Trixie travels through the San Palomino
Trixie had been traveling for about four days now, the heat of the San Palomino desert making it a sweltering and exhausting journey. She had made the trip before, so she wasn’t lost, nor was she worried about running out of water, but when you were your own source of power for the trip, it was tiring. Her wagon was an integral part of her show, having been custom ordered, so she wasn’t going to leave it behind. She was itinerant, not homeless. She just couldn’t ride the rails like so many others could.
Oh, she’d done it once, but when all you have are a few supplies and no place to set up your show, your performance becomes limited. So she’d bought the wagon, had it built with all sorts of tricks and spaces in mind, and had her own personal stage. A beautiful stroke of genius if she said so herself. Which she did. Frequently.
But pulling such a beast around, especially further south, became a tiring prospect, leaving her sweaty, tired, and a bit of a mess. It wasn’t all bad, because it meant she could arrive in a town, leave her wagon to advertise for her while she freshened up, then, when all the ponies had gathered together, make a grand entrance! Also a stroke of genius, if she did say so herself. Which she did.
Four days in the San Palomino desert were murder, though. The sun hat she was wearing did little to stop the heat, even if it stopped the sun. She could see Applewood in the distance, but that didn’t mean much. At her current pace it could take her another day or so to reach it. There should have been a smaller town at an oasis somewhere out here, but she hadn’t spotted it yet. It may have been abandoned. That happened out here in the desert.
Trixie kept plodding slowly along as night fell. It was easier to travel at night with the heat, but she had to be careful. She had two spare wheels, but it was still risky to travel in the dark, and her horn would only light up so much. Not to mention the dangerous wildlife. She took calculated risks, and so she only traveled a short time into dusk, until the darkness became absolute, then she slept through the darkest hours, woke up and traveled during the morning hours when it was still relatively cool, then slept during the hottest hours of the day, and picked it up again during evening. Smart traveling if she did say so herself. Which she did.
Tonight looked to be a very auspicious night for her as well. Clouds had moved in from the west, and they looked to be rather dark. That could mean rain during the night or early tomorrow morning! In preparation, Trixie made sure that her wagon was set up on solid ground, and the wheel locks were firmly in place. She shored up the wheels with some carefully placed wooden wedges, took one last look at the cloudy sky, and climbed inside. She had earned a good rest. She washed her face, pulled down her cot, and went to sleep.
She was awoken during the night by the sound of thunder directly overhead, accompanied by extremely heavy rainfall. Sure enough, it had rained as she had rightly predicted. She had no idea how early or late in the morning it was, as the black clouds prevented all but the most stubborn light coming through. It would be foolish to travel during this storm anyway. She laid back down and tried to rest, but the constant thunder kept her awake.
Trixie decided instead to make some good use of the rain, since she couldn’t sleep. She pulled out all of the empty water barrels and other containers she had and dragged them outside. She was soaking wet almost immediately, but she needed the bath anyway. Her wet mane was plastered to her neck, and her tail was dragging in the mud, but she got all the barrels into place next to the wagon, and looked up at the sky.
It was angry and black, with flashes of light making a constant appearance as they criss-crossed the clouds, clashing with each other in the darkness. They fired their bolts back and forth, a celestial game of catch until one would inevitably drop the ball down to Equestria itself, a spike of lightning briefly connecting the ground with the sky. Sights like these were what made traveling so amazing for Trixie. Not many ponies got to see these sorts of things, and so her stories were that much more amazing for them. Only the greatest and most powerful would dare travel Equestria alone, and that was her. The Great and Powerful Trixie.
She watched for a while longer, unable to see much in between the brief flashes of light. She looked across the landscape to the horizon, and she thought she saw something moving across the desert. A pony? Wildlife? She squinted and waited for the next flash of lightning. In the momentary illumination, she saw a square-ish outline on the horizon. Not too far away from her, actually. It looked like buildings. Possibly that small town she had missed before that connected Appleloosa and Applewood. If so, that was good. She could pick up some food and maybe earn a little cash depending on how rich they were. She hadn’t run into any other trading caravans or anything crossing the desert, so she wouldn’t be surprised if it had been mostly abandoned. Always a risk with places like these, especially with the trains.
Trixie lashed the barrels to her wagon so any errants gusts of wind wouldn’t blow them away before they were full enough, and stepped back inside. She was soaked, and she’d have to air the wagon out in the morning so mildew wouldn’t set in, but she had more water, a shower, and the location of a town for the morning. Hopefully not an abandoned one. She toweled off and laid back down, trying to get comfortable and ignore the thunder.
She didn’t have long to wait, as desert storms can come and go at a whim, and soon there was nothing but the pattering of rain and the occasional quiet rumble instead of the vibrating bass kaboom of the thunder. Trixie covered herself up, and slept for a few more hours. She needed to be up with the sun in order to keep the watering from evaporating.
Come morning, Trixie felt the rays of the sun drape over her muzzle and pulled herself out of bed. It was already getting quite warm, and she wanted to make it to that town before noon. If they had a tavern or something, that would be absolutely perfect. She could maybe have a proper bath and get a nice cider. Take a bit of a rest before continuing the trek to Applewood. Big cities were always hit or miss for bits, and she usually had to perform outside of town. Thankfully there were plenty of farming villages nearby, so she could make a nice circuit around the place before trying to get into a venue in Applewood proper. She only performed at professional establishments rarely, since she didn’t want to get tied down to a single place. The roving life had perks that couldn’t be found in a city or village, and she intended to enjoy them. Like that desert storm last night.
Trixie sealed the barrels and pulled them back inside the wagon. Looked like she’d gained several inches of water, which was excellent. If the village was abandoned, she didn’t have to worry. She could stop, look around, then continue on her way. No big deal. Once everything was securely fastened inside the wagon, Trixie hitched herself up, put on her traveling hat and cloak for when she arrived at the village, and headed for it.
The village she had seen last night looked a lot bigger than it had seemed during the brief lightning flashes. There were multi-level homes made of what looked like adobe, and they were all clustered pretty tightly together. Her memory was excellent, because she was The Great and Powerful Trixie, but this didn’t look like the town she had passed through the last time. It’s true that the village might have been abandoned, destroyed, and then a new one built in its place, but the last one had wooden buildings, and there was a street passing through the middle of town, with the well in the center. These were set up in a circle. She couldn’t see the opposite side, but there was no opening for a passing wagon, stagecoach, or even any ponies to enter the town through. It seemed like it was trying to keep ponies out.
Trixie was never one for giving up, however, and before passing on to Applewood, she intended to investigate the town. Insular towns were usually pretty rich with special resources they tended to hoard. Resources she could sell as oddities and curios elsewhere. One time, she found a small town that excelled at scrimshaw. She accepted them as currency for her entertainment, took them to a faraway city inland and sold them for exorbitant prices to rich ponies. They loved hoofmade things.
Trixie pulled her wagon around the edge of the town. It wasn’t very big, but there was still a lot of ground to cover. It took her a while, but she circled the town until she found a small pony-sized entrance. It was literally pony-sized. A larger pony would have to squeeze to fit inside, and Bulk Biceps definitely wouldn’t fit. Mind you, he could just fly in, being a Pegasus, but that was beside the point. Trixie decided she should try to introduce herself before entering without being invited.
“Good day to you, mares and gentlecolts! I, The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie, have come to astound and amaze you! To show you spells that beggar belief and bespell! To impress upon you the impossible, and to muster momentous magicks! Come and see, The Grrrrrreat, and Powerful, Trixie!” Trixie shouted at the mudbrick walls.
Trixie posed at the end of her spiel announcing herself, and waited, cape pulled across her torso, waiting for somepony to appear on top of the walls. Nopony appeared, and there wasn’t even as much as the sound of hoofsteps. This didn’t bode well for her shower and cider. Trixie slowly dropped back down to all four hooves and locked her wagon wheels. She trotted over to the small entrance and looked inside.
There wasn’t much in the tunnel, but it was rather long, and she saw a well in the middle of the town, so that was good. Nopony was guarding it, so she shrugged and walked inside. Her hat bent down from the roof above her head, but there was nothing else wrong with it, no matter how odd this whole scene was. She entered the ringed village proper, and looked around, seeing nothing and nopony. The doors into each house were covered with curtains or reed doors on multiple levels, some homes having been built on top of others. The well in the center had a bucket sitting on the ledge, and oddly enough, was clean.
Trixie moved closer to the well in the center, checking left and right and keeping her ears perked for any sort of noise. There didn’t seem to be anypony here at all, though, which was quite the disappointment. No ponies meant no extra bits, and definitely no bath or cider. Maybe the well was still good. The bucket looked spotless, with no sand having built up in or around it, and the rope attached to it still looked to be in good condition, with minimal fraying. That at least meant ponies had been here fairly recently.
“Hello? Trixie is also a simple… well… not that simple, but you know what I mean. I’m a traveler, headed to Applewood. Trixie has goods to trade if a show does not interest you.” Trixie said. Still there was no response.
Well, if there was nopony here, maybe she could scavenge a few things from the ruins of what must have once been a town. No sense letting anything useful go to waste out here in the middle of the desert. And if anypony still lived here, well, they really shouldn’t have left the town all by itself. It wasn’t her fault she thought it was abandoned.
Trixie hefted the bucket and looked down the well. It was deep, that much was obvious, and the sun hadn’t yet risen high enough for her to determine what was at the bottom, so she tossed the bucket down. The rope played out for some distance, then there was a clunk and it stopped uncoiling. No water. The place was definitely abandoned. Water was an important resource in the desert for obvious reasons, and without it, any town would dry up just like the well. They probably didn’t have any unicorns around to locate more. What a pity.
Trixie left the well and headed toward the largest of the houses. The door was wood, and quite solid, and upon her magic first pushing it, proved to be locked or barred. From the inside, as there was no obvious lock or bar she could see from her current vantage point. Trixie put her head up to the crack in the door and tried to see inside, but it was far too dark, and she couldn’t make anything out except some shadows that appeared deeper than others. There was only a sliver of light going in around her head, which wasn’t enough illumination to tell her anything.
Trixie pulled away, but something caught her eye. She put her face back to the door, and moved her head in circles, trying to spot it again. Something had glimmered briefly inside. It took a moment, but she got her head in the right position to see that something inside was reflecting a small portion of the light. It was tough to make out, but it was shiny, and that was enough for Trixie. She wanted it.
“You cannot hide from The Great and Powerful Trixie. I see you in there, and I’ll have you.” Trixie said.
She pulled her head away from the door and looked at the neighbouring houses. The houses were all flush with their neighbours, so that meant that was one to the left, right, and one on top. If this was a community in the way she was expecting, there would be passageways connecting each house to the next, at least in some cases. This being the biggest house, it might have belonged to the leader of the village, and that might mean more privacy, but there was only one way to find out, and that meant breaking and entering. Especially to get that shining thing.
Trixie went left first, not willing to climb up the dry and rickety ladder that lead up to the rooftops. The house on the left had a cloth door dangling limp, which was easy to push aside. Trixie stepped into the house, her tall hat brushing against the top of the door, and lit up her horn for a better look.
The inside of the house was actually quite clean, with a small countertop, and an old wooden table. No chairs or other seats, but a few cushions piled in a corner. There was also one wall, the one on the side she had wanted to go through into the biggest house, that was covered with a large tapestry from corner to corner. It was an expensive-looking work, depicting ponies in the middle, surrounded on all sides by what appeared to be mirrors. Ponies seemed to be coming out of the mirrors to join those in the middle. It wasn’t particularly decayed, and the art was nice. It would probably fetch quite a few bits to the right buyer.
Trixie decided to take it. It felt a shame to leave such a nice craft out here in the middle of the desert to rot away. Especially one that was so expensive. No matter the art, hoof-crafted objects always sold for a lot. Her magic carefully removed it from the pegs on the walls, and slowly rolled it up. After it was off the wall, she noticed a full-length mirror hidden behind it. Tall enough to reach the roof, and wide enough for two ponies to stand side by side.
This was a bit odd. Mirrors were common enough, but to have such a large one out in the middle of the desert? That was a bit strange. She would have expected maybe a hoof mirror or a standing mirror about the size of a pony. Not one twice as big.
Trixie examines the mirror, moving closer to inspect it. The surface seemed to be almost flawless. There weren’t any blemishes she could see, and the edges were smooth and sharp. Her reflection was clean and unwarped, meaning the entire thing was the ideal mirror.
“Well now. Trixie would take you if she could, but my wagon is not built to transport sheets of glass.” She said. “Still, I’m impressed. I wonder where one would get a mirror of this quality?”
Trixie looked at her reflection in the mirror for a moment longer, fixed her mane, cleaned up her fur, and adjusted her hat and cape. After she was satisfied, she turned away and took the tapestry outside and placed next to the exit. She’d pile up everything she found and take it all out to her wagon once she was satisfied she’d taken everything she wanted. Once the tapestry was down, she moved on to the next house in line. She’d go in a circle so to avoid getting confused, then go in the same circle up above. Keep it all neat and orderly.
The next house was similar to the last with furniture. She found a couple of small figurines that she determined she would take, but the odd part of this building was that this one had a simple sheet covering one wall. She took it down to see what was behind it, and was surprised to see another mirror. She didn’t want the sheet, and she certainly couldn’t take the mirror, but it was strange to see that the houses shared a desire for a wall-covering mirror. It was of similar quality: No blemishes, warping, or dust. Clean and near perfect in every way. It was strange, and a little unsettling. Two for two on the mirrors she’d seen so far. Trixie gave the mirror a curious glance, then moved on to the next house.
The next house was different, with more colourful decorations which were still quite vibrant, meaning that they hadn’t been abandoned for a significant amount of time yet. It made you wonder if they might be coming back, but with so many houses there should have been at least one pony left as a guard or something. In the middle of nowhere when the well was dry probably wasn’t the most amazing life. Trixie hadn’t even seen any gardens or other food sources yet so she didn’t imagine any pony would want to hang out here for too long by themselves.
Trixie nabbed a large high-quality quilt off the wall, and wasn’t actually very surprised to see yet another mirror. It was again of exceptional quality, and covered a large portion of one of the walls. It was getting honestly unsettling that every house so far had one of these mirrors in it. They were strange in a very odd way she couldn’t quite place, and seemed completely out of place here in this village.
Trixie had a thought, and raced to the next house. She checked both walls, found a sheet covering it, and lifted up a corner. Sure enough, there was a mirror behind it. She left that one and moved to the next house, which had piled up furniture to cover the wall, and behind it sat a mirror. Every house she went inside, had a mirror covering one of the walls and every single one had been covered up. Trixie felt a chill run down her spine at the implications and galloped back to her pile of goods. She picked up the quilt and the tapestry, and hurried back to the three houses she had first checked. She hung the quilt back up, lifted the sheet back into place, and slung the tapestry back up to the pegs it had been on.
Trixie was not by nature a rather superstitious pony. Living on the road left her with nothing but her wits and her own efforts to make sure she was in good health and that she got where she was going in one piece. She trusted her gut, and right now, her gut was telling her something was bad news about those mirrors. The chill up her spine hadn’t gone away after covering the mirrors, and although she attributed it more to her own fear than anything else, she was still wary. They’d been covered up for a reason, and whether that was a supernatural reason or not remained to be seen.
Trixie glanced at the tapestry, and at the tiny bit of mirror peeking out from behind it. Had she covered it up enough? Some of the houses didn’t have it fully covered, leaving a small spot here and there uncovered, so she assumed the important part was that it was just mostly covered. She left the house, and looked around at the buildings again.
The houses were arranged in a circle, with nothing but the small entrance providing egress from the arrangement. From her earlier walk around the town, all the houses faced inward, so the only way in was either to fly, climb the house walls, or come in through the entrance. Was the entrance important, though? Did it have something to do with the superstition involving the mirrors? Had she upset the magical equilibrium of the place somehow by entering? She really didn’t want to be cursed. She especially didn’t want to drag some curse with her when she left. She’d have to do a quick reading before she went anywhere. Luckily, all the items she needed to perform it were contained in her cloak. She used them in her shows as well, so it worked out.
Trixie pulled out her deck of cards and shuffled it quickly. She then flipped over the first few in order, placing them on the ground before her. She hemmed and hawed at the possible results, then picked them up and placed them back in her cloak.
She never truly trusted her readings, but ponies liked to hear it sometimes, and it was a good extra few bits for a minimal amount of work. It helped her clear her own head while she did it, too. Some idle work while she considered her options. She resolved to go ahead and investigate the rest of the houses, but leave all the mirrors she found covered up. Hopefully she could find some sort of documentation that explained what had happened here, and why the ponies all had mirrors. If something bad had happened, she would hopefully experience the effects by then, or she would assume it had passed her over.
Trixie was nothing if not responsible, so she went slowly through the houses on the bottom again, looking for some documentation or other writings that might explain the mirrors she had found and why they were covered. Strangely, there was no writing to be seen anywhere in the houses she checked. There were plenty of drawings, artwork, carvings, figurines, and other things, but no writing whatsoever. There wasn’t even anything used for writing, neither quills nor paper. Absolutely nothing useful for putting down thoughts was available in any of the houses. The whole think stank, and she didn’t like the smell of it. It reeked of malicious purpose of one kind or another, and if the mirrors in every house were any indication, she was willing to bet that had something to do with it. She just needed to find out what.
Trixie still hadn’t found an entrance into the biggest house, and the locked front door prevented her from investigating, so now the only place left was the house built on top of it. The ladder was rickety, and creaked ominously when she put a hoof on it, but it held. She clambered up the ladder, and stepped into the house. The sun was reaching noon, so the shadows inside were heavy, and the heat was creeping in the open window.
Inside this house, there was a dry and rotten length of burlap covering one wall. Trixie could see a reflective surface behind it, which she assumed must be the mirror every house had. She wasn’t going to check any further. What she was looking for was an entrance like a trapdoor or hatch that would lead down to the building below. She wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a full house or an attic for the house underneath, but she was hoping. The building was barred from the inside, so there had to be some other entrance she could use somewhere.
“It’s what Trixie would do. Magic rule number two: Only let them see…” Trixie looks around the room, and focuses on a corner. “…what you want them to see.”
Underneath several clay pots set up in the corner on top of a small rug, there was a hatch built into the floor. It was locked, but from this side instead.
“Hidden quite well, but nopony tricks The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie crowed.
Trixie pulled out some lockpicks from her cloak and floated them down to the lock. She put her eat up to it and stuck out her tongue as she fiddled with it for a moment, then smiled as she heard the satisfying click of the lock coming open.
“Now to find out the mystery behind this awful mirror village.” Trixie said.
She held the lock in place for a moment longer, looking down at the trapdoor with a frown. Somepony had gone to great effort to lock the place up and hide the entrance. That would seem to indicate that they did not want anypony opening it up again. With everypony in the village gone, and every single piece of documentation missing, what was she supposed to think? The whole setup was confusing and unsettling, and she had no good answers whatsoever. Had she already been cursed and didn’t know it? Nothing had attacked her, so that was a good sign. They really should have smashed the mirrors if they hadn’t wanted anything gone, or at least locked all the doors, but only this building was locked, so that meant it was the source of all the problems in one way or another. Either way, Trixie was Great and Powerful, and she was certain she could handle it. She slipped the lock out, and pulled open the hatch.
Nothing jumped out at her immediately, so she moved her glowing horn closer and shone a beam down into the building below. She got some of her answers immediately, as possibly every missing book, paper, document, and other writing utensil was piled up inside this house. Twisting her head around and leaning further down, she could see the pile in the center was haphazard, meaning the pony who did it didn’t care where they landed, just that they were in here and locked up. A curious thing to do. She also noted that this house, compared to all the rest, had no mirror inside it. The walls were bare, the floor uncovered, and the roof was empty. The mirror was upstairs, though, so they probably just didn’t see a need to have one in the big building. Still an important discovery.
Once she was satisfied that there was nothing immediately dangerous inside the house, Trixie slowly climbed down the ladder into the room. Besides the pile of books, there was a bed in one corner, which was unmade, a chest which was open and filled with clothes and knick-knacks, and a writing desk in the corner opposite the bed. There was a small pot of ink that was opened on the desk, and a quill laying nearby. Trixie made her way over to the writing desk and checked the pot of ink. It was still liquid, despite having been sitting open. That meant somepony had been using it recently.
“What in Equestria happened here?” Trixie said, lowering the pot of ink back to the desk.
Trixie finally turned to the pile of books, papers, and other stationery sitting in the middle of the room. Without knowing where to start, she just picked up a piece of parchment near the edge of the pile and started reading.
“Dear Dust Storm
It’s been a day since we made it to town. Swaying Palms is a lovely village, and everypony here is incredibly friendly. We’ve already made several friends among the folks living here, and the Mayor has called together a small festival to celebrate our arrival. It’s supposed to be a rather small affair, but they’ll be sharing food, and we’ll have a small dance in the village common area around the well. The water here is amazing, by the way. It’s so clear and clean. It tastes wonderful. The only odd thing is the obsession they have with their reflections. They insisted I have a mirror in my home. I wouldn’t mind, but it’s really big, and it almost covers an entire wall. I suppose I’ll get used to it. I can’t wait to hear from you. If things get too bad, let me know, and we’ll send for you.
Love, Desert Spring.
Trixie looked over the letter a second time. It seemed fairly normal as letters go, so she placed it back in the pile and pulled out another one. This one too, was fairly normal, and also seemed to be a letter written back to somepony outside the village. She pulled out another one, this one with the actual date on it, and Trixie got another chill down her spine. This wasn’t from fear of being watched, however. The letter was dated several months ago, which meant that it hadn’t ever been sent.
Trixie picked up several at the same time and skimmed through them, looking for dates, times, or anything else that would give away a time frame. She managed to find several more that mentioned the date directly on them, and saw dates from months, to a year, to just last week. None of them had ever left the village. It was possible the ponies decided not to send the letters themselves, but the possibility that they had deliberately been hoarded and not sent was quite disturbing.
Trixie finally found a letter than detailed the mirrors themselves, and her fears that somepony had deliberately prevented mail from leaving were affirmed. The description was outlining what she herself had noticed, specifically that they were unblemished and incredibly smooth, and that every house had one. At the bottom, however, was a footnote written in a different script that read: “Congratulate on selection, move further ahead in line. Discourage mirror research.”
Trixie put the letter back in the pile and started looking through the books. The mirrors were the important part of the puzzle here, and if she could figure out what their purpose was, she could get some peace of mind and move on with her life. She didn’t really want to be here, but leaving while cursed would help nopony. Least of all herself. She didn’t want to have to make the trip back here to get un-cursed.
Trixie saw books about grooming, about digging wells, about hoof care, and a myriad of fiction novels, but nothing that stood out that might talk about mirrors. A hooficure manual might include mirrors, but that’s not the kind of mirror help she needed at the moment. She needed to know why the mirrors were so big, and why they might have been included in every house. Was it the shape of the village that as important? The quality of the mirror? The placement? She needed something to work with!
Trixie tore the pile apart looking for a book describing the book, and finally found something that seemed promising. It was a simple journal, with a length of twine holding it closed. She carefully untied the knot, letting the twine drop to the floor and opened it up. The name on the inside was nigh illegible unfortunately, but from what she could see the name was --ad -----r. That told her nothing, so she flipped the page and continued reading. It was an account of a regular pony’s life in a village. Maybe not this one, because the first letter had called it Swaying Palms, while the pony who wrote this journal called his home ‘Singing Reeds’. The town may have changed his name, so that wasn’t too strange. Trixie flipped the page to the next one and read further, seeing what “Ader”, as she was going to call him did in his day-to-day life.
As she read she thought he was a particularly boring pony, until she found out that he worked with glass. With all the sand everywhere, he found it a prime location to make his own, and sell figurines to passing travelers. It was innocent enough work until he was commissioned to make a mirror. The mirror wasn’t the unusual part, as he made those before, but the pony asked for it to be; “completely unblemished, and big enough for a pony to walk through”.
Trixie read over the words describing the mirror again; “Big enough for a pony to walk through”. As a great and powerful unicorn, Trixie could think of dozens of applications for being able to walk through a mirror. But if these were used as transportation, where did they connect to? That would be some extremely powerful magic, and to keep it out here in the middle of the desert? What purpose would that serve?
Trixie read further, more and more questions piling up as she continued. Ader apparently built the mirror to the exacting specifications of his client, and a hefty sum of bits that were invested in their construction. He knew they were going to be enchanted, but he wasn’t told with what kind of enchantment. He suspected it was used for travel, like Trixie did, but he had no idea how and why it would be done. He didn’t seem to understand why anypony would want to come to the middle of the desert, and he never heard mention of any destination where any of the mirrors that left the village went.
Still, the mirrors were apparently very popular, and shortly, everypony in the village wanted one. Ader became quite wealthy, and he built himself a new house. His mirrors were in every house in Singing Reeds, and they’d left town and gone elsewhere, even if he wasn’t privy to where.
Trixie flipped through the pages describing how happy Ader was, how he found himself a wife, and the village prospered. He was very successful, and he was delighted with the fact that his skills were enough to help him live a very soft and comfortable life, filled only with the work he enjoyed so much. Trixie was very happy for him, but he still hadn’t ever mentioned the name of the pony who commissioned the mirrors in the first place.
As time passed and Trixie flipped through the pages, she discovered that things went downhill for Ader after some time. The dates in the journal told her this had all begun several years ago. Ader had built the first mirror about 10 years prior, and after that first one, it had taken four years for ponies to get interested in them, then another few for things to start getting bad. Trixie found a passage describing what seemed to be going on.
“My wife has been telling me our neighbors are complaining of things going missing recently. The difficult part of this would imply that somepony in the village has been doing it. There have been no visitors recently, and items have only gone missing in the past week. Either somepony has been sneaking in and stealing things, or somepony in the village is guilty of it. I don’t want to think poorly of my neighbours, but ponies have been acting strange recently. A lot of them have been avoiding me, and skulking about inside their homes. I suppose I’ve noticed it, but I haven’t thought much of it. I hope it isn’t anything I’ve done that offended them. I don’t suspect it is, but that possibility still remains. I’ll be speaking with Discus about it tomorrow.”
Trixie had no idea who Discus was, but he must have been important. The next entry appeared to be several days later.
“I didn’t want to, but with thefts continuing even while we were discussing them in a town meeting, our hooves were forced. We went from house to house searching for the articles that were stolen. None were found, but the damage was done. We are definitely no longer popular with the town, and they’ve expressed an interest in having us leave. It was the result I feared, and we still haven’t found the culprit. They think it’s us. They haven’t said it, but I’m certain that’s how they feel.”
Trixie flipped forward several more pages, which detail how the ponies of the town were treating Discus, Ader, and his wife after the inspection. Thefts had not stopped, and the townsfolk had insisted they come investigate Discus and Ader’s houses. The townsfolk then found some of the stolen items inside Discus’ house, and Ader was forced to agree. Nopony knew how they had gotten there, but he recognized the items. Ader believed he had been set up, but he couldn’t prove it, nor did he know who would have done it.
Trixie flipped ahead, looking for more information on the mirrors. The mirrors were what was behind all this, she was sure of it, but Ader hadn’t given her enough to work with. Nothing about the enchantment, or what the purpose of it was, or anything! This was useless!
“Trixie is tired of all this speaking around the issue! What is the purpose of the mirrors, you useless book!” Trixie almost tossed the journal back in the pile, but stuffed it in her cloak instead.
She had more questions, and only one answer. It wasn’t even a particularly useful answer. Somepony made the mirrors, and they were enchanted. She only a part of a whole equation. On the other hoof, though, he hadn’t complained about the mirrors directly. Ader had stated he hadn’t put one in his own house, and he didn’t talk about them after their creation. It was curious, but it was the best lead she had. This could potentially be lucrative if the mirrors were actually magical and not cursed as she had assumed. Just a regular old tale of ponies getting upset with their neighbours. There was still the possibility of the mirrors being the cause, but that seemed unlikely at this point. There was still a lot of reading that was piled up in this house, and why it was here was a good question. Yet again, more questions.
Trixie looked at the pile of books and grunted in frustration.
“Bah! The Great and Powerful Trixie does not have time for all this reading! She knows there is magic around here, and she will find it!” Trixie said matter-of-factly.
Trixie went over to the front door of the place that had prevented her from entering normally, and lifted the bar, then unlatched it and opened the door. Now she had free reign of the entire village, and more specifically, free reign to investigate the magical mirrors. Every mirror Ader made was supposed to have been, and that was worth something. That could be worth a lot of somethings to the right ponies, even if the mirrors were going to be difficult to transport.
Trixie stepped back outside the house and went next door to the building with the tapestry. The tapestry was nice, and she could easily sell it, but the mirror was supposedly magical. If she could get it to work, then there would be a hefty sum of bits in it.
“Reveal your secrets to me, mirror!” Trixie pulled the tapestry away, revealing her impeccable reflection.
Trixie looked it over once again, admiring the craftsponyship that went into making it, silently applauding Ader for his work.
She stood looking at it for a moment, then lit her horn and felt the mirror for obvious enchantments. The ones she knew, anyway. Her talent didn’t lie in enchanting things, so this would likely be a lot of trial and error.
Unless…
Trixie’s first thought had been that they used it for travel, so maybe… Trixie reached out a hoof toward the mirror, when something in the background of the reflection caught her eye. There was a pony peering around the doorframe at her. Trixie twisted around, looking back at the door, but there was nothing there.
Trixie turned back around and looked at the reflection of the room again, a little bit wary of the image. The head was still there. Green mane, brown eye, a single ear, and no horn. It was either a Pegasus or an earth pony, but it was just staring at her from the doorway with just one eye. Trixie turned sideways to try to see both the reflection and the doorway near her at the same time, but the pony was only in the reflection.
This was some part of the enchantment then. The mirror was magical, and here was the beginning proof, but what purpose did it serve? So far all it accomplished was to unnerve her.
Trixie kept her body parallel to the mirror so as to not expose her flank to the pony in the doorway.
Trixie pointed a hoof at the pony in the door. “The Grrreat and Powerful Trixie demands to know what you think you’re doing in there!”
The pony in the mirror twitched its ear, but otherwise didn’t move.
At least she knew it was actually alive, or that it could move, at least. She had no idea if being part of a reflection counted as alive. It also seemed to be able to hear her if the ear flick was any indication. It could also have been a coincidence, but that seemed unlikely.
“Why do you live inside this mirror?” Trixie asked.
The pony flicked its ear again, and pulled back behind the doorway.
“Hey! Don’t you leave when Trixie is addressing you!” She yelled.
Trixie raised a hoof and slammed it against the mirror, but screamed when her hoof went through the glass instead of striking it. It was cold, and felt like her hoof was being slashed by dozens of knives at once. She yanked her hoof back and clutched it tightly against her chest. She looked down at it, trembling, but it was whole, and undamaged.
Breathing hard, Trixie looked back up and the mirror, and jumped back when she saw that a different pony was peering around the doorway at her. This time the pony was a tanned brown, and it was a unicorn with a dirty mane. Sand was clearly visible in its hair, but otherwise it was behaving the same way. It was staring at her, unblinking, just like the first pony.
“Trixie will ask again: Who are you and why do you live inside this mirror?” Trixie asked.
The pony blinked slowly, then disappeared behind the doorway again. There was no sound Trixie could hear, so she had no idea if the pony in the mirror could hear her, but they should be able to see her mouth moving and infer that she was speaking.
Why were they hiding behind the doorway though? That was disturbing. They would just peek and stare, as if she were some sort of curiosity to be admired from a distance.
Or they could be scared. That was a possibility as well. They didn’t really act like it, though. Sure, they were only peeking, but they didn’t seem to be peeking out of fear, because they didn’t try to hide when she looked. There was no shaking, shivering, or any motion at all. Just the peeking.
Trixie waited a little bit to see if any pony would come back, but nopony returned to peer queerly at her from around the doorway. She lifted the tapestry with her magic and hung it back upon the hooks.
This was a little too weird for her to deal with, and she wanted to be done with it. There was no curse, and it hurt to put her hoof inside the mirror, and she didn’t even want to talk to those ponies on the other side, they gave her the creeps! She would take a few knick-knacks and be on her way.
Trixie went through the rest of the houses and grabbed some items she figured she could sell as oddities and curios to interested parties, and piled them all up at the entrance to the village. Trixie entered the large house one more time, idly sifting through the pile of books.
Although there was a plethora of knowledge to be had here, she didn’t want to carry it all, and none of it really jumped out at her as useful or esoteric enough to sell. She wasn’t like that stuffy and boring Twilight. She learned through action, not through reading. Trixie sighed and dropped the books she was holding back on top of the pile. It was time to go.
“Gaaahh-haaaah!” Trixie backed away from the door, flank bumping into wall.
A face was in the doorway, peering around the side. This one was almost the same colour as the sand outside, with deep blue eyes. Not a unicorn, thankfully, but without a mirror between her and it, the pony was far too close for comfort.
Trixie pressed herself against the wall, knocking over furniture as she tried to get further away from the door. “What do you want? What are you doing here? Tell me at once!”
The pony didn’t respond, but its ear flicked, and the eye she could see scanned the room. It saw the books in the middle of the room and its eyebrow raised. Faint lines appeared at the corner of its eye, and she would have sworn she heard a faint chuckle.
Trixie felt her hackles raise as she watched the ponies face slide up and around the upper section of the door, then down the other side.
“Ahhhhhhhh, what the buck!” Trixie lit her horn and slammed the door shut. She dropped the bar with a loud BANG! And latched the whole thing shut.
That was completely unnatural! She had only been wary before, but now she knew that whatever came out of that mirror was utterly wrong in so many ways!
She’d let it out. Somehow, the coverings were enough to keep them in, but she’d let them out. At least one of them, anyway. Was it going to let the others out? Could it do that?
Trixie didn’t care. She wanted away from this place. She was concerned for Trixie, not for anypony else.
Trixie heard rustling coming from above, and panicked. The trap door! There were only two exits from this room, and one was barred! She took a step toward the trap door in the corner, but halted when that creepy face poked down from above. She was finally able to see the rest of the pony’s face, and she realized why it was hidden, and why it hadn’t spoken.
It had no mouth.
It was just a head with eyes.
It didn’t appear too interested in talking to her anyway, as once it saw her, its eyebrows narrowed, and it slithered the rest of the way down.
As the first hoof came into the room, Trixie knew she was dealing with something utterly alien. The first hoof that entered the room /flowed/ through the trapdoor, and along the ceiling. It did not appear to move as if there was muscle. It was merely colour and texture, trickling along the ceiling, dragging the head—which appeared to be the only solid part of it—along for the ride.
“What in tartarus are you?” Trixie picked up a book and launched it at the mockery of a pony.
The book hit it, but didn’t appear to deal any damage. The thing flowed along the ceiling, and when the book hit it, it latched on to it, and there was the faint sound of trickling liquid. Then it continued its advance toward her.
Trixie debated briefly in her mind if the thing was fast enough to catch her if she tried to bolt. She swiftly decided It would, as a ‘hoof’ extended down from the thing on the ceiling, and dropped the book it was holding onto the pile. It slid down the pile toward her and fell open at her hooves. In the brief glance she gave it, she could see the text was all backward, as though seeing it through a mirror. She wasn’t really interested to see what that would do to her if it grabbed her.
Trixie needed to leave and needed to leave /now/. She put on a brave face and lifted one side of her cloak, her horn lighting up. She looked the thing in its eyes and stared it down. “You may look horrible, but that’s never been enough to catch The Grrreat, and Powerful, Trrrrrixie!”
Trixie tossed something to the ground from her cloak, a large cloud of smoke billowing out and filling the room. She hoped against hope that the thing couldn’t see through smoke, and bolted for the front door. She unlatched it, lifted the bar, and dashed outside, heading straight for the entrance to the village. This place was horrible, and she wasn’t going to stay here any longer than she had to.
Trixie skidded to a halt in the sand when she saw at the far end of the entrance, another face peering down the short tunnel.
“How many of you ugly bastards did I accidentally let out? What even are you and why are you here? What do you want?” Trixie sobbed.
The pony down the tunnel was a unicorn. Possibly the same unicorn from before. Trixie really hoped the thing couldn’t actually use magic, and just looked like a unicorn, but she wasn’t going to take chances. She back away from the tunnel, and the thing started sliding down the entrance along the wall, moving toward her.
Trixie backed up from the tunnel and shuffled toward the well in the center of the village. She glanced behind her, looking to see if that other one had come out of the building yet. She grimaced as two of the things slithered out of the building. One came from the upper floor, and one from the lower door she had bolted out of, her smoke cloud still lingering inside.
How many of them were there?
Was she the one who let all of them out?
Keeping an eye on the strange ponies, who were sliding along the walls of the buildings, Trixie crept closer to one of the buildings, horn lit up and at the ready. She didn’t get too close, she just wanted to see inside to one of the walls with the mirror on it.
Trixie leaned just close enough, and cast her horn light inside, and sure enough, the wall inside this building was uncovered, and the mirror exposed.
“Curses. Trixie was so careful,” she said.
There was nothing to be done about it now. Trixie had let them out. When, she wasn’t sure, but they were out.
A face popped up in the doorway she was looking through, and a slimy hoof shot out of the door at her.
“Eeek!” Trixie tumbled backward. She landed on her flank in the soft sand, then kicked her legs wildly as she scooted backward, out of reach of the groping hoof. Trixie kept scooting until she bumped into the well in the center of the village, well out of reach of any of the doors. She cast her eyes about the village, trying to find out where the other ponies had gone. She found them easily, slithering about on the walls of the village, their weirdly-solid heads sticking out off the wall as their liquid limbs smeared across the flat surface.
Trixie watched them carefully, spinning about as she felt one of them staring at her from behind. One of them was always near her exit, making sure she didn’t try to leave. Trixie wondered if that entrance was built that way intentionally, to make it hard for ponies to leave.
But why would anypony willingly hoof an entire village over to these things? Trixie couldn’t imagine what benefit these things had over being a regular pony. She didn’t want to find out. Trixie was curious, but not stupid. This was dangerous, and she was in danger. Once she was out of danger, she could speculate all she wanted. She needed out of here!
She stood up, and looked around at the buildings. There were several ladders, and if she could get to one and climb it before they got her, she could jump off the far side. She might hurt herself, but she would survive. She trusted that far more than she trusted these things to let her live.
The creature with the horn, likely the smartest one of the group, saw where she was looking and clambered across the wall, its inky hooves stretching out one after another in that horrible unsettling, flowing manner, and lit up its horn next to the ladder. The ladder melted into a wobbly puddle, sinking into uselessness at the bottom of the wall. It then moved on toward the next ladder. It was cutting off her means of escape!
One of the hornless ones was still guarding her exit, so Trixie had to figure something out fast, or she would be trapped in here!
“Okay Trixie, think faster,” she said to herself. “What does Trixie know so far? They’re slimy, turn words around, can melt wooden ladders—which is terrifying—and they stay on the walls.”
“They stay on the walls,” Trixie said, “Now why do they do that?”
Trixie watched them for a moment, the one blocking her exit stretched itself across the passage, completely blocking it, then it turned to stare at her. The unicorn one was moving slowly around the village in a circle, melting the rest of the ladders, and the two remaining ones were guarding the ladders the unicorn had yet to get to. There was very little time.
There had to be some obvious answer that was available to her, but she couldn’t figure it out.
“I bet that stupid Sparkle would have the answer already,” Trixie mumbled.
Thinking like that was pointless and got her nowhere. She had to focus on the task at hand.
She wanted to stay as far away from that unicorn thing as possible, and she needed to get either out the entrance to her wagon, or she needed to climb a ladder and jump off the wall. Neither option seemed to easy, what with those things in the way. One of them was now clinging to the ladder closest to her, while the other non-unicorn was waiting in between the two next ones.
What would that Sparkle mare do? Blast them with super-powerful lasers? Turn them into rocks? Lift an entire water tower and scoop them all up with it then return it to the forest where it belongs?
Trixie caught herself gritting her teeth and stopped, brushing a hoof through her mane. She took a deep breath and steeled herself.
She wouldn’t do any of those things, because she wasn’t that Twilight Sparkle mare. She was The Great and Powerful Trixie, and she knew exactly what she was going to do. She was going to prove to these things exactly ‘why’ she was The Great and Powerful Trixie.
Trixie walked closer to the thing spreading itself between the two sides of her exit, and stopped at a comfortable distance. The thing reached out a liquid hoof, grasping in her direction. She back up until she was sure it couldn’t reach. It narrowed its eyebrows at her, but did nothing else. Trixie stood tall in front of it, and pulled her cape in front of herself, rearing up on her hind legs.
“Creature, Trixie knows not what you are, nor why have come to harry her in such a way, but Trixie will let you know that you and your slimy friends are one single step away from earning yourselves a grrreat, and powerful enemy,” Trixie said imperiously. “If you continue to prevent Trixie’s egress from your village, and insist upon acting in such a hostile manner toward her, she shall be forced to end your miserable existence.”
The creature stared, flicked an ear, and reached out at her again. Trixie wasn’t sure it was able to understand her, and she was really just assuming it could. They were intelligent, because they were able to infer her plan of escape just from where she was looking, so she knew they were clever, but without mouths, she couldn’t be sure they knew what her language was.
Trixie felt herself begin to sweat, as she was unsure if her audience was receptive to her call, but she kept going.
She pointed at the slimy thing in front of her. Her hoof stabbing out to strike at it with her words. “Trixie will warn you once more time, creature. You have a single chance to remove yourself from Trixie’s path, or the grrrrreat, and terrrrrrible wrath of The Great and Powerful Trixie shall fall upon you with the force of the sun! Your friends will not mourn your death, for it shall be as if you never existed!” Trixie ended her tirade with a sweeping flourish of her cape, one hoof pointed to the sky.
The thing’s eyes twinkled mockingly, and its eyebrows raised incredulously.
Trixie felt a little heat rising to her cheeks. This thing was laughing at her!
Trixie would show this thing what it meant to be great and powerful.
She let go of her cape, which hung loose behind her, and raised both hooves to the sky. Her horn lit up and she kicked up a small wind. Not too strong, but just enough to make her cape billow behind her
“You had your chance, beast! Now face the magical might of the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie!” Trixie yelled.
Trixie created a glowing ball above her head which shone pure white. Magic sparklers appeared on either side of her, whistling and spraying light up next to her. She waved a hoof and the ball above her head had lines of red cut through it, spiraling into it as they spun into it, creating a whirling pinwheel.
Trixie looked down at the slimy beast blocking her path and grinned. The thing was squinting as sand kicked up inside the village, Trixie’s wind picking up speed as her spell got fancier and fancier.
Trixie added in some flashes of lightning that struck outward from her glowing ball, along with crackling sound effects every time it shot out, crawling over her forelegs and face, giving her a monstrous appearance as it illuminated her face from below.
“There shall be no quarter for you!” She made the wind blow faster. It picked up more sand as it spun around the area, partially blocking the sunlight. “Yours shall be a most painful, and regrettable death.”
Trixie looked down to see the creature’s eyes closed, and it pulled itself away from the inner walls, hiding inside the tunnel on the roof.
Trixie did not know if she would get another opportunity like this, so she went for it. She stopped her spell and bolted. She ran underneath the thing, holding her head low.
Trixie felt something strike her hat, which was pulled from her head, but she didn’t stop or look back. She could make a new one.
Her hooves dug deep into the sandy ground, propelling her forward with all speed. The tunnel seemed interminably long, and she felt that terrible phantom feeling that something was crawling down her back. She knew the thing wouldn’t be fooled for long.
Trixie squeaked as she burst out of the tunnel, and plowed through the packed sand to her wagon. She ripped off her cloak and tossed it to the ground, jumping away from it just in case. She looked herself over, ran her hooves through her mane and tail, and looked at her belly.
Nothing.
She gingerly lifted her cloak off the ground and turned it over.
Still nothing.
Only then did she look back at the entrance to the village.
The creatures were all clinging to the outside of the entrance, merged into one ugly puddle with four creepy heads sticking out of it.
Trixie did not gloat, as she was usually wont to do when escaping danger. These things were unnatural and they just creeped her out. She wasted no time in tossing her cloak into the wagon, hitching herself to the front, and galloping out of there as fast as she could, not looking back.
That night, Trixie slowly came to a halt just outside Applewood. She was absolutely exhausted after the strange events of the day.
She locked the wheels of her wagon and climbed inside. She took a nice cool drink of water and sat down to brush her mane. She hesitated with her magic when she looked over at her hoof mirror, but chuckled dismissively. She lifted it up and began brushing, digging the sand out of her hair.
Something seemed off and she looked closer.
Had she always brushed her mane that direction?
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