Gaia

by Puking Coyote

Chapter 1 The Apprentice

Gaia

BY. Puking Coyote

Chapter 1

The Apprentice

It was a dark night in Equestria for Luna being in a bad mood didn’t put her usual effort into the stars glow. She had just heard of “Trixie the Great and Powerful’s” takeover in Ponyville and even though Twilight had taken care of her and reclaimed the Alicorn necklace she was still going to give Trixie a piece of her mind. The only thing she was waiting for was for the trouble causing young unicorn to fall asleep so she could, as they say, chew her out.

“At last” Luna mumbled as Trixie’s sleepy presence entered her conscience. Immediately Luna connected to it and projected her mind into Trixie’s dream. It was a simple enough dream, Trixie was there on a rock farm slaving away on a mountain of stone while Twilight and her friends stood around laughing at her. Suddenly the dreams scenery started spiraling around Trixie as she cowered before a very large Twilight Sparkle who disappeared into a large laughing mouth which insulted her to no end.

“The great and powerful, more like Great and wussy” Rainbow dash’s voice could be heard.

“Couldn’t even defeat an Ursa minor how pathetic!” Pinkypie’s voice also ranged out.

“And that getup, how atrocious” Rarity chimed in.

The huge face of Twilight returned looking down at a clearly distraught Trixie “Face it, I will always be better than you.”

“No!” Trixie yelled with tears running down her face. “You can’t be…I...I will defeat you!” Twilight started to laugh all the more at this comment.

Luna shook her head in disgust at Trixies view of Twilight; this was not the Twilight that freed her from the nightmare at all. “That’s enough! She called out and the dream instantly faded away leaving nothing but her and Trixie. Trixie saw Luna and eeped as she covered her eyes and hugged the ground. “Look upon us child!” Trixie regrettably did. “We haft herd disturbing tales of thou’s antics in Ponyvill of late. What have thou to say for thyself?”

Trixie could barely say anything for she was trembling too much, some from the dream she just had but mostly from Luna’s threatening appearance as she towered before her. “Prrrincess LuLuna….I…I...”

“Silence! We know what thou wilt say for thou’s dreams give thou away. Thou must be punished for such actions.” Luna at first was going to just give Trixie a good scare and a warning but after how she saw her view of Twilight and her friends her mind had changed on the matter.

“Wwwhhat are yoouu going to do to me? Trixie asked trembling more and more.

“That we know not, our mind is not set on a punishment as of yet, but it will come soon enough.” Actually Luna had already decided on a punishment of making Trixie do community service under Twilights care to help curve some of her ego, but she wanted Trixie to sweat a little before she told her this. A ponies mind can be their worst enemy and it will surely torment her not knowing what is to come. “We will send word tomorrow night of what thou art to do.”

With that the dream disappeared taking Luna with it. Trixie woke up in her little made shelter of a tarp lean tube tent and stared out at the woods edge. She was on the skirts of Ponyville where just yesterday she was the ruler. The Pegasus were hard at work preparing for tonight’s light shower with some scattered lightning. Suddenly the memory of the dream flooded into her sleepy mind making her jump up and start to pace now fully awake.

“Princess Luna? Was it just a dream, no it was real! She rarely comes into ponies dreams, she must be really mad at me! What is she going to do to me put me in prison, turn me into a slimy creature, banish me to the moon?!” Trixie started to panic and nervously stomp the ground under her as if about to run, her head twitched around as if expecting Luna to appear out of the shadows and carry her away to some uncertain doom. She then at the sounding of a twig breaking to her left bolted away wailing bloody murder for a good long time before resting under a tree.

She stayed there hoof on her chest trying to slow down the beating of her heart. “It’s ok Trixie, you just can’t go to sleep, nope, never again.” Silly as this may sound to anypony else it did bring her some calm for Luna could not give her judgment in her dreams if she never fell asleep. Embolden with this false hope she even managed to laugh “The Great and Cleaver Trixie has done it again” she stated to herself. She then got up, but after looking around the Great and Cleaver Trixie found that in running away in her panic that she was now in the heart of the Everfree Forrest.

In a sudden uncontrolled panic Trixie began to scream for help in a most desperate and ear splitting way “Help! Somepony help me, please!”

A sudden voice came from a cloaked stallion in the woodline “Excuse me?”

“Help!” Trixie continued not hearing the voice.

“Hello?”

“I don’t want to die in here!”

The cloaked stallion rolled his eyes and used his magic to shut Trixies lips. She turned around and stared at the dark stallion and reeled back clearly frightened only to trip on a log and fall straight on her back knocking herself out.

The cloaked stallion rolled his eyes again then threw her on his back and disappeared through the trees.

Trixie woke up on a soft bed in an old musty stone building much like the interior of a castle or what she thought a castles interior would look like. Quickly she got up and turned around only to find herself face to face with an enraged manticore. “Augghhh!” she screamed but the manticore did not move.

“O, for the love of…will you knock that off! It’s a statue Trixie” a voice complained behind her. Trixie spun around to see who it was addressing her. “I don’t even know how you can mistake that with a real manticore.” At a wooden table mixing some sort of concoction in a stone bowl was a stallion. The stallion’s features were hidden beneath his brown cloak. Except for his light brown eyes nothing could be seen in the cloaks hood, it was as if magic was keeping his features muttered in shadow.

“Who are you?” Trixie demanded.

“Nopony special, you can call me Gaia.”

“Why did you bring the Great and Powerful Trixie here?”

“You would rather me to have left you in the woods? Then you might have woken to a real manticore instead of a statue. By the way, why did you come into this forest? The last I saw of you Twilight tricked you out of that silly necklace of yours.”

Trixie stomped the ground “The Great and Powerful Trixie tricked, ha! I’m just luring her into a false sense of security.” Her eyes then slanted “How did you know about that though?”

“Oh, I hear things.”

“Indeed.”

“You have not answered my question though.”

Trixie stirred uneasily as she remembered Luna’s words from her dream. “Let’s just say that what I did in Ponyvill has caused an unhappy pony to seek a punishment and I was running from it.”

“Oh, who is that? I thought that Twilight had forgiven you.”

“She did, I think for the most part was to embarrass me, making the other ponies think that she is more merciful than The Great Merciful and Powerful Trixie. No the pony that I was trying to escape from is much closer to my level.”

“And that is?”

“Princess Luna of course.”

Gaia’s ears twitched at the name, “Luna” he said under his breath in disgust. “She is far beyond your caliber kid." The stallion replied with his voice taking on a more grainy sound than before. “Tell me the whole story” he said. Trixie was at first unsure but in the end she complied with his demand. Gaia sat there motionless after the tale was told then after a few moments he finally spoke “If you are trying to escape Luna’s wrath you will surly fail, but perhaps…yes, I will help you, if for nothing else then to teach that old bat lover some humility.”

Trixies ears perked up straight “You will?!”

“Of course it’s a complicated spell, but it will prevent any interaction with the Realm of Dreams.”

“The Realm of Dreams?”

“Yes, the Realm is where dreams are formed and also one of the many places that Luna’s power engulfs. With this spell though I’m afraid you will experience no more dreams is that ok with you?”

Trixie thought about it but the fear of whatever Luna had prepared for her was more terrifying than never dreaming again. “It is” she finally replied then held still as Gaia’s magic flowed over her closing her mind to the dream world.

“There you go” Gaia stated as his magic ended “sleep now without fear, for not even Luna can find you now.

“Oh, thank you!” Trixie yelled excitedly. “However, The Great and Powerful Trixie could have done the same thing” she said trying to recover some of her lost ego.

“I’m sure you could have, with the right instructor that is.”

“What do you mean?” Trixie asked.

“You see, I have watched you and Twilights rivalry and how she had beaten you time and time again. Twilight has pulled away from you so much that she is now in a different league.” Trixie was about to object but Gaia held up his hoof to silence her. “The reason that this is is simple, Celestia has been personally training Twilight, and so it’s only natural that she progresses faster than you. In order to keep up you need to have a master of magic to train you as well.”

“And you want to be that master, why?”

“Because your rivalry is entertaining, also because I am no great friend of the royal sisters and having my pupil stomp Celestia’s would be most satisfying.”

Trixie thought about his offer and how much fun it would be to wipe that smug look off Twilight and her friend’s faces. Gaia’s mastery of magic that he shown in his spell was also extraordinary, with that type of mastery Trixie knew that she would indeed be better than Twilight. “Ok, you have yourself a deal Master Gaia” she replied.

“Good, now first things first, I need you to scrub all the walls in this castle.”

Trixies jaw dropped to the floor “What!? You can’t expect the Great…”

A zipper suddenly closed Trixies mouth “Honestly, if you say Great and Powerful Trixie again, I will scream. Believe it or not this is part of your training, now if you will” Gaia levitated a scrub brush and pale to Trixie “Scrub the walls.”

Trixie who was not in the best of moods did as she was told. It was during this time that she learned from Gaia that the castle was in fact the same one that Nightmare Moon held up in until Twilight defeated her with the Elements of Harmony. “So why do you hate the royal sisters so much?” Trixie asked as she started scrubbing the second floor of the castle.

“That is a personal matter my dear” Gaia replied “and I wouldn’t say that I hate them, we just had our disagreements in the past.”

“Oh, like what?”

“Never you mind, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t scrub the paint off the Weeping Pegasus” he replied.

Trixie then realized that while talking to Gaia she lost track of what she was doing and was now scrubbing one of the paintings on the wall. “Sorry!” she replied clearly embarrassed.

“No more multitasking, I will be in my study on the top floor. When you finished I have made you a bed in the second room on the third level.”

“Yes sir” Trixie replied then watched Gaia leave the room and head upstairs.

Trixie finished late in the night and went to bed only to be woken up a few hours later to start breakfast then after that she was instructed to scrub the floors. “Master Gaia why do you have me scrubbing the castle? I thought that I was going to learn magic not be a house maid!” Trixie exploded while they were cleaning up breakfast.

“Because at your level you can’t handle the magic that I will teach you. We need to build up your stamina. Answer me this, what would happen if I put too much pressure on an egg?”

“It would break of course.”

“And so would you, my magic is not to be taken lightly and can do tremendous harm if you are not physically and mentally prepared for it.”

“But master…” Trixie began.

“You must trust me on this” Gaia cut her off. Trixie slowly nodded her head and left the table grabbing the scrub brush and bucket on her way. About midday Gaia said that he had to run an errand and he would be late for dinner, once gone Trixie licked her lips and rushed up to his study room. Surely she could find a few spells to learn there, when she came to the thick stone door however it was impossible to budge. Strong were the door and the magic holding it in place. Trixie after many failed attempts to break in gave up and went about what she was doing.

Luna could not believe it, that pony Trixie was nowhere to be found. She had wanted to scare her but not cause her so much fright as to run away. She sent a letter to Twilight regarding this and also sent out a search party to look for Trixie. But nopony had seen her since she left Ponyville. Luna after a week of sending out search parties regrettably concluded that Trixie was long gone and stopped looking for her.

A few weeks had passed before Gaia decided that Trixie was ready to start her training in magic in which he started her out with the basics and helped refine those abilities. He decided to rebuild all her spells from the ground up and helped to improve them.

“Nice teleporting Trixie, now I will teach you a particular handy spell for dealing with animals in this forest. I want you to shoot your sleeping spell at me.”

“Yes sir!” Trixie immediately shot her spell at Gaia learning that if she didn’t comply immediately that it usually ended with her being suspended upside down in the air while Gaia took his evening tea. Gaia was still a mystery to her but she trusted him completely and surprisingly for a pony who did not take off his cloak he had become a dear friend to her almost like a father. Her shot came out of her horn like a torrent for her magic was far superior to what it once was. She hoped one of these times to make contact and maybe knock that cloak off Gaia to see what he looked like. The beam shot quickly at Gaia but not quick enough for he simply sidestepped it then stood there horn glowing. It wasn’t until she looked at her hoofs that she even noticed what he did. He shot his own sleeping spell at her but not through the air but underground. Even now the spell was wrapped around her legs in the shape of a ghostly snake ready to sink its fangs into her leg and inject the sleeping spell.

“You see Trixie, having a powerful spell is no use if it doesn’t make contact. Deception in battle is the key to a quick easy win. You should know this from when Twilight tricked you and stole a sure victory from your hoofs. Now try this spell and once you have it down we will try it on the dragons in the swamp.”

Trixie moaned she hated the swamp, the mud always ruined her main and the stench took days to get out. Once she was ready and learned the spell they headed out. The trip there was uneventful and once they got to the swamp she managed to take down three water dragons before they headed back home. Unfortunately just like before Trixie was an absolute mess and was leading the charge back to the castle where the shower was, that was however before Gaia made them stop. “What is it Master Gaia?” Trixie asked.

Gaia looked up towards the sky in deep concentration “I’m needed it seems at the Wonderbolt Academy.”

“You work for the wonderbolts?” Trixie asked wondering if this may be a clue to his mysterious past.

“Nope” Gaia then casted a spell on him and her “this spell will keep you from falling through the clouds” he then teleported them both away to the Academy.