“But what if I make a mistake in front of the duke? I’m a princess and princesses don’t make mistakes!”
Spike sighed. He went to Twilight, grabbed the book of royal protocols she was hastily trying to memorize, closed it and took it away.
“What are you doing Spike?” Twilight asked in horror.
“The question should be what you are doing.” Spike retorted. “Have you really not figured yet that you are not only probably one of the smartest if not the smartest pony in all of Equestria and that you were chosen to be a princess because you have every quality to be one?”
Twilight stopped. She knew all that, but still…
“Yes, maybe you’ll make big mistakes tomorrow and maybe the duke will be furious and a few ponies will be disappointed.” Spike said with his direct dragon way of saying things. “But never forget that it doesn’t matter in the long run.”
Spike came close to Twilight and messed with her mane a little.
“You are a good ruler.” He told her.
Twilight smiled, suddenly feeling way more relaxed than she had for hours and she hugged the little dragon, just before the doors of the room burst open in an explosion of confettis.
“The magic mirror has awakened!”
Both Twilight and Spike looked at the place where Pinkie Pie had shouted, but the pink pony was already gone, probably to tell somepony else the news.
The only thing Pinkie had overlooked, which was to be expected from Pinkie Pie, was that neither Twilight nor Spike knew what the “magic mirror” was.
“Do you…” Twilight began.
“No, and I don’t want to know.” Spike replied. “I’m a dragon: I’m not interested in mirrors.”
To be quite honest, Twilight wasn’t really interested in mirrors either. But contrarily to Spike, she was way too curious to let a magic item she had never heard from before pass under her nose without some investigation on the matter.
All she had to do was ask her friends, and ultimately Pinkie Pie, to learn about it.
But first she decided to check into her books, just in case…
“Twilight!” shouted Rarity out of excitement, almost losing her giant hat as she entered the room. “What are you still doing here? Didn’t you hear that the magic mirror awakened?”
“Actually, I was wondering what that mirror was. Maybe you could explain it to me.” Twilight asked.
“No time for that!” shouted Pinkie Pie, suddenly reappearing out of Rarity’s mane. “Let’s go!”
And having said those words, she grabbed both Rarity and Twilight’s hooves and took them with her without letting them any time to realize what was happening and leaving a gem-muffin for Spike.
A second later, the three mares, plus Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were in the train to Canterlot in the middle of a huge crowd of ponies, and a moment later they were all waiting in line for when they could watch themselves in the magic mirror.
“Can anypony tell me what is going on here?” Twilight asked.
“We are waiting to see the magic mirror of course.” replied Rainbow Dash. “I can’t wait.”
More explanations would have been needed, but the guards that were controlling the crowd of ponies spotted the princess of friendship and her five friends, just as the crowd itself, after all the rush and having to wait and time to look around, was beginning to realize the six saviors of Equestria were amongst them.
A new movement formed in the crowd, as many ponies wanted to approach the princess and her friends and the guards acted to ensure everything would stay under control.
“Please come with us your majesty.” said one of the guards.
Understanding that all the ponies around her were too exciting by the circumstances to stay reasonable, Twilight followed the guard and soon ended up in a tent, only to realize the guard had thought she had come expressly to see the magic mirror and had helped her cut in front of the line.
She blushed out of shame and a bit of anger, because she was thinking it wasn’t the way she wanted to act as a princess. But that was something she could deal with later.
For the moment, she was facing the famous magic mirror.
The least that could be said was that she felt disappointed. It was a big mirror and the frame was nice, but it looked completely like any other mirror she had seen, showing only her own reflection and nothing else.
She waited in front of the mirror for something to happen, but in vain. Time passed and her frustration kept groing up. There was very probably some sort of incantation to say that she wasn’t aware of. And the more she looked, the less she was understanding the situation.
“Pardon me your majesty…” said one of the guards controlling the entry of the tent. “… But there are a lot of ponies waiting to watch into the mirror.”
Twilight understood and told the guard to let the next pony enter. Still, she didn’t go out of the tent and went hiding behind the mirror’s box to find out what she had done wrong and what that mirror was supposed to be doing.
She didn’t have to wait as the next pony entered, that next pony being Rarity, as, without further instructions the guards had decided that the friends of the princess should be treated the same way as the princess herself.
Rarity went in front of the mirror and immediately the surface changed to let a face appear that began to speak.
“Hello miss Rarity. You look very beautiful today. Even better than the last time we met.”
“Do I?” rhetorically asked Rarity, enjoying the flattering.
“Rarity…” solemnly spoke the face in the mirror: “You do are beautiful and very talented, but more importantly you are a great big sister.”
“Thank you for the truth!” replied Rarity, before going out of the tent.
Twilight watched her friend leave without understanding what had just happened, as it had all happened very fast, but she hid again as Applejack entered and looked into the mirror, facing the face.
“How do you do miss Applejack?” asked the face in the mirror. “How come you’re stronger every time we meet?”
“Working on a farm. No secret there.” replied the orange earth pony, flattered nonetheless.
“Applejack…” solemnly spoke the face in the mirror: “You can be very proud of yourself and you make those who love you very proud of you. Keep up the good work, no doubt your hard work will pay off in the end!”
“Of course it will!” Applejack replied with a tear in her eyes over a big warm grateful smile. “Thank you for the truth.”
And just as Rarity before her, orange pony left the tent just as Rainbow Dash entered the tent, leaving no time for Twilight to react.
“Rainbow Dash!” solemnly spoke the face as it had two times already: “You are way smarter and wiser than even you realize, amongst the wisest ponies I’ve met. Smart and wise enough to learn anything you might want to learn, and smart and wise enough to teach anything you would need to teach… Also you’re the fastest and overall the most awesome pony in all of Equestria.”
“Yeah! I knew it!” celebrated Rainbow Dash in response. “Thank you for the truth.” She added, just as she was leaving the tent in an ultra-fast take off.
Twilight was beginning to understand, and what she had already understood wasn’t pleasing her one bit. The mirror was nothing but a huge pack of flattering lies for gullible ponies to believe in. “You are beautiful”, “You are strong” or “You are smart”. Empty words meant to manipulate ponies and lure them away from the truth, as, clearly, Rarity still had a thing or two to learn about being a big sister, there was no certainty that Applejack’s hard work would pay off in the end, just as Twilight was pretty certain that “wise” wouldn’t be the best adjective to describe Rainbow Dash.
“Hey!” Pinkie shouted from the princess’s side, startling Twilight.
But the pink pony had already let Twilight alone and was facing the face in the mirror.
“Wow, you’re a lot of fun!” said the face with a big smile.
“Yay, fun!” replied Pinkie Pie.
“Fun!” responded the laughing face, watching Pinkie Pie leave the tent, taken away by the wind as she had tied herself to a few balloons.
At that moment, Fluttershy entered the tent and went to face the mirror.
“I… hum…” the shy pegasus began.
“And thank you for the truth!” Pinkie Pie startled her while hanging on a rope fixed on the top of the tent, where she quickly retreated to and disappeared.
Fluttershy slowly stood up again, and tried to avoid the face’s look, but the face, using its solemn voice, said:
“Do not worry dear Fluttershy: you are a very interesting, strong, sweet, sensitive and beautiful mare. You will make a great mother.”
Fluttershy smiled, whispered a faint “Thank you.” and left the tent.
Twilight had seen enough. Under the circumstances she was in, and as a new pony was entering the tent, she used her newly acquired alicorn magic and, focusing her powers, “froze” time inside of the tent, which made the new entering pony slow down to a state of almost immobility from Twilight’s perspective.
It wouldn’t last more than a few minutes, but that was all the princess needed.
She went back before the magic mirror and, as last time, saw only her reflection.
“Come on.” Twilight said. “I know you’re here. I’ve seen how you lied to my friends.”
“I didn’t lie to them.” replied Twilight’s reflection. “I told them the truth.”
“Say that to somepony else. I’m not as gullible as you may think. You are nothing more than a lying mirror. Other mirrors show what a pony truly look like. You distort the facts to flatter them and make them ignore the reality, making them think they are perfect while nopony really is.”
“That’s not true. Other mirrors lie to ponies. I was created by princess Celestia to reveal the truth.”
Celestia’s name created a doubt in Twilight’s mind for a second. But she discarded it as another lie, as the idea of normal mirrors lying was absurd. Normal mirrors didn’t have minds to even know what a lie is and even less tell one. They were only a polished surface reflecting light. As a matter of basic physic, a flat mirror could nothing else but reveal the pure and absolute truth about anypony who would be looking into it.
“A lie is a distortion of reality.” Twilight’s reflection replied. “When ponies look into a normal mirror, they interpret what they see with a personal bias. That bias distorts reality and prevents the truth to show. So I show the ponies who they are by taking into account their personal biases. Therefore, what I show them is closer to reality than the image they can see in a normal mirror.”
It was making sense. And at the same time, it wasn’t making any sense at all. Twilight soon found why.
“But you lie to them!” she almost shouted.
“Mirrors lie.” her reflection responded. “I merely try to correct their lies with my own to help ponies see the truth they can’t always see by themselves.”
Even for the smart Twilight, this was all beginning to sound way too abstract and complicated. But there was no imminent threat she could perceive and she could go verify with princess Celestia if what the mirror had told her was true or not before taking any decision about it.
There was also a little voice, deep inside her, telling her there was more to see there than she was understanding from her reflection’s explanations.
As if the mirror had understood her, she stopped seeing herself and instead saw princess Celestia looking into the magic mirror inside of her chamber in the castle and the magic mirror told the princess of the sun: “You are a good ruler.” The next day, Celestia came back and the mirror said: “You are a good ruler.” And every day, Celestia would come to the mirror and the mirror would tell her: “You are a good ruler.” all until one day Celestia could reply with confidence and gratefulness: “I know.” and stopped looking into the magic mirror.
The image of Celestia disappeared from the surface of the mirror, to let place back to Twilight’s reflection, the reflection of a very puzzled purple alicorn.
“I’ve got one last question for you.” She told the magic mirror. “Why didn’t you tell me anything when I first came to you?”
“Because your friends seem to have already corrected most of the lies you used to see in your reflection, so I don’t have much to correct anymore.” her reflection replied. “But I can assure you that you are a good ruler.”
“I know.” Twilight said with both confidence, gratefulness and blush on her cheeks.
“Hum… your majesty?” asked the voice of a pony near Twilight.
The purple alicorn turned her head and saw the pony that had been entering the tent for the last five minutes and was surprised, the spell having ceased, to have seen the princess of friendship appear in front of her.
“Sorry.” Twilight said while blushing. “The mirror is all yours.”
And having said those words, she left the tent. Soon, she found her five friends and after a bit of rejoicing together, they all took the train back to Ponyville. Once back in the castle, Twilight went to Spike and, not sure of what she was doing, told him:
“You know Spike, you’re really a wonderful assistant.”
It took the little dragon by surprise, but he decided to play along and replied:
“Yeah, I know, I’m pretty awesome.”
Still, unknown to Twilight, Spike felt flattered and his self confidence reinforced.
“And you, you are a good ruler!” said Pinkie Pie, appearing from behind a pillar.
“I know Pinkie, thank you.” Twilight replied, surprised by the pink pony’s appearance.
“You’re also a great friend.”
“Thank you Pinkie.”
“And a wonderful daughter!” Pinkie continued.
“Hum… okay?”
“You’re also a good former student, an extraordinaire reader, a complex stereotypical character, a purple pony, a former unicorn, a great alicorn, a toy looking monarch, a jealous sister, a moment of the day, a bookworm, a book worm, a book, a good cook and a bit cuckoo…”
“Is it all?” Twilight asked, being a bit tired and incapable of making a bit of sense out of anything Pinkie had just said.
“Yes: you’re a bit too susceptible at times.” the pink pony told her with a big smile.
“And you can be a bit too irritating at times…” Twilight said, immediately regretting to have been so harsh on her friend.
But Pinkie didn’t seem to take it badly at all. She just replied:
“Only when necessary!” And then added: “But more importantly: thank you for the truth.”
And only then did Twilight fully understood the lesson of the day, or at least thought she had understood it, for the doubt always remains with any lesson in life.
As those were the only words she could think of, Twilight just said:
“You are welcome.”
[THE END]
Author's Note
Why do such simple stories take so many words to be told? Now I don't have time to write another one today.
Je ne veux pas que demain vienne. Je voudrais rester aujourd'hui et écrire de petites histoires sans prétention avec d'étranges petits poneys dans un monde fait de mystères et de magie...
Well, let's go to bed.
