50. Mirror-rorriM - Part Seven
Letters From a Little Princess Monster
Mirror - rorriM - Part Seven
What's your name… your name… your name…
Every noise and bright light in the amusement park plaza seemed to echo and reverberate around inside Monster’s head, tying her tongue into knots and making the hammering of her heart throb in her ears until she could barely hear. Sharp shards of memories she had thought finally tamed broke through her defenses and rattled around while she stood in place and panted for breath. The voice was not only familiar, but achingly familiar, driving Monster’s memory into a whirl of colorful chaff and locking her knees in place, even when the pony behind her tapped gently on Monster’s flank and cleared her throat.
“Pardon me, but I need to get past you. The show is going to start in a few minutes, and I have to be on my mark before the… Oh, bother.”
Above the crowded plaza, a few dark clouds began to gather around the peak of an entrance to ‘Daring Doo Theatre - Courtesy of the Binghampton Beet Farmers.’ A few feeble rumbles of thunder brought everypony’s attention up to the sky, and the voice behind Monster began to get more plaintive, mixed with a gentle nudge.
“Excuse me. It’s only going to be a few minutes. Oh!”
Monster had been nudged far enough to one side that the pony behind her could squeeze past, but she stopped after just a single step. The mare was a slightly-built unicorn of a very familiar lilac hue, with a blue streaked mane cut straight across the forehead much in the same way that the photograph of the little filly Twilight Sparkle had once been. From horn to hocks, the adult pony looked identical to the artist’s drawing of ‘Twilight Sparkle’ that had shown up in the newspapers, so precise but still so wrong to Monster’s eyes. The panicked breathing that had swept over Monster almost immediately calmed to a deep stillness, a sudden burst of calm that felt of books and libraries, with unlimited hours to read and unending books to borrow. She had seen those eyes long before, somehow different but still the same after over a decade of absence.
The adult Twilight Sparkle that could have been and the filly Monster that she had become locked eyes, both ponies caught up in their reaction to each other. Twilight Sparkle lifted a hoof to her doppelganger's smaller face and hesitated for just an eyeblink, in almost exactly the same way that the dentist had when she met Monster, but then glanced down at the new t-shirt with a look of realization.
“Oh, you’re Twilight Sparkle too! That’s adorable. Here.” The actress levitated the Daring Doo notebook out of Monster’s loose grasp and signed across the bottom of a fresh sheet in large sweeping letters. “Now if I can get you to just stand here out of the way, you’re going to get the best seat in the house for our promotion. Watch this.”
‘This’ apparently was a sharp peal of thunder that echoed across the plaza, followed by a coal-black alicorn who flapped up from behind the theatre to perch on the roof. Wide dark wings still extended, ‘Nightmare Moon’ tossed her head to make her mane flow in the breeze and scowled down into the cringing audience of young ponies. The armor seemed to be fairly accurate to Monster’s vision despite a trembling that had begun in her knees and a prickling around her horn that made it difficult to concentrate, but the narrow-pupiled eyes of the actress were a bright gold instead of Luna’s soft teal.
“Hello, my precious sun-loving subjects,” called out ‘Nightmare Moon’ in a loud but somehow less than strident tone over the frightened gasps of the audience. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen your faces. Do any of you even remember my name?”
“I do!” shouted ‘Twilight Sparkle’ as she stepped forward boldly with her chin lifted up and facing the ‘alicorn’ actress on the top of the theatre. “You’re the Mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon!”
“Correct!” declared Nightmare Moon with a less-than-convincing cackle of glee. “Enjoy this day, little ponies, for it shall be your last! The night shall last forever!”
“No it won’t, Nightmare Moon!” shouted ‘Twilight Sparkle’ as she galloped over to the rest of the actresses. And Applejack. “We’ll stop you, with the Elements of Harmony!”
“Nooo!!” shouted the dark actress as she tumbled backwards out of sight, replaced with a scattering of colorful advertising cards that showered across the crowd to the cheers and applause of the audience.
“The show starts in thirty minutes,” declared ‘Twilight Sparkle’ over the sounds of the crowd. “We’ll be signing autographs for just a few more minutes, so please make your purchases and move over to the theatre for the show.”
“That was weird,” said Diamond Tiara as she walked up to Monster a few minutes later. “And I think I can speak as an expert on weird.” She eyed Monster with a petulant frown, taking in the little bits of mane that were springing up like weeds and the tremor across her flank that made her cutie mark wave as if it were underwater. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”
“No. Thinking.”
Diamond Tiara looked as if she were going to respond, then gave a brief and pained sigh before trotting away. A few minutes later, Monster was surrounded by her friends in a colorful and deeply-needed hug that somehow had trapped Diamond in it as well, despite her protests. It took a while, even after Aunt Fix came over and watched, but eventually Monster calmed her mind back to something approaching normality and blew her nose one last time into a tissue provided by Twist.
“Ready,” she said with her head still hung low. “Train schedule. If we don’t leave now, we’ll miss one back to Ponyville.”
“Seeing that other pony really zapped your brain,” said Diamond Tiara as she produced a plastic brush labelled ‘Cadence Curlz’ and began to run it through Monster’s short mane to tame the little curled wisps that stuck out in all directions. “Do you know her?”
Another tremble of fear rippled up Monster’s flanks, across her back, and shot up her knotted neck to make her teeth chatter. It took all of her friends holding her just as tight as they could before the trembling died down enough for Monster to talk.
“Don’t know. Yes. No. Once.” The trembles returned in a somewhat muted fashion, but after a while, Quick Fix coughed into one hoof and spoke.
“Twilight, I think we should go home now. This is obviously bothering you, so—”
“No, Aunt Fix.” Diamond Tiara struggled a little among the multiple-pony hug to get some breathing space before continuing. “Twilight said her brain is all messed up, and it seems really important to her to track down any memories she has. She's afraid of whatever this is, just like the rollercoaster, but she needs to face what's bothering her or she'll never recover. There will be another train, but she may not get this opportunity again. Can’t we just stay for the show and talk to the actress afterwards? I’ll pay for the tickets and treats out of my allowance.”
Quick Fix hesitated. “You’re sure about this? All of you?” Giving in to the unanimous vote of enthusiastic nods in favor of attending the performance, as well as Twilight's hesitant nod too, Aunt Fix shook her head. “I suppose we can catch the evening train. I’ll go get the tickets if you girls will wait right here until I get back.”
“Hey!”
“And Featherweight,” added Aunt Fix.
“See,” whispered Diamond Tiara once the older pony was out of earshot. “I can be just as much a good friend as any of you blank-flanks. And you know the best part?”
“Free cotton-candy?” asked Twist.
"We get to see Rainbow Dash in action?" asked Scootaloo.
"Eating popcorn until we pop?" asked Featherweight.
“No!” Diamond Tiara tossed her head in a way that would have made her former manestyle bounce along her neck. “I got Scootaloo to pay for it.”
“I don’t get it,” said Sweetie Belle. “Aunt Fix already knows you’ve swapped brains with Scootaloo. So how are you going to get the money out of Scootaloo’s allowance?”
“Ah…” Diamond Tiara cast a despairing look at where Quick Fix was purchasing tickets.
~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~
Since they had waited so long to get their tickets, Monster and her friends wound up quite a distance from the stage, which did not bother her at all. There was something in the way the scenery on the platform looked oddly like Ponyville that disturbed her nearly as much as she had felt out in the plaza, but Monster was able to seal up the emotion inside and show only a quiet and very peaceful exterior as the music played in the background and little colts and fillies squirmed impatiently in their sun-warmed seats. The little houses and buildings on stage were wrong too. They should have been flowers, towering over the performers who all dressed in flower costumes too, and sang a foalish song about… something.
The announcer's voice did not even jar Monster out of her thoughts, but the arrival of 'Twilight Sparkle' on stage made the blizzard of mental activity speed up into a whirlwind that threatened to sweep her away. The actress sang as she danced onto the sunlit stage, sweeping around 'Ponyville' on an inspection trip before the Summer Sun Celebration. Each of the other actresses (and actor) came out to warmly greet her in their particular stanza until all of them were together for the final verse.
In a way, it was wrong, as the events of that horrible day and night had not occurred anywhere close to the way it was portrayed, but in some other way, it was right. Monster should have been Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia. She should have survived that terrible time that only existed as a blank spot in her memory, populated with brief flashes of her real parents and the terrifying white pony… Princess Celestia, rising up in front of her and trying to kill… trying to protect her from what she was becoming.
The emotional walls that Monster raised around her during the play were of adamantine strength, protecting all of the little colts and fillies from the terrible Monster who sat with them as they gazed with wonder at the brave unicorn she should have been. Each of her friends squealed with joy as Twilight Sparkle's friends overcame the obstacles that Nightmare Moon threw in front of them. Hushed shouts of "I remember that!" and "Go Rainbow Dash!" were muffled as Quick Fix admonished the noisy little fillies (and one colt), but Monster did not say a word, not even when her counterpart faced against Nightmare Moon and declared her lines at the top of her voice.
"It was a different kind of spark. I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all are my friends! You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the… the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of… magic!"
~ ~ ~ ✶ ~ ~ ~
Far away, a dark cavern which had not seen the light of day in centuries, an immense dragon stirred fitfully from his nap, blinked his eyes, and regarded several pieces of paper a short distance away from his nose. He grunted once, but knowing that he would be unable to get back to sleep without reading them, shifted positions slowly in order to pin the edges of one paper down with one titanic claw. After a few minutes, he snorted once, then twice, before releasing a deep chortle that shook loose a few stones in his cave. By the time he reached the last page, he was laughing, although it was a low laugh that was carefully moderated to avoid blowing the small scraps of paper all around the cavern.
"Celestia," he grumbled from deep in his chest, gathering the small scraps of paper into a small pile on top of his hoard. "Catch."
~ ~ ~ ✶ ~ ~ ~
In a park just outside of the Canterlot palace, Princess Celestia stood rather uncomfortably next to an ice cream vendor. She held a double-scoop of slowly melting Maple Alfalfa Crunch to her side while she engaged in a feat of diplomacy far more difficult than any she had experienced over her long rule.
"...so you see, Raspberry Fudge, the establishment of credit is an important part of any civilization. As a matter of fact, I signed the legislation that established the First Bank of Canterlot a mere ten years after the city's establishment, merging several smaller banks across Equestria into a stronger institution to cover the bonds that had been sold to cover the cost of construction of the city that we're standing on, right now."
"That's really nice, Your Highness," said the uncomfortable earth pony, dressed in an apron that read 'Yum-Yum's Ice Cream' with bold and multicolored lettering. "But I stills gotta have cash for the ice cream cone, or I'll have 'ta report ya' to the guard."
The two Royal Guard at Celestia's side shifted uncomfortably too, perhaps at the thought of what would happen to their careers if they arrested the Goddess-Diarch of Equestria for the nonpayment of a two-bit ice cream cone.
"But I don't have the bits right now," said Celestia, prevented from a most un-princesslike whine by the smallest of margins. "I'm temporarily at a point in my income stream where I'm lacking fluid capital."
"You forgot your purse?" asked the young earth pony with a puzzled look.
"No," said Celestia, taking off her Yoke of Office and showing him the empty pocket inside (and also incidentally scandalizing several nearby ponies who had never seen the Princess of the Sun naked). "I normally carry some spending bits for special occasions, like the last time I bought a box of Filly Scout cookies a few decades ago, but—"
Whatever Celestia was about to say was cut off by a sharp twinge in the aether that shot an agonizing pain right down her neck and barely allowed her enough warning to turn her head to one side so that the young earth pony was not buried under a cascade of gold coins, topped with a few fluttering pieces of Luna's delayed mail.
~ ~ ~ ✶ ~ ~ ~
Day was the time for Princesses of the Night to rest, but this afternoon had little comfort for Luna. She had tossed and turned for what seemed like hours with the oppressive heat of the summer sun beating down on the castle despite any number of thick curtains and blinds to block out the light. Darkness was hours away, each second ticking away with the surly reluctance of a dripping syrup bottle, until a sudden surge of emotion had driven her out from under the silk sheets to stand panting in panic in the middle of the granite tile floor.
There was no use in attempting to return to slumber. Even a trip to the Royal Baths to spend time in the icy waters that poured directly from the melting snow atop the Canter range did not rid her of that itchy feeling between her shoulders and the damp sweat that continued to crawl under her coat like fleas. She had just gotten dried off as much as she could and left the baths when she encountered her sister trotting the other way with a smile on her face and a certain happy skip to her pace.
"Luna! I had no idea you were up, or I would have brought your letters earlier."
Dozens of curled pieces of paper with writing floated in Celestia's wake, with a set of 'From the desk of Daring Doo' letters floating in front of her, one of which Celestia pointed to with a happy smile. "It seems our timid little Twilight Sparkle is making great strides in her recovery. She even rode a ride called 'The Boomer' in Funland."
"Funland?" The letter fairly ripped itself out of Celestia's grasp to hover in front of Luna, who scanned through it at lightning speed. "Oh, no."
"What is it, Luna?" Celestia moved to look over her sister's shoulder while re-reading the scribbled letter with every grammatically-incorrect line and misspelling indicating the overwhelming emotion that had gripped the young alicorn.
"You know my concern over young Twilight Sparkle," started Luna, flipping from one page to another so swiftly that Celestia could not keep up. "Princess Cadence hath researched many aspects of her youth before her traumatic experience began, and was quite willing to share her experiences, along with her extensive files. Here." One silver-clad hoof pointed at a letter. "Young Twilight knoweth of her brush with thy student, the annoying one, but here Twilight Sparkle wrote of an encounter with one of her youthful friends which she did not even recognize. And here too," added Luna with another point of her hoof.
"That's… disturbing, Luna." Celestia scanned down the letter describing Twilight's peaceful afternoon in the park, doing nothing except for listening to a local musician for hours on end. "It's a much larger gap in her memory than I expected. Those five little fillies used to be inseparable. I may have even…" Celestia hesitated, then blurted out the rest in one long breath. "...hoped that they would remain friends until you returned, so they could somehow free you from Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony."
Luna's intense perusal of the floating letters around her slowed, then came to a complete stop as she gave a quick nuzzle for her bigger sister. "Cheater."
"The stakes were very high," said Celestia with a quiet sniff. "The highest, even. If you don't cheat, you're not trying." She silently read over Luna's shoulder for a few minutes before asking, "So, what's so bad about Twilight going to Funland?"
"Not what," said Luna. "Who."
~ ~ ~ ✶ ~ ~ ~
The actors and actresses danced around the outdoor stage in the final musical number, singing a joyous song of redemption and reunification between the two royal sisters, but Monster was years and miles away in her mind where small fillies and colts dressed in colourful flower costumes stood on a indoor small stage and sang about pollination. The fronds of a homemade Lanicera caprifolium stretched up above her, colored exactly the way Cadence had showed her in the encyclopedia of flowers, as well as each of the other little ponies in her school in their own somewhat less accurate costumes.
All except for her best friend.
The frilly wings of the actias luna costume fairly floated behind the little unicorn as she leapt and pirouetted across the stage to the tinny sound of a piano, tracing a path of breathless fascination to the watching crowd of parents. The faint violet glow that surrounded her was supposed to just be an illumination spell to help the audience, something a young unicorn should be able to do even if they had not gotten their cutie mark yet, but instead it seemed to bear her up during her leaps across the stage and brought the sound of her sweet voice to even the furthest corner of the school auditorium.
At the end of the dance, as she floated down to the front of the stage to the loud applause of all the ponies at the school, Twilight Sparkle could see the brilliant flash that burst from her flank as a crescent moon with three stars appeared.
It was a memory that she had sealed away far beneath the damage in her mind, determined never to think of it again, but now the faces of her foalhood friends burst back into her memories just as fresh as the days they had spent together in Canterlot. Monster could see the startled flicker of recognition in Minuette's eyes when she first got seated in the dentist's chair. The missing notes from Lyra when she found her unexpected audience peering out at her from the bottom of a bush in Ponyville's park. The hesitant faces of Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine peering out of the parked train while the rest of Monster's family stood nervously on the train loading dock.
The beating sun on Monster's shoulders burnt like fire, far gentler and kinder than the blazing stream of solar plasma she had clutched at for power during her magical surge. Monster had thought fire had burned her friends and family to death and that false memory had consumed her soul with a raging madness that could not be contained, destroying everything she had ever touched. Rage had filled the aching hole in her heart, a poor substitute for their love but the only one she had. Now that the rage and fire had burned down to simmering embers, she had new friends who had moved into her heart and loved her just as much. Her new friends claimed to know the danger they put themselves in, but her old friends had been caught unaware by her transformation into a destructive monster and nearly killed by her own insanity.
There was nothing Monster could do to help them heal from the injuries she had done to them, but despite that, Minuette had willingly worked on her teeth, and Lyra had even invited her to sit on the bench next to her in that horribly uncomfortable position and try to strum on the harp. They knew what had happened to their former friend and accepted it. They had overcome the pain Monster had inflicted on them, and returned friendship. In the middle of the chaotic blur of returning memories, Monster clung to that frail thought like a life vest in a hurricane. Despite that, when the audience greeted the end of the play with rousing applause, all of the pain surged up inside and swallowed her. The thundering applause and whoops of joy from her friends resonated around the stage as the actors and actresses came out to make their final bow, but Monster did not see it.
She was gone, with only the faint sheen of cloven concrete remaining where her teleportation spell had sheared away the top layer of her seat during her escape.
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Those who have touched the Elements, shall never be free from their influence.
Publishing early because of the episode. Remember, Moondancer, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Lyra, and Twilight were friends *before* the first sonic rainboom. (If you look at the memory from the Moondancer episode, note a certain lack of cutie marks in the flashback)
With that in mind, they would have been in the same group to be tested for entry into Celestia's school, and at the center of Monster's rampage.
Also, a hat-tip to one of my most popular stories, In Celestia We Trust - All Others Pay Cash
And another cliff hanger. DAng how many cliffs can we hagn onto with all the stories out there
6414201
Jeez, Georg! You nearly gave me a heart attack when you said you were putting it up early cause of the ep. For some reason my brain said that that had to mean the episode had already aired today.
And somehow I completely forgot about Moondancer and co. being Twilight's old friends.
6414201
So... Magic Howitzer Filly is feeling guilty about nealy vaporizing them and is now going to track down the other members of her old crew?
That IS something a confused and guilty child would abruptly do...
But who was Luna talking about? Nightmare? Celestia?
And most importantly...
did that poor Ice Cream vendor actually get his two bits worth?
Oh man, that cliff, this is so intense. I can't wait until the next chapter.
6414201
I was reading the ice cream scene and went "Waaaaiiiit...."
...and lo and behold, the first comment confirms. Alternate-ALTERNATE-universe.
Another enjoyable chapter. Great job.
Ice-cream vendor scene was golden, he most certainly got his two bits (if the dragon even sent bits, and not like, pure gold nuggets or something).
6414288
Much more than two bits... but he had to scoop it up out of the ice cream tubs.
And congratulations on 50th chapter!
It's Moondancer!
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/9/9d/Flim_Flam_spit_take_S2E15.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20120417201617
I didn't see that coming at all! In fact, I don't think it had even sunk in for me what Amending Fences meant until just now.
Echoes of heroics ripple across time, finding their way to receptive minds. Or it's just a literally dramatic case of convergent evolution. One of the two.
As for the latest bit of memory that Twilight's reconstructed...
Oh. Oh. In a world where Moondancer's talent is performance, where her path diverged from Twilight's so long ago, where she's still a freaking recolor of the Twilight who might have been...
I think I know where Moondancer is. And I think Twilight does as well.
6415435 Is... is that...
Is that Derpy with a horn made out of half a cardboard toilet paper tube and a glowstick?
6415819
Why yes, yes it is. Glowlight Derple is best unicorn.
6415881 Glowlight Derple!
Oh boy... this will be interesting. I like how the big dragon has apparently been getting Luna's mail and then dumping it to Celestia. Very nice. I hope to see him meet Twilight someday.
Just to be sure I understand: Minuette and Lyra recognized Monster as Twilight from the start, right???? I can totally see them figuring out what happened (You can't get into Celestia's school and be dumb) and they were the ones who started the crazy rumors about Twilight Sparkle being a globe trotting super heroine.
I realy... reaally liked the first story. It had an interesting character with interesting quirks that interacted with others of the cast in a very interesting way.
This new Twilight... she isn't as interesting. I want to keep reading, but I can't get over how this badass forest dweller, who put every monster she came across running in terror, is now this weak, helpless little foal.
It just... I'm sorry.
The Princesses seem astonishingly unsurprised that a ton of gold and dozens of scrolls suddenly fell on Celestia's head. Luna didn't even ask why loads of Twilight's messages were only showing up now, and why all at once.
when i read that this popped into my headvignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/psychonauts/images/5/59/Stageactors.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20141129232041
6418809
I have a feeling that was Spike, and Monster accidentally sent him the letters across time...or some such. We'll probably find out eventually.
6421094 I see how Monster sent them to the dragon--it was established some time ago that she messed up the coordinates or something when she tried to mimic how Spike's messaging worked--but it's Luna and Celestia's non-reaction to it that surprises me. Forget the gold, there shouldn't be a reason for so many letters dated to all show up at once. Wouldn't that raise some eyebrows?
6421629 In Celestia and Luna's defense, many odder things have happened in Equestria, most likely during that week. After all, Luna's only been back for two months, and it is Tuesday.
6421094 No, Monster doesn't do time travel any more. It's not on her approved spell list.
6418809 And Derpy is their Mailmare...
6416710 Since they were also Cadence's bridesmaids (originally), it only stands to reason that the entire group was foalsat by Cadence (even though there's some funky time-skip stuff going on if the Lemon Hearts in the comics matches the Lemon Hearts in the cartoon.
Hm. Five unicorns. All friends. Elements of Harmony. Do you think that Celestia might have been trying to stack the deck for her sister's return, hmmm??
6421963 I like the idea of Cadence foalsitting all of Twilight's old friends. And Celestia having them as a back up EoH actually makes sense... way more than trusting Twilight will randomly befriend five ponies she's never met.
Huh. Well... unsealing forgotten memories might do weird stuff with anyone.
Let's hope that the bit of chair was the only thing Twi took with her, and none other organic matter besides her own
6421629 Magic can be a little like free-form Cscript or Perl, I suppose.
Select To_Dragon from set(All_Dragons) such that Name=Spike AND Relationship(Celestia_Friend)=True AND Relationship(Luna_Friend)=True;
Returned 2 records:
6423362
ohhhhh
Oooooo, so it was Moondancer? Nice.
Lovely use of the new Twilight backstory we got from Amending Fences (god, that was such a great episode, dat ending scene), and good catch regarding the cutie marked status in the flashback scene.
It's nice to see the misplaced dragon mail finally come back into play. And he didn't even forward it postage due!
6415881 Best
unicornalicorn.Love this story so very, very much. Monster is just such a broken little horror, and it's so touching to watch her try so hard to be good with her friends doing all they can to help her.
Very nice work so far, even if it ended in a cliffy.
6415881 Lyra in that picture is incredibly adorable...
...Ahem! I mean, great chapter. This story is just really great on many, many levels.
Poor little monster.
Oh my god, the image of Celestia suddenly puking bits had me in stitches. Very quiet stitches.
Well, that could have ended worse.
6415435 Hell, she's not even a recolor now... Awkwaard!rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA4LzEzL2Q1L2F2b2lkYW5jZS5lMTkyNy5naWYKcAl0aHVtYgk4NTB4ODUwPgplCWpwZw/af15b296/4a9/avoidance.jpg
I like this dragon 🐉 🪙 📜
6427217 Hey, in one of the more recent chapters posted, she gets to finally meet him.