//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 // Story: Mirror's Image // by Evilpresident //------------------------------// Chapter 23 Blueblood stared into the crystal orb floating in front of him. It shook occasionally as the changeling inside was trying to escape. The imposter was slamming her hooves against it, in a way that reminded him of a moth bumping into a lantern, trying to touch the flame. The orb even began to light up like a lantern as the princess began to use her magic. “Save your energy,” Blueblood said. “You can’t escape my prison.” A small crack formed on the crystal where Twilight had struck it with her hind hooves. Blueblood twitched, annoyance clear on his face. But the prince’s confident grin quickly returned. “Either way, it won’t matter. Before long, we’ll be on our way,” he said smugly. “Not if I can help it!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she came flying in. “And what, pray tell, are you going to do about it?” Blueblood asked. His voice still carried that smug tone, as though he was assured of his victory. But Rainbow Dash knew just how to handle ponies like that. And as such, she didn’t say anything. Instead, Rainbow Dash just looked at Twilight and nodded, before taking off like an arrow shot from a bow. Blueblood stared at the spot where Rainbow Dash had been mere seconds ago. “Flying away?” he asked. “Can’t say I’m very impressed by that.” It took Blueblood a few seconds too long to realize what she was actually up to. But by then, it was too late for him to do anything about it, as a rainbow colored streak came rushing back towards him. Out of sheer reflex, he held the crystal orb up in order to shield himself. As Rainbow Dash slammed into the crystal ball, it shattered into a million pieces. Jagged shards rained down all around the mad prince, miraculously missing him and any pony or changeling around him. “He’s all yours, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, before flying off to help out with putting out the fire. “Curse you…” Blueblood muttered as he saw that his bargaining chip had gotten free again. His eyes remained fixed on her as he approached her. “Prince Blueblood!” Twilight yelled, raising her voice to be heard over the roaring flames. “Stop this madness at once, please!” Twilight pleaded as she took a step back, lighting up her horn with green magic. “I will stop at nothing until I get Twilight Sparkle back!” Blueblood yelled back, suddenly breaking into a gallop with his horn glowing red. Sucker Punch took advantage of the distraction his princess provided and grabbed the mad prince, holding him in a neck hold. As Blueblood struggled to get free, Twilight Sparkle approached him. “Prince Blueblood, look at what you’ve done.” She pointed at the burning building. Slowly but surely it was spreading to nearby buildings. Ponies were running around in panic, grabbing buckets of water or clouds as they tried to get the flames under control. Changelings and clones were still duking it out, neither side willing to give up. “Is this what you wanted?” Blueblood hesitated, biting his lip. “What am I doing… Ah!” The mad prince cried out in pain as the amulet glowed a deep red color. Strange shadows formed around him, even in the light of day. Twilight didn’t hesitate and used her magic to pull on the red jewel. “Sucker Punch, hold him still!” she yelled as the amulet began to budge slowly but surely. Just a bit more… “No!” Blueblood yelled. His red magic wrapped around Sucker Punch’s left hoof and twisted. A sickening crunch rung through the air and the Praetorian screamed with pain, before being knocked back by the prince’s magic “N-nothing will stand in my way!” Blueblood yelled. “And I will annihilate anything and anypony that comes in between me and my Twilight!” He looked less and less like a prince and more like a raving lunatic as his eyes glowed a dull red color. Twilight backed away from him. She looked at Sucker Punch, who was clutching his broken hoof before turning her eyes back to the mad prince. “Just like my mother? Twilight Velvet?” she eventually found her voice, her throat suddenly aching as the words left her mouth. The prince glared at her. “Oh please,” he spat. “If Twilight Velvet had been in her right state of mind, she would have taken one look at you and screamed for the guards to come take you away.” The prince stepped closer to her. “She would never be a mother to a monster such as yourself.” Every word that came out of the prince’s mouth made Twilight’s blood boil. “How… dare you?” she asked, her anger rising. “You do not get to speak for my mother!” - A loud scream echoed through Ponyville. Even outside the dome, Chrysalis could clearly hear it. “Dig faster!” she yelled into the hole near the dome. “Your princess needs you!” The digging changelings doubled their effort, digging faster and causing dirt to fly in all directions. By now, their hooves were cracked and bleeding but they still refused to give up. Chrysalis brushed some of the dirt they had kicked up out of her mane. The dome seemed to run deeper than she had expected and there was still no sign of its end. However, the crashing sound she heard behind her raised her spirits. “Ah good, the cavalry has arrived,” the changeling queen said as she turned to face the first of the Behemoths approaching her. Several more dropped in next to the first one, having been airlifted there by other changelings and dropped rather unceremoniously. The changelings that had done the lifting landed next to the queen, obviously exhausted. “We will gather the rest…” one of them muttered. “Just, give us a minute to…” All of them fell over from exhaustion, collapsing into a pile of tired changelings. “We’ll take it from here,” one of the Behemoths said with a loud, rumbling voice. “My queen, if you would stand aside?” Queen Chrysalis nodded and stepped away. The digging changelings did the same, making room for their massive brothers. The three Behemoths let out a thunderous roar as they rushed towards the dome, hammers at the ready. With a show of force and fury they began to pound on the dome, cracking it slightly. “Hang in there, Amaryllis,” Queen Chrysalis whispered as the cracks grew bigger with each successful strike. - Prince Blueblood screamed as he barely managed to dodge the bolts the imposter was throwing at him. It appeared to have been a bad idea to set her off like that. Before she was fairly reasonable, or at least as reasonable as an insect could be and now she was screaming bloody murder and pelting him with magic spells. The onslaught of magic had separated him from his clones, driving him away from the battle and out into Ponyville. The princess’ rage calmed down a bit as they arrived at what appeared to be a construction site, given how bare and empty it was, safe for some construction materials and sand piles. Ponies were looking on from the sidelines with looks of fear and confusion on their faces. “Must be a trait of the species,” the mad prince said to himself as he focused on the changeling princess again. He dove underneath another barrage of green energy she sent his way and prepared to fight back. Another high pitched shriek escaped his mouth as the spell circled a sand pile, turned right around and came flying back towards him. Only thanks to his quick reflexes did the prince manage to block it in time, conjuring up a crystal wall to take the hit for him and disperse the magic. “You’re actually making me work up a sweat,” the prince said with a laugh, trying to sound confident. “Not bad for a bug, I suppose.” Twilight glared at him. She cursed herself for lashing out like that, flinging spells at him was much too exhausting to keep up for long. But for all her efforts it seemed like the mad prince was barely even fazed. She had underestimated just how much magical strength the amulet around his neck had bestowed upon him. “Now, I’m growing tired of this squabbling,” Prince Blueblood said, trying to pick up where they left of. “So please, act like a proper princess for once and come with me. I promise I won’t hurt you.” Or at least not more than necessary, he reasoned. “No!” Both prince and princess turned to see Spike standing nearby, panting and visibly tired. “I… I won’t let you take her!” He declared, pointing threateningly at the prince. “Oh, hello Spike,” Blueblood said, oblivious to Spike’s anger. “You’re here too? Be a good little dragon and run on home, okay? No need for you to get involved here.” The prince’s condescending tone just made Spike furious. “No! You listen to me! Princess Celestia and Luna are worried sick about you! You’ve been hurting innocent ponies and now you’re trying to hurt Twilight, again! Stop, please!” Prince Blueblood stared at the dragon. “Aunt Luna and Celestia?” he asked. “But I… no, they just don’t understand. But they will once I bring Twilight home.” Spike uttered a scream of frustration. “I’m not going to get through to you, am I?” he said as he kept staring at Blueblood. The prince stared at him, cocking his head in confusion. “Spike, I’m afraid you’re not making any sense,” he said. “Now… please stand aside,” Blueblood said as he began to levitate several wooden beams. “I have a gnat to swat.” - Pinkie Pie coughed loudly, having made the mistake of taking a deep breath inside the burning shop. Her lungs burned and her eyes stung, tears obscuring her vision almost as much as the smoke was. However, such a minor inconvenience wasn’t enough to stop Pinkie Pie. Using her sense of touch and her memory, the earth pony made her way through the smoke-filled house. Embers lazily floated through the air, leaving black smudges on her coat where they touched her. Fear filled her heart as her body practically screamed at her to get away from there as quickly as possible. But Pinkie Pie knew that she had precious little time. It wouldn’t be long before the magical flames consumed the house entirely. And it would take even less time for her to collapse from the smoke filling the air. She could hear Pound and Pumpkin cry. The foals were quiet, almost inaudible compared to the roaring flames but they pushed her forward. Her eyes watered and her coat burned but Pinkie refused to give up. The fearful cries came from upstairs and as she made her way to the staircase, Pinkie Pie could hear them more clearly, spurring her on. Climbing the stairs, she failed to notice the flames dancing on the steps until it was too late. Thoroughly weakened by the magic flames, the staircase suddenly collapsed underneath her with a loud crash… Pinkie didn’t know how long she laid there, amongst the remains of the burned staircase. The hot air and the soot were making it difficult for her to breathe and her lungs ached for fresh, clean air. It became increasingly more tempting to just close her eyes and wait for the pain to end. Something fell next to her with the sound of breaking glass. Forcing her eyes open, Pinkie Pie could barely make out a picture frame. A photograph that she walked past every day when she went downstairs, one of her, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and the twins. It didn’t take long for the picture to fall prey to the embers, curling up slowly. But Pinkie could still make out the happy family, smiling at her. She could still remember when the picture was taken, barely a few days after her disastrous attempt at foalsitting. Pinkie could still see the bits of flour clinging to her mane. “Pinkie…” “Pie!” Pinkie’s eyes shot open. Ignoring the pain, she forced herself to get up and somehow managed to climb the destroyed staircase, even as it collapsed further with each step she took. The top floor of the Cakes’ residence wasn’t fairing much better, as the flames had spread there as well. Again, Pinkie Pie found her way to the Cakes’ bedroom by touch and memory. Once there, she slammed the door shut behind her. “Hey there!” Pinkie Pie cried out as she saw the Cake twins sitting on the bed, wrapped in a damp blanket. “Good thinking Mr. Cake,” Pinkie said. “But where are… oh.” The stallion had collapsed by the side of the bed, near the window. Pinkie rushed to his side, muttering to herself. “Please be okay, please be okay!” She laid her ear on his chest and heard him breathe. It was faint but it was there, desperately clinging to life. All the more reasons for her to hurry up and get out. - Outside, the brawl between clones and changelings was still raging on. Neither side was intent on giving up any time soon and unfortunately, Applejack and Rarity were still caught in the middle of things with no way to get to safety. “This is not how I imagined sending Twilight off!” Rarity cried out, holding a pair of knitting needles out in front of her. “Back, back I say!” she cried out as yet another Blueblood clone approached her. Applejack hurried to her side, knocking the clone down. “You’re telling me,” she said. For every clone she threw aside, more seemed to pop up out of nowhere. “Aah!” Rarity poked one of the clones sneaking up on Applejack, causing it to pop like a balloon. She almost fainted right then and there. Even though she greatly disliked Prince Blueblood, she was no fan of actually harming ponies, clones or not. “You okay?” Applejack asked. Rarity nodded. “I’m fine,” she said. “Or at least I will be, once I get as far away from those… things as possible!” “Leaving so soon?” A clone of the Mad Prince asked, smiling wickedly at her. “Not if I can help it!” The sound of breaking glass was heard, followed by snapping wood. Somehow, a queen sized bed had fallen out of the Cakes’ house and squashed the unfortunate clone. Applejack and Rarity looked up to see Pinkie Pie sticking her head out of the broken window. “Did I hit something?” she asked. “Nothing of great importance!” Rarity yelled. “Now get out of there!” “On my way!” Pinkie Pie yelled, disappearing into the window again. Seconds later, she jumped back out, holding an unconscious Mr. Cake on her back and the twins in her hooves. “Pinkie Pie!” Mrs. Cake came running. “You saved them! Oh thank you so much,” she cried out, hugging the pink pony tightly. “Any time,” Pinkie Pie said happily, though it was obvious that she was exhausted. “Wait, I’m forgetting something.” She suddenly gasped. “Applejack! Help me move this bed!” - The flames rapidly spread through the room. Party favors and colorful paper hats were easy pickings for the fire and only served to make them burn brighter as the flames devoured everything in their path. And in the middle of it all, sat a young gator in the middle of his owner’s bed. “So this is how it ends,” he lamented. “Alone. Afraid. Ashes to ashes, or so they say. For life to be cut short like this, it’s such a shame.” He turned a bit and stared out the window. Gummy then proceeded to lick his own eyeballs, as the smoke was making them dry and painful. “But… I have no regrets. I have lived a short but pleasant life.” His left eye turned to a picture on the nightstand of him and Pinkie Pie. “And just who are we, that we may have been so blessed? To share our stories like this?” The flames reached the bed now, flames licking the sides as they came closer and closer. The gator coughed. “So, this is it. Standing ever so close to the gates of death, I can almost hear the ferryman laugh. But I will not falter. I will greet death like an old friend and say-” The window broke to pieces as a blur of pink landed in the room. “There you are, Gummy!” Pinkie Pie said, scooping the gator up. “You had me so worried, this is not a good place for a baby gator!” she yelled as she jumped out the window again. “And I will say, not today,” Gummy thought. - The prince was turning desperate. Twilight, with Spike on her back, had to run for their lives. In the hooves of a mad man, the wooden beams laying around the construction site had turned into deadly weapons. Even the most curious ponies had abandoned them as the prince was growing increasingly careless of who or what he hit. “Hold still!” Blueblood screamed as he dropped the pile of wood on Twilight, only for her to teleport a short distance away. “You are making this very difficult, you know that?” he asked as he lifted the pile of broken beams and splinters up again. Both Twilight and Spike knew that they couldn’t keep this up. It was only a matter of time before either of them slipped up and got hit. The prince was unrelenting. With each passing second, he was moving the wooden beams faster and faster, forcing Twilight to evade and leaving no chances for her to strike back. Every time she attempted to toss a stunning spell his way, he’d attempt to swat her like a bug. Twilight was visibly growing exhausted. And then it happened. All it took was a brief moment of carelessness for Twilight to slip over a loose rock. The prince smiled and took advantage of the situation, raining down a torrent of broken wood on her. “Look out!” Spike screamed. With a display of true dragon strength, he shoved her out of the way, leaving him to take the blunt force of the attack. Twilight rolled away, her frail wings tearing on the rocks and sand in the process. She crawled back onto shaky legs and stared at the pile of debris. “S-Spike?” she called out. But she received no answer. She tried to make her way over there, to help him but a wall of crystal burst out of the ground, separating her from Spike. With anger and fear clear on her face, Twilight turned to Prince Blueblood. “Just… why? How can you be so cold about this?” “Easily,” Prince Blueblood said as he made the wall grow even bigger, blocking her from view. “I have a goal in mind and I will stop at nothing until I achieve it…” He looked at the pile of rubble and frowned. Twilight, the real one, would surely hate his guts if he were to leave Spike there to rot. With an exagerated sigh, he began to dig through the shreds of wood and debris, all the while using his magic to keep the weakened changeling princess at bay. Eventually, he found Spike looking rather worse for wear, as he was covered in bumps and scrapes, as well as splinters and sand. “There we go,” Blueblood said as he lifted the dragon up with his magic. “You’re lucky I’m willing to waste my time helping you,” he added as he roughly dusted the dragon off. Something snapped inside the baby dragon at that point. With a loud, draconian growl, Spike lashed out at the mad prince, his claws cutting deep into Blueblood’s left eye. The prince stayed quiet for a moment, not yet realizing what had happened. Three bright red lines were cut across his eye. Blueblood suddenly screamed in pain as he clutched his eye with his hoof, blood flowing out from underneath it. “You… you… little…” the prince muttered something under his breath as the pain faded a bit. “I save your life and this is how you thank me?!” With a scream of frustration, Prince Blueblood threw Spike away. Right into the waiting hooves of Queen Chrysalis, who chose that moment to arrive at the construction site. “Seems like we got here just in time,” she said. “Not bad, little dragon,” Chrysalis said to Spike as she dropped him rather unceremoniously onto a soft pile of sand. “But we’ll take it from here.” “Ah, look,” Blueblood said. “The bug queen has decided to grace us with her presence.” Chrysalis nodded. “And I brought some friends,” she said, grinning wildly. “More of those invisible buffoons?” the prince asked. “I’ll have you know that my army of clones swatted them aside like flies,” he boasted. “Is that so?” Queen Chrysalis asked. “Then I’m sure you will have no problems with their big brothers,” she said, sounding almost cheerfull as two of her armored Behemoths walked up to her. “Teach this pathetic excuse for a prince what happens to anypony that messes with my heir.” The two Behemoths nodded and approached the prince, their armor clattering with each step they took on the soft sand. The formerly confident prince was slowly backing away as the giant changelings approached him. “I’ll have you know that I’m not afraid of any bugs, no matter how big they are,” he said. The changelings grinned underneath their bronze helmets. With their hammers at the ready, they charged at the prince. Blueblood’s eyes widened in shock as the two behemoths charged at him with frightening speed. With a bit of luck, he managed to dodge the first charge, only to get slammed by the second one, sending him crashing into a pile of sand. Ignoring the prince’s screams, Queen Chrysalis tended to her daughter’s wounds. “Are you okay?” she asked, cautiously mending Twilight’s wings as best she could, given the circumstances. “I’ll live,” Twilight muttered. “Spike?” “Still in one piece,” Chrysalis assured her as she levitated the dazed dragon into Twilight’s hooves. “Now, sit back and enjoy the show.” And a show it was. Prince Blueblood frantically tried to dodge every blow the changelings threw at him. Luckily for him, the armored Behemoths were big and their attacks were easy to predict. But his magic bounced off their armor and when they hit, they hit with the strength of a runaway train. As time passed, more and more changelings made their way to the construction site. Some joined in the fight, swarming the prince while others sat back and enjoyed seeing the pony that hurt their princess being tossed around. Prince Blueblood was surrounded and lashing out at the changelings like a wounded animal. With a tired groan, he send out a wave of magic around him. It pushed the surrounding changelings away from him, sending them flying in all directions and kicking up a cloud of sand. “Enough!” the prince yelled, teleporting away from the changelings before they could come to their senses and swarm him again. Reappearing a safe distance away and well out of the changeling’s reach the mad prince stopped to glare at his opponents, his single eye glowing bright red. “This… this isn’t over!” he yelled at the queen. “Not by a long shot, oh no, just you wait!” The prince shot both queen and princess a last glare before disappearing in a flash of red. The dome surrounding Ponyville shimmered softly, before fading out of existence. The changelings seemed almost disappointed that the prince had disappeared before they could exact some more vengeance on him. However, their disappointment quickly turned to concern as they turned their attention to their princess. “She’ll be fine,” Queen Chrysalis said. “So stop trying to smother her, give her some room to breathe.” Instantly, the changelings backed away again, though they didn’t stray far. “We’re leaving,” Chrysalis said, her voice holding a tone of finality. “Now.” Twilight shook her head. “Not until I make sure my friends are okay,” she said. The princess had no idea what had happened to them, after she had chased Prince Blueblood away in a fit of rage. Before Chrysalis could even begin to object, Twilight turned around and ran off, back towards Sugarcube Corner, leaving the queen to glare as her disobedient daughter ran off.