The Dark Mirror Saga: Book 1: The Tale of the Last Caribou

Twilight gasped and reached for Dainn’s wrist in an effort to get away from him. She didn’t have to, as the caribou tossed her back with a strength that a being as frail-looking as he should possess. She landed on her rump at the base of the stairway, looking up at the now deathly, imposing form of the caribou king.

“WHO ARE YOU!?” Dainn bellowed angrily. His eyes, so devoid of life mere seconds ago were now burning with anger and not a small amount of confusion.

Twilight found her courage again and spread her wings. With a flap, she was standing on her hooves and stood defiantly before the decrepit caribou in front of her. “I’m certain that you know who I am, King Dainn!” She paused for a moment, glaring into the blue eyes of the caribou. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria!”

Dainn pointed an accusatory finger at her; his boney finger and the translucent skin made her feel as if Death itself had come to take her away. “Lie! YOU LIE! You are not Twilight Sparkle. She’s dead, gone, and free from this nightmare! Who are you, demon!? Why have you come here to my prison of torment and regret!?”

Twilight felt a cold shiver run down her spine every time she heard his voice. It was old, craggy, and ethereal, but it was no longer devoid of emotion, no more whispers, only rage and pain echoed in his voice. She knew it was illogical, but seeing the sorry creature before her… a pang of pity struck her heart. She couldn’t help herself. Not caring for other creatures was anathema to her. Even if that creature was responsible for the untold suffering of so many others and likely the death of this Equestria.

“A ghost… you must be a ghost, and yet, you touched me. You slapped me! I felt it!” Dainn shouted at her as he began climbing down the stairs. “Go away! Leave from whence you came and never return to this empty, lifeless wasteland! Take your rage and knowledge with you and let me be, ghost! I do not wish for company… or perhaps you are blind on top of being an idiot for coming into this cursed, despoiled land?”

It was a rhetorical question, but one carrying venom and spite.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “I am not a ghost and I came here of my own volition… although I didn’t know what to expect when I crossed,” she explained more calmly whilst staring right at the caribou for any suspicious movement he might do. “Certainly not this. Never this.”

Dainn reached the end of the stairs as she finished talking and stood in front of her for a moment. She was taller than him, not by much. No doubt aided by the many years of decay he had to endure. “...why are you here, Twilight Sparkle? Have you come to torment me at long last? Have you, in your infinite rage, managed to come back from the dead and make me pay for what I caused?” He let out a throaty, pained, lonely sigh. “Is this not enough to endure as it is?”

“I am Twilight Sparkle, Dainn. Not the one you know,” she pointed at her horn. “My horn is still attached to my head, unlike that ghastly trophy sitting on your throne. It is yours, isn’t it? Who else would have the hubris to torture and cut off the horns of alicorns and display them as mere trophies?”

Dainn went silent for a moment, his fingers tugging at the wooden stump he was holding firmly. “They are no longer trophies of conquest,” Dainn began, all but spitting the last word. “They are my penitence… my constant mocking reminder of everything that came to pass. The world may be dead, the evidence is everywhere, but the horns… they are my personal punishment.”

Twilight scoffed at that, glaring at the caribou. “I’ve seen a lot in the past few hours, Dainn. Nothing but the remnants and the crumbling pieces still standing. But enough for me to see through time and imagine the torture, pain, suffering, and agony ponies and other creatures experienced. All because of you and your people, caribou,” she all but hissed the word, afraid that uttering it would burn her tongue.

“Let me assure you, Not the Twilight I know, that your imagination is lacking,” Dainn replied in a way that felt mocking but was, in fact, cold and direct. “I better than anyone else knows it to be true.”

The alicorn relaxed for a moment, unable to sense any misleading or lie in his words. “Why are you here, Dainn? Why--How are you alive when everything else is dead?”

“I could ask the same thing about your presence here, Not Twilight. Did you not read the signs and warnings outside the castle? Why did you enter instead of leaving and never return?” He asked with a much calmer but still cold voice.

“What were the chances of me encountering anything at all? I searched through almost the entirety of Equestria and found nothing, nopony, no one. Why should I take heed of what rotting, old, dried-up signs tell me to not do?” Twilight replied without missing a heartbeat.

Dainn remained silent once more for several seconds as he stared into her face, analyzing her in detail. “You’re not a ghost?”

“I’m not.”

“Then… you are alive?”

“I am, yes. More than you look to be, at least.”

“Hhmmm… humor,” Dainn replied dryly, stretching a hand toward her. “Let me touch your face, Not Twilight. Let me… feel your warmth to be sure. I’ve forgotten what that feels like. I would like to remember, please” Dainn asked humbly. “I must be certain you are real.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. She was about to tell him some witty insult, but the longing look in his icy, cold eyes stopped her. The amount of desperation and loneliness his eyes shared, the deep, gnawing pain she could see at the bottom of his no-doubt black soul made her feel pity for him. “...” she opened her mouth but said nothing, her mind was blank as to what she could say. With a defeated sigh, she leaned forth and turned her head to the side, offering him her right cheek.

Dainn stared at her for several seconds, unmoving, until he slowly reached out with a boney, withered hand. His fingers touched her skin and he recoiled, a throaty gasp escaped from his throat. Setting his walking cane aside, he reached with both hands and began to slowly feel Twilight’s cheeks, her jawline, and her mane; he dared not touch anything else while she eyed him with suspicion but still allowed him to explore at his leisure.

“You… you are alive. Truly… alive. I have not felt this warmth since…,” Dainn spoke, finally after minutes of awkward silence only to go silent again, memories flooding his mind. “But how? You're dead. I saw your lifeless corpse with my own eyes. Along with everyone else’s remains.”

Should I tell him I’m not from this dimension? Well, I doubt he’s stupid, he surely picked up on the way I’ve been speaking with him that I’m not from around here. In that case, I should probably not tell him anything about the mirror, Twilight thought to herself, deciding on her course of action. “I’m not from this Equestria. This isn’t even my real body shape.”

“Another Equestria?” Dainn murmured, sounding relieved. “That… is good to hear.”

“Now it’s your time to answer,” she said, grabbing his wrists and pulling them back, away from her face. The lingering chilly feeling of his touch tickled her skin. “What happened to this Equestria? Where is the harmony that nurtured and brought life to the land?”

Dainn stepped back and grabbed his cane once more for support. “Harmony…” he wheezed as if the word itself was enough to clutch at his heart.

Twilight waited for several moments for him to continue until she realized he had become lost in thought or trapped relieving a memory. “Hello? Dainn?” She asked but didn’t risk touching him.

Dainn blinked slowly, his focus returning. “I… apologize for that. That word, harmony, brings back many memories. Most of them are unpleasant. Regardless, I am happy to know you value harmony, or at least the true concept of it.”

“You haven’t answered my question, Dainn,” Twilight remarked.

Dainn blinked once, slowly, and let out a ghostly sigh. “Do you truly wish to know? Are you certain you wish to hear how your fellow ponies were corrupted, how harmony was twisted and shattered, and why everything around us is a dead, lifeless husk?” He narrowed his eyes with determination and the promise that only pain would be her answer. “Do you truly wish to know how you, your friends, your family, everyone you ever knew and everyone else died because of my actions?”

Twilight was silent for a second, but only for that one second, allowing doubt and fear to cloud her vision before she took a step forth, surprising Dainn. “Tell me. I need to know. I must know how your people doomed this Equestria.”

Dainn scoffed, sending a cold tingle up the alicorn’s spine. “My people? No… just me. The world is dead… because of me,” he corrected.

Twilight blinked, perplexed. “W-What? Not your entire people? Just you? That’s impossible!”

“IT WAS ME!” Dainn shouted, slamming the metallic end of his cane against the marble floor. His shout didn’t contain anger, only pain… and regret.

“You---You aren’t wrong either. The culture of my people, with me at their head, doomed Equestria. Our entire philosophy was based around what we called ‘The Natural Order’. We stand at the peak of all, we are the ones superior to everyone else, and we are always right, faultless. In truth, the culture of the caribou was nothing more than the purest, most depraved circus of misogyny and perversion.”

Twilight nodded and swallowed nervously. “I figured out that much myself. But that doesn’t explain your claims, Dainn. Speak, now,” she ordered with a firm, stern voice.

Dainn sighed. “Very well… I shall tell you, but let me warn you of something, Twilight Sparkle. No matter what you hear, no matter what I tell you, you must promise me that you will not try to kill me or run away. Don’t bother trying the first point, I can’t die. I don’t know how, but I can’t die. Trust me… I’ve tried and I gave up,” the distant howl of the wind was heard in the following seconds of silence until he continued. “As for the second point, if I’m going to tell you this story, you must listen to it from beginning to end. Maybe… maybe it will be of use to you, who knows?”

Twilight pondered her options for a few seconds until a nagging question formed in her mind. “If you don’t mind me asking… how are you still alive?” Dainn’s cold, pained gaze was answering enough. “...right… Anything else I should know before you start? Oh, and… I will need to leave from time to time, but I will come back. I must know everything that happened here. So, like it or not, I will hear everything you have to say, Dainn.”

Dainn nodded, pleased with her answer. “If that is your answer, let us begin from the very start. Oh, there is something else I forgot to mention. Almost all my memories are intact. My mind is functioning properly, to my dismay. Whatever is keeping me from dying also saw fit to keep my memories clean and fresh. Growing senile or developing dementia is not an option for me. But even so, there are gaps in my memories. For example, I remember corrupting the Crystal Heart but not how I did it, how long it took, or what it took to do it,” he chuckled. “You know, when I saw you crying, I really thought I had finally, blissfully gone insane.”

“W-Why would you want something so terrible to happen to you?” Twilight asked, taken aback. Dainn stared at her for a few moments before slowly turning his head from side to side and extending his arms. She sighed, rubbing her temples. “Right… right… I guess that would be a mercy compared to living in this world all alone.”

Dainn nodded in agreement, his arms returning to their original position while he stared at her deeply. “The tragedy that I’m about to tell you had its roots long ago in a far, far away place where--”

“Can you please skip to your involvement with Equestria?” She asked in an annoyed tone. “I really do not care about your people’s history.”

Dainn nodded sagely. “I understand your hatred, Twilight Sparkle. But if you wish to know the story, my motives, and the ways of my people and everything that transpired to the result you stand upon now, you will listen to what I have to say or you may leave now and never return.”

His warning came not as derision or scornful, but rather with the patience that she’d expect from an old, wise professor. Not the half-living thing in front of her. “Fine,” Twilight conceded, crossing her arms.

“Now, as I was saying. This story began a long, long time ago on a faraway island…”