Mirror Mirror.
On the wall.
I stood in a dark room, , candles lighting up the scene. Statues of ponies in armor and without, ponies in high society cloths and ponies in peasant cloths. Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi alike. All looking at me. All judging me, watching my every step with unseeing eyes. And on the far end of the room, where the statues ended, a mirror. I started to trot towards it, my being dragged there.
I’m on my way.
To loose control.
In front of the mirror, looking into it, seeing my twisted reflection. I had wings again. No a horn, I had a horn. I was a earth pony, muscular and strong. No, a griffon, talons as big as myself and claws as sharp as steel. No, a unicorn, lying on the grass with a book in front of me. And then suddenly, nothing. Red eyes looked at me, the voice laughing in my head.
You blind me.
With your beauty.
I stared into those ruby jewels. Blood. Blood everywhere. Then, light. Pale, white light shone in my eyes.
“He is starting to wake up! It is to early, he will not survive if he wakes up now! Put him back to sleep again, we can not risk to lose any more subjects!”
Blackness, calming blackness. And blood red jewels that stares at me.
The reflections.
Makes me high.
A mirror in front of me. A thousand others around me. Reflecting me over and over again. My head. Dizzy. What is happening? And all the time, that laugh in the head.
Will my spirit.
For ever die?
Then suddenly, a single mirror in front of me. The laugh was gone. An orb floated in the mirror, a white glow radiating from its center. It pulsated in synchronisation with my heartbeat, every beat as steady as a mountain, as light as a feather. The red eyes looked at me from the other side of the orb, a paw and a talon coming forth and hiding the pulsating orb. It felt as if they surrounded my heart as well.
And when they released the orb had it changed. It was still white, but a streak of red pulsated together with the white. It felt sickening. What was happening?
If I break.
The reflected eye.
I stood in a room, the wooden door closing behind me. Fear struck my heart. Where was I?
The answer was simple. I was in an office, and I had been here before; although I could not remember when.
The office was small, a single wooden desk stood in the room. At one end stood a mare, her coat resembling Carrotrose’s coat. And at the other end stood Lightheart, smiling grimly at me.
Lightheart? What was he doing here? I felt my heart race, my blood pump harder and harder, drowning the sounds around me. The laugh, however, had returned.
Then my gaze felt on the stallion standing behind the desk, a grey coated stallion with an eye patch over his right eye. But his left eye, an eye of pure silver, looked my eyes, reflected my entire being, pierced through my soul. My heart stopped beating as he opened his mouth, talking with a deep, calm voice.
“Welcome, subject P-20, I am warden.”
This magic that.
You show me.
“Look, fire. Look” the voice said.
And everything around me was indeed in flames. The bed, the cell door. Everything. But I dismissed it.
“Cut it out, it worked the first time, not more.” I said.
The fires extinguished again, the room... cell, once again in its ordinary condition.
“You are no fun. I want to play, I want to kill, I want to create CHAOS!” the voice laughed. It was the cute laugh of a foal.
And it frightened me to hear it from inside of me.
Make me look.
Forever young.
Pain, pain emerging from my wings.
The pain stabbed inside of me. I felt to the floor, it felt as if my wings burned.
“Die!” the voice shouted in my head.
And at that moment did I wish that I could die. The pain, I could not stand it. I trashed on the floor. Two white coated unicorns came in, shooting words I could not hear to one another.
And then I laid restrained on my stomach on an operation table. My wings was fixed in place, outstretched at their limit.
My wings lay beside me, blood still dripping from them. At least the pain was gone. But so was my wings. Right then I did not care. The pain was gone.
Immortalized on the outside.
But rotten deep inside.
I heard the sound of hooves trotting past my cell, the voice of Lightheart reached my ears.
“... like it, he survived but to what cost? Could you not have let him die like the other subjects? What makes P-20 so different from the...”
The voice faded away.
“Did you hear that? He wanted you dead.” The voice laughed in my head. The laugh had changed, it was no longer that of a foal, instead was it that of a colt close to adulthood. “They are afraid of me, and so should you be.”
I felt my hoof strike me in the stomach. It was a hard hit, the air was knocked out of me. I gasped after air.
“I’m not afraid of you.” I snarled. “You are only my imagination.”
“Would your imagination do THIS!” the voice asked.
My head hit the stone floor, hard. I could feel a teeth falling out.
I could not do anything against whatever it was inside of me, and I could already feel the teeth grow back. All I could do was to endure it.
Mirror, mirror.
Look at me.
I looked at the reflection of myself. All these years, all this pain. What had happened? Was this the memories of a time I had suppressed?
Or was it just a twisted dream, here to hurt me? What was inside of me? How had it started.
The reflection in front of me changed. I saw the goddesses stand there. I could feel my hate burn inside of me, my anger taking over my being.
I smashed the mirror with my hoof, shattered the reflection. Every shard reflected my eyes that moment, eyes twisted with hatred and anger.
Who is that man.
That is staring back at me.
The mirror was whole again. But something was... different. I saw myself standing there, strings attached to my body. Strings that went upwards to a talon and a paw.
Was this the being that controlled me? And why did I recognize the talon and paw? The word was there, but it could not come up, I could not say it.
Precious, precious.
Save my soul.
“Luna and Celestia, help me in my time of need. Save me from this. Kill me, let me be free. Release me from the pain, from the voice. Help me.”
My skin looks hot.
Though my heart is cold.
“They are not there, they never were. It was all a lie. They never helped you, and they never will. You are alone, with only me as company.”
I could feel my heart freeze at those word.
“A lie, its all a lie! The goddesses exist, they watch over me and help me.”
“Then why are you here? Why do they do this for you? Why don’t they end it?”
I want to live my life in silence
Precious silence, the words was gone. It was only me again, alone in the cell. But who was I? The only thing I had left was the prayers. So I prayed.
“Luna and Celestia, help me find myself again help me on my....”
I want to live my life in peace
I have to get out of here! I can not stay here! This is not the right place! How did I end up here? I have to get out.
Green grass as long as the eye could see, each of them unique. Celestia’s eye embraced me with its warmth. Had they heard my prayers? Was I finally free?
Mirror, mirror... Set me free
And as suddenly as it all had started did it end. I stood in the room again, the mirror in front of me. Five words stood in that mirror.
‘The truth will be told.’
The dream shattered, two red eyes the last thing I remembered before I woke up.