Perception
Evening did not so much as slow her pace by a single hoofstep as she ran for home, feeling as if a great fire had been lit underneath her hooves, spurring her onwards. Her wings fluttered at her sides, flapping just enough to hurry her along but not lift her off the ground—her first instinct had never been to take the sky when startled, though if she were to be totally honest, her first instinct hadn’t usually been to flee at all. But she wasn’t fleeing now, even if it might have seemed like it.
Instead, Evening Sparkle’s mind was racing as she considered which, if any, of her small collection of books might have any information on what she had just witnessed. Something was clearly not right in Ponyville, and she would not simply sit around while it worsened. There was research that could be done, and by the stars she would do it—anything to help explain what was going on. Suddenly the odd dream she’d had seemed less like some imagined bit of silliness and instead some smaller piece of a puzzle she was nowhere close to understanding the size of.
As she rounded the corner towards the wagon, Evening caught sight of her roommate standing directly in her path, not appearing to yet notice her. At the speed she was going—aided by her wings—slowing down would be difficult, if not impossible, at such a small distance, but Evening had had quite enough of colliding with other ponies, and so veered quickly to barrel off towards Trixie’s left side. It was at this unfortunate moment that Trixie spotted her and also took action to avoid collision; to her dismay, said action was to jump to the very same side that she had corrected towards.
There was no time to further dwell on the situation, because the next thing Evening knew, she had run headlong into the unicorn, sending both of them to the ground. As she fell, Evening noticed Trixie’s own saddlebag had come loose in the tumble, and was dropping closer to her than it was to Trixie.
It would have been quite possible—perhaps even easy—for her to have reached out with one hoof and grabbed it as she fell, preventing at least some of any potential damage, but instead of being logical, Evening’s instinctive reaction was anything but. Inexplicably, she tried to reach out for the bag not with her hooves, but with magic she did not have.
The split second passed, and both Evening and the bag hit the ground separately, because of course she couldn’t levitate anything—she was a pegasus. Why had that been her instinct?
This time, Evening Sparkle did not pick herself up off the ground even as Trixie did, instead simply laying there in the same heap she had landed in, raising her front hooves to cover her eyes. The universe hates me. She could hear the sound of Trixie picking up her fallen saddlebag; judging by the lack of complaint about it, it was unharmed.
“Next time, a little warning would be nice,” Trixie snorted. “You don’t have to look so emotionally traumatized, though. Everypony takes a spill every now and then.” Her voice lowered conspiratorially. “Even Trixie. It’s not a big deal.” When Evening said nothing in reply and didn’t move from her spot on the ground, one of Trixie’s hooves prodded her side a bit too firmly to be comfortable. “Hello? Equestria to Evening Star? Anypony in there?”
Evening groaned wordlessly in response, letting out a heavy exhale that shifted her bangs a bit.
“Oookay,” Trixie said. “I was about to go meet up with Starlight for our spa session, but it seems like you need a stress reliever a lot more than I do. Wanna come with?”
Instead of answering the question directly, Evening rolled onto her side (finally moving her hooves from her face) and blinked up at her roommate, raising an eyebrow. “You might have some difficulty making that appointment,” she said. “There’s another monster attack happening right now.”
“Wait, seriously?” Trixie leaned forward, peering down at Evening with narrowed eyes. “Maybe I was too harsh on you yesterday for worrying about it. That is pretty ridiculous.” She rolled her eyes, straightening back up and prodding her once more. “Now are you gonna get up or what? We can just go in like ten minutes. I’m sure the princess will have dealt with it by then. Hey, did you get any cinnamon nuts? Or maybe some pretzels?”
Evening huffed and finally stood up, reaching back to nose through her saddle bag for the cinnamon nuts she’d bought for her friend. “Here you go,” she said as she held them out to her, although the fact that she was holding them in her mouth made the words sound a little more like gibberish than anything else.
Trixie’s eyes lit up. “You know me so well!” she exclaimed, snatching the bag with her magic and wasting no time in opening it and digging in. Evening pushed past her as she ate, entering the wagon and flying up to examine the spines of the books on her bookshelf. While some of them were mystery or adventure novels, she did have her fair share of nonfiction titles as well—the question was whether or not any of them might have helpful information. Though she was a pegasus, magical theory had always interested her enough that she’d done quite a lot of studying of the topic, and not just for her own writing. She was becoming increasingly certain, as more evidence accumulated, that whatever was wrong with Ponyville, it was definitely something magical. Now if only she knew where to begin looking…
Aha! Her copy of the all-purpose magic encyclopedia Magical Compendium, an extremely thick book which took up no less than a sixth of the entirety of the shelf, would surely have something in it that could help. Grabbing it with both hooves (as it was a huge enough title that trying to do otherwise would have likely resulted in catastrophe), she left the wagon once more, struggling a little bit to fly straight while lugging around something so heavy.
Trixie squinted at her as she set the book on the grass outside with a rather loud thump, exhaling heavily and trying not to pant from the exertion of just carrying it that far. “Planning to do some light reading at the spa?” Trixie asked teasingly between bites. Evening only nodded, not sure if she trusted her voice at that moment.
She was hungry enough to break one of the cardinal rules when it came to reading, and so Evening Sparkle paused to grab her own bag of cinnamon nuts before she flipped the book open to its index, though of course she was very careful not to get anything on its pages. She considered for only a moment which section she should start out looking in before coming to a decision—something like that could only be under the illusion school of magic, surely. Frowning, she tracked one hoof down the page to find where “illusion” would be, but froze when she saw that the numbers to the right of the word were completely illegible. As she watched, they shifted constantly, changing even as she looked on, and her breath caught in her throat.
No. Whatever spell had been cast on her book, she was not going to let it stop her from getting to the bottom of this. She didn’t need the index, anyway. Narrowing her eyes, she flipped the pages further with her nose, then leaned back to stare—and stare she did. The text within the book itself was much the same as the numbers had been, constantly shifting and changing at a rate too fast for her to read anything at all. A heavy weight settled in Evening’s chest as she flipped through the rest of the book, but every page was the same. With a cry, she slammed it shut and jumped to her hooves, wings flaring out behind her.
“Uh,” came Trixie’s voice, and Evening jumped a little as she whipped her head around to stare at her. “What’s got you so worked up? Writer’s block?”
Evening Sparkle opened her mouth, then shut it again. She repeated this a couple more times, struggling to find the words, and wondering if she should say anything at all, until finally she pushed the book over to where Trixie sat, flipping it open to a page at random.
Trixie blinked down at it for a moment before she lifted her head again. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”
Evening rocked backwards as if she’d been struck. “The—the page!” she sputtered, pointing wildly with one hoof and trying to stop her body from trembling as it did.
“Evening,” Trixie said slowly, staring at her. She spoke like she was talking to a foal. “It’s blank. Are you okay?”
“What?!” She rushed to look down at the book, but the words on the page still shifted. “I… This book is blank for you? What about the cover?” Her mind raced as she fought to keep calm—to figure out just what was happening here. Trixie stared at her a moment longer, seeming skeptical, but finally she flipped the book closed with her magic and glanced down at it.
“It’s blank too. This is one of your journals or something, isn’t it? For you to write your stories in?” Even as she spoke the words, she didn’t sound certain of them. “I’m not gonna lie. You’re kinda scaring me.”
Abruptly, Evening fell back onto her haunches, one hoof raising of its own accord to rest against her trembling muzzle. “I’m… I…” Her muscles felt tense, her wings still splayed out behind her as if her body was telling her to run. Closing her eyes tightly, she let out a shaky breath and forced herself to focus. If she was going to explain, and if she wanted Trixie to believe her, looking like a panicked foal wouldn’t help matters at all. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she opened her eyes again and lowered both front hooves to rest on the ground.
“I haven’t been dreaming lately,” she said, an eerie calm settling over her words. Starting at the beginning was likely the best way to go about things, she figured. “Instead, I’m in an empty void. I’ve tried not to let it bother me—frankly, I’ve just assumed that it’ll pass in time, and that worrying about it would be pointless. But lately—”
Trixie lifted one hoof in a gesture for silence, and Evening faltered, blinking at her. “Wait,” Trixie said. “Like… like you’re surrounded by darkness, right? I’ve seen it too.” Her voice was the most serious Evening Sparkle had ever heard it. “That’s… okay, I’ll admit, that’s really creepy. Especially that we’re both dreaming it.” She took a deep breath. “But what does that have to do with your book?”
“The book’s not supposed to be blank,” Evening replied. “I can see the cover and the index—but the inside is … beyond odd. It’s changing, like there’s some sort of spell cast on it.” She paused. “Can you check again? Does it still look blank for you?” Perhaps bringing the weirdness of everything to Trixie’s attention would change the book for her—or apparently not, it seemed, because she nodded as she flipped it open.
“Yep,” she affirmed. “Totally empty.”
“Alright,” Evening sighed, slowly getting to her hooves. She was relieved that Trixie seemed to be taking this well enough. “I think—I think Ponyville has had some sort of strong illusion or memory charm placed on it. I’d need to gather more evidence before I could say for certain, but that’s my prevailing theory.”
“Well, horseapples,” Trixie said. “That doesn’t sound good. Uh, actually, that kind of sounds like hero stuff, not stuff we should be dealing with. Shouldn’t we tell the princess?” She glanced around, ears flattening against the top of her head, and swallowed visibly.
“Maybe,” replied Evening Sparkle. She looked away, angling her head towards the ground and shuffling her hooves a bit. “But how can we know who to trust?” The heaviness in her chest had moved to her stomach now.
“What? She’s the princess! If we can’t trust her, we’re pretty much doomed!” Trixie exclaimed. Evening heard the sound of her taking a couple of steps back, and lifted her gaze from the grass below to rest it on the other mare instead. Trixie’s jaw was slack, and she shook her head in disbelief even as Evening looked on.
“I’m just not sure yet, that’s all. Isn’t it better to be careful?”
There was a brief but heavy silence. Then— “Fine,” Trixie said, sighing heavily. “But we are telling Starlight. You can agree to that, can’t you?”
“I suppose so,” she replied. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure about telling Starlight either, but if it was what it took to get Trixie on the same page as her, she would do what she had to. Giving her coat a shake as if clearing dirt from it (when, in fact, it was her own trepidation she sought to shake off), Evening turned to the road, depositing her unfinished cinnamon nuts back in her saddlebag. “Shall we go?”
“Sounds good to me,” Trixie told her, but the cheeriness of her tone sounded forced. “To the spa!” Then, with an overly dramatic flip of her mane, the unicorn took off at a quick trot, head held high and tail swishing behind her. Rolling her eyes, Evening Sparkle hefted up the heavy tome in her hooves and hurried to follow her (or a certain degree of hurried, considering the weight of the book she held), not wanting to fall behind.
Whoever or whatever had cast the magic had surely misjudged her if it thought she would give up just because she’d hit a wall. She would get to the bottom of this, no matter what obstacles stood in her way.
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The plot thickens. I doubt that Evening and Trixie are going to prevent Starlight from sharing with the princess.
lackluster? I don't think so. This story gets more and more interesting. Keep up the good work. I'm sure I have found myself a gem in the making here.
Reaaally getting those Batman vibes now.
8515593
that face is the face twilight will make when she discovers shes the true princess of friendship
nice chapter looking forward to more
8515722
Yeah, I'm sure she has a hell of a surprise waiting for her. I'm worried for whatever was able to alter her memories or her destiny and that of the other ponies around her though.
8516480
i know it wont be all rainbows and sunshine but at least it wil be entertaing to say the least
Don't you mean memento?
8516653
nope! "Mimetos" comes from, of all things, the Greek language. (specifically, it's a form of conjugation found in ancient Greek!) it's the root word for the English word "mimesis." basically it means "imitator" or "follower."
This story is definitely an intense mystery so far. I get the feeling that whatever took Twilight's place, it's feeding on the admiration of the town and setting up the monster attack and subsequent ceremonies to get more of that. I guess Maud is filling in for her sister because Pinkie has to run off for those all the time. She seems to have a light immunity to the spell, maybe from being a Pie?
8515694
Not the only one
IM SHOOKETH
I bet Maud is unaffected by the spell, knows there’s a pretender on the throne, and just doesn’t care, as it’s not directly dangerous to Pinkie, and there are others who can handle it.
Curious... at least things are getting moving.
I know you supppsedly can't read in a dream, but I wonder why that would manifest differently for Trixie, if that's the real her, or happen at all if she's just a figment.
Well, I need more. I love uncanny horror AUs like this.
Love the way you've got Trixie nailed down.
Can't wait to find out what's going in in Ponyville / Equestria / Evening Sparkle's mind!
Great writing!
I bet there is a jealous pegasus who took Twilight place and somehow swapped species with Twilight and altered Ponyville’s memories
Now this is an interesting story hope you come back to it someday