Running From Reflections (Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia)
Every time she saw Rarity, the white unicorn’s sapphire eyes would sparkle like the diamonds she often wore around her neck. Her beautiful outfits and her voice and her glorious hairstyle would wow anypony around.
Rainbow Dash would hardly take any notice. There was more to life than being glamorous, she always thought. But on this day, Rarity received so much attention. This kind of attention was special; it was nothing like Rainbow had ever seen before, even when she had performed her many acts of heroism and acrobatics. The handsome colts would not steer away from Rarity… and Rarity looked happy.
For the first time in a long while, the rainbow maned Pegasus felt flickers of sadness tinge her stomach as she stood there watching Rarity being admired by all the ponies around her. Could I ever get attention like that? She thought to herself, would they ever notice ME in that way?…not just for my flying…but for my looks…
She tilted her head to stare at herself. She could not see anything glamorous at all. No gleaming coat, no curly hair, no attention. Rainbow heaved a lonesome sigh. Maybe it was all hopeless. She would never be like Rarity…not ever.
While the white unicorn was showing off her amazing outfits, Rainbow Dash flew quietly in between the clouds. Something was wrong. She didn’t have the spark of energy that she usually had whilst flying. Her wings felt lazy…and useless.
She lowered herself onto the ground, feeling it was the only place she could relax. Twilight Sparkle noticed the Pegasus trot past her house. The studious unicorn saw the look in Rainbow’s eyes. It wasn’t like her…not one bit.
“Hi there, Rainbow!” she called to her in a cheerful tone.
Rainbow Dash gave her a weak smile. “Oh…hey, Twilight.”
“Are you all right, Rainbow? Is something bothering you?”
Rainbow saw the concerned look on Twilight’s face. She wanted to tell her friend so badly about what she was feeling, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.
“Uhh, me? Of course not! I’m fine. Don’t worry about me!”
She smiled, but her eyes still looked sad. Twilight stared after Rainbow as she trotted off. She knew something was wrong…
Rainbow Dash went to an unlikely place of comfort: the Everfree Forest. She just wanted to be alone. She knew that was how she would always be…nopony would look at her in the same way as they looked at Rarity.
Even in the light of day, the Everfree Forest was a dark place. It made Rainbow feel small and weak, worsening her feelings.
She strode past a pond, a single circle of blue standing out in the grass. It seemed to tempt her.
As she stepped nervously to the edge of the water, she caught sight of her own fuchsia eyes looking back at her. She stared at her reflection in the pond. What was so special? She looked boring and had nothing that would stun other ponies. She grimaced at her tatty mane and tail. Her hair wasn’t pretty and pristine like Rarity’s.
Rarity’s beautiful, Rainbow thought, I’m not beautiful. I’m just…PLAIN. I wish I was prettier…
Rainbow lifted up a hoof to stroke her forelock. What had happened to her confidence? It had just been swept away…
Suddenly, she jumped. She could hear the creaking sound of a door. A door? There were no doors in the forest!
As she whipped around, she saw a door opening. There was no house around the door. It was just an opening in the air. Behind the door was a faint glow and a corridor was running ahead. It reeled the curious Pegasus inside, who didn’t know what she was doing. She hardly noticed the door creak shut behind her.
Her little hooves made echoing noises through the corridor. Rainbow wasn’t afraid, just mesmerized. How could all this be here? Out of nowhere?
At the end of the corridor stood an archway opening into a small room. When Rainbow reached the room, she noticed a hardback book lying at her feet. It read ‘The Book of Incantations’ on the front cover.
“Now that sounds interesting.” Rainbow murmured to herself, as she carefully unlatched the book with her mouth and flicked through the pages with her muzzle.
She smiled at some of the things she saw on the pages: a spell for curing hiccups, a spell for music, a spell for invisibility.
“Twilight would love this.” Rainbow said, “All this magic can be done…just with words?”
Her gaze was set on one page… a spell about the weather. She said the words out loud.
“With these words,
Your tongue must sew
For all around there
To be snow…”
She gasped as she felt something small and cold tap the top of her head. She used her hoof to brush it off, and saw that it was a snowflake. A grin slowly appeared on her face when hundreds of other snowflakes surrounded her.
“Now that IS awesome!”
She caught several snowflakes on her tongue. They were definitely real. This was amazing…
The ‘weather’ soon subsided, and Rainbow Dash found herself drawn to the page she was now on.
“An infallible spell
To make you she
The beauty you’ve
Always wanted to be.”
Rainbow heaved gasps of excitement. Would that make her…?
She glanced into a small sized mirror on the right hand page. She stretched her head forward to look at her reflection more closely. She didn’t know what to think of her face anymore…until something odd happened. Her fuchsia eyes gradually melted into a dark blue colour, and her ruffled forelock stretched into a magnificent swirl of hair. The pony now staring back at her was not Rainbow Dash. It was a stunning white unicorn with purple curly hair. Rainbow knew that face all too well.
“Rarity!” she chuckled, “What’s going…”
She paused. The reflection of Rarity was mouthing her words exactly.
“…on?…” she finished her sentence in shock.
She sucked in a huge breath and stepped back from the mirror. “That can’t be…that’s…not me…”
When she finally got over her surprise, she propped the book against a wall so she could look at her whole body. The glorious figure of Rarity mirrored her every move. Rainbow couldn’t understand it…and yet she felt regrettably happy inside.
“I’m…I’m beautiful…” she gasped.
The white unicorn still mimicked Rainbow Dash’s words, and the movement of Rarity’s legs matched the Pegasus’ moves completely.
Rainbow now felt panicky. Was she now a completely different pony? She frantically scanned the room and spotted another mirror in the far corner, much larger than the one in the book.
Once she ran to it, her excitement faded from her lungs. She was still the same old Dash in a normal mirror.
And when she returned to the book, the eyes of Rarity stared back at her for a mere second before the reflection began to dissolve away.
“No!”
Rainbow demanded, slamming her hoof onto the page. There was an eerie look of angry desperation in her eyes.
She scanned the words etched around the hem of the old page. She spared no time to think about it and spoke the words out loud.
“Make me she who I’d agree
Holds more beauty over me…”
She glanced at herself, puzzled. Nothing seemed different. But this had to work! Cautiously this time, she walked over to the mirror in the corner of the room. At first, her face was sad from the sight of her normal self…but then it happened…
The rainbow Pegasus form gradually changed to the beautiful image of Rarity, just as Rainbow Dash had wanted. She spent a few seconds gazing at her new reflection, not knowing what to think…she smiled…and she frowned.
Her mind was suddenly drawn to the mirror in front of her. She nudged the glass with her white hoof as it amazingly swung open like a door.
Behind the mirror was a new room, but instead of deserted, this one was crowded with stallions and mares wearing diamonds and dresses of different colours and shapes. She noticed how everypony turned their heads to glance at her as she walked in. This put a smile on her face and created happy jingles in her stomach. This was the attention she had wanted before.
“Hello, Miss Rarity.”
She recognised the white stallion in the tweed jacket with a blue moustache. This was Fancy Pants that she had seen with Rarity in Canterlot not long ago.
“Are you enjoying your evening, my dear?” he said to her politely.
“Um, yes.” Rainbow Dash replied, noticing she now spoke with Rarity’s voice.
“Well, that is lovely. Be sure to be prepared for your meeting with Princess Celestia tonight. She is looking forward to introducing you to her royal relatives.”
Princess Celestia? Royalty? Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded by this announcement. Was she really going to experience all of this?
“Wow, that sounds…err…” Rainbow Dash tried to make herself sound upper-class, “delightful! But I do want to return to Ponyville soon. I must see my friends.”
“Friends?” Fancy Pants eyed her through his monocle with a puzzled expression, “Whom would these…friends of yours be?”
“Uhh, my five friends from Ponyville? You met them a while back?”
“I don’t believe so, Miss Rarity. Unless you’re talking about those fillies and gentlecolts you were with at the Grand Galloping Gala?”
“No, I’m friends with Twilight Sparkle. And Rainbow Dash? Don’t you know those names?”
“I seem to recall Twilight Sparkle…” Fancy Pants tipped his head up in thought, “Yes, that scholarly pony wandering around Canterlot. She failed an entry for Princess Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, I trust?”
Failed? Rainbow Dash was shocked at this statement. Twilight had passed that entry and become Celestia’s student! What was Fancy Pants talking about?
She shook her head. “But…I’m friends with her! Don’t you remember? You saw me-I mean…you saw Rainbow Dash. A Pegasus pony?”
“Who in Equestria is Rainbow Dash? I haven’t heard of such a filly.”
Rainbow Dash blinked Rarity’s long eyelashes in disbelief.
How could this be? She was the pony that did a sonic rainboom and won the Best Young Fliers Competition. Not only that, this stallion had met all of Rarity’s friends that day. Why didn’t he remember? What was wrong with this place?
“You are not friends with anypony like that, Miss Rarity. And you never have been.”
“But…”
“Miss Rarity!” a female voice called to her nearby, “come along, my dear! We must prepare your dress! And you won’t be going back to that awful Ponyville in a hurry, you can count on that.”
“N-no…” Rainbow Dash stuttered in Rarity’s voice, “this is all wrong…why don’t I exist? Where are my friends?”
“What are you talking about, dearest?” a colt said to her.
“Poppycock, that’s what,” a snobbish mare grumbled.
“Make it stop!!” Rainbow Dash cried, “Please! I HATE IT!!”
“Smile!”
The sudden blinding flash of a camera scorched the terrified pony’s eyes. She covered her white forelegs over her face, hoping everything, absolutely everything, would go away…
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, slowly moving her hooves away from her face. She was back in the strange room, looking at her true reflection again in the mirror. The rainbow mane and tail had returned, and she saw her magenta eyes shining with aching tears. Her mouth hung open in horror and upset; what in the world had just happened? Trying so very hard not to burst into tears, Rainbow felt somewhat glad to be back to her normal self.
It was then that she heard the quiet sound of hooves gently walking towards her from behind, much larger than her own hooves. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, a tall equine figure stepping beside her in the mirror, long flowing hair trailing from her head.
“Rainbow Dash.”
A wise female voice came from the tall alicorn beside Rainbow Dash. The rainbow Pegasus was stunned to see her there.
“P-Princess Celestia?”
She whipped around to look behind her…but there was no one there. The room was deserted. She looked back at the mirror, and the princess’s reflection was still beside her own.
“What have you done, my dear child?” she said softly, nodding her horn-notched head slightly.
Rainbow Dash swallowed hard, staring helplessly at the image of Celestia.
“I…I don’t know…” she stuttered, “that was horrible…”
“But you chose it, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia said, her voice very serene.
“No…I didn’t mean for all of THAT to happen…” Rainbow Dash said, her voice catching in her throat, “I just…well….”
She paused before continuing.
“I just wanted to be beautiful like Rarity. That’s all…”
She sniffed loudly. Celestia looked down at the young pony; her eyes were thoughtful, but she had a gentle smile on her face.
“You wished yourself away, my faithful one,” she said delicately, “and, with it, much more. Don’t you remember, Rainbow Dash? You managed a sonic rainboom as a filly. And, without you, your friends would never have known each other. Do you remember how important you are?”
Rainbow thought.
Yes, she realised now. She had been stupid.
In that world, she had never existed, and that meant the entire destruction of her friendship with five special ponies. That would have been the end of everything. Nightmare Moon could have taken over with her night.
Her eyes stinging from several tears, she looked forlornly at the princess’s reflection.
“I’m so sorry.” she whimpered.
And she really meant that. She was truly sorry.
Celestia smiled warmly at the sad Pegasus.
“You doubt your value. Do not run from who you are.”
With that, the image of Celestia turned around and walked away, the sounds of her hooves echoing quietly into the hallway.
Rainbow Dash gasped loudly, shooting her head upright. She looked around. She was lying on her front, just outside the Everfree Forest, a view of Ponyville visible some distance away. The blue Pegasus breathed in and out, trying to recollect her thoughts.
What had just happened? Had it all been a dream? She stood up to shake her muscles, and then lifted one of her front hooves to make sure she was still Rainbow Dash. When her eyes met with the blue of her fur, she managed a small smile. She was happy to be herself again.
“Time to go home, I think.” she said to herself.
Feeling content, she began to trot back to Ponyville. She soon realised that something didn’t feel right, stopping in her tracks for a brief moment.
And then she remembered.
She flexed her wings, the strength and motivation flowing back into them, and powered up into the air, continuing her way home slowly through the sky. The feeling of the light breeze through her mane was great to experience again.
When the Pegasus gently landed on the ground, the cheery atmosphere of Ponyville all around her, she decided on one pony she wanted to see.
When Rainbow arrived outside her tree home, Twilight trotted towards her friend, the same concerned look in her eyes.
“Rainbow Dash!”
The unicorn stepped up to Rainbow and put a hoof around her. “Are you okay? You didn’t look good earlier.”
Rainbow Dash just smiled. “I’m fine, Twilight. I just needed some time to myself. No worries.”
She finished her sentence with a wink, and Twilight’s face became more relaxed.
“All right, that’s good. I just couldn’t help being a little worried.” she paused to widen her eyes excitedly, “Say! Rarity is holding an evening party at Carousel Boutique tonight. Would you like to come along? Rarity said she’d make you her best dress.”
Rainbow Dash considered that offer for a moment. Did she really want to go to a frou-frou dinner party? But she then decided she couldn’t let her friend down.
Rainbow cleared her throat before saying, “Yeah. ‘Course I’ll come, Twilight. But I don’t think I need a dress or any sparkly outfits. I’ll just go as myself.”
She flicked her beautifully coloured tail proudly. Twilight put a hoof to her chin hesitantly.
“Well, you can of course, but I think you need to wear SOMETHING for this party. Rarity insists her friends dress up.”
Rainbow Dash thought about that, and then saw a shade of pink in the corner of her eye; there was a pink flower sitting in the nearby grass, only very small, but very pretty. Rainbow had an idea.
“Maybe I’ll put a little flower in my mane,” she said to Twilight, “that’ll be fine just this once, right?”
Twilight smiled affectionately at her friend. “I think it’ll look beautiful.”
As the two ponies walked off together, Rainbow’s confidence felt stronger than ever; she was happy about being Rainbow Dash and not any other pony. She did not notice that, nearby, two stallions were watching her with smiles.
“That pony’s stunning,” one of them said, “don’t you think?”
“Yes,” the other stallion agreed, “I think she’s absolutely beautiful.”
THE END
I hope you liked this short fanfic. Please leave me your comments, I take on board constructive criticism. ;)
Brohoof for everypony!
