MareDoWell

I stared down the barrel, sweating as I anticipated the inevitable impact; the steal of the shotgun gleaming in the sunlight. I breathed heavily, not knowing what the outcome of this situation would be.

I counted the seconds that ticked by, the sweat beginning to pour down my face and fill my mask with its scent. I could hear the trigger being squeezed, slowly inching its way down. As the trigger moved those last few inches, I heard a thunderous bang, and felt a sudden release of air from my lungs.

I felt my hooves fly out from under me as I was propelled into the air. The pain coursing through my chest was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, causing my whole body to spasm and twitch. When I finally hit the ground, the world came to a stop, my vision began to fade… and darkness took me.

“Bucking Celestia… that hurts so much!” I yell, slowly opening my eyes after a minute of unconsciousness. I used magic to remove the adaptation shells from my chest area, the layers of reinforced fabric successfully stopping them from… well… killing me.

The shells had been made to give what is called a “base impact”, which would apply the combined pressure and force of most standard ammunition's. Enchanted armor (like my own) could take this pressure and adapt to it, meaning that most rounds would be blocked without pain as long as the armor was kept in good condition.

I used an enchantment to enhance the pressure and force (P/F) readings from the shells so that the suit could take nearly every type of round from long, medium, and even close range. I put a hoof to my chest and cast a repair spell to fix the damage done by the shells.

When I was done I released the double barrel from my magical grasp, and walked over to a nearby stump; on top of it lay a clipboard with a check list on it. Picking up the list, I crossed out armor preparation, and looked over the list in its entirety. I eventually picked flexibility and aerodynamics next.

After teleporting to the edge of the Everfree forest, I looked around for any groups of trees that might make a good make-shift obstacle course.

After five minutes of searching, I happened upon a zig-zag of trees. They were tall enough to be used as training ground, but not tall enough to kill me if I fall. They were also close enough together so that I could jump from tree to tree.

I teleported to the lowest branch, balancing myself so I wouldn’t fall, looking up into the branches hanging over me in tangled sections of wood and leaves. I crouched, preparing to jump, judging the distance in my head. The next thing I knew, I had propelled myself from the branch, and was headed towards the next at high speed.

I dug my armored hands into the next branch, causing me to spin around and land on the top of it. Taking only a second to rest, I looked to the next few branches and jumped, galloping across them with rapid succession, the silk and linen brushing against my fur every so softly as I did. As I continued to jump and run, I noticed that my breathing was becoming labored, and my reaction time began to slow.

I jumped over to the next tree, leaping across its branches . . . or, trying, to leap across its branches. When I jumped to the next branch, I quickly lost my footing and began to fall.

Thinking quick, I teleported to the soft forest floor and started over; I got a little bit further, but ultimately failed again, this time hitting a branch on the way down, making me unable to focus; so the only thing I could do was instinctively twist and turn to avoid the bigger branches.

After I hit the ground, I check my body to make sure nothing was broken or sprained. Everything seemed fine, until I prodded my left side, revealing what felt like a giant bruise that started at my shoulder and ended at my flank. I cast a healing spell on myself and decided to take a break.

“What am I doing wrong?” I thought out loud.

“No matter how hard I focus, I can’t stop myself from falling. What am I missing?” I said aloud again, frustration showing in my voice. I decided to meditate while I was healing in an attempt to relax my body, so the process would quicken.

As I sat there and meditated, something happened, something... extraordinary. I found myself in a world shrouded in darkness; no lights, no sounds, not even any buildings or landmarks . . . just pitch blackness. I looked around in the darkness, trying to establish where I was when a sudden thought rocketed through my mind.

“Oh god . . . if I fell asleep while meditating and I’m having another freaking dream, I’m going to kill a bi-.” I froze, not knowing if what just happened ACTUALLY happened.

That thought was internal; I did not vocalize it in any way. But if that was the case, why had I heard it as if it had been spoken.

’What the buck!’ I said, or, tried to say; when my lips moved, no sound came out . . . I was mute.

I tried saying something else, ’Luna! Celestia! TWILIGHT!’  I screamed! But no sound came out. But, when I thought about them, each name came out clear as day, as if I was ACTUALLY saying them.

I was baffled, my mouth hanging agape. As I tried to figure out exactly what the hay was going on, I began to hear a strange noise, almost like the sound of chanting. I walked in the direction that I believed the sound to be coming from, and began to hear what was being chanted; my name.

Trixie! Trixie! Trixie! I heard over and over again, making me walk faster, revealing a small light growing bigger in the distance. I thought about teleporting to it, but, what if it was just another nightmare luring me to it, using the element of curiosity?

But then, I heard something different, something that made my eyes go wide and my jaw drop, something . . . old.

’BEHOLD! IT IS I! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!’

At the mention of my old catchphrase, I didn’t run, nor even gallop; I full on teleported to the source, shocked at what I found. It… was the last time I came to Ponyville, two years ago, specifically the show where I did… that… to three of the elements. It was actually something I wanted vehemently to forget.

As I approached the memory, I reached a hoof out to touch it, gently brushing my hoof against the screen. I immediately recoiled, startled by multiple other memories exploding from it, reacting to my touch like roaches to a flashlight.

I looked over each memory, surveying them. To my right was my return to Ponyville, leading to my eventual friendship with Fluttershy. Next to it was an argument between Fluttershy and Twilight focused on me being back.

“She hasn’t changed Shy, she never will. Can’t you see she’s playing you!?” Twilight yelled, not caring that I was watching the event silently and could hear everything she said.

“Can’t you see that you all are being a bunch of judgmental jerks!? I swear, you all are acting worse than me after the whole ‘Iron Will’ incident!” Fluttershy stated, not yelling or shouting, but talking sternly non-the-less.

I remember how it took about a week before Fluttershy talked to them again . . . and it was my fault. I looked away, not wanting to relive this horrid memory.

I felt myself begin to cry, but was brought out of my sniffling by a sound, almost familiar sound; a sound of… singing?

I looked over to my right to see a memory hovering towards me at a moderate speed.

“Happy birthday to you!” I heard. “It… it can’t be!” I thought as the memory drew closer.

“Happy birthday to you!” I heard again, my eyes widening as I realized that I recognized all the voices singing.

“Happy birthday dear Trixie!” I heard them all sing again, the memory closing the remaining distance between us.

”HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!” I heard as the dream flashed bright white blinding me.

When my vision refocused, what I saw not only shocked me… but brought me no end of pure joy.

It was me… as a 12-year-old filly, wearing a party hat. To my sides were my parents, Dazzle and Heavy-Hitter Lunamoon. Around me were some of my childhood friends like Geo Metric, Big Win, Eye Liner, and so-on. I saw myself blow out the candles on the cake. I tried to use my magic to blow out the candles, but I gave it a little too much power. The wind I used passed over the cake and blew out the candles perfectly, but then it shifted to the side and hit my father in the chest, knocking him down. He was a boxer of course, so he brushed it off like it was nothing; but I was still on the verge of crying for about three minutes, thinking I had hurt him.

I thought this memory had been lost to me, overshadowed by bigger events in my life… but to see it again… was remarkable. I was reveling in the pure joy I received from seeing this beautiful memory, when I heard a voice coming from behind me.

“Amazing… isn’t it?” I turned around expecting to see MareDoWell again… but I didn’t. instead, when I turned around this time, I saw a midnight blue pony, with a jet black mane and tail with crimson stripes in them, red eyes, and a build like Big Macintosh. I saw… Reave.

'REAVE!?' I mouthed, quite surprised mind you. 'What are you doing here? What is this place? How did I get here? , I yet again attempted to say.

Reave just shook his head.

“You are so lucky I can read lips.” He said with his usual sense of narcissism.

“If you must know, this is something I taught you when you were under my tutelage.”

“When did you teach me this?” I asked, using thought to speak.

“Really, you don’t remember?” he asked, and from his facial expression, I could tell he was actually a little surprised.

“No, I don’t remember. If I did I would get out of here and get back to training.” I replied.

“And furthermore, if you know what this place is, can’t you help me get out?” I replied, obviously annoyed.

Reave just shook his head, and tsked.

“It has been a long time I suppose. Here, let me show you.” he replied, waving something to my left over with a hoof, I looked to see another memory had damn near dashed to me. Before I could gasp, the memory flashed white, and began to play.

hr

The white faded away to reveal slightly younger versions of Reave and I, smiling at each other and laughing. We seemed to be in the same place I was in currently.

“So, I just think about something I need that might be in my memories, focus my magic on the thought, and I’ll end up here?” I ask, literally THINKING out loud.

“Yes. And remember; if you search hard enough, you’re guaranteed to find what you’re looking for.” He says, another one of his soft, knowing smiles gracing his face.

“Wow, it’s so amazing in here; it’s like a giant stadium!” I shout.

“Indeed. Oh and don’t forget, this is the realm of thought. Trying to speak with your mouth will prove futile. If you want to say something, just think it.” He says, a sly grin beginning to spread across his lips.

“Besides, we wouldn’t want a repeat of when we first got here, now would we?” he says, his grin growing wider with every word.

I looked away and blushed.

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that again!” I say threw grit teeth, annoyed.

He lightly chuckled, trying not to go into a fit of laughter.

“I’m sorry Trixie, but the look on your face when you thought this place stole your voice was priceless,” he said “and if my lip reading skills are anything to go by, I believe your exact first words were ‘Holy Celestia what the fuck happened to my voice!’ HA!” he continues, his chuckle turning into a full on laugh.

I roll my eyes and face-hoof, looking away from him and shaking my head.

“Let’s just get out of here.” I say, not wanting to sit there and listen to him laugh at my foalishness.

He looked over at me, his laughter subsiding.

“As you wish my pupil, as you wish.” he says, still slightly chuckling.

As we went back to reality, the memory ended, and I was brought back to the present memory realm.

I left the memory with a jolt, stammering back into the present. I looked over to Reave, his smile obviously saying ‘I told you so’.  I looked back into the black void to see that it had been filled with multiple memories, some of which were very old, and others very recent.

“But… I don’t understand. I didn’t cast this spell.” I said.

“Well actually, when you got injured, you cast a healing spell right?” I nodded

“Well, you were using an average amount of magic to cast it, and while doing so you were trying to remember something that could help you with your . . . training, right?” I nodded again, now curious as to what he was getting at.

“Well that’s it! While you were using the healing spell, you must’ve unknowingly transferred some of your magic to the thought, thus activating this spell.” he said, obviously amused that he discovered the cause of all this confusion.

I looked around, baffled that I could forget such a spell, and to my knowledge this was the only spell he had taught me that I had forgotten. There were a few questions still floating around in my head so I started with what I thought was the most obvious one.

“If I forgot that spell, then how did I just see the memory of me learning it just now.” I asked.

“Because nothing is ever truly forgotten, Trixie.” Reave told me.

“Even if we believe it is, our mind subconsciously records and stores everything we do. In fact, if you looked deep enough in here, and I mean realy deep, you could probably find your first moments of being alive after birth.” He said.

I was taken aback. Could our mind really record such things? Let alone store them forever? I would have to investigate this later, but for now, I would move on to the next question.

“How are you here right now?” I asked. If this was MY mind, then how was he standing here with me?

“I am not Reave, at least, not entirely.” I gave him a puzzled look before he began to explain.

“You see, when you enter the memory realm, you meet the embodiment of your subconscious. When you meet it, it will craft its appearance from that of the seeker's memories and experiences.”

“Seeker?” I asked.

“It’s the name given to those who cast the spell to seek the memories that have been buried by life and time.” He quickly replied, as if having the answer pre-prepared.

I nodded. "How come you don’t just represent yourself as a reflection of me?” I asked.

He sighs.  “When the real me entered this realm with you, he left a gift. He knew that a clone of yourself would suffice, but if you were to have a guide, you would need someone who you feel could actually lead you, and who better to do it than your old mentor, after all.”  He answered, finishing with a smile.

“That’s why you’re so lifelike!” I shouted, coming to a realization.

“You’re not just some average replica… Reave implanted you himself.” He nodded, confirming my suspicions.

Another question popped into my head and a very important one as well. “Why can’t we speak without using our thoughts?” I asked, wondering why the entire time we’ve been talking, neither of our mouths had moved except to express emotion.

“Because we are in a place that exists with the mind, Trixie.” he stated

“Here, thoughts speak louder than words.”

I had other questions, but they all seemed unimportant at the time. I looked out into the void, only turning my head slightly to ask one more question.

“I just focus on what I need, right?” He nodded. I looked back to the abyss, closed my eyes, and focused.

I could feel something being brought towards me, as if it was being pulled to me. As the distance closed, I could feel the energy drawing nearer, and the power growing. Even though my eyes were closed, it felt as if a blinding light was approaching me, getting faster as it came. As it closed the last few feet between us, my eyes flew open, and the very world became a plain of pure neon white, as I drifted into another memory.

As the white began to fade away, I was greeted with the image of me falling. As the remaining white faded away, I noticed that it took place in a sort of city area, like an alley. After noticing this, it immediately became clear to me what I was watching: this was when Reave took me to a row of abandoned warehouses after I asked about parkour. This was my fifth failure at attempting to jump from one building to another.

I hit the ground with a hard thud, bouncing slightly off the pavement. I winced slightly seeing myself hit the ground. I could almost feel the pain my past self was going through from where I was standing. i got up and immediately cast a healing spell, healing the obviously large bruises that were under my protective gear. I hear the clip-clop of hooves and turn my head to see Reave walking over, an annoyed scowl on his face.

“I told you; don’t force it, and focus.” he says in a stern yet caring voice.

“I *am** focusing, and it’s not working!” I yell, obviously annoyed.*

“I focus on every move I make, I detail every step, and yet it’s still not enough!”

“Trixie please . . .” Reave says as he tries to calm me down, but to no avail.

“NO! This was obviously a bad idea!” I state as I began to walk away, signifying that I was quitting.

I’m about halfway down the alley when Reave runs in front of me, stopping me from leaving. What occurred after this was a very unpleasant back and forth between us both.

“As your teacher I will not allow you to quit!” he shouted.

“Oh really?” I countered

“REALLY!” he shouted again

“Well maybe I don’t want to obey you in this instance. Maybe I want to go home and calm my nerves. Did you ever think that maybe I’M right for once?”

“You will not just give up! I know you can do this!” he instructed.

“Well my five past failures say otherwise.”

I begin to walk past him, but he stuck out his arm to grab me and damned near *threw me back in front of him. Before I could ask what he thought he was doing, he spoke.*

“Do you remember what I told you the penalty would be for not only disobeying your teacher, but abandoning them as well?” He said.

“Yes, actually, I do. I believe that it was you would have to have a one on one sparing match with your teacher, the loser being the one who yields first.” I answered casually.

“And the loser having to give in to the others request.” He finished.

“Well maybe this time I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get out of this!”

“Are you saying that you would be willing to fight me just so you can *give up!?”*

“I’m saying I *will** fight you just to give up!”*

“Try it!”

At this point we are nose to nose, staring directly into each other’s eyes. If we were dragons, steam would be billowing from our nostrils.

After glaring at each other for a few more minutes, we each let out a sigh and sit down, a few minutes of silence following after. I broke the silence first .

“Look… I know you think I can do this, but no matter how hard I focus on it, I just keep fa-“ I try to say before he interrupted me.

“Wait, wait! What exactly are you focusing on when you move?” he asks in haste, as if he had just found the solution to our problem… which he did.

“I focus on the next movement of course! I try to plan every movement ahead of time, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t execute anything I plan properly.”

“No wonder you keep falling!” he states, putting hoof to his forehead in frustration. “Trixie, I told you to focus, I never told you *what** to focus on.”*

“I don’t understand.” I say, tilting my head with a puzzled expression on my face.

“With a task like this, focusing on it will only cause you to fumble and fail because you’ll over think every step. Now, while some do prefer the focusing method, it’s obviously not working for you, so let’s try something different, shall we?” he says, cocking his eyebrow and offering his hoof.

I pout, but follow him back to the starting point, yet again eying the obstacles setup within the building, and the gap between the buildings at the end of them.

“Daunting isn’t it?”

“incredibly.” I reply.

“Now, when you run through the obstacles this time, just let it flow. Don’t force you movements, just let everything come naturally.” He instructs.

“Okay… okay.” I say, breathing deeply.

I crouch down, preparing to jump, pacing myself. I breath slowly, trying to let go of my stress, my frustration. I start to enter a Zen-like state, focusing very little on the course itself, and more on my own inner thoughts. But, right before I jump, Reave slips in one last piece of advice.

“Oh and when you run through, focus on something *other** than the obstacle course… something happy.” He says, as if telling me to perform a basic magic trick.*

If my eyes opened any faster they would have flown out of my head. I nearly stumbled over and fell into an obstacle face first.

After I nearly escape breaking my own face, I turn to Reave, and lose it.

“What!” I yell “How the hay am I supposed to do… *this*, while thinking of something else!”

“Buy listening to the rhythm of the memory, and allowing your body to flow naturally with that rhythm.” He replies.

I look at him as if he said he believes the ‘Celestia created Nightmare Moon’ conspiracy. He simply shakes his head and smiles at me.

“Trixie,” he says, his voice calm and caring “if you try to force yourself through this course, you will become hardened, like a stone.” He says, levitating stone and large planks of wood

“Now as a stone,” he continues, levitating a stone and lining up the planks of wood “you can crash through an opposing object if you have enough momentum and force.”

He hurls the stone at the first wooden plank, breaking through it with ease. He uses a time dilation spell to slow down the event so that I may see the process.

“But,” he continues further as the stone hurls towards the next plank in line “if you are a stone, then as you break through things, you will lose your momentum and force.”

As the stone goes through the next two planks, it visibly begins to wobble.

“Until finally,” he begins to finish as the stone approaches the next plank “all your energy is gone.”

He says with a smile as the stone bounces off of the plank, unable to penetrate to the next.

I am not puzzled at this point, but curious. He then cast a spell to repair the planks and resets them in a different position. They started off strait, but curved down the cliff next to us. He then summoned a pot made of stone, and took half a buckets’ worth of water from the air. He set the bucket underneath the last wooden plank at the bottom of the small cliff.

“But, if you calm yourself, using a memory and syncing up with its rhythm, allowing your body to flow, like water.” He says, levitating the water and freezing it into a moderately big spike.

“Then you can become harder than rock, and sharper too.” He says, hurling the icicle at the planks point first, turning on the time dilation spell for this process as well.

The icicle cleaves through the first row of planks with ease, making the stone from earlier look like a dogs chew toy. But, even the ice begins to lose its energy after a while. Reave uses a portal spell to redirect the icicle to hit the planks going down the side of the cliff. It actually reminded me of a game that came out recently, but its name escapes me.

After the icicle is redirected, it goes through the first two cliff-side planks easily. But, as it begins to wobble, I realize the next plank shall be its downfall.

“And if you lose your energy and soften,” he says, tapping his hooves together “you can flow *around** your obstacles.” He finishes with a grin. Suddenly, the ice melts back into its liquid state, pouring onto the plank beneath it. The water pours down the sides of the plank bypassing the others and heading strait into the stone bucket. The water that didn’t head down the sides of the plank and onto the next one below it, repeating the process with each plank.*

“Then finally.” he says, giving one last wave of his hoof “if you must, you can become lighter than air itself.”

The water that didn’t make it into the bowl evaporates instantly, steam replacing it. The steam rises around the planks, gathering in the air and becoming heavier, until finally, small water droplets form and fall into the bowl until the steam disappeared.

I look over to him, now understanding what his point is.

“Be like water, Trixie.” He says. “Be like water.”

As he finishes, the last words echo and the memory begins to fade as I return to not the present memory realm, but to reality.

As I open my eyes, I find myself back in the forest, sitting in my meditation position. I look around and realize that the sun is beginning to set, telling me that if I wanted to do this, I needed to do it now.

’Be like water.’ The memory echoed in my head. I sat for a minute and thought about what memory to use until something hit me; what if instead of using a memory, I simply used something that made me happy, something with… rhythm.

“I got it!” I said aloud. I teleported back to my house for just five minutes, preparing everything I needed for my plan to work. When I returned, I had modified the suit to carry a small mp3 device in the chest area. With the head phones in and music set to a timer, I teleported back to the starting branch.

When the music started playing I let the first few wordless notes pass taking time to breath and preparing myself for what was to come. But when the words started, so did I.

I leaped from branch to branch effortlessly, timing my movements with the rhythm and pace of the song, letting them flow naturally and softly. Each note seemed to make my body move, as if the song was in control, and it felt so… good.

I dug my hooves into each branch and slid my way around others, become more like water as I slipped deeper into the music’s trance. I kept climbing until I saw the spot where I had failed last, increasing my pace when I did. And when I reached it, I passed it effortlessly. The beautiful noise seemed to be all that was in my mind know, capitalizing on every other thought. I remember that as I reached the top of one tree, I spread my cape like a pair of wings, and flew into the air. I did three loop-ta-loops before landing in the next tree, easily melting back into my rhythmic Parkour.

I listened to this heavenly noise for the rest of my training, replaying it over and over, and all throughout that day as I listened to the music, one thought kept replaying in my mind.

Be like water, Trixie.

That night when I returned home I repaired any damages the costume might have endured during training, I was going to need it intact tonight. For tonight would be my first patrol… as MareDoWell.