“I’m sorry, the what and whatiful who?”
Doctor Hooves stared flabbergasted at the pompous blue pony posed in the doorway. Certainly, over the centuries, he had met all sorts. There were those who had reluctantly gone along with his endeavors and those that were a fair bit more overzealous. He had met the stalwart, the brave, the foolish, the cowardly, and many more besides. But never before had a stranger appeared before him in a wizard’s hat and cloak and proudly announced she had been waiting for him. The universe could still surprise him and he loved it.
It was a weird sort of love.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie, of course!” she announced with no diminished fervor. “Surely you had need of my great magical abilities and have finally sought out my assistance.” Whoever this mare was, she certainly did not lack for confidence.
“Um, I’m sorry, I thought this was where the Flim Flam Brothers were staying.” Doctor Hooves was not entirely sure what he had expected, but, in retrospect, it had not been this. When the notorious Flim Flam Brothers had last come to Ponyville, it had been under odd circumstances. The pair had sold themselves as the consummate traveling con-men, but they sold and made their product through legitimate means. Their undoing had come from a case of lax standards in face of a losing business proposition, but the Doctor had been far more interested in the contraption they had called the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. Any sort of mechanical technology was a rare sight in Equestria and the Doctor, amongst the throngs of fellow Ponyvillians, had noticed it immediately as the technical marvel that it was. Of course, at the time, the brothers’ competition with the Apple family had been their primary concern, but the Doctor had managed to talk his way into getting a list of nearby places they might set up shop, should the unforeseen occur. He had always meant to seek them out in hopes of learning the logistics of their contraption and how they powered it, but not until that moment had it been a matter of necessity.
“You see, I need their expertise on using a unicorn’s abilities to power machinery. Are you sure they’re not around?”
“This is one hideout of the two you claim to seek, but obviously your true desire was to find Trixie, for she is the only one here.”
“Why are you here, exactly?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything about corporate espionage!” Trixie’s gaze shifted nervously back and forth. Doctor Hooves could not tell if her outburst had explained everything or nothing at all. In fairness, he could not see it making a great deal of difference.
“Right, well, I’ll just leave you to it then,” he said, doing his best to shuffle away as inconspicuously as possible. “If the brothers aren’t here, then I have another few places to check yet.”
“Wait!” Trixie’s shout was full of desperation and entirely lacking in the decorum with which she had punctuated her speech before. “I can help you! I, um,” she continued, shifting awkwardly on her back legs. “I’ve been studying some of the notes they left behind. The Flim Flams. About how their machine works. About how a unicorn can power it through magic.” She looked pleadingly at the Doctor. Her hat drooped miserably.
“I’m sorry, but this is important. I need the brothers’ expertise. I need to know that they’ll have enough power to make this work.” He turned to leave in earnest.
“I can do it, though!” she cried, no less emphatically. “Trixie is one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria! She is more than a match for those two charlatans.”
Doctor Hooves had a hard time imagining this boastful mare was anywhere near the equal of two full grown unicorns, let alone one like Twilight Sparkle, but he had no time to express his doubts. The pompous pony had wasted more of his time than he should have allowed already. Time was a hard thing to keep track of when it was always in a straight line like that. Thinking about time that way, not for the first time that day, nor that week, nor that year . . . his hearts, rather, heart, wow, that was also still taking some getting used to, ached to put his plan into action.
“Look, I’m sure you are very capable and I won’t even tell anyone what you’re doing here, whatever it is, but I need to go. I’m sorry.”
“But you told Trixie she was important!”
That stopped the Doctor in his tracks. With only the slightest reluctance, his curiosity turned him to face Trixie once more.
“What do you mean, ‘I told you?’ We just met.”
“I,” she looked uncertain, even nervous, “Trixie was not certain you were the same stallion, at first. But the way you speak, your eyes, they’re the same as back then.”
“Are you saying you’ve met me before?”
Trixie nodded. “It was a long time ago, when Trixie was only a young filly. That’s why she was unsure you were the same. You came to Trixie and said Trixie was important and that we would meet again. And then you disappeared.”
This was not the first time the Doctor had this conversation. It seemed he used to have it quite often, in fact. Meeting people out of order, finding they had memories of him long before he had met them for the first time. It was never quite something he had fully adjusted to. Just another way he seemed to always disappoint those he cared about. Popping up here and there, then and when, in the personal time lines of others made it seem like he was omnipotent and timeless. In some ways, these things were true, but it was never how he felt. For him, it was all supposed to be so effortless, but, in truth, even the largest leap felt like a crawl on his endless journey. He scraped along while everyone else raced ahead.
It was not a conversation he enjoyed having. It was also not a conversation he had of late. Not since coming to Equestria.
“You’re certain it was me?”
Trixie nodded.
“And you really think you can copy the Flim Flam Brothers’ technique?”
Bobblehead style.
“Alright then. Trixie, was it?”
The blue unicorn puffed up once more. “The Great and Powerful Trixie.”
“Right,” Didn’t take long for her to get back in good spirits, “well, then, ‘Great and Powerful Trixie,’ come with me. I have something to show you.”