Chapter 2

Valiari grips the paintbrush tightly in his teeth and dips it into a neighboring paint can. In quick motions he swipes the brush’s bristles across the canvas piecing together a winter landscape with a frozen waterfall being the main emphasis. He fills the entire canvas flawlessly without a second to pause and take a breath. I’m not sure but I think my jaw is hanging open as I watch him compose this instant masterpiece. After placing the final strikes of paint along the paper he steps aside waiting for some sort of response from me, but I do not know what to say. I cannot shape the words to describe my amazement. I mutter stumbling over what I think are words as the stallion smirks with the brush still in his mouth.

“That isn’t all. Watch.” He says.

Just as I believe that his incredible painting skills are all that my eyes need to absorb something happens to the painting. My eyes are presented with the unbelievable sight of bundles of snowflakes falling from the top of the canvas down to the foreground. The room suddenly drops in temperature and a chilling breeze blows against my face and the long pointed brim of the stallion’s hat. The both of us try to hide our faces behind the collars of our clothing but that is not enough. I can feel the snowflakes flying through the painting and onto my cheeks. The canvas looks like an open window leading out to the frozen landscape.

“Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s get going!” He shouts over the strengthening winds excitedly.

The stallion walks over to the painting, and I feel the need to hit myself in the head after what happens next, but he reaches into the painting with his hoof as it is enveloped by the canvas. His whole body passes through the paper leaving me befuddled. Not a single trace of him is left behind. I feel too afraid to follow; my legs might as well be glued onto the wood. The stallion’s head pokes out through the canvas as he beckons me to follow.

“Come on! This spell will not last for very long! There’s nothing to be afraid of! It’s perfectly safe!” He says while holding his hoof out to me.

Without the feeling of having any other choice I stand and force myself to walk towards him and his canvas fighting against the winds.

“. . . Don’t you trust me?” He asks.

I do not know why, but I can feel this trust for him building inside me. It’s confusing, for it doesn’t seem to be building, but instead has been there all along. I take hold of his hoof and he pulls me into the canvas. My body is entirely enveloped and for a split second everything flashes to white. I find myself plunging into a thick layer of snow as it quickly finds its way into my sleeves and smothering the back of my neck. I press my hands against the snow until I stand back up while brushing the rest of it off of my clothes.

“Well, here we are.” He says taking a deep breath.

This place is exactly as his painting depicted. Before us is a tall waterfall frozen in time. The formation of the water looks so astounding, but I wonder what it looked like when it was flowing. Icicles hang from the branches of every tree and cliff around the waterfall. We stand near a wide river sheeted in ice and snow. As I grip my hands around my arms I simply continue to take a look around this gorgeous yet freezing place. Why must something as beautiful as this be kept in the cold where no one would surely want to venture out in? It must be a lonely place out here, but not as lonely as . . . well, the place I choose not to remember. The dark, the cold and lonely dark oh how I hope it can soon be subsided from my thoughts.

“Do you know what happened here?” He asks, and I shake my head in response.

“Well, maybe if I show you what we came here for you’ll remember then. Come.”

He guides me through the piling snow as the wind begins to whistle through the air creating such strange sounds. Soon I realize that these sounds are not just natural shrills of the air, but they are forming a voice. I stop and freeze focusing only on the sounds. The voice becomes even clearer as it echoes through the wind.

“Hey! You there!” An angry muffled voice yells. My body jolts in shock and a gasp of cold air races into my lungs. I cannot tell where the voice had come from, but it seemed to have been all around me. The stallion stops and turns back to me.

“What’s the matter? Are you okay?” He asks.

“Be gone with you! Go on scram!” The voice shouts.

“Hey, are you feeling okay? You look a bit shaken up.” He asks.

“Just what exactly are you supposed to be? Hmmm . . . Strange, but go on get! Shew will you!” The voice shouts.

Out of fear I cringe and crouch down trying to hide myself from the voice. I cover my ears to try and keep it out, but I can still hear the echoes of the words in my mind.

“Aireal! What’s wrong?!” The stallion trots over and moves my hands away from my ears. “Are you alright? What’s going on?”

“N-Nothing.” I mutter while shaking my head.

“. . . Okay, then let’s keep going. . . And you’re sure you’re alright?” He asks, and I give him a short nod.

“Alright . . . come on. We’re almost there.” He says with a suspicious look on his face.

I cautiously begin to stand back up glancing all around expecting the voice to shout at me once more, but thankfully the wind stays silent. We trail through the snow until I can see some strangely shaped objects in the distance. I can’t quite tell what it is until we get closer. It appears to be large broken pieces of wood scattered all along the lake with some pieces actually frozen inside protruding through the ice. But we don’t stop there; he guides me a bit further to a much more intact object composed of wood.

“This is the only remains of it. I do not know where the other half maybe.” He says.

It is a broken half of some sort of large vehicle. The wheels below it are slanted and the spokes are cracked. Shards of the wood are scattered all around the snow. I do not know why but something about this object feels . . . eerie. A part of me even feels afraid, so without the want to take another step forward I turn back to the stallion worriedly.

“Well? Go on. Take a closer look.” He says.

Step after step the vibes this object gives off intensify the closer I come. On one of the walls snow has piled heavily against it covering nearly the entire surface, but something peaks out from the edge of the snowy layer. It looks like the letter ‘D’ so I use the sleeve of my jacket to wipe away the snow and reveal the word ‘Amazed’. Their must be more underneath, perhaps a complete sentence. So I wipe away even more of the snow until the words ‘Witness the Wonder and be Amazed by the Great and Powerful’ are now totally visible, but it ends very abruptly. Surely their must be another word to end it. With one more smear of the snow the last word is revealed, ‘Trixie’. It’s the name I unknowingly muttered when I held this violet hat that I am still clutching in my hand. Just staring at the name nearly stops my heart. What could this mean? What connection do I have with this name and why is this strange stallion showing me this? Perhaps a look around the object could show me more. Around the back end of this broken vehicle is a busted open door. Even though on the inside it appears empty I feel there is something in there . . . waiting for me.

“Come now, this way. Get inside before you freeze out here.” Says the voice from before, but this time it has become soothing and gentle. Strangely I do not question the voice, but instead I almost naturally go ahead and climb through the cracked doorway.

It feels like stepping into a whole other world once my whole body is now under the wooden roof. Nearly everything is sheeted in snow, but there are a few items that stick out. The door across the room is hanging off of its hinges and trapped between the snow. In the corner stands a wooden desk with a cracked mirror. Logs of chopped wood are scattered all around the floor and lumped under the snow. Beside the doorway is a stiff sheet of gray cloth jetting out from the surface. I reach down and grip my hand around it lifting it up from the snow. Holding it in my hands gives me a strange feeling of comfort and safety; it feels so familiar.

“There you are . . . here; this should keep you warm . . . Whatever you are.” The voice echoes.

My hands are trembling from the cold of the ice covering the cloth, but I wipe and crinkle the cloth as much as I can to try and bring it back to its original state. I wrap it around my shoulders and cross my hands gripping the edges across my chest. It feels so warm and comfortable that I shut my eyes and take a long breath to enjoy it. This in itself is familiar: the sheet around my shoulders and the protection it gives me from the cold; it is almost horrifying, but so calming at the same time. The air as it enters my lungs with every consecutive breath becomes warmer. The wind steadies down until the air is still and only the sound of it remains behind the walls. My feet are no longer suffering through the snow inside the soles of my shoes. There is no way that the temperature could have changed so suddenly, and with a peek through the crack of my eye lids I am thrown into a moment of shock.

I do not know if it is my imagination playing tricks on me but everything has suddenly become darker. The air is becoming warmer, and the snow cluttered along the inside of this place has disappeared. Everything has somehow fixed itself. The door across from me is now perfectly back in place, the logs that used to be scattered all along the floor are now neatly stacked against the wall and the crack in the mirror is no longer their. Also on the desk is a glass vase with horribly wilting flowers, but oddly enough I can still smell their scent lingering in the room which had never been their before. Through a crack in the wooden wall nearby shines a few rays of Moonlight into the room. It couldn’t possible be nighttime at this moment, but peeking through the crack it might as well be. The Moon is hanging high up in the black starry sky with thick gray clouds accompanying them.

The outside is also no longer covered in snow. All the bushes, trees and flowers are now flourishing and waving with the wind. In disbelief I slowly step back, and in the process I notice that the sheet around me is now somehow completely dry and soft to the touch. I turn back to find that the door that was missing is now shut behind me and the wooden wall is no longer cracked or dented. This cannot be happening, and to assure myself that this is all just some sort of illusion I place the palm of my hand onto the door. Sure enough however, the door is solid. Impossible . . . the door wasn’t here before, and neither was all of this! I can feel myself delving into a panic as I continue to feel around the door to convince myself that it is indeed real. Then, the sound of a match striking erupts behind me and an orange light blankets me showing my silhouette over the door’s surface. I whip my body around and see that a candle has been lit as it rests in a little silver holder on the desktop. Frightfully I throw my back against the door glancing all around the room for a presence, but the only thing with me is the shadows.

“. . . Just what exactly are you anyway?” The voice asks.

With those words a figure comes clearer from behind the shadows. The figure similar to the stallion, but is smaller with a longer mane. I cannot tell much else, but I do not want to move closer to find out as this fear holds me back.

“You most certainly are the strangest thing I have ever come across. . . Can you speak? . . . Do you have a name?” The voice continues to ask.

My body is trembling and for the first time I can feel sweat actually beginning to trickle down the back of my neck as opposed to the frost sheeting it. I keep my mouth shut as I lean back against the doorway to try and keep a distance as large as possible from this silhouette.

“I should have figured. You’re just some animal that cannot speak. I don’t even know why I tried to talk to you.”

The figure turns and dissipates into the shadows. It takes my mind a second to comprehend what it had just experienced, but now coming to the realization that the figure is most definitely gone I cautiously move away from the wall. With my trembling hand I reach out into the darkness and wave it around to be sure there is nothing there, and there is not. I begin to wonder: should I have spoken to it? Should I have told it my name, or at least what I believe it to be? Well, it is too late for that now, but I must see more. My mind craves to know more and this place holds something for me; I can feel it.

I grip my fingers around the handle of the door ahead and push it open revealing a very large dark room. Perhaps I can use the candle to light my way, so I reach back and grip the little silver handle around the candle holder and carry it with me. As I walk down the long wooden floor from what I can see there is a big red curtain hanging in the very back of the room as well as the front. What could have been the point to this room? It is just so empty with no real purpose pertaining to it. With my heart now gaining a short break I can now breathe normally without having it enter and leave my lungs so quickly. Maybe I should take a better look around; perhaps I’ll find something that could explain all of this. I figure their must be something behind the curtains, so I brush them open and carefully stick the candle inside. There are sandbags hanging from ropes that reach down from the ceiling, but it is still so dark there could be more that I’m just not seeing. I tuck myself behind the curtains careful that the flame doesn’t touch the cloth, but the flame is suddenly blown out leaving me in the dark. I freeze to the sounds of voices reverberating from everywhere forming into one.

“Now just listen closely, seeing how you seem to have trouble listening. I’ll go about my show as normal, and once you see me fill the stage with pink smoke then that is your cue to step out from the curtain and onto the stage. I want you to kneel down, and as the smoke is clearing you may stand back up. Just look natural alright? Once smoke covers the stage again you need to go back behind the curtain. Understood!? . . . Good. Now just keep quiet!” The voice demands.

I can’t take this anymore. It feels like torture to my mind as this voice continues to pound in my thoughts. I do not know if I should run out and try to maybe find a way to escape this place, or if I should obey this voice and stay. Odd how I would even consider this thought, but I feel this voice has a heavy amount of authority over me. In a flash the curtains flare open and bright spotlights glare into my eyes. Dropping the candle I throw my hands in front of my face to shield my eyes from the light as I try to maybe make out what is ahead, but the lights are too bright.

“And now, fillies and gentlecolts! Prepare yourselves! For The Great and Powerful Trixie is about to reach out to another realm, and show you all something you have never seen before!” The voice shouts.

Pink smoke begins to leak out from the sides of the stage and quickly finds its way into my breath forcing me to cough and hack.

“Behold!” The voice shouts.

The smoke takes a while to finally clear away leaving me still blinded by the intense lights. I can hear other voices ahead whispering and muttering, and soon they explode with cheers and stomping on the ground.

“Thank you! Thank you! You’re a wonderful crowd!” The voice shouts.

I cannot stand these bright lights any longer as well as the loud echoing voices, so I turn back, tear open the door and hide myself inside. I place both hands on my head while repeating out loud: this isn’t happening. I have been thrown into something that I still do not understand. What was the meaning behind all of this? None of it makes any sense. This nightmare has gone on long enough, I want to leave. I hurry over to the door and search around for a way to open it. I find a metal latch that is locked in place in the upper left corner of the door. I struggle to grip my fingers around the latch, but no matter how much I tug it will not even budge.

“I can’t believe it! We did it! What you did was flawless!” The voice says happily as the sounds of metal coins pitter-patter on the desk behind me follows.

Out of a jolt of fear I whip around staring out to the empty room. I hadn’t noticed before but somehow the candle is now lit and resting back on the desk. It is impossible, I swear I brought it with me out into the next room and dropped it.

“Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty-oh we made quite a stack of bits from this show!” The voice says happily while the sounds of coins moving and being stacked follow.

“I can tell that this is only the beginning of something much bigger for us. I can feel it. Now go get some rest, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow!”

The room then grows dead silent, even the winds outside have quieted. Something begins to stir from the shadows forming the pony figure I had seen from before. It leans closer into the candle light revealing half of the pony’s body. Her coat is cobalt blue, and her mane is somewhat long and silver. I become lost in her hypnotizing violet eyes glistening from the light. Her forehead bears a horn, and is partially hidden by . . . a violet pointed hat decorated with dots and stars. She is also wearing a cape of the same design held across her chest by a big turquoise jewel. Her smile . . . I have seen it before this I am sure! This can’t be—

“Goodnight.” She says cutting off my thoughts.

The candle blows out leaving the mare a shadowed silhouette once again. Her body turns and leaves the room. I snap myself out of this trance I had been put into and sprint for the door, but it slams shut in my face sending me staggering back. I try to shake it off and yank the door open, but it’s no use it must be locked. The sound of gears and tumblers turning travel through the room as it begins to rock. I peak through the crack in the wood and find that the wagon is somehow moving. The trees and bushes pass us by until a long wide river comes into view. The wagon rides across a wooden bridge over the river as I try to twist and turn the door handle to get it to open. Then a sudden jarring of the room pushes me against a wall. The room now tilted I crawl back to the hole in the wood and see that one of the wagon’s wheels has broken through one of the wooden boards that make up the bridge. I watch hopelessly as the bridge begins to creak, and the wheel digs down even further beneath the wood. Finally, the wood gives way and the whole wagon plummet down to the river. My body slams against the walls, floor and ceiling of room as various other objects fly across as well. My back smashes against something fragile as the sounds of shattering ensue upon the impact. Once the wagon splashes into the river water begins to fill the floor as it leaks in through several new formed cracks in the wood.

Lying on the floor I lift up my head noticing that what I had smashed into was the mirror. The water seeps through my clothes, and to my astonishment the water is very much real. I can feel it trickle beneath the strands of my hair and sneaks into my shoes. I stare at my hands that are soaked in water now coming to the realization that what is happening is real; it just has to be. I push myself to stand frantically looking around the room for a way out. With the only options I have I try to open both the doors in the room; I even resort to banging and kicking them, but nothing works. By now the water has reached up to my knees. Then, my ears catch a sound in the distance. A loud roar that grows louder the further the wagon floats down the river. I peer through the cracks in the wood and see that the end of the river is drawing near, and a growling waterfall awaits. I regret what I had said earlier about wanting to see the waterfall in its glory. My heart picks up the pace the closer we get, and without anywhere to go or anything to do I feel that my body has just accepted its fate. The wagon tips over and flows with the waterfall downward. I shut my eyes as my body weightlessly floats within the room.

I find myself falling down into with a cold burst of snow until my whole body becomes encased in it as well. The snow gets in my ears and down into my jacket causing my stomach to cringe. I lift my face out from the snow and take a heavy breath of relief to see the destroyed room once again. I notice that the violet hat is still in my hands still being tightly clenched.

“. . . Who are you?” I ask aloud with my eyes still on the hat.

The snow around my body begins to blow around me in a circular motion. It rises up above my body becoming some kind of thick tornado of snow. I jump to my feet glancing around frantically for a way out of this spiraling wall of snow, but I do not want to even try to stick my arm through it for the fear of it being swallowed whole. The snow bursts out into the air dissipating into small particles that evaporate into the air. I find myself back in the cabin with the stallion standing before me. Before I even get a chance to have another thought he walks up to me with an excited expression on his face.

“Well? What happened?! Did you find anything? Do you remember anything?!”

“I-I don’t think so.”

“Oh come now surely something happened in there! Anything at all? . . . Do you know why the wagon was destroyed?”

“It-It fell into a river and d-down a waterfall.” I forcefully sputter out of my mouth.

“Perfect. Now, did anything else happen?”

“Well . . . there was . . . a voice.”

“A voice?! Yes go on!”

“And . . . I saw things.”

“What? What did you see?”

“The room it . . . it changed. Everything was different. All the snow was gone, and outside all the trees and grass were bare.”

“Really . . . ? And what about this ‘room’?”

“It was all fixed . . . as if the damages never existed. The voice it . . . it kept talking.”

“Do you know the voice?”

“. . . I don’t know, but at the same time I do. . . I just—!” I begin to fall into frustration, and the stallion quickly takes notice and tries to calm me down.

“Just relax okay? This is good just tell me what else happened.”

“Well uhh . . . There-There was a stage, a-and I heard even more voices cheering out in the distance. These bright . . . lights were glaring into my eyes so I ran back into the other room. Then. . .”

“. . . Then? Then what? What?”

“I saw a . . . a mare.”

“Who was she? Describe her to me!”

“Uhh sh-she had a silver mane, b-blue coat and . . . this.” I say raising up the violet hat in my hand. “Her face . . . I know that face.”

“How? How do you know? Tell me who she was. . . Come on, you know this.”

“. . . I can’t.”

“No, no, no don’t give up now! Just think and remember.”

“I can’t remember! I’m not even sure if any of this is real and I can’t get that voice out of my head!”

“Aireal, relax.”

“Is that even my real name?! I can’t handle any more of this! I’ve been thrown into this and I feel trapped!”

At this point I am shouting hysterically, and the stallion grips my shoulders looking straight into my eyes. My mouth shuts and ears wait for anything he might have to say.

“Don’t go crazy on me, okay? I know who you are, and it is just a matter of time until you figure it out as well. Just take a few deep breathes, and calm down. I will help you through this just like I always have.”

“B-But . . . even after all this time and all I’ve seen . . . I still remember nothing.”

“Don’t keep thinking that way. I have one more idea, and I hope-no! I know it will work! We’re making good progress, and I can tell that we’re getting closer. We just need one more push and I’m positive you’ll remember something! I’m going to get your memories back; I promise.”

That word ‘promise’ keeps repeating in my head with his voice. My mind knows he’s said this before. I don’t know why but I’ve heard him say it to me one other time. He’s made me a promise before, and he kept it; I know he did. He’s guided me when I felt lost and alone; he was always over my shoulder keeping my spirits high. Whenever danger arose he was there to assist me. Whenever sadness over took us, we were there for each other. I can’t quite remember everything exactly, but this much I do know: I do know him, and he knows me. We were always there for each other almost like family. If only I could see what we had been through, it would disperse this fog that is clouding my mind.

“Promise. . . Y-You’ve made me a promise before, and you kept it.”

“Aireal?”

“V-Val . . . Valiari! You! I-I remember you! Your voice, your name your face I remember now!”

In the middle of my revelation Valiari embraces me squeezing the air right out of me.

“I knew it! I knew you’d remember me ol’ pal!”

“B-But that’s it. I can’t remember anything else about you or anything.” I say disappointedly.

“That doesn’t matter right now! The fact that you at least remember me is a huge step! We are getting really close I can feel it! Come on, I have another idea. I just hope they’re still there.” He says a bit worriedly.

I feel prepared for whatever he may have to show me. With this newfound knowledge that Valiari and I definitely have some sort of relationship together drives me to find out more. I know now that I was something before, and I am determined to figure it out.