Mistakes of the Past

Mistakes of the Past
By Cosmic Waltz

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

This is a Grimdark fanfiction story based on the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" by Hasbro. It will contain scenes of violence, gore, death, and heavy emotional content. You have been warned.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Chapter 1

Rainbow Dash called to her friend cutting the way through the brush beneath. "It's over here, Twi!"

The two had again traveled through the Everfree Forest, Dash directing from the sky as Twilight Sparkle took the grounded path. The purple unicorn pressed back the large ferns and lush, tangled vines blocking her view. A familiar sight broke the horizon before them.

The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. This was their destination.

Rainbow Dash landed across the rope bridge, waiting for the unicorn to step across. "Tell me again why you wanted to come back out to this place?"

Twilight stepped cautiously on each creaking, decrepit plank of the bridge as she narrowed the gap to the blue pegasus. "Well, Dash, I'm interested in what could be in -whoa!" Suddenly, a board underhoof gave way, dropping her startled onto her face. She quickly rose, brushing off the embarrassing scare. "-what could be in a castle that was once home to the Princesses of Equestria."

Dash rolled her eyes. "We've been here before, Twilight. You know what's in there; rocks and dust."

Twilight hastened her steps as she approached the end of the precarious bridge. She let out a sigh of relief beneath her breath before continuing towards the looming ruin. "I remember also that the Elements of Harmony weren't much more than 'rocks' at first either, but turned out to be much more. Also, in our haste to find Nightmare Moon, we didn't thoroughly search everywhere. Who knows what secrets and forgotten artifacts could be lying just inside! Isn't it exciting!"

"Yawn," Dash stated flatly. "If you ask me, it's just going to be a waste of time. Besides, what did you need me here for? You travel through the forest all the time to see Zecora."

The two ponies again entered the large stone architecture of the castle. Without the urgency of the situation from before, and with daylight shining brightly overhead, Twilight was granted the time to take in the sight. It had not held up well with the years. Many parts of the castle had fallen into disrepair, with portions of the walls and ceilings having crumbled down. The doors that still stood were once of a lovely hardwood, but were now scratched and worn from the weather the Everfree Forest created on its own. Remnants of tapestries that were at one time draped on the walls were faded with centuries of abuse. Though the grey building felt foreboding, Twilight remarked how she would have loved to see it in its prime.

Remembering she had been in a conversation before her distraction, the unicorn replied to Dash. "I need you here to direct me through the forest. Last time, Nightmare Moon practically gave us a trail to this place, but this time we had nothing but old hoof-trails. And I always appreciate having company on these trips." She flashed a smile to her friend.

Dash sighed. "Okay, okay. What are we looking for exactly? I mean, in particular. I'm not sure I could point out what's important and what's just junk."

"Well," Twilight thought, "I guess it's not really easy to say. If you see anything that looks ornate, or out of place, tell me."

The duo walked into the main hall of the once great castle. The room consisted of nothing more than two large floor-spaces on separate levels connected by a series of steps. The tattered remains of a decorative rug ran the length of the room, ascending the staircase ahead of them. One could still loosely see accented marks of the sun and moon on either side of the corridor. Along the walls were many doors. The pair began their search.

Hours had passed as the pegasus and unicorn scoured the complex. Their saddlebags remained mostly empty from their inspection, however. Of their "artifacts" was a golden fork found on the table of the dining hall, which strangely caused the hair to stand stiff throughout the body when held, and a small statuette of two sisters standing back to back, obviously representing the Princesses. Much of the rest of the cavernous structure was just as Rainbow Dash had called it: rocks and dust.

"Well, this was a bust!" Dash shouted through the empty halls.

Twilight unfortunately had to agree. "You're right. All we found was a utensil that only unicorns can use, and a statue. Perhaps Princess Celestia would like to have these back, though."

Dash flew by the unicorn. "Yeah, I'm sure she'll love them. 'Why, thank you my most faithful student! You have returned my most beloved spaghetti-stirrer, and my most favorite paperweight!'" The impression was crude, but it still brought a giggle from the two ponies.

"All right. Let's get out of here." Twilight called, heading back the way they had entered. It was then that she noticed a door hidden by a fallen piece of the ceiling.

"Hey, Dash?" the unicorn called to the pegasus headed towards the exit. "Did we check that room?"

Dash doubled back to beside Twilight. "Hmm... I dunno. Who cares, it's probably just full of more junk." The pegasus resumed her flight to the door, stopped short by Twilight grabbing her tail with her teeth.

"Dash, you never know what's back there! Now, help me get this stuff out of the way." Twilight moved over to the rubble, attempting to push the large stones away with her magic.

The pegasus was unconvinced of the argument, but knew if she didn't help her friend now, she'd just be dragged out here again. Twilight was a persistent one.

The two worked together to remove the blockade, edging the heavy, bleached rocks away. After a few minutes of work, the obstruction was fully cleared, leaving the door exposed. It was like any other door in the castle, if not damaged more by the rocks that pressed against it. There was a slight buckle at the bottom from the decades of stress.

Twilight attempted to open the door, finding it sealed tightly.

Dash looked on, hovering above the scene. "What? Don't tell me after all that work that it's locked?"

Twilight tried again, finding no give. "Locked? Maybe. But the hinges are rusted solid too. Think you can lend me a hoof here?"

"All right, all right. Clear a path!" Dash backed far from the door, flying to the corner opposite of it. Twilight stepped aside to let the powerful pegasus have a go at the stubborn barrier. "This is how you pick a lock!" The pegasus burst forward with an incredible speed, aimed right at the door. Quickly, she spun around, bucking out her legs in a flying drop-kick. Making contact, the door let out a mighty groan as wood splintered off and metal twisted, before both gave way. Before she could realize it, Dash had found herself now inside the hidden room, with the broken door piled around her. She rose from the damages. "Lock picking! I'm a pro."

Twilight stifled a chuckle. "Well, it worked. I wouldn't try to make a business of it though." Rainbow Crash seemed an apt nickname to her now.

The room was much like the rest of the castle. Grey stone walls, with large windows lining its outward facing side. A large hole in the ceiling also provided what light was needed to clearly see the room. It was a library, the huge shelves still lined with ancient tomes.

Twilight's eyes beamed with the discovery. "I KNEW IT! I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING GOOD HERE!" The unicorn was quickly about the room in a wild ecstasy.

Dash again rolled her eyes. She didn't know what that pony saw in books. "What's so important about this? You have plenty of books in your own library."

The purple unicorn turned from the shelf she was analyzing, casting an incredulous look to the pegasus. "Rainbow, these aren't just books. These are the Princesses' books, from centuries ago! Many of these might not even be around anymore! The knowledge contained in this room is beyond 'important!'"

Dash blew away the dust from the shelf beside her, watching as many of the books underneath turned to ash beneath her breath. "Yeah, well if you find any that aren't wrapped in vines or rotting from weather, bag 'em so we can get out of here. I missed a full day's worth of practice for this!"

Twilight was not about to be disheartened after such a find. "If you want to practice so badly, the sky's right above you. I'll be fine in here on my own for a bit."

Before Twilight had even finished the sentence, Dash had disappeared through the gaping opening above the room.

Twilight continued to scan the dusty volumes. Again, Rainbow Dash had been unfortunately correct. Many of the books had been far too damaged by the years of neglect, falling apart even when touched with the grace of magic. What few she found that hadn't molded to nothing were riddled with vines, or provided home for various insects. Her joy of discovering the room was quickly fading under its unkept state.

Finding nothing worth saving, the unicorn was again about to call to her winged friend to leave. As she prepared the words, a strange sensation overcame her. It was almost as though she was expecting a sneeze, but felt cold and electric. She almost immediately recognized it; there was something magical nearby.

She took to searching the room again. Something within the library was magic in nature, but she was not sure what. Surely if any of the books contained traces of magic in the binding, they wouldn't have fallen into their current condition. The few chairs in the rooms also seemed of little importance, as did the fireplace. There was truly nothing that stood out in the roo-

The unicorn stood dumbfounded. How had she missed that! Across from the door the ponies had entered sat a huge, ornate mirror, roughly three ponies in height. Its fixture was the same bleached tone as the walls around it, which blended well into its surroundings. One thing that couldn't be disguised, though, was that the mirror itself was flawless. There were no scratches, nor dents, nor dirt marking its surface. Compared to the rest of the library, if that wasn't magic, she didn't know what was!

As Twilight looked over the mirror, one thing was clear; it was bound with powerful magic. Luckily, though, magic is no more permanent than anything else. Where once the object was sealed with a force that couldn't be broken by anyone but a Princess, it was now weakened enough for even a pony like Rarity to release. That is not to say that it wasn't impressive that the magic within it had lasted for almost 800 years without maintenance, though. Twilight debated what reason the object had been held with such force to begin with. Was it a magic mirror? Was it to see the future, or to spy on other places? Those were stories she had heard, but never confirmed. Perhaps it was a doorway into another room of the castle, or even to another place all together? It was even possible that it led to some alternate dimension! Though, she would never know if she didn't activate it, releasing the power within.

She bit her lip. She had been taught her whole life about the dangers of tampering with magic one doesn't understand. But the curious filly on the inside rang with an excited desire to see what secrets it held. The battle of will and want raged in her heart as she stared at her own reflection in the large looking glass.

"Well," she nervously spoke to herself. "It was the Princesses', right? And it's just out in the open, right? It can't be too dangerous... right?"

She stood, pacing back and forth before the mirror. She wanted to know what it hid, but something inside told her to leave it alone.

"What if Princess Celestia found out? She'd be upset that you broke a spell that either she or Luna had placed on this mirror. And why would they bind something if they didn't have a reason. If it's a truth glass, there's no telling what truth it shows. If it's a portal, who knows where it goes! There's just too much wrong here, Twilight. You know this!"

She sat, facing the large silver sheet again. "So why is it so hard to say 'no'?"

She turned away from the mirror. "No! I will not meddle in the affairs of the Princesses, past, present, or future!" She managed one step away from the mirror before curiosity stung her again.

Twilight glanced back to the mirror, seeing her own face in it again. "Well,... let's say I remove the binding spell. If I don't like what I see, I can always bind it myself, and with how worn it is, I can do even better than it is now! No pony would see what's through it for another 200 years at least with my magic holding it. As it is, it's bound to wear off in another decade or so. So, really, I'm actually helping the Princesses by investigating, aren't I?"

The silence of the musty room did not answer, but her mind did.

"That's it then! Just a peak, then I seal it again. No biggie. Besides, it's out in the open like this, so it couldn't have been anything too bad." She turned to face the mirror in full.

"Just a peak."

Twilight bared down, her horn glowing with arcane light. She felt the tendrils of magic reach invisibly through the air, tracing the ancient power across the mirror's surface. The glass before her began to radiate in a faint purple as her magic touched its bound holdings. It was held tougher than she thought, but it was still nothing for her. In just a moment, she would know what lies beyond the looking glass, as her magic slowly unlocked the secret before her.

There was a bright flash like one she had never seen before, though whether it was in her eyes or in her head, she couldn't tell.

At that flash, the mirror shattered into a million pieces, bursting out towards her in a storm of razor's edges. She had no time to react as dozens of fractured images flew towards her.

That wasn't all that flew to her.

Dash lived up to her name, quickly speeding to the motionless unicorn before the reflecting glass. In a smooth glide, she plucked the pony from peril, jumping quickly back into the sky above the shrapnel.

"Geez, Twi, did you get mad at your own reflection?" Dash joked to the pony she held in her forehooves. The clatter below them rested back into the placid silence that filled the castle.

Placed back on the ground, Twilight looked over the chaos. The mirror was in pieces, far beyond repair. The housing the glass had sat in stood still, unremarkable as before. Without the bound to hold it, there was no magic. The air was stale again with the scent of millennia's old mildew. None of the electric sensation she had felt before existed anymore.

It was just a mirror. Was, she thought.

Dash broke the awkward silence. "If you're done breaking stuff, Twilight, we really need to get out of here. It's getting late."

Twilight followed her friend's lead, sending only a cursory glance back to the odd item. Something wasn't right here. She didn't know what, but something was horribly, horribly wrong.

Twilight entered the library as afternoon approached. "Spike? Are you back yet?"

The silence within the tree gave her the response she expected. The dragon had mentioned running some errands today, saying he might not be in until night. Owlowishus was probably asleep somewhere around Ponyville, as he often was during the day. She had the building all to herself.

This was a good thing, she thought. She had research to do.

Twilight placed her saddlebags by the door, relieved to no longer have the bizarre fork near her. Her hooves were sore from the travels today, but she didn't have time to rest. She contemplated her next course of action.

The mirror was bound for a reason. It had to be. Nopony puts a spell that strong on something without reason. But there was nothing magic about it. The thing was just an ordinary mirror, wasn't it?

That was the question that terrified her.

A mirror wouldn't shatter like that from being unlocked. She had applied no force to it. It simply erupted! And what was that light? Was that the lock being removed, or just the light from the room being flashed by its breaking? Or, was it something within the mirror?

She had to know. She grabbed a variety of books from the shelves with her magic, spreading them across the desk before her. Everything from "The Magic of Mirror Making", an introductory guide to making mirrors, to "Super Spellbinding Secrets", a tome of how to properly use magic to seal everything from bread-boxes to mountains. She was going to get the answer she needed.

Hopefully without having to write to Princess Celestia...

The name burned in her mind. A dark, trembling echo repeated it in her head. That wasn't her voice. That wasn't her thought. What's going on?

An explosion of involuntary magic erupted from her horn, tossing the unicorn back from the desk into the far shelves. She lied stunned against the case, trying to calm the spinning sickness that suddenly filled her head. She opened her eyes, focusing her vision back to center. The one lantern in the room had fallen to the floor, its flame being doused. Weak light came in through the windows, stained a dull grey by the swirling overcast sky. But it had just been sunny a moment ago. Through the low light, the room was cast into shadowed shapes, meshed in overlaying blackness against the walls. But one stood out clearly.

There was another pony in the room.

She couldn't make out many features in the darkness, but some were obvious. The figure was tall, as tall as Princess Celestia, and just as lithe. The pony was a unicorn and a pegasus, and looked to be male in the face. He wore something like a cloak, hanging long over the hind legs and cut to the torso over the forelegs, and a hood seemed to shroud his face. His mane was long, hanging half his height, with large, thick locks matted together in unkempt strands. His tail was in a similar fashion. His huge wings were unfurled and erect, but tattered miserably, seeming too sparse to enable flight.

"Celestia?" he spoke.

His voice sent shivers through her body. It was deep and booming, with a dignified twist to the words, but beneath it hissed a chorus of dissonant screams. She swore she could hear the crackle of fire as he spoke.

"That's a name I know all too well."

The harmony mirroring his words screeched like hooves on a chalkboard.

Twilight began to push away from the figure before her, blocked by the bookcase at her back.

"Wh-who are you?! What do you want?!" she cried in a shrill, broken voice. A seizing panic gripped her chest as her heart pounded like a drum in her ears.

The pony looked at her. His eyes had a light in their distance. Faint, and sickly, they glowed beneath his cowl.

"I want what anypony wants..."

That voice was so soft, and yet deafening.

Twilight glanced to the door at her right. She had to make a run for it. She didn't know why, but something told her to run away. Jumping to her hooves, Twilight bolted for the exit to the library.

Halfway to the door, her hooves found no footing. She was hovering, suspended in the air. Before she could grasp the magic that held her, she found herself thrown violently against the wall on the far side of the room. With impossible speed, the pony was in her face. She could now clearly see his black mane, ashen white coat, and piercing red eyes sunken into their darkened sockets. His breath smelled of smoke and rotten meat, and the visceral hue of his irises seemed to squirm with distant images serpents.

"I want revenge."

The magic the pony wielded began to choke her. She fought against the pressure crushing her.

"I-I... I've never... d-done any... anything t-to you!" she managed through struggled breaths.

He laughed. It was the laugh of the damned. Thunderous, and stabbing at the ears. It sounded incomprehensibly hollow.

"That's not true, my precious little pony. You are the one that released me from my prison. That mirror has held me for over 1300 years. And you stumbled along and broke its bounds. I should thank you."

Twilight felt weak as her consciousness was leaving her. She tried to fight back with her own magic, finding it stunted by the pony holding her. Sensing her attempts, the pale pony tossed the weakened unicorn hard on the floor. A splash of blood fired across the floor as her muzzle made contact. She was quickly flipped onto her back. The pony stood over her now, his magic still holding her effortlessly to the ground.

"What... do you... want with me?" Twilight could hardly speak through the pressure of the magic over her.

The figure placed his face in front of hers again.

"You? Nothing. You are insignificant. A worthless foal."

The voice sent shivers through her soul. "Then... please... let me go..."

The sinister creature let out another bellowing laugh, his wings expanding in full flare.

"I know who you are. I've seen your mind, tasted your thoughts, bathed in your memories. You're hers. Her 'most faithful student.'" His voiced twisted into that of Celestia's, undercut by the voices hissing of snakes' tongues beneath it. "You're her pet. I would love to tear you asunder, and paint these shelves with your blood. But, I have a message to send to your owner."

The monstrous pony leaned in, touching his bony muzzle to hers.

"I'm going to enjoy ruining you."