Mirage on the Horizon

by Hope

Ch. 6 That you still Love Me.

Eris stood, her claw sinking into the sand, as she faced Mirage and Rainbow.

She wondered if biologically she was capable of having a heart attack, as it might be something she was currently at risk of.

A hot wind blew across the sands, and Eris stumbled back, looking around. In the distance she could see Applejack, clinging to a barrel of apple cider, mumbling to herself. Rarity surrounded by the tattered cut hairs of her sister’s mane. Fluttershy was sitting away from everyone else, facing the horizon, silent.

But Pinkie wasn’t there.

When Eris looked back to Mirage, the alicorn tossed Rainbow Dash aside, the pegasus limply tumbling down the sand dune to land in a flat spot, feathers askew and unmoving.

“Please, stop this,” Eris begged. “You want me, you want me! So why are you hurting them?”

Mirage took a single step closer, the sand melting to a pale green glass under her hoof as she did.

“You think I want you?” Mirage whispered, before laughing, low and rough and then higher, and higher, until it was a keening cackle from the mad mare.

She’d stepped so close that her shifting unreal form was just inches from Eris’s nose as the laugh ended.

“No,” she whispered, her breath hot enough to singe Eris’s fur. “No, darling I don’t want you. I want you to have no one but me, and come begging back to my side, where you belong. My cruel goddess of chaos.”

Eris lashed out with a claw but it just cut through roiling hot air, leaving her hissing in pain.

Mirage grinned, and faded away, then her voice came from behind Eris.

“That’s what you always have been. What you always will be. Your past is all you have, Eris. Your half-real ever shifting past. You remember, don’t you? What you did to me?”

Eris raised her hand to snap, desperate to undo what she’d done so so very long ago when she’d forced Celestia to love her.

But someone grabbed her hand in their magic and threw her down into the sand, knocking the air out of her lungs.

“Please,” Eris whispered, the sand swirling around her head as she opened her eyes to see the shimmering figure standing over her.

“Become the Old You again, first,” Mirage demanded, her form shifting and bleeding at the edges in the heat.

But as Eris got to her hands and knees, gasping for breath and the sand scorching her palms and knees, she realized what she’d been doing wrong all this time. She stood shakily, and turned to face Mirage, hands out by her sides, palms up in a gesture of empty vulnerability. Eris laughed softly, and gave the alicorn of Chaos a sad smile.

“You can’t kill me until I give into the worst version of myself, can you?” she asked.

The wind blew between them, hot and dry, as the fiery eyes of the alicorn narrowed.

“But that’s the thing,” Eris continued, letting her hands fall limp. “I know that she’s the worst version of me. I know that now. I know she was wrong for what she did to you. She was a spiteful and jealous goddess of a land full of beings more worthy of love and respect than her. I know that now.”

As though the wind itself carried away the broken reality around her, the sands pooled and shifted, and the alicorn vanished into the ripples of heat. Ponyville revealed itself under those dunes and came free again, ponies shaking off the sand everywhere, as the sand faded back into dust and then into nothing.

Slowly, Applejack walked up to Eris, who was standing in the middle of the street, staring up at the clouds in the sky as tears poured down her cheeks.

“It’s all done then?” AJ asked softly, sitting in front of Eris.

“No,” Eris said as she slowly looked back to her friends, all of them looking shaken to their core. “No, it’s not done, it’s… actually, it’s barely even started, because I… I think that I’ve made everything so so much worse, AJ. I think I’m a bad person.”

Her shoulders shook, as a sob almost forced its way out of her, making her shiver in the warm summer sun.

“You didn’t fix me,” Rainbow Dash points out, standing from where she lay and sifting sand from her feathers as her unnaturally keen eyes took in the rest of her friends, even Pinkie who was looking around with wide, innocent eyes. “Right? You have to fix me?”

“No,” Eris sighed, clenching her hands into fists to resist the urge to snap her fingers and warp reality again. “No, Dash, I don’t think that’s it at all.”

Her friends gathered around her as Eris practiced her breathing, calming herself. Then, unexpectedly, she was taken into an embrace. All of them hugged her, even Rainbow as the pegasus couldn’t meet her eyes, half-real in an aching way that made it look like she was rippling at the edges, even then the pegasus joined in on the hug and held Eris tightly, as she calmed herself.

“I think that I have to undo everything I did,” Eris admits, as AJ and Rarity recoiled in horror.

“Darling, you can’t possibly be serious,” Rarity said, aghast. “I… I can’t imagine being so bleak… so empty and… sad.”

AJ shook her head firmly. “And I ain’t goin’ back to bein’ a pinch-penny cheapskate!”

“But I didn’t fix those problems,” Eris admitted as she found a bench nearby and sat down, holding her head. “I just covered them up. I shoved them down so that you wouldn’t feel them, but they’re still there.”

AJ and Rarity shared a look, as Fluttershy walked up to Eris after being silent all that time.

“I remember looking at all my animal friends,” she said softly. “And… feeling like I wouldn’t be missed. Like I didn’t matter. I understand. I have to… feel that, and…”

She looked around at her friends.

“I have to overcome my fear that all of you will leave me behind, if I’m going to be loyal again.”

Eris nodded and looked to each of her friends as they started to understand that Mirage hadn’t forced them to change, she’d brought parts of themselves to the surface, and if they didn’t handle those parts of themselves, all Eris would be doing is warping and breaking them more.

“Undo me first,” Pinkie said softly.

“It’s going to hurt,” Eris warned her. “It’s going to… you’re going to feel so cruel, so happy to hurt others, Pinkie.”

“I know,” Pinkie said, closing her eyes and turning her head aside. “I know, Eris, but… I’ve got to be the first, don’t you see? Because I can’t fix anypony else, when I’ve got that… broken bit inside. I want to help. So I’ll go first.”

Eris nodded and gestured to Pinkie to come closer before putting her clawed hand on top of Pinkie’s head, and focusing. She could feel what she’d done, the way she’d forced Pinkie to be simpler, easier to handle, and it was so artificial that it ached.

She raised her paw, and snapped her fingers, and Pinkie’s mane fell flat instantly, her smile growing stiff and fake.

“Why are you doing this?” Pinkamena asked, her tone droll and tired. “Eris, come on, you have to know that your friends are better when we’re simple and easy to handle. Artificial.”

Eris took her hand off Pinkamena’s head as those piercing blue eyes looked up at her, cold and empty.

“Do you feel like everything you do makes things worse, Pinkie?” Eris asked, her tone even and calm.

Pinkamena frowned, tilting her head to the side. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I think you’re projecting. Things that a lot of people deal with, and you use your experience feeling those things to lash out, so that noone examines you,” Eris explained, clasping her hands in her lap, even though she was shaking a bit and suddenly quite tired.

Pinkamena tried to back up, but Rarity and AJ were penning her in, as Rarity gave an encouraging smile.

“I’m sorry, since when did this fic become armchair psych amature hour,” Pinkamena hissed. “I might be a drain on Ponyville but you're so much worse!"

“Maybe, but we can deal with me later,” Eris laughed softly, rubbing her aching eyes. “Right now, we’re here for you, Pinkie. We’re here to be kind to you, instead of making you be kind to us all the time.”

“Hah!” Pinkie barked, kicking the ground before walking up to Eris, tears in her eyes as she faked that forced angry laugh again. “Hah! Eris, noone is kind to me! I give! I give forever and ever and ever, and I only get back when I ask. When I beg.”

She laid down on her stomach, holding up her hooves in a pleading pose.

“Oh please, so-called-friends, oh please give me a day to myself! Oh please help me out! Please give me a single moment where my emotions matter as much as yours!”

She got back up, brushing herself off with an expression of contempt.

“No, no I’m not supposed to receive kindness, that’s not how life works for me. I give forever, and I’m the only one who does.”

“Then maybe you’re not supposed to,” Eris said simply.

Pinkie paused, and so did all of her friends, staring at Eris with a bit of confusion.

“Noone can give their emotions away all day forever,” Eris clarified. “And as your friends, we shouldn’t ask you to.”

Pinkie sat, staring at Eris and biting her lip, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry that I always make you plan our tea parties,” Rarity said abruptly. “You were so happy to help the first few times, and… Eventually I was taking advantage of it.”

Pinkie opened her mouth to object, but as Rarity hugged her, she stopped.

“Listen, I suck as a friend,” Rainbow said as she stepped closer. “But that doesn’t mean I should give up and just let it be how it is. It means I have to try harder. From now on, I’m just gonna tell you what I want for my birthday and holidays, not make you guess. It’s… a small first step, yeah, but still.”

Rainbow joined the hug, and Pinkie started to shake slightly as she cried.

“Darlin’, I didn’t know this were goin’ on,” AJ said firmly. “But I’ll keep an eye out, and won’t let you carry it all.”

“And you know,” Fluttershy said, joining the hug last as she spoke confidently. “You know you’ll have me as your friend, no matter what. If you need to do less, then do less, I’ll still be here.”

A brilliant pink light burst out of the group embrace and washed over Eris, as Pinkie was healed of a deep hurt that Mirage had only brought to the surface. Eris felt something very old and cruel in her heart die. She knew in that moment she could never ever again be the cruel goddess of chaos that had forced Celestia to love her. But she had only taken one step on the journey to putting things right.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Oh, this is very good stuff. Mirage is far crueler than Discord. It's not enough to simply turn ponies on their heads and drive them mad. She wants to bring the ugliest side of them into the light for all to see and despair. Ironic that a self-styled alicorn of deception is making such use of harsh truths, but again, she's a far worse monster than the one whose role she's filling.

You really did a number on that one, Eris. Good luck.

[Hope]

11166936
Thank you so much! I look forward to writing more of this!

[Casketbase77]

“Become the Old You again, first,” Mirage demanded

 
At last we have it. Our villain’s ultimate gambit. Eris forcibly destroyed and remade her into something new. Now she’s daring Eris to voluntarily undo changes. Not to Mirage though. To herself. The central theme of this fic is change, for purposes either noble or diabolical. 

Fluttershy is the one who remains ahead of the curve. First catching on to Eris’s past sins, and now empathizing by ruminating about this meta trial of self worth. 

This chapter ends with the natural implication that Celestia too, is fighting from the inside. Mirage is insane, but forcing Eris through this growth is what a psychologist would call a Cry For Help. A subconscious urge to abort this current self-destructive path. A self-harmer will ‘forget’ to hide their cuts. An alcoholic, will conveniently leave their bottle in view. For Celestia, she’s definitely prompting Eris practice saving her friends, so when the time comes for the inevitable showdown, Eris will be ready to defeat Mirage without force. Guess this answers the dress ambiguity from the previous chapter.