A Wacky Read

"Man, this place is huge", O'Neill stated while they were following Twilight down the hallways.

Which she commented, "I guess it's quite spacious. It looks a bit bigger on the inside than you'd expect from looking at it from the street."

"I’m sure it's easy to get lost", Cam said and naturally looked at his compass, that he had on his wrist.

"Do you always carry a compass?", Daniel asked Cam bluntly.

"When you get shot down behind enemy lines once, you get used to carrying around one of those." He checked the needle and it was steadily pointing. "The compass works."

"So does the watch", Vala added, but Daniel’s look told her, that her joke ain't funny, "Sorry."

Rodney thought about it, and he was worried as usual, "But how would we know which way is north or south?"

"And how would we know if they're even named that on this planet?!", Vala joked.

"Doesn't really matter", Cam ignored her, "It will do."

"Some time to explore this castle and world would be nice", Daniel said without thinking. At once Cam stopped and turned to him, "Don't jinx it."

Jackson pressed his lips together, "Sorry." And with that, Vala smiled at him. He rolled his eyes while the others were walking on.

Near the library, Twilight asked the Humans to "Wait here." She had to check the portal for herself first and also make sure nopony saw the Humans. If anyone would see creatures like them, they would definitely freak out, and that wouldn't help anypony.
Alone she went on and entered the library.

While the Princess was escording the Humans, Starlight was escording the Lizards and their more or less Human friends. They couldn't help but to discuss while they were walking.

"You know how to turn on the gateway, right?", Hati asked his mechanical gifted friend, Rook. "I mean, you made the ring run in the first place."

"Nope and Aye", he answered. "But also Nope. I only gave the ring the power it lusted for. I didn't turn it on or anything, or made any adjustments to it. What happened with it, what it did, it was doing a long time ago anyway. It just never finished cause it ran out of power."

"The Mirror is more of a magical thing anyway", Morty claimed. "I doubt a Blacksmith could handle such a thing."

"You're not free to tell me what I can handle and what not, Doc."

"I'm sure Rook can figure it out."

"Sure", he answered Hati, "How many years you wanna stay?"

Elisa crossed her arms, "I'm sure the Doctor doesn't mind!"

"You didn't have to follow me. It's your own fault you're stuck here."

Krator stopped the skeleton by putting his gauntlet on his ribcage and yelled, "Sometimes people care for their friends!"

"Friends?", Morty said like he didn't know the meaning of it.

"And they do stupid things for them!"

Morty evaded his look, "Are we friends?"

"Of course we are! Stupid old man. How long have we been on this together? Huh?"

He looked up to the tall Highpriest, "Four weeks."

"I could have sworn it was more."

They moved on, passing windows and adornments. "At least now we know, why every bit is about horses", Hati said, looking at the coloured windows. He grew up in a city that was famous for horse breeding and he could understand the obsession over it, but this castle was over the top with the Pony love. If it was made by them, then at least it made sense. Those weren't some horses, those where their heroes, their chronics.

He shortly stopped in front of a wide window that caught the afternoon sun. It was mostly blue, but in the middle there was an edgy depiction of a purple Unicorn with wings, firing lasers from its horn. At least that's what Hati took away from it. This must have been a great legacy, maybe even hundreds of their years ago. It was quite impressive.

The library wasn't far ahead and Starlight could already see the Mirror through the gate. Then Twilight passed the gap and Starlight felt relieved. She told the Lizards to "Wait here, please" and went ahead. She didn't want Twilight to see all of the visitors at once. Maybe she could ease in the surprise.

She was mumbling while she approached the gate, "Hey Twilight, there's intruders in the castle, and they are all super tall Lizards and, oh yeah, a burning skeleton, no biggy, right? Sure, Starlight, you tell her that. What could go wrong?"

Eventually she joined Twilight in the library. She was looking around the Mirror and trying to figure out any obvious fault.

"Starlight", she said once she noticed her, "We have visitors."

"Oh, yeah, I know. I showed them the kitchen, kind of. Made sure they didn't get lost. This place is too big, even for me."

"You met them? But I was with them the whole time."

"Really?" Starlight chuckled, "I didn't see you."

"Are you sure?" Twilight shrank her eyes, "Didn't you freak out when you saw them? I mean, it must be your first time."

"Nah, come on, Twilight. I've seen much worse. They don't look too bad, considered most of them are Lizards."

"Lizards?" Twilight wrinkled her forehead, "They're not Lizards, they're Humans."

"Oh!", Starlight got the idea, "You met the Humans! Hati was mentioning something about that."

"Hati? Who by Celestia is that?"

"One of the Lizards? Right! There was another group coming through the Mirror."

"You're telling me, that there's even more?!" In a loud sigh, the princess lost her cool, as it was her usual manner under pressure. "It's all good. We can fix this."

"Did you find out what's wrong with the Mirror?"

"Nooo...", the Princess complained, "It doesn't respond anymore. Everything is at its place, doing its job, but the passage is closed. Something drained the magic completely."

"Maybe their arrival. It must have taken a lot out of it."

"Maybe. We'll have to make some tests on this to fix it."

"Why, maybe I can be of assistance." The two purple Ponies paused and turned to the gate. Rex stood in the entrance, straight as a candle, with
his long black coat almost touching the floor and his arms on his back.

After a second, Twilight shook her head, "Yes, of course. Who are you again?"

"Oh, this is one of the Lizards", Starlight explained. "I call him Blue."

He came closer, "The name's Rex."

"That works too."

"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you?"

"Certainly." For Rex, Twilight looked very differently under his enchanted sight. His eyes were altered, so that he could see the Ether of magic, hidden spells and auras, so that he could read them and see what they were made out of, so he could copy them and destroy them if needed.
Twilight was blinding him. He shrank his eyes but it didn't help much. There was magic in overflow, an overload of spells tossed in the Ether, intertwined with future and past and other beings that Rex couldn't make out yet. She was a well, a portal to powers he didn’t get to know yet. They weren’t cosmical or elemental, they were of another nature. She was impressive.

To numb the pain in his eyes, he reached into the side of his coat and when he pulled it out again, he held a pair of shades in his claw. With that cool accessory on his long raptor snout, he didn't only look twenty percent cooler, it also allowed him to look at Twilight.

"Are you the creator of this fine Mirror, fair Twilight?" Her magic surely was all over it, even if it was invisible for the most.

"No", she smiled, "I didn't make it. But I was using it lately. The idea with the book was mine."

Rex turned to the Mirror and checked it from top to bottom, as he did before. "You have any idea why it might have done, what it did?"

"Well, no."

The adventurers Hati, Elisa, Rook, Krator, Morty and Knom joined them, as did the Humans, O'Neill, Vala, Sam, Cam, Daniel, Rodney and Teal'C. They stood opposed as before, near the Mirror.

"We found a Unicorn", Cam bragged and pointed at the purple Pony.

Krator claimed, "As did we", and pointed at the purple Pony. He leaned over to Elisa, "Which one is ours again?"

"The one without wings."

"Holy Mother of Earth, she has wings!", Krator yelled.

Cam smiled, "Pretty cool, right?"

"Well", Rook commented, "We found a sack of sugar."

In the meantime, Twilight, Starlight and Rex had a look at the Mirror, but couldn't find a solution for it just now. They had to do more research and find out, what caused the overload.

"It is conclusive", Rex informed the crowd, "We will stay a while. Make yourselves comfortable."

"No, no, you're kidding", Rodney was mad, maybe mad of fear, probably even. "We have to be somewhere. We are missing. We are missed!"

Glimmer turned to them, "I'm sorry. But it cannot be changed. But look at the bright sight. You get to stay at a castle, joined by a real Princess. Is that good or what?"

Hati was surprised, "You're a princess?!"

She chuckled. "No. But Twilight is."

"Gee, thanks, Starlight", the Princess mumbled.

"Was that a secret?"

"Oh, I don't know. Was it?"

Morty stepped forward, "In that case, I'd like to talk to the king."

"There", Twilight shook her head, "Is no king."

"Queen."

"Nope."

"Well, take me to your leader then."

"You're talking to her."

"Really? Hmm", the Doctor was thinking, "No wonder this place is as run down as it is."

"Hey!"

"Well, I'd like to make a request, your Highness", Sam applied.

"Oh, please, no. Call me Twilight."

"Well, Twilight", Sam walked up to her, "I think we should have a plan that doesn't require the Mirror, in case it doesn't work anymore. I'd like to take a look at your stars. It is evening now, and soon will be night. If you have stars, there might be some that we know. Then we know at least where we are."

"You could do that?", Cam asked.

"Of course she can!", Jack said.

Twilight put on her thinking face. "Yes", she nodded. "If you can do such a thing, then I don't want to stand in your way. I do have a telescope right upstairs."

"We follow you to it", Sam concluded and rested her hands on her belt.

"Oh, yes. Yes! The castle can be quite the maze." The Princess went ahead to bring the Humans to their telescope of hope. But before they left, she turned to Glimmer."Don’t get into trouble while I'm gone, okay?"

"Trouble? When would I ever get into trouble? You know me."

"Yeah, that's why I said it!"

Alone with the Lizards, Glimmer didn't really know what to do with them now.

"So", she said, "Are you some kind of Griffon?"

Rook looked down on himself, "Maybe, I don’t know. Not that I knew of."

Hati rolled his eyes, "You're not a Griffon!"

"How would you know? I could be!"

"Your skin! You're not covered in feathers, dude."

"I could happen to have a condition. Quick!", he turned to the Pony, "What does a Griffon look like?"

The Pony wrinkled her nose, "What?! You don't know?"

"What the hell!", Hati yelled, "You're a Brass'Ka! Like me!" He kneeled before the small Pony creature, "We are Brass'Ka. And Krator too, and Rex. But Morty is a Human.”

"Was a Human."

"Yeah! Was. And Elisa is a Vendah."

"Half-Vendah, excuse me?"

Hati cautiously smiled, "Hell, I never had trouble introducing before."

"I wonder what it tastes like", Rook mumbled while he stared at the Pony.

Glimmer’s eyes widened and her face froze. "Let’s get you some food. How about that?"

"Excellent idea!", Rook jumped up. "I already know where the kitchen is!" He went ahead and the others got a move on as well.

"I'd rather follow you", Morty said to Glimmer while he seeked her nearness. "Lead the way, Pony."

"Lead the way?", she stopped. "What?"

"Lead the way, quick! My servants need provisions."

She didn't look anything amused, "Did you never learn the Magic Word?"

"The magic word?", Morty wondered. "Some summoning of spells, I assume. No, I had no idea!"

"There is only one Magic Word around here."

Morty tried, "Simsalabim?"

Hati helped him, "No, Morty, you gotta use the words of power."

"Fus Ro Dah?"

"That's not what I meant", Hati shook his head.

"Open sesame, maybe?"

"It's Please!" Glimmer lost her temper for a second before she continued calmly, "The word is Please."

"Oh!", they both sighed in surprise, before Hati added, "I haven't thought of that."

She rolled her eyes and went ahead. The aliens followed her eventually.

Only Rex caught up with her and strode by her side with his arms on his back and a vicious smile on his lips.

"I didn't mean to insult you", he finally said to the little Unicorn.

"No", Glimmer tried to uphold her smile, "You did."

"Why, yes", Rex confessed. "I do apologize. The Princess holds you in high regards, it seems. I can sense your magic is powerful. Your knowledge must be vast."

"Well, yes. I guess you could say that."

"And yet, you are, what? A servant, a maid?"

"I'm the School Council. And her friend. I help where I can."

"Why, a school? Interesting. A school of magic, perhaps?"

"Ehm, no. It's Twilight’s School of Friendship. I'm not sure if that makes sense to you."

Rex looked around while they went on. "It's not in this castle, now is it?"

"No. No, it's not. It's next doors, kinda?"

They made it to the kitchen and Rook already waited in the door.

"Good", Rex added, "Because a Castle would make a terrible school building."

"Don't let Rowling read that", Rook smiled.

Glimmer entered and checked for supplies. She didn't exactly know what aliens eat, so she had to show them their options.
While she showed Rook and Elisa breads, eggs and all kinds of edible plants, and Rook demanded meat, Rex wanted to make one thing very clear to the other Adventurers.

They stood bent over in a ring and whispered. "These Ponies might think we belong to the Human-Pack, that it's a trick of some sorts", Rex conspired. "We don't want to get involved with their doing."

"Why not?", Hati asked. "They need the same help we do."

"They are Humans. They are not to be trusted. And more so. They have guns, guns I never saw before."

They looked at Morty and waited for his reaction. "No, I agree. I was Human and I was not to be trusted. Or would you say otherwise?"

They nodded and Hati commented, "Good point."

"You think they can find out where we are just by the stars?", Krator had his doubts.

"Why, even if so, they have no way to travel to the stars. Unless these Ponies have some sort of gateway or vessel."

"Nothing I'd know of anyway", Glimmer added. She stood part of the circle and whispered the same way they did.

But instead of being surprised, the maniacs just rolled with it. "Can you tell us more about the Mirror?", Hati asked silently.

"Not really. I used it once, or technically twice, but I have no idea how it works or who made it."

Suddenly little Elisa jumped on Hati’s back and put her head in the middle of the crowd. "Why are you guys still whispering when the Unicorn is already here?"

Hati whispered, "Because it's fun."

"By the way", Glimmer digressed, "I can make you eggs, a salad or bake a cake. But the cake takes a while and we don't have any meat. What's the deal with that anyway?"

"Well", Hati informed her, "We are carnivores", and grinned so his huge raptor teeth were visible.

"Oh-Kay!", Glimmer broke out of the circle. "Eggs it is!"

They were made quickly. While cooking, Starlight used her Unicorn-magic constantly, to levitate pans, spoons and incrediences. Her blue glow was all over the place, which got Rex very curious and impressed.

Eventually they got served and sat around the kitchen table, swallowing their cooked eggs one by one.

"So", she said while she sat down with a little distance to the carnivores, "Maybe we can find out how to help you, if you can tell us what happened to you exactly."

"Us?", Elisa wondered.

"Me. I mean me. Where do you come from? How did you get here? There wasn't some mage using a timespell to change your destiny, or something, right?" She silently added, "We already been through that."

The aliens shared some looks until Krator nodded and Rex rolled his eyes. And so Hati explained to her. "I think we're from another planet. Everything here looks different. The colours are stronger, the clouds have weird shapes and everything has a strange magical outline."

"Really? I never noticed that", Glimmer commented.

"Our world is Xerexarea. Aaannd ... well, we are archeologists. Kinda. Well, I am."

Elisa said, "I'm not."

"And we found an artefact in some forgotten catacombs."

The Pony leaned forward, "Interesting."

"A big metal ring on the end of some steps."

Morty said, "We usually find rings like that, because it's a common artefact of the fire god, but those look differently."

"Yeah", Hati continued, "The fire god’s rings are grotesque, shaped like bones, snakes and monsters. This one was plain, almost boring."

"And what did you do with it?"

"Well, I didn't wanna do anything with it. But someone overruled me."

"We fed magic to the ring's crystals", the burning skeleton explained to her. "It activated a portal, which must have brought us to your Magic
Mirror."

Rook, still stuffing his beak, added, "It was most likely a rift in spacetime, created by a super dense and supermassive force of gravity, something like a Dark Star. Then the crystals coordinates must have fired a beacon into the cosmos, leaving behind a passage that reflected light the same way water molecules do, hence the resemblance. Stepping over the edge of that rift must have effectively split us into bits and transport us here. Only thanks to this Mirror we got reassembled. Otherwise we would be a gooey red mess."

The others were speechless until Rex took a sip from his water cup. "Why, I do despise those kinds of portals. Not to imagine what happens to your body in the process."

Glimmer concluded, "It does sound dangerous."

"Oh, nah, we do that all the time", Cam explained to Twilight, who asked them about their journey here. "Going through the Stargate is our job."

The Humans were scattered in the study and on the balcony of the castle. Sam and Rodney were taking turns on the telescope but they had more trouble adjusting to the low position of the looking glass than they had anticipated. Eventually Sam kneeled down before it, something Rodney didn't lower himself to do.

"And this Stargate, is that a common thing on your planet?"

"Well, yes and no."

"It was on Earth for thousand of years", Teal'C explained.

"Yeah, but it was buried most of the time."

Daniel tried, "The people buried the Gate to protect the planet from evil invaders, parasitic creatures that pretended to be their gods."

Twilight got worried, "But those are not coming here, right?"

"No", Daniel said, "We took care of them a while ago. The universe is pretty safe now as far as we know."

"The universe is also damn big, Jackson."

Twilight had her thinking face on, "I think I never saw a Stargate before, nothing I read about meets your description."

"Well", Cam mentioned, "We came out of a Mirror. Maybe there's no Stargate on this planet."

"Or it is buried."

"If so, Daniel Jackson, there might be a way to find it."

"Ancient temples, carvings, fairytales, books?"

"Books?!", the Pony ears readjusted and she turned her head. "Did you say books?"

"Carter", Jack asked her over by the contraption, "Can you really tell by the stars, where we are?"

Carter pouted shortly while she nodded sideways, "I happen to carry the Starmap Database with me. It was meant to go to Delta to complete their
Sector, adding it to the Database. I can use it to compare it to the visible stars, maybe we find some region that is familiar. Then I can calculate where in the Universe we might be."

"Or?", Jack worried.

"Or it's all nothing and we're lost."

"You happen to carry a Starmap with you while you strand on another planet?", Twilight wondered while she came over to them, "Wow, that's lucky."

"Yep", Mitchell added jokingly, "That's how we roll. Get lost on a planet that tries to kill us and then we get lucky."

"Kill you? Did anything try to kill you?"

The Stargate Team shortly exchanged looks. "Well", Mitchell begann, but Vala finished, "Those Lizards. Not sure what they were doing but they were definitely trying to kill us."

"Or just defend themselves from our guns", Daniel argumented.

Rodney took his turn on the scope and bent down the furthest way while Carter was in discussion. He had a hard time seeing anything and the stars he saw didn't mean much to him.

"Anything yet, Doctor McKay?", Teal'C pushed.

"Yep!", he said loud, "It's exactly what I thought it would be."

The others turned silent and listened to him. "What is it?", Sam asked and came closer.

Rodney stood up and looked her in the eye, "A wiggly dot!"

Carter nodded, "Funny."

"Yes, I know. Because this", he pointed at the telescope, "Is a joke. Oh, no, wait! This!" He pointed at everything around him in a spinning manner,
"Is a joke. The telescope is just the pun!"

Cam pushed him away from Carter and the looking glass, "Calm down, Rodney. This is not the time."

"Oh, then what better time?!", he yelled. With everyone looking at him, he felt ashamed immediately, turned around and walked around in the room.

"We're sorry, your Highness", Daniel apologised.

But Twilight only smiled, "No, it's okay. You're away from home and under a lot of pressure. Believe me, I know how that feels. But, if the telescope isn't enough, what else could I provide? What would you do, if you were home?"

"Well, a telescope is fine and all-"

"It's not. Really", Rodney interrupted from the background.

"- but ours are way more precise. And bigger. I doubt you have any that is hooked up to a computer?"

"A", Twilight hesitated, "Computer? Hooked up? To a telescope? The only bigger telescope I know is the observatory in Canterlot, which I'm sure we're allowed to use when we ask nicely? But I don't know anything about their ... computers?"

"Is every sentence of yours a question?", Rodney boldly asked.

"No? I mean, no!"

"This Canterlot", Jack asked, "Where is it?"

"It's a day’s journey by train. But the trains don't run by night. So we'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm sorry."

"Great!", Rodney yelled and tossed his arms into the air. His face was red from his madness.

Cam threatened him, "Rodney! I have a gun."

"Maybe you would like to get some rest. There's plenty of rooms in the castle. You won't have to sleep on books. I know too well, that isn't too great."

"Before that", Daniel kneeled down to the little purple Pony Princess, "I'd like to take a look at your books."

By now, the aliens were fed and the purple Pony Starlight was save from their carnivore teeth. They demanded to have a look at the Mirror, even if it was late already and the stars were visible on Luna's black canvas.

Dim moonlight shone through the upper windows, while the ground was illuminated by candles and blue glowing crystals, that were imbedded into the dark purple crystal walls.

Morty and Hati were sitting by the sides of the Mirror, looking at it, touching it, smelling it. They weren't the greatest experts on magic stuff, but they figured that something simple had to turn on the portal.

"Where does this portal usually lead to?", the Doctor asked.

And Glimmer answered cautiously, "To a school? With Humans, yeah. Basically copies of everyone, but Human? Somehow. I only been there once, I'm not exactly the expert on it."

"Wait", Hati digressed, "You been to a school full of Humans? Were talking horses a regular thing there?"

"Ehm, no. I was turned into a Human too."

Hatis eyes moved up and down the naked horse’s body, before his forehead became wrinkly.

"With cloth!", she added.

"The Mirror is adding clothing", Morty concluded, "Very convenient."

"What kind of clothes?", Hati asked.

"Does everyone get the same?"

"No", Glimmer answered Morty. "I don't know. It was nice clothes. For, y'know, Human clothes."

The two by the Mirror nodded and looked at each other.

"You get the feeling too?"

"What feeling?", Morty asked Hati.

"That everyone here is crazy. And I mean, beyond helping."

"You know I can hear you just fine?"

Hati looked at the Pony, "Yeah, yeah I do."

(Un-)Admittedly, Starlight had to agree with him. Everyone here was crazy, indeed. But she'd never tell that to anyone. And not aliens at that!

In the meantime, Rex was taking a stroll through the library and getting a look at the castle. He was not only memorising the layout, in case of a situation, but also marking the pillars by the shelves with his magical Runes by scratching them in with his index claw.

Those Runes were anchors for his spells. He could summon a portal here to return, or combust them into a blast that brings down the castle. His magic was only limited by his imagination, really. Well, until his arrival here anyway.

He wouldn't tell anyone, but he noticed a strange feeling ever since they arrived. There was something very off with this world, and it had nothing to do with its inhabitants. Or, well, maybe it had. Rex wasn't sure. He had to make more testing.

But for sure, so he knew, something changed about his magic. He felt it strongly when he opened his portal home that eventually only lead into the void.
No, he thought, there was nothing wrong with his portal. His anchor was gone. Or, well, not gone, but misplaced.
Something must have happened to the doorframe it was on. Or to the tower it was in. Or the desert he came from. Or? Yes!
The Highpriests would have never let anything happen to their kingdom. They had great mages and sorcerers, so there was no doubt they were gone too. No one prevented it.

The whole planet must have been gone.

Maybe it was even a natural cause. Probably. Rex had to try something. Time for an experiment!
But he mustn't be discovered by anyone, no, he couldn't allow it. It had to be a secret. He could have been wrong and he'd never hear the end of that.

Slowly he went down the library, into the last and darkest corner he could find. Here he would use a powerful spell, something that would drain his power vastly.

He took his spellbook and browsed. "Yes", he said happily, "This is it."

"What are you doing?"

Spooked he turned around. The voice of the Elf already told him, who it was. "What are you doing here?", he asked Elisa.

"Spying on you. Krator told me to."

"How nice of him."

"And you?"

"Experimenting."

"Something evil?"

"I hope not."

"Please. Half of what you do is evil."

"Half of what you know of anyway."

"So", she waltzed around him and leaned onto the next shelf, "Should I tell them?"

Rexs gaze pierced her soul and she was silenced at once. "It's not wise to threaten me."

"Okay. Not then. Can I watch? I'm still your apprentice, y'know."

"Oh, is that so? I almost forgot about that. We hadn't had a lesson in days."

"Those were busy days."

"Fine", Rex ripped the page out of the book, closed it and turned to have more space.

Between all the shelves and book piles, Rex let go of the sheet and watched it sink to the floor. Once it touched down, it started to glow. The Runes and markings on the paper started to move and crawl away.

They created a ring that expanded beyond the page and across the slick floor. A wide circle was drawn around Rex, easily a man's height wide.

When it stopped growing and remained glowing, Rex smiled at Elisa and sat down in the center. "What is it?"

"This, child, is the experiment." He kneeled, rested his hands on his knees and closed his eyes. This spell used to take a lot out of him. And it does now again, for some reason that lacked explaining yet.

"And", the Vendah wanted to know, "What does it do?"

"Why, did I ever tell you the story about how I broke Time?"

She wrinkled her forehead, "No?"

"Then this is a good start. I'll break it again."

Hardly said, the spell already did its work. The Runes lit up and spawned glowy sparks, that floated through the air, soaring into the heights. Markings on Rex's dark coat lit up too and shared the similar cyan coloured glow. A row of squares on his seam, alongside a ring on each shoulder usually meant, that he drained power for his magic.

But something was wrong. The glow on his coat vanished, yet the ring on the floor was still going. Rex concentrated and pressed is lids together, as if he was in pain.

With the growing light of the runes, Rex raised his voice. After a few seconds his lips opened and his yell broke through his locked teeth.

After a moment, not even a minute, the shenanigan was over. The light of the ring vanished and so did the sparks. Once it was dark, Rex was silent and took a deep breath while he pressed his fists.

"You okay?"

After a second, Rex returned, opened his eyes and looked at the young Long-ear, Elisa, in front of himself. His voice sounded thin and tired.

"Success", he whispered.

Elisa looked around, "Nothing happened."

"Nothing visible, no. But time, by nature, isn't visible." He fought himself up on his feet, his body was weakened. Out of breath he leaned onto the next table, that was loaded with books, as everything in here was, really. "But I know now. I know."

"Know what?" She joined him by the table and sat next to him, pushing aside the books.

He looked at her with a gentle smile. "Your collar I gave you, remember what it does?"

"You said it was enchanted, so it would provide me with power for my spells."

"Why, yes. It's a well."

"A well spell, that you did well."

"Humor, good. You'll need it." He explained, "The collar opens a passage to the cosmos, which is rich in power, ready and easy to be drained. Usually. Otherwise the spell would take from your body and mind."

"And?", she guessed, "That spell just now took from your body."

"Why, yes. Very good. You're learning indeed." He took a few more deeper breaths before he returned to his regular rhythm and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He did look worried, which made Elisa go insane in silence. If Rex, who was close to be a god, was worried, then what mess did they get themselves into?

"My coat is enchanted in a similar way. It provides me with a Well. But it broke up half way through the spell. Which means?"

"Which means, that the connection is blocked?"

"Yes, maybe. Or?"

"That there is no power on the other side."

Rex nodded. "If it was blocked, we have to find out by whom. But really, why would anyone block this kind of magic? As far as I can tell, it is different from what the Unicorns use. No, I think we're out of power."

"Out of power? But, isn't the cosmos huge and endless?"

"Why, yes. Endless, maybe, probably, who knows, really? But not ageless. The cosmos is drained, which means, that it must be old. Dying. Or in a better term, dead."

She leaned forward and looked at his face from below, "You're kidding me, right?" But he evaded her sad, cute gaze. Kidding was not his usual manner. Well, at least not on an adventure like this.

"It's not that bad", he lied with a tear in his eye that he quickly disposed of. He stood up, "Come. We got a Mirror to fix", and went back to his green friend.

For a moment she remained on the table, "You're kidding me", before she followed him. She wouldn't be able to tell anyone about this. She wasn't even sure what she had learned just now.

The cosmos was dead? What would that even mean?