La Montagne Québécoise

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

I sat back in my swivel chair, and regarded the email that I had just written. It was relatively short, that is, compared to other military messages I had sent out in the past, but I thought it sent a clear message. Raising a hand and running my fingers through my dark coloured hair, I considered for a moment what kind of reaction I might get out of it; both from my commanding officer, and my father; but in the end, decided that it had to be done. Rubbing my eyes and leaning forward close to the screen of my computer, I read the email.

To: Lieutenant Jameson of The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada; Nov. 16

Lieutenant, this is Sargent Mahoney writing to inform you that, despite the disapproval of my father, I will be joining you in Toronto in 15 days’ time for your new winter operations in the central Africa. I urge you to accept this as my final decision, as participating in your campaigns is my ultimate desire. Please ignore any future objections from my father, or any other outside entity. This is my choice, and I do not wish to be dissuaded from it.
Yours to serve: Sargent Darius Mahoney

Satisfied with its composition, I pressed ‘send’, and waited for the computer to tell me that it had indeed, been sent. I then closed the computer down and stood up stiffly, stretching. Though it had been short, I had been a long time in writing that particular message, and so I reached both my arms up into the air and leaned back to pull on my stomach muscles, loosening them out from the lengthy spell of sitting. Turning to look out the window of my small office, I saw that outside it had become quite dark, and the snow was falling softly across the beam of light from an outside lamp. It was then the thought suddenly reached me that this was the last day I would be staying at that small home, before I would be shipped off to war…

I can still remember the day I told my father that I had joined the army. He had been furious when he heard - having had his plan for my life all worked out - but then, had relaxed a little at the thought that I would soon realize the true nature of my decision, and back out. Then, just a few phone calls, and a brief description of exactly who he was and Bam!, Into the world of politics for me. But that report in had changed everything. 'Well,' I thought 'he has no right to control my decisions'. I mean I was nineteen years old for Christ sake! So what if I didn’t want to be a stupid politician like he was? I just didn’t understand why I should have to be just like him. Sure, there is power, and a fancy title, but there’s also more to life than sitting around all day trying to figure out what to do with this goddam country.

Sighing, I pushed the door of the office open and made my way upstairs. Coming to the top of a short staircase, I walked to the end of a short hallway that lay perpendicular to it. I then pushed open the door to my room and stepped inside, glancing around, the weight of my predicament still hanging heavily over me. I knew that I would need to get some rest if I were going to make it to the airstrip on time for tomorrow. It would be a long flight to where I was going; a quiet mountain, which sat 25 km north of the Baskatong Reservoir, in Québec province. I had spent almost a month preparing for this trip, and had been fortunate enough to find an unusually tall hill, which I called a mountain, that was far too perfect a site to pass up, well away from any kind of town. Upon arrival, I would go on a half-a-day hike through thick forest, away from the few country roads, to the mountain, and spend the duration of my leave minus a day for travelling to Toronto, enjoying its spectacular wilderness.

Glancing absently into a corner of the room, I saw my two bags propped up against the wall, all packed and ready for transit. Remembering that all the equipment inside needed to be checked before I left, I walked over to the large backpack and satchel. Sitting down, I went through my clipboard checklist once again, checking off each item that I found in pencil. “… Aluminum pots … compass … tent … fire starter … snares … cartridges…” I stopped there, the words suddenly caught in my throat, with my pencil hovering just above the paper, for I had reached the wicked-looking survival rifle that was strapped carefully to the side of my bag. I stared at it with distaste. It just seemed so offbeat from what I was so used to; from what weapons were supposed to be. The two separate caliber barrels, and the para-cord wrapped tightly around the stock, the commando knife hidden carefully against the flat piece of metal over the trigger. It didn’t seem right, especially when it was in my hands.

This was odd though, for I had never had a problem with these types of things before. During our training, we had been exposed to various types of arms, of all calibers and makes, but for some reason this was quite different. Maybe it was because it was given to me by my father.

I shook my head and finished going through the checklist. If I were going to be any kind of soldier, I would need to learn to get over my own personal feelings. Oh yes, that reminded me, of one other very important piece of equipment…

After returning from a short trip downstairs, I finished re-packing everything into the bags and walked across the cold wooden floor to my bed. Climbing in, and trying to get comfortable for the long day that was before me, I felt something flat and rectangular that was lying on the mattress gab into my back. I sat up and reached around to try and get it out of the way, and found it to be a laminated photo of myself, from basic training a few months back. I was standing outside our facility, with a couple of my comrades. We were all laughing and smiling, the bright sun was making my dark brown hair and pale skin look even lighter, and several of the men had their teeth shining from the brightness. I could certainly see the difference training had made; yes, what was once a meager, determined boy was now a built and hardened man, ready to take on whatever was thrown at him. Even a war.

I reached over and placed the photo on a bedside table, trying to prop it up against a desk lamp so that I would see it in the morning. Then, lying back again, I closed my eyes and waited for precious sleep to come. Shortly afterwards, I began to drift off, and images of my glorious mountain, with its forested slopes and many interesting ventures I had prepared, moving in and out of my thought stream; although it also conflicted with fearful images of my father and his ire against my decision. But there was something else too.

Breaking these images, as though trying to force its way into my thoughts, was a strange cartooned town, with the sun shining down and an odd-looking populous moving about its streets. I seemed to be up in the air somewhere, so I could see hills and fields stretching out away from me for miles around. And just off in the distance, I could see a castle, set in against the side of a mountain, overlooking all of the land, like a towering guardian for everyone who lived there.
How strange…

Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Twilight awoke with a start and sat up in bed. Her vision jumped around the dark room between gasps of breath, as Twilight looked carefully at each stone wall, stack of books and dusty corner. When after a brief glance around, nothing unusual greeted her senses, she silently affirmed that everything was as she’d left it the day before. Nothing seemed to be out of order.

Sighing slowly with relief, she laid back down on the soft mattress. The dream that had awoken her so suddenly had been very peculiar indeed; it had been one of a huge forest, that span out as far as the eye could see in all directions. She had observed this scene from an elevated point, but a large hill a little way in front of her which stretched up towards the sky had made the altitude seem much less. It could almost be considered a small mountain, with a wide river flowing beside it; frozen and covered with snow, and icicles from the tree branches glittering up at her in the sunlight, which was forcing its way out from behind dark, grey clouds. With leaves gone from the trees, and the animals hidden for the winter, all had been blanketed in a layer of peace, and tranquility.

In itself, this wasn’t strange; there were many forests and many hills throughout Equestria, and the outside world. What had made it strange was the texture of the land; it just felt so… wrong. Too detailed, too huge, and the trees were remarkable; some of them were like the kind that were considered normal, yes, but a great many seemed to have needles, for leaves! They bore odd pointed branches, and remained green despite the snow. Extraordinary!

But despite the strangeness of the vision, Twilight relaxed at the knowledge that it had only been a dream; a figment of her imagination. She rolled over in bed under the warm covers and tried to get back to sleep, the image still turning itself over in her mind, and thoughts of what it might be, and in which books she might find it in wandering through her mind.

Then, just as her eyelids were beginning to get heavy, and her consciousness slipping away into darkness once again, a thought struck her like a hammer. She snapped awake, even more hastily then before, and jumped to her hooves, tossing aside the blankets and moving promptly over to her window as she did so. Looking outside that arched pane of glass, she could see the city of Canterlot lying soundly asleep. With hardly anypony up yet, the normally busy streets now quiet and still; an odd sight. Beyond it, across many kilometers of country below and just on the edge of her vision was the town of Ponyville, which now lay silent and peaceful; nestled between the expanses of meadows and woodlands. With the early morning light just creeping up over the horizon, a great orange swath began to stain the sky and the clouds. Outside, all was deeply serene; dead to the outside world.

After studying this for a few moments, she turned away again, and pondered her newest revelation. It had started with her thinking about the adventure she had had in the human world several years back, after travelling through that magic portal-mirror in the Crystal Empire. She had recalled how exciting it had all been, and comforting it was to discover that friendship could exist even outside of Equestria.

From that train, her thoughts had drifted back to the hill in the forest, with its abnormal differences. Something about it had suddenly seemed very important to her in that instant, as though she had been there before, and needed to remember how to get back, for some forgotten reason. But not quite that, it was a little more… urgent.

Then, as her thoughts began to get all jumbled up with the approach of sleep, something had clicked. What if what she was seeing was another distant realm within the mirror? What if there was more than just one other realm; what if there were many of them? Would friendship be as prominent in each and every one? And most importantly, was this dream prompting her to come there, for some unknown purpose?

***

Twilight didn't sleep at all for the rest of that night, and by the time daylight had fully broken over Equestria that morning, she'd already been awake for some time and prepared herself for the journey back to Ponyville. Spike had been responsible for finding and carrying the writing supplies, consisting of parchment, ink, and quills, and Twilight had carefully prepared a picnic that would be eaten later, as well as taking several books with her for an addition to her treehouse library. After a short time, she and Spike were heading to the platform of Canterlot’s train station, through the now bustling streets. It’s true that flying or even teleporting would have been faster; but for old times’ sake she’d agreed with her friends the last time she left Ponyville that a train would be a more fun way to travel. Once at the station, she and Spike waited patiently for their train to arrive. This particular trip would not be long, only several days in the town that had first shown her the magic of friendship, a time which now seemed so long ago. But still, it was nice to get away.

“We’re here pretty early Twilight, are you sure you want to just wait here for the whole time?” inquired Spike between several rolls of parchment that he was carrying, while they stood on the edge of the platform.

“Yes, I’m sure” Twilight replied. Ever since she had had her early-morning discovery, she’d been anxious to tell her friends about it, to see if they could possibly shed any light on the situation. After all, they were the Elements of Harmony, and if anyone could help her solve a mystery, it would be either them, or Princess Celestia herself.

“Well we’re only going to be there for a few days; are you sure you need all this stuff?” Spike asked, attempting to get a better grip on some of his load.

“Yes, all of it”

“Do you have the picnic?”

Twilight reached around and pulled a wicker picnic basket out of her saddle bag, placing it on the ground at her hooves. “Yes, it’s right here”

“Well, did you make sandwiches for everypony?”.

“Yes Spike; I’ve got everything I need, now will you please stop bothering me?”.

“Sorry” said the small dragon, turning away his gaze once again. “It’s just that you didn’t make any lists or plans or anything before we left; it’s kind of unlike you.”

Twilight considered this for a moment. It was true that she’d neglected to organize for this as well as was usual for her, but this was mostly because she’d been keen to get back to Ponyville. As well, the issue of how to address the topic of her vision to the others was reoccurring to her. She didn’t think that they’d take it lightly; things like this never worked out well with their group, but the feeling that the dream had given off was like nothing she’d ever experienced. It was more than just suspicious, and even if they couldn’t help, Twilight knew that she had to tell them about it, for her own sake as much as theirs.

“Oh, it just slipped my mind, you know how it is” Twilight replied, while using a glowing purple halo of magic to place the basket back in her saddle bag.

Then, after an otherwise eventless wait by the duo, the long passenger train finally pulled itself along the tracks and into the station, throwing out large clouds of dark smoke into the crisp morning air.

“Finally!” exclaimed Spike, as the small crowd of ponies on the platform began to board the colourful steamer. “I was wondering whether they’d ever arrive”.

After climbing aboard, Twilight took a seat near the middle of the train in a near-empty compartment, with Spike sitting quietly beside her. After several minutes of imagining what life would be like back in Ponyville, Spike became bored and said he would go ask the conductor how much longer it would be before they arrived, leaving Twilight to herself.

During that brief part of the trip, Twilight tried to keep her mind well occupied by staring attentively out the window of their compartment at the fast-moving scenery. The downs, the rivers, the farms… all of it made a mixed blur with the motion of the train as it barreled along its iron rails. Sitting there on the comfortable cushions of the train car, looking through the square pane of glass that protected her from the roaring wind and speeding ground outside, the alicorn was reminded of the adventures she and her friends had experienced in which trains had been a significant part. It was like an invariable time capsule, of a much simpler era of her life. Before she was Princess, before the great responsibilities that she now faced rested on her shoulders; back in the golden days of friendship.

“Hey Twi, you okay?” questioned Spike, walking over to join his compatriot on the overstuffed seat.

“Yeah” she replied with a sigh. “It's just that this train reminds me of back when I was still learning the lessons of friendship, and when Celestia was my mentor. That all seems so long ago now that I’m a ruler”.

Spiked moved over and placed a hand meaningfully on Twilight’s shoulder. “Well you know, you can never really stop learning. After all, even Celestia admits that she still learns new things sometimes, and she’s ancient! I’m sure that there’ll be something new you can learn from your friends while you’re back with them again”.

Twilight tore her gaze from the window, looking over at her partner and putting a hoof around his shoulders, a weary smile now breaking across her face. “You’re right Spike, I should be appreciating where I am now, not where I was; no matter how good it may seem in these long days”.

“That’s the spirit!” said Spike, swiping the air with his fist. “We should be there pretty soon, so try to seem at least a little exited for your friends” and with that, the Spike left Twilight alone once again, looking for something or other in the front of the compartment. Once he was gone, Twilight took a last long survey at the countryside beyond her windowpane, savoring her last few minutes with its glory.

***

After another short time, the train arrived at the Ponyville train station, where many other ponies were already waiting to greet relatives or board the cars themselves. Though despite all the noise and commotion of the platform, Twilight quickly spotted her friends in a detached corner, and quickly left the train in order to run over to meet them.

“Twilight you’re here, you’re here!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, as she and Spike made their way through the throng.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you guys!” she said as her friends pulled her into a tight embrace, with a feel that was as though she’d just returned home after a long voyage or battle of some kind.

“Guess what guess what!” enthused Pinkie after they parted, resuming her usual bouncing up and down.

“What, what is it?” replied Twilight, wondering what noise Pinkie would be part of this time.

“There’s a new carnival coming to Ponyville; and I’m going to help them build it!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, that’s wonderful Pinkie!” said Twilight to her friend.

“We’re all going to be there; and I’ll be doing a couple of airshows with the Wonderbolts while it’s in town” added Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, wow that’s fantastic!” she replied, with genuine enthusiasm in her voice.

Just then, a sudden intake of breath from Rarity made everyone turn around. A look of horror had crossed her face, at some sudden realization. “Twilight!” she exclaimed. “Your saddle bags absolutely do not match your coat in the least” with a shake of the head and a quiet tutting, rarity said “I must fix that for you straight away”.

“Uh, am I the only one here who thinks it’d be a good idea to get some lunch before we go around fixing saddle bags?” interrupted Spike.

“Oh, of course, why don’t we continue this over a picnic you guys?” Twilight suggested, to eager agreement from the others.

About half an hour later, Twilight and her friends were sitting on the edge of the Everfree forest enjoying the picnic that she had prepared, the whole time trying to find a good opportunity to bring up the topic of her vision, but nothing obvious presented itself. It wasn’t until they were eating the cupcakes that Pinkie had brought that Twilight finally decided to bite the bullet, and asked aloud; “So, anypony have any strange dreams recently?” her friends looked up at her questioningly. This wasn’t one of Twilight’s usual conversation starters.

“Not me” said Pinkie. “I’ve told you before, I usually dream of frosting”

“But that was a long time ago you said that; anything different a little more recently?” persisted Twilight.

“I had one the other night, of long ago when I was just a filly” said Rarity. “I was making an absolutely gorgeous dress for my cousin, but for some reason right in the middle of when I was making it, it suddenly turned into a great big bird, and flew away”

“Oh, how nice!” exclaimed Fluttershy softly.

“Why? You got somthin’ on yer mind there sugar cube?” said Apple Jack.

“Well, there was this dream I had the other night” replied Twilight, the anxiety of what their reaction would be beginning to clutch her throat. “It was very strange; I seemed to be floating in the air somewhere above a huge forest in the winter, and there was this big hill in front of me, with a river winding around its base, all frozen and white with snow. I mean, it was probably just another dream, but I just thought that since, well since we’re the Elements of Harmony, maybe you guys had anything similar?”.

Her friends glanced around at each other before shaking their heads. “Sorry Twi, nothing really unusual has happened around here for a while” said Rainbow Dash, looking slightly concerned.

“Oh well, I’m sure it was nothing” The Princess said dismissively. “Although, there was this really strange feeling I got, that somehow this had something to do with that magic mirror-portal that I used a couple of years ago to travel to that other dimension. You guys remember that, right?”.

“Now you listen here sister” Apple Jack said suddenly, in a commanding tone. “Can you, in all the crazy dangerous things we’ve ever done name one time, one time, that a spell or curse or ‘unusual feeling’ of any kind has led us to anything good, without givin’ us somthin’ terrible first?”.

Twilight thought about that for a moment, plucking blades of grass nervously from the earth beside her. “Well when you say it like that, no, but this wasn’t like anything I’ve ever felt before. I feel like if I could just -”.

“No way!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Absolutely not!” added Rarity.

“She’s right!” Pinkie stated.

“I really think that this could end up badly” mentioned Fluttershy.

“Ya see” said Apple Jack. “We all agree that this cannot possibly be a good thing. I want you to promise us that you won’t go lookin’ for any kind of trouble on account of this ‘ere dream. Promise us!”.

“Alright alright I promise!” Twilight replied, though even as she said it she knew deep down that this was never going to happen. After they had finished the picnic, the rest of the day was enjoyed mostly by walking around town, experiencing the various things there were to do in Ponyville; but always at the back of her mind Twilight was still thinking about her vision. She knew that, no matter how much her friends wanted her to stay out of trouble, she just had to investigate; even if that was all she could manage, otherwise it would just keep on bothering her, for a very long time.

So, that night, after the sun sunk below the horizon and the ponies had left the dirt-packed streets and were all tucked safely away in bed, Twilight snuck cautiously out of her room in the treehouse, careful not to step on Spike’s tail as he dozed nearby. Once she was standing downstairs, in the center of her beloved library, with the smells of the books in the air around her, she took a long, deep breath, collected all the magic power she could possibly muster, and instantly teleported herself back to the mirror room in the Crystal Empire, with a loud Snap!.

After a sharp and sudden weightless feeling that moved down the length of her body, something smooth and hard contacted with her hooves. Opening her eyes and looking around her, she saw that the dimly-lit artifact room of the Crystal Palace was almost exactly as she had left it. The tall, impressive doorways, the various paintings and pictures that hung on the walls, with their lights still lucidly shining down on them, the antiquities on their pedestals, the shiny bluish floor, and at the centre of it all, was the mirror.

Though, this was not quite how she’d left it; for it now bore a large, heavy, dark-coloured tarp that was draped over it and hung all the way down to the floor, and one of those short, red felt barriers marking off the back and two sides. But other than that, this too was ignorant of time.

Twilight stood there for a moment, allowing the sudden flashbacks, and other vivid memories of her last encounter with the room to pass. It seemed as though it were only yesterday that she’d last traveled through the mysterious doorway to another dimension; that of the humans. Then, as quietly and cautiously as she could, Twilight stepped forward until she was only at most a meter away from the artifact, reached out a hoof, and, grabbing the material, gently tried to pull away the tarp, with as little noise as possible…

“Twilight!” exclaimed a voice from behind her. She dropped the hoof-full of tarp she was holding and wheeled around to face none other than Princess Celestia. She was standing a few steps within the doorway behind Twilight, looking as though she had just come in for an early-morning stroll, and happened to find her old student trying to remove the protective cover from an ancient relic.

“Princess, wa– what are you doing here?” asked Twilight, stuttering the words in her surprise.

Looking first left then right, the ancient ruler of Equestria strode carefully towards her former student, and looked at her with mildly curious eyes.

“My sister and I came here to inspect the Empire for signs of evil, after mysterious occurrences in the area were reported by members of the Royal Guard. Princess Luna has already returned to Canterlot, but I remained to review this room, and portal mirror. Now my question to you is what are you doing here?”

“Me? I, uh well… I mean; you see, I –” Twilight stammered, trying quickly to explain the situation. Disappointing the Princess was still her number one fear, even though it had been a long time since she’d been a student.

“Calm down,” Celestia interrupted, her voice soothing. “I’m only curious as to why you found the need to come; but as a Princess, you do have every right”

This was a relief. And in that instant Twilight also realised that since her friends had been unable to help her, Celestia was very likely to be her next best option, if she were to find out the truth. The alicorn looked nervously down at the floor, then back up again. After taking a deep breath, she began.

She told Celestia about her dream, its strangeness, and the powerful feeling it had given out. She also explained how, as a result of this, she had come to believe that there might be other worlds within the mirror, like the one she had visited when she went through it before. She described how she thought that the two were somehow connected, and that she might be supposed to go through it once again to find something or other, but that her friends had warned her against it because it could be a trap. When she’d finished, Celestia studied Twilight for a moment with an unreadable expression. Then, she turned her head and gestured gently at the covered portal, with a new, almost pleased expression, and suggested; “Well then, why don’t we have a look then, and see if anything appears out of place for a start”.

Twilight looked at the mirror, and then back at Celestia. “But, but what if it is a trap?” she objected, looking for any sign of worry on her old instructor.

“I’ll be right here with you” came the Princess’s response, along with an encouraging nod towards her. Swallowing hard, Twilight took a few, tentative steps towards the mirror again, and then, with a quick inhale, she reached out, grabbed the tarp, and whipped it away.

What she saw beneath filled her with a mix of great relief, and dull disappointment, for there before them stood nothing but a reflective pane of glass, her own form peering back at her.

“I, I don’t understand, I thought that there’d be something here” said Twilight, turning back to Celestia. The Princess carefully scanned over Twilight, and with a weary sigh, and small shake of the head, Celestia moved forward and put a hoof around Twilight's shoulder.

“My dearest Twilight, you must see that sometimes, things don’t always work out the way we want them to. Or sometimes they do, but we get an unexpected result.” as she spoke, she led Twilight gently away from in front of the mirror, and off towards the side of the room. “What I’m trying to tell you, is that you can’t always have things fall perfectly into place, sometimes you need to simply accept what is, not what could be”.

“But, I sensed this so strongly! Maybe if you could just, just consider letting me go through again, even for only a short time, I could find out what it is I’m supposed to be looking for there. This wasn’t just another dream, this was real; I felt it!”.

Now an unmistakable smile crossed the ruler’s face. “Ah, but you must understand, that often our more powerful emotions can be misleading. Often our minds know not how to deal with them, so they try to make them into something we can better perceive; something we can mistake to be real. Do you see what I am trying to tell you?”

“Yes, I do” Twilight admitted, the fire that had blazed in her chest minutes before now extinguished.

“Good. Then I won’t see you snooping around here anymore?” Celestia said, playfully.

“I guess so” replied Twilight, looking slightly upset. Upon noticing this, Celestia quickly added:

“I’ll tell you what, if you still feel so strongly about this… endeavour of discovery tomorrow, then I promise I will let you travel through the mirror again; I can see what it means to you. Just please, don’t go making any rash decisions; you must be sure that this really is what you want” At this, Twilight looked up and her face broke into a smile.

“Oh, thank you Celestia! Thank you!” she exclaimed.

“Of course, of course; I’ve never been one to discourage adventures, after all” she said with a small chuckle. “Now go on, I’m sure that you’ll want to be well rested for another day with your friends”.

With a nod, and another whole-hearted grin at her former instructor, Twilight bent her head, and vanished from the room, with another loud Snap! and a flash of purple light. As soon as her faithful student had vanished, Celestia’s smile faded away from her face, and she turned around to face a dark corner of the room.

“Are you sure that this is, indeed, the right thing to do?” She asked; a hint of dark uncertainty in her voice.

Then, as though stepping out from behind a veil of darkness, came another alicorn, made almost invisible from within the shadows. She was several hands shorter than Celestia, but, in sharp contrast to Celestia’s white, bore a deep blue coat and a slightly lighter, flowing blue main, that sparkled like the stars.

“Of course I am” Celestia’s sister Luna responded. “There is more to life than just friendship, after all. We cannot continue to foster her anymore; you know that”.

“Then it is settled? We will send her through tomorrow?” Luna stepped forward slowly into the center of the room and turned her head to study the front side of the mysterious portal.

“Yes, we will. We most certainly will”

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

I grabbed my seat suddenly with both hands as the worn ultralight rocked violently up and down and side to side, several kilometers above the tree-tops below.

“Are you sure that this is completely safe?” I shouted at the ancient-looking pilot, over my headset.

“’Course I am. This ‘ere is a Quad City Challenger II, one ‘o the best personal aircraft ye can get up ‘ere. And I’ve bin flyin’ fer 45 years. We’ve just bin hittin’ a little bit ‘o turbulence, ye see” he responded.

With this in mind, I relaxed a little, before twisting carefully around in my seat to look behind us at the breathtaking country below. In the distance I could make out the now-fading Ottawa River, stretching out far to the southeast and northwest. Its wide flowing current signified that we had already entered the province of Québec. Below, the sunlight shone off the tops of the trees, and the snow from last night sparkled back at us from its thick, coniferous perches. To our right, the golden sphere that was the sun inched up over the distant, shallow hills, creating a sunrise so spectacular that it deserved to be framed, right there and then, and to be kept safely displayed to all time.

The plane shook again, and I grabbed onto the door beside me to keep from hitting my head on something hard. I had taken this trip several times in the past, so I knew that I had to be patient, at least, with this particular pilot. It would still be a while now before the 2.5 hour flight from Pakenham to our landing spot on the Gatineau was complete, as it was out of range of our plane, and we would have to land to refuel in Maniwaki before proceeding. But after that I would be in my element at last. I could see it then; hiking through the snow-covered and densely forested hills, making homemade maple syrup, playing my acoustic guitar beside the campfire at night, with the sound drifting like a lonely spirit between the trees. And the best part? I would be all alone. Completely by myself.

I glanced down once more at the nylon backpack camping gear that I’d braced between my legs. The pilot had insisted before we left that the gun be stored in a separate compartment, so it wouldn’t “Blow a hole in me g’dam plane”. This decision was probably for the best, though, he did only suspect there being one firearm with me that day…

With my mind wandering absently, I reached a hand down to the backpack and carefully pulled a small sleeve of photos from when I was younger out of a side pocket. Mostly, they were of other camping trips, days spent on the beach and the like; my mother, father and I all enjoying a wonderful day. Usually I was doing something for the camera: holding up a fish to be photographed, or a marshmallow on a stick near to the fire. But then, as I got older my mother abruptly disappeared from these pictures; not to return. The kind, helpful and cheerful man who had once been my father was now sunken and defeated with grief. Eventually, this depression would change him; his work became the only important factor in his life. I mean, I can understand him wanting to get his mind off of her by keeping busy, but that didn’t give him the right to completely rule me as well. Although I tried to help him, I found it to be useless. He had become a cold, hard statue, and I was becoming, with ever more appearance, a direct result of his whims, and I would move along in his path; willingly, or not.

***

Before long, I was standing on the open, frozen river, which was covered in a layer of snow, waving to the pilot as he sped down the powdery strip of ice on the plane’s skis and gently lifted off, flying gracefully back to Ontario. As I stood there, moving my hand gently back and forth through the biting air, watching the ultralight get smaller and smaller into the clouded distance, I had a strange feeling that this wasn’t going to be like any of my other trips. Nothing seemed to be too different, after all it was the same landing spot, same forests all around, same cloudy blue sky, but I just couldn’t shake that strange, powerful notion…

After a quick bite from some of the food I had packed, I found myself to be moving away from the river, leaving behind the spot to which I would return to in 14 days while I pushed deep into the snow-covered forest, keeping the sun to my right the whole time. From here, the only civilization I would meet would be a few minor roads which ran across this part of the north. But for the time being, I had my thoughts free to wander, and I thought once again about that report that I’d sent. What would my father think? What would he say? Sure, I would be heading straight back to Toronto after this trip was over, but I couldn’t hide forever. And then what? He had a way with finding things out, and I probably wouldn’t have a chance to set one foot on foreign soil before I got about a bizillion livid messages of all shapes and forms, informing me that I would be dead before I even knew what had hit me, and that I couldn’t have been more stupid in joining the army.

With a sigh, I shook my head, and continued warily down the narrow, barely visible footpath I had made in my previous trips to the mountain. It was no good worrying about something I couldn’t change; I just had to carry on and hope for the best. I pushed through shrubs and bushes, walked over hills and crossed streams. For every obstacle I crossed, whether it be made of earth, stone, wood or water, I felt as though I were moving solemnly away from my old life forever, to live in this undisturbed corner of the world for the rest of my days. Not at all a bad thought.

A few hours of hiking later, I pulled out my dilapidated map, and, glancing down at it, saw that I should be within sight of the mountain, just barely. So, walking over to a nearby outcropping of rocks, I pulled myself up and onto it; rolling onto my back atop them so I could keep from slipping off. After finally gaining my balance, I stood up, and gently raised a small pair of binoculars up to my face.
Sure enough, out in the distance stood a hill taller than the rest, with the river about 200m across winding around its base, frozen and covered with snow. Using my finger to turn the dial on the binoculars and pull the image as big as it could get, I was also just able to make out a small clearing on the summit, with the point of a wide roof and chimney poking out from between the tops of the sombre pines.

I smiled contentedly to myself. 'Home sweet home'.

***

As the light began to fade from the sky and the day neared its end, I pulled the last squirrel out of its snare and reset the trap on the base of the tree. The sun was falling below the horizon once again, and so I knew that my fist day had come to a close.
I tightened the straps on my satchels, which now contained a great number of edible plants, and started the journey home. The snowshoes that I’d taken were beginning to get sodden, though they kept me well above the powdery snow, and my feet were becoming very cold. By the time I reached my cabin in its small open clearing, with the yellow light from the windows flooding over the whitened ground and the rough brown trunks of nearby trees, I was sure that I would get frostbite.

Running inside and swiftly kicking off the snowshoes, I allowed the heat from within the cabin, constructed of golden cedar planks and beams, to pour over me for a moment and warm my soul, not caring about anything else at that moment. The inside of the cabin had become a lot cozier from when I’d first found it (a run-down mess in the middle of nowhere). It now had a proper floor and carpets, some furniture, extra blankets and pillows, as well as a supply of food. I had also stocked it with various other pieces of camping gear over the course of previous trips I’d taken, for any need that might arise.

Gently shedding my coat, I pushed through the front door and walked into the small 8ft by 12ft kitchen, where the smells of my venison stew, which was cooking on the fire, greeted me. Hanging my coat on a nearby rack and kicking the snowshoes into a corner, I pulled a steaming pot off of the fire, which burned in a small brick fireplace, and made sure that the stew was ready to be eaten, which of course, it was. And so, without further ado, I sat down, to one of the most peaceful and enjoyable meals of my life.

Finally, with my stomach full of the venison, I went about tidying the kitchen some before bed. After about 25 minutes, the last utensils were clean and everything was put away. Feeling quite satisfied with the days’ work, I stored my satchels of vegetables with the rest of the food, but left the rabbits and squirrels from the snares outside, as I knew the frigid air would keep them for a few days longer. Then, I made my way to the back of the cabin and slipped up a hidden staircase, to sleep at last.

The attic room had more floor area than the kitchen, but it was in the roof so the walls on either side sloped in towards the center as they went up. The floor here was old wooden planks, it was some type of hardwood but I can’t remember which. Anyway, it was old and soft to the touch, and the whole scene, with the hole in the floor to allow people up, the old cot pushed up against the wall top first, and the grimy old photos hanging on the walls, made it seem like the perfect setting for a horror movie. I can almost see myself in there now, pulling out old photos and examining them to try and solve a mystery before being slashed from behind by a terrifying monster of some sort.

‘What – a – day!’ I thought to myself while collapsing evenly onto the firm mattress; the smell of must and winter filling my lungs as I began almost immediately to drift asleep. Everything had gone as planned; that never happened! It was almost like, like magic. Ah, what a trip this would be! So many things to do! It was going to be all so glorious and bright, like that cartoon town, that had shown up, and was forcing its way deep into my thoughts right then. The one with the sun… and the mountains… and that very strange little village… but, wait… why...?

Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The day after Twilight’s meeting with Celestia progressed very slowly indeed. When she’d first returned back to her treehouse after her brief trip to the Crystal Empire, Spike had been in a complete panic, as she had apparently accidentally woken him when she’d teleported out, and it took quite a bit of explaining to convince him where she’d been (collecting some cooking ingredients from a local apothecary who only operated at night), because Spike didn’t believe hardly a word she said. But eventually, he was forced to accept Twilight’s story, for there was nothing else really he could do.

The others noticed something different about their friend too, from the moment she set foot back in Ponyville. No one had mentioned this to her when they’d met the day before, but in the next it became very obvious to them.

“Come on Twilight!” Pinkie Pie had called to her friend, as Twilight walked thoughtfully down the main street of town. “Let’s help watch them set up that carnival that’s coming!”

“Oh, no thank you, Pinkie” Twilight replied. “I, uh, promised Rainbow Dash that I’d fly with her today. But I’ll see you later though” and with that, she departed hastily down a less-used avenue.

“Hey Twi, let’s see some of those flying skills you’ve got now” Rainbow Dash shouted down to her from an overhead cloud, later that day.

“Well, I, uh, sorry Dash, I’ve got some, you know, things I’ve got to help Pinkie with for, uh, you know, the carnival” Twilight had responded

“Oh, well, that’s alright I guess” and Rainbow Dash too watched her friend go, her eyebrows knitting themselves as Twilight disappeared from her line of sight.

‘I’ve got to be less conspicuous to the others, if I’m going to keep them from suspecting me’ Twilight said to herself firmly as she made her way back to the treehouse. And so, the rest of the day was spent as inconspicuously as possible, although her friends did begin to question what had become of her. Mostly, it involved careful research, in regards to the dream she’d had, but nothing very impressive turned up, that is, until she was about halfway into a book entitled ‘Our Vast World’.

“Hey, come take a look at this, Spike!” Twilight shouted eagerly. About halfway down page 143, there was a detailed diagram of a mirror, similar to the one that resided at Crystal Palace. Reading the text aloud to her companion, Twilight recited, “It is said in ancient mythology that, when the three pony tribes were first united thousands of years ago as Equestria, there were five magic portals granted to the world as well, one for each race of pony. Nopony knows where they came from, or what they were originally for, and so they were largely ignored by the population. As history progressed, four of these portals were lost to the ages; the ones for the Crystal Empire, the Alicorns, the Pegasi, and the Earth Ponies. The only one that remains is that of the Unicorn, and its location is a well-guarded secret, even to many high-ranking Equestrian officials”.

“Well, I guess it’s not so secret anymore. That looks just like the one you went through to get to the human world!” said Spike, jabbing a finger at the carefully created illustration on the page. Twilight continued reading hastily,

“It says that each portal explores a different reach of the mind, with the surviving portal being that of other species. Each will behave differently according to the realm you are entering, but only a handful knows its magic well enough to effectively use them for purposeful reasons, the most notable and capable of these being Celestia, Princess of Equestria.” At this, Twilight stopped suddenly, the words caught in her throat.

“What’s the matter?” asked Spike. “Do you really think that she’d send you through that thing without knowing its magic? Come on Twilight! Celestia would never risk you like that.” Twilight could see the sense in this. Celestia was very old after all; it was likely that in her time as a ruler she would have discovered the secrets of many ancient artifacts. But all the same, Twilight couldn’t help wondering why her former mentor hadn’t mentioned this in the past. Looking back, it would’ve saved a lot of time and close calls if Celestia could have just blasted the mirror with some spell or something that would’ve helped her defeat Sunset Shimmer. Very strange.

The rest of the book wasn’t much help; mostly it talked about the history of Equestria and how each of the portals were discovered by the ponies, and eventually lost. When Discord came to power, he had confiscated each of the portals and attempted to destroy them, believing that they could be used to overthrow him in some way or another, succeeding only with two. The remaining two were cast away on Discord’s orders, to locations unknown, but before the final one could be displaced, Celestia and Luna’s coup d’état turned him to stone, and the portal left where it was. Celestia ordered that the portal be moved to the Crystal Empire and kept under very close protection, though said not why. Her motive for this was thought to be that she could foresee a time when it would be needed.

At this point in her reading, Twilight discovered that the book was not, in fact, a new issue, and it spoke of how after the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, travel between dimensions was rendered impossible; but it’s relatively recent return to Equestria meant that that was no longer true. Other than that; it said each portal was created to allow transport to a set realm, but with the right magic, an able caster and a pure motive, it could be changed…

***

Later that night, after Spike was snoring soundly and the sun was dipping below the horizon once again, Twilight gathered up some basic supplies, wrote a quick note explaining her disappearance, and slipped quietly out of her room. Deciding that it would be best to put some distance between herself, and anyone who might wonder why she was teleporting away in the middle of the night, Twilight left the comfort of her treehouse and walked into the dark streets of Ponyville. The night was warm, and not a breeze disturbed the air. Looking in at the shops and firms and various other businesses that lined the streets of downtown as she passed them, she wondered how long it would be before she saw any of them again.

After a while, Twilight spotted an outlying hill roughly a mile or so to the south, and decided to use it as a waypoint for her teleporting cite. Although she was eager to get started on another adventure, Twilight hesitated for a moment, probably because she no longer had the comfort of her friends; but she knew that it couldn’t be helped. This dream, this vision, was nothing like she’d ever experienced before, and another trip through the mirror could be very dangerous. At the very least, it was her duty to go through first and observe the world before allowing anypony else to come in after her.

Once she had left the main downtown area, Twilight turned and looked back at the colourful village that had been her home for so long. The thatched roofs and packed earth streets seemed like her kin now, that as well as her friends, for these had made her who she was today; the pony that she was always meant to be.

After turning away from the scene, spreading her feathered wings, and running forward, Twilight curved her airfoils upwards so that the currents of the wind gently pulled her up off the ground. She was still not quite used to having them; after all most of her life was spent as a unicorn, but it was coming to her, slowly and surely. Once she had drifted lightly through the air and positioned herself in the air above the chosen rise, Twilight ceased flapping and instead used her wings to slow her decent as she landed gracefully atop the broad grassy summit. From her vantage point there, Twilight looked up and could see that only the very last rays of sunlight still hung in the sky, leaving a light purple stain over the lands of Sweet Apple Acres; Ponyville and the surrounding area having fallen into a deep, pitch darkness. It was twilight.

With a great sigh, and one last look at the scene around her, she bent her head, and with the same summon of power and Crack!-ing noise as before, was transported via magic to the room with the mirror, within the walls of the mighty Crystal Palace. Once solid ground was beneath her hooves again and the sensation of teleporting had ceased, Twilight lifted her gaze from the strange glassy floor, and saw that the two famed rulers of Equestria were already there, side by side a few meters in front of her, waiting patiently in the dim light for her to arrive.

“So, I see you have decided to make this journey after all?” questioned Celestia; a look of… something like concern on her face.

“Yes, I have” Twilight responded. She paused, wondering whether it would be wise to ask her former instructor about why she had concealed her knowledge of the portals from her, since her last trip, but decided against it.

“Are you ready then?” asked the more regal voice of Luna, with an odd, rushed tone, which Twilight couldn’t quite understand.

“Well, I guess I am. Whenever you’re ready to send me” Twilight replied.

Stepping forward from Luna’s side, Celestia announced, with slight hesitation; “There is, indeed, a spell we can cast that will allow you to travel to this other dimension you described”. Twilight remembered her book, wondering how many things like this Celestia could do that she’d not told her, even after years of trust between them. “It is a difficult spell that we have never found need to try before, but today is the last of the next 30 moon cycle opening since your last adventure. In order to return before the next cycle arrives, you must cast a similar spell on the alternate portal, which will signal to us to let you travel back again. Do you understand?”

“Yes” Replied Twilight, while accepting an ancient-looking piece of parchment from her olden teacher’s extended grasp. It was a spell of some sort; written in carefully constructed Equestrian texts. Twilight placed it into her saddle bag before looking expectantly back at Celestia and Luna.

Regarding each other meaning before stepping aside from in front of the mirror, the two sisters allowed Twilight to come forward and stand before the mysterious portal, between, and slightly in front of them.

“Now, simply close your eyes, and project these visions you spoke of into the mirror, as we’re casting the spell” Celestia told her. Twilight nodded in confirmation. Closing their eyes, and bowing their heads in unison, the sisters began their mysterious incantation.
After a few moments of low murmuring from both Luna and Celestia, two bright beams of magic suddenly erupted from both their horns; yellow energy from Celestia’s and a deep blue for Luna. The light beams curved in an arc above them until they contacted one another, creating a turquoise bead of power and a loud electric zapping sound. From the bead, a turquoise beam discharged; striking the frame of the mirror. Upon contact with it, the magic bounced and swirled around the frame, engulfing it entirely until even the reflective glass was glowing with power. And then, just as the loud sounds of the spell and glowing energy seemed about to destroy the portal altogether, Luna shouted to Twilight; “Now, project your thoughts! Quickly!”

Twilight did as she was instructed, trying to ignore the scene in front of her and focus on her image of the mountain. And sure enough, soon felt a mild change in the atmosphere in the room. She continued focusing hard on it for a few moments in order to ensure that her part had worked effectively, and when she looked at the mirror again, Twilight no longer saw her own reflection staring back at her from within the frame, but rather a dark sky on a cloudy night. Near the edge of the right side of the image, several of those trees with the odd needles for leaves reached up into the air, a silent, intimidating spectacle. Everything was still and dark; the only illuminating light was that which was travelling through the portal.

“We won’t be able to keep this open for very long” Celestia told Twilight loudly, over the violent sounds of the magic. “Nor will you be able to come back through without this spell, which Luna and I must cast together. You will know when your mission is complete, and when the time is right to return. Until then, have faith”

“But I –” Twilight started.

“No, the stage for talking is at an end!” Luna interrupted forcefully, with that same tenseness as before. “Take this with you; we have no doubt that you will do your best to learn what you are meant to there” she handed Twilight a small lamp with her hoof.

“And this as well” added Celestia, extending to her an ornately carved silver bracelet. It was evident by the trembling of her hoof that the strain of continuing this spell was becoming greater by the second.

“But, but what is it for?” asked Twilight, slipping it delicately onto her front, right leg.

“The powers of magic are weak in this world you are about to enter. It will allow you to cast spells while you are there” Celestia’s words sounded confident, and reassuring. “Now go. Your friends will ask where you’ve gone, and I will try to keep them here as long as it is needed, but you must set a strong hoofhold in this alternate land first”

“Thank you… for everything” said Twilight, embracing her instructor, her speech akin to that of a departing soldier who knew they would not be returning home.

“Now, you’ll want to take a running start” Luna suggested – with some difficulty – while gesturing towards the other end of the room. The tendril of light from her horn was beginning to stutter ever so slightly. “The alternate mirror is embedded in a flat, level sheet of ice, where you will be going”

Trotting back halfway across the room, Twilight turned back hesitantly to face the portal, and, taking a deep, shaky breath, began to gallop towards it. Faster and faster she sped, until she was only meters from it; the figures of Luna and Celestia growing larger every moment, and then quite suddenly she reached the mirror, and her entire perspective was shifted.

The moment she passed through, her whole body felt like it was being rearranged as she took a human form once again; splashing through the surface of the portal, Twilight was tossed out of the other side into the cold night air, before being immediately yanked backwards, as gravity was now going in another direction. She thought she was going to fall right back through the portal, but instead, hit something cold and solid behind her with a jarring shock.

Twilight laid there for a minute, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened to her, with the reality of all this beginning to truly sink in, as her thoughts were no longer half-obscured by her intense desire to travel through dimensions again.
Then, turning where she lay, with a pained groan to face the portal, which was now below her, where the faces of Celestia and Luna gently faded away into the distance, far into the ice and far below her until she was just lying there, alone on a flat plane of ice, with a small oil lamp lying on the snow somewhere beside her and small pack of supplies slung around her shoulder. And, of course, there was the silver bracelet.

Shakily getting to her feet, Twilight looked around her. The light from the lantern cast a shallow orange glow across the snow. There appeared to her only a world of dark; that and the snow, beneath her shoes. Stooping to pick up the lamp and raise it to illuminate more, Twilight saw that she stood on a large flat area with no trees, which continued on into blackness to her front. Behind her a ways, there was the edge of a great forest, the tree trunks still and cold, and rising up behind them was none other than her mountain; the very one she had dreamed of. It was even more impressive in person; a huge yet silent mound of darker night, looming just ahead, backed onto the cloudy sky.

Looking away from the spectacle for a moment, Twilight took a small forward to see if it was possible to make it over to the treeline, when her foot suddenly slipped on the bare ice. She staggered backwards several steps (as her sudden change of body form was unbalancing), and while she tried frantically to recover her footing on the slippery ground, a cable that was strung at about knee height caught her legs in a stumble, and tripped her.

Twilight toppled face first onto the cold and snowy ground, and almost immediately she realized that the cable must have been some kind of early warning system, for as soon as it was pulled from its tension a loud ding-ing from unseen bells echoed out into the dark night.

‘Oh no’ Twilight thought to herself while recovering her bearings, for all the way up the mysterious mountain of her dream, a chorus of ghostly bells did their damndest to raise the dead.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

I was lying in my bed, sleeping quite fitfully when the bells awakened me.

One minute, I was floating in a haze of darkness and peace, and the next, I was conscious of the firm mattress and pillow pushing up against my body, the coolness and darkness of the room, and the distant, haunting chime of bells. I stared at a spot on my pillow for a minute, and then rolled over and pushed myself up into a sitting position on the side of the bed, rubbing my face into my hands and really wishing I could just ignore it.

‘Bells’ I thought warily to myself. To this day, I can still recall the sensation of fear, suspicion and panic all rolled into one that at that very moment, striking my heart and spreading out from deep in my chest out to the rest of my body, as I tried with growing awareness to recall the meaning of it. ‘There are different sounds set for different alarms… I had a system… there was a list… but what are the bells for…?’

And then it came to me. People. The bells were positioned in such a way that only humans, in their body structure and just general ignorance of movement in the woods could have set them off. But why? How? Who the bloody hell was marching around the forest at night, in the winter, tens of kilometers from the nearest town? It didn’t make any sense.

I got out of bed as fast as my stiff, tired limbs would allow, and grabbing my rifle off of a small desk in the corner of my room, dashed down the ladder to the main floor. There were no windows where I slept, so the first thing I did was look though crooked window cut into the wall of the main room. ‘Brilliant strategy’, I think now, for it was far too dark to see anything that was going on outside. After hastily slipping on a pair of boots, my coat, gloves, and grabbing a cheap battery operated flashlight from a kitchen drawer, hoping all the while I could find whoever was out there before they disappeared, I left the safety of my wood-scented cabin and ventured out into the cold dark night.

The bells had long since stopped ringing, but that didn’t change much, only that whoever was out there could now have fled and I might not be able to see them. I double-timed it across the clear area in the front of my cabin towards the edge of the trees, and after climbing to the top of a viewing platform that I had skillfully constructed in a particularly large one, I saw immediately where I was going. Out near the nearer bank of the river which wound its way across the landscape, I saw a small yellow light sweeping the snow in a peculiar fashion. The distance was too great and the night too dark for me to make out how many were there, but it appeared that there was only one person. I made a mental note of in which direction they were headed, and ducked my body back out of the numbing wind.

Descending crude rectangular wooden rungs from my perch, I jumped when I was near enough to the ground, and landed with a soft Thud into the snow. I recovered quickly began to run with speed, but cautiously down the side of the mountain. With my right hand I gripped the flashlight, but left the rifle strung across my back. The small beam of light that stretched out in front of me cast eerie shadows across the forest floor onto the powdery snow, and the cold night air that was whipping across my body, combined with the small crystals of ice that were being picked up off the ground, soon left my face and neck raw and in pain. And it wasn’t that kind of pain you get when you push your hand into snow either; this was the deep, aching pain that clutches your throat and jaw and makes you wonder if your frozen flesh will make it through the experience. But I didn’t care. Something was wrong, and I needed to find out what…

Soon, the ground leveled out and I found that I’d reached a spot near to the edge of where the forest ended and frozen river began, and I was able to catch small flashes of light from between the trees. Turning off my flashlight and carefully stowing it away into an oversized pocket, I unslung the rifle from my back, and began to creep forward as silently as I could, hunched over and ready to run or hit the ground in an instant. I tried to remember my training, how to move without being seen by the enemy, but this was different, this was real. Each soft sound that my footfalls made in the snow were like earthquakes to my ears, but I kept going. After about a dozen steps, I reached the edge of the trees, and I saw her.

About 10 feet away from the edge of the trees on the ice, she walked slowly and deliberately forward, continually glancing off into the woods as if expecting to see something there. She stood about five and a half feet tall, and walked in a strange, wobbling way, as though she’d spent the last half an hour spinning around on the ice. In one of her hands she held a lamp, or a lantern of some kind, that projected the light out in a beam in front of her. And the most outstanding characteristic, which I could make out at that point anyway, was that everything she wore was the same shade of purple. An almost plum colour, but lighter.

I waited until she was around 7 meters from me, close enough for me to make the first move while still not risking her not seeing me at first in the dark, and then stepped out into the clear and leveled the gun, in one, swift motion.

The movement caught her eye; she looked up and froze immediately on the spot. For a few moments which felt like minutes, we stood there, in a silent staring stand-off. I was somewhat tired and was breathing heavily from my run, but I inched my finger up a few centimeters and removed the safety from my weapon. Something about this was very wrong.

Finally, after a minute or so, I decided to speak first; « Qui es-tu? Qu’est qui se passé! » I demanded. After waiting a few moments, I had no response. Nothing at all. I took a few menacing steps closer, still aiming the rifle, and tried again; « Comment tu-es allé ici, et pourquoi? Parler! ». Still, nothing. But then, she took a step forward and said, in an uncertain voice, “Oh, um, I’m sorry, I don’t really speak that language. Can you understand what I’m saying right now?”.

“Who the fuck are you, and just what do you think you’re doing; strolling around the forest in the middle of the night?!” I shouted at her, as I was beginning to lose patience.

“Oh yes, of course, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and, you see, I came here through a magic portal in the Palace of the Crystal Empire. I was looking for that big hill over there” she gestured towards my mountain. “There’s something about it that I need to find out while I’m here, something important, but I don’t know what. Do you think you could help me?”.

I did not lower my weapon. Not one inch.

We stood there for several moments, this girl, this, Twilight, looking at me expectantly, as though she actually thought I would believe her insane little backstory. After a few long moments, she tried again at a response;

“And what’s your name?”

Poised and very still, the metal sight still pressed against my cheek with utmost confusion rolling around in my head, I announced my clearest, most intimidating voice; “I am sergeant Mahoney of the Queen’s Own Rifles regiment of the Canadian forces, currently off military duty. Now I’m going to ask you again, and I want you to tell me very clearly and logically how you got here. You’re obviously lying, and so I have good reason to suspect illegal activity”.

“But I told you the truth; I came through a magical portal from a place called Equestria, I’m sure you’ve heard of it”

“You came from the back of a horse?” I asked. Her stories was very creative, I gave her that, but, as she recounted it she didn’t seem nervous, or have that nervous stalling between words like when people are lying. It was as if she believed it herself.

“Alright then, if you’re not going to tell me the truth then I guess I’ll have to use my ERS to call in the authorities.”

“But I am telling you the truth. Why don’t you believe me?”.

“Oh yeah, the truth eh? Prove it then. Where is this ‘magic portal’; can you show it to me?”.

“Actually I can. It’s just back here; follow me and I’ll show you” and without further hesitation, Twilight turned and began walking back the way she had just come. It took a moment for me to comprehend this; I didn’t expect her to actually have proof, but I soon snapped out of my surprise and followed her as she led me back about 30 meters or so back to her alleged portal. Upon our arrival at the spot, nothing particularly strange popped out at me, other than an ovular, rather shiny and reflective area on the ice completely clear of snow.

“There it is” Twilight said, pointing at the clear spot with a gloved finger.

“This is your portal?” I asked, beginning to wonder how hard this girl had hit her head.

“Yes, that’s it” she replied, looking over at me as though she expected some kind of understanding to click in on my behalf, but I was utterly confused.

“And how, exactly, did you get through it?”.

“Princesses Luna and Princess Celestia cast a spell that opened it for me. Hmm, but it was a very strange one, they said they’ve got no doubt that I’ll do my best to learn what I’m meant to here, and that, I’ll know when the time is right to return, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” At that point I suddenly realized what I then thought was going on. This girl had obviously come into the forest to get sinfully high, forgotten what the hell had happened to her, made up this story to satisfy her subconscious need for reason as the drugs began to wear off, saw my cabin before the sun set, walked here looking for help, and set off my alarm. Now that made sense.

“Ah, I know what’s happened here” I said, with the tone of someone who had just figured out some small personal mystery, which, I had.

“You do?” Twilight said, the energy in her voice back, and a look of mild relief spreading across her face.

“Yeah don’t worry about it; lots of guys in my company had substance problems before they joined the service. It’s no big deal, as long as you can get a hold of your life again; I really wouldn’t want to see someone like you, with so much potential, go to waste. It’s fine. Anyway, I’m not about to let an innocent girl die out in the forest. You can crash at my cabin for tonight only, if you really need it.”

“Oh, thank you very much!” expressed Twilight, taking a step towards me and smiling contently. I couldn’t quite place it at the time, but there was something about her voice that seemed almost… scripted. As though she had memorized her words beforehand and was simply recalling them at my cue.

“Bah, no problem. Now let’s get going, I don’t want to stay out here any longer than I have to.” and with that, I turned and led the way, much more slowly this time, back up the side of the mountain. It wasn’t too hard to do, as I had made several trapping paths that crisscrossed around its slopes, and after we’d found one it was merely a matter of following it back up. One thing that did slow us down was that the girl seemed unable to keep her balance while walking, and to make everything just wonderfully annoying, she lacked any proper winter clothing. Although she did have a jacket and boots they were much too thin, and I could tell that this amount of climbing combined with the cold was trying for her.

Throughout the course of the trip, she continued asking occasional questions such as “Wow, why is it that everything is so detailed and finely coloured around here?” and then they were something like “Is that your house up there? Oh, is that because your ruler banished you?” and then eventually they moved to something along the lines of “I was relocated once to Ponyville. Have you heard of that place? I wonder how far it is from here” and so on and so forth. They weren’t jumbled and blurred as one might suspect from someone who’s stoned, as a matter of fact they seemed very logical, and I tried to be patient with answering them, although the amount of her confusion with reality was much more complicated than I first suspected, and eventually I just gave up; on being legitimate anyway.

Once we arrived at the cabin, I demonstrated to Twilight how to turn the downstairs couch into a simple bed, and where the blankets were. Once that was done it wasn’t long before she’d lain down and fallen soundly asleep, as she’d obviously been very tired. From the front door, you turned right to go into the kitchen, and left from there into the living room, if you could call it that, where I’d set Twilight up.

I stood there watching her for a few minutes, leaning against the doorframe in the opening to go into the kitchen. It was rectangular, long ways reaching out behind me, and the living room was a squashed square, long ways perpendicular to that of the kitchen. One thing I noticed now that I hadn’t before was that her hair too, was purple, but streaked with pink; apparently this was a popular colour. As I watched her on the couch, I found myself wondering where she had really come from. Mont-Laurier was too far, as was Maniwaki. Grand-Remous was closer, but there was the Baskatong Reservoir to get over, so that was off, but there just weren’t any other towns closer than that. I remembered her saying something about a Ponyville, so maybe that was the name of a ranch or something out in the wilderness. Possible, but still unlikely. I furrowed my brows and moved my tongue thoughtfully over the inside of my teeth. Something still wasn’t right; the same subtle suspicion and feeling of danger that had clambered into my chest and neck and shoulders two hours or so earlier was beginning to re-awaken within me.

I shook my head dismissively and turned around, heading back through the kitchen to the main hallway. Whatever had happened to her I’d be able to discover in the morning, provided the lasting drug effects had fully worn off. I just hoped I’d be able to get her back to where she’d come from. There was enough gear for maybe half-a-dozen other people and a lot more food than I needed, but I still didn’t want some naïve little teenage girl hanging out with me for the next two weeks.

I stepped sideways and grabbed a poker from beside the fireplace in the kitchen to push some ash overtop of the coals in the grate to keep them hot for the morning, before heading into the hallway and pulling down the trapdoor with the ladder, leading back up to my room. Once I was there, I stowed the rifle in its corner, and walked over to my bed, flopping down tiredly into it.
My father had always told me when I was young ‘don’t trust anyone you find on the street; chances are they’re there for a reason’.
‘Well dad’ I thought back to his words, ‘I’m not about to let an innocent person freeze, no matter how much they might’ve messed up. Everyone deserves a second chance’.

And then, as sleep began to overtake me once again, I had another vision. It was cartooned like the own from my dreams before, but this time I was seeing the forms of six brightly-coloured ponies. They didn’t look anything like real ponies, but for some reason I didn’t have any doubt that that’s what they were. They were talking and laughing, walking through the streets of what I assumed was the same town as before, but it was hard to tell, the edges were all fuzzy. And one of them looked very familiar, one with a horn on its head that was totally purple, with black hair. I wouldn’t remember it afterwards, but just before darkness consumed me that night I realized who I was looking at.

It was Twilight.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

The morning after my late-night encounter started off languidly, and is rather hazy in the memory of it. When I first opened my eyelids, I discovered myself to be lying in an uncomfortable position across my bed, with the covers askew, and the sounds of the birds singing and squawking to each other outside, greeting my fresh and awakened ears. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve wanted to doze right off again, but considering how uncomfortable I was, combined with the curiosity to see if that strange girl was still downstairs, I grudgingly pulled myself up out of bed to get dressed in some more comfortable clothing.

The very first thing I noticed as I stood with a grunt on the soft wooden floor was that the fine cracks between the boards of the walls had early golden sunlight forcing its way between them. This told me that I’d overslept, for even though this was supposed to be a fun and enjoyable getaway, there were still many things to around the mountain in order to keep it functional. That meant there was a timetable I had to stick to in order to stay on track with the activities I had planned. So, after stretching out the tight stiffness in my muscles as best I could, I kicked open the trap door leading to the main hall and as soon as the ladder had slid its way down to the floor, I was clambering to the ground.

After pushing the ladder back up and re-closing the door into the ceiling, I walked down the short main hall to the back of the cabin, where a rickety-old door opened up onto a narrow porch that ran perpendicular to the hall. It was outside, but it did have a plywood roof and a floor with carpet, as well as a few steps leading down to the snow. Once I was there, I looked to the southeast where a misty sunrise was making its way over the distant hills.

The last of the dark clouds that had brought snow two days before was finally breaking up, and what was left of them was hanging on the horizon near to the sun. It may have risen in a more sharply defined fashion the day before, but this time I was truly in it. A part of this whole, beautiful experience. I could hear the wind between the trees, the sound of animals moving through the forest, and the familiar scent of nature that I’d known since I was small. It always registered as one of my most beautiful sights, that is, the northern wilderness in general, not just my cabin and the Québec mountain, and it was always the first thing to come to my mind when depression or intense stress were bothering me.

After another minute or two of fully savouring the spectacle, I turned around and stepped through the door that led back inside. From the main hall, I looked to my left, into the living room. Twilight was lying on the couch in the same exhausted position she’d been in the night before, still unmoving and fast asleep. This was mildly disappointing for me; I’d hoped to be able to question her at least a bit the first thing after I got up, but evidently, there was no such luck.

Sighing, I walked down the length of the hall and turned left into the kitchen, to begin preparing breakfast. I wasn’t sure how hungry the girl would be, after all she hadn’t said much to me on how long her travels to get here had been, or on anything else for that matter, but I thought it would probably be best to prepare more than I thought I’d need, as it was usually possible to set extras outside to freeze and then eat them later.

After skillfully re-kindling the fire back up to a moderate blaze, I set about slicing some of the strips of squirrel meat to fry in a pan like bacon, as well as crushing up some of the wild berries from the other day to make jam. I thought even if there was some special allergy or something that Twilight had, that at least one of the two would make a half-decent breakfast. Then I remembered that I had eggs as well. Because they were difficult to transport all the way out here, I usually didn’t have any, but when I did I used them sparingly; as a way to start a new day off well after a particularly bad one, or if I was out of meat and needed protein before I could go trapping again. ‘Buuuuut,’ I thought to myself, ‘I might as well. I’ve got six of ‘em and two weeks out here, so I’ll just make two for now’.

So, after I finished crushing the berries and the squirrel meat was almost cooked, I went back out into the main hall. At about halfway down it and on the right, there was a door to the storage room, which I went through. The room was divided in two; one half was dedicated to racks with the tools and equipment that I’d brought and things I’d made, and on the other was shelves and boxes with the foodstuffs and medicine, including some real morphine and other hard-to-come by drugs, which did actually come in rather handy from time to time.

Stepping inside, I was greeted by the room’s typical must scent. Walking over to the back wall, I pulled on a course rope handle in the floor, opening a secret storage cavity, which I, myself, defined as a cold pit; an area designed to trap and hold cold air. I removed two eggs from a carton lying near the bottom before reclosing the door and walking out again, past the hastily-made shelves and containers, into the main hall. That particular room in the cabin did have a rather eerie feel, or at least to me it did, with the heavy curtains over the one lone window, and just the open space in general. Although, it was the single most important room in the whole cabin. If I had to have the whole top of the mountain shelled, but could spare one place, and it couldn’t include the whole structure, that would definitely be the one.

As I re-entered the kitchen, I fumbled step in my surprise to find that Twilight was awake at last, sitting quietly at the table and wearily rubbing her eyes, looking as though she could do with a few more hours sleep. Noticing me striding in, she looked up groggily, but didn’t say anything right away.

“G’morning” I said, as I walked back to the area of the counter where I had been preparing breakfast, spreading only the slightest of sarcasm into my even tone.

“Good morning” Her voice seemed much less enunciated as it had been before, and now sounded tired and worn.

“Quite the scare you gave me last night, setting off my alarms like that” I placed the eggs on the counter beside the basin; there wasn’t running water, so I just replaced the little bit that was always in there each day; and then reached down to ease the pan with the squirrel bacon off the fire, to check if it was ready yet.

“Did I scare you? Oh I am so so sorry!” .

Damn it. There was that scripted tone, back again. But just then, as her gaze dropped to the inside of my pan, her eyes suddenly widened and jaw dropped.

“Yeah, I would say no problem, but that was kind of a problem for me” I said, hoping to draw the conversation to a more realistic backstory that would explain her appearance, but I noticed that she was still staring at the pan. I looked where she was, and shifted it back and forth a bit.

“Bush bacon; see there’s not too many pigs out around here, so I’ve got to improvise a bit” she lifted her stare from the pan and looked at me questioningly, eyebrows raised. I moved my free hand up and absently stroked my hair, wondering what part of that she didn’t get “Squirrel”.

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed, clasping a hand to her mouth.

“What?! What is it?”.

“Is that… that isn’t… an actual squirrel in there, is it?”.

“Well, yeah, kind of” I acknowledged. At this point I began to wonder if maybe I was mistaken about the getting high thing, and that this girl was actually some kind of hippie. That would explain her being out in the forest, anyways.

“But that’s, that’s, terrible! How could you? Killing a poor innocent squirrel like that?!”

« C’est la vie » I responded. Another questioning glance up from her, but this one laced with horror. “That’s life” I translated, shrugging. “There’s no way to get store-bought food out here, so I make a lot of my own, which, brings up the point; what exactly where you doing in the forest last night?”.

The terrified look faltered off for a moment and I received a huge sigh. “How many times do I have to tell you?”.

“At least once more” apparently the ‘poor squirrel’ had been forgotten for the moment, but her crazy story certainly had not.

“I came here through the portal that I showed you last night, from a land called Equestria. There’s something here that I need to find, or discover, or something like that, and when I’ve found it, that’s I’ll be able to go back”.

“Look, if you can’t remember anything just say so, but this isn’t helping you at all” I replaced the pan heavily.

“But I am, telling the truth! Why can’t you believe me?”.

Now I sighed. “Alright then, fine, whatever, just, just how much longer before you’ll be able to go back to this horse-land?”.

“Ponyville” Twilight corrected. She sat back and thought for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows and putting a knuckle up to her finely-built chin, as though she needed to think about the circumstance. “Well, since there doesn’t seem to be any really terrible and immediate danger, Celestia will probably allow my friends come in after me through the portal. It probably wasn’t a very good idea to leave them behind in the first place. Hmm, maybe together we can figure all this out.”

“Wait a minute, who are these friends, and how would this Celestia character know that you’re not in danger anyway?” ‘Ha!’ I thought, ‘got her this time’. But after not even a pause, she replied with;

“Well, you see, my friends are actually a force called the Elements of Harmony, which are supposed to keep chaos and evil at bay. I met them when I was first relocated to Ponyville and we’ve saved Equestria many times in the past. As for Celestia, I wish I knew; she and Luna were acting strangely before I left, kind of like they knew something. But it doesn’t matter; we’ll question them about it after we find out the meaning of why we’re here”.

Great. Just perfect.

I no idea how to reply to this, so I simply responded with an unbelieving; “Riiiiiiight, sure okay. They’ll be coming today then I take it?” a nod from Twilight. “Well, as long as you’re with me, you can help with the work I’ll be doing. This morning was going to make maple syrup. If you don’t know how that’s done, tough, I’ll find something for you to do, ‘cause you are not just going to sit around and wait for these friends of yours to come and get you. In other words, you’d better damn not be lying”. Twilight merely shrugged in indifference, and so I turned around to face the counter again and, setting the pan of bacon down, picked up an egg. Turning again, I held it up for her to see, asking in a falsely cheerful voice; “Scrambled or sunny-side up?” The look that proceeded to cross over her perfect little features was absolutely priceless.

***

After a silent and rather awkward breakfast – Twilight ate mostly toast and berry spread while I took the meat products – it was time to get started. I fitted on my own outdoors gear, before heading back into the storage room and digging up some more practical winter clothing for the girl, which ended up being some boots and a coat that I’d outgrown, and, leaving the her to her own means, grabbed my gun and marched outside, moving to take the sap cauldrons out from under a low hut at the side of the cabin and leaving the rifle propped against the wall nearby.

Firstly in my customary routine, I found the small stone fire pit near the centre of the open clearing, and after brushing a long oval of snow off of the ground covering and to one side of the pit, and set up a short tripod of large sticks on top of it. I then took some wood from a low stack that rested nearby and built two other fires, with about a metre between them, off to the right of the first fire in the oval I had cleared. A second tripod over the end fire which didn’t already have one, and I was able to place a long aluminum pole from the top of one, across to the three-pronged V-shaped nook in the other. This would be where the cauldrons would hang from, which, after I’d checked that they and the stick structure was sturdy, I placed one over each of the fires. By this time, Twilight had finished getting dressed and had come outside, though she was still walking as though she’d just jumped ship. Upon seeing her form I relaxed my mind, to try and encourage patience so I could explain the art of maple syrup making.

“Alright, so, to start” I began, well aware that if we were ever going to get back on time, I’d need to be quick, “You collect the sap from the trees. I’ve already tapped a lot of the trees on the mountain, so the first thing we need to do is take the sap that will have congregated in the buckets and empty them into this pot here” I kicked the first and largest cauldron lightly with my foot “Which is usually a two day job; the first half of two days, in succession, should be enough to fill that last little pot over there, with syrup” Glancing sideways at her, I saw Twilight standing straight, with her left arm curved to hold up a notebook, into which she was jotting notes. “Wa– where did you get that?” I asked feeling taken aback, as I was sure that she had not had that when she’d left the cabin.

“It’s just something I brought with me; keep going” she replied.

“Um, okay, well once the sap in here boils down to a certain colour and thickness, you’ve got to pour it into the next one, and then when that boils down, into the next. By the time the stuff in that last pot boils down, it should be thick enough to call syrup”.

“Mmm” muttered Twilight, still jotting. “But wouldn’t it be easier to just keep adding to each of the pots until its thick enough?” she asked, looking up “Then we wouldn’t have to keep pouring it”.

“It’s more efficient this way” I replied “And faster; when you don’t keep deluding the syrup with sap it saves time, and goes a lot smoother I find”.

“Well, alright then” she said, scribbling that last bit down in her book before looking up expectantly at me. I was immediately reminded once again of how odd it was for her to be here, now more than ever. Her purple and pink hair, which hung over her forehead in a thick fringe, combined with nearly flawless pale skin, and certainly not an athletic build, although, it did seem as though she might be a good runner; gave the impression of a young schoolgirl, though I estimated her age to be about 17. And once again, the question came to mind, what was she doing out here? I didn’t know it then, but very soon, my frustrated ignorance would be put to rest.

“So, how do we get started?”.

“Well, the buckets attached to the tapped trees shouldn’t be too hard to find. We’ll each take one of those long tin containers over there” I said, pointing at a low hut at the side of the cabin “And just, when you find a bucket, pour the sap from it into the container, and when it gets full bring it back here and dump it into the first pot. All of the buckets are within seeing distance of the trapping trails, so stick to them and you should be okay. Also, count how many you find, so I can figure out if we missed any of them afterwards”

“Alright then, let’s get going!” What with that last exclamation, she made it sound like some kind of grand adventure, but I was ready for something like that, so it didn’t bother me as much as it would have. Besides, I really had to get going. The extra set of hands would make things faster, but still, I only had until about 2:30 or so in the afternoon to be finished. So, making a note of which path Twilight was heading down, I took one of the tin containers from the shelter, and turned to make my way down the opposite slope.

At first, the going was fairly easy; it was downhill trail and most of the buckets were in relatively reachable spots. It was possible to take only a few steps off the path before being able to remove one of the buckets with sap and empty it into the container. But, after about 40-45 minutes of hard, competent work, I was nearing the valley between my and a different mountain’s slopes and had planned a transition to a another path for the trip up to collect still more sap.

The side of the mountain I was on was opposite to that which bordered the river, which meant I had to keep a careful eye on where I was going to avoid straying away from the main path. Because the undergrowth was greatly diminished in the winter, it was sometimes easy to mistake a path where there were none. I then had the thought that maybe I should have mentioned this to the girl – Twilight – before I sent her off. It could end up unfavourably if she were to go wandering around again. ‘Ah, but wait’ A voice in my head told me, ‘Maybe when she hits the river, she’ll go back through her magic portal and be gone! Or maybe she’ll get lost, that would solve things as well. But no, no, that… wouldn’t be right. But, still, hard to imagine what happened to her. Maybe she ran away from home… but what home?’ These thoughts continued to speculate for a few minutes about the girl, but eventually I gave up on trying to figure out the mystery, and instead focused on the task at hand.

I continued down until I reached the last of my placements, then started back up the mountain. After a tiring hour-long climb inclusive of a similar routine to that which I followed going down, I arrived at the last stretch of slope with a near-full sap collector; I had reached the summit and my cabin once again.

Then, I noticed something that, upon inspection, brought me utter and complete shock. I saw none other than Twilight, standing next to the first cauldron and pouring sap, with difficulty into it. How was this possible? Surely she couldn’t have collected much sap if she’d taken even less time than myself!

Walking quickly over to where she stood, I glanced down into the pot, and found, with even greater surprise than before that it was more than half full!

“What? But, but how is that– what did you do?”.

Starting and looking over at me, with an air of… something like discomfort, combined with bewilderment, she replied “Well, I, uh, used my magic to help me, of course. How else could I do this so quickly?”.

At this point, I was ready to just chuck her off the damned mountain. Why did she keep on with this story? Just as I was thinking of something angry and or clever to say, a thought struck me. With it, I felt my shoulders relaxed and muscles un-tensed themselves, as the ease of my decision reached them.

“Well, alrighty then” I said casually. The sudden change in attitude caused Twilight to look up at me again curiously for a moment, with a small ‘Hmmm’, but I just shrugged and stated matter-of-factly “If you say so, I believe you. If you keep insisting that this is the truth, then it must be so”. Twilight raised her eyebrows curiously, but soon turned away again went back to pouring the sap.

I stepped casually back in the direction that I had come, but after a dozen or so steps backward turned 90 degrees and sprinted into the woods. Staying hidden within the trees I watched her closely. Twilight finished pouring the sap into the pot and took an observant step back. But then, standing there, thinking she was alone; she did something… unbelievable. Something that would be etched like with hot steel into my memory for weeks and weeks to come.

***

Twenty-five minutes earlier: Twilight had chosen to travel down the side of the mountain that was closest to the river, thinking that since she’d been up that side last night, it shouldn’t be as hard a trip. She also wanted to be closer to the portal that had brought her here, in case there were any new developments with it, such as the arrival of her friends; she knew that if they did come today it would be of great benefit if she could reach them before Darius, of whom she was becoming aware knew absolutely nothing of her world. As it turned out, her inference was accurate for second part, but the going did turn out to be very rough. For starters, she kept on slipping on the snow and the ice, becoming bruised and spilling part of the sap that she’d collected. Secondly, it was difficult for her to find each of the taps, and even harder to tip their contents into her tin container. By the time she had worked her way through the woods and out onto the frozen river, she only had about five or six inches of sap in her container, and figured that she’d already been out for well over an hour.

“Oh, this is ridiculous!” Twilight told herself. “How can I possibly do anything at this rate? If I were going to accomplish anything at all I’d need…” and then it came to her. The bracelet! With it, Celestia had said she could use magic in this world, she’d completely forgotten, and so could simply use its power to collect all the sap she needed, while still leaving enough on Darius’ side of the mountain for him not to get suspicious! It was a perfect plan! With a small flame of excitement growing inside of her, Twilight pulled back the right sleeve of her coat to expose the bracelet, and attempted to recall the workings of a complex retrieval spell she’d first learned over a year before.

“Alright, here goes nothing…” the Twilight told herself, and, raising her hands and bending her knees slightly, she was able to focus her magic and, feeling power flow through her for the first time since she’d teleported to the Crystal Empire only a day before, conjured up two glowing orbs of purple, one surrounding each hand. She felt the familiar sensation of the magic reaching her very soul, and smiled at the knowledge that it was still possible to call upon her great talent, even in the strange world in which she was experiencing. Shortly afterwards, emerging out from between the trees, levitating towards her with purple halos etched around them, came the sap buckets.

Twilight reached a hand down and removed her tin sap collector from her side, as it had been strapped like a satchel across her shoulders, and placed it in the snow in front of her. The buckets floated over and, with perhaps a little more vigour than was necessary, emptied themselves into her container one by one, before floating back into the trees, presumably returning to their taps. After about five hearty minutes of this, the last buckets had poured their contents into her container and returned to their spots within the forest.

Twilight let her arms drop to her sides, simultaneously groaning from the effort. Though her powers had much improved since she had begun her studies, it was not every day that she had to sustain a complicated spell like that for so long. Now her sap collector was, to Twilights great delight, quite full, and so she decided that it was time to head back to the summit. But, after dragging with difficulty the container from her spot on the river, over to the treeline, and after taking one look at the climb she would need to take to get back up, she decided that it would be impossible for her without another spell. Surely using magic once more couldn’t hurt anything. Twilight knew she couldn’t risk teleporting all the way back up the mountain; if Darius saw her – or heard her for that matter – It could end up very badly. Celestia had told her before she left that magic was weak in this world, and chances were that Darius had never seen it performed before.

So, with a cautious glance to the left and right, another summoning of power and a halo of purple, this time surrounding Twilight herself, she felt the ground below her feet fall back as she rose several meters in the air above the snow. She had not done this very many times before, but the feeling was, again, a familiar one. Hesitantly, Twilight kicked her legs and swung her arms a bit in order to ensure that the spell was working properly, which it appeared to be. The last thing she needed was for the enchantment to give out on her halfway up the slope. But it held fast, and so, moving along quickly but cautiously while levitating the container behind her, Twilight floated gently, with stomach parallel to the ground, back up through the trees, bearing once again towards the open area on the summit of Darius’ mountain.

Once the ground had leveled and the cabin itself could be seen anew from between the trees, she had lowered herself back to the ground and ended the spell, just to be on the safe side, as she arrived. Dragging the container all the way from her landing position across the last stretch of forest to the sap pots was difficult work especially when combined will spells and all that sap carrying. Looking into the first pot in the line that he had constructed, it was evident that Darius had not been back here yet to make his first drop off. So, being quite at ease with the scene herself, Twilight started emptying her own sap into the first bucket.

After she was close to finishing pouring the last of what she had in, she jumped suddenly at the gawking voice of Darius beside her; “What? But, but how is that- what did you do?”.

Looking up, startled, she could see Darius standing there, holding his own tin container, having just arrived from his first collection trip. On his face there was a look that Twilight had never seen on anyone before; disbelief mixed with shock, and even a hint of fearful suspicion resided there. And it was then that Twilight realised her mistake; even if there was no physical evidence of her cheating, it would still be obvious that something was out of the ordinary when she, an inexperienced younger-than-he girl came back from the collection, in less time than Darius, with more sap. Maybe it was because of the tiredness she was experiencing, or maybe it was because she knew that he wouldn’t believe her, or a combination of both, but swallowing her previous caution, Twilight replied to him with; “Well, I, uh, used my magic to help me, of course. How else could I do this so quickly?”.

As soon as she said it, Twilight could almost feel the irritation crossing over his form; the tightening of the muscles and tendons, his facial features screwing themselves up, the replacement of surprise with anger. He seemed as though he were going to say something very forcefully or even shout at her, but then, quite unexpectedly, he stopped. His form relaxed, and uncharacteristically he gave a wide grin, the first time she had seen him do this since they’d met the night before.

“Alrighty then” he said. This was strange. She had expected based on his other reactions at her story that he would become angered and interrogate her further, but on the contrary, he shrugged and said “If you say so, I believe you. If keep insisting that this is the truth, then it must be so”, and then turned and walked away.

Now she was the one who was confused, but was far too tired and cared too little to pursue the topic at the moment. Turning back to her work wondering mildly what had come over him, Twilight finished pouring the sap into the first pot. Then, she set the empty container in the snow nearby and stepped back, watching as the fire worked to boil it into the first, weak form of syrup.

Twilight sighed. ‘This is going to take sooooo long’ she thought to herself. Impatience, amplified by her long slow walk down and only slightly more interesting trip back up, was working its way into her judgement. ‘Why not just fill each of the pots and let them boil down on their own? That would be so much faster’. She remembered mentioning it to Darius before, but he had said no it wasn’t good. Then she thought ‘Well, if I could just use magic to boil down the sap in this pot, then he would see how my method is much better’. However there was now a nagging feeling in the pit of Twilight’s stomach that was telling her otherwise. She was beginning as though she was abusing her powers to make everything easier. But, a silent promise to herself not to use it again unless it was absolutely necessary after this somewhat subdued that sense. So, raising her hands once again, she launched a short burst of her purple magic aimed at the sap, which upon contact heated the pot so quickly that an audible Hisssss and a puff of steam rose from it.

After a minute or two, the sudden sound died down and the steam was exiting the pot in a steady plume, which indicated that the water was vaporizing at a solid rate. Twilight stepped back again, feeling pleased with her handiwork, knowing that now, the process would go much faster. Then, all of a sudden, a cold, even voice from behind her commanded; “Put your hands up, and slowly turn around”.

Twilight’s whole body stiffened, as she had though that she was alone standing there, but there was no disobeying the orders from this voice. Shakily, twilight did as she was told, her arms rising and her feet turning her body gradually around, and soon when she twisted her neck around she could see that it was Darius, with his feet spread apart and knees bent, but this was a new Darius. Judging by the rise and fall of his chest, Twilight could tell that he had seen her use magic. His face was set, his mouth hanging slightly open, and a black six-shot revolver aimed right at her head. He was in a combat stance commonly used by police and other law keepers; an athletic position with his right hand on his gun and the other supporting its weight from the bottom. Both arms were bent and he was staring down the steady sights of the weapon, held at about a foot from his face.

“What are you?” he asked, his words like ice, and Twilight knew that there would be no funny business now, that if she couldn’t come up with something really good really fast, it would not end well. ‘Oh boy’ she thought to herself ‘Here we go’.

***

Moments earlier: I couldn’t believe it. It simply could not be possible. But here it was, right in front of me. From my hiding spot behind a couple of close-grown trees I could see that, out in the clearing Twilight, braced slightly as if against a wind, had conjured two rippling, glowing, purple orbs of power and had fired a short burst of… something, into the metal of the first pot. But that was impossible; it couldn’t be. What was going on here; really? The time for games was fully and truly over. So, she thought that it would be funny to mess with me and pull me along with some kind of grand prank she had planned, eh? Thought it would be a great time, to tell me fairy tales and then go do… whatever it was that she had done. Silently, and with grim determination set into my soul; I stepped out from behind my cover in the woods and began walking towards her. I felt no mercy in my veins; and remorse wasn’t really my style.

When the distance between us was approximately halved, I reached into the inside pocket of my coat and pulled from it a sleek black pistol; my grandfather’s old army revolver. He had left it to my father when he’d died, but he never even touched the thing, so I came and lifted it from his office one day. I don’t even know if he noticed the disappearance, but I’d kept it ever since. Twilight had her back to me, seeming to be admiring something with the first sap cauldron, but that was just as well. Standing at the edge of the trees directly behind her, I aimed the gun, and wondering mildly about what kind of story I would tell the police when they questioned me on how exactly she been murdered, I spoke in my most even, terrifying projection; “Put your hands up, and slowly turn around”.

At the sound of my voice, Twilight immediately stiffened, in surprise, but, she did comply, looking rather scared and guilty at the sight of me, turning haltingly to face my voice. Now, at long last, I was going to get answers from her. Real answers.

“What are you?” I uttered on a breath, trying to sound as cold as possible.

“Darius, please, you don’t understand –” she started.

“But I’ve been trying to!” I said. “I tried to understand what happened to you out in the forest, but you kept on and on with all that ‘Equestria’ bullshit. Well now, guess what, my patience is done. Zero; and you’re going to tell me the truth. All of it. Killing you right here and now is no skin off my back, but keeping you alive with that… that, whatever it was you just did, is! So spit-it-out!”.

“But Darius, that was the truth” she cried desperately, seeming on the verge of tears.

“Still going are we?!” I said, more angrily and forcefully than before. “Well I’m gonna count to three, and you had better god damn tell me something I want to hear.” I had seen terror in the eyes of people before, a common sight in the army, but nothing compared to this. Maybe it was because she wasn’t used to being so powerless, or because death had never stared her in the face as it did now. Maybe it was something else still, but anyhow, her breath came in short, struggling gasps, her eyes watered and she looked as though she wanted to scream and cry at the same time, but did not; Twilight was trying hard to keep her composure even.

I let out a low, cold chuckle. “Silly Twilight, you know that breaking and entering is a crime, don’t you? Manslaughter you see, completely justified” I sneered as Twilight’s gaze dropped and a single tear rolled slowly down, and fell from her face. “One…..” Nothing. No move or sound from her at all. “Two…..” she dragged her stare up to look at me again and moved her mouth desperately, but only a few incomprehensible noises escaped. “Three”, I smoothly moved my finger down from the side of the gun onto the small curved trigger, and was in the process of making a very spur-of-the-moment choice on where to put my bullet, when something stopped me. A noise, out in the forest. The trigger was almost pulled far enough back to release a shot, I could feel the resistance of it, just a little bit more, and a loud Bang would end my trouble, likely for good. But the noise was growing louder; it was spreading out all across the mountain, I could hear it, the familiar haunting echo, which signified the approach of danger. The bells were ringing again.

I swung the barrel of the gun away from Twilight, pointing it instead into the depths of the forest, as though someone were about to come charging out of it at any second. The eerie chimes of the bells echoed out all across the surrounding area as well, creating an intensely creepy atmosphere. Perhaps I imagined it, but I thought I could hear something off in the distance, like a faint swooshing of energy… and even more faintly than that, screams of pain. The gun trembled lightly in my hand, and it wasn’t from cold. If I was at all disturbed from something being wrong before, that was nothing compared to what I was feeling right now. Just then, Twilight gasped and her hands shot up to her mouth. I pointed the weapon back at her again, and demanded harshly – though I could not suppress my own fear “What, what is it? Do you know?”.

“They’re here! I– I don’t believe it th– they’re here” she exclaimed, choking on unformed tears.

“Who, who is?!” I shouted, panic and desperation in my voice, for I knew that it would take something really worth knowing about to make this hopeless wretch happy.

“My friends, the ones I told you about!”.

“What? They’re here?”.

“Well, it certainly sounds like they are”.

I thought for a moment. Her arrival alone was unlikely enough; I had been travelling to the mountain for years, and this was only the second time the bells had rung; including the time last night. What are the odds that they would do so in such short succession? If this girl was telling the truth and had friends out there, then killing her now perhaps was not the greatest of plans; my manslaughter story certainly wouldn’t fly. But, the thought that scared me more than the wrath of the law was her spell. If her little friends could also do that… I supposed it was some kind of bending, of light and energy, in the same way I had just seen her do a minute ago, I might just be facing the most dangerous point of my entire existence. Come to think of it, I wasn’t entirely sure why she hadn’t blasted me while my back was turned moments before. Cursing my hesitation, as well as the current misfortune plaguing me, I came to a silent conclusion that I should’ve shot the damn girl while I had the chance.

“Go inside the cabin; don’t move or touch anything” I ordered, replacing the revolver in my coat and running back to the wall near the hut where my rifle was propped. I grabbed it, quickly checked that it was loaded and the mechanism clear of debris, and turned to jog back towards the trees. When I was about to pass Twilight on the way back, I spoke to her lowered gaze; “If you leave or try to escape from here, I might just shoot one of them. Even if you’re lying and they’re not your friends, I could still shoot them on account of you, got it?”.

Even though this was a bluff, I wanted her to know who was in charge while I was gone. Twilight nodded compliantly as I passed, staring at the ground “You’re not going to get away with this” I added over my shoulder as I continued towards the woods. Turning back to face forward and taking a deep breath to calm my nerves as battle instincts began to take a hold in my mind, I muttered to myself; “I am going to find out what’s going on here, one way or another”.