Trixie's Burden

by kildeez

A Strange Meeting

“Good morning, my little pony.”

Trixie opened her eyes to, by far, the most curious thing she had ever seen, and considering the things she’d seen in just the past couple days, that was really saying something. A strange being with almost completely hairless, pale skin and dressed in what might have been a leather jacket and blue pants sat upon the foot of her bed. At least, she thought it was sitting. Really, that was the only description she had for what it was doing. Sure, it had buttocks like a normal pony, and it was sitting on them, but its hind legs were totally off. They bent the wrong way, for one thing, and for another, its front legs were completely indescribable. They bent properly, sure, but they ended in these soft growths that looked totally unsuited for proper walking, each sprouting several long, skinny growths that looked like tendrils. Perhaps most strange of all was the face: the hair was alright, but the face was the same pale color as the rest of the skin, and the nose was mashed in on top of the mouth. Why, it would be fair to say that it didn’t have a snout at all! So what was this thing?

“Sorry if my appearance frightens you.” The creature spoke.

“I-I’ve been through a lot lately. I’m not sure very much could frighten me right now.”

“Yes, I know.” The creature grinned, reaching into its jacket to pull a pack of..things out. He pulled a white stick from the pack using the tendrils on his forelegs and offered it to her. “Smoke?”

“N-no, thank you.”

“Good. Stuff’ll kill ya.” He promptly stuck one end of the stick in his mouth and lit it with a flick of one of the skinny foreleg growths. Which was odd, she didn’t see a horn anywhere, how had it conjured fire without any magic? Unless, of course, it had a horn hidden somewhere…

The creature inhaled on the stick and exhaled some foul-smelling smoke. It seemed to take notice as she wrinkled her nose at the stench. “Sorry ‘bout that, but I’m channeling the minds of a few million chain smokers right now. I can’t really help myself.”

“Okay…ummm…”

“Swarm. You can call me Swarm.”

“Okay Swarm, just…what are you?”

“Nothing you’ve ever seen before, or probably ever will again.” He replied, “Look, to put it plainly, do you believe in other worlds?”

“Like…planets?”

“Well, yes and no, I mean other universes. Universes where things didn’t play out the way they did here. Places like this, but where other species took over as the prime sentient beings, or where certain points of history turned the other way. Things like that.”

“I…” she curled up in bed, feeling very suddenly like a little filly all over again, “…I don’t suppose I ever gave it much thought.”

“Eh, don’t worry yourself. That’s pretty common in universes where the sci-fi genre didn’t take off.”

“Mr. Swarm-“

“Just Swarm, please.”

“Are-are you saying you’re from one of these worlds?”

The creature just smiled. It was a surprisingly warm smile, for such an odd-looking face. “That’s not the question you really want answered though, is it?”

“What do you…” the past couple days came back to her in a flood, a tidal wave of violence and horror. She nearly fell out of bed, slamming herself down against the mattress and crying out in pain. “Oh Celestia-Oh Luna…”

“I’m sorry,” Swarm laid an oddly warm hand on her shoulder as she cried into the pillow. “I was repressing the emotion associated with that memory. I didn’t want the shock to hit you all at once.”

“How could I? How could I have done something so…so…” she stumbled for the word: there simply wasn’t one to describe something as horrible as what laid in her memory.

“Shh, it’s alright.” His voice took on an oddly soothing tone (she had decided it had to be a “he” by now). “It was all just a dream, dear, all in your head.”

“What?” She looked up at him hopefully. “Really?”

“Well, in a way…“he paused, rubbing the back of his head and taking another drag off the foul-smelling stick between his lips. “You know those ‘other’ worlds I was just talking about? Like the one I come from?”

She nodded slowly.

“Well sometimes, if something’s strong enough: a memory or an emotion or an event that affects enough people, that something can cross the boundaries between worlds. Now, this thing has to be pretty strong, mind you.”

“You can do it, though, right?”

“Yep,” he beamed proudly, “But these things do happen, and more often than you’d think. Usually, a thought or a memory is all that manages the jump, and even that is so weakened by the time it makes it over that only very attuned, very talented people can pick up on it. You follow?”

She nodded again, curious.

“That’s actually where a lot of very good fiction comes from.” He shrugged. “And it’s just as simple as that. Now, the writer winds up putting their own spin on it, of course, so what they come up with could be very different from the original event itself, since the writer has their own perceptions and viewpoints acting as a filter.”

“Are you saying things that happen here in Equestria could wind up as stories in other worlds? In your world?”

“I knew you were a sharp one,” he grinned again. “But like I said, the story that comes out depends entirely on the author’s perceptions. Something that happens here can wind up inspiring a totally different story someplace else.”

“Okay,” Trixie’s head spun. “What does that have to do with what I just saw, though?”

Swarm’s smile faded slowly as he considered his next words. For that short time, Trixie could see an unspeakable age in his eyes, as though he had countless years and an infinite number of experiences to draw upon. Yet his face looked so young. How could something that looked so young have such a look on his face? After a few minutes’ consideration, he continued: “Sometimes, stories can make the jump too, if the emotion behind them is strong enough. If that happens, they usually jump back to the universe that first spawned them.”

“You’re saying…” Trixie swallowed. “You’re saying somebody saw something wonderful here in Equestria, and they were inspired to create that!?”

“The barrier between worlds was weakened earlier tonight,” Swarm explained, “Some things got through. It’s why tonight, the Element of Laughter is going to rush to the side of the Element of Loyalty and ask to spend the night, and why the Element of Loyalty will be so accepting to her, what with the dreams they’ve both had. In fact, after channeling ‘Rainbow Factory,’ Miss Dash will probably be spending a lot more time with her friends over the next few days, especially that little orange one who seems so obsessed with her…”

“THAT’S HORRIBLE!” Trixie screamed suddenly, interrupting his thoughts. “How could somebody create something so horrible from something so pure!?”

“You have to remember that in the end, a story can be a window into the author’s very essence. It depends entirely upon them.”

“Well, if ponies or whatever you call yourselves are going to pervert everything you touch, then maybe you shouldn’t get those memories at all! Maybe we should just put a magical seal over everything so that nothing gets out, ever!”

“Trixie,” he laid a hand on her shoulder again. “You have to understand that not everybody is like that. Sure, some might warp and twist things around for a few laughs, and some might take that a bit far…”

“A bit…” she started to shriek. He raised his hand to interrupt her.

“What you have to understand is that many others use those same memories and images to create beautiful works of art! Things that will stand forever, be gazed upon for generations, or just bring happiness to a group of people for a short period of time! And believe me when I say that makes it worth it. So in the end, you just have to take the bad with the good, and hope for the best whenever something goes shooting over the borders. Alright?”

She considered this for a few minutes before nodding cautiously.

“Good,” he stood up off the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“I have many things to tend to, little one. Beings like me are always busy,” Swarm replied, flicking the white stick out the window. “Before I go, however, a word to the wise: you might wanna open this place up a little bit. And try being a bit more friendly with the locals. You never know how far a warm smile or a random act of kindness can take you.”

“Wait!” She raised a hoof, “Before you go, tell me…”

“Yes?”

“…what do I do with this…memory? I can’t get rid of it or anything, right?” She shivered beneath the covers. “Is it always going to be there? Haunting my dreams? Tainting my thoughts?”

He paused in the doorway. “Miss Trixie-“

“Just Trixie is fine.”

“Right,” he smiled privately. “The long and short of it is: yes, you will have to carry this memory with you. Sometimes, terrible things just happen to people, and those memories become their burden to bear.”

She sighed, eyes downcast.

“But,” he continued, and she raised her head, “How you deal with that memory is totally up to you. You can let it consume you; obsess over it, allow yourself to become everything you hate about it. Or you can move on, press forward, live the life you want, and one day you might just find that it doesn’t hurt quite as much as it once did. The pain will probably never go away entirely because time doesn’t heal all wounds (contrary to popular belief), but with a little help from some other ponies or from something you find for yourself, you might find that it’ll scar over. And you know what?”

She looked into his ancient eyes as he uttered something she would carry with her until the day she died: “I always thought scars were beautiful. They tell the world that something so unbelievably powerful happened to you that it left its mark, and yet you survived.”

Then he closed the door and walked down the staircase, leaving the little unicorn to take the first steps on the long road to healing.

Comments

[vullture]

Really interesting concept. I like the shoutouts to Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory.