The Cloudsdale cloud coliseum was the second most widely recognized building in Equestria, only beaten by the Canterlot Castle itself. Every pony in all of Equestria you asked would have some idea, and being home to the Wonderbolts meant it was well-used beyond belief.
Knowing this Trixie still stood slack-jawed at the sight of the stadium in front of her. Sharing its name with one of the most famous buildings in the land she had reasoned the ground stadium would at least be well-maintained and used. To her utter surprise and disbelief it wasn’t.
In front of her stood a horrible abomination to all things related to the wonderful stadium up in the air directly above her. Broken doors lying to the side of bleach-painted walls missing entire segments here and there. The windows had lost their glass at some point –all of them– but nopony seemed interested enough to replace them so currently wind blew straight through, ripping the place apart more and more each time.
From her distance to the stadium she could see entire sections of the audience area’s had collapsed on themselves and lay in shambles. Shaking her head at the run-down building she resumed her focus on the original reason for her being there. Carefully walking closer to the building in-between fallen debris she soon found herself inside the front entrance.
The hall held much of the same state as the outside and without a single pony in sight. Sighing to herself Trixie kept her pace up, unwilling to slow down except to avoid running into things. The entire place held a ghost-like quality, as if ghosts could pop up at any moment. Regardless how she felt about the ghosts, Trixie didn’t want to stay inside for long for the fear of the building collapsing on top of her.
Finding a light in the door-less corridor she currently moved in she eventually exited out onto the main field. From her position centre stage the collapsed sections were really obvious and not as easily avoided.
None of that mattered a moment later, however. Standing in the middle of the area under the open roof was none other than her target for the visit, Soarin’.
He stood there with a gentle half-smile, waving a hoof as she neared. “I thought you’d show up. When I got that letter asking for your location I couldn’t help but wonder. Why would somepony I never met ask for directions where to find you? Turns out she needed to tell you something, huh?” He still had his awkward half smile plastered on his face but the hoof had since long returned to the ground as she got close.
Trixie snorted, barely contained annoyance in her voice. “You’re the one to talk. It seems wherever I am you know anyway. I would ask but knowing you I wouldn’t get a straight answer so I won’t.”
He nodded at that. “So what did you want either way?”
She regarded the stallion in front of her, judging how he would react to the information. He had seemed calm enough around Winter in her house, but that would be expected. “Did he know?” She couldn’t answer that question, only he could. Taking another deep breath she steeled herself. “Did you know Winter died twelve years ago? Two years before we met the first time?” What Soarin’ did next no amount of preparation could have ever prepared Trixie.
He laughed. A snicker sounding laugh for sure, but a laugh nonetheless. For several seconds his snickering was the only sound moving through the stadium as Trixie simply stared at him. “So the cat’s out of the bag finally? I always knew this day would come.” That confused Trixie even more.
“You knew? So why did you act so normal when you came to visit?! You should have known she was dead and started suspecting something the moment you saw her.” Her final sentence ended somewhere between speaking loudly and outright shouting, not that either of them seemed to take notice of her volume.
In fact Soarin’ barely seemed to pay attention at all, but proved Trixie wrong seconds later. “Of course I knew. It was all over the Equestria news. Suicide isn’t something that happens a lot around here. I personally went and found a changeling to replace her,” he said while taking a few steps back, leaving some room between them just in case. Being near an enraged unicorn was something he rather would have avoided.
Instead of blowing up even more, Trixie took several deep breaths and calmed down slightly before speaking. “I should’ve known when Chrysalis mistook me for somepony else. She isn’t colour-blind at least. But why?” The rage in Trixie’s expression had mostly been replaced with curiosity, finally getting some straightforward information.
In return she got a smile, broader and more sincere than before. “I needed to get you out, didn’t I?” At her confused expression he explained. “The police don’t like any random stallion bailing out little fillies, especially if they have no connection to each other and he’s leaving for the Wonderbolts days later. So I found a changeling to bust you out.”
“That seems awfully complicated. Why not ask for help from somepony on the street?”
He rubbed the back of his neck while grinning a little. “I needed somewhere to let you live too and that house was where I grew up, so I hoped it’d work for you too.” The grin faltered a little. “But the way she acted wasn’t okay. I was going to get you out of there, find someplace else but then you bust out on you own. I just left you alone after that, you seemed to be doing fine.”
Anger flared up in Trixie’s face for a moment but she quickly supressed most of it, letting the rest out with her words. “So what about the cellar, the bath and the cell I was placed in for almost a week?”
Some real sorrow came into his voice as he replied to the questions. “I’m sorry okay. I tried to do my best, what more do you want?”
She couldn’t answer that, because she didn’t know. She was angry, sure. But both Chrysalis and the changeling had already had their punishment, in some roundabout way. Deciding to leave the issue alone she opted for a shrug, leaving the interpretation over to him alone.
Something else that had been bugging her lately came to her. “How did you know?”
“Know what?”
Unsure how to fix the question for him to understand she started waving a hoof around the stadium as she spoke. “This, everything. You’ve been with me every step of the way: the orphanage, the princess and even now. How do you know it?” She looked to him hoping it would be enough for him to understand.
For Soarin’ it seemed the question still made no sense to him, but gave the best answer he could. “I can’t answer that,” he said with a shake of his head. “I promise one day you’ll know, hopefully.” Seeing Trixie accept his not-really-an-answer he decided to change the subject. “Do you have time now, I have something I’d like you to check out?”
She looked around the area for a time, searching for something out of place he could be referring to. “Here?”
He pointed a hoof towards the exit. “Outside by the lake, it’s not far from here.” With a nod in confirmation from Trixie the two of them left the run-down arena and instead started towards the only real lake in the area.
The two of them finally neared the lake. Soarin’ had somehow gotten lost on their way there and the two of them had spent the better part of an hour finding the right direction again. In the dimming light of the twilight the two of them finally reached the shore of the lake, hooves planted in the sand.
“How do you miss an entire lake? I wonder why they let you into the Wonderbolts if that’s your sense of direction.” Trixie’s voice could be heard all over the lake, she was rightfully upsat on her guide.
But Soarin’ had nothing to say to her. He gave a normal, “I’m sorry,” and kept walking. Across the shore they walked in silence like they had ever since Soarin’ admitted he was lost.
Before long the two ponies stood directly in front of a rather medium-sized black stone. Trixie estimated the stone could weight maybe a third of her, more than enough to be exceedingly heavy in any case. Next to the rock laid two coils of rope, one messily tossed to the side and the other neatly placed there.
Confused to exactly why Trixie was there she asked. With the tone of Soarin’s response you could think somepony had died there. “This rock resists magic and I can’t move it myself.” –He pointed to the messy pile of rope– “So I thought maybe the two of us manage to pull it back for someone to pick it up.”
She scoffed at the idea. “You just wanted me to pull a rock? Couldn’t you ask some of your friends to do that for you?” Feeling her stare on him he lazily pawed a hoof into the ground, digging a small hole. Sighing at the pitiful display from the stallion Trixie gave up. “Fine I’ll help you.”
Only getting a weak “Okay” in response she trotted up to the stone and stared at intently. Lighting up her horn she tried tugging on it, only to feel nothing. It confirmed Soarin’s earlier statement but made her frown. This wouldn’t be easy for them.
Focusing on the ropes she took the neatly coiled string and tied several sturdy knots around her middle, making sure they had no possible way to untie themselves. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Soarin’ watch her every move, not once moving to help her. Trying to tie the rope around the stone gave no result however.
As soon as the rope came into contact with the rock her magic fizzled out and dropped the rope to the ground. Grunting in disapproval she turned to her less than ecstatic friend. “Could you help me? This was your idea after all.”
It seemed to help get him out of his sudden depression and soon Trixie found herself securely tied to the stone, two massive knots holding her end and another two holding the stone. Giving the rope a few experimental tugs she felt the heavy stone budge a little, but not enough to dare pull it herself. “Aren’t you going to help?”
“Um…” Trixie couldn’t see his face, but what she could see were the few drops of something falling from it. Startled she stopped what she was doing and just stood there.
“Soarin’? Something wrong?” The words had barely left her mouth before he moved. Time slowed down almost to a standstill as she watched him fly towards her, wings pumping the air furiously to keep the speed up. The closer he came the slower time seemed to go, and just moments before he touched her the world froze.
He touched her and the moment was broken. Lifting her up in his forelegs he pushed out across the water, going higher and higher with the speed he built up before. On unsteady wings he hovered in the middle of the lake, desperately trying to hold on despite her struggling. “I’m sorry okay. I never wanted to do this,” he said through heavy gasps, the weight of two ponies and a rock above his usual load.
“Then don’t do it, just let me down. Please?” Through tear-stained eyes Trixie tried to plead, anything just so he wouldn’t drop her. She had been careful in her struggling, she didn’t dare to risk hitting a leg and making him drop her completely.
Through equally teary eyes he looked back down at her, their eyes meeting for a second. Little more than a whisper his final words reached her ears. “I can’t.”
Then he let go and she fell.
Barely hanging half a second in the air she slammed into the water, the stone forcefully dragging her downwards to the bottom. Light slowly disappeared from her eyes as the murky waters closed in from all sides, crushing her with the pressure.
Knowing her magic useless she struggled against the bonds tying her to the stone, without success. The struggling only served to deplete her already low air supply and eventually even that stopped. The instinctive reflexes slowly became increasingly difficult to ignore. Before long she couldn’t supress them any longer and what little air she had in her lungs left her.