Heart of Stone
Chapter Eight: Into The Dark
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Trixie and the others made their way outside with the storm brewing above them, and even though Trixie usually enjoyed the smell of rain, it was over shadowed by the threat they were about to face. Anger, sorrow, and regret all battled for control of Trixie’s heart. Rainbow Dash was flying next to them keeping a sharp eye on everything around them while Pinkie Pie took the lead.
Pinkie Pie seemed to know exactly where they were going, but it seemed impossible given the fact that to the best of Trixie’s knowledge Pinkie had never gone before. “How do you know where we’re going?”
Pinkie Pie smiled. “Pinkie sense.”
Rainbow Dash flew down closer to Trixie’s side, “And the others told us where the monster broke out at.”
Pinkie’s face managed to get even pinker for a moment. “Oh yeah, and that too.”
Trixie smiled nervously at the two, she would have loved to enjoy their silly antics a little more but this whole thing with the Deep One was bothering her immensely. Whatever these creatures were, they did not belong in this world. The world of Equestria was a sacred place full of happiness and peace. Even if there were bad parts of it, the kind that Trixie could first hoof attest too.
Her driving force came mostly from the fact that somehow she knew that Maud was in trouble. Twilight was probably fine, she had stronger magic then anypony, but Maud although strong was not used to dealing with creatures of dark magic. Trixie let out a small prayer while they walked. “Please Celestia, keep her safe.”
It took only fifteen minutes before they arrived to the side of a knocked over empty cage along the side of the road. There was a black tarp waving harshly in the wind, it had gotten stuck around the cage door. The bars looked like they were in good condition, but further inspection showed a saddlebag lying near the cage.
Trixie investigated the bags while Pinkie looked into the cage a little more. Rainbow Dash circled their position keeping look out, although she had to fight against the wind. Inside the bag were some tools and even some samples of the purple crystal. The crystals gave Trixie a creepy feeling, so she avoided them. There was also a headlamp; this would come in handy inside the cave, so Trixie grabbed it.
Pinkie Pie looked at Trixie with a grave expression. “Trixie, I think I found something.”
A lump formed in Trixie’s throat. “W-what?”
Pinkie leaned over and whispered. “Allow me to shed some light on the situation.” She then picked up Twilight’s saddlebags, they had to be hers because they shared her cutiemark. A lamp was then pulled out of the saddlebags. “I found a lamp.”
Trixie blinked. “A… lamp. Wait, was that supposed to be some kind of pun?”
The silly grin spreading over Pinkie’s face was answer enough for Trixie. Terribly timed jokes aside, the lamp was going to be useful. They would need lighting for the cave. A thunderous crack of lightning went off above their heads. Then the rain came pouring down hard, forcing Rainbow Dash to become grounded. Trixie was used to such weather as despite the lack of many plants out here constant thunderstorms were a thing during spring.
The three each donned a head lamp, and Pinkie Pie wore the lantern she found around her neck. They didn’t turn them on yet but the trio would soon enough. Together they headed to the cave on Mount Absolution, none of them had any time to waste so they made haste.
It took just over two hours to get to the cave at their quickened pace, despite the rain and the wind pushing them back. They had made good time. The cave was dry, and dark. Trixie could hear whispers emitting from inside the cave, but the sounds they made were inequine. Nopony wanted to enter the cave, not even to get out of the rain, but they had no choice. Trixie knew that Maud was inside.
Stepping into the cave had a feeling similar to that of being covered in a thick nasty slime. Even if Trixie had to check to make sure she was in fact only soaking wet because of the rain, she still felt sick in here. Her skin was trying to crawl away from the cave.
The three of them made their way inside carefully. Their headlights cast odd shadows across the cave tunnels. Somehow it felt even darker in here than it did last time, almost as though the darkness was trying to swallow the light. The darkness looked like a thick wall of ink.
Pretty soon Pinkie Pie began twitching. “Who’s whispering?”
Rainbow Dash looked at her, and then at Trixie. “Do you hear it too?”
Trixie nodded. Although she couldn’t understand a word of what was being whispered to her she was pretty sure who was responsible for it. “It’s the Deep One. Trixie doesn’t know what it’s saying, but we need to hurry.”
As they approached the room with the black pillar Trixie began to hear Twilight speaking. She arrived at the entrance to the room and saw a dozen Deep Ones standing around the pillar looking up to Twilight. Maud stood next to Twilight, her eyes were covered by a white film that made her look like a zombie. There were torches lit all around the raised platform that Twilight stood on, next to her stood that flat platform, though now Trixie thought it was less of a table and more of an altar.
Twilight’s voice rose up and echoed across the room. “This vessel has potential beyond what we could have hoped for. Maud, would you get ready for the sacrifice.”
Maud crawled on top of the altar lying down on her back and spreading all four legs. Twilight went over to her and tied leather restraints around her legs keeping Maud from moving. A sinking pit formed in Trixie’s stomach.
Pinkie Pie nudged Trixie before whispering, “What should we do?”
Trixie didn’t look away from the scene but she knew what her two friends were capable of. She could feel her tail clamping down in fright. Still she summoned forth all the courage she had left, she was going to need it to save Maud. “Rainbow Dash, we need you to make a tornado or something to keep the Monsters busy. Pinkie Pie, you will follow Trixie and help release Maud, and then you take her out of here. Trixie will save Twilight.”
The two of them nodded in agreement of Trixie’s plan. It was the best she could come up with at such short notice. Normally she would have Pinkie Pie deal with the crazy unicorn keeping it distracted. But with how Twilight was acting, Trixie didn’t trust anypony’s chances of dealing with her.
Rainbow Dash took off in a flash leaving a rainbow streak behind her, and she quickly flew around the Deep Ones in a circle. A powerful wind picked up inside the cave and a rainbow colored tornado formed before Trixie’s very eyes. The deep ones were dragged up into the air and spun around helplessly. Pinkie Pie and Trixie ran forward to save Maud while Twilight spat curses at the rainbow colored tornado.
Standing next to the Altar Trixie focused on the four leather straps and although she could use her magic she still had her teeth. The leather straps were old, and tasted like copper. Maud simply lay there her expression was hollow and dead, emotionless even for Maud. It was like she was empty inside.
Trixie couldn’t help but to give Maud a soft kiss on the lips. “I love you Maud, and I will always will.”
Twilight’s inraged voice filled the cavern. “What are you two doing?”
Trixie quickly looked at Pinkie who had scooped up Maud. “Run, get her away from here, and away from any strange purple crystals.”
Pinkie Pie took one last glance at Trixie her eyes were wet with tears. Could she know what Trixie had planned? Rainbow Dash stopped her tornado all of a sudden causing the Deep Ones trapped inside to go flying off in every direction and crashing into the cavern walls. Trixie then yelled, “Go with Pinkie and keep her safe!”
Both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash ran off and left the cavernous room, leaving Twilight and Trixie alone. Trixie looked at Twilight. Twilight’s eyes began to glow with green evil intent and her horn held the same green menacing color. Trixie felt heavy, and she fell to her knees with a whimper. “It would have just taken one sacrifice and I would have had enough power to protect Equestria from anything. Even Lord Tirek would have bowed before me. But if I can’t take Maud’s magic, then I shall take yours!” Twilight said, in a chilling low voice.
Trixie could feel her energy being sapped out of her entire body as a strange green aura stretched out from Twilight and surrounded Trixie. Trixie was vaguely familiar with magic vampirism. It was something that was used by some of the worst criminal’s in Equestrian history, and most famously used by Lord Tirek.
Trixie heard the voice coming from Twilight’s mouth. Her voice was changing, growing deeper, every syllable not being heard just by Trixie’s ears but by her entire body. “This vessel is strong, though she was far too curious about how our magic worked. It was easy to manipulate her fears and create the catalyst we needed. With her in our control we shall return this world the natural state. The old monsters will return. Their power unfathomable, their terror unquestionable, and their power unstoppable.”
Trixie found her eyes becoming heavy as the voice continued. “We thank you Trixie, if not for you we would never have found such great ideas for how to start the return of the Old Age. We think we shall start with ponyville and finish what you started so long ago.”
The thought was painful and Trixie did not want to imagine what this monster would do to ponyville. She tried to fight it but felt her energy being evaporated even more. She was so tired now. All she wanted to do was sleep. The Deep One continued. “We shall rule this world. No pony will survive our wrath. We will destroy it all and rebuild it anew.”
Trixie closed her eyes and looked deep inside herself, she felt so powerless against this monster. Was there nothing she could do to fight it. Suddenly something snapped and she opened her eyes to see Rainbow Dash tackling Twilight. At that instant the spell was cut off and Trixie felt her strength return.
There was no time to lose as Trixie got up and walked over to Twilight who was struggling to get away from the blue pegasus. Trixie knew only one way to fix this. And that was to take up an offer that she never wanted too.
She leaned next to Twilight and apologized as she touched horns with her. “I’m sorry, this happened. I’ll take all your crazy Twilight; I’ll carry your burden.” She then whispered in Twilight’s ear. “I will take your power now, Deep One.”
A light appeared from Twilight’s horn and latched onto Trixie’s without hesitation. It was like a new sight opened up, one layered right above her old one. She could see Twilight’s pink aura, still tinged by hints of red, and poisoned by splotches of black and green tumors. Those magical tumors leapt from Twilight and buried deep into Trixie.
“Very well, protect your friend, sacrifice yourself, and witness our true glory.”
After a few moments she pulled away from Twilight who was crying. “Trixie… what happened?”
Trixie felt something dark inside her growing at an incredible rate, she had only a few minutes at most before the corruption was too powerful for her to fight off. Trixie looked to Rainbow Dash but refused to allow her weakness to show. “Take her out of here, she’s all better now.”
Rainbow Dash looked sad. “You’re my friend… you know that right?”
Trixie felt something inside her head pulse bringing with it new agony. “I am going to finish this once and for all, quickly take her and leave.”
“But I can-“ Rainbow tried to say.
“Look you can only carry one pony and navigate those tunnels at a time. Now go.”
A pained look crossed Rainbow’s face as she picked up Twilight, Twilight hung limp like a rag doll, but at least she was free from the Deep One. Rainbow Dash turned to leave, but before flying off she glanced back at Trixie. “Don’t you dare break your promise.” She then took off into the dark tunnels leaving Trixie all alone.
Well not quite alone as something inside Trixie began speaking to her. It was something new, something alluring. It sounded a lot like her own voice only confident and sensual. “Can you feel it? Can you feel the pure power coursing through you?”
Trixie could feel it now, an incredible force was running through her. So much magical energy was at her hooftips that she could shake the very foundations of Equestria if she so chose. Maud would be so excited to see how much magic she now had.
The voice continued. “Yes you can make Maud’s world magical. Nopony would hurt her, nopony would hurt you. We can make sure that we never go through that again. Maybe even stop anypony from going through that again.”
Trixie agreed that this was indeed real power and that she could do so much good with it. The temptation to go outside and do something, anything was well worth it.
The voice went on to offer, “We can finally gain the respect we deserve from Celestia as well. Think of how happy she will be when she sees how much good we will do.”
Trixie laughed with pleasure at the idea. All she ever wanted in school was to be as good as Twilight. Now with this much power wasn’t just as good, she was better. The power was building inside of her as she sat there. It would be so nice.
“And we can create happiness in the land. We won’t tolerate any evil or meanness in our kingdom.”
Trixie was ecstatic about the idea, the idea of a kingdom of happiness. It sounded so good. A place where nopony would have to worry about being bullied, run out of their home town, or betrayed by their friends. A place where one could sleep in constant safety at night.
“Oh yes, it will be grand. It will be full of happy bouncy singing ponies, it will be just like ponyville.”
She could see all the new magic spells twirling inside of her mind, she enjoyed the power, the knowledge, and the ideals. So many spells were floating at the tip of her horn. All of them a little blurry until she focused on them. One in particular was quite fascinating; Emerald Lightning.
“Than we can make everypony love us. Nopony will be allowed to hate us. If they do, we will punish them. The entire kingdom would be ours to make safe and happy.”
The last time Trixie tried to make everypony love her, she had gone and enslaved an entire town. The ponies she grew up with, even if they didn’t remember or care about her were all punished by her. This couldn’t happen, Trixie knew she couldn’t be the one to decide what others did. Anger flared up as she realized that this voice whispering ever so sweetly to her was not her own.
Trixie sucked in a quick breath before shouting, “NO, TRIXIE WILL NOT ALLOW ANOTHER PONYVILLE!”
The voice inside of her turned deep and growling, it was the Deep One’s voice now. “Too late, in a few more seconds we will be in control and you will be our new puppet.”
Trixie would not allow this, and realized the mistake that the Deep One had made when giving her access to new magic. She looked at the black pillar and focused her magic into her horn. The one spell she had found interesting was luckily just the right kind. The Deep One seemed to know what she was planning to do. It said in a worried voice. “What do you think you are doing, you are our vessel. Stop this at once. We won’t allow this! He won’t allow this!”
Trixie did not stop. Instead she focused even more power into a green point of light at the end of her horn. She then shot the light out as a green streak of lightning at the pillar. It homed in dead center of the pillar. She could feel her horn throbbing from the magic use. She needed more power though.
Forcing more of herself into the spell a new surge of pain shot through her skull. Wet and hot liquid ran down her nose, it tasted like copper. The lightning was increasing in power and size. Ripples of crackling green electricity crawled up through the pillar. The Deep One let out a howl of tortured pain. She must have been doing something right.
Trixie realized that she needed yet more power if she was going to destroy this thing. Pushing herself any further was a poor idea, but she could not stop now. She poured every ounce of emotion, thought, and energy into the Emerald Lightning. Her entire body began to scream in pain. She yelled aloud as the pain racked her, every muscle exploding into white hot agony. Yet the pain fed into her lightning and it easily doubled in size.
Wet and hot liquid ran down her eyes and her ears. At first she thought maybe she was crying, but when she blinked her eyes open her vision was tinted with red. This spell was killing her but it was also destroying the Deep One.
Trixie wouldn’t give up, not now, not ever. Nopony could deter her now that she finally had real power. Biting back the sickly metallic taste in her mouth she focused solely on keeping the spell up and running. The pillar had cracks all up and down it. Off in the distance Trixie could see the fish ponies all writhing in agony as they began screaming in perfect unison.
With one more push Trixie felt something digging into her skull before violently tearing away. The pillar exploded in a flash of black light. The Deep Ones writhing in pain on the ground turned into stone. Trixie felt the last bit of the Deep One inside her scream as it vanished into oblivion. All the new found magic, power, and knowledge was taken with the Deep One and Trixie collapsed into a pool of crimson.
Lying on the cold ground Trixie felt herself fading off into the darkness again. It was hard to see through the red and breathing was harder still. Time lost all meaning as she lay there. Only the perfect agony kept her company. For all she knew it had been minutes, or days. Finally she blinked and found that a pair of purple hooves were standing next to her. A moment later Twilight knelt down besides her. Tears were running down Twilight’s face.
Trixie wheezed painfully. “Did I do good… Did I finally become a good pony?”
Twilight sniffled. “Yeah… you did. You’re a good pony now, Trixie.”
Trixie coughed. “Tell Rainbow Dash I’m sorry for breaking our promise.”
Twilight nodded. “I will.”
Trixie closed her eyes as her vision became too bright. “And tell Maud that… I love her.”
Twilight’s voice was fading away but Trixie heard her. “She loves you to.”
“Thank… you.”
And just like that Trixie was gone, falling into a bright white oblivion. Rainbow Dash would be proud, because although this may not be the most iconic of deaths, at least she could claim; that Trixie had gone out in style.