//------------------------------//
// Twin Dreams* 
// Story: "Is that you, my love?" 
// by Hopefullygoodgrammar 
//------------------------------//

Author’s Note: IdontownMLPorA:Jthisistoconservespaceokbye!

                          

                             Twin Dreams





“Is that-?”

“It can’t be, no way would she show her lying face here.”

“I think it is…. oh dear.”

“Hey everypony, it’s the Great and Sucktacular Trixie!”


Trixie bowed her head in shame as the inevitable name-calling and jeering began again, she had hoped that she wouldn’t feel so miserable after a year of hearing her name being spoken of with the same venom that one would use when talking about Changelings or raw sewage.


At least they weren’t throwing stones; she already had enough scars as it was.

Trixie was passing through the city of Canterbury, a city nestled in the center of the Unicorn Range, a city which once welcomed her with opened forelegs now turned against her, just like everything else.

Even the weather seemed to wish her ill: the rain was coming down in buckets and lightning split the sky, The pegasi have really outdone themselves this time. she thought morosely as the freezing rain soaked her to the bone, the only thing that gave her any comfort was that she was almost out of Canterbury and after that it would only be about 100 miles to Ponyville.

To think that after all this suffering I’d be returning to the place that started it all, but this isn’t about me for once, it’s about all of Equestria.


But what if they don’t believe me? She thought suddenly, feeling dread take hold, What if they disregard me, what if they send me to the loony bin? I doubt they’ll even give me the time of day there, I mean, I brought an Ursa Minor into their town and then I tried to rule them all with an iron hoof.


Trixie felt tears well up in her eyes as she remembered her despicable crimes, Why didn’t I learn my lesson the first time? Why didn’t I just swallow my pride, apologize and accept my punishment? Am I really that stupid?


Almost as if in answer to her last question a ball of mud slammed into her cheek, Trixie turned and saw a sneering filly and her friends giving her a death glare, Trixie stared at them for a second before wiping the mess of of her cheek with a trembling hoof, she knew what they wanted of her and she would oblige them; she reattached the harness and set off. 


After she was well away from the city she decided to settle in for the night.

Trixie levitated the last of her meager foodstuffs- which happened to be a very old can of dried lemons- out of her cobwebby cupboard and set about filling her shrunken stomach, the lemons tasted vile and, in her current condition, it was nearly impossible to swallow more than one at a time, but it was better than nothing.

After the last bite was finished Trixie flopped into her bed and pulled her tattered blanket over herself, remembering to use her hooves and not her magic, as she slid into slumber she prayed for a dreamless night.

Her prayers weren’t answered.




She was in a concert hall, the high ceiling was shrouded in darkness and the lights around the stage were dim.


Trixie walked forwards uncertainty, feeling that the dream wouldn’t allow her to wake up if she didn’t investigate, once again she found that she retained her sense of touch in the dream as she could feel the warm carpeting under her hooves, Trixie suppressed a moan of pleasure, the soft material both tickled and cushioned her aching hoof-soles.


After a full minute of letting the carpeting work its magic Trixie finally decided to look around a bit more; her brief moment of pleasure was replaced by shock and fear when she saw the creatures seated around her: they were almost completely hairless, taller than even a full-grown Alicorn and fully clothed, they had no muzzles, their ears were short and rounded and in place of hooves they had what looked like paws.


Trixie’s heart was pounding so hard that she thought that it would burst.


She had never seen anything even remotely like whatever these things were, they were so alien, so abnormal, she hoped that looking at them for too long didn’t cause insanity.


Then the creatures began to clap and hoot as the stage lit up.


Trixie watched as one of the creatures came onto the stage with a violin clutched in its paws, she could tell that something was wrong by the way it stumbled and reeled about like it had received a blow to the head, the showmare squinted at the creature and saw that it looked rather sick: its red mane was slick with sweat, its skin was ashen and there were grey circles around its eyes, making their green coloration all the more prominent.


The creature stumbled to a chair that had been placed in the center of the stage and sat down, nearly falling off in the process. 


The audience began to snicker and Trixie felt her heart go out to him; getting heckled was something that she had become very familiar with.


Her sympathy disappeared when the creature began to play.


“No” she said, her voice trembling, “It can’t be…”


The creature was playing the same discordant song from the first dream.


The audience didn’t share in her terror, in fact they were acting the exact opposite, they began to hurl insults at the creature, who retaliated by shakily standing up and roaring out a series of curses that were so vile they burned Trixie’s ears.


Then the creature drew the bow across the strings one last time and fell over in a tangled heap of gangly limbs.


The audience howled with laughter as two more creatures, one very tall and brawny and the other medium-sized and fair-maned, got onto the stage, hauled him to his feet and dragged him off just as the audience began to throw things at them.


Trixie, wanting to know the identity of the creature who had played that nightmarish song, ran after the trio, she passed the stage and headed into a hallway behind it, barely paying attention to the world around her, she kept moving until she heard the sounds of voices.


“Damn it, Alois, what the hell did you give him?!”


“Me?! This was all HIS doing, Basile, not mine!”


Trixie rounded a corner and came upon them, the big creature and the fair-maned creature had set the sick one down and were locked in a heated argument, the big one, now red-faced with anger, was pointing an accusatory finger at its comrade.


“Don’t lie to me” he snarled, “You and I both know that Malo doesn’t drink.”


“Maybe it isn’t drink” suggested the other with an offended air, “maybe he just took too many of those damnable pills that he downs so regularly.”


The big creature scoffed and gestured to the player, who was apparently named Malo, “Look at him, Alois, does that fuckin’ look like the result of him takin’ too many pills?!  I’ve seen enough sick drunks to know one when I see one.”


“ I. Am. Not . Lying, Basile!”  growled Alois


Basile rolled his eyes and bent down to pick Malo up while Alois fumed. 


When he realized that Alois wasn’t going to help him Basile turned back to give his comrade a burning glare, when it failed to get a reaction the big creature growled and hoisted Malo over his shoulders before turning away and marching down the corridor; Alois heaved an exasperated sigh before following them.


Trixie watched as Alois faded into the darkness before her, her mind filled with questions: What were those strange creatures? Where was she? Was she in a dream or was she in this other world? If it WAS another world then why couldn’t any- any of them see her? Who were Malo, Basile and Alois and what was their connection to each other? What was Malo’s connection to that song and was he truly the one who played as Neighagra Falls burned?


But there was one question that soon took center stage: Why did she feel like these three held an answer to these questions?


Trixie took a step forwards, her muscles tensing in preparation to chase them again, she took one step and….


She was in a dark corridor, the walls were oozing slime and the few torches along the wall cast eerie shadows over everything, she looked around, shivering slightly as the cold stone sent waves of chills through her body. What is this place? She thought  as she walked forwards, she passed a wooden door that was stained with something dark, she could have sworn she heard something breathing inside, she picked up her pace until she was at full gallop, determined not to get caught by whatever was behind the door.

That particular fear took a backseat when she and rounded a corner and almost ran straight into a towering, naked creature with bloody, eyeless sockets, there were chains wrapped around his torso, manacles binding his wrists and ankles, and a strange wheel-shaped device around his neck, Trixie screamed and backed away, only to bump into another creature that looked just like him, only thinner. 

The freakish men stood silent, until the thin creature let out a manic laugh that caused the other one to jump and let out a shriek.  

"Bonjour Monsieur Racine, I almost didn't hear you. You're getting quite adept at hiding from me. I applaud your stealth,but it won't help you."  

He lunged at the one called Alois, his fingers curled into claws and his mouth open in a roar of insane rage. 

Trixie woke up.



200 miles away in Canterlot a similar situation was occurring.

In his room in the royal castle Alois was dreaming of the past as well.

Just not HIS past.



Alois felt the cool breeze on his face.


Almost instantly he knew that he was in a dream.


He knew it as a fact, knew it from the very second it began, knew without a doubt in his mind: he knew because he could see.


He was standing in the Ponyville town square, that much for certain, everything was a single shade of brown and everypony was blurred around the edges, Alois felt like he should have been happy and he sort -of was, but any happiness was diminished by the realization that it was a dream and would therefore end.


He scanned his surroundings and saw a large group of ponies gathered around what appeared to be a small stage on wheels decorated with stars and constellations, Alois drew closer, his mind wandering back to the times that his father had hired magicians for his birthdays in his younger years, he wondered if Equestria had need of any actual magicians what with magic being real.


“Come one, come all, come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trrrixie!!”


The loud voice drew his attention back to the stage as a unicorn mare appeared in a puff of smoke, she was wearing a cape and hat covered in the same stars and constellations that adorned her stage, as her cape billowed outwards Alois saw a mark on her flank: a wand and a crescent moon shrouded in stars.


“Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever seen by pony eyes!” 


Alois finally had the pleasure of rolling his eyes; she was definitely like the magicians back in his world.


“My, my, my, what boasting.” said a familiar voice, Alois turned and saw 6 ponies and a small dragon at the front of the crowd: two were unicorns, two were pegasi and two were earth ponies.


So this is what they look like  Alois thought as he watched them talk amongst themselves, Sacre blu they are adorable!


Trixie continued to brag about how she had vanquished a monster called an Ursa Major, Alois noticed two young colts giving each other excited looks.


Then he heard Trixie say  “I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians. Anything YOU can do. I can do better!”


Trixie pointed a hoof at an earth pony with a stenson, Applejack if he guessed correctly, and said “What about you, little hayseed?”.


Applejack declared, in her own way, that she had had enough of Trixie’s boasting and attempted to prove herself by showing off her skills with a lasso.  Alois cheered her on with the others even though he knew that they couldn’t hear him.


Then Trixie used her magic to hogtie Applejack and stuff an apple into her mouth, Alois wished he could give the show-pony a kick to the flank as he watched the farm-pony hop off of the stage.


Rainbow Dash was next, Alois groaned, first at her bragging and then at her ridiculous and somewhat cruel defeat, Rarity followed after and was also humiliated; by the time that it was over Alois’ fists were clenched so tight that his knuckles were white.


Then the fabric of the dream blurred and then reshaped into another scene: this time it was night and Alois heard screaming accompanied by the footsteps of something massive.


He turned and saw what could only be described as a giant bear made up of stars thundered along the main road, its massive paws crushing everything in its path, he watched as the two colts from earlier tried to coerce Trixie into fighting it, but her attempts merely served to anger the beast, just as it was about to eat her Twilight did something to calm it, then she levitated it back into the forest where it had emerged.


After all was said and done Trixie ran off and left Twilight and the others to clean up her mess, Alois shook his head as he watched her fade into the darkness, Rainbow Dash had tried to go after her, but Twilight had foolishly held her back, saying that she might “learn her lesson.”


Alois scoffed, doubting Twilight’s judgement. 


When the scene shifted again his doubt was vindicated.


Trixie had returned and was now ruling Ponyville as some kind of tyrant using more powerful magic, she was making his friends do menial tasks, like forcing Applejack to make massive quantities of applesauce or having Rarity design banners bearing her face.


Why am I seeing this?  he thought as he watched the tyranny continue  Is this Trixie pony important in some way? Is some omnipotent force telling me that she’s going to threaten Equestria?


He saw Twilight and Trixie duel, he saw Twilight defeat Trixie using the help of her friends and her natural magic, Alois felt a strange sense of pride in her as he watched her explain how she had used illusions to fool Trixie into throwing away her amulet, which seemed to be the source of her increased power, when the amulet was gone Trixie was all but beaten.


Good, now maybe some justice will be served he thought smugly, he was let down when it seemed that she had once again escaped her rightful reckoning, then he was shocked beyond belief when Trixie reappeared asking for forgiveness which, of course, Twilight granted her.


What!? Are these ponies insane? he wondered incredulously, There’s no possible way that she could have learned her lesson. 


He was once again surprised when the scene shifted for the last time.


Trixie was on her stage again, Alois’ eyes were drawn to the crudely drawn sign that hung above her:


THE GREAT AND APOLOGETIC TRIXIE’S SPECTACULAR CHARITY SHOW!!  


Alois looked down just in time to see Trixie get pelted with rotten fruit.


“Please, everypony!” she cried, trying in vain to fend off the onslaught, “Trixie is trying to turn over a new leaf, she swears!”


“Yeah right!” scoffed a unicorn as he levitated a particularly rotten-looking watermelon over his head.


“Please! I’m serious, I-” 


The watermelon crashing into her head and knocking her off her hooves put a stop to any more pleading from her, the audience laughed as she rose, her mane dripping with rancid melon.


Trixie’s eyes began to water as she watched the ponies leave, still laughing.


Alois felt a pang of sympathy for her, I guess she did learn her lesson, it’s too bad no one wants to accept her.


Then the dream world collapsed and Alois woke up to the sound of frantic hoof-falls.




After putting on his shirt and taking a minute to locate his cane Alois stumbled out into the hallway, fighting the urge to rub his sockets, all around him he could hear ponies causing commotion.

His interest sparked Alois searched for a guardspony or someone who could tell him what was going on.

Thankfully he didn’t have to look far.

“Alois! Oh thank Celestia, you’re okay.” said Fluttershy, sounding both relieved and panicked.

“What’s going on?” Alois asked. 

“Something horrible has happened.” said Fluttershy, fear evident in her voice.

“What?”

“I heard a guard say that…. that Neighagra Falls is- is burning.”

“She’s right.” said a male voice to their right, “Neighagra Falls is burning and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

Before Alois could question him further he was off, the sound of his armor clanging fading into the deathly silence that had fallen over the hallway.

Alois swallowed and wetted his tongue nervously, “I-I think that we should go see the Princesses.”

“Yeah.” came the soft reply.

The two went to wake the others, neither saying a word to each other; they both knew that it wasn’t the time for chit-chat.