Path to Peace

by Flamewarrior02

Short chapter: Mare in the Mirror

12 days after Zipp’s breakdown

“Here you go, Zipp!” Sunny said with a smile as she handed the smoothie to her pegasus friend. “A brand new smoothie just for you!”

“Thanks, Sunny.” Zipp said as she took the drink and looked at it. “So, what flavor is it?” She asked.

“I’d tell you, but I want you to figure it out for yourself first.” Sunny replied.

“Ooh! A mystery!” Zipp said teasingly as she took a sip. After taking a moment to swish it around in her mouth, getting a good taste, she swallowed and gave her answer. “Tastes like peanut butter and banana with a hint of…..is that chocolate?” She asked with hopeful eyes.

“Yep!” Sunny beamed in response. “A new type of smoothie I made just for you!”

“Aww, Sunny! You didn’t have to.” Zipp said bashfully as she starting gulping down the contents of her cup.

“I know. But you’re my friend, and I’m always looking for new ways to make everypony’s day better.” Sunny replied.

The two of them shared a laugh before Zipp went back to her smoothie. As she drank, her ears twitched when she heard ponies walking behind her. While that normally wouldn’t get her attention, what she overheard them saying did. “Look at that poor mare.” One of them whispered.

“She’ll be fine.” A pegasus assured them. “The feathers will soon grow back.”

“Still, makes you wonder what happened to make her lose all her feathers like that.” A third pony said before they trotted out of earshot.

Despite them whispering their conversation, Zipp still heard everything they said, and that brought down her mood. The pegasus looked at her wings, the flight feathers just now starting to grow back, and sighed. Sunny noticed her friend’s saddened look and exited the cart to wrap a hoof around her friend. “You okay?” She asked her.

Zipp sighed again before answering. “Look at me, Sunny. I’m a pegasus that clipped her own wings. A pony so broken she spent the past week doing nothing but moping around and starving herself. I couldn’t even leave the Brighthouse until yesterday.”

“Zipp.” Sunny said, wanting her friend to stop this self loathing rant.

“All of it because I am afraid of myself and the pony I could very much become.” Zipp finished before she looked the earth pony in the eyes. “How do you do it, Sunny?”

“Huh?” The orange mare blinked in confusion. “How do I what?”

“How do you handle being the alicorn?” Zipp asked again. “You’re the most powerful pony in Equestria with all that magic. How is it you’re not a mess like I am? You told me yourself that you’ve had intrusive thoughts before. How do you stop them from ruining your life?” She asked almost pleadingly as she looked into Sunny’s eyes, begging for an answer.

Sunny didn’t reply, at least not immediately. This was a question that she had to answer carefully and not just spit out the first answer that comes to mind. Why was she the lucky one and didn’t have corrupted and unwelcome thoughts popping into her head that drove her to panic and nearly banish herself from her friends forever? It wasn’t like she never thought about how powerful it was to be the alicorn. Like she said in the cave, there was a time she was considering replacing Haven as Queen of Zephyr Heights. But she quickly shook those feelings away when she told herself what it would mean for Zipp and Pipp, really all of the pegasi, if she did that.

To Sunny, her friends were her power. She constantly told herself that the pony she currently was was the one her friends wanted and deserved. They didn’t want Alicorn Sunny, they just wanted Sunny Starscout their friend. That was what she told herself in the mirror every morning.

“Mirror.” Sunny thought as an idea came to her. ”That’s it!”

The orange mare quickly went back into the cart and grabbed her alicorn mirror. Opening it up, she placed it on the stand and turned it so it was facing Zipp. “Tell me, Zipp, who do you see in the mirror?”

“Myself.” Zipp answered dryly, not understanding where Sunny was going with this and how it answered her question.

“I mean what kind of pony do you see?” Sunny rephrased her question.

Understanding what her friend meant now, Zipp looked more in depth at her reflection. “I see a pony that’s a sad, pathetic excuse of themselves.”

“Okay.” Sunny said. “Not exactly what I wanted to hear.” She thought to herself before asking. “Anything else?”

“What else is there?” Zipp responded. “I just see myself for the complete unstable mess that I am.”

“Try looking deeper.” Sunny suggested as she gently pushed the mirror towards her friend.

Despite not believing it would make any difference, Zipp complied at looking more at her reflection. Still the same useless, broken mare as before. It wasn’t going to change no matter how much she stared at the mirror.

However, that soon began to change as the Zipp in the mirror began to change. The pegasus’ eyes widened as her reflection morphed into one she was all too familiar with. One with a tiara she was sure to destroy, blood red eyes, and an unnerving evil smile. “No!” Zipp suddenly exclaimed as she punched the mirror away before backing up in fear. “No! No! No! No!” She whimpered until she backed herself against the nearest building.

“Zipp!” Sunny exclaimed as she ran over to her friend’s side to comfort her while the white mare curled herself up. “Zipp, what did you see?”

“Her.” Was all the pegasus said in reply.

“Her?” Sunny said in confusion before slowly putting the pieces together based on Zipp’s previous behavior. “You mean the evil you?”

Zipp nodded in response. “No matter what I do, she just keeps appearing. I don’t know how to make her go away.” She paused to sniffle. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can!” Sunny exclaimed, slightly startling her friend at her sudden enthusiasm. “You know why?” She asked as she stood back up and helped Zipp back onto her hooves. “Because you are stronger than her. You are above her. You are not the same pony as her. And you will never be her.”

Sunny went back to grab her mirror before opening it in front of Zipp again. It made the pegasus recoil at seeing her reflection again, but the earth pony mare knew she had to do this. “Say it”. She told her friend.

“What?”

“What I just told you. Say it to your reflection.” Sunny said.

Zipp looked at her reflection, wincing at seeing herself like that, and said half heartily. “I’m stronger than you.”

“Louder.” Sunny urged.

“I’m stronger than you.”

“Louder!”

“I’m stronger than you!”

“Say it like you mean it!”

“I’m stronger than you!”

“So everypony can hear it!”

“I’m stronger than you!”

“Look that you in the eyes and tell it to her directly!”

Zipp looked her reflection dead in the eyes with a serious look on her face and her wings flared. “I’M STRONGER THAN YOU! I AM ABOVE YOU! I AM NOT THE SAME PONY AS YOU! I WILL NEVER BE YOU!” She yelled at her reflection, just barely resisting the urge to smack the mirror away again in her adrenaline.

“Now tell me who do you see!?” Sunny excitedly asked, thinking her plan was working.

Zipp looked at her reflection closer this time and saw it morph back into her own. Only this time it showed her differently. “I see a pony who is strong.” She told Sunny.

“Yes! And?”

“I see a pony who is confident!”

“Who do you see?!” Sunny asked.

“I see myself!” Zipp shouted with pride.

“Eeeeeeh!” Sunny shouted with glee as she dropped the mirror and went up to hug her friend. “I’m so proud of you, Zipp!”

“Thanks, Sunny.” Zipp said back with a smile.

They stayed like that for a minute or two before Sunny broke the hug. “Just remember to tell yourself what I told you the next time you see that evil you, and keep on saying it until she goes away. Can you do that?”

“……..Yeah, I think I can.”

But what neither of the mares knew was that the mirror was open and facing towards them as they spoke. And on the other side was Opaline, watching the entire scene playing out. “How interesting.” She said as she cut off the magic feed. “Seems our little princess was affected by that necklace more than I thought.”

This was the first the alicorn had heard about Zipp’s condition. And from seeing the state the pegasus was in, she was delighted at this news. “Oh, how wonderful. For me.” She said aloud. Opaline wasn’t a fool. Despite what it looked like, she knew Zipp was far from better. The state of her wings was proof enough of that. It would take time for her to find her footing again, if at all. She had little doubt that any of Zipp’s friends truly knew how to properly handle her OCD condition.

“With that annoying little detective picking up the pieces of her pathetic self, that’ll leave me without anypony sticking their noses in to my business and getting in the way of my plans. Allowing me to continue my schemes unopposed until the time is right to attack.” Opaline said as she looked at a photograph of Zipp before setting it on fire. “Be prepared, Princess. Be prepared.” She said to the burning photo before laughing evilly.

Author's Note:

Hopefully those of you who are following this story as it releases found this chapter without much confusion.

For those of you reading this after the story is completed and wonder what the heck is going on, and why this chapter isn’t at all the one I said I’d be doing next, I got an idea for this chapter after that one was posted and moved it here so all the chapters are listed in chronological order.

Back to the chapter itself, this short chapter, if I’d say it qualifies as that, exists for two main reasons.

1: I want to give Sunny and Izzy more to do within the story as I feel they really haven’t done much in the trilogy (namely in Letting Go). And while I’m still not sure what to do with Izzy, at the very least I’m glad I was able to use Sunny effectively and have her use things she’s learned from her friends and reapply them back.

2: Opaline. I needed a way for Opaline to know about Zipp’s condition. Having Misty be her voice was not option, as I had stated in Letting Go that Misty wasn’t aware of Zipp’s troubles when she spoke with Pipp. So I decided to use the mirror as a way for Opaline to get sort of caught up. And now that she knows Zipp isn’t at 100%, she’s able to continue her work in the shadows without worrying about getting discovered prematurely.

And considering what the next chapter to be uploaded is, I’d say somepony’s luck is about to run out.

Comments

[BronySonicFan]

Well, this was surprising. I was actually wondering if Opaline was going to get involved somehow. Also, more Sunny having spotlight, thank you very much. You did more with Sunny in one chapter than Hasbro has done in two series.

The only heavy thing I could add to this chapter regarding my AU is Sonic opening up with Zipp. I mean, if you consider it, he's the fastest thing alive. He can stop time and run at max speed while everyone else is on their place. That means that he could kill someone at top speed, and nobody would even know what happened until it's too late.

He could open up and tell Zipp that despite these thoughts, he always reminds himself that he's better than that, which is why he never digs too deep on the thoughts. And considering that Sunny tells her to do the thing with the mirror, I think Sonic's advice would just compliment.

[Axolotl222]

Looks like Sunny got more use out of that mirror than Opaline did. Disregarding the ending, of course