//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Ponies, Dragons, and Bears - Oh My! // Story: My Little Fantasy // by GuyWhoWritesThings //------------------------------// Chapter 13: Ponies, Dragons, and Bears - Oh My! I'm standing at the entrance to a small town. It's so small, can it really even be called a town? It looks like its been built at the foot of a mountain range. The buildings all beige or white with red roofs, encircling a small town square with a water tower at its center. Along the ground and buildings, however, I can still see the thin green wisps of the Lifestream, as if its seeping through whatever dreamscape my mind's created. "It's an almost perfect replica. Do you like it?" The deep voice makes my blood run cold and my body freeze. Its mostly emotionless - but with just enough of a tint of malice to be noticeable. My mind screams to reach for my weapon, to run, to do anything, but my body won't move at all. The most I can do is a small twitch of my head and a glance with my eyes, but all I get in return for the effort is a familiar rotting smell and the small, tendril-like trails of that shadow from the dream before. "Now, now, no peeking." I feel a hand press against my back and I'm compelled to walk forward, into the town. I try to say something in reply to the thing pushing me forward, but my voice catches in my throat. It's like I can't do anything. Whatever's behind me keeps talking. "It's good for the two of us to finally be alone. Now I can fix your memory problem... directly." I will my body to resist in any way it can - anything this thing wants can't be good! As we move across the center of the town, my insides choke. It feels like something's trying to burst through, but is being pushed back down and can't. "That memory isn't important." The voice behind me keeps compelling me forward. "Keep going." We pass the other side of the town's square, and a large, gated mansion looms in front of us. It's ominous, and... slightly distorted looking. Is that due to this being a dream? "That one... no, you don't need that one either. Not yet." Finally, I'm able to break free of the thing's influence enough to at least speak! "What do you want?!" Cool first line, Cloud. They'll totally listen to that. "I'm just taking a direct approach while I can." Huh, I guess they will. "Showing you will work much better than trying to slowly drip the memories back into your thick skull." We walk past the mansion, and the path ahead of us... distorts into Lifestream? Whoever is behind me keeps us walking towards it, through it... and soon, we're standing on solid rock, mountain spires rising up on different sides of us. The hell was that, my mind's take on a jump cut? "Do you know where we are?" The voice asks, and I can finally turn my head, if only slightly. My eyes take in the bleak spires, which have their own spires and spike-like protrusions coming up from them. It's almost like staring at the evil castle of the villain from some children's book. Except, it's real, and it makes my entire body shudder in recognition. "This is... Mt. Nibel..." My eyes continue to wander, until the find the one thing that doesn't belong - a large, cylindrical, man-made structure. There are numerous pipes which stem from the main body, digging into the ground, and the whole area has the deep green glow of the Lifestream despite the wisps no longer being visible. It looms almost cartoonishly high over me - another effect of the dream-state, like the mansion? "And this is... the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor, the one we-" "Good, now get going." The voice cuts me off with a shove and forces me to climb the stairs. As we walk, the staircase itself seems to get longer and steeper, as if its resisting our climb. After what could have been anything between minutes and days, though, we finally reach the top, and the doors to enter inside open on their own. Inside is bleak, industrial, innumerable pipes coming from machines that line either side of another large staircase. The entire area is lit in a low, deep red. The red of a service light? No, it almost looks... bloody. I begin taking in the details of the machines the pipes attach to, noticing that my 'guide' is pushing me up the stairs and towards one of them. They have some sort of... window, on them. The hell are they, ovens? Why would they need a viewing window? "Take a look inside and find out." The voice says, pushing me towards one of them. Can it read my damn mind, too? I lean on the machine a moment for support, steadying myself. Though, up close, it looks more like... a capsule. I consider turning to see the face of whoever or whatever has been pushing me along, but I already know my head will likely stop obeying before they come into view. Instead, I move directly in front of the capsule and press my head against the glass, trying to see through the murky substance inside to see whatever I'm supposed to be seeing. For a moment, there's nothing, but slowly... a shadow forms. A very... inhuman shadow, with a blurred outline and a long face. My eyes widen in recognition as its own pure-white eyes burst open - the shade I've been seeing in the previous dreams! I don't have time to do anything beyond recognize, though, as the door to the capsule bursts off, hurdling me backwards, off the platform, bouncing off against the pipes of the capsules below before landing face-down on the floor with a painful thud. I begin to turn my head up to see what just happened, and insult adds itself to injury as the door to the capsule slams down onto my back, pinning me to the floor. That's just great. I press my hands to the floor, trying to push my upper body up enough so I can see what's going on, even though I can feel my consciousness wavering. Up on the second ledge, I can see the two forms, though they're blurred. My attention focuses on the four legged one first, as it stares down the other form. Its... definitely not a guard hound or a foulander, now that I can see its side profile. It has a single, long horn coming from its forehead. I sort through everything in my head that it could possibly be, but the only thing I can think of that comes close is... a unicorn? But why would a unicorn be in my dreams? Besides, its... too large. I turn to the second form, but... its gone. Shit... I gasp for breath and collapse against the cold, metal floor of the Mako Reactor, not seeing much point in resisting the embrace of sleep anymore as I black out from the pain... ...And awaken with a start in our room back at Dodge Junction. The sun is filtering brightly through the window - it's long past dawn this time. What the hell was that? The other dreams were nothing like that. The names of the other places are slowly coming back, too - Nibelheim and the Shinra Mansion. Shinra is... the organization that controls SOLDIER. Bah. 'Showing will work much better' my ass, I have a few more names without context and a couple links but that's it. Unless... that shade... Trixie rustles on her bed, mumbling to herself. "The Great and Powerful Trixie requires five more minutes of sleep..." She even sleep-talks in third person? That's... dedication. I can hear the clopping of hooves outside the door, though. Some people at this place are starting to wake up, so I reach for my sword and shift into a more upright sitting position so I can return it to its sheathe in case someone decides to come in uninvited. I fold my arms under my poncho and lean back against the wall, deciding to at least rest my eyes for a few more minutes. A few minutes later, a deep yawn and shuffling emits from Trixie's bed, then finally the clanging sound of hooves against floor to warn the world she's awaken. I keep my eyes closed under my tipped hat as she walks towards me, yawning to herself again. "Still asleep, Dusk?" I decide not to answer as her hoofsteps turn toward the door. "That's good, Trixie must freshen up before she can allow the public to see her." The door creaks open, and the hooves move into the hall, following it down. The yell comes a few moments later. "This place only has one washroom! You better not be hogging it to try and get an advantage in our showmare's duel, Twilight Sparkle!" I decided to tune out the noise of the place while Trixie moves in and out of the room repeatedly, presumably doing whatever she does for her morning rituals. Soon, I feel a hoof pressing against my shoulder, shaking me. "Dusk! Wake up!" It's kind of nice having a pony-shaped alarm clock, really. "Trixie will require your presence for her duel with Twilight Sparkle!" "Yeah, yeah, I'm up." I shake off the last bit of drowsiness and get up. The room's empty beyond my magical alarm clock, though it doesn't stay that way for long as Twilight and Applejack make their way inside. "Y'all ready in here?" Applejack asks. "A certain blue somepony made a point of doin' this before lunch, after all." "It's fine, AJ." Twilight steps forward. "Besides, I'll get to do stage magic! I've only really done that sort of thing for Spike." She seems... a bit happier about this than I expected. "I don't like showing off, but it'll be fun to practice something new!" Trixie gives the excited unicorn a leer and steps forward. "Right... and where is your stage attire, Sparkle?" "...Stage attire?" Twilight looks at Trixie quizzically before realizing what the latter is talking about. "Oh! I think I have something!" Her horn glows violet and there's a small flash. Once my eyes focus, I see Twilight... wearing the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life. It's clearly meant to be a wizard's hat and cape of some kind, deep blue with details of the stars and the moon, but it has bells all along the frills, and... "Do you like it?" She asks, striking a pose. "Sparkle..." Trixie gives her a quizzical look that likely mirrors my own. "You have a beard." "Oh!" She quickly pulls the beard off with her hoof, making it disappear again with her magic. "Sorry about that! This was my costume for Nightmare Night! It's supposed to be Starswirl the Bearded!" "Trixie can tell..." For once, her and I are on the same page, as her tone is seeping with 'are you seriously going to wear that?'. "One moment, if you please, Sparkle." She turns away from Twilight and Applejack, motioning for me to stoop down to her as she whispers in my ear. "Why did you think this was a good idea? She is going to embarrass Trixie!" "So? You'll just look better by comparison, won't you?" I'm getting too good at stroking her ego, I think... Trixie's eyes narrow as she smirks. "Yes, yes Trixie would." She turns back to the pair near the door. "Okay then! Hopefully you are ready for Trixie to show you how to please a crowd, Twilight Sparkle!" Trixie raises her head high and exits the room, Twilight nearly skipping after her in the excitement to do something new. Either this is going to go better than I hoped it would, or I'm going to be carrying around an unconscious Trixie again tonight. At least it'll keep Twilight busy for now. Applejack, however, stays behind for a minute, giving me a look and pointing a hoof at the two exiting unicorns. "Are ya, uh, sure this was a good idea?" I shrug as we begin following them out. "Nope." As we head outside, I can hear Twilight and Trixie discussing the details of the show some more. Trixie is... surprisingly calm, now that she's in her element. I guess she's one of the types whose married to her career - the show must go on, co-starring with career-ruining arch-nemesis be-damned. We wander around the town a bit with Trixie leading, and I can see her eying different roadsides and buildings, trying to find the place she thinks the show will attract the most attention. "Here!" She finally exclaims, slamming her hoof on the ground. Again, it all looks the same to me, but I guess what do I know? I move and take a seat in front of the building opposite of where Trixie's decided the 'stage' will be, while Applejack sits where Trixie instructs her as 'an indicator of where the masses should sit'. Her and Twilight discuss a few final things, Twilight disappears from the stage in a puff of violet magic, and Trixie waits a few moments for there to be some passer-by and sets out the bit-collection tin. "Hello, dear mares and gentlecolts of Dodge Junction! Welcome and be amazed! For not only shall you be able to witness the amazing feats of The Grrrrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie..." She throws up her hooves, flourishing her cape. "But in a once in a lifetime showing, she shares the stage with Ponyville's own Twilight Sparrrkle!" In another puff of violet smoke, Twilight appears beside her, reared on her own hind legs, but clearly not as used to standing almost completely upright the way Trixie seems to be. The surprising thing is that the introduction lacked all hesitation - I suppose I was right after all, anything for the show. Trixie pulls a deck of cards from her cape, Twilight pulling them up in her magic and shuffling them before returning them to Trixie. Trixie then moves up to Applejack and offers the deck, fanning it out. "Pick a card, my little pony, any card!" She says, as if Applejack were just any other pony in the crowd... which is now up to Applejack and a couple of ponies giving the pair strange looks. Applejack gives her a confused look and pulls a card from the deck. "Good good!" Trixie continues, "Now show it to the crowd, but not to us, then return it to the deck!" Applejack gives a hesitant laugh and shows the card - a red face card, though I can't see which suit or value - to the few other people watching then returns it to Trixie's deck. Trixie then returns to the 'stage' with Twilight, who both take off their hats as Trixie dumps the deck into Twilight's hat. They both hold their hats out theatrically, the openings pointed toward each other as their horns glow with violet and pink magics. Then, a stream of cards like a snake bursts from Twilight's hat, and into Trixie's. A stream... that never seems to stop. The stream begins to change shape, creating loops, coils, figure eights, and other shapes in the air as it continues to stream between their hats, changing directions at seemingly random intervals. Trixie finally reaches out with a forehoof, touching one of the cards and causing the rest to drop to the ground as the magic fades, then holds it to Applejack. "Is this your card?" Trixie asks with a smug smirk, and it's definitely a red face card, which a nod from Applejack confirms to be the correct one. "Excellent!" A proper crowd of about ten ponies is gathering around them now, as the deck glows with magic and all filters into Trixie's hat, which she then replaces on her head. Twilight, however, leaves her hat off, reaching inside it. She then pulls out a bouquet of red roses, and offers it to Trixie. "For you!" "My, my, Twilight," Trixie feigns a blush, "what will the fans think?" Trixie takes the bouquet, putting it into her own hat, when both begin to hear chomping sounds. They both look up with a quizzical expression to Trixie's hat, which is quickly levitated off her head as Trixie puts a hoof inside to see what's going on. When she draws her hoof back out, the bouquet is being eaten by a small, brown rabbit. "Huh... how did that get in Trixie's hat?" "Shouldn't it be eating carrots or something?" Twilight asks, putting her head closer to the hat invader. "No matter!" Trixie exclaims, quickly tossing both the rabbit and the bouquet aside. "Let's see what else is hiding in Trixie's hat!" Trixie dives one forehoof in, holding the hat steady with the other as the hat makes obnoxiously and cartoonishly loud rummaging noises. Eventually, Trixie pulls her hoof back to the sounds of flapping feathers. "Birds..." She says as they fly off and she digs her hoof back in. "Tumbleweed..." She pulls out a tumbleweed, throwing it onto the road, a gust of wind blowing it along the trail out of town. Trixie digs her hoof back in and Twilight's eyes go wide. Suddenly, Twilight is pulled up through her own hat and out through Trixie's. "Twilight Sparkle..." Trixie looks to the hat, then back to Twilight. "What were you doing in Trixie's hat?" Twilight shrugs and gives a sheepish smile as Trixie drops her, the bells on Twilight's costume ringing as she collects her hat again. The crowd's grown much larger now, and they're stomping their hooves on the ground in appreciation of the trick. Both place their hats back on their heads and give a small bow, before turning to face each other, jumping back to make some added space. "And now, mares and gentlecolts!" Trixie begins, turning back to the crowd. "We begin the final act of our performance today!" Twilight continues. Kind of surprised Trixie is letting Twilight even have a speaking part. "Yes , The Great and Powerful Trixie, along with The Magnificent Twilight Sparkle..." for just a second, Trixie's face flinches, but she catches herself like the professional she claims to be. "...Shall dazzle you with a great tale of exploits and heroism!" Twilight finishes the intro as both raise onto their hind legs, fireworks shooting up from the ground and exploding, the colors hanging in the sky in Trixie's usual fashion for her final showing. The two turn to each other again, both their horns slightly glowing. She doesn't say it out loud, but I can see Trixie's mouth form the words 'Its time to duel' as her horn glows brighter. "Our tale today starts in the lovely Horse Shoe Bay, where Trixie had intended to take a lovely weekend off after saving Baltimare from the evil of the merwolves!" Oh god, not this shit again. The colors swirl in the sky, forming a passable drawing of a small bay in the sky, and the outline of Trixie wielding the usual star-wand in one hoof as she lie beside it. "But then," Twilight doesn't miss a beat, quickly copying the spell to draw in the sky, "The Great and Powerful Trixie's rest was interrupted by an evil wizard, bent on revenge!" The colors swirl, and a second unicorn - lavender and wearing its own cape and hat, much like Twilight - appears in the sky beside Trixie. Trixie's eyes narrow, and her sky form rises to its hooves. "It was true, Trixie's rival had appeared before her, bent on ending their competition once and for all. Trixie called on all the might of her wand, wanting to quickly vanquish this dangerous foe!" The form of Trixie in the sky waves its wand, stars shooting from the tip toward Twilight's doppelganger, who effortlessly dodges the attacks. "Ah, but her rival knows all of Trixie's strategies, and has come prepared to settle this once and for all!" Twilight's horn glows as more colors swirl in the sky. "Wasting no time, Trixie's rival summons her familiar, a mighty dragon!" And behind her sky-form, a large, purple-and-green dragon forms behind her, breathing a green flame at Trixie's copy. Trixie's hoof stomps, and her copy darts along the sky, away from the dragon. "Trixie, ever the resourceful magician, doesn't let this deter her, and while deftly dodging the dragons attack, summons her own familiar - the dreaded ursa major!" In the sky, a large, blue bear with a sparkling body is drawn from Trixie's canvas of colors and swipes at Twilight's dragon. The two clash as Twilight and Trixie's horns both glow brightly. Claw swipes, flames, a ballad of fury as the two make-believe monsters clash together. Eventually, the two make one final clash, and both titans dissipate, leaving two panting unicorns on the ground, mirrored by two panting drawings of unicorns in the sky. "With both familiars vanquished, Trixie's rival sees her opening, and unleashes her final, most devastating attack!" Twilight locks eyes with Trixie as her copy begins sending a beam of light towards Trixie's. "Seeing no alternative, Trixie unleashes her own attack, and the two clash in a brilliant display of magic!" Trixie's expression is determination and grit, while Twilight is wearing a steady smirk. The two beams continue to collide, colors from the palette swarming to the spot where they meet as the buildup of 'energy' between them becomes larger, steadily growing until there's a 'pop!', and the colors explode out, washing away both the drawings of Twilight and Trixie. On the ground, both Twilight and Trixie are left panting, as one pony begins stomping their hooves. Then another. Soon, there's a loud roar of hoof-stomping as the two turn to the crowd they'd nearly forgotten about entirely and take a bow. "Thank you, everypony! The Great and Powerful Trixie and The Magnificent Twilight Sparkle hope you have enjoyed their performance!" Trixie pulls off her hat, sweeping it aside as her bow deepens, Twilight mirroring her as the bells on her hat chime. Twilight stomps her hooves excitedly as the crowd dissipates. "Ohh, Trixie, I see why you like this now, that was fun!" "Yes, quite..." Trixie turns her head away. "Trixie's career is quite enjoyable. It..." Her voice trails off as Applejack walks over to them, but Trixie's eyes are firmly on the tin, her eyes wide. She babbles incoherently for a moment before levitating the tin in her magic, running over to me. "Dusk! Dusk! Look at this!" Trixie thrusts the tin of bits in my face, some flopping out to the ground from how full it is. Her eyes are nearly tearing up. "See what happens when you listen to your assistant?" I give a small laugh, but she seems too happy for even my jibe to get to her. "Let me carry that." I grab the heavy tin from her, cradling it in one arm under my poncho as Twilight and Applejack run up. "Well, ah'll say, Trixie, ya've, uh, improved." Applejack absentmindedly scratches behind one ear with a hoof. Trixie sniffles before turning and proclaiming loudly. "Look out, Equestria! The Grrrreat and Powerful Trrrrrixie has returned! A few more performances like this, and her wagon shall return as well! Let us celebrate with some fine dining!"