The Haunted Mirror Black
A Tale of Queen Chrysalis
by Christopher Pineau
When the mirror erupted the way it did, it told me something had gone terribly wrong. But I was oddly unconcerned, for some reason. Even as my loyal followers were seized and dragged, screaming in both insanity and horror, into that oily, rippling black surface, even as I underwent the same ordeal, I knew that this was meant to happen. I'd foreseen it, after all. How? Let me explain just how I knew.
When I discovered the book in the darkest depths of the castle's library, hidden far, far in its deepest basement in hopes of never being discovered again, it was as though something was drawing me to it. It was calling me, appealing to the deepest parts of my mind to just keep searching, keep prying, keep cracking my hooves casting debris aside to continue. The moment I laid eyes on it, the part of my mind that had pushed me this far virtually screamed in my ear to take what was rightfully mine, for had I alone not sought this artifact, of all Ponies? Had I alone not risked so much to descend to the part of the basement that I'd always been told as a filly to actively avoid?
A dark voice crooned in my eager ears to go on, take it! Before I knew it, it was clutched to my breast as I furtively crept back up to the light, to the safety of my chambers, to conceal this trove of ancient knowledge from the eyes of all but me. Only I was worthy of this information that I had sought so actively! It turned out that ancient was far too recent a vintage to describe this tome.
The script of this book was at first incomprehensible to me. All I could grasp was the artwork within, on pages of a tanned material that gave me suspicions as to its origins. Thrusting that triviality from my mind, I devoted hours upon hours of study—as many as I could spare without seeming untoward, anyway—to what turned out to be the most gruesome art I'd ever laid eyes on.
The shadows cast by ancient beings lost for centuries, vague and formless, but yet somehow drawing my attention and firing up my imagination, my thoughts of what They might be. But again, something about this told me that this was beyond ancient, beyond the ken of Ponyfolk, of even the likes of the storied Star Swirl the Bearded, the greatest unicorn wizard of them all. It wasn't long before my mind began reeling on its foundations with the Implications that slowly began unraveling themselves before my eyes.
You see, this book was not meant to be read conventionally, I eventually found. Oh. no. Its secrets revealed itself to me through hours of observation, of absorbing its contents through Sight beyond normal sight, of normal Pony ken. Gradually, for some obscure reason, the text began revealing itself to me little by little, enticing me into reading further, and further! I found its weirdly serpentine letters writhing into legibility bit by frustrating bit, revealing more...and more...and more! When I was asked by my dear clueless parents as to why I appeared so haggard at times in the mornings, I played the sweet young Princess and fabricated innumerable excuses as to why. Some were even plausible! The poor fools simply nodded and accepted whatever I said as their precious daughter experiencing filly love or some such rot.
Do understand, I had already begun questioning the simpleminded and downright foolish ways of Equestria's Ponies, long before I'd discovered this book. So many times I'd witnessed just how good they were about truly upholding the code laid down by the First Ponies, how insincere they'd been about being as loving and accepting and forgiving as they'd been told all their lives to be, how good at being friends they really were after all. At first it startled me; how could this be? How could Ponies be so happy and bright and cheerful in public, and say they were upholding the values of Equestria when all they did was pay those values lip service? How could they be so false, so hypocritical? At first, I was stunned. Then I began thinking. I did not like what my thoughts revealed at first. But then I understood.
I understood that Ponies were really not nearly as sweet and charming as they pretended to be. Deep inside, in their hearts of hearts...they were flawed. Deeply flawed. Because of this, they felt some odd, misplaced urge to be something higher and better than that. No wonder most Ponyfolk desperately wanted to belong to the herd; it contributed to their delusions of somehow being united by a false ideal of "friendship." After witnessing my highborn noble parents behind the scenes laughing at those they deemed unworthy of their respect and their kindness, and putting on happy faces to those individual Ponies who came to fawn before their ill-gotten royal status and plead for aid, it made me start examining other Ponies more closely. Sure enough, the truth began revealing itself in very short order. They were weak...and lacking. Bound by the shackles of "friendship is magic," a lie if ever I'd heard one.
My parents were such typical examples of nobility of their tier—a rather high one, that. Haughty, frigid, and gracefully elegant in public...and blithering idiots in private when they could drop the facade of noble obligation to others. Witnessing them drop the masks nightly at the dining hall table was enough to make me nauseous before terribly long. To them, I was only a bargaining chip to utilize to the end of bonding their fortunes with another noble family (preferably even higher up the ladder than them, of course), who was to do my duty by continuing the family line with colts. My manifesting as an Alicorn made them excited, because to them this meant I'd be an even hotter property as I approached marrying age by the laws of Equestria. The nerve of them! To think that I was only a piece of property, to be bargained with, was revolting, to say the least, and I swore to make them see just how foolish and shallow they truly were. Inspiration for how to deal with them came quickly from the Liber De Capa Niger, which by then I had deciphered was the title of the tome I kept well hidden in my chambers.
Oh, the expressions on their faces when they awakened from the enchanted stupor I had placed them under to find themselves bound hoof and leg in the midst of my magickal circle! In the depths of the castle, none could hear their shrieks of torment and madness as the One I'd called from nighted reaches of the darkest corner of creation shambled forth to claim them. Even if they could, for the spell I'd cast to put them all to sleep had been most potent, they would not have dared to utter a squeak to anypony about it. After all, they were but servants, who would believe them? Besides, there were many of them I'd been slowly bringing under my control via sorcerous means that the Liber had awakened in my mind after months of scrutinizing its tanned, rustling pages. The magic I'd learned before paled in comparison to the revelations awakened by this wondrous tome!
There were a dozen servants total in my group that I eventually assembled to venerate the true Masters of the Cosmos, the Ancient Ones...the Elder Gods. Those Who had come before and would come again when the stars were right, according to the Liber. Ia, Shub-Niggurath, Black Goat of a Thousand Young! The time rapidly came when the time was meet to bring forth my plan I had been formulating for us to gain true power, power that would eventually supplant the feeble, whining foibles of Equestria and bring me to the position as its true ruler, once I brought down the two weakling sisters who stood in my way; Luna and Celestia. My dear followers eagerly went along with this, fools that they were to the end. But beforehoof...I'd had my followers execute the rest of their fellow servants to prove their loyalty to me before we embarked on this journey.
I'd done research and found there was a mysterious set of ruins on the outskirts of Canterlot, the farthest reaches of its perimeter, where an artifact existed that could very well provide me with the conduit to the Ancient Ones that I desired so. If this could provide me with the power I sought through them, then to there we would travel. A day's travel later, we began searching the barren area, with my now preternatural magickal senses guiding us unerringly to that which we sought.
It was a vast mirror, framed in blackened iron with a turbulent and murky pane of glass we could see but little in unless we walked directly up to it, and even then we could only catch the briefest of glimpses of something roiling about behind that glass. What it was, only I could surmise, as the rest of my group were too dense to even attempt to tackle this conundrum. A few dared to question the soundness of my plans, which garnered them a sound thrashing, especially one young stallion in particular who was obviously nervous about this affair. At the break of dawn, nervousness be damned, we commenced the ritual that I'd spent months researching, and hours setting up at the site.
It went smoothly, as I knew it would; the opening incantation in the throat torturing speech of various segments of the Liber, especially the key sentence of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," that I'd spent hours in solitude practicing, despite my ears' insistence that it was the Wrong Thing To Say. Perhaps I ought to have paid more attention, in hindsight. But given the results it garnered me and mine, perhaps not!
All went well up to and including the offering, a pathetic little Earth Pony filly I'd had my followers abduct from an outlying small town, who we suspected would not be missed. As she was dragged before the mirror, her struggles ceased as her eyes bulged wide in sheer terror at what presumably she was seeing in there, leaving my followers not having to restrain her at all as she stood goggling. She slumped to her knees, still goggling as I called out to That which dwelt in the mirror:
"Shub-Niggurath, Black Goat of a Thousand Young! Accept this humble offering on behalf of me and mine! Cast your spell upon our lives that we may receive the Gift of immortality bestowed on those who seek You! Grant us Power that we may achieve our goals and strike down our opposition!" Another throat torturing stream of syllables followed from me, and my heart leaped in my bosom when I saw a stirring of motion...a reaction! Yes! I had done well!
Without warning, an oily black tentacle burst forth from the mirror's surface, triggering a shocked gasp from my followers and a terrified shriek from the Earth Pony! As it seized her and forcefully dragged her towards the mirror, her eyes immediately lit up with madness as she saw That which lurked behind the murky glass. The last pitiful wail from her drooling mouth was quickly cut off as she was pulled in through its surface, leaving a ripple like a rock dropping into a lake. The silence after this was pristine as I grinned in delight. What gifts would the Black Goat bestow upon us, I wondered in excitement.
All of a sudden, the silence was broken by my followers' own terrified shrieks as more tentacles began bursting out and seizing them bodily, dragging them to the mirror as well! I simply stood there, still grinning, still excited at what was happening. They were expendable in the end, really; the Earth Pony had been a front so as to take their minds off of any possibility that the sacrifice would be one of them—or in this case, all of them! Even when one of those tentacles whipped forth to grab me and drag me to the mirror as well, all I could do was laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more, increasingly high pitched and wild as I was plunged into the inhuman cold behind the mirror!
How can I describe what I witnessed in that Void?! The recasting of my mind and soul by the visions that assailed my eyes and mind, reminding me of how insignificant I was after all in the universe was unspeakable. It broke me like a twig. But...it also reshaped me drastically. In more ways than one, apparently. I have no idea how long it lasted and I didn't care. The Black Goat looked into my soul and I looked into Hers, and it was then I knew that I was meant to progress far, far beyond my origins as a mere Princess. I was meant to be a Queen! The Queen of all and sundry, beginning with Equestria!
In a jarring blur of motion, I was abruptly flung back into what seemed an even more minor and mundane world than I'd left...how long ago? I raised my head, looked about, and found myself surrounded by...well, they weren't my servants. Not anymore. They were weird, twisted, gnarled, more insect than Pony. Their eyes were blank, devoid of expression as they turned to regard me, hissing and gurgling mindlessly—did they even recognize me? I dragged myself onto my hooves, wobbly as a newborn foal at first, regarding them with only a fraction of a moment's worth of bewilderment as I took it all in and realized what had happened.
The Black Goat had blessed us, for certain, by remolding us into a more suitable form for domination of this world! No longer were we weak little Ponyfolk, but we'd been changed. We were the changelings of Equestria, They who had been reborn from Her chrysalis to overtake the Ponies and remold the world into our vision as She had remolded us! As this crossed my mind, I could not help but laugh, and laugh, and laugh, louder and harder, until it was nearly manic screaming, I was so delighted—or was I screaming, after all? I immediately crushed that passing thought in the interest of not showing my new followers anything resembling indecisiveness, and allowed the moment to happen. It was not long before they were joining in as well, and our laughter rang out for all to hear!
"Fear us, Equestria! Fear us Changelings all," I screamed to the dawning day even as a gnawing hunger seized me, and clearly my followers as well, by their distressed expressions. I knew exactly what would sate this hunger in my heart that now felt so cold and black and dead inside me, and barked an order to find that town we'd kidnapped our sacrifice from so as to do...just...that...