It was just late enough that Mirror had returned from the woods, but not quite late enough to end the day and go to bed. The clock kept ticking every so often, infuriatingly slow, to signify the marching of time, and that made for the only sound in the cottage. When it had begun to grow colder, the crackling of a fire joined it, and bathed the lower floor in a rosy glow. Light rain fell outside. ...

At first, Mirror hardly noticed the frequency of Faith’s trips into town. She herself was rather indisposed, and so it only made sense that Faith would go instead for food and other necessities. When she did notice it, well - it was easier to pretend she hadn’t. If she had failed to notice these trips, she had no cause to wonder at the reason behind them, and no cause to look over her shoulder in fear of what Faith might be planning. Her mind seemed unable to lay the issue at rest. Despite her ...

“Now, my precious little flower, you must stay here and stay quiet. Do you understand? This is very important. I love you more than anything in the world.” “I love you too, mum,” Hebe whispered, confused and frightened, but always obedient. The door shut. She sat huddled in her parents’ closet on the floor, in the dark. Muffled voices came from downstairs. Two were harsh and stern, two defensive, and then came a fifth voice that had a distinctly pompous air to it. She heard her name. Pressing ...

I never thought myself a writer. In truth, I never thought myself expressive at all. In being alone I forgot, perhaps, what it was to have someone to whom a fleeting moment may be explained, to be understood. Pen and paper make poor substitute for the beloved, but they are all that is left to me here, and so I shall write. Not a week may go by without that awful thought. It plagues me day and night, an abyss that I should jump into by ever entertaining, and somehow a siren’s call that I long ...

Another turn, another wall of thorns. Another path that leads nowhere. By now, Mirror has grown to expect it. She turns back the way she came without so much as a sigh to show her discontent. The warm summer air is bordering on stifling, now, with the thick sweater that hangs almost to the forest floor on her thin frame. Mirror is drowsy, and separately, she is tired. Tired of seeking a way out of her own home. Drowsy from the lull of crickets, little light, and warmth. The thought of laying ...

Long ago, before the formation of a unifying government, pony folk lived in small kingdoms scattered across the land. These kingdoms were overseen by those who possessed strong magical artifacts, particularly protective ones. Power of the artifact translated exactly to power for the owner and thusly to control of those with lesser magics. As one could rightly assume this lead not infrequently to tyrannical rulers who isolated those under their command, lest they be swayed to the side of a compet...

Wander for long enough, and it will find you, for the forest hungers just as every living thing does. There are many different tales told by many different tongues. Each carries a measure of the truth, muddied though it becomes in the telling. Many are kind enough, speaking of the healer who came for four months to tend the ill, asking only a small fee, or of the mysterious adventurer who could locate anything or anyone with a few words. Some talk of a fae being, a benign entity of a magical fo...

None would have dared notice the disappearance of the occasional castle staff member, for the fear of meeting a similar fate, and certainly they didn't ask why they'd been promoted to a role that had been filled for years. This meant that the maids, the cooks, even the guards, all kept to themselves. It made for a very lonely castle, and was lonelier still for Blind Faith. She'd once been the general of the queen's personal guard. When she lost her vision to an injury in combat, she was given...

Cast your mind back several years, for this is where our story begins. It has been only months since her love was locked away in stone, and Mirror is restless, even as she walks the path she has marked out on a map. This path would lead her to an ingredient she believed may be essential to healing the wounds that had brought her to cast the stone sleep spell upon Blind Faith. Walking felt so slow. Each step seemed so much shorter than she would have liked, and she longed to run, as she had at ...