Chapter 6: Dreams of the Dreamless

Suggested reading music: Suggested reading music chapter 6

Warning: Chapter contains mild language and gore.

Chapter 6: Dreams of the Dreamless

The Everfree Forest was home to many different creatures, but the one thing they all had in common what that no sentient life lived within its boundaries. The forest would be the ideal place to set a Coup d'état, except that the surroundings and inhabitants of the forest were more trouble than the added secrecy.

With this in mind Luna found the unicorn, hidden deep in the forestry, hidden away from the night sky in the shadows. Trixie was laying down in the center of a massive hollowed out tree which had fallen eons ago. It’s massive hollow shell covered in moss stood as testament to the age of this forsaken forest.

Luna’s cloud of consciousness approached the unicorn cautiously, not wanting to alert the mare who fidgeting violently inside.

“No!” the unicorn called out, a hint of terror in her shallow voice.

Luna, suspecting she has been seen, hid out of sight. She hovered for a few minutes waiting for Trixie to move, but nothing happened.

“Come on!” the trembling unicorn’s voice echoed out in the still forest. “Officer, let me through, I work here!” Trixie mumbled weakly.

Luna came to the realization that Trixie was asleep, or rather she was somewhat awake in her sleep. Prompted by the nightmare which was being revealed to her, she quietly shifted to enter the massive hollow log. She found the mare covered in sweat, her mane was strewn about her back inharmoniously and her tail fraid in multiple directions curling back toward the swealterd pony.

Luna couldn’t help but feel a morsel of pity for the unicorn. She was, after all one of her subjects, and depending on her talk she would probably let the ursa minor incident slide.

Uncomfortable about the scent of the unicorn magic and the increasing discomfort in her ethereal form, she entered the unicorn’s mind. Memories of Trixie’s life flew by her as she entered, many depicting great and terrible events which pervaded her memory. Preparing for the worst, she boosted her magical output as she entered Trixie’s innermost consciousness.

~~~

“No! I didn’t do anything” She yelled defensively, the tormented voice echoed into the black abyss. Trixie was surrounded by her peers, she hadn’t had this particular nightmare for months. They stared at the mare, a mix of hatred and shock etched across their faces. After a few minutes, one of the ponies in attendance come forward. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t need to Trixie fell to the solid black floor below, her hooves trying to hide herself from the approaching unicorn. She foolishly stole a glance through her hooves and was rewarded by same cold glare she had gotten years back. This was the part where Trixie would crumble on the floor wordlessly and beg for forgiveness, forgiveness which she could never accept.

A twinkle in the distance made her snap out of the reality of the dream. Her consciousness wavered again the dream blurring slightly, then filled with pain echoing from her heart. Memories of her recent demise filling her consciousness as the dream played on in the background. Trixie felt a strange sense of clarity, as if she were awake she could control her body and thoughts, even in this nightmare she had control. She found it strange, the dream continued on, no audience in attendance. She previewed the memories as they fell under her control, a pain slashing her heart again as she recognized a pattern. This was her second time. The second time she had fallen. Before, The Great and Powerful Trixie she had worked at Jack Rabbits. She had worked so hard to impress and gain favor in the eyes of her superiors. This was her goal, to partake in the glory of the stage. She had fail, then tried again as the Great and Powerful Trixie.

“I am pitiful,” she thought, “useless.” Memories of her past made Trixie want to tear her heart out as the round muscle burned violently in within her small chest. Trixie didn't know why, but she felt electrified. Alive like a thunder storm raging violently across the sky.

Her heart raced, each pulse echoing the pain which she felt over her entire life. She wailed in pain at violent sensation. “Its to much,” a thought echoed among the chaos of pain and solitude.

No sooner had the thought echoes through her mind when a dark corner of her mind replied “Then end it.”

Trixie’s mind froze at the suggestion, she hadn’t considered that a viable option until now. The thought rang through her head like a bell, counting down to the final hour.

Another memory flashed through her head, only a few hours ago she has almost died. Her pride flared up demanding a meaningful death, something glorious befitting the death of The Great and Powerful Trixie.

“Trixie!” a ferocious voice echoes out into the abyss, as an alicorn broke apart the dream in the background.

Trixie crumbled at the power of the voice, bowing low as the Princess of the Night approached.

“What have you done!” She sternly interrogated the unicorn.

“hahahahaha. . . “ Trixie began to chuckle quietly. The dark corner of her mind had asked the perfect question. “Death fighting the Princess of the Night in mortal combat. . .”

Trixie stopped laughing for a moment, a memory of her magic teacher during filly school disrupting her gleeful end. “Trixie, now that you have your cutie mark, it is your destiny to follow your talents, until you find your destiny you won’t be truly happy.”

“haHahaHahaHa. . .” her laughing growing slightly louder this time and increasingly hysterical. “Destiny, all my destiny has ever brought me is pain, pain and loneliness” her brain rebutted the memory.

“Is there something funny?” The alicorn asked, her eyebrow furrowed.

“HAHAHAHAHA. . .” Trixie started kicking wildly into the air, an air of madness and chaos fulling the endless void.

The laughing stopped, one final tear left the mare’s eye. She rolled over and stood tall facing the alicorn. An expression of determination and rage etched across the unicorn’s frazzled face.

“Buck you!” Trixie barked at the alicorn. Luna’s face contorted at the remark, rage viable escaping her nostrils. A small silence followed as they stared at each other.

The unicorn continued, “Buck Celestia and her school!”

Princess Luna let out a vicious snarl, and preparing a spell to silence the traitor.

Trixie’s magical scenes perked up, a new kind of magic, one she had never felt before filled the air. Its power was intoxicating,  but Trixie felt new strength as rage boiled in her blood, tempering her determination to put up a legendary fight.

A fight befitting The Great and Powerful Trixie.

Trixie prepared a force field spell, yielding the first strike to Luna, as she would deploy her shield and counter all at once.

“You dare disgrace my sister’s name!” Luna’s powerful alicorn voice boomed, “You shall pay dearly traitor!”

The Alicorn’s magic coalesced into a tight mote of energy, the ball of magic bolted at the mare battering against the newly formed shield, easily absorbed.

The world shifted as a physical plane started to materialize from the black void. The alicorn’s face grew colder as she glare at the unicorn who forced the scenery to change.

“Is that the best you can do?” Trixie taunted, as another bolt shot at the mare, only to be intercepted by a materializing wall.

Luna considered banishing the substance of the dream, but decided against it. Unlike Twilight’s dream which was falling apart and therefore easy to shatter, this materialized world was solid and firm depicting the owner’s resolve. She was already quite weak and could feel her physical body wasn’t faring very well as she felt sweat dripping down her face. She would defeat Trixie, knocking her unconscious for a few days. Then go and claim Trixie’s unconscious body when she had gained her strength back.

The scene warped replacing the black abyss, with Trixie’s memory.

The sun shining down upon the light blue alicorn blinded her temporarily. Her eyes adjusted within seconds to reveal Canterlot. She was in the upper district outside of Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns. The school perched proudly with a view over all of canterlot, it had been built into the side of the mountain stretching hundreds feet up into the rocky incline. Its entrance seemed irregularly massive to Luna as she cautiously approached the building. A massive white stone statue of Princess Celestia greeted her as she entered. Luna entered the main foyer, the sound of her hooves clacking on the hard stone floor echoed throughout the empty building.

Luna began to hear quiet voices chatter quietly in the hallways, she turned to look, but no one was there.

“Did you hear,” a voice whispered playfully, “one of the students was picked by Celestia herself to be her protege.” the quiet female voice echoed out over the others.

“Yea, I heard that she performed an aging spell” a bright male voice added in.

“Enough!” Luna roared in angrily. “Trixie, stop this meaningless game and face me!” Luna yelled a hint of weakness as her voice gave a little.

“haha. . . Don’t worry my princess” Trixie’s voice sarcastically echoed through the hallways. “We will fight, but first I think you should get to know me, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” her voice rang out wildly through the stone halls, but was cut short as the world began to shift again.

Luna winced as the stone began to warp, it shifted slightly blurring as the cold stone materialized into painted drywall and soft carpet as the walls closed in. Luna, not wanting to miss the opportunity to take a shot at Trixie prepared her spell in advance. The walls closed into a bedroom, furniture materializing into existence as a small bed and desk filled the otherwise vacant room.

The door opened a crack.

“KSHHhh!” Luna released the energy bolt blasting the door asunder and searing its frame. A light blue filly entered out of the smoke pushing the now non-existent door all the way open. The small unicorn walked into the shocked princess shifting through her, wrapping her own illusion as she did.

Luna let out a quiet dry laugh “ha. ha. nice one. . .”

Luna was about to remark on how a battle between the two of them could be painless and unlike the door’s fate how if she gave up now that her punishment would be lessened. But she was interrupted by a long yawn filly as the memory played on.

Luna relaxed a little taking an interest in the young filly as Trixie then started to do a few spells in the room. The young filly was attempting a rather difficult form of telekinesis and began to throw a series of books at Luna, several warping through her head and abdomen to smash the wall behind her putting holes in the drywall. Luna frowned at the obvious irregularity of the dream.

“Is this necessary for me to understand Trixie?” Luna roared at the soft walls as they trembled under her boisterous voice.

“Ohh come on my little princess. . .” Trixie said in a tone used for addressing fouls. “Learn to have a little fun!” she ended in a stern voice.

“What is this ‘fun’ you speak of!” Luna asked, rage consuming the question.

There was no answer. Luna fumed for the next few moments and considered the gamble of banishing the memory to try and attempt a shot at the rebellious unicorn. She was about to, but her train of thought was cut off by the sound of a door opening in the outside hallway.

Trixie sprang up in a flash, darting for the now partially re-materialized door opening it hastily. She shut the door realizing that it was another room’s door, a worried face once again taking hold as the filly lazily sat back down on the floor.

“Phutatatatata. . .” the filly nervously vibrated her tongue as she laying on the floor waiting. The filly looked around her room eyeing the comfy bed. Her eye caught a glimpse of a piece of paper on her desk. The light was shining especially bright this morning and as such her desk next to the window was illuminated by several glowing rays which danced about the piece of paper on her desk.

The filly approached the desk, grabbing the note with her magic, she lifted the note down.

The voice of a mature Trixie read the note aloud.

Dear Trixie

Unfortunately your mother and I must leave. We have left you everything we own, so you shouldn’t need to move out, unless you want to that is. If you need any assistance, speak with your appointed lawyer, Portrait Potters at the Elizabeth Social Court. I had hoped to talk to you about this change in person, but unfortunately my time has come and I must report back to my superiors.

Good luck, and Goodbye.

~Your loving parents.

Luna noted how similar the note was to those uses a thousand years ago for the Equestrian secret service.

At the end of the reading the world started to shift again. This time the room darkened and the world expanded slightly and walls changing from painted drywall to an stained-old oak. The room smelled like rotting lettuce and the air was very stale. Luna also noted the moist dirt under hoof as this was the most vivid memory yet.

“Why are you showing me this?” Luna’s asked in a normal voice for the first time.

“So that all will know who the The Great and Powerful Trixie really was. So that when we fight you will understand my resolve.” The scene suddenly shifted into motion as Trixie finished her explanation.

Luna’s ears perked up, the stillness broken by boisterous cheering above. A few rogue rays shone down through what appeared to be small cracks in the stage above. Luna walked slowly across the dirt floor waiting for something to happen. The crowd’s cheers died down as Luna was left to the stillness of the dark trap room.

Moments later, a trap door opened up letting a bright orange earth pony wearing a flashy red shirt fall from the stage. He vanished out of Luna’s vision as he fell from the stage.

A small door in the back for the room opened, revealing Trixie. The energetic unicorn was holding a towel and dry shirt identical to those the orange pony was wearing.

“Oracle, we need to hurry,” Trixie whispered, in an annoyed tone.

Trixie waited for a moment, then entered the trap room, a worried look on her face. “Oracle?”

Luna followed alongside the illusionary Trixie as she quietly trotted up to small water pool for the trap door.

Trixie and Luna both froze, bone cold ice running down Luna’s neck as Trixie let out a blood curdling scream.

Oracle had missed the water pool, breaking his neck during the fall, he now lay dead. His eyes lay open staring into the abyss of death as blood dripped from his lifeless jaw.

Other ponies started streaming into the trap room all with a similar reactions.

But Trixie just stood there, staring into oracle’s eyes a wave of guilt embedding itself across her face. Her eyes glanced at the pool which was a half of a foot out of place, and she cursed to herself violently.

Luna stood there motionless, the sight of the dead pony embedded in her mind. The alicorn stood there for quite some time, memories of her atrocities as nightmare moon flooding her mind. A tear dripped down from her eye, both for her own shame and the tragic death of Oracle whose body lay only feet away.

Luna’s physical body sent an urgent message of pain to the sorrowful alicorn indicating the urgency of the of her fatigue. Luna perked up at the sensation, her sorrowful demeanor leaving her immediately.

Luna stood there examining her options. She could either wait until Trixie was done explaining her past, then face her without having to fight through her memories, or she could try and settle this on her own terms with a banishing spell. Luna decided against the gamble of waiting, her body was just so weak right now, and holding together the ethereal cloud was quite draining. She rationalized that she had just enough energy to banish the dream and get a few attacks off before it would no longer be safe to remain.

She noted that at first this was solid world, but now it began to crumble. ”Now would be the perfect time to strike.” Luna thought to herself, planning her next move cautiously. Taking notes from her older sister she tried to increase her odds.

“How well did you know Oracle?” Luna asked in a low voice.

The world trembled blurring significantly as Trixie’s mental body become visible through some of the ripples in the dream. Luna seizing the opportunity, banished the remainder of the dream alerting the unicorn to her intentions.

Another dream began to enshroud the alicorn. Luna battered it aside uttering a quiet groan as her body strained to keep herself contained within the cloud.

“Face me, Trixie!” She roared at the unicorn.

“Or are you not The Great and Powerful Trixie? Are you not one who has seen death? Are you not one who has lived a desperate life striving for purpose? Are you not a proud graduate of Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorn?”

“Buck Celestia,” the unicorn snarled, “and yes I was the Great and Powerful Trixie, but today I am, Trixie Lulamoon, the one who defies god!” Trixie shouted back, getting ready to fight.