So this is a short story I've written back in November in Hungarian, which is my native language. Today I finally translated it, so more people can read it. Please bear with my - sometimes quite possibly weird - grammar, and tell me what you think about this little thing. (:

'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land…'

'You are, my queen,' yawned the Mirror. 'As always.'

'Beware, I will smash you if you dare to mock me,' said the Evil Queen. But the Mirror just smiled and said with unbroken confidence:

'If you smash me, you will ruin your power and magic, too. Threatening me is unnecessary.'

The witch, for the Queen was a witch, did not answer for a few seconds.

'What do you think I shall do about the prince?' she asked quietly, when she finally regained her calmness. 'I want to break his power somehow…'

'I am sure, my queen, that you will find something unbearable to torture him,' said the Mirror, this time with true humbleness. He could act like this if he was treated with respect. He began to lose his patience though: the Queen asked too many times whether she was the fairest of all or not, and the Mirror thought too highly of himself to be used for such low purposes. He was a magical mirror, not some ordinary item after all.

'Of course I will find something unbearable, that is no question.'

'My queen, if I may…'

'Yes, Mirror?'

'If you are so at a loss, I suggest you open the Jewelled Box.'

'Hmm… You know, Mirror, sometimes you have brilliant ideas,' said the Queen as her blood red lips turned into a vague smile, which did not happen often.

The Queen walked to the cabinet at the far end of the room. She opened its door and took out a little golden box with a lock shaped like a heart stabbed with a dagger. With almost ritual movements she put the box down on the table in the middle of the room, and after several silent moments, she raised her right hand.

The Jewelled Box opened and in the mirror she could see distant memories, with mystical fog around them.

They were the memories of the queen who died not long before, in unknown circumstances. She did terrible things during her long-long life – we could easily imagine, how many memories the Box held.

'Let's see, which we should choose… Ah, there it is!'

In the mirror there was a courtyard overgrown with rosebushes and cobwebs, and there were the people of the castle sleeping an eternal sleep. Nobody was awake, not even the most hard-working servant. Even the butterflies were resting.

'That's a bit problematic, if I think about it. He's not the kind of prince who uses a spinning-wheel too often, is he?'

'Indeed it is problematic, my queen,' said the Mirror. 'Is there something else perhaps?'

The memories whirled on, and the witch concentrated again, wrinkling her forehead, which was a dangerous thing to do. Dangerous to her perfect beauty.

'Hah!' cried the Queen with delight, and the memories stopped. 'Chop off his heel!'

'My queen…'

'Oh, very well, Mirror,' she sighed.

And the memories whirled on.

For a few minutes none of them have said a word, until a new possibility came up.

'Maybe we could use the traditional solutions,' said the Queen. 'The poisoned fruit is still a good one.'

'Well, my queen…'

'Mirror, you only said three words, but I already know that you don't like this idea either.' While speaking she was walking up and down in the room, gesticulating passionately. 'But let's face it: coming up with new ideas is hard. My predecessor was amazingly creative! Just remember how she defeated me – not just once, but several times! If the Prince on a White Horse wouldn't have come to take home my beautiful dead body, I'd still lie in that damned coffin in the middle of the forest.'

'That is true, my queen.'

She slammed the lid of the Jewelled Box shut, and put the box back in the cabinet.

'There's nothing useful in it,' she said with true fury in her voice. Her ebony hair seemed unusually dark; the Mirror thought this was because of the dark magic she used. 'The prince would deserve if I just fed him to the wolves. Mocking me like he did! What a monster…'

This was the moment when she found the perfect way out of her problems.

'Mirror!' she cried.

'My queen?'

'At dusk I hit the road as an old woman to teach the haughty prince a lesson. If everything goes according to my plan, the morning light will find a beast in the place of the prince. He could only be saved by a true love's kiss, but then again – who would fall in love with a monster?'

'Ooh, that is truly brilliant, my queen!' said the Mirror with joy.

'Of course it is!' laughed the Evil Queen. 'I shall go now; I shouldn't waste my time any more. The potion that will change me into an old hag will take hours to make, and it's almost dusk.'

'Good luck, my queen!'

The Queen was already at the door when she turned back, and said:

'You know, Mirror, since I will be old and wrinkled for a long time…'

The Mirror let out a sigh.

'Alright, let it be!'

The Queen smiled again and walked back to stand in front of the mirror. She said:

'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?'

And the Mirror answered:

'You, Snow White, are the fairest of all.'