Lockon Astros woke up in what looked like a hospital bed. Yet he did not feel like he was in the hospital. For one thing, even Canterlot General Hospital did not have rooms that were as fancy-looking as this one was.
"How are you feeling, Lockon?" Came the unmistakable voice of Princess Celestia. Lockon turned his head to see she was sitting to the right side of his bed.
"Princess Celestia?" He puzzled. "What are you doing here? More importantly, what am I doing here in your castle's infirmary?"
"Though, to answer your question, I just had the most wicked nightmare." He continued. "Changelings attacked our home. My parents were caught in the blast. Then, they even drained the life out of my sister. You were also there. And the weirdest part was that I became a pegasus unicorn, just like you. I even gained wings and every…thing, whoa!"
As he was finishing his answer, his eyes went wide at the two feathery limbs that were coming from his own body. Then, he looked to the Princess.
"Yes, the proper and politically correct term is 'alicorn'." She said to him.
Then, Lockon's face turned to one of despair as all the memories from the previous night came rushing back to him.
"No, no, no!" He moaned as he put his front hooves to his face with tears starting to form in his eyes. "All of it was real?! Mom…Dad…Sapphire…why did they have to die?! What did we ever do to the changelings to make them attack us?"
Celestia just put a wing around him to comfort him.
"I understand how you feel, Lockon." She said sympathetically. "I have a sister of my own."
"Yeah, but you ended up having to banish her to the moon for a thousand years." Lockon said to her full of sorrow and somewhat skeptically. "At least you have a possible chance of being able to see her again and reunite with her. I'll never even have that chance again until I join them in the afterlife."
"We were able to recover your parents' bodies from your house." Celestia told him while still hugging him. "We can give them a proper burial along with your sister whenever you are ready."
"What's gonna happen to me now?" Lockon asked her. "I suppose once I am discharged from the infirmary, it's straight to the orphanage for me."
"You will do no such thing." Celestia said in a kind but firm tone. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Princess?" Lockon puzzled.
Celestia then levitated several written documents over to Lockon, who took them in his hooves before reading them over very carefully. When he finished, his eyes were wide and slightly watery.
"Are these…?" He asked, only for Celestia to cut him off with a simple nod.
"When I cast that spell on you last night, I looked into your most recent memories." Celestia started explaining to him. "I have been thinking about this decision ever since I saw that horrible tragedy. You might not be a colt anymore, Lockon, but you are still much too young to be living on your own."
"Plus, in all the time that I have known you and your family," she continued, "to me, you became like a son I never had. Of course, I do not wish to do anything of this sort without your consent, so if you don't want to do this, I underst-"
She was then cut off when Lockon immediately embraced her in his front hooves and his wings with a tight grip.
"I don't have any problems with this idea." He said with tears in his eyes. "And truth be told, Princess, you were always like a second mother to me."
Celestia just returned his hug upon hearing this.
"You said your guards were able to recover both of my parents' bodies?" Lockon asked her. Celestia just nodded in confirmation. "Then I would like to bury them as soon as possible. Does Canterlot Cemetery still have that huge oak tree in the middle of it?"
"Say no more." Celestia nodded. "We'll do it tomorrow."
"One other thing." Lockon said in reply. "As soon as I am eligible, I would like to sign up for the royal guard."
"But why?" Celestia asked in response.
"I want to protect anypony I can." Lockon answered her. "I want to help make it so that nopony ever has to go through what I did. I want to protect anypony I can for as long as I live."
"Alright then," Celestia smiled in agreement, "it is your dream to be a royal guard. I will let you sign up for it. Though, I am afraid the minimum age requirement is sixteen to be able to enlist for the royal guard."
"I can wait two more years." Lockon replied. "Plus, that will give me some time to get use to my wings and prepare myself for the entrance exam."
"You should still rest for a few days." Celestia advised him. "It's not good to push yourself too hard. Anyways, we can make your adoption official as soon as you are discharged from the infirmary."
Lockon then took that moment to seize Celestia in a strong but loving embrace.
"Thank you…Mom." He sniffled. "For everything."
Celestia widened her eyes in shock, not so much at the hug Lockon gave her, as it was at what he just called her. She certainly was not expecting him to call her 'mom' of all things, but this made her glad that he was willing and ready to accept such a life. So she eagerly returned the hug, ready to accept him as her son.
Lockon was discharged from the infirmary the following day. Then, he followed Celestia to a courtroom where she signed the adoption documents and made everything official.
After they returned to the castle, Lockon decided to explore around the castle some more afterwards. He had just entered the gardens when he heard a beautiful cawing sound.
Turning his head to the right, he saw a bird on a nearby fencepost. This bird was unlike any Lockon had ever seen before.
It was very beautiful, with its crimson and yellow feathers, making it look like a shimmering flame.
Lockon tilted his head to the right while trying to mentally figure out what kind of bird this was. Then he noticed it tilting its head to its left to mirror his movements.
Lockon then lightly shook his head. The bird did the same.
Lockon, surprised by this bird's mimicry, decided to play along. He flapped his wings slowly while stomping lightly on the ground. Sure enough, the bird did the same thing, albeit a little faster.
Lockon then smiled before the bird took off in flight towards the inside of the sculpture gardens. It circled around in the air a few times while cawing to Lockon.
Lockon, taking this to mean that the bird wanted to show him something, decided to humor it and follow it.
The bird eventually led him to a particular statue before stopping to perch on top of it.
This statue was beyond strange. It depicted a creature made up of a bunch of random parts.
Its head was a pony's, although it had a deer antler on top of the right side of its head and a goat horn on the left. It also had a goat beard and a long fang on the corner of its upper mouth.
Its body was long and serpentine in appearance, ending in a snake tail. The right arm looked like a lion's paw while the left arm was an eagle talon. The right leg was reptilian in appearance, while the left leg looked like it came from a goat.
Lockon then saw the bird fly off of the statue, and circle around in the air a few times cawing at Lockon to follow it, just like before.
Lockon, wondering what the deal with this new acquaintance of his was, decided to play along some more, and followed it yet again.
This time, the bird led him out of the sculpture gardens and back into the castle halls. It kept leading him down twists and turns, leaving him to wonder what he was going to be shown this time.
"Where are we going…my mysterious feathered friend?" Lockon panted as he tried to catch up with the bird, who was not even breaking a sweat.
Eventually, the bird stopped in front of a large wooden door in a seemingly secluded hallway. The door was slightly open. The bird kept trying to push its way in through the door, but was having trouble doing so, so Lockon used his magic to push it open.
When he entered the room along with his new ornithological associate before closing the door behind him, he was quite confused. The room was completely empty, except for one thing.
In the middle of this room, was a large mirror, the likes of which Lockon had never seen before. The base was two cylindrical disks which acted like steps, the smaller one sitting on top of the larger one which had horseshoes all around the border.
The mirror part looked like it had been made out of a horseshoe standing straight up in an arch. Eleven purplish jewels outlined the horseshoe border. Vine like projections were sticking out from and swirling to the sides of the mirror.
There was also a smaller horseshoe in an upside down position directly above the main mirror. The smaller horseshoe also had a purple jewel like the ones on the mirror. The smaller horseshoe also depicted a pony standing up on its two hind legs.
As soon as Lockon saw this mirror, his horn went into magic detection overdrive.
Before Lockon's family was killed, Lockon always paid special attention to classes in school where he learned how to detect and avoid dark magic. He thought that this kind of skill would be essential for when he joined the royal guard. He could even tell what types of spells these things would use if they could.
At the current moment, Lockon was detecting a lot of magic inside this mirror, and at least HALF of it was dark magic. Luckily for him this gave him a sense of how dangerous this mirror could be, and he stayed a safe distance away from it.
"What is this thing?" He wondered out loud to himself. "The light half of the magic is…some kind of portal? But to where does it lead? And what is with all the dark magic in this thing? Do the light magic and dark magic balance each other out to make the whole thing stable inside this mirror?"
Then he turned his head and noticed his mysterious avian acquaintance perched on a windowsill looking at this mirror just like he was.
"Why did you bring me here, my mysterious friend?" Lockon asked the bird. "Is this mirror what you wanted to show me?" The bird nodded yes in reply.
"Why?" Lockon asked it. "What is so important about this mirror?"
The bird pointed its right wing at the mirror and answered Lockon with another cawing sound.
"You want me to take a closer look at it?" The bird nodded yes again. "Alright then, but this better not be some kind of trick." The bird just gave him a serious look in the eyes which told him otherwise.
Lockon then took a closer look at the mirror, and again his horn went into magic detection overdrive.
This time, however, he looked at the dark half of the magic. What he saw gave him the quite the shock.
"So that's what the dark magic does." Lockon silently said to himself in shock. "That is one of the cruelest failsafes I have ever seen. Why does Princess Celestia even keep this thing inside the castle at all? Does she even know how dangerous this thing is?" Then he turned his attention back to the bird.
"Is there anything else you want to show me?" He asked it. The bird shook its head. "Good, because I think I have found all that I needed to about this." The bird then flew over and landed on his shoulder before Lockon trotted towards the door, opening and closing it with his magic on the way out.
"Lockon!" Said the voice of Princess Celestia. Lockon turned his head to see her coming towards him from his left.
"What were you doing in there?!" She then spotted the bird on his shoulder and pointed to it with her hoof. "She led you in there, didn't she?"
"Uh…she?" Lockon asked in a puzzled manner before looking at the bird. "Wait, you know this beautiful bird?"
"That is Philomeena, my pet phoenix." Celestia answered him before turning to the bird.
"We will discuss this later, young lady." She lightly scolded Philomeena before turning back to Lockon. "I'm sorry Lockon, but that room is forbidden to all."
"I can understand that, Mom." Lockon replied. "Especially considering the amount of dark magic contained in that mirror."
"Wait…dark magic?!" Celestia gasped in somewhat surprise.
"You didn't know?" Lockon asked in surprise. "I thought you would since you make this forbidden to everypony else."
"Let's continue this someplace more private." Celestia said before her horn started glowing.
The next thing Lockon knew, he found himself, Philomeena, and Celestia inside a bedroom.
"I am guessing these are your personal chambers?" Lockon asked his adoptive mother in the form of a guess. Celestia nodded back to him while locking the door and casting a soundproofing spell on the entire room. Then, she turned back to Lockon.
"How did you end up in that room?" She asked him.
Lockon then explained how he met Philomeena out in the sculpture gardens and how she led him to the freaky statue that made him feel uneasy at first, and then she led him to the room containing that mirror.
Lockon then explained how he was cautious around the mirror and how he had trained himself at school to be able to detect any trace of magic, including dark magic, and protect and prevent himself from being affected by it in any way, since he figured this skill would be very useful for whenever he became a royal guard.
"What do you know about that mirror?" Celestia then asked him. "What did you find out?"
"I found a large amount of magic makes up that mirror." Lockon answered her. "Half of it is regular magic, and the other half is dark magic. The light half of the magic makes that mirror act like a portal of some kind, though I cannot even guess as to where it leads. In fact, I believe the main purpose of that mirror is to act as a portal."
"You are indeed correct." Celestia nodded in confirmation. "That mirror acts as a portal that only opens once every thirty moons for a period of three days. That portal leads to another world. What about the dark magic? Where does it fit in?"
"I think the light magic and dark magic exist in balance inside that mirror," Lockon explained, "cancelling each other out to make the whole thing exist in a stable equilibrium. The light magic acts as the portal. But the dark magic, I believe it exists as some kind of cruel and twisted failsafe."
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked him, now showing obvious concern and worry in her voice, although Lockon had not yet noticed it.
"I believe the dark magic makes it so that the portal itself can only be used by alicorns or ponies who are pure of heart." Lockon continued his answer. "It will let anypony look at it as it is not designed to hurt or zap anypony who are unworthy of looking at it. No, the failsafe mechanism in that mirror is much more cruel in my honest opinion."
"The mirror will let anypony and everypony who see it look at it." Lockon continued. "However, if it detects greed or ambition in the heart of anypony who looks at it, then that is when the failsafe does its work. If somepony looking at that mirror has any trace of greed or ambition in their heart, the dark magic in that mirror will seek out those qualities and amplify them. My guess is that if any non-alicorn ponies who have those qualities look at that mirror, it will show them a reflection of themselves as an alicorn princess."
Lockon continued his description with his back turned to Celestia. This made him unaware of the look of guilt and shock that was currently on her face.
"I suspect that kind of image would act as a catalyst." Lockon continued. "A catalyst that would ignite the greed and ambition that the dark magic will have already amplified. Then, those amplified qualities will make that pony obsess over that mirror constantly to the point where they would seek out power in some form or another, and then drive them to do anything to obtain that power. Even make them seek out that power in the world beyond that portal that the mirror becomes."
Lockon then heard sniffling coming behind him. He turned his head around to find Celestia with her eyes shut so tight, and yet tears were still flowing down from both of them.
"Mom…what's wrong?" Lockon asked her with his voice full of concern now. And that's when it hit him. "Did somepony you know fall victim to that mirror?"
"Yes…" Celestia wept. "And it's my fault that she's gone."
"I'm so sorry, Mom." Lockon asked while giving her a consoling hug with his hooves and wings.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." Celestia cried in response while returning his embrace. "There was no way you could have known."
"But what do you mean it's your fault?" Lockon asked. "What happened? If you don't want to talk about it because it's too difficult for you to tell, I understand."
"No." Celestia replied. "I need to get this off of my chest. I am sure you are aware of my school for gifted unicorns?"
Lockon nodded yes in reply.
"Well, there was one unicorn who had a lot of potential when it came to magic." Celestia continued. "It was because of this that I made her my own personal student. Her name was Sunset Shimmer. In fact, you and she are just about the same age."
"She was very skilled when it came to practicing magic, even when she was just a filly." Celestia went on. "But as she grew, along with her skills in magic, so did her desire to learn more. She put her studies about magic and her lessons with me above all else, she even let it go to her head without realizing it. Because of this, she started to become antisocial, and she did not get along well with the other students. I tried to stress the importance of friendship to her countless times, but she was so stubborn and kept turning away from it, insistent that being the best was the most important thing in life."
"What happened?" Lockon asked, but he still had a pretty good idea as to where this was going.
"In an attempt to show her the error of her ways, I showed her the mirror, asked her to look into it and then tell me what she saw." Celestia cried. "I was hoping that it would show her that she was going down the wrong path, that it would show her what I had been trying to teach her."
"I was such a fool." Celestia cried as she berated herself. "I should have known that was a bad idea. But I didn't know, and because of that, she's gone now."
Lockon put a hoof on hers to comfort her.
"When she saw something that caught her interest, I pulled her away from the mirror, thinking something might have gone wrong." Celestia said after pulling herself together. "But from what you told me that you found out about that mirror, by that point it was probably already too late. The next day and every day afterwards during our lessons, she kept asking about the mirror, and every time she brought it up I kept telling her she was not ready to know more about it. It kept wearing my patience thin, and the same thing happened to her."
"One night, one of my librarians caught her sneaking into the forbidden dark magic section of the castle, and reported it to me." Celestia pressed on. "As it turned out, she was going behind my back to learn everything about that mirror. I was very upset with her, but she argued, saying that I was holding her back. It escalated to the point where I renounced her as my student and had two of my guards escort her out of the castle. But she took them by surprise and jumped into that mirror."
"This actually happened not too long before I adopted you." She then told Lockon directly. "I keep that mirror in the castle to remind me of my mistake, and also in the hopes that one day, Sunset Shimmer will return to seek out my guidance."
"And the worst part about the whole thing was that it was entirely my fault." Celestia continued with fresh tears coming down both of her eyes. "Because of my lack of the knowledge that you just discovered pertaining to the mirror, I lost a student. No…she wasn't just a student…she was also like a daughter to me as well." Then, she broke down sobbing again.
Lockon wrapped her up in another embrace to comfort her.
"It's not your fault, Mom." He whispered. "From what you just told me, there was no way that you or anypony else could have known what would happen to her when you showed her that mirror."
"There is one way, actually." She said as she levitated a book over to Lockon. "This was the book she was looking at when we had that falling out. Could you look through it to see if it says anything about the mirror other than its purpose as a portal?"
Lockon took the book in his own magical grasp. He flipped through the pages until he found the section detailing the mirror. What he saw shocked him.
"It just confirmed my suspicions about that mirror's dark magic failsafe." He told her in a grim and sad tone.
Upon hearing this, Celestia just broke down into sobs once more, and again Lockon wrapped his adoptive mother in a tight embrace using his hooves and his wings.
"Regardless of whether or not you could have done something to prevent this," Lockon whispered in a consoling tone, "there was still no possible way that you could have seen any of that coming. You made a mistake, and so did Sunset Shimmer. The reason mistakes are made is so that we can learn from them, and correct them if possible. That is just the sad and sometimes cruel reality of how fate works."
"It might be too late to correct this one now, but there is still the chance that it still CAN be corrected." Lockon continued as he held Celestia's face in his hooves and used his wings to wipe away her tears. "You just need to have faith. I know that I can't really say this as if I know it, but I am certain that one day Sunset Shimmer will return, and then you and she will both be given a chance to correct both of your mistakes. You just need to keep having faith in that belief and hold onto it. Because that is also how fate works."
Celestia smiled at her new adopted son and hugged him, this time with tears of joy in her eyes.
"Thank you, son." She sniffed. "Even though you are still so young, you are wise far beyond your years. I am certain that you will make a great prince for Equestria one day."
"I am glad I could help you through this, Mom." Lockon replied. "But, in all honesty, I am not so sure I would want to be a prince."
"Technically, you already became one when I adopted you." Celestia responded.
"I had a feeling that was the case." Lockon murmured. "Still, I would not want to let that kind of power go to my head. And I still need to get used to these." He then flapped his wings in indication.
"And I am very proud that you would take that into consideration." Celestia replied. "And don't think I won't let you join the royal guard, because of this. However, one day you will have to embrace your royal title, but thankfully it will not have to happen any time soon."
"Thanks for still letting me join the royal guard when I become eligible, Mom." Lockon said as he hugged her. "Let's go. I am pretty sure most of your subjects are going to be wondering where you are. Let's not make them worry any longer."
Celestia then nodded in agreement before grabbing the book about the mirror with her magic.
She was going to make sure that it, along with every book in the dark magic section would be locked away for good, so nopony should ever have to go through another situation like she had with her former student.