//------------------------------// // Ch. 9 We've Been Denying For So Long // Story: Mirage on the Horizon // by Hope //------------------------------// Eris stood at the first paving stone of the path that led to the cabin. Buried in memories older than her deepest pains, a being stood on that same stone that looked like her. It was imbued with cruelty etched in every bone and desires impossible to understand, and it ripped those stones from the soul of the earth, granite with diamonds laced through it instead of quartz. That creature had done a million impossible things just to show others how powerful it was. With every breath it had ached for respect and admiration. Each step that Eris followed in its shadowy hoofsteps, she was further away from it than she had ever been before. Each impossible stone she took was a refutation of the being that had carved them. But she could feel the process killing her as she did it. "Darling, slow down," Rarity insisted as she used her magic to keep Eris from falling over. AJ stepped ahead of Eris, putting her own body in between Eris and any potential threat. But she couldn't see the threat inside of Eris's heart. Another step, and Eris cried out, her form flickering and warping. "What's happening?!" Fluttershy gasped, stepping back but refusing to flee. They couldn't hear what Eris heard. The most beautiful song, pouring out of the cabin in the woods. "Ur-love, your dove, soft lies upon these ears so sweetly. Time doth flow, these years, ur-clepe, er certes! Eris, oh Eris, dight thine fruit gilded so sweetly. Eft twine ere, twixt war et peace… Oh Eris. Thy malison, nigh a shrift upon mine heart, oh, oh, ooooh… Ur-love, your dove…" Eris screamed again and she was torn in half, one shadowy and flickering with a fell light, the other as real as the stones she stood on, but younger and exhausted. The five ponies immediately faced the shadowy Eris, standing protectively around their friend. "Have any of you known true Power?" The Thing From Before Time asked as it waved a hand and the world rolled by around them. They all stood in the far flung past, as a war raged around them. Fires burned heavy with bodies as blood soaked the ground. The drums of war beat fast and heavy, rattling their bones and making Eris cover her ears and whimper. "Have any of you known the true dangers of Chaos?" The Thing asked, as it waved its hand again and they all were struggling through ever deepening snow as spirits wailed all around them. "I am Chaos. I am every unexpected thing. I am the cruelty of an uncaring world, and I am the only thing that can Fix Mirage," It drawled as it brought them all panting and shivering back to the present. "Changing people by force is wrong!" Rainbow Dash shouted. The Thing sneered and snapped a finger, sending Rainbow dropping to the ground as her wings vanished. "Wrong is subjective, and I have decided it's not. If I can make the person desire the change I give them, then it becomes acceptable." Rainbow recoiled in horror, looking at her back and shivering as she stood her ground. "What made you like this?!" Pinkie asked angrily. "Why do you want an excuse to hurt people?" The Thing laughed and shook her head. "None of you will admit the truth. Having power over others is intoxicating. It's innately pleasing, no matter how much your precious harmony says it's wrong." Eris reached out and grabbed hold of AJ, leaning on her. "Stop," Eris whispered. But Fluttershy didn't hear her, and flew forward to confront It. "You've hurt Mirage and Eris! Whatever you tell yourself about what is right or wrong in changing people, you did it wrong here! Your future reincarnation is hurt, so even selfishly you should care!" The Thing leaned forward and put a terribly sharp claw to Fluttershy's chin, smiling in the way all predators smiled when they sought to maim and wound. "I'm so glad to see that any version of me suffers properly." Fluttershy gasped and flew back, eyes wide with tears streaking down her cheeks. "Stop!" Eris wailed, and everyone went silent. Eris's heartbeat was so loud. So painful, raining in her ears. "You can't defeat her," Eris whispered. Just as her friends were about to object, she held up a clawed hand. "I mean… that's not… how to fix me," Eris whispered, closing her eyes. "You have to fix me." The Thing chuckled, starting to pace in a wide circle around the group, as the ponies focused on Eris instead of her horrifying doppelganger. "Eris…" Fluttershy whispered. "You… you don't believe the things she believes, do you?" "She doesn't believe anything," Eris said bitterly as she looked up at the Thing angrily. "She'll say anything to cause pain and chaos. Not none of it comes from her heart. None of it is real." "Okay," Rainbow nodded, trying to ignore her missing wings as she stepped up to Eris. "Okay. So what's the problem? Can we just walk past her?" Eris shook her head, falling to her knees and holding one hand to her chest. "She's in my heart," Eris whispered. "She's… part of me, and I can't get rid of her but… I think that… she needs me." The Thing cackled, a wild crazed laughter as she closed her pacing circle tighter. "So how can we help, Darling?" Rarity asked quickly. "How can we get rid of this nasty half-baked copy?" "I have to be… free of the curse," Eris admitted as she put her hand to her chest again. This time, she pulled something from her chest, dripping in golden light. A golden apple beat like a heart, pumping magic through her instead of a heart pumping blood. On its surface, the apple had two things carved into it. The first and much older inscription read "ΤΗΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΗΙ" and then on the other side was etched "Ur-love". "Eris," Fluttershy said as the apple was offered to her. "That… isn't that what keeps you alive? I can't…" "It reincarnates me when I would die," Eris admits. "I think… I don't think Mirage could kill me. I don't think she could kill… that. She loved her too much. So she cursed us. A curse that would keep us alive forever." She offered it up to AJ, who shook her head quickly. "Dunno if ya seen the demon stalkin us," she said nervously. "But I think ya need that come-back now more than ever!" "If someone takes this… the chaos, the power, the curse… it should break her, it should free me, please," Eris pleased as she offered it to Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who both looked terrified of it. But Pinkie stepped up to her. "If it'll help you," Pinkie said softly. "I'll take it." A shiver ran down Eris's spine as she became mortal, and the curse was broken. In the same instant, Pinkie took a bite of the apple, and decided that for all the thematic meaning behind it, things being coated in gold just didn't add any flavor or texture to them. Then Pinkie calmly erased the Thing's True Name from the document, looked the reader in the eye, and winked. "It's gone," Rainbow gasped, as her wings reappeared on her back. "Well duh," Pinkie giggled. "If you can't reincarnate, then you can't be reverse-reincarnated, so you can't be haunted by a past reincarnation!" "I'll pretend that makes sense," Fluttershy sighed, though she was smiling as she helped Eris stand. "Are you okay, Eris?" "Yeah," Eris sighed, smiling a little. "I think so. Thank you, all of you. Now… I think I need to do this next part alone." "Nope!" Pinkie said happily. "Darling, it's a discussion between her and an ex-wife, I think," Rarity objected. "I think it'd be a bit awkward…" "Nope!" Pinkie repeated. "Mirage made this about all of us. I think we should return the favor! So let’s go, gang! Into the Cabin in the Woods! But hopefully we get a better rating than seven out of ten.” The six walked along the shimmering pathway until they reached the stairs onto the porch, where Eris paused and touched the wooden railing. The memory of carving it was so faint, and it no longer hurt. She remembered laughter, here. She remembered Celestia, showing some unfortunate creature how pony tools could shape a branch. She wiped tears from her eyes and took the first step up onto the porch, as a golden and white dress shimmered into existence around her. “Eris…” Rainbow hissed. “It’s ok,” Eris said with a gentle smile, reaching out to hold Rainbow’s hoof. “I promise, it’s ok. I think… This dress meant something to her. It had to, right? Let’s find out what.” The front door of the cabin had a wreath hung from a crude wooden prong, the wreath of holly boughs and yew surrounded a simple plaque. “The Home of the Bright Fire,” AJ read out loud. “Shucks… Sounds half cozy like that.” “She called… Her… The Brightness. In the old language it means something a little bit different,” Eris sighed as she touched the wreath and smelled its peaceful fragrance. “The Princess of the Sun, and her Incandescence, I guess would be… the best way to say it now. I can remember all these things, like I read them in a book.” Pinkie put an arm around Eris’s middle, hugging her, giving just a little comfort. The door handle was a wooden lever, without a lock. It was easy to open, and the door swung inward to reveal a modest home. Noone would have guessed a Princess lived there. A shelf by the back door held simple tools and clothes, folded neatly in case the winter came. A pair of chairs faced the fireplace to the right, and to the left a closed door blocked the way to the bedroom. There was a table, set with wooden plates and cups, a bowl of berries and nuts waiting for someone to crave a snack. Tears slipped down Eris’s cheeks. How could she now remember all the most wonderful parts of that long ago life, now that she knew how it ended? Why now could she recall Celestia transcribing fanciful stories for the creative but illiterate Thing From Before Time as they sat in front of a crackling fire, when she knew that at some point that same ancient monster had burned Celestia from the inside out? That they’d had fights so violent that the earth itself had been scarred and ponies across the world had learned to associate Chaos with Cruelty? Yet she touched the chairs with reverence and care despite it all, as her friends watched the bedroom door with trepidation. Eris was stalling. She knew that. She took the slowest possible steps to that door, and opened it to reveal what she’d known all along. Celestia was curled up in the corner, burning as bright as the sun as the wood of the cabin scorched and blackened around her. She’d never been able to leave this horrible memory, after all. Every mad act, every desperate attempt to make the world reflect and fit with her broken mind had been fueled by the look of madness in her rosy eyes. “Celestia,” Eris whispered, as her friends shielded themselves from the light and heat. “You don’t call me that,” Mirage whispered from her corner as the horn-sewn blankets caught fire and began to burn. “Tia,” Eris said more firmly. “Yes, Eris?” Mirage asked, her sudden smile empty of any joy. “I’m wearing the dress you made for me,” Eris declared, stepping closer even as the heat made her fur smoke. Mirage’s smile faltered and she whimpered, the heat flickering like a candle in a breeze. “But you don’t,” Mirage said, her voice breaking while tears became steam the moment she shed them. “I’ve decided that I do,” Eris insisted. “It’s a nice dress.” Mirage wailed, a keening cry as she thrashed and broke the charcoal floor, falling down as flames spread across the bedroom around Eris. Eris swallowed her fear and held out her hand. She knew she still had magic, but it had to be New, to escape the old curse. She moved her hands as if massaging the fire into place, a gentler and firmer motion, and the flames began to cool and peter out. “Stop!” Mirage shouted from the basement. “Don’t come down here!” Eris dropped through the shattered floor to land on the stone one below, and to take in the proof of the worst pains that the Thing From Before Time and Celestia had experienced. Shrines to each horrible thing, entombed here for Mirage to obsess over. The oil painted portrait of a mare that Celestia had loved when the Thing From Before Time was pining after her. The documents outlining the mysterious death of that mare, never explored or explained. The crown of a nation that Celestia had abandoned so that she could pursue love instead, and the letters from her older sister, making it clear that Luna struggled with her lonely duty every day. A cradle and tiny blanket made by Celestia, and broken by the Thing From Before Time, out of panic and fear from the prospect of having to care for a child. A statue, which was all that remained of the warped creature that the Thing From Before Time had tried to make to satisfy Celestia’s motherly desires, which had suffered horribly in the brief time it had lived. But Eris focused only on the mare that was curled up in a ball on the stone floor. Her horn was lit up in golden light as the flames across her body flashed and wavered. Mirage was using her magic to blind herself. To numb herself, and that had been what broke the Thing From Before Time, Eris knew. The moment she saw the golden light in Mirage’s empty eyes, Eris knew. Celestia had begun to hurt herself, because of the Thing From Before Time, and the Thing From Before Time was faced with a choice. To try and heal some of the horrible pain clearly on display, or to take offense to it and encourage it out of spite. Eris knew which path had been chosen. So with that same gentle magic, Eris touched Mirage’s horn and let herself feel what Mirage was doing to herself.