Wild Magic

by Detsella Morningdew

Chapter 1: A Whole New World

Ryan just barely braced himself with his hands as he tumbled onto the rough stone floor.

"What the hell?"

If the sudden lack of solidity in his bathroom mirror didn't wake him up already, the sudden, piercing chill of the stone slabs definitely did.

At the same time, he was struck with odd sensations which made the whole scene surreal. The first thing he noticed was the lack of sound.

Nothing was this quiet, even in the fairly small city he lived in. He didn't live near some highway, and even his neighbors weren't particularly loud.

But he was suddenly and irrevocably in the middle of nowhere, and it was immediately apparent. This didn't feel like any dream he had ever been in before.

Another thing was the smell. He had been in attics before, and recognized the musty smell of stored antiques. But the slight breeze smelled faintly of a recent rain.

There was no way that a dream was like this. Certainly not something this specific and intense.

He quickly scanned the room he was in, but he soon ignored the weathered walls and light pouring through the cracks in the clearly ancient building. Instead his eyes were focused entirely on the only familiar thing in the room - a plain, unremarkable oval mirror. The one that had been hanging over his bathroom sink and now rested haphazardly against a stone wall among other rotting and forgotten objects.

Reaching out slowly, Ryan let his fingers touch the mirror once again. It shimmered faintly, startling him enough to snatch his hand back.

Is this really happening to me? he thought to himself. I get spirited away to some fantasy world, like Narnia or something? True, it could be possible that he was simply in some remote part of Europe, in a castle in the middle of nowhere.

But even that required him to have traveled thousands of miles in an instant. And this silence... it was absolute.

Hesitating slightly, he brought his head down to the mirror, closing his eyes before letting it pass through smoothly.

He was suddenly assaulted by the violent mediocrity of his apartment bathroom.

A sense of relief flooded him, the tension that had been building in his body releasing as he realized that he could indeed get back home.

But as soon as the normalcy imposed itself back on his mind, it suddenly raced.

He had long ago rejected his childhood fantasies, replacing passions for knights and dragons with the kind of drive that got him through college and landed him a solid job.

Yet here he was, with the opportunity of a lifetime. Here he was, with his own little "wardrobe." A place to escape the problems and responsibilities from everyday life.

There were no delusions that he would stay in this strange place. Even in Narnia, the most somebody stayed was... okay, it was a long time. But there was that time difference thing. They didn't just abandon their old life.

He would be back for work on Monday.

Ryan actually stifled a giggle as he pulled his head back through. He still almost didn't believe it, even with everything right in front of his face.

He had a magic mirror, and the place he came out was most definitely a castle.

He skipped around the room with an almost reckless abandon. Of course, since he got out of bed only about five minutes ago, his pajamas were most certainly not suited for a romp in a medieval fantasy world. Or his fuzzy slippers. But at the moment, he did not exactly feel like going back to his dingy apartment just for a change of clothes.

If he thought about it more clearly, there was no way he was going to spend the entire day in clothes so thin, but right now, the only thought in his mind was that he had to see this castle from the outside.

And also that the moss looked really interesting.

And was that a forest he saw through that crack in the wall?

He did make it out of the room eventually, as there didn't seem to be a door to bar his path. Though he spent a few seconds looking at the horribly rusted hinges still stuck firmly into the stone jamb. Or archway. Or whatever it was called in castles. The shape looked Gothic. He knew that much.

It was quite clear this castle was abandoned long ago. This didn't bother him, though. Most stories he read about hopping dimensions into a fantasy world started in a wilderness of sorts. And one of those was definitely near a ruined castle.

Though he had to admit that just the Narnia series was a pretty low sample size to go off of. He was sure there were others, but none that were immediately memorable.

Right outside the doorway, though, was a set of stairs, which struck him as rather odd. There were no other rooms, no corridors, just a small flight of stairs that led down to this almost empty room.

Uncertainly, he climbed them, shortly finding himself in a wide, expansive room. Right behind one of two objects that were unmistakably thrones.

The thrones, and rather, the room's other decorations, were rather lavish, but not gaudy, as he might expect to find with royalty. And instead of a family crest, the only images he could find were of a simple sun and moon motif.

But most strangely of all was that the thrones were in rather good condition - almost untouched, in fact. Yet that doorway in that room downstairs was rotted to the point where he couldn't even find a trace of the door.

There were even tapestries on the walls here.

He couldn't even say that they were untouched by the elements, either, as they all had wear. Most likely from the gaping holes in the walls and ceiling. And he couldn't put his finger on it, but all the damage in this ruined castle seemed a bit... out of place.

Still, Ryan couldn't exactly say that he'd even seen a ruined castle before. Maybe all those fantasy artists just got it wrong.

Or maybe something went wrong here.

His mind kept returning to the rusted hinges that were all that remained of a wooden door. No matter what might have happened, it was far too long ago to worry about now.

But now that about a third of his field of view was opened to the great outdoors, and the chill of the air was starting to pierce through his thin polyester pajamas, Ryan suddenly decided that maybe the exploring could wait for a bit. Maybe when he got some proper clothes. And maybe even camping gear, if he really was going to spend the night.

I mean, it's not like anybody at work is going to believe me, but staying overnight in a ruined castle? I would have put it on my bucket list, but it would have been too unrealistic.

He shuffled his feet more comfortably into his slippers before walking back behind the throne and down the stairs, still a little giddy, and still a bit overwhelmed. He certainly wasn't a guy that fawned over gold or jewelry, but seeing real, ancient art up close, and seeing gold and silver being used so elegantly was... almost a little frightening. Those were things he saw in pictures and museums, and now they were real. Real and touchable, in their natural place.

And as the plain, unobtrusive mirror came back into his sight, leaned casually against a castle wall, he was suddenly shaken with how alien everything really was.

He had a portal in his bathroom mirror.

He wasn't in Europe, in some historic site. He was somewhere new, possibly a different planet, and was viewing something never before seen...

This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a vacation.

As he placed his hand back on the mirror, an electric shock ran through him.

The mirror was solid.

Author's Note:

I haven't tried a Human in Equestria story for a long time. (Not only am I often terrible at them, but I had realized that often, a purely pony story will work just fine for most story concepts.) But I found a concept just interesting enough to warrant a human character, and more importantly, was passionate enough about it to commit to writing about it.

Comments

[Gravity012]

Oof, yeah . It’s always a problem when your portal stops portalling.

[StarzGecko]

Nothing besides Narina? Lord of the Rings dude

[ARC190]

wow, just judging from this first chapter, this story's got potential, not just because the idea presented in the description is interesting, but because for once, the way the human got stranded is actually interesting. and on top of that, the writing seems competent

[Verdauga]

Mmm, I am interested.

[Greenhorn]

The mirror was solid.

Oop, the visiting time was over.

[Rorboster]

10158356
The free trial period expired

[Moonlight_Mist]

9987536
Isn't that just the worst? And it happens all the time, too. You'd think Magical Portal Maintenance would be its own number in the Arcane Assistance Hotline's Telephone Directory with how often it crops up, but nope. You gotta hit 2 for enchantments, then 3 for spatial anomalies, then you have to wait for a customer service rep to pick up, and then you have to explain that you have a magical portal in need of a reboot. Let's not forget the need to have the spell's name, the caster's name, and information about the anchor such as item, the size of the enchanted material compared to the item as a whole by both mass and area, and the identification of the enchanted material in both its common and arcane listings, all ready to be given to the rep so the reboot can be 'properly attuned to your individual needs'. And of course if you have a pre-installed portal, you won't have that information so you have to give them the name of the company or independent seller so they can contact them and then they say they'll get back to you. It's all such a mess. But of course, I'm talking about customer service, and it always seems like they have a minimum quota of time keeping customers on the phone with how roundabout everything is. Guess it's just par for the course. They can never just send a guy out.

[nekoparalover]

I'm just gonna say im excited to read this story not only because i like the description and start, but because this is one of the most biased like to dislike ratios ive seen in awhile. should be good

[Wellivazey]

9988516
It took me a while to track copies down but "The Varayan Memoirs" was a fantastic series with this kinda concept.

[OPMew]

And also that the moss looked really interesting.

You could say that it. looked. Delicious. #reference