An Eye for an Eye
Chapter 2
"I need your help."
Trixie could only imagine what thoughts were racing through Twilight's head after this bombshell. Here was a mare who had, not two months ago, done her level best to humiliate and show up Twilight, now asking for her aid. Nopony who knew Trixie would have expected the normally-arrogant unicorn to ever resort to that. She'd even referred to herself in the first-pony!
Twilight, to her credit, recovered quickly. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice tinged with concern.
"What do you know of the Seaponies' Tears?" Trixie asked in response.
Twilight frowned. "'The whispering spring, 'neath tall mountains pale, with power to cure near any an ail,'" she recited, quoting from an old poem. "Those Seaponies' Tears?"
"The same," Trixie confirmed.
"They're a legend. A fountain that can mend any injury and cure any disease," Twilight said, wondering where Trixie was going with this. "Nopony's believed in the Tears for decades."
This brought a smirk to Trixie's face. "Trixie thought they were a legend too, at first." She gestured for Twilight to come closer, then said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Then she found this." From within her traveling cloak, the showmare retrieved a small, battered book. The cover was simple wood and cloth, without even so much as a title or author to identify it. It couldn't have been more than a hundred pages long.
The librarian in Twilight nearly burst with excitement. By appearances, Trixie's little book was ancient, as evidenced by the yellowed pages and the quality of the binding. For it to have survived so long, somepony must have taken good care of it, which meant it was clearly important. It was all she could do not to rip it out of the other mare's telekinetic grip and bury herself in reading it. Somehow, though, she managed to restrain herself, waiting instead for Trixie's explanation.
For her part, Trixie didn't disappoint. "This book contains the life's work of famed artifact hunter Dowsing Rod. He traveled all over the world, chasing up every rumor he happened upon in the hopes of finding rare and powerful magics. Most of the time, of course, his searches were fruitless. Sometimes, though, he found exactly what he was looking for. When he did, he wrote it down in this little book. Everything's here: the Elements of Harmony, the Vanishing Stone, Neighgling..." She shifted uncomfortably under the thin hospital sheets, before adding in an apologetic tone, "It's where Trixie learned of the Alicorn Amulet."
Twilight had to hand it to Trixie; she knew how to get a pony's attention. It was probably only to be expected, given that she had made her living as a performer. "And this Dowsing Rod found the Seaponies' Tears?" she asked.
"He certainly seemed to think so," Trixie answered. She opened the book to a page near the end, before flipping back a few pages. "Here," she said, having found what she was looking for. "Read this."
Obligingly, Twilight took the book and looked at the passage Trixie had indicated. "'After a great deal of effort, I managed to break the seal on the passage,'" she read. "'Beyond it lay a massive cavern, the ceiling and floor covered in similarly-proportioned stalactites and stalagmites. A raised section of earth provided a safe—if rather unnerving due to its thinness—path to the center, and to the pool of water therein. It was an impressive sight, perfectly circular and measuring more than fifty feet across. I couldn't tell from the entrance of the cavern how deep it was; though the water was clear, I couldn't see the bottom. The pool glowed softly, as though lit from below, filling the cavern with an eerie light that shifted and shimmered as the water rippled. I could scarcely believe my eyes; the tip had paid off. Here, within my reach at last, was the object that had preoccupied my searching for more than four years:
"'The Seaponies' Tears,'" Twilight and Trixie finished in unison. The latter took her book back and stashed it in her cloak again, as though fearful that somepony else might find it. "So you see," she said, "the Tears are real. What's more, this book tells how to find them."
"Uh-huh," Twilight said, unconvinced. Even if this book really belonged to Dowsing Rod, and his account was true, and he'd accurately explained how to follow in his hoofsteps, it didn't prove that what he'd found was the genuine article. Equestria was full of magical hotspots, after all; a glowing pool at the bottom of a cave, though unusual, was far from impossible. Still, Twilight wasn't ready to dismiss the story completely. If the Tears could be found, their potential for good would be almost unparalleled. "And how do I play into this?" she asked.
Trixie's answer was interrupted by the return of Nurse Redheart. "Trixie," she said, barely keeping the relief out of her voice, "your paperwork cleared. You're free to go."
The showmare reacted immediately, throwing off her sheets and hopping down to the floor. "Finally!" she exclaimed. "Trixie has been stuck here for far too long." Turning to Twilight, she said, "Is there somewhere we can talk more privately? Trixie will explain everything, but this information is sensitive."
Twilight briefly toyed with the idea of simply walking away. It would certainly be the simplest option. Of course, she couldn't deny her curiosity, and she knew that if she turned Trixie down she'd never stop wondering. "Come on," she said, making for the door. "We'll go to the library."
The trip across Ponyville was largely uneventful. The sight of Trixie walking through town made a few ponies double-take, but seeing that Twilight was with her evidently quelled their concerns. It probably helped that, after Trixie's disastrous last visit, during which she'd turned the quiet town into a megalomaniacal dictatorship, Twilight had explained to them that she hadn't been in control of her actions. They'd accepted that explanation, mercifully, but more than a few weren't happy to see her again.
Finally, the pair reached the library. Twilight entered first, with Trixie following closely behind, looking nervously around to make sure they hadn't been followed. "Spike!" Twilight called. "I'm back!"
The young dragon didn't answer. Twilight wondered if he'd stepped out; while Spike didn't normally leave the library unattended, he certainly had his own life outside of their common circle of friends. Her pondering was interrupted by an observation from Trixie: "Twilight, there's a note here for you."
Twilight turned to where the showmare was standing; sure enough, on the lectern she normally used for writing her various essays, there was a folded piece of paper with her name written on it. She recognized the elegant, swooping script as Rarity's, and trotted over to read it. Evidently, after she had helped Spike and Owloysius clean up after their interrupted training session, Rarity had returned to her shop. "Oh, and don't worry about Spike; he ever so kindly offered to lend me a helping hoof. Well, claw, but you know what I mean. I'll keep him occupied while you deal with whatever Trixie wanted. I'd tell you to watch out for her, but I have no doubt you know that already. Ta, Rarity."
Well, that answered that question, at least. Replacing the letter on the lectern, Twilight turned back to Trixie, who had been impatiently waiting for her to finish. "Well, we're here," she said. "Now, what's so important that you couldn't tell me at the hospital? And why were you so desperate to see me?"
Instead of directly answering Twilight's question, Trixie said, "Let Trixie finish the story first. Then you'll understand why she needs your help." She cleared her throat, before launching into her narrative once more. "So yes, Dowsing Rod did eventually find the Seaponies' Tears. For some reason, though, he never told anypony. In fact, he went so far as to seal up the cave so it couldn't be found by anypony but him."
"So he wanted to keep them to himself," Twilight said, not seeing the point. It was only natural, if perhaps a bit cynical, that a pony who found such a powerful artifact would guard it jealously.
Trixie shook her head. "He discovered that the Tears held a terrible curse."
Everypony who knew Pinkie Pie was familiar with her so-called "Pinkie Sense". Somehow, she could predict arbitrary events to come in the immediate future. Mostly it was just small things, like when a flowerpot was about to fall from an open window, or which color of frosting the next customer was going to order. At first, Twilight had been skeptical; no magic could do that, especially not any that an earth pony could do. Evidence began to stack up, and Twilight had decided to figure out what was going on. Eventually, after much pain and embarassment, she'd come to accept that yes, Pinkie could predict the future. She still had no idea how it worked, of course. Strangely, however, as soon as the word "curse" left Trixie's lips, Twilight could have sworn she'd just developed a "Twilight Sense" of her own.
"Let me guess," Twilight said resignedly, knowing exactly what Trixie would say next. "There's some kind of ancient evil sealed away within the Seaponies' Tears, and, according to some ancient prophecy, it's going to break free soon if we don't stop it."
For the first time in quite a while, Trixie found herself at a loss for words. "How did you know that?" she asked, bewildered by this sudden turnaround.
"After the fourth time or so, you get a feel for this kind of thing," Twilight answered. If it wasn't Nightmare Moon, it was Discord, or King Sombra, or whatever villain had its sights on Equestria this time. Somehow, it always seemed to come down to Twilight and her friends to save the day—not that she would ever complain about it, of course. She was, after all, the Bearer of the Element of Magic, and Princess Celestia's personal protege to boot; epic adventures and the constant threat of danger came with the territory. She sighed. "I'll start packing."
Trixie was, once again, taken completely by surprise. She'd fully expected Twilight to shoot her down outright; she was asking her to leave home for an unspecified amount of time based on little more than rumor and speculation, all without any promise of reward. In the hundred times she'd run through this conversation in her head, not once had she considered that the librarian might actually volunteer to join her. All her carefully-crafted arguments had been for naught.
Twilight's voice snapped Trixie back to reality. "So, where did Dowsing Rod find the Tears anyway?" she asked, sorting through a stack of maps and travel guides. "They were in some sort of cave, right?"
"Right," Trixie confirmed. "Dowsing's notes mention a forest trail, leading to a cave at the base of a mountain. Unfortunately, they don't say which forest, or which mountain."
"Why not?"
"How should Trixie know?" asked the showmare, exasperated. "Maybe he didn't want somepony else to steal his credit, or maybe he was just lost at the time. Anyway, Trixie managed to narrow it down to either the Everfree Forest or somewhere near Hollow Shades. She tried to find it in the Everfree, but..."
"You went into the Everfree Forest by yourself?" Twilight asked. Nopony with any sense tried something like that. The Everfree Forest was dangerous on a good day, with unpredictable weather, wild magic, and a blatant refusal to make sense. Then there were the creatures who called it home; timberwolves, parasprites, cockatrices, and things ponies didn't even have names for lurked under its sinister canopy. In short, it wasn't a nice place.
Trixie at least had the sense to look embarrassed. "Well, yes," she admitted. "It's why Trixie ended up in that horrible hospital." That wasn't the full story, of course. What Trixie would never tell anypony, least of all Twilight Sparkle, was that she'd become completely lost almost as soon as she'd entered the forest. Nearly two days later, desperately thirsty and scared for her life, Trixie had managed to stumble across Ponyville. That wasn't the sort of thing that reflected kindly on a pony as amazing as her, so she kept it quiet.
Fortunately, Twilight didn't press her for a further explanation. "So we still don't know if the Tears are in there," she said. "We'll never search the whole forest ourselves. It'd be way too dangerous." She frowned, rubbing a forehoof against her chin thoughtfully.
"Do you have a map of the forest?" asked Trixie.
"No," Twilight answered. "Nopony's ever managed to explore it all." If only they had another clue, some lead to point them in the right direction. Really powerful magic, the kind that would indicate the presence of an artifact like the Tears, always left traces. Stories grew around them, superstitions and folklore from ponies who didn't know what they were looking at. The problem was that nopony went into the Everfree at all; there weren't any stories, because there weren't any ponies who could tell them.
Wait, no ponies? "That's it!" Twilight exclaimed, her sudden outburst making Trixie jump. "I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!"
"Think of what?"
"I know where we can start looking," the librarian answered. "Come on; we're going to see Zecora."