//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Viva la Vida // by Comet Burst //------------------------------// Celestia’s slippers echoed in the chamber as she paced around the mirror, examining it from top to bottom. Dust and small cobwebs clung to the legs and around the frame, but the polished surface of the mirror remained unblemished. She gulped as she saw her own reflection in it. She had seen it a thousand times before in other mirrors, but the twisted magic in this one made her look sad; the sun rose on a graveyard behind her, each headstone depicting the names of the ponies closest to her. Shaking her head, Celestia gave her reflection a last inquisitive glance before turning around. The blasted thing hadn’t changed since she and Star Swirl ventured through the many worlds it led to. Star Swirl himself had considered breaking the mirror once it began to twist his own reflection into that of a tyrant, but it was through Celestia’s own folly that the mirror remained intact. She sighed as she paced the floor again, scanning the stones below as she had done when Twilight had entered the mirror. Countless years of hiding the wretched thing in the Royal Vault of Mysterious Objects had served her well, but it needed to be kept in constant isolation to prevent its corrupting powers from taking hold of the nearest pony. The secret, ever-locked room in the Crystal Palace had seemed appropriate, but then Sunset returning to Equestria had broken that illusion. “What am I going to do with this thing?” she mumbled to herself. She pondered the options she had before her. Star Swirl had theorized that breaking the mirror would do more harm than good to anypony near it, but it would also destroy the magic of the mirror forever. Her other option was to bury the mirror deep underground and wait for the dirt to corrode it away, but again she knew it was as temporary a solution as the room was. Somepony would find it eventually and when they did, there would be no telling what the mirror would do. “You read all of that?” Twilight asked, her jaw hanging slack. “Uh huh!” Dawn said as she smiled back. “B-But that book is six hundred and forty pages long! It took me three weekends to finish it!” “It was really cool,” Dawn said, placing her hoof on the worn brown cover and rubbing it gently. “Lots of big words I didn’t understand, but I want to turn dirt into flowers now!” Twilight blinked in shock as Dawn returned her gaze to her, beaming from ear to ear. In a single ride from Canterlot to the Crystal Empire, she had finished ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Advanced Transfiguration’ and was even ready to attempt one of the more complicated spells in the book. Squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head, Twilight smiled back and flipped open the book with her magic. “Okay, but let’s start with something a little more basic,” she said, scanning the page for an easier spell. “How about how to change the color of an apple?” Dawn’s eyes lit up as she ran over to her. “Can it be pink?” she nearly shouted. “Just like in Mommy’s mane?” Twilight tilted her head, but kept her smile. “Sure!” she said, ruffling Dawn’s mane. “Auntie?” Celestia snapped her head up, glancing about the room before seeing Cadance standing in the doorway. “Oh, Cadance!” she said, a smile covering her face. “I thought you’d be down at the Fair.” Cadance walked into the room, scanning the mirror briefly before returning her gaze. “Shining Armor is presiding over the jousting tournament, so I came to see how you and Dawn were,” she said with her own smile. “She reminds me a lot of Twilight when she was younger.” “She does, doesn’t she?” Celestia replied. The two of them smiled at one another before they both turned to the mirror. “You know, you never did tell me where this came from,” Cadance said. Celestia shook her head and said, “I doubt even Star Swirl knew when he acquired it. It just… appeared one day in an auction house in Canterlot. He bought it under the notion it was cursed, but he eventually found out it was something else entirely.” “What if it really is cursed?” Cadance asked. “I have spent enough time with it to know it’s not cursed, Cadance,” Celestia said, taking a step forward. “But I do know it is imbued with magic that defies explanation. You see, the mirror’s reflection shows more than just what you look like. The magic allows you to see your inner potential, whether good or bad.” Cadance tilted her head and walked up to it. Before she could approach the reflective side, Celestia raised a hoof and stopped her. “I recommend against looking if you have not already,” she said in a serious tone. “Why?” Cadance asked. “Because it becomes an obsession to see the you in the reflection,” Celestia replied, lowering her hoof. “Sunset looked into it and became obsessed with wanting to become the princess she saw herself as. I admit I underestimated the mirror’s power then, but I will not see the same happen to you or anypony else.” “Well, what do you see when you look into it?” Cadance said, narrowing her eyes at Celestia. Celestia closed her eyes and turned to the mirror before opening them. In the slightest bit of silver, she saw the headstones again. “That is a discussion best left for another time,” she said, smiling as she looked back at Cadance. “I believe Dawn is quite anxious to spend some time with you.” Cadance nodded and made to leave, but she paused with her aura coating the door. “You will tell me what you see in there one day, won’t you?” she asked, glancing back to Celestia. “Of course,” Celestia said without hesitation. Cadance smiled as she left, leaving Celestia alone with the mirror once more. Turning to it, she glared at the purple frame before walking to the reflective surface. “I don’t know if there is anything living within you, but I will never let anypony succumb to you again, no matter how hard you try to tempt them,” she hissed at her own angry expression. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” Cadance and Twilight cried as Dawn watched with a big smile. She clapped her tiny hooves as Twilight wrapped Cadance in a large hug. “It’s been too long, Twilight,” Cadance said. “I know! And now we have a new member to our group!” Twilight responded, releasing Cadance and nodding to Dawn. “Hi, Princess Ca-dee!” Dawn said, waving a hoof at her; Twilight suppressed a chuckle. Cadance flinched. “Cadie? Nopony’s called me that since you were little, Twilight,” she said, smirking as she turned to her sister-in-law. “You’re teaching her all your bad habits, aren’t you?” “I just thought you’d enjoy that little bit,” Twilight said, snorting at her own amusement. “Oh? How about I use your old nickname, Twily?” Cadance jibbed. “Twi-lee!” Dawn shouted with glee. Cadance let out a small laugh as Twilight raised an eyebrow to her. “Oh, it’s so on now,” she said. “And how’re we going to settle it with Dawn here?” Cadance replied. “Like we always used to,” Twilight said, puffing her chest out. “With Hide and Seek!” Cadance’s jaw dropped as Dawn stood up and jumped in place excitedly. “Hide ’n Seek! Hide ’n Seek!” she cried. “All right then,” Cadance replied. “Standard or house rules?” Twilight glanced over to Dawn and smiled. “House,” she replied. “No magic until five minutes have passed and count is to fifty.” “I presume House also means I’m the Seeker again?” Cadance asked, raising her eyebrow. “Well, Dawn can’t count to fifty yet,” Twilight said. “And I also know I’m not it!” Cadance’s eyes went wide before she placed a hoof on her forehead. “How did I not see that coming?” she mumbled. “Start counting!” Twilight called as she ran out the door. “Come on, Dawn!” Dawn squealed as Cadance placed a leg over her eyes and began a monotonous countdown from fifty. She followed Twilight through the twisting corridors before losing sight of her around a couple corners. She stopped for a quick few breaths— “Hey, little one,” a voice said in a hushed tone. Dawn’s ears perked up. “Who’s that?” She turned around in circles. “Where are you?” “Never mind that,” the voice whispered. “Do you want to know where the best hiding spot in the palace is?” Dawn’s eyes widened and a huge smile broke out across her face. “Yeah!” she shouted. “Good,” the voice continued, growing a little louder. “Listen to me and I’ll show you. Here’s what you have to do…” “We looked everywhere, Auntie, but Dawn’s really good at this game,” Cadance said as Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I even used a spell to find her, but it came back empty.” “You mean to tell me that in the half-hour I took to enjoy the Fair, my ex-personal student and her professional ex-foalsitter managed to lose my daughter... in your own castle?” Celestia asked. Cadance and Twilight both cringed. “But we checked all the rooms around where she was last seen,” Twilight said. “She might as well be in another castle, for how good she is at hiding.” Celestia groaned as she pressed her hoof to her forehead. “Well, let’s hope she isn’t, or you two will have a lot of explaining to do.” “Dawn!” Celestia shouted into the hallway, her heart pounding in her chest. “Dawn! Where are you?” Fifteen minutes she, Twilight, and Cadance had been searching, with fruitless yield. Inexplicably, Dawn seemed to have vanished from the castle. Every room, closet and chest searched turned up nothing and even their tracer spells were coming back without any results. Together, the three of them began to push deeper into the castle, scanning rooms that would have taken Dawn much longer than fifty seconds to reach. With Cadance on the lower floors and balconies and Twilight searching through the kitchens and dining halls, Celestia had taken the upper portion of the castle. Each step she took and each empty room heightened her fear to new levels. The absence of Dawn’s presence from the Observatory, ramparts and tallest spire evidently meant she was somewhere else below her, possibly in the storage chambers or even… A sickening sensation hit Celestia as her eyes went wide, terror causing her heart to skip a beat. There was no way Dawn could have found it… was there? It was sealed by powerful magic, the likes of which Dawn had no hope in being shown by anyone yet. But Dawn is no ordinary filly, came the unwelcome thought. “Auntie!” Celestia faced Cadance down the hall as the clop of her hooves on the floor grew louder. “The guards said she hasn’t left the castle alone or with anypony! Have you found her yet?” Celestia’s eyes shrunk at that. “N-No,” she replied. “Okay, I’ll check with Twilight and head down to the cellars. She might be hiding in the food stores!” Celestia’s gut twisted as she held back the puking sensation that followed. Dawn was still in the castle, unsupervised and alone with that mirror left in the locked room. Blinking, she felt her stomach calm down as she recalled clicking the lock into place as she left. Still, she had to know the room was empty. Taking a deep breath, Celestia let her magic envelop her and a small ‘pop’ rang in her ears. Looking around, she saw the familiar stone hallway and the heavy wooden door that sealed the mirror’s chamber. Celestia quickly cast a spell to see if anypony was in the room; the area’s silence reassured her that this place was deserted, but her smile froze once the silhouette of a small pony blinked through the wall. “Dawn!” Celestia screamed as she charged forward. Her aura coated the door; it was ripped from its hinges as Celestia stormed in, flinging it to the far corner of the room. Much to her horror, Dawn sat with her back to her, staring into the polished mirror. Gentle ripples coated the surface like a breeze across a plain. “Dawn, get away from that thing!” Celestia roared, taking a step to her. As if waking from a trance, Dawn slowly turned to face Celestia, her eyes half-lidded. A stabbing chill ran through Celestia’s body as she saw her daughter’s eyes: one was the same beautiful sky blue, but the other had turned pitch black with a green iris. “M-Mommy?” Dawn asked. “I feel fu-uh-uh-ny.” She swayed in place, her eyes rolling. Celestia made a mad dash to catch Dawn, but as she surged forward, she suddenly found herself facing the room’s exit. Shaking her head, she looked over her shoulder. There was Dawn in the same state. She tried again; within three feet of Dawn, she found herself facing the wrong way again. Frantically, she swiped at the air with her hooves and cast several disarming spells, to no avail. “Dawn, get away from that mirror!” Celestia cried. “It’s dangerous!” Dawn blinked slowly before she smiled back. “DaNGerOus foR wHOm, MOmmY?” Celestia screamed as a blood-red stain snaked its way through Dawn’s mane. “MoMmy, dOn’t YoU wAnt mE To LOok pRetTy?” Dawn asked. “DidN’t yOU alWaYs tEll ME my maNe waS SO unIQuE?” “Who are you?” Celestia boomed back. “And what have you done to my daughter?” “NOthiNG,” Dawn responded, her woozy smile becoming more smug. “I JusT shOweD heR THe bEst hIDing SpOt in tHe whOLE cAStle!” Dawn’s eyes rolled back into her head and she fell forward, her face planting itself into the stone. Celestia shrieked and fought harder to disarm the enchantments when she heard somepony rush into the room behind her. “Princess!” Twilight cried. “What’s going on?” A choked cry escaped her as she ran over; she, too, ended up at the exit. Celestia ignored her and continued to fight against the spells surrounding Dawn as smokey black tendrils came out of the mirror, each weaving their way over to Dawn’s limp form. Celestia watched in horror as the smoke began to wrap around Dawn’s tiny hooves, leading up to her mane and ears before they came down to her face. Dawn gasped as she suddenly stood up, pushing herself back onto her rump as she pounded her hooves into her forehead. “Make it stop, Mommy!” she cried in her normal voice. “Make the bad voice stop!” “Dawn!” Celestia shouted. “I’m right over here! Come to me and it will all go away!” Dawn opened her one sky blue eye and looked around as a steady trail of tears escaped it, locking onto Celestia. She placed both of her hooves on the ground and tried to stand, but her legs shook like they did when Celestia had first seen her. Dawn moved one leg, but she fell back onto her rump and stuffed her hooves into her ears. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” she screamed. Looking on in abject horror, both Celestia and Twilight watched as more red streaks filled Dawn’s mane, and she grew slightly larger—more akin to a school-aged filly. Dawn cried out again as her flank glowed with a soft light. A dual-colored sun began to faintly appear where her cutie mark would be. “Oh my gosh!” Twilight screamed as she scurried back to the wall. “Sh-she’s… It can’t be…” Dawn continued to grow as more of Sunset’s features shimmered into existence. Her tail grew longer with wider red streaks as more appeared in her mane. On the tips of her hooves, her magnificent golden fur began to turn cinder red. With much groaning, Dawn managed to lift her head from her hooves and stared at them before looking back up at Celestia. The sky blue of her eyes were gone, replaced with an aquamarine and the same horrific black and neon green iris. “M-Mommy?” she asked in a slightly deeper voice. “Twilight! Auntie! Did you find her?” Spinning around, Celestia watched as Cadance tore into the room before skidding to a halt next to her. Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as she raised a hoof to her mouth. She shook slightly, but held her ground. Celestia rounded back to Dawn and felt her own tears spill out. “Mommy,” Dawn whimpered as she pressed a hoof to her forehead. “W-Who am I?” Celestia gulped hard as she risked taking a step forward. “You’re Dawn! You’re my daughter!” “T-Then...” Dawn looked at the floor in confusion. “Who i-is Sunset?” Celestia’s legs shook at the mention of her name. “M-Mommy... sh-she’s really angry with you.” “That’s because Sunset is a monster!” came Twilight’s voice. “A monster who tried to hurt her!” Dawn hissed as more of the red travelled up her hooves. “T-Then why d-does she say M-Mommy hurt her? Sh-She says Mommy… stopped her f-from coming back—” Celestia let her jaw fall open as a sob escaped her “—b-because M-M-Mommy said sh-she would h-hurt a lot of p-ponies like T-Twilight and C-Cadie.” Dawn pushed her mane out of her face, which now closely resembled Sunset’s own angry snarl. “Y-You made that up!” she shouted, her voice mixing with Sunset’s. “No!” Celestia shouted back. “I would never lie to you, Dawn!” “I-I’m not Dawn! I’m-m-m Sunse—” Dawn froze as she spoke, her body starting to shake. She squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered before opening one again, this time with the sky blue iris. “M-Mommy?” Dawn squeaked. “Yes! Yes, Dawn! I’m right here!” Celestia shouted. “I c-can barely hear you,” Dawn said. “S-Sunset’s so loud…” “Dawn, stay with me!” Celestia shouted, risking taking another step. “S-She’s so mad,” Dawn whispered. “S-She wants t-to hurt you, M-Mommy. She wants me to hurt you.” Celestia’s breath caught in her throat. All she could let out was a choked cry. “Tell her she’s wrong!” Cadance yelled, causing Dawn to look at her. “Your mommy is the best mommy there is and she would never hurt you or anypony else!” Dawn blinked slowly as she watched Twilight walk up next to Cadance. “Y-Yeah!” Twilight cried. “Sunset is nothing more than… a big, fat meanie-head! She was mean to everypony and tried to hurt them!” “You can tell her to go away, Dawn! I know you can!” Cadance continued. Dawn squeezed her eye shut and whined. “S-Sunset’s telling me you’re all lying.” “She’s the liar! She’s the one who wanted to enslave everypony. She wanted to be a princess, no matter what the cost!” Twilight yelled louder. “A… A princess?” Dawn asked. “Yes!” Cadance shouted. “She stole from and hurt other ponies to become one! She wasn’t a nice filly like you!” Dawn’s eye sparkled for a second as her ears perked up. “I-I’m a nice pony?” “You’re the best!” Cadance shouted. “You love everypony and want to be their friends. Sunset didn’t want to do any of that!” Dawn smiled and dropped her hoof, revealing the black eye. “You mean it?” Celestia gulped as she saw the red creeping up Dawn’s hooves slow its ascent. “Yes, we mean it!” Twilight shouted. “You’re a real princess, not like Sunset!” Dawn’s eyes twinkled as she set both hooves on the ground, the red slowly receding. “M-Mommy? Are they right? Am I a real princess?” Celestia took a deep breath before she looked Dawn straight in the eyes. “Yes, Dawn. You are indeed a princess, my daughter.” She spread her hooves wide, like she did when she had first yelled at her. “Dawn, please come back to us,” she whispered. “I’m sorry for not telling you about Sunset, but you’re not her. You’re my Dawn and nopony else.” Dawn squealed, tears spilling down her cheeks. Pushing herself upright, she wobbled as she took careful steps, but managed to keep herself upright. Cadance and Twilight moved behind Celestia as Dawn approached, her frame growing smaller and the red disappearing from her mane as the smokey tendrils withdrew back into the mirror. Once Dawn was within reach, Celestia swept her hooves around her and pulled her into a tight hug, her tears flowing down into Dawn’s mane as Dawn wiped her own into her mommy’s neck. Two more pairs of legs joined in as both Twilight and Cadance hugged them. “You’re my Dawn,” Celestia whispered. “My very own little princess.” “I love you, Mommy,” Dawn whimpered to her. Celestia smiled wider than ever before and nuzzled her back. “I love you too. No matter who you used to be.”