//------------------------------// // 12. Shattered Pieces // Story: Mare in the Mirror // by adcoon //------------------------------// “Before our friends and those special to us here, on this wonderful day of happiness and good fortune, I Fluttershy take you Pinkie Pie as my wife, in friendship and in love, in strength and in weakness, to share the good times and the bad times, in achievement and in failure, to celebrate life with you forevermore.” “Forrrreeeever!” Pinkie giggled. A crying Rarity lowered the garland braid over their heads to rest around their necks and bind them together in wedlock. The thin braid had been woven from strands of their own manes, two shades of pink intertwined in perfect harmony. Rarity bowed and stepped away, dabbing her eyes with her hoofkerchief and sobbing quietly. “By the power that is vested in me, and the witnesses around us,” Luna began, smiling at the two as she spoke, “I now pronounce you lawfully wedded wives. You may kiss each other.” Pinkie and Fluttershy looked at each other. Pinkie grinned and set off like a pouncing tiger, tackling Fluttershy whose yelp was cut short as their lips met. Streamers and fireworks erupted in a wild display of lights and sounds—a collaboration between Pinkie and Trixie, and truly something to behold. Pinkie had surely outdone herself for this party, and everypony had been eager to help out in preparation for the ceremony. It was something to take their minds off the journey and the desperation of their quest, and for that they were all thankful. Even if it was going to be only a short reprieve. Luna tried to share in the joy, but inside she felt only a growing despair as the days and weeks went by. While friendship and love blossomed between the others, she and Trixie had only grown further apart and now barely talked. Luna's wing had not been seriously wounded, but she could not say the same about her heart. Trixie's apology had seemed sincere, she seemed to be as sad and hurt as Luna, and yet the love was no longer there. They had stayed in Neighagra Falls for two weeks while Fluttershy recovered from the operation. Pinkie and Fluttershy had announced their engagement only days after the operation. Luna suspected some of the hurry was out of a fear that they may never get the chance later, a very real possibility she tried not to dwell upon. Preparations for a wedding party began immediately after. It had kept the gloomy atmosphere at bay, giving everypony something else to worry about than the many concerns they faced. Fluttershy's recovery had been quick and without complications, and the journey to the sea soon after was spent finishing the last bits of preparation. It was a wild and strange wedding preparation, nothing at all like the very formal and stuffy things Luna was used to back in Canterlot. At any other time, Luna would no doubt have been feeling all giddy about it all. In the city of Fillydelphia it had taken Luna no small amount of searching and convincing before she finally found and secured a ship to take them out on the wide open ocean. The captain, one Woody Hooves, seemed friendly if not entirely reliable. Unable to find another ship, however, Luna had to settle for what she could get. Meanwhile the others had been asking around, but nopony had seen anypony matching Manna's description. A few did mention the sighting of a hot-air balloon heading out to sea a few weeks back. Luna gazed out over the open ocean as the currents took them into the vast unknown in search of long lost lands now buried beneath the seas. While the others celebrated the wedding aboard the ship, Luna wondered what they would find once they got there, and if they would be too late. *          *          * The weather seemed to match Luna's mood as she stood at the bow of the ship, looking up at the densely clouded sky through the cold rain. They had long since left behind the safe, controlled environment of the Equestrian soil and entered the open sea where, not unlike the Everfree forest, the world had a life of its own, a life only rarely disturbed by the pegasi. Her mane flowed behind her in the wind, and her coat was drenched. She felt cold and alone. “Ahoy Princess, ya see anything up there?” Luna glanced over her shoulder at the crazy captain at the wheel, before silently turning back to the cloudy sky. Her horn glowed, and her eyes filled with a bright white light, reflected as a tiny rainbow in the rain falling around her. Stars peeked through the clouds as they parted before her eyes, a growing hole forming in the clouds above the ship. Luna studied the tiny lights in the sky above the clouds, noting the patterns and formations she knew so well. For a moment she felt a little less alone, as if she was among friends again. The stars and the moon, for a long time they had been her only friends. As her magic faded again, clouds drifted back in front of her vision, snuffing out the lights once more. She sighed and hung her head, then she turned around. “So?” The wall-eyed, peg-legged captain looked expectantly at her. He was a strange one, and not entirely reliable, Luna thought, but Fluttershy in particular seemed to have taken a shine to the old and weathered pegasus and his talkative parrot, naturally called Polly, which was short for Pollyanna. The captain had even carved Fluttershy a wooden leg like his own. “We are not far from our destination, of that I am certain, but I don't know what we can expect to find. There may be nothing but water for us there.” It seemed like all they had seen for days was water, in the sea or falling from the sky. Luna had always enjoyed the open sea, so much like the open sky above, but the weather and feeling of loneliness made it seem so bleak and empty to her now. “Are you sure you don't want me to keep the sky clear?” “A frisky wind is a ship's best mate, Princess. Let only the old gale blow and fill her sails up good. Makes the old ma'am purr like a kitten, it does.” The captain had a way of making everything sound dirty, a trait Luna might have enjoyed once, before all of this. Celestia had always accused her of having a bit of the same talent from time to time, but lighthearted humor didn't come as easily to her in these times. Luna nodded and trotted down the few steps below deck to where the others were holed up, sheltered from the weather outside. The others, with the exception of Trixie, were passing the time with a game of cards, a pastime they had all become very familiar with over the weeks of travel in between wedding preparations. The captain's multicolored bird had teamed up with Pinkie and somehow hoarded nearly all the bits for the pink pony. Rarity was scraping in the meager remains. Both Rarity and Trixie had shown themselves to be sharks at these kinds of games, and when both were playing it often ended up a skirmish between the two. Yet faced with the uncanny combined talent of Pinkie and Polly they both had to admit defeat, something Rarity dealt with a lot better than Trixie. “We're not far from our destination. Is everything ready and packed?” Luna asked as she came down the stairs. “Where is Trixie?” “She refuses to play when Polly is at the table,” Spike explained and pointed a claw at the back cabin. “I can't blame her. That bird is no fun playing with. She's hiding in there, brooding.” Luna was sure she knew the real reason Trixie spent so much time alone, huddled up in the small cabin on her own. She knew Trixie well enough to know that she would never give up a challenge or admit defeat to anypony, much less a mere bird, if it wasn't for her obsession with that mirror. Trixie didn't want to speak of it, and Luna had long since given up trying to force the issue. The whole thing tore them further and further apart, and Luna couldn't bear to make it worse. A persistent doubt also kept gnawing deep in her heart, a feeling that perhaps she had been wrong about Twilight. Pinkie had begun speaking of seeing the young Twilight in her dreams too. It left Luna even more bewildered and doubting of what she thought she knew. It made no sense. Rarity had tried to comfort her by explaining that Pinkie often made no sense, that it was probably just another one of her antics, but Luna was not so certain. As the weeks went by she felt more and more lost. “I do have to admit, that bird is quite remarkable,” Rarity said, apparently in reply to some comment by Fluttershy who sat next to Pinkie and Polly. Luna had drifted off for a moment and looked up as Rarity turned to look at her. “Are you alright?” Luna nodded. “I am well enough. We better get ready,” she said before she was interrupted by a call from the captain above. “Oy, ya need ta see this!” Luna turned and hurried back up the stairs, followed shortly by the others. “What is it?” she asked and turned to follow as the captain pointed a hoof towards the starboard. A roaring mass of lightning and storm clouds whirled through the rain and darkness. Luna could have sworn she had seen no signs of such a storm moments before. At first Luna thought it was coming towards them, but soon realized that it was the ship moving instead, slowly but surely sailing sideways towards the storm. “Where did that come from? Why are we not sailing away from it?!” “I'm trying, Princess,” the captain called back over the growing noise of the storm. “It's pulling us in. Unless ye can tame that storm, Princess, I suggest y’all get the sails down fast and brace yourselves for a mighty rocking.” “Trixie!” Luna called as they all got to work on the sails. The rain was hailing down around them, and the masts were already groaning under the strain of the wind as the ship pulled ever closer to the raging heart of the storm. Trixie came up the stairs and stumbled, sliding several yards across the deck as the ship rolled to the side. “Everypony hold on tight!” Captain Hooves yelled as a great wave roared above the ship and crashed down upon them. Trixie got back on her hooves and helped a trembling and terrified Fluttershy with the last sail, while Luna turned in the direction they were drifting, towards the center of the storm. Luna stared up at the raging black clouds and thundering winds. “This is not a natural storm! Something is out of control here, I can't—” A purple flash of lightning broke her off, as it struck the main mast of the ship, splintering the wood in a shower of flames and a resounding clap of thunder. Fluttershy screamed as they all fell down, holding on to anything they could grab. She felt Trixie's protective wing above her, and an azure light enveloped them as fire rained down around them. “Pinkie!” Fluttershy cried as she struggled to see anything through the storm. The wind roared, and the ship seemed to lift itself from the waves. “Pinkie!” Fluttershy cried again and tried to stand back up but felt herself get pulled down by Trixie. “Don't let go!” Trixie whispered in her ear. A sudden violent crash rocked the entire ship, and an ear-splitting sound of splintered wood drowned out everything. Fluttershy felt her hoof slip and the deck of the ship disappearing beneath her. *          *          * “Fluttershy!” Fluttershy felt herself torn from Trixie's side, her hoof slipping as she was tossed violently into the air by the whirling winds. Black rocks towered above her like giant teeth rising out of the white, raging sea. Fluttershy fought against the wind and the rain, her wings beating feebly as she tried to reach the rocky outcrops for something to grab on to. Anything at all. Through tears and rain she saw the rock disappear from her view. Fluttershy cried and flapped her wings harder, as hard as she could against the storm, when she saw a pale blue light beneath her. “Fluttershy!” Trixie's voice called. Fluttershy struggled blindly through the rain towards the light, her hoof searching desperately in front of her. It touched something, and she felt another hoof grab her and Trixie's voice calling again. “Hold on!” Fluttershy held on for her life as Trixie's wings carried them towards the cliff in the distance. Trixie hit a large rock and landed hard on a small outcrop far above the sea. “Hold on to something, and don't move!” she called as she stumbled back on her hooves and spread her wings again. Fluttershy grabbed the nearest rock in terror. “D-don't l-leave me!” she cried, but Trixie had already taken flight once more. Somewhere behind her, Fluttershy could hear Trixie yelling back at her. “Who are you?” Fluttershy sank the lump in her throat, her mouth feeling dry as sand, and hugged the rock tighter as the wind howled around her. “I-I'm the g-great and … and courageous F-Fluttershy! I-I'm not afraid … I'm not afraid!” she cried to herself, sure that none but the wind could hear her. And yet a voice reached her back, a tiny cry deep below her. Fluttershy hugged the rock as she peeked over the edge of the cliff into the stormy abyss, shivering all over from fear. “S-so deep,” she whimpered. Somewhere far below her she could see the shattered remains of the ship almost swallowed up by the sea. Amidst the white foam, dark blue waves and brown wood of the sinking vessel, a tiny pink dot seized her attention. “P-Pinkie!” Fluttershy struggled to breathe as she stared down the side of the cliff, down at where Pinkie was struggling in the cold waves. “I-I'm not a-afraid! I am not afraid!” She let go of the rock she had been hugging and stood up. Her eyes set into a fierce stare as she gazed straight ahead into the darkness, into an imaginary mirror. “Now you listen to me here, Missy! I am the Great and Courageous Fluttershy!” The sound of her voice clashed against the rocks as she jumped, wings held tight along her body as she dove straight down, screaming defiance at the top of her lungs against the choking wind. At the last moment she spread her wings and swooped down over the sinking wreckage of the ship. Pinkie was hugging one of the broken masts, staring up as she tried to keep her face above the waves. Fluttershy landed behind the mast and reached out to grab Pinkie. Pinkie kept her grip on the mast, coughing up water as the waves rolled over her face. “F-Fluttershy! I'm … tied!” She sputtered desperately and fought to keep herself above water a little longer. Fluttershy looked around in a panic. Seeing nopony else around to help, she took a deep breath before diving into the cold water just as Pinkie's face disappeared under the waves again. Holding on to the mast, she felt herself along until she found Pinkie. A rope from one of the sails had tied itself around Pinkie’s waist and hind legs, and the heavy sail now pulled her down along with the rest of the ship. The currents pulled at Fluttershy relentlessly, and the cold water numbed her hooves as she struggled and tore at the ropes to get them free. Her lungs were screaming for air as the darkness of the deep grew closer around them, but she wouldn't leave Pinkie. She would never leave her. *          *          * Trixie landed on the small rocky outcrop with Spike clinging to her back, shivering from the cold. “Fluttershy!” she called, but there was no sign of the pegasus where she had left her. “Fluttershy!” Trixie looked around. Was it the same place? She was almost sure of it, and yet there was no Fluttershy. “Trixie! Up here!” Trixie looked up, shielding her eyes with a hoof against the rain. Luna waved down at her from higher up. Trixie spread her wings again and set off, beating hard to fight the wind. Luna reached out and pulled them both into the narrow opening of a small cave in the side of the cliff. “I'm so relieved to see you both!” Luna gasped. “Have you seen the others?” Trixie looked around, but all she could see was Luna, and Rarity huddled up further inside the cave, shivering. “I left Fluttershy on the rocks below, but she disappeared while I was out helping Spike. I haven't seen Pinkie or the captain at all.” They both gazed out of the small cave into the raging storm and sea outside, but there was no sign of either pony. Trixie walked back and forth along the edge in worry. “I told her not to move. They could be anywhere. We have to find them!” “Wait, look!” Luna pointed down at the water. There, near the base of the cliffs, a small pink and yellow dot was struggling against the waves. “It's them!” Trixie cried and set off, followed by Luna. Pinkie coughed and wheezed as she dragged Fluttershy up on a flat rock jutting out of the sea and collapsed next to her. She barely noticed as she was lifted up by Luna and carried away. *          *          * “I have good news and bad news,” Luna said as she landed inside the small cave. It had been nearly an hour. “The storm is clearing, but there is still no sign of the captain, or the pets,” she continued and looked down. “I'm afraid we've lost them to the sea.” There was a long silence. Fluttershy buried herself in Pinkie's hooves. “A-Angel …” she cried softly. Pinkie was silent—a once rare but now increasingly common occurrence—as were the others as they mourned the losses. Trixie glanced out at the blue ocean outside the cave. Somewhere down there, deep below the sea, now lay her little hoof-held mirror. Somehow it felt almost like losing a pony. Finally Luna looked back up. “The good news is … I think we're in the right place, and we're not as stuck as I first feared. I found the balloon; it's tied down on the other side of the island.” “The balloon? What of Manna, then?” Trixie asked. “I am not certain. I only saw it from afar, but if the balloon is there then I'm certain she must be somewhere near as well. Certainly she can't have gone far without it. Which means we're close and should be careful. I suggest we set out as soon as possible to find her, and the mirror.” “I think we could all use a rest,” Trixie said, despite her own eagerness to find the mirror. “We're wet and tired and still grieving.” “Which is exactly why we should not sit here and grow even colder. We'll all get sick that way. We've lost everything with the ship. We have no food, nothing to drink and nothing to keep us warm. If we're lucky there are still supplies in the balloon,” Luna said. They all looked around at the barren cave. Trixie looked at Fluttershy. “Can you fly on your own?” The yellow pegasus sniffed a bit and nodded. “I'm not afraid,” she whispered. Trixie smiled at her. “That's wonderful, Fluttershy. If you can have Spike with you, then Luna and I can carry Pinkie and Rarity.” Luna nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” *          *          * The balloon lay tucked in between two rocks, deflated and tied down. While the others searched it for supplies, Luna and Trixie searched the area around it. The island was small and barren, a spire of rocks rising out of the sea. Trixie had half hoped there would be tracks left behind they could follow, but even if it hadn't all been solid rock the storm would surely have blown and washed away any tracks. Luna was silent as she walked among the rocks, shifting between looking up at the sky and down at the ground. Trixie followed quietly, straying a bit in her search to cover more of the area. She wasn't sure what they were looking for, but Luna seemed to have something in mind, and Trixie didn't feel like asking for details. No doubt she would know it when she saw it. Or maybe she would literally stumble upon it. Trixie nearly fell on her face as something got in the way of her hooves, but she managed to keep her balance and backed away with a small grunt of surprise. “I found something over here!” she called as she looked down at the rope stretched taut before her, one end tied to a nearby rock. “Look where you step,” she added as Luna came up behind her. “Well done, dear,” Luna said with a smile, trying to cheer up the tension between them. Trixie didn't reply, but continued her previous silence as she walked along the rope. Luna sighed and followed. They didn't have to walk far before the rope disappeared down a wide crack in the rocks, into an inky blackness below. “Looks like we found the place,” Luna said as she peeked down the hole. “If we're lucky, this leads to one of the towers of the city. It was built into a mountain much like Canterlot.” “Let's get the others then,” Trixie said and turned around. Luna watched her sadly for a time, then followed slowly. Maybe it would soon all be over and they could return to how it used to be. *          *          * Trixie let go of the rope and flew the last few yards down. Rarity and Pinkie followed shortly behind her. Luna was standing a bit away, looking around in the light from her horn at the ancient stonework of the room. Trixie looked around as well as she landed. It did indeed look like the room of an ancient castle or tower, but not much had been left intact by the ravages of time. “I think I know this place,” Luna said quietly and began trotting around the room, lighting up the walls and floor to inspect the old carvings that had nearly disappeared. She stopped at a crumbling hole which Trixie imagined might have once been a flight of stairs. “Then you know how to find the mirror from here?” Trixie asked, feeling excited. The loss of the small hoof-held mirror, now resting at the bottom of the sea, had felt like a greater loss than she had expected. The pull she now felt towards this Mirror of Souls was stronger than ever. “Give me a little time,” Luna said as she looked down the remains of the stairs and around the room as if trying to stir ancient memories. Trixie wandered back and forth while waiting. Would she finally find the answers she had come all this way for? And what of Twilight? For some reason that now seemed as important, maybe even more important, than anything else they had come here for. It seemed like forever to Trixie, but finally Luna nodded as if to herself. “Yes, I think I know where we are. This is indeed one of the ancient towers of the castle where the mirror was kept. I don't know if it is still intact, but I know the way to it, at least.” She took a few careful steps down the stairs. “Hopefully we can still get there. And we better be careful.” They all followed Luna, stepping carefully as they descended the stairs. The halls and rooms of the castle were empty and ruined. In several places the walls and ceilings had collapsed, and many low-lying passages were flooded, but Luna led them on with growing confidence. Trixie noticed several places where it looked like stones and rubble had been pushed out of the way by somepony before them. If nothing else, it seemed they were on the right track to find Manna. They had walked for what seemed like hours to Trixie, changing course many times when the path ahead was blocked or when Luna's memory led them astray for a time. Finally Luna paused. “We're close,” she whispered and listened before continuing more carefully. They wouldn't be the ones taken by surprise this time, Trixie thought as she followed behind the others. *          *          * Manna sank down on the cold, wet floor, her eyes staring blankly in the dim light she had brought with her. So tired, and yet no end in sight. No rest, no peace, only the eternal mockery and pain of her failure. She had long since run dry of tears, long since lost everything but the desire for an end, and now here she was … stuck with a cursed mirror between her and the end. She could hear the mocking laughter, see the smirking face in the reflective surfaces around her. It looked a bit like her, but it wasn't her. She wanted to throw something at it, to shatter the glass and be rid of it, but she knew it would do her no good. There was only one way … She looked down at the small vial of blood between her hooves. It didn't work. Why? Manna closed her eyes and turned the vial between her hooves, trying again and again to answer that question. It should work. She had been certain it would work. She had worked for so long, only to be defeated here. She could find only one answer, the blood was cold, dead … it had no life left, no magic. It was useless. Manna grit her teeth and clenched her hooves, shattering the glass and staining her hooves a deep red with the cold blood of the princess. She took a deep breath, restraining herself from screaming again. She was losing control, going mad. She couldn't afford to lose herself again, she needed to be in control of her emotions. Always in control. “Breathe!” she hissed at herself between clenched teeth. The cold floor against her cheek calmed her a little as she lay there, defeated. She needed Luna to open the way forward. She had been sure she could do it on her own, but now she realized that she had been mistaken. But what could she do now, this far away? She couldn't return to Hoofswell in time, and surely Luna would never help her willingly. And she couldn't possibly force the princess. She had burned her bridges, it was over. “Manna Sparkle!” Manna jumped at the voice and scuttled backwards as she turned towards the sound. Her eyes widened as she stared up into Luna's stern gaze. Laying a trap and facing the princess when she was subdued and dazed by drugs had been one thing, but to face her now … Manna shrank before the regent of the moon. “How—” Luna cut her off. “What have you done with the blood you took from me?” she demanded. Manna pointed a bloodied hoof at the shattered glass and small stain of blood on the stone. Luna watched her but didn't say anything, as if waiting for her to speak instead. Manna's lips trembled as she sought for words. “I only did what I thought I had to do. I was wrong.” “You admit your guilt then?” Luna's eyes remained cold, her face unreadable. “You admit to have murdered the ponies of Hoofswell Asylum in cold blood? You admit to having captured me and my friends, possibly putting our lives and the lives of many ponies, indeed all of Equestria at great risk?” “No,” Manna shook her head but quickly looked down again. She tried to maintain her breath, tried to keep focus. “I did kill them. I had to, they would have stopped me, locked me up. I didn't want to, but I had to. I had to get here. I had to find Midnight to end it all. And I had to make sure she would not be able to stop me either. I had to do what I did, to make everything right.” “Did you?” Luna asked, unmoving. “Did your plan work then?” “I …” Manna kept her eyes down, staring at the floor. “No. I was wrong.” “So you did put others at risk,” Luna continued. “I thought—” Luna raised her hoof, cutting her off again. “Manna Sparkle, what you have done is unforgivable. Even if your goal was noble, your actions haven't been.” Manna looked up. “Please, Your Highness … allow me to speak?” Luna gave a single nod. Manna took a moment before speaking. “I'm sorry. I am an honest pony, and I know I have done wrong. I have—” she looked down. “I have done so much wrong. All I ask is that I be allowed a chance to make one thing right. All I ask is a chance to end my ancestor's evil. I need you to do that. I was wrong, I can't do it alone. I need your help, and maybe … maybe you'll accept mine before you decide my final fate?” Luna looked at her for a long time, then spoke. “It is not for me, or anypony here, to mete out judgment for your crimes. We are all your victims, and our judgment would be colored by that.” She paused. “You will come with us, and if you survive to return to Canterlot, your final fate will be determined there by the royal court, as is custom under Equestrian law. You will stay by my side at all times, any attempt to flee and I may not be so lenient.” Manna looked down. “Thank you.” *          *          * Trixie gazed into the vast mirrors around her. She had been here before, in her dream. In this very room, looking into these very mirrors. Her eyes drifted from one to the others. She could see reflections in the ancient glass, reflections of her friends, repeated over and over, but none of herself. And none of Manna. She looked around the room and her eyes fell on the purple mare, whose icy blue eyes seemed fixed right back at her. Trixie didn't trust that mare, and no doubt the feeling was returned, and yet … as she looked back into the mirror and saw nothing, she couldn't help but wonder at their shared fate. Trixie shook the thought away as Luna approached one of the mirrors, horn glowing brilliantly. The princess raised her head. “It is time for us to find answers, and time to confront this evil that stalks us. I am going to open the way. Be on your guard and stay close, never lose sight of each other.” They all gathered around Luna as she touched her horn against the cold surface of the mirror. The reflection shimmered and darkened as if a portal into a world of eternal night had swallowed the glass. “I will go first,” Luna said. “Manna will go with me and stay by my side. The rest of you follow close behind.” Luna looked around at them briefly to make sure they were in on her plan, then took a step through the blackened mirror, soon fading until she was only a distant ghost against the blackness. Manna looked at the mirror and the fading princess, then followed in silence. Trixie watched them step through one by one, before following herself. A cold, clammy darkness settled around her as she stepped through the mirror. She could see the shadowy outlines of her friends ahead, waiting for her. Luna said something to them all, but the sound barely reached Trixie. Something else did, another voice, like a gentle caress. “My Trixie … we are brought together at last!” She took a step forward and turned, staring into Twilight’s eyes looking back at her with a gleam of purple. Luna's voice sounded somewhere in the dark. “Trixie? Are you with us? What's wrong?” But Trixie no longer heard or saw anything. *          *          * Luna turned around and looked at Trixie, whose wide eyes stared past her into the darkness, mouth agape in a dead expression. “Trixie? Are you with us? What's wrong? Trixie!” A gleam crossed Trixie's eyes, then she broke into a long, deep laughter. Luna's eyes widened. “No!” Trixie just laughed and took a step backwards. “Thank you, Luna! You have been my greatest friend and ally all along, even if you never knew it. I couldn't have asked for better.” “Leave Trixie alone! Come out and face us, demon!” Luna thundered and charged through the darkness at Trixie. A deathly light lit up the black sky and sent Luna flying back with a cry. ”Don't flatter yourself. You have been useful, but you were always too weak, unworthy of the power I now hold. You should have listened to your sister and killed Trixie when you had the chance. But you couldn't make yourself do what was necessary, could you? So you led her straight to me instead, and so it ends.” She stepped back, through the mirror, fading with the shadows around her. “I'll be sure to say hi from you.” “No!” Luna scrambled to her legs and threw herself into the darkness. A great shattering of glass accompanied her fall, then everything went silent.