//------------------------------// // Mirror Image // Story: Endless Nightmare // by Surprise The Pegasus //------------------------------// Luna's eyelids fluttered open. She shook her head and stood up. She was in a dark room. The walls were made of tall mirrors that stretched up as far as she could see. "Where…am I?" "Luna, please. You should know where you are." Luna turned to see her living reflection. "Aahhhh!! Who are you!? Stay back! Where am I!?" Luna was terrified. She was in an unknown location with a potential threat. "Calm down, Luna. I'm just, another you. A better you. And, you're in your mind." It stood in the mirror still, sneering as it taunted her. "What do you mean "in my mind"?" Luna's reflection trotted to another mirror, and Luna followed it. "hahaha, you're so clueless. This is just a dream…" "Just a dream? But it seems so real…" "Maybe it would, to a simple pony like you. It's quite sad, really." "What do you mean? TELL ME!" Luna punched the mirror as hard as she could, the glass didn't break, but the reflection rippled a bit. "Sooner or later I'm gonna have to take control of this whole mess." "What mess, what are you talking about?" Luna started to shrink back from the reflection. It was so…intimidating, gloating like it just couldn't lose. "The mess caused by you being Nightmare Moon. You should know that, Luna. It's in your head, and you can't get rid of it." "No, it's not, it's not! It's in the past!" The reflection was trying trying to break her, bend her, make her snap. "Luna, do yourself a favor, and stop believing lies. Celestia said she's forgiving you, but why is she giving you lessons? Keeping you cooped up in the castle, not letting you see…" "Stop it!" "I'm only tying to help you." then voices started to pound her. "Nopony likes you because you're a freak. Sister, I'm not in the mood. Worthless b*tch. Freak, weird. Sister hates you…" "NO!!" Luna sat up with a jolt, only to find herself in bed, the Moon hanging low in the sky. It was time for her to lower it. Keeping a weary eye on her mirror, Luna stepped out of bed, her Foal Blanket draped across her back. Her horn lit up with a sky blue magic, and the Moon slowly sank behind the horizon. She turned her shaking body back to her mirror, then stepped in front of it. "It was all a dream, Luna. None of it is real." "Oh, but it is." "Aaahhhh!!" Luna punched her mirror, then bucked it against the wall. She then punched it again and again, until she was satisfied. Several cuts adorned her wrists, but she paid them no heed. There was a knock on the door. "Luna,what's going on in there?" "Um, nothing!" Celestia pushed the door open and walked up to Luna. "Umm, Luna?" "Tia! Luna rushed up to her sister and threw her hooves around her neck. "Tia, I had the most terrible dream!" "Are you alright? You cut up your hooves," Luna broke the hug, and Celwstia saw the broken mirror. "And what did you do to your mirror? What happened Luna? Why would you smash your mirror? Is something wrong?" "Oh, well, n-nothing. It was just a bad dream." "What was it about?" "Uhh…mirrors! Yeah, mirrors." Luna blindly rubbed her still bleeding cuts. "Ok then. That was an old, nasty, mirror anyway. Lucky for you I bought another one." Luna froze. "What!?" Luna's pupils shrank. Cinnabon pushed in a gold-framed wall mirror. "Here you are, Your Majesty." "Thank you Cinnabon." Said Celestia. "Uh-um- how much did that cost?" Luna's mouth was agape. "It's made of pure gold, so alot. But you're worth it, Luna. You deserve the best." Luna walked over to where the mirror lay on the floor and peered into it. "Hehehehe!" "Ahhhh!!" Luna jumped up. "AAAHHHHH!!" Cinnabon ran off screaming, like usual. "Luna, you need to stop scaring away servants like that, it's not funny." "No, it's just that- I-I-I- this pony- mirror!" Luna was so scared that she couldn't form proper sentences. "I know, I'm getting the mirror on the wall." "But-" "I know, let me just put it on." Celestia levitated the mirror and hooked it on a nail where the old mirror was. "Out with this old mirror," she then levitated the old, battered mirror and put it in the hall to be picked up later. "And in with the new. See, Luna, much better. Right?" Celestia stood with Luna in front of the new mirror. "Yeah, right." Luna's reflection came alive, and punched Celestia's reflection to death. "*Gasp* Did you just see that?" Luna turned to face Celestia. "See what?" "I saw- huh? What in Equestria!?" "Luna, what's wrong!? If you don't like the mirror you should just say so! I'd be happy to have it!" "No, it's just that-" "Keep your mouth shut, Luna. You don't want to put Celestia through this, do you? Then she'd think your even more crazy, and who knows, maybe send you back to the Moon." "*gasp* Uh- um-" "Luna?" "N-nothing! I was just- uh- I'm just so happy! That you got me…that mirror…t-thank you, Sister." "Good. For a minute I thought you didn't like it. I for one like it very much. I might have to get one for myself." "Ahaha. Right…thank you again." "No problem. And, um, I'm sorry about Twilight. Shining told me everything." "He did!?" "Yeah. He's a true friend, Shining is. He seems to really care about you." With that, Celestia walked out, leaving Luna alone once more. "Shining…cares about me? Yeah, right. Twilight's brother." Luna noticed the picture that she had destroyed yesterday was back, in mint condition. "I thought I smashed this." Luna shoved it off again, and crushed it with her strong hoof. "What are you doing?" Luna whipped around to see Twilight staring back. "Oh- oh my god! Uh- nothing! Nothing at all, hehe!" Luna levitated the picture back onto her nightstand. "Why were you smashing that picture?" Twilight stepped forward. "Uh, no certain reason!" "Was it because of yesterday? I came to apologize." "What- really?" "Yeah. You see, Cadance told me you'd gone a bit, well, dark, so I was a little shocked to see you." "Cadance told you that. Why would you trust Cadance?" "Well, because she's my best friend, why can't you deal with that!?" "Twilight, Cadance is a liar and a skank." "Wha- Cadance married my brother, and promised him death do us part!" Spat Twilight. "If you wanna know, go ask Shining. They eventually slipped off their rings because their getting pretty sick of each other. I'm not surprised that Shining would be sick of Cadance." "Uh- you're so difficult!" "What, I was only trying to help." "By telling me that my brother's gone off my best friend!? That's- that's just great Luna. Great help." "Wha- I- what's wrong?" "Well, look Luna. I didn't know you would be so self-centered. I'm gonna go." Twilight started to stomp away. "Wait, Twilight! You're my only friend." "I'm not surprised, because, you know what you're known as to all the other ponies outside Canterlot? Still an evil enemy, Nightmare Moon, waiting to kill us all. They all hate you, Luna. I hate you." Twilight spat out the words with so much venom that Luna stepped back instead of forward, cutting herself on another mirror fragment. "T-Tw-Twilight?" Luna hung her head, utterly defeated. "Now you can trust that." Luna turned to her mirror in shock. "No, not you again!" "ooh, not you again! Get used to it sister. I'm in your mind. In your head. I'm everywhere. I'll always be watching you, Luna." "But Twilight's not really like that! It's Cadance who's made her like that!" "Yeah, and I guess that makes Cadance a b*tch that we need to put down." "Uh…uuaaah…" There was a knock on the door. "Uughh, WHAT IS IT!!?" "God, you don't need to shout at me." "Oh, Cadance. What do you want?" "Chill, I just came to steal your mane straighteners. My mane is TOTALLY gone to mess." "Your mane is always a mess." "Well EXCUSE ME! Hey, is Shining in here?" "No, I'm in my room ALONE, if you didn't notice." "But I heard two voices. Were you TALKING to yourself?" Cadance was practically laughing. "I- no!" Luna's could feel herself blushing. "Uh- ok, quite pathetic." Cadance shoved Luna. "Luna, why don't you just do what I say and PUT HER DOWN!" "Would you just SHUT UP!?" "Exc-use me?" "Oh, not you, Cadance! I wasn't talking to you." "Yeah you were, you told me to shut up!" "No, I didn't!" "Oh, unless you were talking to yourself. Hahaha. Well, later, looser." Cadance started to leave. "Ugh!" "Cadance, there you are!" Shining exclaimed. "Oh, there's my Princey Wincey." The couple then started to kiss, right in front of Luna. "Heh, yeah." Shining pulled away from Cadance and turned to Luna. "Shining!" Luna then pretended to gag. "Really, in my room?" "Sorry Luna. I came to ask:" "Let me guess. For some straighteners for me?" Cadance batted her eyes. "Not exactly…" "Uh- oh well. I'm going to the spa." Cadance trotted out. "Right. Well, um, I have nothing to do this afternoon, so, you know how you say you only have one friend?" "Yeah…" "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out." There was a knock on the door. "Ugh, come in." "Hello Luna." "Hi Tia." "You know how you said you felt lonely? Well, I got you a friend!" The pony that accompanied Celestia was definitely not what Luna was expecting. She was a pony with- fairy wings? She had a very pale pink coat, and her eyes were a deep sapphire blue. Her long, marbled mane was put up into a side ponytail. "Hello." Luna and Shining turned to face Celestia's "friend for Luna". "Woah…sorry to stare, but you have massive wings." Said Shining. "It's ok, I'm used to it." The pony looked up at Luna. "You two can hang out now, now that you're friends." Celestia said happily. "I'm Saraphine Grace." "Um, Luna." Luna shook Saraphine's hoof. "Ok now…wait, Shining Armor? Get out of here, what're you doing? You, the captain of the royal guard, is in my little sister's room." "I'm sorry, Your Majesty-" "He was keeping me company as well." Luna intervened. "Hmmmm…ok then. The more the merrier! See you three later." Celestia then left. "Ok then." said Shining. Luna looked to Saraphine. "So…your name's Saraphine?" "Hehe…yeah." Celestia appeared in the doorway almost as soon as she left. "So, Shining. You're going out with Cadance, right?" "SIS CAN YOU GET OUT OF MY ROOM!?" "Uh, yeah, I'm going out with Cadance." "Then I don't want you spending time with MY little sister." "Seriously, Tia?" "It's fine, it's fine, I'll go. You've got Saraphine now, so, bye." Shining trotted out. "Good. Enjoy!" Celestia followed Shining out and made sure he didn't come back, for the time being. "So…" "So..." "I bet you get tired of everypony staring at you." "Just like you, Luna." "What?" "Everypony stares at you, everypony stares at me. They call us freaks. But you know what, Luna?" "What?" "They're wrong. We're just special. We've got…gifts." "But I was once Nightmare Moon, that's why everypony stares at me." "Who cares? You have a dark side, that's pretty cool, right? Dark." "Uh, being dark is not cool." "But it is! If you're dark, you can control other ponies." "I guess…everyone would fear me." "Luna, you and I are gonna get along just fine." "Haha, ok."