Chapter 8 - Beyond the Looking Glass
Trixie shook off his response as she followed him to the front of the small antique shop at the end of the plaza. The glow from the antique shop’s window seemed so welcoming but, at the same time, mysterious as it appeared abandoned like rest of the buildings. Looking through the dusty window, Trixie could hardly see anything but a few blurred figures. As she continued to peer inside, she heard a sharp creak followed by the sound of a small bell ringing next to her. Glancing over to the source, she noticed Magus had disappeared from her side and had begun stepping through the front door. Trixie hurried in behind him.
Despite the “open” sign hanging on the door, inside, the store was as devoid of life as the streets outside. The room seemed small, due the large quantities of dusty, old dressers, shelves, chairs, and sorted other things littering the room creating makeshift walls and narrow hallways. The air was filled with dust, like nopony had been here in ages. It was quiet, not a sound could be heard, as if she had walked into an entirely different world. Small dusty baubles and oddities sat on almost every shelf and in every corner of the room. The floors were warped and creaked as they moved across them. Trixie couldn’t understand why anypony would willing come into these places.
Trixie followed Magus as he made his way through the maze of junk and furniture that towered like skyscrapers over them. The deeper they traveled into the shop, the more crowded it became as the amount of cobweb-covered antiques grew. It was unsettling how the lifeless eyes of the small porcelain figurines sitting on the tables seemed to watch as she passed by.
The cramped quarters soon opened up, if only slightly, to a counter with a cash register, that looked like it belonged with the rest of the junk, and a gilded service bell sitting on top.
As they approached the counter, the gold service bell shined in the light like it was brand new and it was about the only thing not covered in dust or cobwebs. The bell chimed sweetly as Magus hit it, filling the once dead silent building with its echoing sound. The ringing slowly faded as the room fell back into silence once again.
A minute or two passed with no answer. Suddenly, the lights began to flicker and the temperature in the room seemed drop to the point that Trixie could see her breath. The baubles and furniture began to shake violently as if there were an earthquake, but she could feel no tremors coming from the floor. Trixie looked around wildly as Magus stood calmly in front of the counter, appearing not to notice what was happening. The unnatural events stopped as abruptly as they'd begun when the cash register chimed, signaling a sale. Warmth quickly returned to the room as the lights stopped blinking and the furniture began to steady.
Trixie looked around in a fluster trying to make sense of what just happened. She checked behind her to see the furniture and trinkets returning to their stationary positions. Trixie began to turn back around as she said, “What in the name of Celestia was th--”
“Hi!” a figure said, standing only an inch away from her face.
Trixie shrieked as she stumbled back in shock, falling onto her back. With a groan she sat up and came face to face with a pair of pale grey eyes staring down at her. Startled, she quickly got to her hooves and faced the milky white earth stallion blankly staring down at her.
He smiled and said in a cheerful tone, “There’s no Celestia here, but I am. I’m always here.”
“You scared me half to death!” Trixie shouted at the stallion as he continued to smile.
He giggled before he said, “Sorry about that, but the important thing is, I have customers!” He jumped backwards, doing a backflip as he disappeared behind the counter. Magus did not react to the odd pony’s presence as he seemed not to have moved from the front of the counter.
As Trixie approached the counter, the odd pony popped his head out from around the corner, his short grey mane hanging over the register. “You two look like a swell couple, perhaps I can interest you in this nice,” he disappeared again before popping out directly behind the register, placing a small ornate box on the counter, “jewelry box! Great for keeping any number of neat knickknacks inside.”
“We’re not a couple!” she stated, almost shouting to make sure her point got across. Trixie had met many odd ponies in her travels, but this one was by far the oddest, if not second to the pony standing by her side.
“Whatever you say, but you have to admit it is a nice jewelry box and lucky for you it’s on sale! Everything is on sale for one day and one day only!”
“We came for the mirror,” Magus said, disregarding the erratic pony’s behavior.
“You sure? It’s on sale for this day and this day on--”
“It’s been on sale longer than that,” Magus sharply said as he quickly reached into his robe and pulled out an odd, gold medallion, slamming it on the counter in front of the white pony. “Now take us to the mirror,” Magus demanded locking his flared eyes with the pony. The medallion appeared as a circular trinket with a number of hexagonal and triangular shapes within. Mysterious symbols were printed along the edges of the amulet, looking like scribbles to Trixie.
It was unusual, but she was unable to take her eyes off it as it lay there. The shapes formed a strange, overlapping design that felt hypnotizing. The world around her seemed distant as outlandish whispers began to fill her ears with words she couldn’t understand. Just as she was beginning to feel faint, the phenomenon stopped as Magus quickly grabbed the amulet and stowed it back into his robe. As she snapped out of the strange daze, she could see Magus’s judging eyes glaring at her.
The white pony, oblivious to what had just occurred, sighed disappointedly. “Fine, this way.” After he put the box under the counter, he motioned for them to follow.
Trixie shook her head a few times trying to regain her senses. “Wha-what was that thing?” she said rubbing her eyes.
“Nothing you need concern yourself with,” Magus said still glaring at her before he turned and walked around the counter. Not in the condition to question him further, Trixie followed as he rounded a corner behind the counter.
A narrow hall stood before them as they continued to follow the white pony, hanging his head while he walked. The hall had seen better days with the cracked plaster walls and the torn, old wallpaper barely hanging onto the surface. It was amazing that there were no rats scurrying across the floor. The floorboards continued to creak loudly under their hooves as the shopkeeper mumbled to himself, “Nopony ever comes for the sales. It’s always ‘we’ve come to see the mirror’, ‘take us to the mirror’, no pony is ever interested in Knickknacks, knickknacks…”
“What’s with him,” Trixie whispered to Magus.
Without turning away, Magus responded in his normal speaking voice, obviously not caring if he was heard or not, “He’s apparently upset that we didn’t purchase any of ‘Knickknacks, knickknacks.’”
“That’s not what I mean!” Trixie whispered loudly. “You don’t find him at all…strange.”
“Trixie,” he looked at her this time, “is he any stranger than anything else you’ve seen thus far?”
He had a point. So far she has seen fire conjuring ponies, huge alternate dimensions inside tiny caravans, witnessed the past first hooved, and that was just the start.
As they neared the end of the hall, Trixie began to wonder where they were going. There were no doors or paths they could take out of the hallway besides the one they were already walking on. Knickknack, as he was apparently named, stopped mumbling for a moment and turned to face them as they reached the end of the hall. With another disappointed sigh he said, “One moment.” He turned back around and continued to mumble to himself as he walked toward the wall.
“Where is he…?” Trixie began saying to herself just before Knickknack disappeared through the wall, as if it wasn’t there at all. Trixie’s eyes grew wide as she said, “Did he just… just walk through the wall!?”
Magus leaned over to her, repeating slowly, “Is he any stranger than anything else you’ve seen thus far?”
“But he just--”
“Walked through a wall? It’s to be expected. He is a phantom after all,” Magus said calmly despite Trixie’s understanding of the world being completely turned on its head.
“But ghosts don’t--”
“Any, stranger?”
Trixie went quiet after he said that.
A few seconds went by before the wall started to glow as a magic circle appeared on it, like it was being burned into the surface. The wall slowly began to move, opening down the middle like a large door, revealing a cold blackness inside. When the door was fully opened, Magus walked forward with Trixie cautiously following behind, unsure of what they would find.
As they reached the threshold, two flames lit up in the dark, revealing a few stone steps of a staircase winding down into the abyss. Before Trixie could wonder how far this staircase went, Magus began descending down into the unknown without a doubt in his mind. Not wanting to be left alone in the haunted store, Trixie quickly caught up to him.
Floating balls of fire continued to light up as they lead the way, only gradually revealing a few steps at a time and nothing more. Their hooves, lightly echoing around them, were the only sounds that could be heard. The door seemed to have closed as the light from the hallway could no longer be seen through the blackness. Trixie observed the fires hovering around them, seeing nothing holding them in place as they continued to light the way. Looking back she saw that the fires behind them were going out the moment they were far enough away, returning the steps to the dark. Seeing this caused her to hasten her pace, remaining as close to Magus as she could.
After what seemed like ages of walking down the snaking steps, balls of fire lit up in a circle at the bottom of the illuminating staircase, showing a round stone floor. The stairs ended as they stepped into the circle of dimly lit flames where a lone, elongated mirror appeared from nowhere, waiting in the center as it floated just above the ground. The stairs behind them disappeared into the dark as the flames went out, leaving only the floor and the eerie mirror visible within the circle of flames.
Magus stepped toward the mirror with Trixie staying close by as it shimmered in the flickering fire’s light. The mirror looked beautiful and creepy at the same time with its gold borders depicting frightening creatures and masked, robed ponies. As they approached, the mirror showed a reflection of their surroundings, but not of them, as if they were invisible.
“From this point on Trixie,” Magus said staring into the mirror, “you are to refer to me by ‘Master’ every chance you get. Do not avoid saying it. Understood?”
Magus words were very clear and he said them as if her life depended on it. As much as she still didn’t want to, she unwillingly replied, “Fine.”
He held out his hoof to her. “Now, take my hoof.” She complied as he began chanting loudly into the glass, “We lost souls of the dark seek a safe haven to escape this mortal realm and to find refuge beyond the looking glass.”
The mirror shimmered and gleamed at his words as their reflections soon appeared. Magus lifted his free hoof to the mirror, leaning against it in an half standing pose, and pressed against the surface. As he did, his hoof passed seamlessly through the mirror as it rippled like water. His hoof, and steadily his foreleg, disappeared through the portal as he continued to press forward. Soon his entire foreleg was through the mirror’s surface before, like he was being yanked from the other side, the rest of his body almost leaped through the mirror, pulling Trixie in with him. Before she had time to scream, Trixie was consumed by the mirror, disappearing through it.
The world around her went dark and cold as she felt Magus let go of her hoof. Her ears ringed and not a sound could be heard except for a voice that echoed around her…
“…Trixie…”
“…Awaken…”
“…Trixie…,” the voice continued to echo, as it did it became clearer and more recognizable.
“…Trixie…get up,” her eyes cracked open to see two sets of perfectly shorn, tan fetlocks before her. As she followed them up, Trixie found that they were connected to a familiar robed stallion that looked down on her with a cold, strict gaze.
“Now, Trixie,” Magus said again in more demanding tone.
Trixie quickly got to her hooves now fully aware of the callous mage standing next to her. As she got up, she felt a sudden, throbbing pain in her head, like she had been hit by a bat. Shutting her eyes tightly, Trixie winced as she held her head.
“Not to worry,” Magus said. “A splitting headache is a common side effect for your first time, it will soon pass.”
“Wha-what happened?” Trixie said trying to recover from the sharp pain in her head.
Magus sighed. “We passed through the mirror, of course. Try to pay a little more attention, this is a significant step to your introduction into The Circle’s world,” he said with a huff.
Ignoring Magus’s usual smug behavior, Trixie managed cracked open an eye. Through the pain that was slowly beginning to subside, she looked around at her surroundings, and found that it was too dark to see anything clearly except a few dim lights in the distance. The atmosphere was as cold as the hard ground they stood upon, though it smelled fresh and clean, like it would after a downpour. Looking behind her, Trixie saw the mirror, now looking as if it were built into some kind of wall.
When her headache diminished enough, she stepped toward the still shimmering glass. This time the mirror produced a reflection of her as she approached. Gazing into the looking glass, Trixie’s curiosity soon got the better of her and she cautiously lifted a hoof. The mirror held firm as she pushed on it, not rippling or pulling her through like it had earlier.
Before she could present her questions about the odd object to Magus, a bright orange glow appeared in the reflection of the mirror. Trixie quickly looked back to see a fiery light illuminate the shadowy horizon and the clear sky above, breathing a reddish-orange color into the bleak land.
Trixie turned and walked toward the horizon, stopping when she was next to Magus who watched her every action closely. “Where are we?” she asked as the light grew, stretching across the sky.
Magus remained silent, as he continued to observe her.
“Magus?” she looked at him questionably, unsure as to why he refused to answer. It was strange, but Magus looked more annoyed than usual as he watched her.
She took a step toward him and said, “Hello? Magus, I’m talking to you.” He continued to watch, his eyes narrowing.
A moment of silence passed before Magus finally spoke, “Rule one.”
“Rule one?” Trixie replied puzzled. It quickly occurred to her that he was referring to his rules from last night. “Oh, for the love of-- What is your problem?” Trixie said with an aggravated scowl.
Magus raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish her question with one little word.
Trixie groaned, stomping her forehooves on the ground. “Fine! Where are we, Master?” Trixie said emphasizing the last part sardonically.
“Well Trixie, it certainly took you long enough to ask, properly,” Magus said in a smug way seeming content with her question now. He took a few steps forward before turning back to face her with the light rising behind him. The glow in the distance had grown, staining the sky with a fiery orange, revealing a number of shadowy objects around them.
As the glow grew it took shape of a ball climbing steadily on the mountainous horizon. It was the sun, and it was a welcoming sight from the darkness that often took its place. The sun rose quickly and was soon high enough to cleanse the ground and the air of the chilling darkness.
Arising from the shadows, structures seemed to appear from nowhere, lighting up like lanterns around them. Shadows fled from the building’s walls as the structures appeared as large wood framed houses with windows and doors, the same as she had seen in Trottingham. As they appeared from the dark, the buildings were lined up next to each other in a kind of pattern as they overshadowed the wide-open red, cobblestone streets below that cut through them in a reflecting design. Her ears were filled with sweet melodies as small birds flying overhead sang. Looking back, Trixie could now see the mirror encased in a towering marble pillar, becoming the center piece to the circular plaza they stood in.
The whole scene felt so serene and yet lonesome. Besides the two of them, there wasn’t a single soul to enjoy what Trixie was seeing.
“To answer your question,” Magus said getting her attention, “we have arrived in Haven, the city beyond the reflection.”