One year later...

“All hail the Great and Powerful Trixie!” The pony with the megaphone screamed, his voice booming off the vaulted walls. “Your hostess with the mostest!”

Trixie winced slightly before stepping out from behind the curtain. She’d begged the event coordinator to change the intro, seeing that she hadn’t gone by the title of “Great and Powerful” in months and, honestly, “Hostess with the mostest” was just plain cheesy. “But it’s a charity event, Trix!” She’d insisted, flashing her biggest, saddest puppy-dog eyes, “People expect a certain amount of cheese!” In the end, Trixie had relented, but that still didn’t make her feel any less corny as she stepped out into the spotlight. Even donning her classic, re-sewn cape and hat hadn’t helped much with this feeling of being a cheapo showgirl on some stage in Las Haygas.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlecolts!” She sang. The crowd cheered, raising their wineglasses in admiration. It was hard to believe such a wonderful gala could be held in the big, dusty banquet hall that had sat empty at the base of her tower for decades. It was such a marvel what a bit of sweeping and a change of curtains could do.

“First of all, I just wanted to thank a few people for making this evening possible, starting with my event coordinator: the Element of Magic herself, Twilight Sparkle!” The little purple unicorn seated at the guests of honor table across from Trixie’s stage blushed as she stood to another round of applause.

“Then we have Ms. Rarity, the Element of Generosity, for her incredible artistic vision that transformed this old, dusty hall into the splendorous gala you see around you!” The white unicorn stood up next to Twilight with a toss of her perfect, purple mane.

“And of course, all the wonderful volunteers whose hard work made that vision possible,” she motioned to the table closest to her, smiling as the ponies seated there raised their glasses and cheered. “Especially you, Sethy! The pony who’s unrelenting dedication kept it all together!” A brown-coated stallion stood up from the table as the rest of the room applauded, smoothly tipping his wine glass to Trixie before sitting back down.

“Now, before we get caught up in the glitz of the evening, ponies, let’s not forget why we’re here. Ponyville’s town hall needs a new roof, and we gotta get it for them,” she spread her hooves out in a display of true showmanship. “So get those pocketbooks ready, all!”

There was a final round of applause before everyone descended upon the buffet table set up in the center of the hall. Trixie sighed tiredly before heading to the back of the room, leaning against the guests of honor table. “Miss Trixie?” A freckled pony, hat in hoof, walked away from the buffet table to join her. “M-muh name’s Cassius Clem. Ah just wanted t’thank ya fer givin’ us that bit a’ money last month. If it weren’t for you, muh son’d probably…”

“No need to thank me, Clem, just doing what I can.” She sighed, visibly exhausted. He nodded and bowed his head slightly before replacing his hat and joining the other ponies at the buffet table.

“Wow, Miss Trixie! That was awfully awesome of you!” Pinkie said in her usual, bright-and-shiny manner.

“Yeah, what gives? A year ago, you’re Equestria’s biggest conpony since the Flim-Flam twins, now you’re helping farmers pay their bills?” Rainbow Dash, eyeing the former showpony suspiciously.

“First of all,” Trixie cocked an eyebrow in her direction. “I was way better than those Flim-Flam amateurs could have ever dreamed of being.”

Rainbow shrugged. She had to agree with that.

“And to answer your question,” Trixie smiled whimsically, her eyes drifting off to someplace far from the little tower in the middle of the Equestrian woods. “About a year ago, I was shown a vision of what could have been. It was absolutely terrifying, but after a while of trying to figure it out in my head, I learned that all the dreams, and visions, and memories, and even rumors in the world don’t have a thing to do with reality. I think you and your pink friend could agree with me there.”

Rainbow Dash swallowed unconsciously, leaning forward in her chair as Pinkie’s smile waivered ever so slightly.

“So the way I see it, there’s just the here and now, and what you want to be. So I decided to shove that vision aside and finally start working towards that.” She gazed over at the table, where a group of young fillies had broken off from the rest of the group to play in a corner she could remember being crowded with cobwebs hardly a month before. “I think I’m getting there,” she finished with a little smile.

The Elements of Harmony gazed at her, dumbfounded. “Trixie,” Twilight breathed, “That’s absolutely beautiful.”

“Well, I don’t know…”

“Miss Trixie!” A pony in a three-piece suit trotted up to them.

“Why, Mr. Filthyrich! Glad to see you could make it!” Trixie grinned.

“For a good cause, always. I just wanted to meet with you and give you a heads-up on the wine situation. It seems we’re running a bit low over here.”

“Ah, I can fix that.” She turned to the Elements one last time, “If you’ll excuse me girls, it seems somebody needs the Great and Powerful Trixie to journey to her wine cellar.”

“Of course.” Twilight said, suppressing a sudden attack of the creeps. Now, where did that come from? She wondered, watching Trixie trot off to the kitchen. But soon her mind wandered off to more important things, like how to reach the fork now lodged in Pinkie’s throat.

“Pinkiiiiieeeeeee!” She screamed, “How many times do we have to tell you to chew your cake before you eat it!?”

“GACK! Agh-ack-cack!”

Trixie wandered the little aisles, scanning for that perfectly-aged barrel she’d seen down here earlier. She stayed absolutely focused on the shelves, her eyes locked on the barrels as she trotted along, subconsciously cursing herself for not bringing that barrel up when she saw it and sparing herself another trip down to this godforsaken place.

No, I can’t think like that, she thought. It’s over. It didn’t really happen. I’m over that dream, I’m not even…oh, here we go. Seizing the barrel in a hue of her rapidly-strengthening magic, she turned to head back up to the warm light of the kitchen, trotting back to the laughing ponies and shining lights of the party upstairs. Unfortunately, with her eyes locked stubbornly forward, she never even noticed the barrel catch on the edge of the shelf, its cork popping out and spilling a large splash of wine on her back. With a shriek, she turned to face her attacker, and there was the door. Eyes widening in horror, she stared at its arcane structure: it’s musty, rotting wood and ancient hinges, threating to creak open again to allow that smell to permeate the room, followed by that horrid voice: …mommy…mommy…mommy…

She blinked and it was gone. Her quaking knees finally buckling and giving way, she collapsed to the ground. “Thank Celestia!” She gasped.

“Trixie!?” Somepony screamed from above and behind her. A familiar, brown pony rocketed down the steps and popped into view, concern clouding his face.

“Sethy!” She gasped in honest relief. “How nice of you to join me!”

“What happened!? Are you hurt!? Why do you smell like you just came from a really wild party?”

“It’s…” she looked over to where the door had been, except there was nothing there but a blank patch of moss-covered stone wall. “It’s nothing, nothing at all. Thanks for coming after me.”

“Of course, Trix. Shall we rejoin the party?”

She grabbed a random barrel off one of the shelves and nodded, wrapping her foreleg around his. “Lead the way, my good sir.”

Epilogue

The man spied on the tower through his high-powered binoculars, a grin crossing his olive-brown features. “Well done, li’l lady.” He mumbled in a distinctly Australian accent, shoving the binoculars away in one of the dozens of pockets on his khaki jungle uniform. Tucking his wild black hair into his fedora, he stood, dusting his knees off just below his khaki shorts.

“Your majesty,” he said suddenly, turning and bowing. The bushes rustled as a majestic white Alicorn trotted into view, her rainbow-colored mane billowing in an unseen wind, as it always did. “You probably shoulda known better than to try and sneak up on me, dearie.” He said with a smile.

“Ah, but one has to try. Otherwise, the impossible might become possible and one would never even know it.” She replied, returning the smile. “What brings you to Equestria, Swarm?”

“Just checkin’ up on one a’ me brotheh’s projects. I’m thinkin’ he can go ahead and call this one a success.”

“Good, good. You know, I really appreciate him stepping in for me. I do care for the welfare of all my little ponies, but…”

“Butcha can’t be theah for ‘em all the time, I know,” he nodded. “Trust me, Celestia, it was his pleasure.”

“I know,” she sighed. “Now, why are you really here, Swarm?”

His smile faded. “I probably shoula known bettah than to try and hide somethin’ from you, eh?”

“Almost certainly.”

“I needed to talk to ya,” he looked over his shoulder at the well-lit tower below, “Theah’s somethin’ Miss Trixie down theah doesn’t know about her vision.”

“Didn’t your brother tell her what he told me? About the boundaries and the stories that sometimes come through?”

“Yeah, only ‘cause he didn’t want to worry ya oveh nothin’, in case that’s what it turned out t’be.” He rubbed the back of his neck, “Thing is, random stories shootin’ oveh the bordeh can’t do the things that dream did. It can’t talk to ya, it can’t manipulate an ongoin’ dream to make the charactehs do what my brotheh said they did.”

“Are you saying something was pushing that dream? Forcing it to go the way it did? For what purpose?”

“Dunno,” he shrugged. “T’mess with us, maybe. Don’t even have a clue what could be powehful enough t’do that, besides yours truly, a’ course. It ain’t the first time, though. Somethin’s shootin’ things oveh the bordehs, turnin’ the walls that hold reality togetheh inta swiss cheese, and we don’t have a clue who.”

“Do you need my help?” She asked, concerned.

“Yes. Celestia, we might need t’go to war with this presence or whateveh it is soon. A war that big could spill oveh into a dozen worlds befoah it’s oveh. I need t’know places like this: places of light, I mean, will be safe.”

“You’ll have me rally my defenders?” She scratched her chin with the edge of a glass slipper, “I guess I could have the homeguard hold some extra drills. Maybe step up recruitment and have the pegasi and unicorn leagues on standby.”

“Yes, good, but also,” he bit his lip, “I’d like you t’accept my help.”

“Oh? What are you offering?”

“I can have three battalions a’ Marines from various human nations on standby heah in th’ morrow. They can be based in the woods, in outta-the-way places and such, strategically placed to act should the time come. Now, befoah you…”

“No,” she interrupted him.

“…befoah you do that,” he sighed exasperatedly. “These are professional, battle-hardened soldiers we’re talkin’ about. Now, if nothin’ happens, they’ll just hang out heah and be on theah merreh way when the shootin’s done, but if things get as bad as they could, they’ll be theah to step in and reinforce your ponies.”

“And what will the presence of such men do to the very magic that keeps Equestria a ‘place of light,’ as you called it? Their thoughts could pollute the dreams of writers in dozens of universes! Would you have little girls in your home watching ‘My Little Full Metal Jacket’?”

He looked at her, those ancient, tired eyes gazing into her with all the pity and apology of a thousand worlds. “And what would happen to those dreams if evereh pony was lined up against a wall and cut to ribbons with God-only-knows what poweh?”

Celestia clenched her teeth. “One battalion, and not a soul more.”

“Thank ya.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Yeah,” he turned back to the tower, “Yer best line a’ defense is down theah somewheah too, roight?”

“Yes, the Elements of Harmony are the guests of honor, I hear.”

“Do y’know how well they can work togetheh? ‘Specially against extreme adversity, and in dire situations?”

“Well,” she hunched her eyebrows in thought. “They do show a decent amount of potential.”

“I think it’s time we put that to the test. We may need to call on them, especially if things escalate heah.”

“Well, I guess I could organize something, maybe broker a deal with the God of Chaos...I’m pretty sure Miss Cheerilee’s got some sort of trip planned for her class that I could work with…”

“You do that, Celestia,” he rasped, “We may need evereh edge we can get in this war.”

“I’m sure my little ponies will pass with flying colors.”

“And if they don’t?”

“They will, Swarm, have faith.”

A short distance away, a certain time-pony pulled his head out of a picnic basket. Straightening his bowtie and smoothing his chronically wild mane, he asked the pegasus sitting next to him: “Derpy dearest, did you ever get the feeling that you’re missing out on a wonderful opportunity to learn something completely new about the true nature of reality?”

The grey pegasus looked over to him, one eye focused on his face, the other on a tree just over his head. “Muffin?” She asked, offering one up.

“Umm…what flavor is it?”

“Blueberry!” She replied cheerfully.

“Eh, alroight.”