//------------------------------// // Chapter 20: A Clown's Tale. // Story: My Little Fantasy // by GuyWhoWritesThings //------------------------------// Chapter 20: A Clown's Tale. Well, the good news of my predicament is that I've successfully avoided going to see the pink party monster. I'll be content to never see that particular pony ever again, thanks. The bad news is I'm now sitting with Spike inside the library, the outside having been decorated and turned into a makeshift stage after the three unicorns all decided a magic show inside said library has just as much of a chance of setting everything on fire as me throwing around random Materia. Which I am, apparently, now expected to use in this magic show of theirs. These aren't the problem, however. The problem is- "Man, we look ridiculous!" Spike complains as he walks from the bathroom, wearing his version of our matching costumes. Our shared humiliation comes in the form of a harlequin set with interchanging red and black diamond-spaped rows from collar to ankle, complete with a needlessly frilly white collar, stupidly pointy shoes, and long gloves with their own 'comical' frills. The shoes and gloves are also both adorned with bells that jingle as we move. Spike's set and my own even come with full-face masks of a small drake with twisted expressions, topped with a hat that itself bears two bells. Fittingly, Spike's mask bears a laughing face, while mine bears a crying one. Spike's even has a fitting in the pants to cover his tail, as to prevent the illusion of the jester being broken by it. "This is all your fault, you know." I'm sitting next to the door, legs and arms crossed, glaring at the baby dragon from under my mask. My previous attire is piled nearby, the sword and loose Materia resting on top. I'm still wearing the bangle, though it's hidden under my costume, its Materia loadout changed yet again in preparation for this 'show'. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? "My fault?" Spike huffs and points accusatorily. "We wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't dragged Trixie back with you and let her fill Twilight's head with her magic show junk!" "You're the one who made the mistake of saying yes when Trixie asked if you'd help Twilight with that 'magic show junk' and gave Twilight this idea, remember?" I mean, I'm not wrong here. "How was I supposed to know that," Spike motions with his two hands as if to pick up a box at his left, "would turn into this?!" he completes the hand gesture by 'moving' said box to the right. "The same way I was supposed to know Trixie would send Twilight down the path of showmareship?" I fire back, taking a moment to shift my head left and right to loosen up my neck. "Bah, this sucks!" Spike throws up his arms. "We both look totally lame! I can't believe Trixie talked them both into this!" "You saw that glint Trixie had in her eye for me. And once Trixie had her started, Rarity wouldn't stop with her," I put on the worst impersonation of Rarity to ever exist, "Ooooh, Spikey-Wikey will look absolutely adorable in this!" "Shut up with that already!" I can feel Spike glaring at me from beneath his mask as his arms cross. "I still can't believe she even based the masks on my face." "If we're lucky, maybe these things will terrify the audience into running back home and we can just not do this." I hope. I dream. I wish. I pray. I feel like I've done worse once. "Fat chance, with our luck." Spike grumbles. I get up to stretch as the show is supposed to be starting 'soon' and Rarity will summon us when it's time. My eyes set on a familiar star-speckled cape and hat set hanging near the door of the library. In the end, Rarity convinced Trixie that it would be good for the duo to wear a matching set of stage clothes instead of Trixie's standard set and a Nightmare Night costume, and Trixie relunctantly hung her previous garnments here to retrieve after the show. I don't see Twilight's previous costume hung anywhere, but I'm guessing Nightmare Night is a holiday, so it's probably in a box on the library's second floor or something. As for the new costumes, neither Spike and I have caught a glimpse of them, yet. "It could be worse." I mention to the disgruntled dragon after a minute or two of basic stretching to get some kinks out. "At least they can't see our faces." "Cloud," Spike starts in reply, dropping his hands to his side, his face turning up to me. "There are currently two creatures in Ponyville that walk on less than four legs." "Yeah, we're screwed." I sigh and lean my back against the empty wall, one of the only areas that breaks the illusuion that the inside of the tree is held up by nothing but a never-ending supply of bookshelves. "I'm not sure I want to know what I did to deserve this." "Speaking of," the small dragon walks up beside me and leans against the wall as well, "what's got you avoiding Twilight about the you-know-what?" That's something I'd nearly gotten through the entire day not needing to think about at all, a first with Twilight Sparkle around. At least it's just Spike asking and not a pushy unicorn with the spell likely half-primed at all times. I decide to indulge his curiosity a bit. "You ever have that pit in your stomach where you know something's wrong, but you have no idea what it could be?" "Yeah..." The dragon replies as he turns his head up to me. "It's kind of like that. A big... something, where the only thing I know about it is that I don't want to know about it." I close my eyes to think for a moment, though he can't see that through my mask. "And if it's something that stops me from being able to just hang out with you all like this, I'd rather put off knowing it a bit longer." "I... guess I understand." The dragon nods. "But how did you end up being friends with Trixie of all ponies after you left? Last time she was here she was the most un-friendly thing I can think of!" "Everyone seems to ask that. She really left a bad impression here, huh?" I turn my head back up and stare at the ceiling for a minute. "Trixie is... a lot like a coconut, if you have those here. Breaking through the thick outer layers can be difficult, but deep inside there's just enough good to make it worth the effort." "How do you know so much about making friends with people like her?" Spike asks. "You seem like a very standoff-ish kind of guy." "You just answered your own question." I move from the wall and head to the window, curious to the progress of the show-to-be, only to remember that one of the giant purple curtains of the stage is blocking the view. Trixie calls it her 'stage-in-a-can', a spell where she can use bits of wood such as tree branches to build a small stage when her cart is incapacitated. With some donations from bits of the Golden Oak Libary's tree that Twilight insisted needed trimming anyway, Trixie quickly magicked together a stage that might get a bit cramped for two ponies, a dragon, and a human, but was raised adequately and had the provisions needed to put up curtains and other essentials. After the structure was completed, Rarity ushered Spike and I into the library to change into these... ridiculous... things... while she went about taking care of the stage's decor and having Trixie adjust bits where necessary. At some point, the curtain layout was finalized and since then the front windows of the library have been mostly useless. It's at that moment that Rarity pokes her head through the library's front door. "Hey boys, you can get out here now, stage is set and you're on in five!" She disappears as quickly as she appears, leaving the door slightly ajar to get back to whatever it is she's doing. "Ready to face the music, partner?" I ask, turning to Spike. "Let's just get this over with." He replies with a small groan as we head outside, pulling the door open to reveal the back end of the stage. Small wooden steps lead up to a pair of respective azure and lavender curtains, both decorated with a plethora of stars. Rarity's already vanished to who knows where, though there are hooffalls on the stage above, indicating at least one of the performers is there. From my position, the structure itself looks surprisingly sound given its method of creation. I turn my head skyward to see the night sky is back in full glory, including the highly visible mist of the Lifestream behind the stars and the moon once more. The green hue, however, is stronger than the night before. Whatever's going wrong up there is clearly getting worse. "Ladies and gentlecolts!" A voice booms out, but it's not Trixie. Instead, it's Twilight, leading me to believe she can either magically amplify her voice, or unicorns with magical talents automatically secondary in eardrum destruction. "Tonight the Golden Oak Library and Carousel Boutique present a one of a kind performance!" She's... really getting into this. I would've marked her as far too bookish to go into this so hard. "Yes, Ponyville, tonight only," Trixie takes over, "witness a once in a lifetime performance as The Magnificent Twilight Sparkle and The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie set aside their rivalry and indulge you in a grand display of magic and showmareship!" "But wait, there's more!" Twilight cuts in. "We also have a pair of awe-inspiring magical assistants, ensuring tonight will be packed with tricks you may never see again!" Maybe Trixie's right. Her special talent might just be informercials. "Yes, come out, assistants!" Trixie calls as the curtain pulls open. Spike and I turn to each other one final time as we begin approaching the steps, neither of us quite knowing what to expect. Please let the crowd be tiny. The crowd... isn't tiny. Nor are they running in fear at our terrifying getups. Quite a few are sniggering though, and I can feel my nerves tighten as the pit in my stomach grows. Just what I need, stage fright. I take a few deep breaths to dispel what I can of it. I'm going to get both of these unicorns for this. I take a few more seconds to look around and get my bearings with the stage. There's not a lot of room to move, that's for sure. The curtain layout is the same as from behind, of course, though now I can see that the lavender curtain frames Twilight's 'side' of the stage, while the azure one frames Trixie's, the stars on them twinkling in the near-direct moonlight they're receiving. As for the duo themselves, Trixie is wearing a hat and cape set reminiscent of her old one, the same lavender color as Twilight's curtains. The hat contains many of the same twinkling stars as the curtains, as does the cape, though on the cape the stars are arranged to frame a glistening embroidery of Trixie's wand and crescent curtain cutie mark. Twilight's azure set is much the same - stars, with the cape bearing an embroidery of her six-point-star cutie mark as its defining feature. Rarity has quite outdone herself with the aesthetics here. Too bad Spike and I look like idiots. The two bow, and we quickly pick up on it and both do the same, indicating the start of the show. As they say, in for a penny... "And now, for our first trick!" Trixie announces, pulling out a familiar deck of playing cards. I suppose it's good to start safe. "Let us begin with a warm-up, dear Ponyville." She walks to the front of the stage and bends herself down to a small, blonde-maned unicorn filly riding on her mother's back. "Dear child, would you please choose a card?" Trixie asks as she fans out the deck, and the filly plucks out a card, staring at it. Trixie folds the rest of the deck back up and levitates the card so the rest of the crowd can see it, and none of us can. At that moment the magic changes from Trixie's to Twilight's as the cards go flying off into the sky above the crowd. They rise up into the night and then disperse, a cyclone of cardboard forming and breaking apart again and again as the crowd's heads tip up to watch. The cards come together, backs to the ground as they form a red exclaimation mark to keep the crowd's attention, then flip back again. They swirl and flip their backs down, now pink, as they form a butterfly that begins gently flapping its wings and flying across the sky and toward the library. As it reaches the point above the stage it breaks again, swirling into a tightly wrapped vortex. Behind me, Trixie taps me casually with a hoof to nudge me to do something, and with the Materia they asked me to bring there's only one thing I can do. The cards have again unfurled themselves, backs-down, in the shape of a rainbow that extends far beyond a mere fifty-two playing cards as I open my palm and summon forth a fireball. The green glow catches the eyes of some of the crowd, then more, then the rest as I hurl it up into the sky towards the cards. They tighten into a cone-shape and launch at the fireball like a drill, smashing through it as it explodes. The now flaming cone of playing cards hurls itself head-long at Spike, who belches out a stream of green fire through a special hole in his mask and begins burning the cards to bits. After a moment, he hiccups, then turns his head up, and with a powerful belch there's another burst of green fire, and the seemingly hundreds of playing cards fly forth again, up into the sky as they burn up in a mix of red and green flames. As they burn up, the cards explode into differently-shaped fireworks, filling the blue-yet-green night sky with mixes vibrant colors. One forms a lyre, another forms a set of butterflies, still another an hourglass, a fourth a set of party balloons that give me a shudder. Are these the cutie marks of each of the ponies in the town? That's... impressive. At that moment I feel Trixie jump her way onto my back, her hooves holding my shoulders as her magic tugs at my collar. What the hell is she doing? I feel her hoof shove itself down the back of my costume then pull itself back out as she legs go and plants all four of her hooves onto the stage again. In her magic, I see... a playing card... that she hovers over to the unicorn filly that chose it originally. "Is this your card, little one?" She asks with a gentle but carrying stage voice as the filly giggles and nods her head. Trixie leaves the card with the small unicorn and returns to the stage, flourishing her cape in the process as the crowd. "And this is just act one, dear Ponyville!" Trixie and Twilight both take a bow as the distinct sound of stomping hooves emanates from the crowd. As the hoof-clapping-whatever these ponies do dies down, the back curtains part slightly as a familiar pink abomination makes her way on stage, pushing a cannon, and giving me a wave once she's set it up between the showmares of the hour. That damn well better be a wave of goodbye. Please. This is bad enough as it is. "While we've amazed you with our first trick, dear audience," Trixie starts as she pulls up from her bow. "We want to be sure everyone has something to remember tonight with!" Twilight finishes, turning to her cotton-monster of a friend. "Pinkie, if you would please." "Okie-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie replies as she gives a hard pull on a string at the back of the cannon, and it fires a wave of confetti above the crowd, thick enough to nearly block out the sky. The mass of confetti quickly glows violet and pink as it's gripped by a pair of magical auras, and the bits of confetti begin to writhe, twist, and turn before slowly raining to the ground. What falls, however, isn't exactly confetti anymore. From my position, I can see origami figures of unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, dragons, at least one buffalo, and a number of other shapes I can't identify, as well as two single larger confetti-origami figures made of pure black and white respectively, clearly meant to represent the pricesses of the sun and moon. The ponies in the crowd quickly begin snatching them up as they fall, the various poses of each figure making them not too dissimilar from collectibles, except made from confetti. "And now that we're cleared out all that confetti that got stuck in our cannon," Twilight motions to it, Trixie following suit. "We can get on to what it's really here for. Want to see our assistants fly, Ponyville?" They're getting really into this finishing each other's senten- wait what the hell did she just say? I reel for a minute and turn to Trixie, bending down to her and whispering. "What the hell are you planning?" "It'll be fine, Dusk," she whispers back, trying her best not to let annoyance break her confident visage while on stage, "just do it." "Just do it?" I look back at her, knowing she can't see my upturned eyebrow. "It's a goddamn-" There's a boom and I'm snapped away from my hushed conversation with Trixie to see Spike sailing up into the sky straight-up, and at top speed, Twilight watching him as he soars up to what have to be deadly heights. "We already fired Spike, so get in there!" Trixie gives me a whispered command and begins pushing at me, causing me to trip and fall into the dumb thing face first, my weight making it fall over sideways. The cannon quickly rights itself, and I can feel my legs dangling up in the air as I thrash them, not wanting to resign myself to this fate but not finding any way to give my arms purchase to let me out. After a moment I can feel the force being put on the back of the cannon as the rope is tugged, and there's an ear-splitting explosion as the cannon fires, but whatever it uses for launch doesn't vaporize my face instantly... or even damage my outfit. I imagine it's some kind of crazy Equestrian magic cannon bullshit, or given its owner, crazy poofy cthulu bullshit. My stomach lurches as the ground, the stage, and the unicorn I fully intend to exact payback for this over shrink as my height grows. Then, suddenly, my momentum stops, and everything goes black. I can feel ground beneath me again, and I'm on my hands and knees now. Did I black out? Die? The booming voices nearby tell me neither is the case. "And now, dear audience, watch as our assistants reappear!" Twilight exclaims and light returns to my world in a whirl of cloth. I take a look around and I'm back on the stage again, next to Spike, both of us between Twilight and Trixie, who are holding their capes in their forehooves as if they just revealed something hiding behind them. That something being us. I don't want to know how. I'm just happy to be on land again. My heart's beating out of my chest and it's difficult to catch my breath after a scare like that. Apparently Spike's not doing any better, either. Trixie's idea of 'need to know basis' on tricks for the assistants to make them look more genuine is going to result in me having a heart attack. Then again, I'm certain she only made up that bullshit rule so she could have me do whatever she wants without me being able to protest. As I get back up, however, I notice something strange. On one of the rooftops is a figure - a humanoid figure - draped entirely in black, darker than the space behind it, like a shadow. The sounds around me seem to die out, even those of Trixie and Twilight's booming voices announcing their next act. My eyes are locked on the figure, my body tensing. I feel like I've seen this before, before... I forgot everything, even if it's not exactly the same as my subconscious is telling me it should be. My head rings. The ear-splitting, whining sound from my dreams, except this time in reality. I would clutch at my head, but my body refuses to listen, refuses to move at all. Staring at the... thing... is like staring into an abyss. Something that shouldn't exist, but does. The best way I can describe it would be a blemish or an absence. Intense wrong, given a physical form. At that moment it moves, launching itself into the air effortlessly, at a speed paralleling that of my recent cannon fire. At the crest of its jump, moon to its back, it unfurls like a cloak, though no form appears to be underneath, leaving it much like a bat against the moon. Quickly, tendrils launch from the figure, heading toward the stage. My head finally moves again, and I look to everyone on stage as the world comes back into focus. How can they not see that? I turn back to the figure to dodge, but after a moment I notice I'm not the target of its ire. "Trixie!" I yell, finally out of my stupor and cutting whatever she was rambling about short as I tackle her, clutching her to me and rolling off the side of the stage as the tendrils crash into it, the wood snapping under their force like twigs. After that, for just a moment, everything is silent. "What are they!?" A mare's voice yells from the crowd. They? I pull myself from a stunned Trixie and look back over the stage and past the crowd of ponies. There's now a swarm of the cloaked shadows, at least five of them. "Run!" Twilight's voice yells over the various murmurs of the crowd with authority and it breaks up, not needing to think twice or question who gave the order as they disperse. I crawl back up onto the stage as the ponies flee elsewhere, staring at the cluster of shadowed figures. "Do you know what they are, Cloud?" Twilight asks, her horn brimming with magic that's clearly no longer meant for show as she keeps her eyes locked on them as well. "No idea." I reply, half-truthfully. "It went for Trixie." "Trixie noticed..." The unicorn grumbles as she crawls back onto the stage herself, repositioning her hat. "Trixie is sure she never wronged a group of cloak-wearing tentacle creatures, though. She would quite remember doing that." I'd damn well hope so. I scan through the remnants of the crowd as they tighten around the stage defensively. The remainder of Twilight's friends stick around, even the floating butter stick, as well as several others. The big, red one with the green apple cutie mark looks particularly strong. Others, such as the brown stallion that owns the hourglass cutie mark from the fireworks show are also here, but most of them are ponies I've never really seen before, outside of a quick glance this morning while walking to or from Fluttershy's. It's probably a good thing so many chose to stay, though, as when the shadows step foward, it becomes apparent they're not alone. Hulking, bipedal figures I've become quite familiar with appear from behind several nearby houses as well - diamond dogs. This time they're all wearing crafted armor, with metal plates to cover their heads and chests, each clutching a gem-tipped spear. Three in particular stand out even among their ranks - ones whose forms I quickly associate with the names Beethoven, Bud, and Toto, though there at least six others. My eyes quickly dart to Beethoven's legs, which I distinctly remember snapping in a very irreparable way. They're not covered, nor visibly damaged, but the flesh on them looks... wrong. Sickly, and wrong. And different, as if it's not the flesh of the legs I damaged, but a completely different set altogether. This situation... it's raising questions far too quickly, but I'm snapped out of my thinking by Spike. "Hey Cloud, looks like you'll need these!" The young dragon says, dropping both my sword and my loose Materia at my feet on the stage. Looks like the kid can tell trouble when he sees it, all right. I scoop up the sword, some of the slots empty from needing to rearrange Materia for the magic show, and shove whichever Materia I can reach first into the slots. The rest go into the pockets of the harlequin suit, hopefully deep enough to prevent them from falling out, in case I need to try changing out midway through fighting for my life. "I can smell you, even if you look ridiculous, varmint!" Beethoven yells, his group of diamond dogs and weird shadow things coming closer. "These are the same guys from Appleloosa." Trixie narrows her eyes at them, as the four of us jump off the stage and group up with the others, Spike now clinging to Twilight's back. "Did they follow Trixie and her assistant all the way here?" "More importantly," Rainbow Dash moves over to us from the crowd, hovering above us as she speaks, "I'd like to know who their creepy friends are." "Should've given us those gems like we asked back out in the sands, big boy." Beethoven cackles slightly as he talks, though it sounds strange with a, well, dog's, inflection. "Now we've been told to give you a nice long dirt nap, and all your little ponies buddies that get in the way, too." "Oh, I knew you were brutes!" Rarity's giving them an exceptionally powerful stink eye as she readies her magic. "I never thought you were that kind of brute, though!" The eyes of the diamond dogs turn to Rarity, and most of them besides Beethoven shrink back. Their leader, however, just laughs louder. "Well, aren't you the little white one we captured that one time? Caused a bit of a stink, as I remember it." His eyes narrow, gaining a murderous glint as he licks at his lips. "I'm going to enjoy this."