A Tale of Two Trixies

by GreyGuardPony


Lunaverse Chapter 2

“Drink up.” Carrot commanded.

Trixie, Carrot and Drops had fallen back to the small cottage that rested on her farm. The farmer had quickly set to digging out a bottle of tonic from a small chest. Trixie carefully tilted the bottle to her lips, greedily gulping down the liquid within. As its refreshing coolness rushed down her throat, the vice like grip of the hangover began to release, clarity returning to her mind.

“I...needed that.” She sighed. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem Trixie.” Carrot smiled back. “Besides, we kind of need you lucid, rather than punch drunk.”

Drops frowned, pawing a hoof at the floor. “I’ve still never seen you go off like that. You sure that it was just a hangover.”

Trixie was about to respond to that when there was a knock at the cottage door. Carrot trotted out of the room, leaving Trixie alone with Drops, who wouldn’t stop giving her a questioning eyeball. She smiled back, doing her best to act natural, even though she was starting to get the sensation that the pegasus had a feeling that something was wrong.

Carrot soon returned, with three other ponies in tow, two of which- thank Celestia- she actually knew the names of. She recognized Lyra Heartstrings from the sting to bring down Bayou Runner; the unicorn’s spell songs had been invaluable. The other face she recognized as Ponyville’s teacher, Miss Cheerilee. The gray coated pegasus was new though, and her bubble like cutie-mark was going to make guessing at her name tricky.

“Hey girls.” Is what she actually said, doing her best to play it cool. “I guess you’ve heard about what’s happening with the farms?”

“Kind of hard to miss it when Rose runs into the middle of town yelling about ‘the horror’ before fainting.” Lyra deadpanned.

...If that’s this universe’s version of Roseluck, I am so going to write her a letter and tease her about that when I get back. Trixie mentally smirked.

“They’ve left for now.” The gray colored mare sighed. “Saw them falling back towards Whitetail Wood. Guess breakfast is over.”

“Got to assume they’ll be back for lunch.” Trixie sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I mean, there’s a chance that this was their only chow fest, but somehow I doubt that.” She groaned, flopping her head against the desk. “Resistant to magic. I could end this in five minutes if they weren’t resistant to magic!”

“So, punching was your fallback plan?” Drops deadpanned.

“Punching is a solid fallback plan.” Trixie grumbled. “Not ideal but….” She trailed off with a shrug. She tapped her hoof on the table. “...Who wants to go to Whitetail Wood with me?” Everypony blinked at her comment, so she continued along. “I want to see what they’re up to. Always a chance that this could be a part of something else.”

“I’ll go!” Drops and Carrot declared at the same time. Trixie blinked, as did the rest of the ponies that were present.

“What?” Carrot frowned. “I’ve been in the Everfree. Whitetail Woods is easy enough.”

“And I’ll make sure there’s no problems.” Drops nodded.

“See?” Trixie nodded. “We got this. How about the rest of you gather the farmers together and tell them what’s happening, we’ll go check out Whitetail.”

Lyra and the others looked unsure at first, but a nod and a gesture from Drops seemed to convince them. “Don’t worry. We can handle things with Trixie.”

Trixie grinned. This was going well so far.

- - - -

Trixie was no stranger to the wilderness. During her brief visit to Ponyville back in her reality, she had ventured into the Everfree as part of a convoluted prisoner for information exchange that had...not gone well. And back in Neigh Orleans, she had become intimately familiar with many of the bayou’s more dangerous monsters during her time with her grandpappa.

Compared to both of them, Whitetail Wood was almost a paradise on Equis.

The birds were happily singing on this beautiful morning, the warm sunlight streaming through the branches. Insects occasionally buzzed to and fro, and the summer flowers were in full bloom.

“This isn’t a bad walk through the woods to foil some jerk’s attempt to ruin Ponyville, eh girls?” Trixie beamed.

She paused, expecting to hear a response from Drops and Carrot. What she experienced, however, was the sensation of being tackled from behind. Snout shoved into the dirt, the hooves that held her down were like iron.

“So,” Drops growled right in Trixie’s ear. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Trixie.”

“W-what?” Trixie sputtered, trying to not eat soil while doing so. “Of course-”

“No! You’re not! My friends know better than to call me Drops!”

“It was just the hangover talking!”

“Alright then.” She snorted. “What are our names. Our full names.”

“...Waterdrops and Carrot Bunch?”

“That...isn’t close.” Carrot blinked.

“Uh huh.” Drops deadpanned. “Not to mention, your magical aura is the wrong color. Trixie’s is blue, like Princess Luna’s. So, where’s Trixie, who are you, and are you working with the goats?”

“I attacked the goats!” Trixie shouted, squirming against Drops and her freakish strength. “Look, I’m not working with them! I have an explanation if you’d just give me a chance!”

“Let her up.” Carrot said, trotting around to Trixie’s front. Drops hauled her back to her hooves, but didn’t let go. Carrot looked right into her eyes, and nodded. “So, what’s your story?”

“I may not be your Trixie.” She explained. “But I am a Trixie. It’s...complicated, involves magic and I think some kind of hopping between realities.”

“So where’s our friend?” Drops growled. “And why were you pretending to be her?”

“Hey! You two were the ones who came asking for help! And I’d be a pretty poor guest in your reality if I let my double’s home town get wrecked! And I guess your Trixie is back in my world? It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“I want the whole story.” Drops demanded. “Because we’re going to go back to Ponyville and then go get the Princess-”

The snap of a branch cut through the forest, Drop’s admonishment dieing out. Carrot waved a hoof towards one of the trees, the whole group scrambling behind it. A moment later, two goats broke through some nearby bushes, looking around for the ponies that had been there a moment before. Upon not seeing anypony or anything upon first glance, they began to trot around the area.

Trixie, Drops and Carrot quickly darted behind another tree while their backs were turned. The goats began to chat with each other in their bleating tongue. Trixie frowned, really wishing that Kassa was with them. The number of languages that lion spoke was scary sometimes.

“You swear that you’re not with them?” Drops hissed in her ear again. “That you’re not some kind of Discordian shape shifting bandit?”

“No! I swear!” Trixie whispered back. “I’d never do anything to hurt Ponyville!”

“Shh.” Carrot admonished.

The two goats finished poking around, though their hearts were obviously not in it. Looking more bored than anything else, they exchanged a glance, bleating out a few sentences to each other before trotting back the way they came.

“Always nice when the laziness of creatures works out in your favor.” Trixie smirked.

“Okay.” Drops frowned. “We’re going back to Ponyville to sort this out and then we’ll deal with the walking stomachs.”

“No!” Trixie shook her head. “Not until we find out what they’re up to.”

Drops flared her wings, her glower twisting into an out and out snarl. “You’re not in any position-”

“Drops, Rainy...whatever your name is, you’d agree that Ponyville needs to be protected, right?” She was still garing daggers, but nodded slowly, so Trixie very quickly continued with her point. “I want to help! Let me help!”

“Fine.” Drops growled. “But I’m keeping my eye on you.”

“What’s your plan...uh...Trixie.” Carrot asked, nervously running a hoof through her mane.

“Sneak over there and see what we can find.” Trixie explained, quickly resuming her low crawl through the woods.

She lead the way, quickly sneaking her way through the forest, Drops and Carrot right behind her. The goat’s tracks were easy to follow. They weren’t making any real effort to hide their presence in these woods. She was also quite sure, despite not looking, that Drops was still glaring at her.

After walking a bit longer, the sound of goat bleating reached their ears. And not long after that, after coming over a slight hill in the woods, they found the goats in question. Scattered about a small clearing, most of the rabble was asleep, content looks on their faces from their full bellies.

Save for one.

A great gray goat paced the edge of the the heard, his face scrunched up in thought. After a few passes, he turned and walked deeper into the depths of the forest.

“Follow me!” Trixie whispered, quickly trotting around the edge of the herd and tracking the leader as quickly as she could, without giving away their position.

“Trixie.” Carrot Top hissed. “Slow down! We can’t sneak as well as you!”

“Fine.” She frowned, slowing down slightly so that they could catch up with her. But the goat’s great hooves left heavy tracks in the ground which were quite easy to follow and he hadn’t gone all that far from the rest of his herd. Low crawling behind one of the trees, Trixie peered around its edge.

He had stopped before a great oak tree and was rummaging around in a large hollow in the trunk. It took only a moment for him to pull what looked like a note of some kind from its depths.

Please don’t eat it. Please don’t eat it. Trixie thought to herself. Goats being magically resistant was new on her, but their ability to eat anything was a well known bit of trivia back in her reality. But after reading the correspondence, the great leader goat snapped the bit of paper down with one smooth motion before trotting back towards his fellows.

“Crud.” Trixie cursed. “So much for finding out what that said.”

“Well, he’s obviously working for somepony.” Carrot Top frowned.

“Yeah.” Trixie agreed, giving a small stone a kick. “Though with a dead drop like that, I’d bet that our goat’s benefactor is hiding things from him too. Maybe I can pick up a trail-”

“No.” Drops firmly shook her head. “We’re going back to town, and you’re going to tell us the whole story.”

“But-”

“The whole story.” Drops finished with a glare that brooked no argument.

“Okay, okay.” Trixie sighed. “Whatever you say.”

- - - -

Upon reaching Ponyville again, Drops and Carrot dragged Trixie straight back to Carrot’s place, the former sitting on her while the latter went to go and collect the rest of the mares from before. Taking a seat in the living room, she did her best to make small talk with her grumpy guard.

“Can I ask what you actual name is?” Trixie asked, leaning back on the sitting couch.

“Raindrops.” The angry mare glowered.

“Dang.” Trixie winced. “Missed it by that much.”

Raindrops rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe that this has happened twice now.”

“Wait...your Trixie has been replaced twice?”

“More being tangled up in other universe...junk.” She frowned even deeper. “I swear, she is one of the unluckiest ponies in existence.”

“Well, nice to know that there are some constants in the universes, I suppose.” Trixie sighed, flopping back onto the couch.

Raindrops glared back at her, but didn’t say anything else. Trixie began to summon little spheres of multicolored light, tossing them into the air and catching them again on her hoof. Raindrops watched her fool around, rolling her eyes at the display of illusionary light.

“Do you have to do that?” She grumbled. “It’s distracting.”

“Gotta pass the time somehow.”

Raindrops snorted, maintaining her angry glare as Trixie kept playing with her illusions. The two of them weren’t waiting too much longer before the door clicked open again, and the whole gaggle of ponies from before trotted into the living room. Cheerilee walked right up to Trixie, grabbing her head and looking right into her eyes, her own face scrunched up in concentration. “Hmmmm. I don’t know Carrot Top, she sure looks like Trixie to me.”

“Pleash leggo of my face.” Trixie muttered.

“Well, she’s not our Trixie.” Raindrops glowered.

Trixie glared back at her, beginning to get tired of her attitude. “Look! I didn’t try to switch places with your Trixie, alright? Stop treating me like the villain here!”

The bubble marked pegasus took a seat next to her, gently patting her foreleg. Slumping back in her seat, Trixie sighed. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated. I don’t even know all of your names, but you know me...kind of.”

“It’s okay.” The gray colored mare nodded. “My name is Ditzy Doo.” She motioned to each of the other ponies in turn. “This is Raindrops, Lyra Hearstrings, Carrot Top, and Cheerilee. How about you tell us your story?”

“Alright.” Trixie frowned, sitting a little higher in her seat. “Well, as you all have worked out, I’m Trixie, but I’m from another universe. I was born and raised in Neigh Orleans....” She paused, tapping her chin with a hoof. “Actually, I’ll skip over most of the boring stuff in my life and cut straight to the events that got me here.”

“It all kind of began when, with the help of the Element Bearers of my universe, we took down a corrupt noble slash crime lord by the name of Bayou Runner.” Trixie continued a slight grimace crossing her muzzle. “He smuggled magical items throughout Equestria and beyond. So, once he went down, everypony that wanted a piece of his operation dove on what was left. Which left me and my team to clean up the mess.”

“Your team?” Raindrops raised an eyebrow. “You have a team?”

“Well...maybe not so officially declared.” Trixie shrugged. “They’re more a collection of like minded creatures who are tired of seeing Neigh Orleans fall to corruption while the rest of Equestria is fine.”

When everypony else in the room exchanged wry glances and smirks, Trixie raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing.” Cheerilee smiled. “Go on.”

“Well, one of the pieces we...acquired was this magical sextant. The best that I could work out about it from what books I had was that it was called the Sextant of Worlds. So...I started to examine it closer with my magic and that’s when it activated. And then I woke up in your friend’s living room.”

“So, where’s our Trixie?” Lyra frowned.

“Well...I think she’s back in my universe. I saw something blue shoot past me going the other way.”

A pointed stretch of silence settled over the room. Trixie did her best to keep her expression neutral as she took in the reactions of her alternate’s friends. Raindrops still looked angry, but Trixie was starting to get the feeling that was the mare’s default state. Carrot Top looked more unsure. She kept glancing from Trixie to the rest of her friends, but at the very least she didn’t seem as immediately ready to throw slings and arrows her way as Raindrops was.

Lyra and Cheerilee both seemed to be curious, though in completely different ways. Lyra stared, her eyes searching for any small inconsistencies in Trixie’s appearance. Cheerilee was rubbing her chin, mulling over the exact implications of the switch. Ditzy’s expression was...comforting. Almost motherly in the way she radiated a sense of "everything will be okay".

“So,” Cheerilee eventually spoke up. “How do we get her back?”

“Easy.” Raindrops pointed out. “We tell Princess Luna. She’ll be able to track her like last time, and we go and find her. She’s our friend, and I don’t want to leave her in a strange reality.”

“Hey!” Trixie shouted, stomping a hoof. “My reality isn’t strange!”

“The fact that we’ve had to deal with this twice in our lives is!”

“And how is this my fault?” Trixie shouted back, before realizing what she said. “...Don’t answer that! The point is that I couldn’t have seen this coming, and your Trixie isn’t really in danger...probably.”

“Probably!?” Raindrops shouted.

“That’s enough!” Ditzy interrupted with a flare of her wings, giving a stern glare at both of them. “Trixie...why do you think that?”

“Because my friends are smart creatures.” Trixie pointed out with a jab of her hoof. “I’m sure they’ll pick up on what’s going on. I’m also friends- long distance admittedly- with the Element Bearers, who have connections with Princess Celestia. There’s plenty of ponies that can help her, assuming she can’t just use the sextant!”

She looked around the room again. “I mean...she’s another me right? I hope she’s good with magic?”

“She’s the Element of Magic, actually.” Carrot Top nodded.

Trixie blinked at that, but then straightened up a little more, puffing out her chest and grinning as wide as she could. “Really? I’m the Element of Magic in this reality?”

“Okay.” Lyra rolled her eyes. “She’s still a Trixie.”

“Hey!”

“Come on.” Raindrops shook her head. “Let’s get in touch with Princess Luna.” She eyed the hatless and cloakless form of Trixie. “I guess we’ll have to go and see her directly, unless our Trixie left her enchanted hat behind.”

“I did not see a hat.” Trixie shrugged. “But I think the more important question is, ‘What are we going to do about the goats?’. Again, I don’t want your Trixie’s home town to be wrecked when she gets back. This isn’t the time to leave.”

“Canterlot’s only a few hours away by train.” Raindrops countered, her wings twitching in annoyance. “We have the Right of Approach, which will let us go right to her, and let her know something’s wrong.”

Trixie considered that, flopping back on the couch. Taking a deep breath, she squeezed her eyes closed and thought. “But what if that’s what they want? What if they have somepony watching the train, and then the minute we’re gone, they swoop in and do whatever they want to Ponyville?”

“But we can’t just not do anything!”

“And I’m not saying that!” Trixie countered. “But we need to fix this first!”

“We need to tell Princess Luna!” Raindrops snarled.

“Stop!” Ditzy Doo interrupted. “Why can’t we do both? I’ll take the train to Canterlot. The rest of you can deal with the goats in the meantime.”

Everypony was quiet for a moment.

“Fine.” Raindrops sighed. “I guess that’ll work.”

“So, what’s your plan alt-Trixie?” Lyra smirked.

“The goats- or at least their leader- is getting orders from somepony else. They’re going after the food, but there has to be something else going on here….” Trixie motioned a hoof towards herself. “Tell me what’s been going on in town? Anything weird happened before the switch?”

“Well…” Cheerilee began. “One of the goats came into town a few days ago. Said that his name was Horn Harm and claimed that he wanted to move in. Then he ate a bunch of food without paying and one of the books at the library. Our Trixie said he had to pay the fines, which he did. Then he left.”

“He was obviously scouting the town out then.” Trixie frowned. “I’m going to assume that they got the money from this same benefactor that left the note.” She waved her hoof again. “Go farther back. Any big events that might have caught somepony’s attention?”

“What, you mean aside from the fact that this is the town where the Elements of Harmony live?” Raindrops frowned.

“Yes. Lay it all out for me.”

“Let’s see.” Ditzy began. “Aside from Corona showing up, we had a parasprite attack, a phoenix attack, ursa minor attack. Then there was the time we all got cursed into being drunk and wrecked up the place….”

Trixie opened one eye. “Well...nice to see that Ponyville remains the center of weirdness in Equestria in this reality too. Like I said, always nice to have some constants when world jumping.” She rubbed her forehead. “I’m guessing all that stuff got repaired properly?”

“Yup.” Lyra nodded. “The Royal Emergency Management Ministry picked up the tab on the last one.”

Trixie opened her other eye, quickly sitting up. “Run that by me again?”

“The REMM was specifically set up to handle those kinds of large scale disasters.” Lyra shrugged. “Why?”

Trixie frowned, rubbing her chin. Her version of Equestria had a similar organization. Financial support for disastrous situations. That would be a heck of a tempting target for certain ponies.

“Just a hunch running around in the back of my head. It’ll depend on what their next move is.”

“Speaking of which.” Carrot Top frowned. “I should go and get the Farmer’s Union and Applejack together. Maybe we can form some kind of posse to keep them out of the fields.”

“Come on Trixie.” Ditzy smiled. “You can walk me to the train station.”

- - - -

Ponyville’s was warm and inviting, much like the one she had visited in her reality and much like the pony that was currently at her side. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason she was in a good mood as they walked along.

Ditzy had a daughter, and she was downright adorable. The little unicorn hurried along ahead of them, eager to meet the princess. They had picked her up on the way to the train station at Ditzy's request. Trixie couldn’t fault her for that. The foal would probably be safer on the train on the way to Canterlot than in Ponyville right now.

Not that she was going to fail in her goal to stop whatever was going on here. She’d just feel much less nervous if Dinky wasn’t here. If something went wrong…

Her double and her friends were gathered around the fresh grave, the rain pounding down as the small coffin was lowered into the ground. Princess Luna and her guards flanked her keeping sharp spears aimed at her.

Not that it mattered, considering the heavy iron manacles that were locked around her fetlocks.

“You and your world shall pay for causing this death.” Luna declared, her voice as cold as the northern wastes. “That I promise you…”

“Trixie.”

Ditzy was gently poking her side, a bemused smirk on her muzzle. “Ignore the worst case fantasies.”

“Your Trixie has them too?”

“Everypony has those worst case moments. I’ve had more than a few myself.” Ditzy commented, her good eye swiveling locking on Trixie. “I’m more surprised with how well you’re taking this ‘other reality’ thing. It was a bit harder for us to wrap our heads around when we hopped worlds.”

“It probably helps that I kind of came pre-warned.” Trixie shrugged. “My Equestria had the existence of alternate universes kind of foisted upon it and not in a subtle way either.”

“That sounds like a story.”

“Well...I wasn’t there for it. Not...most of it, since the battle took place in Canterlot.” Trixie mused, her mind wandering back to the night in question. “But this was so big that there was no way to not see it.”

Ditzy said nothing, letting Trixie continue with the tale. “I was at the Green Garden with Bayou Runner and the rest of his boys. We were all sitting at one of the big tables that lined the streets, celebrating another one of his Tartarus cursed acquisitions.”

“You worked for him?”

“I infiltrated him.” Trixie corrected, gritting her teeth. “Infiltrated. It’s a very fine distinction!”

“Okay, so you infiltrated. What happened?”

“Things went absolutely mad.” Trixie said, pausing mid step. “Just...one second it was Luna’s normal star patterns the next it was this...web...of energy streams crackling across the sky. It was like watching cracks form on an egg shell.”

“Everything descended into pure chaos. Ponies panicking, diving for cover, running as fast as they could. And then, just to freak everypony out a little bit more, it stopped a few minutes later with no explanation. We wouldn’t find out the truth of the matter until a few days later when Princess Celestia made an announcement to the world. There were other universes out there. And not every creature from them was friendly.”

Ditzy focused both her eyes on Trixie for a moment, frowning deeply. “See, that sounds frightening.”

“I guess? I mean, aside from this,” She waved a hoof at the town around them. “We’ve only had the one incident. I think that the number of items that let creatures travel between worlds is small. Thankfully.”

Ditzy winced.

“It’ll be okay though!” Trixie smiled. “I’m sure we’ll be able to set everything right!”

A slight smile creeping back across her muzzle, Ditzy nodded as they reached the train station. It was a spitting mirror of the one from her Equestria, Trixie noted. Ditzy marched straight up to the counter, quickly purchasing a ticket for her and her daughter.

“Please help keep Ponyville safe. I’ll be back with Princess Luna as soon as I possibly can.”

“Ditzy.” Trixie firmly, but gently, interrupted. “I will not let anything happen to this Ponyville. I promise you.”

“Thanks Trixie.” Ditzy nodded, before stepping onto the train.

Trixie watched the train, and the gray coated pegasus disappear over the horizon, before turning and heading back towards the farms.

- - - -

Carrot Top looked out over her farm. The earlier goat attack had lost her a few carrots, the furrows and hoof prints from the scuffle still visible in the dirt. At the moment it was nothing she couldn’t recover from. But if their next strike was a bit more successful….well, she might be having to scramble to make ends meet again.

“Cheer up!” Cheerilee smiled, with a bump to her side. “We’ll take care of this.”

She and Lyra had joined Carrot Top in her vigil, while Raindrops had flown off to do a bit of aerial recon.

“Yeah.” Carrot Top smiled back. “It’s just a lot to take in. Though…” She smirked a little wider. “I’m not sure whoever is behind this knows just what they’ve stirred up! All of the farmers seem united in a desire to stop this about as quickly as possible.”

“Can’t blame them.” Lyra interjected. “A pony will always defend their livelihood.”

Carrot Top nodded, staring off into the distance for a moment. She fully intended to make sure that her farm would be okay, and then make sure she’d get her friend back. “Girls?” She asked, a thought suddenly occurring to her. “Do you think this other Trixie is telling the truth?”

“I think so.” Cheerilee frowned. “I mean...it’s a really far fetched story to try and trick somepony with.”

“And our own trip isn’t exactly public knowledge.” Lyra pointed out. “So I don’t think they’d have the means to try and trick us with that anyway.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Carrot Top shrugged, her eyes locking on two figures coming up the road. “Speak of the pony.”

Alt-Trixie was cantering down the road. Trixie’s tail was swishing and twitching with nervous energy as she rushed through the gate and came to a skidding stop next to the rest of the group.

“Have they shown up yet? Any signs of them?”

“Not yet.” Cheerilee answered. “But Raindrops should be back from her scouting run soon.”

“There she is!” Lyra declared, pointing her hoof skywards.

Carrot Top smiled as her jasmine coated friend came in for a smooth landing, her features grim as she trotted forward.

“They’re on the move.” She said. “But they aren’t spreading out like last time. Now they’re just one big angry ball that’s barreling right this way.”

“What?” Carrot Top blinked. “Why?”

“You’re one of the small farms I’m guessing?” Trixie interrupted.

“You know-” Carrot Top began with a grimace, only to pause and then quickly correct herself. “Yes. I’m one of the smaller farms.”

“Okay...good news, bad news time. The good news is that I think I worked out what they’re up to.”

Carrot Top was about to open her mouth to ask what the bad was, when the sound of dozens of charging hooves on a road reached her ears. Turning with the rest of the group, her eyes went wide at the full herd of goats bearing down upon them.

“The bad,” Trixie answered anyway. “Is that we need to last long enough to act on it.”