Painted Mirror

by Lord of Turtles


Book Two: Blackhand Rajrishi

Deep in the Everfree, far beyond the bramble thickets and shrouding canopies, Raj was stalking his lunch.

He slowly crept along a fallen tree-trunk ten meters thick, careful to avoid a scrape or knock that would alert the animals below. With the utmost care, we worked his way along, trying to reach the other side of the oblivious animals.

Sweat beaded off of him steadily and the air felt thick in his lungs it was so humid. Sticky sweat ran into his eyes and he struggled to resist the temptation to wipe it out with his dirty hands. The oppressive heat was cut only by a generous layer of mud slathered over his back and chest.

At his elevation he was able to scan the herd of giant boars that were rummaging for food. After a minute he was able to pick an excellent target: a fat sow, thickly furred and with no piglets. She was blowing her coat, but the previous layer was still clinging to her body. She was perfect for his purposes.

He waited patiently, staring at the small herd of animals, waiting for his mark to lower her head to root for something to eat. As soon as she did, he bounded off the log, clearing fifteen feet from a start and hit the ground in a sprint.

All the boars snapped their heads on him and started scampering, scattering to the winds. His target tried to stay with the group but Raj sprang to the side and cut her off. She bounced from her turn and started pulling straight away from him and the rest of her herd. Raj followed as fast as he could, desperate to keep her in sight.

After a few hundred yards she dropped into a ravine and slewed to the left, cloven hooves scrabbling on the sandy loam. Raj pivoted off of a thin birch tree and fell into it a second after her, never losing speed. He kept his shoulder along the one side of the ravine to ward her off from trying to get out and the higher ridge of the other side kept her from just bounding out that way. For the time being, she was trapped in the ravine with only one way to go.

The flat ground favored the boar and her little legs churned up the soil madly. He kept pace with her, trying to avoid exhausting himself. He kept his breath even and steady to avoid a crash. He couldn't afford that.

The path they ran was long and unforgiving. The sun streamed down with uncloaked radiance and heat seemed to lift off of the ground hot enough to distort the air. It was an inconvenient discomfort for Raj, but it was devastating to the sow. Within five miles she was slowing down and wheezing hard enough Raj could hear it behind her.

He pressed forward and drew an ax, intent on putting the hog down. The boar surprised him though and managed to put in one last burst of power and leaped to the side, scrabbling up the embankment with frenzied motions. Raj cursed and jumped at her, hooking his ax on a trunk to haul himself up.

His haste was misplaced. The creature's mad climb was the last drop of gas it had in the tank. He saw it standing maybe ten steps from the ravine, head down and panting with its tongue out. As he walked forward she collapsed with a tired grunt and shivered. He took care of her with one quick swing.

Not for the first time, Raj thought about how lucky it was he liked the Discovery Channel so much. If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have ever known that persistence hunting was a thing.

He went about the grisly business of field-dressing her and took off her head. He shouldered her now lighter body and started back to the camp, humming a pleased tune. For him, the best part about returning to the Everfree was the fact that he could eat meat again.

Raj had run across boars in his whole tenure in the Everfree before, but the exceptional size of the creatures and their hooves led Raj to think they might be sentient. Discussions with Zecora on the subject were not illuminating, leading him to believe that the aloof Zebra didn't know. Rather than risk eating a thinking being, he left them alone. He'd had it confirmed inadvertently by Applejack that they were just wild animals like anything else in the Everfree, so he'd been going after them whenever his larder was low. This was the third one he'd hunted since returning to the Everfree.

The walk back to camp was long, quiet, and quite boring. Raj loved every minute of it.

The little clearing he called home hadn't changed much when he returned to it from Sweet Apple Acres. An intrepid raccoon had taken up residence in his car and something had stolen his firewood, but other than that the place was more or less the same as he left it.

He nailed the hog's back legs to a tree to let it drain and then set to building a fire. He rolled a fallen log from further up the hill and hacked it into manageable pieces with the Apple Axes. Once they were stacked he scraped the butts of the blades against each other and kicked off a spray of golden sparks. They landed on the wood and burned blackened pinholes, setting the logs aflame with scarcely any effort.

Raj smiled “Useful things, these axes.”

With gross familiarity he began butchering the huge sow. He sliced the thick tenderloin from its back and removed the legs wholesale. He peeled the butt clear of the carcass and chopped the ribs out. He looked at the hanging carcass and frowned. There was still a lot of meat left on it, but he didn't have the means to store the remainder. A big part of what he'd taken would go bad anyway.

He speared the tenderloin on the pointiest stick he had and suspended it over the fire. In minutes thick runnels of fat were dripping into the fire and sizzled on the coals. He hacked off chunks of the succulent meat and wolfed them down. By the time he was done almost a third of the meat was gone.

What he didn't eat he put in the cooler for later, and what didn't fit there he wrapped in the boar's skin and hid in his trunk. The carcass he disposed of in the river to keep any scavengers from coming around.

He laid down on the rough bed in the cab of his car to hide from the mid-morning heat and tried to rest. He would need the energy, for tonight he was going for a run.

* * *

Raj sprinted through the gloomy thickets, axes held up and ready. All around him, the forest was covered in thick shadows.

The Everfree was a different place at night. Deadlier and lacking constraint or pretense. Nothing tried to hide itself or act with any sort of rule or obligation. The monsters were simply monsters and didn't care what or who knew it. Creatures that ruled the forest in the day would hide come nightfall, giving way to the truly terrifying beasts that called the dark home.

Beasts like the Cockatrice that was currently chasing him.

He could still hear faint squawking and the ruffling of feathers as the creature flew after him. He'd stumbled upon a grove of stone creatures in his searching of the Everfree and had disturbed the gestalt creature in the process. He briefly glanced into its eyes and he immediately felt his feet go leaden. He slashed at the creature and started to hobble away with his eyes clamped shut.

Distance seemed to help as the feeling of petrification faded the further he got from the creature. He kept running long after he couldn't hear the Cockatrice any more.

He peeled off his boots and checked his feet, terrified of finding his toes turned to granite or pumice. Thankfully that was not the case, and aside from an odd layer of stone dust in his shoe he found nothing amiss with his limbs. Muttering, he scooped more of Zecora's green oil from its jar and spread it on his shoulders in the hope that it would keep further creatures away. That only left him with the problem of being completely lost.

His blind retreat through the Everfree left him completely off from his designated path and he was not willing to risk going back the way he came. That only left one option.

Leaping up to the lowest branch, Raj started to climb the tallest tree he could find. When a handhold wasn't present, he hacked an ax into the trunk and pulled himself up with that. His ascent disturbed an odd, three-winged bird that voiced its displeasure with basso shrieks, but he ignored that as best as he was able. In no time at all, he was at the top.

Gazing out at the Everfree canopy, he couldn't help but be struck by it. Spreading before him was a soft carpet of silver-limned blackness, rolling with glittering moonlight as the wind danced across the treetops. Far off in the distance he could make out the looming mega-trees that sprang up in the north. To the south he saw the forest thicken into the dense canopied pseudo-jungle before it sharply gave way to the flat mucky swamps, to his sight it was simply a dropoff into pure shadow. Far above, the sky was alive with thousands of stars. The horizon streaked with the light of a galaxy and sparkling spots of nebulae shown with beautiful pinks and blues.

Despite everything that had happened, Raj still liked Equestria.

He only took a minute to appreciate the beauty of the scenery before he started looking for his marker in the sky. Once that was found, he was able to orient himself. He did some math in his head and was able to piece together a rough idea of where he was.

The starry sky was one of the major reasons he started exploring at night. Navigating the Everfree during the day was an exercise in memorization and gradual frustration. There were no major landmarks, no regular trails in the Everfree. Even if there were, he'd pass by them one day and never see them again as he was searching the place and would have no reason to go back. At night it was cooler, less creatures were about, and he could navigate using Equestria's stars.

He started to climb down when he stopped and did a double-take at the roof of the forest spread before him. He squinted, trying to determine if he was imagining things. After a few seconds he determined he was not. A light was shining from beneath the canopy, a soft white light.

The other reason he searched at night was that light, any amount of light, would show for miles all around

He descended his perch in almost a freefall and set off running as soon as his feet were on the ground. He vaulted trees and sprang over gullies, his breath coming in excited bursts. Hope fluttered in his chest, thudding and burning.

He covered the miles quickly, the starlight showing the way to his prize. After an hour of pure running he saw it.

It was nestled in the center of a grove of maple trees, tucked off on its own in a small clearing. It was larger, half again his height and as thick as his thigh at the bases. This one glowed brighter, but with the same hue of light and warmth of presence.

It was an Arch. He'd finally found another Arch.

Raj's knees gave out and his axes fell from his hands, hanging loose on their cords. He fell forward and let out shuddering breaths, relief rolling off of him in waves. He let out a cry of excitement and moved towards it, half-crawling and half-ambling.

He ran his hands along the bark like he'd done before, feeling the soft warmth that he'd already started to forget. He released a quiet giggle and did it again, and then again. He sat down and leaned against it, enjoying the subtle heat of the bark and the peaceful glow.

He stayed that way for a while, head bowed in prayer and weeping with joy.

* * *

He made his way back, a giddy hop in his step.

Raj started figuring out what he needed to pack and what he needed to do. He'd need to find a water source near the Arch and figure out his food situation. He wouldn't be able to bring his car so he'd have to build a shelter for himself and he wasn't sure what that would entail. Everything of value from his smashed vehicle would need to be salvaged, no point in leaving anything behind.

Then there was the actual act of getting everything there. The new Arch was deep, deep in the Everfree, miles beyond anywhere he'd gone. Raj moved fast, especially given the terrain, and he ended up taking a roundabout path to get there, but he still guessed that there was about six hours of travel between his camp and the new Arch. Moving there would be an endeavor of days or even weeks.

All of his pragmatic plans were regularly interrupted by excited muttering and breathless laughter. He imagined using the Arch to finally get home, the looks on his family's faces and the incredible stories he'd have to tell.

He was so caught up in his imaginings, he didn't even notice the new presence at his camp when he stumbled into it the next day and sat on his trunk.

A small hoof tapped against the side of his car and he looked up. The pony smiled and said “Hi, my name is-”

He smiled back and interrupted “Twilight Sparkle.”