The empire of gears

by ShadyMcChangeling

Chapter 5: The ling behind the mask

"This room is awesome!" Said Rainbow Dash ordering her third cafè mocha, she took a sip then continued.

"A full buffet of food, cloud beds, an amazing kitchen and an awesome view!" Stated Rainbow.

"Twilight darling, have you spoken with Mirror yet?" Asked Rarity brushing her mane.

"Well, I haven't got a chance to." Replied Twilight rolling a scroll of parchment.

"So go talk to him then! It's not like he told us not to ask him anything." Said Rainbow lazing on one of the beds.

"I guess I should, shouldn't I." Said Twilight standing up.

"Well see you all later" Announced Twilight walking out the room.

"Hey pinkie, do you think Tank would be cool if I bring home a D0BLD3 as a pet?" Asked Rainbow.

---

Twilight had been wandering through the now silent hallways of the city, searching for their host.
At which she had heard humming from a nearby balcony. Upon getting closer she saw that it was Mirror, standing and staring at the stars that lay scattered across the night sky. Twilight then heard a song being sung by the very figure in front of her.

"Summer in the hills,"

"Those hazy days I do remember."

"We were running still,"

"Had the whole world at our feet."

"Watching seasons change,"

"Our roads were lined with adventure."

"Mountains in the way, couldn't keep us from the sea."

"Here we stand up in arms,"

"This is home where we are."

"Ever strong in the world that we made."

"I still hear you in the breeze,"

"See your shadows in the trees."

"Holding on memories never change."

After the last verse Mirror let out a sigh, and began to speak.

"What will I do? I can't exactly be quiet forever."

"if only they knew." said Mirror a hint of sadness in his voice.

"What's wrong?" Asked Twilight walking onto the balcony.
Mirror, at the sudden announcement of Twilight's voice jumped and spun around to face her a snarl on his face.

"Oh, it's just you twilight." Said Mirror returning to his normal stance.

"twilight I need to tell you something."

"what is it Mirror?"

"I don't suppose you'd be up for a story eh?"

"I'm listening." Said Twilight sitting on her haunches.

"Well, it all began when I hatched. I won't go into details, but let's just say that I was..." Mirror scrunched up his chitinous muzzle, moving his hoof in a circular motion. "Different. All my hivemates where all just cutouts of each other. Me, on the other hoof..."He gestured towards himself." Well you can plainly see the difference. I was bullied by most of the hive when I was young, but it stopped very quickly due to two reasons.One was due to Chrysalis punishing those who did. And two, I was the heir to the throne."

"You were a prince!?" Exclaimed Twilight.

"Yes, shocking isn't it." Said Mirror with a deadpan stare.

"Now where was I? Ah, yes. I was leagues ahead of my entire hive in magical ability. Although unlike my hivemates I had a rather different type of magic."

"What do you mean different? Isn't there only one type of magic?" Asked Twilight.

"Well..." Said Mirror sheepishly. "No, not quite."

"You might want to prepare yourself for this." Said Mirror holding a hoof out towards Twilight.

"Prepare myself for w-" Said Twilight, before being cut off by what was going on.
A small gray cloud hovered above Mirror's hoof, Faintly sparkling with tiny purple lightning bolts.

"Wha..." Said Twilight simply staring at the cloud, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

"I said prepare yourself, didn't I?" Retorted Mirror with a grin on his face.

"How..?"

"To be honest, I don't know either. I just hatched with it I guess." He said as he quelled the miniature storm.

"What other magic do you have?!" Asked Twilight, nearly tackling Mirror.

"I'm sorry Mirror, I-" Apologized Twilight, half of it getting cut off.

"It's okay," He said, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof, smiling as he did so.

"I knew you liked magic, But nearly bowling me over? Now thats commitment!"

The two shared a laugh, then continued.

"Ahem, so I have storm magic-" He conjured the cloud again."-I have ice magic-" A blue ice crystal formed in his hoof.

"And I have..." He looked around suspiciously, then whispered into Twilight's ear."Shadow magic."
His horn glowed and a nearby shadow pulled itself away from the floor and coalesced into a shiny black sphere.

"So what do you think, eh?" Said Mirror eager for her opinion.

"You have complete control over it?" Asked Twilight, weary of the sphere.

"Yes I have control..." Mirror rolled his eyes."But I can also do-" He formed the shadow into an appendage with a claw."-this."

"And-" He ignited the ball, it turned into a large black and white flame. "-This!"

"Wow, that's.. That's.. Just, wow." Said Twilight clearly at a loss for words.
The two sat there, staring at the ball of shadow-fire.

"Buck! I forgot about the story!" Exclaimed Mirror, the ball dissipating into it's components.

"Sorry About my language I don't have much of a filter." Said Mirror, his cheeks a dark maroon.

"It's okay, go on with the story." Said Twilight giggling at Mirror's accident.
"Any-who Due to my position as heir, Chrysalis vowed to protect me. But there was a skill that I did not possess that separated me even more from the hive's infrastructure." He looked at Twilight sternly."I cant feed off love, I could not stand the stuff. I can absorb it, but I puke it out half an hour later as a big puddle of green goop." He shivered after he spoke. "So that was a problem obviously, living in a place where the only thing for food makes you sick."

"But I found an alternative!" He said enthusiastically "you see there was this one griffon trader carting a load of fish that got captured. So of course I was curious, I asked one of the Infiltrators What they where used for. he replied,They are some kind of food that the griffons eat. I wouldn't advise eating it though, one tried it. got sick for a week." Mirror said waving his hoof like a ventriloquist holding a dummy.

"So as I could not eat love, I tried one. and thus I found a thing that I could eat, and that I am an omnivore!" Mirror stuck his chest out proudly at this fact. "Now at this point in the story I was now permitted to go with some of the Infiltrators, One of the most note worthy was a trip to the city of Canterlot."

"And due to the infiltrator that I went with not caring about my well being,-" Mirror grumbled. "-I wandered and found my passion. Knowledge and magic! I had discovered the place known as the library. I read all the books on magic, and even tried a few spells. After I read a few books, the infiltrator found me and I had to leave."

"I Insisted that I go back again though." Mirror chuckled. "Everything seemed perfect, a weekly trip to the Canterlot library. My own personal room and sneaking out nightly to go and fish. It was great... Until She came along." Mirror growled the word.

"Who came along?" asked Twilight.

"Pupa.-" Mirror at her name slammed his hoof down, a large dent was left. "-Chrysalis' new heir. I, the original one to inherit the throne was ignored!" Mirror's pupils were slits.

"Chrysalis said that she was a perfect child and kept all her attention on her." Another slam, and yet another dent" After Pupa was born Chrysalis acted like I was an annoying ink mark that wouldn't come out of her throne!" Twilight could sense the hatred emanating from Mirror.

"And after I tried to suggest that we make peace with the rest of Equestria, Chrysalis banished me!"
Mirror sat there breathing heavily, after a few moments he inhaled and exhaled. Slowly calming down.

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away." Mirror said his head low.

"After that I journeyed across Equestria to learn all that I could, I trained and honed my magic. Then i made this place." He motioned to the wall and doorways behind them. "I warned the ponies to not steal the knowledge that i acquired." Mirror stared at the moon. "Then this one idiot of a pony came marching to my doorstep with an army. I told them to leave but that pony laughed at me! And..." He paused."Well I don't think I should go into detail with that one."

"So turns out that the original spot for this place had a foundation of soft clay, so I had to move it deeper into the badlands. I still use that old site for mining sometimes. And I've been here ever since."
Mirror sighed.

"If you're so alone you could come live in ponyville." Said Twilight a hopeful expression on her face.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Twilight, will I be accepted for who I am?"

"Well they may be scared at first but th-"

"NO! I won't be accepted fully, there will always be a pony that will be scared!" Exclaimed Mirror standing up and wearing a frown on his face.

"There will always be one that looks at me like I'm a parasite!" He punctuated the last word by stomping his hoof down.

"There will always be one that doesn't want to be near me!" Another stomp, His pupils were slits.

"There will always be one that thinks I'm a monster!" The last stomp left glowing purple cracks in the floor.

"...I" Said Twilight who was cut off.

"Excuse me princess, but I must be going. It was nice having a chat with you." Announced Mirror his voice only bearing anger.
Twilight simply stood there, the echo of mirror's footsteps fading. The hallways of the great city, had become quieter than ever before.

Author's Note:

link for the song the lyrics were borrowed from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtfUIbqbK3c
Yes I know the posting rules say no copyright song lyrics, but they are a critical part to the story!