Everfree You are not alone in these woods

[Discorderly]

An aura of golden glow enveloped the large roll of parchment, along with the inkwell and quill that would soon mark it, the two were stowed away in a carefully made saddlebag, along with food and healing supplies. With a satisfied look, the stallion closed the clasp as well as possible, given the rather long scroll inside, and trotted towards the door. Flaring up his magic once more, he lifted a long, beaked mask to his face, slipping the strap over his head and carefully adjusting it to a comfortable fit, lastly shrouding himself in a black hood, giving him the appearance of a strange bird.

The stallion intended on exploring his forest home, in an attempt to further map out the landscape, plus it always provided a possibility of stumbling upon a lost or wounded traveler, and his hoof was always extended to those in need. As it were, he was going into a mostly unknown side of the forest, one that up until now he'd put off exploring. But it needed to be mapped as well, and he was just the pony to do it.

Shutting the door behind him, and slipping the hoof-made map from his pack, he began trotting in the direction not yet marked on the parchment, where his map currently ended, and an expanse of empty space followed after. He glance around him as the light seemed to be sucked out of the very air around him, the darkness enclosing him and giving him a thrill of anxiety, though he'd explored this forest for most of his adult life, it still gave off a strong sense of foreboding, and the creaking of trees and animal sounds often seemed to warn him to stay away.

Except it was dead silent right now.

He stopped, perplexed as he strained his ears to listen, hearing nothing but his own heartbeat. No birds. No rustling. Nothing. Swallowing down the lump of fear that this complete lack of sound brought on, the unicorn continued onwards, doggedly determined to completely his mission, which was...What exactly?

"What am I looking for..." His own voice almost spooked him in the utter silence, but he shook it off and chuckled, "Stop being silly." But his voice wavered with nerves as he pressed on.

Eventually he found the air becoming less stifling, the darkness became an ethereal glow. What was this place? He couldn't tell whether the place made his anxiety lessen, or grow. The surrounding trees seemed to dance with lights that didn't seem to be there, and each light was multiplied by the strange reflective pools that surrounded him. And it was so still. Not a single leaf or ripple disturbed the quiet. He couldn't suppress a small shiver as he glanced around, seeing his own visage reflected in the many pools.

And he couldn't tell whether or not it was a trick on his mind from the strange reflections.

But somehow he felt that he was not alone.

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[Blueblood]

The Everfree Forest defied the cartographer's art as perhaps no other place in Equstria did. Leaving aside the debate as to whether things and places actually moved and shifted inside it's bounds, as a remnant of the old days of chaos, there was always the problem of getting out with one's life and notes intact. Blank spots on the chart marked where explorers had conspicuously failed to do either...

This was one such place, known only in legends as The Mirror-Mire. It didn't look dangerous at first site. In fact, it looked oddly beautiful; the trees cleared to reveal an open space, with luminous and reflective pools surrounded by fields of brightly-colored flowers. Only... you couldn't see the sun. Mists had arisen, and hung over the place like a cloud, blocking out any outer source of light. Some of the mists held images, and through them shapes could be faintly traced- and there, right in front of Lantern Light came a very frightful shape indeed!

Lit from below with the eerie greenish-yellow, it resembled in it's looks and motion nothing so much as a predatory flamingo, and it was getting closer. There wasn't any place to run; the Mire may have had flowers on top of it, but one wrong step and a pony could sink up to his shoulders in the saturated soil, or even up to his head. There remained only one course, to confront it! A bold step forward, and-

The shape would dissolve into mist. Even the vapor here acted like a mirror; that was what made this place especially dangerous. Sometimes it was such a perfect reflection, a pony would mistake it for a landmark, and get so turned around his chances of escape would dwindle down to nothing. And as Lantern Light stumbled further into this place of bewildering lights, he would hear, distinctly, the laugh of another pony. Not a nice laugh, either.

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[Discorderly]

A shaky breath puffed behind the mask as he continued his slow exploration into this strange and haunting place. It matched no description of anything he'd ever heard of, and that gave is an air of simultaneous thrill, and eerie terror. But he'd lived here for a long time, and the primal nervousness that tried to tug his hooves homeward was pushed into the back of his mind, where it writhed as if ready to strike.

But he was still tensed and ready to defend himself if he needed to, though his offensive magic wasn't nearly as strong as his healing, he did know a few basic spells. He summoned up his map with his magic and looked over it, slightly frustrated, where would this place go? Sighing in slight defeat, he used the quill to mark a question mark on the map, tucking it back away and shaking his head.

When he lifted his gaze once more, he nearly darted backwards, but he'd felt the soft earth and knew that a sudden movement could be his end. He flared his horn up with a warm glow, ready to defend himself from whatever that was. As he cautiously stepped forwards, the figure suddenly dispersed, and he gave a soft chastising snort at himself for being so jumpy.

"It was your reflection..That's all."

His ears shot up when he heard an echoing laughter filling the strange and ethereal clearing. That was definitely not his mind playing tricks on him. What was that?! Mustering up his courage, and flaring up a spell to light his way, as much as he could in the place where the light seemed to be swallowed whole, he stepped cautiously forward, calling out in a voice edged with apprehension, or was it fear? He couldn't tell anymore.

"Wh-who's there?"

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[Blueblood]

It was true, but not quite adequate, to say that this place swallowed light. It vomited light, tinging any clean flame or gleam of magic with whatever strange atmosphere breathed through these Mires. The effect was more unsettling than darkness itself; there was something unclean about the illumination of this place, and the more light a pony brought in, the more the effect was multiplied...

The voice that had laughed answered, still in the same tone, "There is... who?" Heard more clearly, there was something vaguely theatrical about it, like an impresario introducing a show.

As Lantern's eyes sought for any fixed feature of this swamp of bewildering reflections, he would find a most singular one: A shape, right angles emerging from the mist. A closer approach would reveal it to be a Mirror-frame, made of iron... but the face and figure that would look back out of it would not be his own. It would be another stallion, dressed most inappropriately for an Everfree expedition, in a neat black suit and top hat, holding a long umbrella against his shoulder, grinning like a gargoyle. His one fitting touch was that his eyes were covered by reflective lenses, making him just one more Mirror in the Mire.

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[Discorderly]

There was something wholly unsettling about this strange place, and the healer couldn't put his hoof on quite what it was that made this place feel so unearthly and wrong. Was it the light, the ethereal and unnatural lights that seemed to bounce back from every surface, it was almost blinding, yet he felt no need to squint. His heart nearly stopped and he gave an unbidden flinch at the sudden voice, it carried a not-so-nice tone that made his skin crawl, as if ice water had been poured down his back.

He stepped forwards, fighting against his own instincts telling him to flee as curiosity overtook his better judgement. As he cautiously stepped closer, his curiosity became puzzlement when he came upon...A mirror frame? As his gaze traveled to the center of the mirror he jumped back with a soft gasp, the sight of someone else staring back at him startling him.

What was this? Had his face been visible, it would have been an expression of bewilderment...And fear, that smile did not look entirely harmless, and neither did the strange and unfitting clothing he was dressed in. But it was the lenses that gave his appearance and overall haunting look, completely reflective. He tried to force down the tremble in his voice as he lifted a hoof, moving to lace it against the mirror in an attempt to convince himself that he was not, in fact, going insane, "W-what...Is this place?" It seemed the most sensible question to ask, after all.

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[Blueblood]

As Lantern lifted his hoof, so did the figure in the frame, as if it really were the healer's reflection. Closer, closer... until the hooves were placed flat against each other. It wasn't just that; every twitch, every tremble of Lantern's was mirrored by the unnerving stallion on the other side, except for the smile, which stayed fixed. "This place... is many things, and has many names."

The scene held for a few seconds, before the well-dressed blue unicorn stepped out of the frame, and the effect was just as uncanny as if a reflection had walked out of a mirror. He had to pass close by Lantern, and was in a position to closely inspect him as he walked back around the frame. "To you, it is a place of deception and destruction. To me... it is a place of great professional interest." He lifted a hoof, and beckoned the other to follow through the iron frame. "If you wish to see... follow."

Whatever else the stallion was, he was a good guide through the marshes. His hooves stepped lightly across the only dry path so deftly that not even a bit of grime marred the sleeves of his suit-jacket. The reflections seemed not to bewilder him in any way, and he passed only once through a mist, and when it parted-

A field of frames. Rectangles and right angles stuck into the earth at every conceivable angle, and yet as the pair walked through the field, they would see that the placement was not random. Each had been placed, either to catch a mist or mark a pool, in which a reflection was captured. It was, in it's own way, strangely beautiful, and undoubtedly artistic, turning the landscape from a mere freak of nature into something elfin and fantastic, an eerie but unforgettable symbolic scene in some play or story.

The only jarring note in the whole business was struck when one looked closely at the frames. They had apparently been only recently placed there; the iron had not time to rust, nor had the silver or brass any tarnish, and the wood was free of any growth of moss.

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