Chapter 2: The Mirror.
Luckily for them no traps had been activated. They both let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding. Sundae looked at her friend’s scared face and she looked back. She realized the same expression must have been on her face too.
Nothing bad happened, they had just somehow triggered the door’s opening system, she calmed herself. The mare felt her ears slowly rise to their normal position. She stood up and looked inside the building. It was dark there.
“That was quite a doozy!” Ruby laughed. “That’ll teach me not to touch anything in the unchecked ancient ruins.”
“But we did check them,” Sundae objected. “How could we both have missed it?”
“It was Starswirl’s place,” her friend pointed out. “No offence, but I think you’re out of his league. If there are any traps in here, we will never find them, unless they blow up in our face. Literally.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Sunny said, rubbing her slightly aching horn.
They heard a commotion behind them. Turning around, they saw that the whole group had gathered by the stairs. They seemed excited, especially Rose, a young pegasus mare with a light golden coat. Her mane’s hue gradually shifted from black to gray. She was hovering above the crowd and gazed at the open entrance with awe.
It’s not surprising, considering she was the biggest history nerd Sundae had ever met. She was also a strong flyer on top of that. They had become good friends on the expedition, despite arguing with each other a lot. Rose considered herself right in every situation and often jumped to conclusions, which irritated Sundae to no end.
“How did you manage to open the door so quickly?” the pegasus exclaimed in wonder.
“Um, it sort of just…happened,” Ruby shrugged with a silly smile.
“It really was just an accident,” Sundae agreed.
“The most important thing is that we can explore the ruins now and confirm it’s really the lab we were looking for.” Nightfall Shade said calmly, though Sundae felt the eagerness in his voice. Then he looked at the two mares and gave them a curt nod. “Good job, both of you.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Ruby smiled, while Sundae just answered with a nod of her own.
The ponies started discussing the new development among themselves. Rose wanted to explore the building immediately, while most of the others thought it was too risky to go unprepared. Sundae was silently agreeing with them.
“So when are we going in?” the excited pegasus asked the Doctor.
“Soon, Rose,” the Doctor assured her. “After we make sure there is no danger.”
“Come on, we’re not some little kids. We know how to take care of ourselves.” Rose argued.
“She is right,” seconded the big, tough-looking green stallion.
“I was put in charge of the expedition by the College board,” Shade suddenly exploded, stomping his hoof on the stone plate. “If you have a problem with the way I do things, you should have stayed in Canterlot!”
Morning Bright comes forward to stand by his teacher’s side. Rose was taken aback by their leader’s outburst. The conflict quickly subdued after that. The ponies returned to the tents one by one to finish their interrupted breakfast. Rose was the last one to reluctantly leave. Soon no one but the mares responsible for the ruckus, along with the Doctor and Bright, remained by the stairs.
“So…” Ruby broke the silence, sounding a little unsure, “Since we’ve opened the door, should we continue our search for traps inside?”
Shade looked at her as if she had just suggested jumping off a cliff. Ruby drooped her ears.
“Absolutely not,” the Doctor rejected her idea out of hoof. “Me and Bright are the ones who are best prepared to deal with that kind of a situation.”
“You’d better go to the camp and wait, while we make sure the ruins are safe for the others to enter,” Bright added.
“We understand,” Sundae nodded solemnly, wishing to avoid an argument.
She descended the stairs and walked past the two ponies with her friend closely behind. Sundae flicked her tail in annoyance: she tended to feel nervous whenever somepony was following directly behind. But her friend did that often, for some reason.
“What a dick!” exclaimed Ruby as soon as they got out of earshot.
“Watch your language, please,” cringed Sundae.
“But she’s right,” Rose, landed near them to join the conversation. “I’ve come here to explore, but he just wants to get everything first!”
“You’re right, I guess…” agreed Sundae. “But what can we do? He’s in charge.”
Rose pretended to think hard for a few seconds and then said sarcastically:
“We can, I don’t know, just ignore him and go in ourselves?”
“Yeah, what would he do? Write a complaint?” snickered Ruby.
Sundae didn’t like what her friends were planning to do. Her relationship with the Doctor had been quite bad since she rejected Shade’s proposal to become his personal protégé in the College. She had her own plans at the time. It was a common practice there for a professor to find a special student to be his pupil. The tradition was started by Celestia herself in her own school and but quickly spread to the others.
Doctor Shade’s pride was badly hurt by the rejection and he soon found Bright, who had been his loyal student for a few years now, but Sundae and the Doctor hadn’t reconciled yet. She feared that they never would now. Sunny had given up on the idea a long time ago, but she still respected him due to his broad knowledge. He really was one of the best teachers in the College.
“So, are you with us, Sunny?” both ponies looked at her inquiringly.
“I don’t know…” the unicorn said, poking the ground with a hoof.
“Come on, Sunny,” Ruby punched her on the shoulder lightly, “It’s gonna be fine.”
“Yeah, let’s go now!” Rose flapped her wings, ready to burst off the ground again.
“I can’t stop you, if you really want to,” Sundae shook her head in frustration, but and then smiled, “I guess, I’d better go with you to make sure you won’t get in trouble.”
“That’s my girl,” Ruby patted her on the head, triggering an annoyed huff at the gesture.
Their small group turned around and headed back to the building. The Doctor and Bright were nowhere to be seen. They’d probably already gone inside.
The ponies stood before the opening and, after a brief moment of hesitation, they trotted in. It was pretty dark there, in contrast to the brightly lit outside, but everypony had a glowing gem on their head to illuminate the way. It was a useful, though not cheap, amulet to have.
The group was walking through a long corridor, leading straight forward without any turns. Sundae wondered again about the purpose of this building. Finally, the group reached the end of the corridor.
They were now in a small room with a bunch of doors in every direction. The doors here weren’t the same as the entrance gate. Instead of being made of stone, they were made of wood. Even after all those years they still looked sturdy.Opposite the corridor were stairs, leading up and down from this level.
A sound behind one of the doors aroused the ponies’ attention. The door at their right had opened and the Doctor and Bright came through, talking about something. They stopped at the sight of the three friends. The Doctor’s face quickly changed from confusion to anger.
“What the hell are you doing here?!” Shade bellowed.
“Exploring, the same as you,” deadpanned Rose.
“The Doctor and I haven’t checked everything for traps yet,” explained Bright calmly. “You’d better leave now.”
“Come on,” Ruby exclaimed throwing up her hoof, “If there had been any traps, we would have stumbled upon them at the entrance!”
“Starswirl never struck me as the pony to put other’s lives in danger with some traps,” added Sundae quietly.
“We can’t take this chance!” the Doctor faced her directly and advanced a step toward the mare. “Are you ready to risk the lives of your friends?”
“N-No…” Sundae lowered her gaze, her ears drooping.
“We all know the risks,” Rose stepped between the Doctor and Sundae. “I assure you, we’re ready for this just as well as you are.”
“Have you studied the magical traps specifically before the expedition?” inquired Bright. “Because I have.”
“Why didn’t you find the door’s opening trigger then?” Ruby waved a hoof at him dismissively. “I was the one who did it.”
“Enough of this!” Shade stomped his hoof loudly. “Get out!”
“Make me,” Rose flared her wings angrily.
“I have a suggestion, Doctor,” Bright intervened calmly. All the eyes turned their attention to him in confusion.
“We have already checked this room, no danger here,” he nodded in the room’s direction. “Why don’t we let them inside? There are plenty of things for them to do.”
“There are?” Sundae raised her eyebrows.
“Yes,” Bright looked at her, “We think Starswirl used it for storage. There are lot of artefacts in there, including a pretty powerful one.”
“That’s why we came here in the first place!” Ruby rejoiced.
“It’s actually not a bad idea,” the Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Okay, I’ll allow it.”
“He’ll allow it!” Rose shook her head in outrage. “You…”
“It’s fine, we got what we wanted,” Ruby’s hoof on her back stopped Rose from saying something she would probably regret later.
Nightfall Shade looked at her with narrowed eyes.
“Just don’t go anywhere else,” growled the Doctor.
“Got it, boss,” Ruby made a lousy attempt to salute.
With the conversation over, Shade and Bright moved past the other ponies and vanished behind the next door. With them gone, Sundae relaxed noticeably.
“I hate this pony,” mumbled Rose under her breath, but Sunny caught it.
“Doctor Shade is not that bad,” she said, defending the pony in question. “He’s just…stubborn. And he hates when things don’t go as planned.”
“Whatever,” Rose waved off her reasoning, “Let’s just see what’s inside.”
She opened the door and went in first, with Ruby right behind her. Sundae was the last one to enter. She was expecting to see something exciting. The ancient artefacts of Starswirl himself for her to study – an old dream coming true!
Instead, she walked into a rather small room full of various shelves along the walls. There were a few things inside them here and there, but most of them were empty. Sunny couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. But then something caught her eye. At first, she took it for an old doorframe, leaning on the wall. But when she trotted closer, she realized it was actually a mirror.
The mirror was large, even taller than her, which is why the pony took it for a doorframe at first. It was quite simple in design: just a rectangle with a mirrored glass in the middle. There wasn’t any fancy ornament on the frame.
Sunny cast a magic detection spell and the mirror lit up like a supernova in her vision. She gasped in surprise and took an involuntary step back. The objects on the shelves were glowing too, suggesting small enchantments, but they seemed almost nonexistent compared to the mirror.
“Horseapples!” Sundae cursed out loud.
“What’s wrong?” the two other ponies turned to her in surprise.
The unicorn dismissed the spell and shook her head to clear her vision. Then she gathered her thoughts to better explain the situation.
“It looks like we’ve found something that would make our expedition worthwhile already,” Sunny said slowly.
“Care to explain?” Rose frowned at her ambiguity.
“Bright was right, that mirror is full of powerful magic,” Sundae pointed her hoof in its direction. “That thing is most certainly a powerful artefact, created by Starswirl himself!”
“Incredible!” Ruby’s face lit up with delight. “I knew we would find something good!”
She walked towards the mirror with a silly smile on her face.
“No touching,” Sundae warned her. “Remember the door? That thing could be much more dangerous.”
The earth pony stopped a few meters short before the mirror. She looked back at Sundae.
“I wasn’t going to,” Ruby claimed, blushing a little.
“Sure,” Sundae agreed quickly. “Anyway, we’d better bring the others here. They would want to see it.”
“I’ll go get them,” volunteered Rose and flew out of the room, not bothering to wait for an answer.
Sundae took a few steps towards the mirror and studied it more closely. The wooden frame looked crudely done by some amateur, but the glass itself was perfect. She lit up her horn with an illumination spell and in its bright glow she noticed something weird.
The mirror wasn’t reflecting her. In fact, it wasn’t reflecting anything in the room. That was weird. The light vanished into the silver surface of the mirror.
Sundae stood directly in front of the artefact. The object was emanating such a powerful magic aura that it couldn’t possibly be a simple mirror, Sundae decided. It demanded her full attention. She leaned her head to its surface, trying to see something, but failing to do so.
“What are you doing?” Ruby’s question brought Sundae back from her thoughts.
“Trying to think in peace.”
“Do you know what that thing is for?” Ruby ignored Sunny’s hint.
“No.”
“I think it’s a portal!” the earth pony smiled victoriously.
“A portal…” Sundae looked at her in shock. “You may be right!”
“Of course I’m right,” Ruby smugly said, “Not only you unicorns know something about magic. I’ve read about portals in History of Magic.”
“Ah, yes, that book!” Sundae nodded eagerly, “I remember it too now. But it said the concept was extremely complicated and all attempts to make one failed.”
“Well, perhaps Starswirl succeeded where others had failed,” theorized Ruby, “It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for him.”
“We can’t know for sure until we test it somehow,” Sundae said rationally.
The door opened with a creak at this moment and five other ponies came into the room. Three of them were the actual scholars, including Rose, while the other two were just the guides: Soft Breeze, a pegasus, and his earth pony colleague. Sundae realized that she had never gotten his name. They had been hired by the College and without their help, the expedition would have failed a long time ago.The scholars, Professor Green Fields and his assistant, were also from the College.
“Have you figured out what it is?” Rose asked as soon as she got in.
“We think it’s a portal,” Ruby shared her theory with the new arrivals.
“A portal? Very interesting,” commented Professor Green Fields.
He was the big, green stallion who supported Rose against the Doctor by the entrance. The Professor asked to join the expedition because of his desire to study magical artefacts, even though he couldn’t use magic himself with him being an earth pony. He hoped to find some of them when he learned about the expedition’s purpose. It looked like his bet had paid off.
“Yes,” confirmed Sundae. “I was just saying that we should test if it works.”
“That is always a good idea,” agreed Fields.
“So, who’ll be the first to enter?” smiled Ruby.
The others looked at her like she had gone mad. The pony drooped her ears: “Just kidding…”
“We should throw something into it,” Fields suggested.
“Of course. We would need a rope, so we could pull the object back,” Sundae nodded thoughtfully.
Hearing this, Soft Breeze took off his saddlebag and got out a coil of rope. Sunny grabbed it in her magic grip and levitated it close. She nodded thankfully to the pegasus.
“That will do,” she said, “Now somepony get me something you don’t need because there is no guarantee you’ll get it back safely.”
“I think we had better use organic matter,” Fields offered an idea. “That way, we’ll see if the portal’s magic has a negative effect on living things.”
“You want to throw some critter in there?” gasped Ruby dumbfounded.
“Of course not!” Fields looked appalled at the very idea. “Just a branch from a nearby tree would work just fine for the test.”
“Oh…sorry then.”
“It is fine,” Fields assured her. Then he addressed the pegasus guide: “Can you get it for us, please?”
“No problem,” answered Soft Breeze.
The group had been discussing the portal’s theory while waiting for the pegasus to return. They all agreed that it was generally considered impossible to build the thing and wondered if Starswirl had been the one to solve all the complications. After all, he’d done incredible feats of sorcery before. No unicorn had ever come close to his level after his mysterious disappearance.
The door opened again behind them. Sundae looked to see the Doctor and Bright walk in. They had an aura of disappointment around them, like they had failed in something. She wondered why.
“We have found no traps,” the Doctor announced to everypony. “So you’re free to explore the open parts of the building as you wish.”
“Have you found Starswirl’s lab?” asked Ruby.
“No, but there are some doors we haven’t been able to open yet,” Nightfall Shade shook his head with a deep frown.
“I think the most interesting thing we’ve found so far is in this room,” Bright pointed out the mirror by the wall. “Its magical aura is huge.”
“Sundae has already told us that,” Ruby informed him. “We all agree it’s the portal Starswirl was working on.”
“I’ve also come to this conclusion,” Bright nodded. “He failed, though.”
“How do you know?” somepony asked him.
“The magical energy flow just looks off to me,” explained the unicorn, “That’s not what you usually see in the properly working artefacts.”
“Fascinating…” Fields looked impressed.
“Perhaps you would have noticed this too if you had studied magic better, Sundae,” suddenly remarked the Doctor.
Sundae sighed and didn’t say anything in response to this jab at her skills because she too agreed with this on the inside. The mare lowered her eyes, ashamed of her failure. She should have been studying better, but something was always distracting her.
“Hey, that was just plain rude!” Rose angrily frowned at him.
“That was very unprofessional of you, Shade,” seconded Fields.
The Doctor glared at them annoyedly, but made no further remarks. He didn’t use to be this bad, reflected Sundae, but lately his temper had been getting the better of him more and more often. He seemed annoyed and frustrated, for some reason.
The door opened with a loud bang, startling the ponies inside. Even Bright twitched an ear. The pegasus flew in, hovering above the floor because he was carrying a whole stack of tree branches in his forelegs. He dropped them in the middle of the room.
“I hope that’s enough.”
“What is this nonsense about?” the Doctor demanded.
“They want to check if the portal works by throwing sticks into it, Doctor,” reported Soft Breeze.
“It doesn’t,” Shade rejected the idea, “If Starswirl had succeeded, he wouldn’t have left the thing just lying here.”
The mood in the chamber dropped significantly after his blunt statement. The ponies were viewing the portal in a new light. The Doctor’s words definitely made a lot sense.
“We should test it in action before we make any hasty assumptions,” Fields tried to remain optimistic.
“Do as you wish,” the Doctor waved his hoof. “We’ve got better things to do. Me and Bright will try to gain the access to the rest of the building now.”
“I’ll go with you,” Rose stated.
“Out of the question,” Shade cut her off, “The rest of the building may be dangerous. Stay here until we say it’s safe.”
Rose wanted to argue at first, but then thought better of it at the last moment. She watched in annoyance as the Doctor and Bright left the room together. After a few seconds of silence, the mare said:
“He probably just wants to claim anything valuable he finds for himself!”
“The doctor is a respected pony. He wouldn’t do something like that,” Soft Breeze objected.
The guide was brought on the expedition by the Doctor himself, so he felt some kind of loyalty towards the pony for hiring him.
“We can talk about that later,” Fields ended the argument before it had even begun. “Right now we need to see if this portal actually works.” He looked at Sundae and raised an eyebrow.
“Fine. Let’s do it, then,” she nodded to him.
Then Sundae enveloped one of the branches brought by Soft Breeze in her magic and tied the rope around it in a knot. She inspected it for a moment and then simply threw the object into the mirror.
Everypony held their breath when the branch simply went through and vanished, instead of bouncing back from the surface, as they half expected. Sundae waited a whole minute before she pulled the rope back. The branch came out seemingly unharmed, every leaf remaining in place.
“It looks the same. I don’t think the portal affected it!” Fields exclaimed excitedly.
“It means the portal works!” Rose shared his excitement.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay?” Sundae remained cautious. “We should bring the artefact into the College for research.”
“Yes, that’s only reasonable, I suppose,” agreed Fields.
Sundae cast a magic sight spell. It allowed her to observe the enchantment at work. She could see the thaumatic flow of the artefact now. It looked too complicated for her to understand how it worked or even if there was something wrong with it. Bright seemed to be able to do that, which frustrated the unicorn. She turned her spell off.
“Saw anything interesting?” Ruby asked.
“No,” Sundae shook her head sadly. “You were right, Starswirl’s level of magic is way out of my league…”
“Oh, don’t take my silly words too close to heart!” her friend drooped her ears, seeing Sundae’s distress. She came closer and embraced Sunny in a tight hug. It made both of them feel a little better.
“Is that really all we can do?” Rose disappointedly looked around the group, hoping for someone to offer her a retort.
There was a long silence in the room. The ponies just stood there, looking at each other nervously. Sundae tried to think of anything short of sending a real living creature through it. But the problem was that it was the only way for them to prove if the mirror really works. She wasn’t going to do that, of course.
“It is,” confirmed Sundae. “We don’t know for sure if it really works…”
“But that branch you sent through is perfectly fine!” Rose interrupted her. “Surely, it means something!”
“No,” Sundae didn’t share her optimism. “Bright said something is wrong with the portal and he knows magic better than me.”
“Screw Bright, he knows nothing of Starswirl’s magic.” she waved her hoof dismissively. “I have been studying him my whole life, he was a genius! The portal works and I’ll prove it.”
Having said this, she moved to the portal determinately. Sundae and Ruby blocked her passage. Rose scowled at them angrily.
“Get out of the way,” demanded the pegasus.
“What are you doing, Rose?” Sundae asked her incredulously.
“Yeah, are you nuts?” Ruby added with her usual tact.
“Even since I was a little filly, I have wanted to be an explorer,” Rose tried to explain frantically, “Now I get to be the first one to explore this new magical marvel!”
“But we don’t know where it leads, even if it is working!” Sundae burst into screaming at the stupid mare.
“Then let me go and find out!” Rose retorted in the same manner.
“We can’t stop her, Sundae,” Fields joined the argument on Rose’s side, “Either she’ll do it on her own, or with our help.”
“You said you weren’t going to hurl a living creature into the portal!” exclaimed Ruby, looking hurt.
“I’m not,” confirmed Professor Fields. Then he sat on his haunches and shrugged. “But if somepony decides to hurl herself in, we can’t waste the opportunity.”
“She could be hurt,” Sundae objected to his atrocious logic.
“That is her choice,” Fields simply said.
Sundae looked torn. She didn’t want to see somepony be hurt, but, on the other hoof, she couldn’t stop it. She glanced at her friend and Ruby looked just as indecisive.
“I’m going,” Rose stated confidently. “Will you help me or not?”
“I think it’s a huge risk to take,” Sundae avoided a direct answer. “Doctor Shade was right: it wouldn’t have been left here if Starswirl had completed the portal.”
This seemed to sway the stubborn pegasus for a moment, but then she shook her head, banishing all the doubts.
“Help me or move,” Rose demanded, stomping her hoof loudly to emphasize the point.
“Fine…” Sundae gave up, getting tired of the arguing.
“What?!” Ruby jumped in front of her friend. “You can’t let her do that!”
“I don’t want it either, Ruby,” explained Sundae, making a step back, “But she looks really deter—”
“Doesn’t matter!” Ruby interrupted her. “We need to study it more before we can let somepony blindly jump into the mirror.”
“Ah, this is pointless!” exclaimed Rose suddenly and leaped in the air over both ponies to land before the mirror itself. Sundae looked at her helplessly with an open mouth.
“See you soon!” she gave the audience of shocked ponies a salute and jumped forward.
Everypony gasped. The seconds passed, but nothing happened. Sundae exchanged a fearful glance with Ruby. They both walked closer to stand before the artefact as did the rest of the group. All of them looked at it, expecting the pegasus to return at any second. But Rose wasn’t returning.