Dueling Dream
As the dulled eyes of the bored and uninterested crowd stared lazily at her, Trixie found herself starting to sweat. Nervously swallowing in hopes of dampening a dry throat, she glanced over the crowd to see if there was at least somepony who looked entertained. The only signs of movement she saw, however, was a pony in the back stretching as he yawned. All in all, it seemed that she, the Great and Powerful Trixie, was appearing as dull as a rock to this crowd. If there was anything that a showmare found worse than being ignored, it was being considered a bore.
“A-and for her next trick, the Great and Powerful Trixie will…”
“Can we leave now? This shows a total dud,” a stallion’s voice rang out, followed by the murmurs of assent spreading throughout the crowd around him.
“Trixie is not holding you hostage: you are free to leave whenever you want!” Trixie replied, turning away with a little “humph” in attempt to show that she did not need the stallion or his friends’ attention.
“Whatever. Hey, I heard Twilight’s doing a show soon.”
Trixie’s eyes widened but she refused to turn around.
“Really? Awesome!”
Trixie kept her back to the audience, but she found it hard to keep herself standing tall and proud.
“If we leave now I bet we can get front row seats!”
To anypony who was bothering to pay attention to Trixie at this point, they would have spotted the confidently rigid posture of the mare slowly deteriorating into a defeated slouch. Of course, Trixie figured that nopony was looking at her at this point. Even without looking at the crowd, the sounds of their excited chattering and hooves clip-clopping on the ground could tell her that they were all leaving. Taking a deep sigh, Trixie finally just sat down: there was no point in trying to appear impressive anymore.
“Maybe Trixie should just call it quits…”
“Nay good citizens! You should not yet leave for the show has only just begun!”
Everypony stopped in their tracks at the sudden shout echoing throughout the air. Turning around, Trixie’s jaw dropped in confusion and awe as the sky darkened into night and a dark figure appeared, silhouetted against the light of the full moon.
“No, it can’t be. Can it?” Trixie muttered to herself as the figure glided down towards the stage, making it quite clear to all present that Princess Luna had decided to grace the show with her presence
The rest of the crowd had already positioned themselves to bow, but Trixie was already too busy looking dumbfounded to remember to do so. While Trixie had seen the photos when she had first returned to Equestria, and had even glimpsed her from the crowds during Twilight’s coronation, they failed to prepare Trixie for meeting Princess Luna in the flesh. From a distance Luna hadn’t seemed that much bigger than a normal pony, but up close Trixie had to gulp just a little bit; there was something intimidating having to look up at a pony twice about as twice as tall as yourself. And photos definitely failed to capture the regal-ness of the princess’s ethereal mane, which even now sparkled with star-like twinkles as it rippled behind her by what Trixie could only assume was magic.
“Thou art the Great and Powerful Trixie, correct?” Luna said, the sound of her voice knocking Trixie out of her stupor.
“Huh?! Oh, uhm…yes?” Trixie replied, backing up just a little bit as she found herself facing the stern look of the princess, her eyes darting up and down as if she was surveying prey.
“Why art thou so meek? Is this the manner in which the proclaimed ‘most powerful mare in Equestria’ should act?” the princess asked. For a moment Trixie thought she saw a small smile form on Luna’s face, but that only drove Trixie to be confused even further.
“Meek? T-Trixie was simply startled by your sudden appearance,” Trixie replied, planting her hooves more firmly on the ground as she puffed her chest out again, “And what can the Great and Powerful Trixie do for you, your majesty?”
“We have heard your claims of being Great and Powerful and have decided to put thee to the test,” Luna said, causing Trixie’s chest to tighten up.
“T-test?”
“Indeed Trixie: upon hearing of your great deeds, we have decided to personally challenge thee to a magic duel.”
For a moment the entire crowd, and Trixie, stared at Luna with wide-eyed silence before the crowd burst into laughter as Trixie uncomfortably looked away. Luna remained steadfast as the crowd began to beg her to reconsider: to challenge Trixie was a waste of time after all. It wasn’t like she was actually great and powerful after all: she was just a liar and a cheat. After a moment or so Luna finally responded to the crowd’s derision.
"Silence!"
As the Royal Canterlot Voice blasted the crowd, in a quite literal fashion, the laughter was instantly silenced. Trixie, who had turned away in embarrassment at being publicly mocked in front of the princess, instantly turned her attention towards the princess.
“We appreciate your concerns for our time and efforts, but it is we who shall determine who is worthy of dueling us. If you feel this is a waste of time, then you are free to leave. Otherwise, stay and prepare to watch two masters of magic battle.”
Trixie glanced over the crowd, wanting to try and gauge their reaction. The uncomfortable glances they all gave one another made it obvious they wished to argue but had been cowed by the princess’s proclamation. None of them made a move to leave, however, although Trixie figured this was simply because they wished to see her humiliated in what would appear to them to be such a horribly one-sided battle.
Of course, it wasn’t like Trixie was feeling all that confident in her abilities right now either. Sure, she challenged ponies as part of her act, but it was usually small stuff against other, normal ponies. This was a challenge being thrown to her by Princess Luna. She was an alicorn, mistress of the night, raiser of the moon and walker of dreams. Even at the best of times, Trixie had to admit her ego couldn’t be strong enough to think this a fair fight.
All of a sudden, there was a chill in the air as the world turned into a gray monotone, as if time itself had frozen. The only exception to this was herself and Princess Luna, who now gazed at her with a firm but warm smile. Trixie, of course, could only glance around in confusion.
“Since when could you stop time…?”
Luna let out a small laugh as she gave a wry little smile.
“Tis an easy enough task, when one is in a dream of course.”
Trixie blinked, tilting her head a little.
“This…this is all a dream?”
Luna gave a nod.
“Yes, all that has occurred here has been a dream. Did you not notice how suddenly the sky turned from day to the middle of the night?”
“…no, Trixie didn’t actually. It just kind of seemed normal.”
“Indeed, that is the power of a dream: it makes even the most abnormal and illogical of things appear perfectly normal to believe.”
Trixie turned to look at the motionless audience: all the mocking, all the jeering was just a bad dream. Yet why would she dream of such things in the first place? More importantly, why was Luna bothering to show up in her dream? Before Trixie could ask, she felt the princess’s hoof gently lying on her shoulder. Facing her, Trixie found herself looking straight into the princess’s eyes, which stared at her gently as the princess’s smile turned into a look of concern.
“I sense that you are confused as to my presence here. Is that a safe assumption for me to make?”
Trixie simply nodded, eliciting a gentle smile from the princess.
“As you may be aware, I make a habit of entering the dreams of my subjects to assist them in chasing away that which terrorizes them.”
“Yeah…but Trixie thought that was just something you did for foals?”
Luna playfully laughed.
“I do believe it is not just foals who find themselves plagued with nightmares Trixie.”
“Fair enough point,” Trixie replied, “But why are you in Trixie’s dream? Isn’t there somepony else more important you could be visiting?”
Trixie noticed Luna’s eyes widened just a bit for a second before regaining their composure, although Trixie could still feel tenseness in the foreleg that still rested on her shoulder.
“Trixie, during my travels last night I happened upon your dream, the one with Twilight Sparkle in it.”
Trixie turned away from the sympathetic look of the princess, embarrassed that she had seen such an obviously jealousy infused nightmare.
“I wanted to let you know that you are not the first to be haunted by such feelings towards another. I too have struggled with envy towards one who I thought stole the adoration of others.”
“Trixie is not jealous of Twilight!” Trixie said, shrugging her shoulder to escape from the admittedly comforting hold of the princess.
Of course, she was lying, and she knew that Luna knew she was lying. That last dream alone would have been enough to tell that. But despite the obviousness of her lie, Trixie felt like she had to tell it. Despite the oddity of the thought, she felt if she said it often enough it would be true and she could just get on with her life as a “reformed” pony.
“…very well then. In any case, my goal for this meeting was not to delve into that matter, but to instead make your audience a little more…agreeable.”
Trixie turned around with a raised eyebrow.
“And just how are you going to do that?”
Luna gave her a conspiratorial smile.
“As I have said, I wish to challenge you to a duel.”
Trixie gave the princess a flat look, wondering just what did she think that was going to accomplish.
“And you expect Trixie to be able to duel on par with an alicorn princess? Despite Trixie’s great and powerful abilities, she wouldn’t dream of being able to…match…”
Trixie stopped, realizing just what she was about to say, as Luna continued to watch her with a sly little grin.
“This is a dream…Trixie’s dream…which means Trixie can do whatever she wants…”
Trixie found herself joining Luna in grinning. Sure, in the real world Trixie wouldn’t stand a chance, but in the world of dreams, bounded only by her creativity, she could keep up with the princess without a problem.
“I see you’ve realized the nature of this competition. This is not a test of your magical skills per se, but of your creativity.”
“Wait…this is still a test?” Trixie replied, her smile faltering just a bit as she watched Luna move back to the position she was in before “time froze”, the sly grin still on her face as she waved her hoof. As she did so, the color and noise soon returned to the world.
“Let us begin this battle, oh Great and Powerful Trixie!” Luna said, the sly smile now replaced with a competitive but playful scowl.
It took Trixie a second to catch on to what had just happened as the crowd began to murmur, but now that things were in motion it was time for Trixie to do what Trixie did best: show-off.
“It is only fair that the challenger get the first move After all, you’ll need all the help you can get if you wish to win against the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Trixie said, punctuating the boast by rearing backwards and, with some slight assistance from some wind magic, letting her cape flutter behind her in a dramatic fashion.
“Very well Great and Powerful Trixie, but thy boasting comes too early. Have thou already forgotten that we are the Mistress of the Night, commander of the stars above?”
With just quick turning of the head, Luna’s ethereal mane whipped outward. The star-like twinkles that had laid in her hair flew out over the crowd, glowing brighter and brighter until the sheer power of the white light was almost blinding. Everypony stared in awe as they took a sharp turn and flew upwards, leaving behind them a glittering cloud of stardust that settled onto the crowd.
Trixie was, of course, as awed as the crowd, but quickly regained her senses before they noticed. Turning her head to the side, she put on a look of boredom and dismissively waved a hoof.
“Pffft, big deal: so you can make some shiny lights and make ponies a little dusty. Watch as the Great and Powerful Trixie shows you what a real light show is like.”
Grinning, Trixie braced herself as several bolts of magical energy shot forth from her horn, piercing Luna’s stars. The balls of piercing white light exploded, bathing the audience in a barrage of every color of the rainbow. For once the crowd had nothing to say about Trixie, only staring silently with gaping mouths as the lights faded away. A smarmy grin placed itself on Trixie’s face as she glanced over at the princess, who was simply watching with a barely noticeable smile.
“Impressive oh Great and Powerful Trixie; few are able to take control of the spells of an alicorn such as we,” Luna said, turning around to face Trixie again.
“It seems that we may, as you ponies may say, ‘step up our game.’”
Trixie watched as Luna calmly closed her eyes, the tip of her horn glowing a soft blue. Soon a faded image began to form at both sides of Luna, and as the seconds passed more and more images formed until they surrounded Trixie. They soon solidified into exact clones of the Princess, all with a sly smile on her face as they took a step towards Trixie.
“Now then, Great and Powerful Trixie, we have heard thou art a master of illusion,” the clones said in unison, an effect that was quite unsettling Trixie as she spun around to look at them all.
“We challenge thee to figure out which of us is the true Princess Luna. When thou have made your choice, strike at us with any spells thy wish to use.”
“Hah, easy peasy,” Trixie said, her smarmy smile quivering a little bit.
From the looks of things, the clones were perfect. Normally duplication spells had some kind of small flaw on them. After all, most ponies weren’t completely aware of how they looked like. A buckle might be off on a garment, or maybe they forgot to fake a shadow. To no surprise of Trixie, however, the duplicates of the Princess were flawless. Unless Luna cheated and just took advantage of the dream world to just make more of herself. That was a rather silly thought, however, as Trixie couldn’t even imagine that an alicorn would need to stoop to such things.
Tapping her hoof to her chin, Trixie figured the only way out of this was to do something clever. Luna didn’t exactly say how she was supposed to figure out which one was real, and if she was supposed to strike at her with magic…
“Behold as the Great and Powerful Trixie deals with these imposters.”
Trixie closed her eyes, concentrating on the air around her. She had some knowledge of elemental control in the real world. After all, she did have the power to make clouds and lightning. All she had to do was draw out the water from the air around her, and the dew on the ground, and whatever sources of water were nearby. Here in the world of dreams, however, she simply imagined that at the tip of her horn a giant ball of water would appear. As a drip of water struck her nose, Trixie opened her eyes to find a ball the size of her wagon had appeared above her. The Princess clones looked at the ball and then back to her, stepping back just a touch as Trixie grinned.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie hopes you all enjoy bath time.”
Summoning up an umbrella-like shield over herself, Trixie simply let go of the water and let gravity do the rest. Upon being smacked with the force of the water, the clones instantly disappeared, leaving only a drenched Princess Luna…and a drenched audience as well. With a pop Trixie’s umbrella disappeared, leaving her the sole dry pony in the dream.
“Thou chose a pragmatic if quite blunt response to our challenge Trixie,” Luna said, shaking in an attempt to dry herself off.
Her mane was no longer ethereal, and instead clung around her head like any other ponies. It was quite a lovely shade of dark blue really, but considering it had completely covered Luna’s head Trixie’s response was more to snicker than admire any kind of beauty in it. Even the audience started to snicker just a bit, although the fact that the target of such mockery was the Princess meant everypony tried their best to stay quiet.
“Well, you never said that Trixie had to decide which was the real you before striking. Just doing both at the same time was rather efficient, don’t you think?” Trixie said, giving a grin as she glanced over at Luna, whose mane had now finally begun to return to its former ethereal state.
“Tis a true enough statement, Great and Powerful Trixie,” the Princess said, “But we had hoped for something more…clever than simply dumping water on everypony. Still, you have successfully determined that we are the real Luna, and therefore we believe you to have won this round”
“Hmph, you’re just mad because you got all wet,” Trixie said, the comeback popping out before she could even think of what it was that she just said.
That, of course, was definitely not something one was supposed to say to a princess. Trixie cringed and turned away, only turning back just enough to glance and see what Luna would respond with. Instead, she simply looked at her, her mouth annoyingly neutral enough that Trixie couldn’t figure out if she was mad or not, then turned to the audience. As her horn glowed, both herself and the crowd found themselves enveloped in the soft, bluish glow of Luna’s magic. Within seconds the water evaporated off of them, leaving everypony with dry, if kind of poofy, coats once again.
Dry one more, Luna turned to face Trixie, who was half expecting the princess to berate her for such a rude statement. Instead, Luna simply smiled.
“Indeed, perhaps we were simply being, as the saying goes, ‘a sore loser’,” Luna said, bringing a great sense of relief to Trixie.
“Still, such brute force will not be of assistance in dealing with my last and final challenge,” Luna said, her horn glowing again as a soft and gentle melody floated through the air.
“Hah, the Great and Powerful Trixie is ready for…”
The stage began to shake as the deep thumps of something tremendous approaching rang out into the night air. After a second or two bits of blue could be seen coming out of the woods that Trixie did not exactly remember being there a moment ago. What she did remember, however, is where she had seen that blue, and her heart skipped a beat as she began to tremble, her eyes widened in fear.
“L-Luna, can we please stop the challenge now…” Trixie whimpered, but it was drowned out by the mighty roar of an Ursa Minor as it entered the scene.
“Trixie, for thy final challenge, we wish for you to…Trixie?” Luna said, but Trixie didn’t even hear it as she backed away from the approaching monster, her eyes shut as tight as she could.
“I-it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s..just…a…that’s it!”
Trixie awoke in a panic, quickly jumping up and checking around to make sure that…thing was, in fact, just a dream. Her ears swiveled, trying to pick up any sounds of a roar or rumbling footsteps. All they caught, however, was the silence of the night, minus the occasional crickets chirping. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Trixie collapsed back onto bed.
“Well, that went horribly,” she said, burying her face into her pillow.
Not only had she mouthed off to the princess, but she chickened out and probably just kicked her out of the dream again. Whatever it was that Luna had wanted to test her for, Trixie was sure she probably just failed big time. She would probably never show up in her dreams anymore after that performance. Yep, she’d probably just write Trixie off as a hopeless situation and move on to some other…
Trixie found her thoughts interrupted by the sound of a fire blazing up for a second before what sounded like paper dropping to the ground. Getting up, Trixie spotted a rolled up piece of parchment on the floor. Levitating it over, she noticed that the seal was a royal blue color with Luna’s cutie mark on it. Quickly undoing the seal, she opened up the letter and began to read:
Dear Trixie,
I would like to apologize for making you face an Ursa Minor. It was my hope that facing down the beast that had started your troubles in the safety of the dream world would help you in overcoming the troubles that plague you in the real world. I had not anticipated that you would react with such strong aversion, but do know that your reaction was understandable considering your history with such beasts. To show the sincerity of my apology, I invite you to a personal dinner at Canterlot Castle at your convenience. There is a matter that I wish to discuss with you, and I would be most grateful if you will overlook my mistake and come.
Sincerely,
Princess Luna
“Wait…she’s inviting me to dinner?” Trixie said, blinking a bit in confusion before re-reading the letter.
She half expected there to be a catch, but she spotted none. The situation really was that Luna was sorry and wished to apologize in-pony over dinner. No sign of insincerity, no sign of this being a joke: just a true blue invitation for a dinner with the Princess. Trixie couldn’t help but grin just a little bit. If this is what she got because Luna scared her with an Ursa, well, she figured it was worth it.
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An update? Nice.
A lovely little update. Keep it coming! ^^
Hmm this story starts to become interesting.
Well, for Trixie, it's a start. Though I have to wonder if Luna got Trixie out of there, or if Trixie did it herself. If the latter, Luna will most definitely want to know more about this mare.
5393795 Trixie did it herself by waking up: it's not a particularly fancy thing to do so that by itself wouldn't be what catches Luna's eye.
5393843 I just remembered this from chapter one:
And this part of a conversation between Luna and Celestia in chapter two:
So, it was easy for me to think that this was just Trixie leaving the dream world before Luna was done again. That would definitely pique Luna's curiosity, wouldn't it?
Hmm-hmm, yes, yes. Still developing well, very good.
Very inspired idea to use the dream realm to have a friendly show-off. I've always believed that Trixie's imagination is her greatest asset (in stories where she's the protagonist, she routinely wins by outwitting her foes rather than overpower them), so it was a nice way to let her cut loose on a level playing field, as it were. My only disappointment is that she only showed two tricks. Perhaps you can revisit the concept in later chapters, to show her increasing confidence or such.
5393898 Yeah, it piques curiosity because Luna isn't used to getting kicked out by the pony waking up. So it's not like Trixie is pushing her out, it's just she wakes up so there's no dream world left to be in.
5393908 Yeah, originally I had planned on three of them, but as I was writing I didn't like some of original ideas so made up new challenges and then got stuck not being able to think of a really good third one to finish things off. So I went with Luna bringing in an Ursa in hopes of maybe helping Trixie out but instead scaring her (more from trauma than a confidence issue to be honest). Figured it'd help with Luna's characterization a bit more by showing even she can make mistakes, but that'll get explored more next chapter hopefully.
Liking this a lot so far. Fics featuring Trixie and Luna always intrigue me because they could play off each other so well in so many different ways. You stray very true to their characters, and it was a great idea to have them duel in this chapter. Eagerly looking forward to more.
Quite liked the choice of spells here. I really like Luna's characterization here. Professional but not intimidatingly formal. A very pleasant person; powerful but not without her own character flaws. I look forward to seeing how this develops. Good work so far, though ^^
Uh oh, Twilight! Better watch out looks like Luna's moving in on your mare