The roots twisted and bent around the centre, buried beneath the water from which it grew. No land, all water. Imagine the Grand Canyon with an abundance of water flowing through every nook and cranny of the vast maze, and in the centre of these winding, water-filled paths sat a tree. This tree looked like a mushroom of some screwed-up description. Hundreds of feet tall, appearing to be made up of gnarled roots and vines twisting around each other to form branches rather than solid wood. From the centre upwards the vines bloomed out to form the top of the tree.
But...
The tree top is square, sheared off flat. Almost like a hedge.
From my position on the other side of the mirror-portal, the top has even, perpendicular square sides, and, on the corner facing us, it looked as though a piece had been taken out of it, giving the corner a two-pronged appearance. From the two of the three remaining corners I could see, it didn't appear as though there was more pieces missing. That told me this is the front, and, looking down, this got further accentuated by a cavernous opening at the tree’s base where the roots parted.
Hello ominous entrance. You tempt me like a candy store would a fat kid.
I couldn't tell if there is any solid ground outside of the mirror that we could step onto so we wouldn't fall into the water.
I went forward and poked my head through the portal and looked immediately down. Much to my satisfaction, the portal opened up just slightly back from the waters edge. I managed to gingerly put one foot out onto the edge before the water, and stepping through and put my other foot down on the sand. Any further and I would have fallen into the water. There's what, maybe a foot of sand before the water? I'm going to take a random guess that the portal opens up in random locations. Press a button corresponding to the island on the orb, and portal exits/entrances randomly shuffle around. I could press one button a million times and get a million different exits on the same island. Some would have the same view for sure, but just be a few inches to the left or right, up or down, forward or back.
It's almost like the portal moved along a four-dimensional plane. Up, down, left, right, forward, back, and through time and space itself.
I steadied myself as I exited the portal, crab-shuffling to the left, leaning around and putting my head back through the portal and motioned for the other two to come through, and adding they should be careful not to fall into the water.
Luna decided to be a cheeky little shit and fly through with Bullseye on her back so they wouldn't have to do what I did.
I should have thought of that...
Only once they were through and on dry land did my attention turned to the myriad of scrap wood and grassy knolls behind the portal. I walked behind the portal and found that the portal surface only shimmered from one direction, the opening we came out of and not the back. Knowing full well where the portal is, I put my hand through and saw that it disappeared and looked as though it got cut off. You could walk right through it and not even know. Or accidentally walk into it and end up somewhere completely different.
The wood is from dilapidated, run-down, broken, old boats. Some of the boats are simply lumps of hay and grass tied together with string or twine like the Egyptians used to do. The scrap wood was from more expertly crafted boats that had time and effort put into them We had the idea of taking some of the old grass boats, tying them together and using some of the more fresher grass still growing on the bank to lay underneath for a bit of extra flotation and durability. THere wasn’t enough grass to create a raft big enough for the three of us. We didn't bother with the wood though. The planks were too rotten, small, or otherwise beat-to-hell to be of any use, although a couple of them might make a good paddle.
The next challenge would be crafting a paddle. In a river that doesn't have anything close to resembling a ripple, and there was no breeze this far into the canyon. We couldn't rely on getting blown by the wind into the opening at the base of the tree. I got a long pole, and used the mora knife to dig two holes either side the centre of a few planks of the decaying wood and used a few zip ties to secure them to the pole. I made two, one for myself and one for Luna. It took about an hour to fix up the makeshift boat and craft the paddles.
Before we left a thought occurred to me. "Luna, do you think it would be possible to levitate–slash–teleport the orb through the portal, and bring it with us?"
"It might be. But I'm not sure if the portal will stay open, or if we'll be able to get back that way. Why do you ask?"
"Security, I suppose. Doesn't hurt to have it with us, and I’d rather not leave it behind. Besides, every other time Bullseye was guarding it no one and nothing would try to take it. For whatever reason they'd want to, anyway. Then again those timberwolves he killed could have been after us. Not that anything was either alive or around to. First, lets get the boat in the water."
Luna enveloped the boat in her aura and levitated it onto the water.
Out of reach for myself and Bullseye to get on.
"And how do you expect me to get on now that it's in the water? I can't jump on it from here now, can I?" Luna's horn lit up, and I felt myself suddenly lose a lot of weight, then put it back on not half a second later. When my vision cleared, I found myself standing on the boat. Two seconds later, she teleported Bullseye too and simply flew over to us.
"Hey, Luna? I thought you had trouble teleporting others?"
"This... place, is saturated with magic. I can feel it coursing through me. From each island we've been on, it's gotten progressively stronger. My only thought is whatever is leaking that much magic much be more powerful than anything anyone could have ever imagined. Period."
"That... makes sense, I suppose. Now, the orb?"
She made the orb appear with ease, and I looked back to the shore from which we previously stood. I could not see the portal anymore. "Well, it looks like we're going to need to find another way back."
"Back to where, exactly?" asked Bullseye.
"..." I was dead silent at that moment, so much so that you could hear the ellipsis on my breath. "I had not thought that far ahead. The ship, I guess? Equestria? Home?"
Wherever the hell home might be...
Silence consumed us at that point. No one said anything after my passing comment. I stood at the back of the boat to steer, keeping our direction true to the opening at the base of the tree. Bullseye sat in the middle, and Luna stood up front using one of the paddles in her aura, and began to row us towards the tree. It was largely made in silence, out necks craned skyward to visually study the massive tree.
As we got closer, I could discern some more details about the tree. While vines made up the vast majority of the tree, some of the vine clusters had begun actually fusing together to form thicker branches. Leaves grew from other vines and what could be loosely called the 'branches’. Other vines hung off of various points like a mangrove hangs over a river.
Not knowing how old this thing is bugs me greatly. It must have been growing for thousands of years. If memory serves me correctly, trees grow concentric rings on their main stump at the rate of one per year under the right conditions. The oldest tree on Earth was purportedly about five-thousand years old. It didn't grow these rings every year because of how remote the location was. I'd like to know how long it would take something like this to grow, who planted it—if that was the case, and why. You don't plant something like this in the middle of a maze of water without trying to hide something... big, in every sense of the word.
About half way across the lagoon, we passed under its shadow. The colossal shadow cast by this tree filled me with an overwhelming sense of trepidation, almost as though the shadow itself was weighing down on my very soul, crushing it in a sense.
It took longer than I'd've liked to get to the opening at the base of the tree. That was largely because we took our time rowing, overwhelmed by the presence of the tree.
I heard of a legend on Earth. The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui. In the Scottish Highlands exists a mountain where many have felt dread unlike anything else they have ever experienced. As the fog and mist rolls across the land, they say there lurks a creature huge and terrifying. The creature does not threaten with a display of physical force, the beast instills a suicidal sense of depression, panic, terror, and foreboding. There were some people that said that atop the mountain was a portal, or gateway, to another world, or dimension. If his role really was a gatekeeper, he's doing a mighty fine job, but that’s just what I felt by way of comparison to this tree.
Eventually we passed through the opening of twisted roots, leaves and vines, entering the inky black interior of the tree. I reached into my bag and pulled out my heavy-duty maglite flashlight, pressing the button that sat just below the head of the torch, its 250 lumen beam illuminating the interior like daytime.
I was half expecting what I saw.
The makeshift boat bumped into a platform that sat flush with the water. Steps ran up the interior of the trunk in a spiral. I shone my beam up high, but it disappeared, as if the stairs were never ending. I bought my light back down to the bottom, and followed the spiral of the stairs, twisting my body as my eyes followed them around.
"What is this place..." I uttered out loud, to no one inparticular.
Bullseye didn't quite seem to think that it was rhetorical. "Maybe another human building?"
I shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't like the looks of those stairs. I've seen enough movies to know that when you step foot in a seemingly innocent spiral staircase with steps jutting out from the wall, you just know they're going to retract back into the walls."
"...You watched too many movies back on Earth before you found me, didn't you?" deadpanned Luna.
I couldn't help but giggle, and nod, recalling the fourth Indiana Jones movie. Then another thought hit me. “Hey, could you, I don’t know, shoot a flare or something up to see how high it goes?”
Luna didn't say anything. She charged her horn with a ball of sparkling energy and let it loose from her horn. It flew higher and higher, the little ball snaking and twisting its way to the top before it exploded with a shower of blue fireworks against something at the top with a muted pop, what would have been a rather loud bang had it been closer to us.
“OK, so we know there’s a top. Can you fly up and tell us what’s at the top, Luna?” I dug out another of my smaller flashlights, turned it on and handed it to Luna. She flared her wings, took the flashlight in her teeth and leapt off the jetty flying. There's enough space for two pegasi, alicorns, or one pegasus and one alicorn—depending on how you want to spin it—to fly up with wingtips touching, so Luna had no trouble ascending the cavernous stairwell.
I turned off my flashlight so I could see the light from the other torch, and all I could really see was a tiny, insignificant pinprick of light; akin to a star against the night sky. Several minutes passed between my giving Luna the flashlight, and her returning to us.
"Find anything?" I knew she'd tell me, whether or not I asked. Call it habit. I took the flashlight out of her mouth, turned it off, and put it back in my bag so Luna could speak clearly.
"Where the stairs end at the top, there's a hole in the ceiling of this place where the stairs come to an end. I've got more just enough magic to teleport both you and Bullseye up.”
I readied myself to be teleported. The most important thing is to keep your sense of balance, because you never know where you might end up that could throw your balance off. I kept a low centre of gravity and found my footing easily enough, and I found myself teleported some ways down from the opening in the ceiling.
I started walking up the spiral stairway, carefully, bracing my hand on the vine and leaf covered wall, shining the maglite up ahead of me. I heard another pop and turned to see Bullseye in the same place I was. Turning back, I kept walking up to the top.
I went around about three turns in the spiral of the staircase before I got to the opening in the top. Fortunately the cutting in the ceiling acted as a wall of sorts where I could brace both hands against both sides of the opening, both for stability and the mental security that comes with it. You know, the kind of mental security that comes with the feeling knowing you're not going to fall down thousands of steps...
Bullseye got to me in due time, followed by Luna bringing up the rear.
"I don't know what to expect," I began. "But be prepared. I don't know what, or if, there's going to be anything in here." They both nodded in agreement, and Bullseye readied one of his spears.
I took the Tanto out of its sheath slung across my chest and held it in the normal grip in my right hand. The maglite I choked up, holding it at the base of its head (giggity), resting the bottom of the metal tube on my collarbone with the beam pointing forward. The purpose of holding the torch like this is so I can bring it down in an overhead strike like a club, as opposed to using the bulbous head for the club and risk cracking the lens, breaking the bulb and so on. It also amps up the PSI in the narrow edge of the base of the torch when you strike someone, or something, with it.
When I poked my head up the top, the corridor seemed to come alive. The vines and leaves glowed blue with cracked ribbons of red running through them. I froze.
"What is it?" asked Bullseye.
"Your satchel!" cried Luna.
I glanced down at the shoulder slung bag to find that the orb within had begun to glow with the same eerie colours. The polished surfaces glowed blue, while the cracks and lines running around the buttons and across the orb are glowing red. I looked it over intently, then held it up into the corridor where something interesting happened.
As if part of the tree itself, the corridor widened to allow us through.
"Stick close to me," I warned. I put the orb back in the bag and continued walking forward.
I tried keeping a straight path, but the corridor curved now and then and even had a couple sharp turns in it. It's almost as if it, or the orb, is trying to lead us to a specific destination. That made me nervous on several levels. It could be a trap to lure us to our death, or it could be taking us to a place of great importance. Either way I didn't like it.
Eventually after about ten minutes of taking careful steps throughout the passageway, the vines parted, giving us exit to a massive room. The place is just beyond words, like the tree's Inner Sanctum. I could see the ceiling of this place, but the room is more spread out than it is high. The ceiling is, pfft, maybe ten metres, if I had to guess? The room itself however...
As if of it own volition, vines snaked their way up from the middle of the room to form a pedestal.
Maybe that's where I put the orb? I sheathed the knife, pulled the orb from the satchel, and just simply dropped it into place, not caring about orientation. I was too apprehensive about the vines accidentally grabbing my hand The vines came alive again to orientate the sphere upside down with the base button pointing up. I looked back to Luna and Bullseye, whom just returned my equally incredulous look.
"Press it." They both echoed at the same time.
Hesitantly, I reached forward, put my finger on, and pressed the button.
I expectantly thought that a laser would shoot up from the button, but instead the whole pedestal exploded with a brilliant blue light, and dozens of little blue lines shot out from the base of the column. They snaked their way to the far walls of the circular room, crawled up the walls and across the ceiling back to the middle of the room where these lines 'fell' back onto the orb. It pulsed red, and sent out a radiating wave of red light that bathed the room in a light-red colour, strewn with random particles.
One by one, golf-ball sized blue orbs [contrasting the reddish cloud] started popping up, but they were much more than that. I squinted at one in front of me.
One planet.
Two planets.
Three planets.
More!
The room started getting flooded with hundreds of tiny little planets all blinking to life one by one, and all I could do was stare in awe, turning my body and craning my head as hundreds of the little things started filling up the room.
"Planets," I said absentmindedly. "They're planets. Hundreds of planets."
But that wasn't all that was there.
I noticed several somethings of a darker red and blue popping up too. I walked to one a few metres away, and only saw half a planet sticking out of it. The thing itself looked like an oval with pinched ends eating half the planet.
"What do you suppose this place, thing, is?" Luna asked.
"It looks like a holographic map of various planets. Maybe if I..." I went up to one of the random spheres and clasped my fingers around it, and in one motion opened my hands. I thought of the idea of making the projection bigger like a picture on my old smartphone.
Lo and behold it worked.
Some of the rest of the planets moved out the way to accommodate for the much larger holographic projection, and we all stepped outside of it to get a look at the rotating sphere.
"What planet is this?" asked Bullseye.
"You're guess is as good as mine, buddy," I replied.
"What are those little dots all over the place?" he said again.
"Pardon?"
"Look, there's loads of tiny little dots all over the planet." He reached up to poke one with his hoof, and an electric blue beam shot out from the dot and hit the wall, enveloping the whole room in a serene rainforest.
"I don't even... Press it again," I said. He did so, and the room went back to normal. "What... was that."
"This room appears as though it functions in a manner such as the orb, but on a galactic, and planetary scale," came Luna's voice. "It's not as precise, but it's the the same principal."
"What about these other planets? What do you suppose they are?"
"That's a good question." I wandered up to one of them, and expanded it. I couldn't see any discernable features, it looked like a barren planet. I bought one of the dots into view and expanded the area around it. More details became apparent. Two mountain peaks, with a large temple between them, The mountains dwarfed the pyramid, though. The pyramid itself looked as like a step pyramid from Egypt or Teotihuacan with an archway on top. It was there the dot itself is present.
"What is that place?"
"Bullseye, you've got quite the curiosity. I don't know, but it reminds me of a legend on Earth."
"Which one is it this time?"
That kid's got a sense of humour... "It vaguely reminds me of the City of The Caesars. Basically, a temple that was situated between two mountains, like these ones. The city itself came and went periodically, and it came to be called The Wandering City. Everyone wanted to find it, because it was rumoured that the two mountains housed a horde of diamonds in one, and gold in another." His eyes widened like saucers. "Don't get any ideas, either," I glared at him.
Remind me to not tell Rarity about that place, she would likely tear the universe to shreds to get to it.
"Oh, oh, this planet is full of those pyramid things!" Luna was over the other side of the room when she called out in earnest.
"What are you talking about, Luna?"
She expanded the planet to cover the entire room using her magic, and I saw what she meant. The planet is just littered with pyramid-esque designs, although these ones seemed... familiar?
I pressed a button on the largest city. I guess you could call it that. The room glossed over with the magic from the holographic projection, and what happened made my jaw drop.
Gold.
Lots of gold. Lots, and lots, and lots of gold.
An entire planet, with buildings made of gold.
"It can't be... It's impossible."
"What is? Midnight, is something wrong? Is it another legend?" asked a concerned Bullseye.
I nodded absentmindedly. "Un huh. The City of Gold. Some called it El Dorado, some called it Cibola. It was an Aztec treasure, supposedly.” I wondered why the construction seemed familiar.
Right then and there, a person walked into the room through the portal looking into the city or planet, and froze when he saw us.
That's right, an alive, and all grown up human. He stared for what seemed like an eternity, shouted something incoherent, then disappeared from the room. I quickly pressed the button on the projection again and the room quickly returned to its normal leaf-and-vine construction with the hazy red hologram.
"I don't believe it... All this time there's been other people living in this universe? First Roanoke then now here!?" I'm beyond confused at this stage. "HOW!?" I turned to look at Luna and Bullseye, but they each seemed dumbstruck as I.
"I don't know, but maybe it has something to do with these." Bullseye pointed at the planet I saw earlier that was half sticking out of the oval thing. "What do you suppose is happening there? And look, there's dozens more of them scattered around the room." My head craned and my body turned. Sure enough, several darker red and blue holographic constructs were still present, some rather close to other planets.
"I don't know, but I really don't like it. At all."
"Father, you don't think it could be... You know, do you?"
"I don't know, but part of me thinks it would explain the vast majority of missing cities, civilisations, and everything else. Hey, do you see Equestria anywhere?" Rather, Equestria is the name of the country, not the planet. Much like New Zealand is to Earth. You know, I never did ask the name of their planet. I must get around to it. One day.
Luna wandered around the room a while, then stuck her horn into one of the planets, then expanded it with her magic. It's Equestria all right, it looks exactly like my map, at least some of it does. There's portions of the planet that don't correspond with the map I have, but I just chalked those down to the map being incomplete. I doubt anyone would have the capabilities to map the ENTIRE planet just yet.
I tried manipulating the planet with my hands and found I could do so easily enough, so I spun it around to the island group we're on.
"Evisica, Ert, Edonna, Elir, and Eden." I said, pointing to each island in turn.
"Yes, but what's that got to do with—"
"Just look at them, dude," I interrupted Bullseye. He took his time to look at them, as did Luna.
"They have their landmarks visible on them," said Luna.
"Right you are, Luna. So not only does this map-thing show us a huge amount of planets fuck-knows how far away, it acts like a gateway between them too." A thought crossed my mind. "Let's try something else." I pulled up the Island of Elir, the next one on our stop across these five islands, and enlarged it.
"It cannot be," said Luna
"No way," echoed Bullseye.
"Well guys, it looks like we've got another building on our hands." Sure enough it is another building, but this one looked more like a huge-arse temple than anything else. "Who do you think built it? Bullseye?"
"I'm gonna say humans."
"Luna?"
"I second that."
“I find that assumption to hold water, but it isn't quite gospel just yet. Let's go check it out. Shall we?"
"You bet!" said an enthusiastic Bullseye.
"Woah there cowboy!"
"You mean cowcolt."
"Whatever. Listen, I don't know how this place works so I'll need you to stay behind to keep it open for us. Can you do that for me, Bullseye?"
His breath caught, hung on a tone of silent disbelief escaping his agape jaw.
"But I got left behind on the other island when you and the Princess looked into the other building, Why can't I come with you this time!?"
To which I replied through gritted teeth; "That's because the church, as it's called on Earth, was loaded with human remains. It’s not something I want you seeing, nor should you."
I could see his expression drop from annoyed and irritated, to one of disbelief.
"I'm sorry, I didn't—"
"So can you stay here, please?" Saying please wanting to be polite, it was more for the emphasis of having him stay behind.
"I..." He hesitantly paused. "Uh, yeah, sure..."
"Good. Now Luna, press the button and let us be on our way." She reached out and pressed the button with the tip of her hoof. The room glossed over and I saw a cobblestone path overrun with vines, weeds, and trees. I stepped through, expecting to find more human remains at the temple up ahead.