Trixie Lulamoon of the Dreamguard

by Hoopy McGee


Chapter 1

T’is with the lightest of touches of the mind that a traveler might find themselves in the Gate of Dreams, also known as the Threshold. An expanse of featureless, blue-tinged grey, it is this layer of the Realm of Dreams that is easiest to enter and in which it is the most difficult to remain. The sleeping mind that finds itself here will most often return to their mundane dreams before long. On very rare, and sometimes tragic, occasions, the dreamer will find their way to the Path of Shadows, to begin a night of ever-stranger and ever more dangerous wandering dreams.

On the Dreamrealms, A Study by Lucid Dreamer, revised translated edition, 127 A.F.

Trixie closed the heavy, musty tome with a sigh and flopped backwards onto her bed. It was at times like this, when she was stuck in a windowless room reading books written by ponies who had died centuries ago, that she really missed the freedom of living out of her wagon on the open road.

Not that she had a wagon anymore. It, along with her reputation, had been smashed to bits after a particularly disastrous show in a little mud-hole called Ponyville. She’d spent the next few months wandering from place to place, trying to find some way to restore her reputation and maybe earn enough bits to buy a new wagon. She’d even sunk so low as to work at a rock farm!

So, when she had first read the notice from Princess Luna about open recruitment for the newly reformed Dreamguard, it had seemed like the answer to all her problems. If she was accepted, it meant a prestigious new position—reporting directly to a Princess, no less! It meant learning new and largely-unknown magic. It meant respect!

The free room and three hot meals a day didn’t exactly hurt, either.

She had breezed through the initial interviews and aced the final test to reach the Threshold of the Dreamrealms, thus securing her position as First Cadet. Smidgen, a young mare she’d met during the interview process and her newest friend, had been the second.

Then the worst thing possible had happened. The third pony to reach the Dreamrealms turned out to be none other than Twilight Sparkle, the mare who had shown Trixie up in Ponyville, and who seemed to be determined to continue showing her up in the new Dreamguard. To add insult to injury, the mare had actually had the audacity to claim that it had been Trixie herself who had given her the key to achieving the right state of mind to enter the Threshold.

Fortunately, it turned out that Twilight wasn’t actually going to be in the Dreamguard—the mare had claimed it was because she had too many other things going on before she’d returned to her little podunk town—though, Trixie personally doubted that and was harboring a fierce, secret little hope that the other unicorn had simply realized that she wasn’t cut out for dream duty and left before she embarrassed herself.

So, she had her position in the Dreamguard, though it currently was a little light on the respect and prestige and a little heavy on reading one mildewy old book after another. It didn’t take long each night until her mind was swimming and her eyes started skimming over whole passages of their own volition. This current tome, tattered and disturbingly stained, was just one of the many Princess Luna had assigned to the newly-formed Dreamguard, and it was thicker than her hoof was wide.

Skipping it wasn’t an option, nor was just putting it off for now. There were so many books each trainee had to read, and usually only one copy of each, which meant that Trixie had to hurry up and finish so the next pony in line could read this one.

A soft chime sounded, drawing her attention to the clock on the wall. It was an exquisite piece, all shining brass, delicate crystal and dark, glowing wood, and probably cost more bits than she’d ever seen at any one time in her life. That particular chime meant that it was fifteen minutes away from the tenth hour of the evening. It was time for her to begin.

The book was placed on her nightstand oh-so-carefully, so as to avoid damaging it. Trixie then arranged herself on top of her bed in preparation for the night’s training. One of the first things she’d learned was how important it was to be comfortable when attempting to access the Threshold. For tonight, that meant lying down on her back, with the clean but faded linens she’d been provided tucked up under her chin.

With a glow of her horn, Trixie snuffed out the candles, bathing the room in shadows. Her horn glowed again, turning off the chimes on her clock. Forgetting to do so had already torn her out of the Dreamrealms once, much to Princess Luna’s annoyance. Once all was in readiness, she began to take deep, calm breaths.

Trixie closed her eyes and called up a memory. Or, rather, not a specific, single memory, but a recollection of her time on the road, back when she still called herself Great and Powerful. After her mind stilled, she was once again in her old wagon, somewhere on the road between one nameless town and the next. The wind was sighing through the trees and grasses in the soft lullaby that had so often sang her to sleep in her life as a traveling showmare. There was a sense of perfect isolation, of nopony around for miles and miles. Her cozy little wagon was like a cocoon in a sea of night.

Or, it had been, until it had been stepped on by an Ursa Minor during Trixie’s one and only stop in a thrice-cursed town called Ponyville...

Trixie’s face screwed up with momentary irritation. Calming herself, she once again remembered the swaying trees and sense of isolation, the susurrus of the night-time world.

It was her own special trick to get herself into the right state of mind for dream travel. Everypony had their own, it seemed. Her friend and fellow cadet Smidgen had told her that she imagined that she was floating on her back in a warm lake with her eyes closed. Morning Mist, the fourth cadet to be fully accepted, simply concentrated on her breathing. Twilight Sparkle apparently ran multiplication tables in her head, a trick that Trixie herself had suggested to the insufferable mare as a joke...

With an effort of will, Trixie stopped grinding her teeth. Once again, she cleared her mind, resisting the impulse to check the clock and see how much time had passed. It would only cause her further anxiety, which was the only thing that would keep her out of the Dreamrealms. Since her official training had begun, Trixie had only failed to attain the right state of mind once, and that was only because she’d actually fallen asleep, finding herself in a dream where she was unexpectedly back in school with none of her homework in her saddlebags. That desperate feeling of panicked unpreparedness was interrupted by a visibly vexed Princess Luna, who had marched into the classroom, shoved aside the dream-memory of Trixie’s least-favorite teacher, and crisply told her to wake and meet the others on the Threshold as soon as possible.

It hadn’t been the first time that Luna had popped into Trixie’s dreams since the training had begun. The princess was prone to startling appearances, preferring to hide in plain sight while waiting to be noticed. It was bad enough to be dreaming something silly, like living in a house made out of oversized desserts only to find Princess Luna unexpectedly perched on top of a gigantic strawberry tart while critiquing her dream-wards. It was even worse when the dream involved a very handsome stallion Trixie had once had a crush on. As embarrassing as that was, at least the dream had barely had a chance to begin heating up before a cleared throat interrupted events. Trixie had looked up to see Princess Luna regarding her with clinical curiosity and a raised eyebrow, responding to Trixie’s startled squawk by observing that her dream-wards still left much to be desired.

Flushing darkly at the memory, Trixie once again banished the intrusive thoughts and tried to center herself. Princess Luna had once told her that achieving the correct state of mind would come easier with practice and, fortunately, this was proving to be correct. This time, the sighing of the wind in the trees died away, replaced by the sound of familiar voices chattering away in the distance.

Trixie opened her eyes to see several of her fellow Dream Cadets standing together, speaking cheerfully to each other as they waited for Princess Luna to arrive. Though, “standing” was probably the wrong word, as none of them had yet mastered the trick of making themselves move normally in the groundless space that was the Threshold of the World of Dreams. For the most part, they simply floated on the nothingness that stretched around them, their legs dangling uselessly underneath them.

With a smirk, Trixie lowered her hooves and trotted towards the others. Besides herself, only Smidgen had managed to figure out how to move of their own volition. Well, the two of them plus Princess Luna, of course. It all came down to imagining what you wanted and then shaping the world to make it happen. It was a simple act of will, once you got the hang of it, and Trixie prided herself on having an abundance of will. It also helped to remember that this place wasn’t actually real in the physical sense to begin with.

Some of the other accepted cadets were already there, chatting amiably with a couple of newcomers: a dark red, grey-maned unicorn stallion and a gigantic, brown-coated earth pony stallion with a light green mane. Though Trixie remembered the two of them from the application process, she’d never bothered asking for names. After all, most of those who applied would never make it to the Threshold in the first place, so why bother?

In addition to those three, there was Golden Glow, a yellow earth pony stallion chatting with Tinsel, a gawky unicorn mare whose one redeeming physical feature was her gorgeous silvery coat. She stood at the edge of the group like she always did, her ears flicking to follow the others’ conversation.

“Good evening, everypony,” Trixie said as she approached at a trot, allowing herself a smile at the jealous or amazed looks she got from the others. “I see we have some new faces.”

Morning Mist, a light grey pegasus mare with a lavender mane, took it upon herself to introduce the newcomers. “This is Heartwood,” she said, pointing to the dark red stallion. Then she pointed to the large brown earth pony stallion. “And this is Cloverleaf.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, ma’am,” Cloverleaf said in a slow country drawl.

“Same,” Heartwood added.

Trixie frowned for a moment, wondering if she could get away with suggesting that these two salute her. She did hold the position of First Cadet, after all, and the Dreamguard was a part of the overall guard structure, which was basically military. But she wasn’t too sure about whether the lowest ranks had to salute each other or not. Eventually, she decided that the thrill of being saluted wasn’t worth risk of embarrassment if it later turned out to be the wrong thing to do.

Instead of suggesting a salute, she instead asked, “Smidgen isn’t here, yet?”

Morning Mist shrugged. “Haven’t seen her, sorry.”

“I hope she hurries,” Trixie said, chewing on her lip anxiously. “The Princess will be here soon, and she doesn’t like it when we’re tardy.”

“Indeed, she does not.”

Trixie stiffened at the voice, turning to see Princess Luna standing almost directly behind her. She bowed her head. “Good evening, Princess.”

A scattered chorus of greetings came from the others, as well.

“I see we have two new members,” Princess Luna said with a pleased smile. “Your names, if you please?”

Trixie tuned out as the new members introduced themselves, scanning the surrounding area for any sign of her friend Smidgen. With a sigh, she turned back to the Princess just as the introductions were winding down. It seemed like her friend would be late and end up facing the vengeance of an enraged Princess of the Night. Or, at least face the mild disapproval of a slightly irritated Princess Luna.

“Well, since we are all here, I believe it is time to begin our training.” Luna drew herself up and looked around at the others. “For those of you still unable to move yourselves here in the Threshold, your training for the night shall be learning to walk. Remember, focus your mind and will on what you want to do until it happens. You can proceed no further in the Dreamguard until you manage that simple task.”

“Yes, Princess,” the cadets echoed.

“Smidgen, Trixie, you are with me.” Luna began walking away from the crowd of new Dreamguards. “We shall be going somewhere new, tonight.”

“Uh, beg your pardon, Princess,” Trixie said as she trotted alongside the long-legged alicorn. “I’m afraid Smidgen isn’t here, yet.”

Luna stopped and looked down at her, her face unreadable. “You must work on your perception, Miss Lulamoon.” Then she looked at the empty space next to Trixie and said, “That is a very good shadecloak for a beginner, Miss Smidgen, but your training shall go in a different direction tonight.”

Trixie glanced curiously where the princess was looking, only for her mouth to drop open a moment later when a familiar voice came from the empty space next to her.

“I-I’m sorry, Highness,” Smidgen stammered. “I, uh, I can’t seem to turn it off…”

Princess Luna raised a hoof. “No need for apologies.” Her horn glowed, and the air next to Trixie suddenly twisted, revealing a downcast and flustered brown earth pony mare hardly larger than a filly.

“No doubt you wished to impress Trixie and myself,” Luna continued. “You have succeeded. I am very impressed that you managed such a feat with as little training as you’ve had, though there were gaps in the cloak which gave you away.” The princess frowned and added, “I must insist, however, that you don’t rush too far ahead of your training. You don’t know enough, yet, to discern what is dangerous and what is not.”

Smidgen hung her head even lower, her black mane falling over her face and her ears drooping as she mumbled, “Yes, Princess.”

Princess Luna nodded and turned away from them. They followed along as she walked ahead. “Tonight, we delve deeper into the Dreamrealms than you ever have before. The Threshold is safe, perhaps the safest place you can be while in the Realms. Where we are going next, however, is most certainly not.”

Trixie felt something rough under her hoof. She looked down to find herself standing on a rough cobblestone path that most certainly hadn’t been there a few moments earlier. She looked around, her ears laying back as she took an uncertain step backwards.

The Threshold, with its open expanse of bluish-grey extending on seemingly forever, was gone. In its place was a darkness surrounding them like a tunnel, stretching off into the distance. Below their hooves was a grey stone path, set in grass and dirt that looked dead and withered. Luna stopped and looked back at them, offering up one of her rare smiles.

“Welcome, my little ponies, to the Path of Shadows.”