantom persisted, struggling to keep up with her confident gait. Flustered now by his previously mute friend's newfound voice, paired with inferior echolocation skills resulted in his tripping clumsily after her. 

"Something has appeared in the forest." The reply was unrelated to his query, yet said in such a tone he hoped it would tie back around. For now he patiently waited out her explanation. 

"The terrain here is always changing. The humans are wary of it, but we've always suspected this part of the forest to be a hotspot for dimensional splintering- small pieces of other worlds colliding with ours. It accounts for the rapid changes in the environment."

"Not this," Scarlett shook her head. "This is bigger than a splinter."

After their brief yet arduous trek fighting through tangled foliage, Phantom was caught off guard by a sudden break into a sparse clearing. Scarlett's blind gaze was fixed forward, directing his to follow. 

The brush faded off abruptly after the treeline, forming a huge, empty perimeter that wasn't there before. In fact, not even the grass survived this cutoff, replaced by rocky, dusty turf mere meters beyond once lush trees. It was like a slice of mesa desert had been transplanted directly into the heart of the forest. 

"W-What? When did this happen?" Phantom demanded. 

"Two days ago, so my sources say. Come further." Scarlett started on again, her hooves resounding loudly now on the hard-packed ground. The openness of the clearing was unnerving enough. But there was some other feeling he couldn't shake. Something ominous hung thickly in the air- something volatile. The atmosphere almost resembled a flare up of dimensional energy, a sensation Phantom was more familiar with than most. Even so, he had never encountered dimensional splintering like this. It felt like entire worlds were on the verge of collision. Uncertainty gripped Phantom, but his trust in an old friend overcame any hesitation. He trotted quickly after her. 

She led him up a slight incline in the center of the clearing. Nestled within this mound of stones was a clear pool of water. Nothing looked or smelled off, but the feeling of dimensional warping was strongest here. He didn't dare drink, but he knelt until his nose was only centimeters from its surface. Was the leakage emanating from this?

"Rumors have been circulating around this pool," Scarlett broke his thoughts. "It's been said that echoes who enter the pool undergo extreme physical changes. Similar to human genetics experiments."

"The humans experiment with genetic dimensional splintering. They smash together an echo's genetic material with that of another, often a parallel self, from the multiverse. Reckless- very dangerous, very foolish." Phantom took a step back from the pool, and lay down a safe distance from its water.

"Similar, but not the same," Scarlett assured. "Apparently this pool has taken the changes a step beyond anything the humans were ever capable of, sometimes producing features we've never seen in our kind before. Of course, some changes are more drastic than others."

"Could it be a multiverse portal? Perhaps those who have entered simply switch places with their multiversal parallels?" Phantom suggested. "It's not unheard of. If our world is similar enough to the world of their origin, our visitors may not yet have noticed the discrepancy."

"You think me a Doppleganger?" She smiled slyly.

"You entered the pool?" Phantom looked her over more closely in disbelief. The thought hadn't crossed his mind, as Scarlett hadn't seemed to exhibit the visible drastic changes as she had mentioned. Perhaps minor alterations in her markings? He first mistook those as decorative body paint which, in his defense, was not unusual to catch her wearing. "You don't look so different."

"No? Well, I am blind, I hadn't noticed," she chuckled. "I suppose that puts me on the less drastic end of the spectrum."

"Did it return your voice?" That would provide an explanation. Or at least the start of one.

"...In a sense," she smiled. "Eyewitnesses claim watching their friends step in and... change, before their very eyes. At no time did they leave their view for there to have been a world swap. Fascinating, no?" Silence hung between the two as this information was processed. 

"Why did you ask me here? Why are you being so cryptic?" Phantom finally demanded. 

"You have the most experience with cross-dimensional energy than anyone," Scarlett turned to him. "There is something here. I know you sense it."

"How can I not? It's overwhelming," he shuddered. Indeed, the warping of the atmosphere felt like a heavy blanket pressing in on him.

"I believe the pool may provide answers," she pointed, as if inviting him to take a dip. Phantom's fur stood on end. 

"I am most happy right where I am, thank you." His tone implied he was less than thrilled with the suggestion. 

"You're being difficult." Scarlett snorted, but did bow her head in concession. 

"Phantom, I invited you here because I believe you are the only one who can make sense of what is happening. The pool showed me things I cannot hope to explain, which is why I implore you to see for yourself." She turned to leave, but paused. "I cannot force you. However, it would do our kind a service to have someone who understands what is about to befall us. For better or worse, the world as we know it is about to change. It's too late to stop it- we can only hope to understand it."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean?" Phantom leapt back to his hooves while Scarlett marched off.

"If you're so curious, see for yourself."

"Curse you, Scarlett," Phantom hissed through gritted teeth. "You've always had a way of getting what you want."

Against his better judgement, one hoof splashed into the water. Both echoes came to a screeching halt; Phantom, shocked by his own reaction, and Scarlett with a satisfied smirk. She turned back at last.

"Change of heart?"

"Shut up," Phantom hissed. His heart raced, the weight of his actions finally hitting him. "If I'm doing this, I want us to have a password. So I'm sure you're my Scarlett when I come out, that I haven't travelled."

"Still on your portal theory? Fine, if it makes you feel better. How about 'lizard?'"

"Lizard?" He repeated.

"Why not? The more random, the less chance a Doppleganger would guess it, no?"

"Fine, lizard," Phantom affirmed. He turned his attention back to the water. It didn't feel different than a normal pond, nor did he feel changes manifesting. One more splash later, he found all four limbs now kissed by it's shallow water. 

"How deep do I need to be?" He called back, reluctantly sloshing further to deeper water.

"I'm not sure. I fully submerged before I noticed the full effects," Scarlett nonchalantly shrugged.

"Ngh," he involuntarily whimpered. He was already knee deep. He had never liked water to begin with. The slippery, submerged rock floor made it impossible to keep stable footing. He slipped deeper multiple times, lurching his heart every time. By the time he stood with his chin just above water, he had reached a sudden drop-off of which he could not see the bottom. A pit grew in his stomach. Every fiber of his being told him to turn back. 

"Surely this is deep enough... I'm coming back." He didn't feel different, but he didn't sign up for this drop off. It was strange... he was sure he hadn't seen it from the ledge. 

"Do you see it yet?" Scarlett inquired. 

"The drop-off into endless abyss in an otherwise shallow pool so far inland it can't possibly exist? Yes, I saw it," he grunted, struggling to trudge back. 

"Not that," she dismissed. "If you don't see it, you haven't gone deep enough."

"See what? This is not the time to be cryptic," he angrily snorted.

"Please trust me," Scarlett insisted. "Believe me, you'll know it when you see it."

"F-Fine." Against his better judgement, he returned a few steps back to the edge. 

"I will be here when you surface," Scarlett gently assured. Her change of tone caught him by surprise- though he had never heard her voice before this day, it was so genuine.

Scarlett's sincerity alone propelled his leap of faith over the drop-off. And so down he dove, into the cold embrace of the depths.