The Night of the Trotters

by Strongbolt Stonewing

The Assignment

When Roseluck finally got to her hooves, she knew she was not awake. The area around her was just like her other dreams: an endless space of black with a few twinkles of light and rays of colours spreading across it. It looked like the Northern Lights in the night sky. There was no floor below her hooves, just an exact reflection of what was above her.

"Roseluck?" Said a weary voice.
Behind Roseluck, Whooves stood rubbing his eyes. "Are you wearing... a dress?"

Roseluck looked down, it was true, she was wearing a gleaming white dress, with various red roses pinned into it. She felt her mane, it was much longer an silkier than it had been before. As her vision of Whooves cleared, she gasped. He was wearing a stylish brown suit with a light purple shirt underneath. His bow tie was still around his neck. He stared at his reflection in the floor.

"Wow. I look... good. Like, really good."

"Uh..." Said a familiar voice. Dice shimmered into the dream world, his hair was now neater and his scruffy shirt had sorted itself out. The bruises he had on his face had vanished. "What the...?"

Laura appeared next to him and Roseluck was stunned. Her dress was now completely repaired, the blood stains had disappeared. She looked oddly more beautiful, but Roseluck was not sure why.

Derpy was the last to arrive, elegantly landing beside Laura. She now wore an odd, yet surprisingly fitting, green dress decorated with tiny muffins. She had a ring of flowers in her hair.

"What is going on here?" Dice demanded.

"I was about to ask the same question." Said Whooves.

Laura examined the strange world. "Wherever we are, we were not put here on our own accord."

"No kidding." Dice mumbled sarcastically.

"I'm terribly sorry if I startled you." Said a wispy and sleepy mare's voice. A silhouette of a large pony appeared.

"You!" Roseluck shouted.

"Yes, I. " The figure replied.

"Wait, Roseluck you know this thing?" Whooves asked.

"She's the thing from my nightmares!" Roseluck cried.

The figure winced on the word 'nightmares'. "Thing? That's no way to address a princess."

"P-Princess?" Dice inquired.

The figure stepped forward, her body was illuminated. She was a tall alicorn with long flowing blue hair and a dark blue body. "Hello, everypony. Did I miss anything?"

"Wait just a second! You're Luna!" Said Dice.

"Princess Luna?" Laura bowed. "It is an honour to meet you."

Dice rolled his eyes. "What are you doing here? Where is 'here' for that matter?"

Luna stretched out her wings and lifted her head up high. "My apologies for bringing you here like this, I'm afraid that due to my... current state, I am unable to visit you personally."

"So you visited us in a dream..." Whooves marvelled.

The Princess nodded. "Indeed."

"So this world is... a dream?" Roseluck asked.

"And I don't really look this good?" Whooves sighed.

"Yes... and no."

"But, how did you get us here? And what's with these clothes?" Roseluck inquired.

"I used what little power I could to cast a sleep spell. Being the Princess of the Night has it's benefits, one being that I am more powerful at darker times, and another being that I can see everything under the moonlight. As for those clothes, well, the strange thing about a dream is that you tend to look better, or in your case, more formal, in them. Then again, in your dreams, you can be anything."

"Alright." Dice said suddenly and angrily. "Why did you bring us here?"

"Just getting to that, I need your help."

"What's new?" Dice mumbled.

Laura glared at him. Luna continued. "I'm afraid that due to a series of events, I am unable to control the sun or the moon, and thus you will remain in the dark until you free me."

"Free you?" Laura asked politely. "From where?"

Luna lowered her head, like she was embarrassed. "It's a, um, long story."

"I'm sure we've got time." Dice hissed.

The Princess considered him. "I know you, Dice. I remember."

"Well that makes two of us, I hope it stays with you until the grave."

"You must understand, what happened before, we never intended for..."

"I've heard that speech hundreds of times, don't lie to me." Dice stepped closer.

Whooves and Roseluck stood watching the two ponies, Derpy was still investigating her own reflection. Gasping at the muffins on her dress.

"Now is not the time, Dice. We have more urgent matters." Said Luna. "The safety of Equestria, and for that matter, the world, is at stake."

"Yeah, we noticed." Dice scowled.

"I have an assignment for all of you. You must retrieve a Cockatrice's head and bring it to Canterlot."

"A Cockatrice? Don't those turn people to stone? Why would need one of those?" Roseluck asked.

"It's probably best if I show you, rather than tell you." The floor bellow the princess shimmered and faded to an image of what appeared to be the top of a royal tower. The image began moving and the tower came closer. "This is a memory of mine, you will see things through my point of view. " The image continued to move, Luna landed on the tower and galloped downstairs.

"Sister? Sister!" She shouted.

She arrived in a large hall where a larger pony with similar characteristics to Luna, but a white body and pinker hair, stood gazing out of a window. It was dark outside and the moon hung in the sky. The other pony, Princess Celestia, turned to her sister. "Luna! What news do you bring?"

"Things are not looking good, the infection is spreading at a catastrophic rate. Soon, all of Equestria will become..." A faint groan could be heard outside of the hall. "What is that?"

The groaning grew louder, and more groans joined it. The sound of hooves simultaneously stomping came from behind a large door. Suddenly, hundreds of pale skinned ponies flooded into the room. Back in the dream world, Roseluck whimpered and hid behind Whooves who put his hoof around her.

The zombies charged at the two Princesses, who retaliated with magic, but the sheer force of the ponies pushed them back, more zombies came from behind them. "Celestia? We're cornered!"

Celestia watched the ponies approach, slowly swarming them. "Seek help my sister. Find survivors. End this." She fired a beam of light from her horn as the zombies grabbed her. Luna looked at her hooves as the slowly turned to stone, and then the image went black.

"I am unsure of what my sister's fate was , but I do know this: the zombies have a taste for flesh, not rock." Luna said finally.

"Wait, your a statue? Bold thing for Celestia to do, maybe she should do it more often, when other ponies need help." Dice laughed.

Luna replied sternly. "My mind remains intact in this dream world. I have little power, but I can effect the outside world in some ways."

"I still do not understand how a Cockatrice comes into this." Laura was equally as serious.

"A Cockatrice can reverse the effects of Stone Paralysis." Luna explained.

"And after we turn you back, what do we get out of it?" Dice asked, still grinning.

"Have you ever noticed how pale a zombie's skin is?" Luna questioned.

"Are you saying there's a reason for this?" Whooves asked.

"Correct, unfortunately, this is not the first time my sister and I have encountered these things, just never in such great numbers."

"And what did you find?" Whooves was now intrigued.

"Their weakness, or rather, the cure. Sunlight."

"So we free you, you lower the moon and these things just return to normal?" Dice was sceptical.

"Just as they were before infection."

"Oh... no." Roseluck whimpered.

"Something wrong, my dear?" Luna tilted her head.

"I... killed one of those things! Does that mean..."

"Sacrifices must be made..." Luna looked down.

"No... no... I'm a murderer." Roseluck began crying.

"You're not murderer, you had no choice." Whooves reassured her. "And you didn't know anyway!"

"I'm sorry, my child." Luna said slowly. "For all I am putting you through, and all I have put you through."

Roseluck continued crying slowly. Dice looked and Laura. "Don't worry." He said. "There's only one murderer here. "

Laura knew he had meant her. "I did not know either!"

"If I can find away to reverse all of this, I will. " Luna promised. "But until I am free, I need you to do whatever it takes."

"Fine." Said Whooves. "I'm in."

"I agree." Laura nodded.

"Yay!" Derpy shouted.

"Whatever, getting a little bored of all this anyway." Dice examined his hoof.

"I will... help." Roseluck muttered. "But I won't hurt any pony else."

"Thank you, all of you." Luna remarked. "You are making a valuable contribution to..."

"Enough with the fake your country's proud of you lies!" Dice yelled. "We'll get it done, and you leave us to it, okay?"

Everyone else was shocked, even Luna. "Fine, if that is how you feel, I will awaken you now. I would begin your search in the Everfree Forest, it is one of the few places were Cockatrices still exist. Be wary, and good luck, I will speak to you again when I can."
The world around the ponies faded and turned dark, Luna turned and walked away.

Roseluck opened her eyes and felt grass against her face. She got up and realised her dress was gone, the others were now back to normal as well. Only Roseluck and Whooves were awake, Dice, Laura and Derpy still laid dormant. Roseluck ran to the Doctor and embraced him. She wrapped her front legs around his neck and kissed him.

"Good to see you too." He laughed.

The others began to stir and Roseluck quickly removed her hooves. Dice got up first, he glanced around, dazed, then shook his head as though nothing had happened. By the time Laura and Derpy had awoken and re-joined the group, Dice was investigating the supplies.
He turned to his comrades. "Well , I guess we've got quite the journey ahead of us." He trotted backwards and forwards. "Which means we'll need to be active, alert and ready for anything. Danger could be lurking anywhere, there's no telling what kind of situations we'll find ourselves in. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Whooves saluted. Roseluck and Laura nodded and Derpy yelled: "Hoorah!"

"I hope we've got enough here to last us." He examined the supplies.

"I hope we last long enough to use all this." Laura muttered.