My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record

by The King of Hearts

Missing in Action

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Missing in Action
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Twilight walked back in to the dormitory that Trixie had been housed in, happy that she had convinced Cadence to let her out. She really couldn’t blame the princess, she had been under so much stress, between the Crystal Kingdom, and the sudden wedding that had been forced on her by Luna and Celestia, Cadence was tried, and grumpy.

But, she apologized profusely when Twilight spoke to her, and instantly gave her permission to let Trixie out of her room.

“Trixie!” Twilight called, pounding on the door once again, “I talked to the princess! She that she wanted you to come out!”

There was no reply.

“Trixie?” Twilight called again, before opening the door, figuring she must have been in the shower, “I’m coming in!”

Walking inside, Twilight looked around for any sign of life, but after a twenty-second sweep of the room, she realized that her friend was nowhere to be found.

“Did she sneak out?” Twilight muttered, looking for any sign that she had left through the window, or perhaps some kind of spell. But, she found nothing.

Looking at the bed, Twilight noticed a small piece of paper sitting on the pillow.

Levitating it off, and unfolding it, she read the note aloud to herself.

“Dear Twilight, because I’ve upset the princess, I’ve decided to head back to Ponyville and spend the next few days brushing up on some new magic…” Twilight read, truly surprised that Trixie had taken this path, “Please apologize for me to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Trixie.”

Twilight frowned as she read it over once again.

“Hmm… well, if that’s what she wants to do.” Twilight said to herself as she folded the note and placed it on the table next to the bed, “I was going to talk to her about Alpha…”

Shrugging, she looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. The wedding was in just a little over an hour, and she still had to check with Rainbow Dash on the readiness of the Sonic Rainboom she had promised to the bride and groom.

With that thought, she was off again.

Work took her mind off the fool she had made of herself in front of Alpha earlier. So, that’s exactly what she was going to do!

////

Alex and Dash stood just outside the protective barrier surrounding Canterlot, as she flexed her wings in anticipation of her spectacular test run, while he watched on from a short, and safe distance away. When asked if they would be safe outside of the shield, Alex demonstrated his magical ability by covering his arms in flame, and shooting some sharp blades of fire at the big purple bubble.

They were promptly let outside.

“Are you sure you didn’t need to practice this at all?” Alex asked, as she rolled her eyes at him, “I mean, it’s a pretty tough thing to pull off.”

“Alex, I can do a sonic rainboom flying backwards, with my eyes closed!” She said triumphantly, as she cracked her neck for the fifteenth time.

“Okay, well, first, I don’t think closing your eyes would make a sonic rainboom any more difficult,” Alex replied, a flat frown across his face, “And second, you’ve been stretching, and cracking your neck for the last half hour. Are you scared?”

“Excuse me?!” She retorted instantly, her face almost betraying her hidden anxiety, “I-I’m just trying to conserve my energy for the big moment!”

Alex only gave her a small smile, which did nothing for her courage.

“Look, I know you. And whether or not you’re afraid… You can do it.” Alex said, rather sappily, as he tilted his head, “You are literally the greatest flier Equestria has ever seen. Not figuratively. And just because you haven’t done it in a while, doesn’t mean you should be scared.”

Dash’s first instinct was to argue, and deny her fears. But… she was a little past that point in her life. So, she only closed her mouth, and looked at him with big eyes.

“Come on, babe.” Alex winked, as she exhaled and looked at the sky.

“Okay…” She said, lowering herself closer to the ground, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this…”

Running forward, Dash took off in to the sky, and started to do a large loop, looking to position herself to just above the castle.

“Alex?” Twilight said, walking toward him from the front entrance, “Have you seen Rainbow Dash?”

Alex didn’t answer, he just pointed to the rainbow streak flying through the sky.

“Oh! Perfect.” She said, watching happily, as Dash accelerated toward the top of the barrier.

Dash fought the strong, changing winds that were always felt at these elevations, as she moved faster and faster toward her goal. It had been a pretty long time since she had reached rainboom speed… But as she moved faster, and faster, her confidence grew. This wasn’t going to be hard at all.

Both Alex and Twilight beamed at the blue mare exceeded her needed speed, just above the top of the purple bubble, and sent out a multicolored beam of light in every direction around her.

“Nice!” Twilight shouted up to her friend, as the mare saluted back to her.

“She’s been stressing the last thirty seconds for the past day.” Alex laughed, as he looked from his fiancé to Twilight, “And she does it in under a minute, with no hiccups.”

“She’s good at what she does.” Twilight nodded, as she noted the train tracks next to the blacked off entrance, “Um… Has a train gone by in the last hour or two?”

“I… Don’t think so.” Alex shook his head, as he gave her a confused look at the sudden question, “I’m sure I would have heard it.”

“Hmm.” Twilight said simply, looking toward the station in the town, “Maybe I should go check there…”

“What’s up?” Alex asked, as another rainboom went off in the sky, something he figured Dash would be doing multiple times until the wedding itself, “Who’s at the train station?”

“Well, Trixie got confined to her room by Cadence, so she decided to head back to Ponyville,” Twilight explained, “But, I talked to the Princess, and she said Trixie could come out. I guess she’s just a little grumpy from all the tension over the last couple of days.”

“Cadence did that?” Alex asked, frowning, “She didn’t seem all that grumpy when I ran in to her.”

“No? She must have just been caught off guard,” Twilight dismissed, “Anyway, I’ll see you guys at the ceremony.”

“Sure thing.” Alex nodded, as Twilight headed back toward the castle, “Tell Dash she looks great up there for me!”

Alex nodded before turning back to watching his marefriend.

Twilight hurried inside. Trixie wouldn’t have been able to teleport home with that barrier around the castle… And if Alex hadn’t seen a train, that meant she would have to be at the platform.

“I can still catch her.”

////

“Ugh…” Trixie muttered, her body screaming at her from the drop she had suffered from the ceiling of this… cave network, “Where am I? What happened?”

Looking around, Trixie found herself in some kind of cavern filled with reflective crystals. It was the kind of place Rarity and Spike would have drooled over… for different reasons.

“You’re in the catacombs underneath Canterlot Castle,” A voice answered, as Trixie jumped up fear, instantly backing in to a wall, “W-who’s there?!”

A pink alicorn stepped out from the shadows, and revealed herself to the scared mare, “I’m Princess Cadence. The real Princess Cadence.”

“Why are you down here?” Trixie asked, her nose crinkling at the state she was currently in, “And what do you mean by… real?”

“A changeling put me down here, and took my form,” Cadence explained, feeling a myriad of emotions at the sudden company she had been given, “S-she’s going to marry Shining Armor, and take over Canterlot!”

“Changelings?!” Trixie said, as everything came back to her, “Alpha… He-he…!”

Shaking her head, she decided to skip this thought for a moment. The princess was obviously in distress, and she didn’t need to exacerbate that condition.

Trixie sighed as she looked at the ground, “Well, don’t worry yourself. I’ll have us out of here in just a moment, I’m quite gifted in magic, I’ll have you know.”

“Actually, you can’t cast anythin—“

“Why can’t I cast anything?!” Trixie shouted, upon realizing that her magic wasn’t channeling to her horn properly, “Trixie does not like being an earth pony!”

Cadence flinched at the sudden outburst from what could have been a completely insane mare. She truly had no idea.

“The Changelings have some kind of magic barrier down here keeping us from using magic,” Cadence explained, “I’ve tried several spells. Nothing works.”

Trixie frowned deeply. She couldn’t just ‘magic’ her way out of this situation…

She truly was an earth pony.

“Well,” Trixie began, seeing a small crack in the wall, “Let’s try to smash some of this crystal, and find a way out of here… Trixie is feeling really naked right now.”

Cadence wasn’t sure if she could trust the semi-crazy mare, but she simply didn’t have a choice at this point, if she wanted to try and save Shining Armor.

And if they had magic cancelling all the way down here in these caves, it made her really worry about what they had up top.

////

Comments

[H3lios]

Still holding out hope that Alpha is gonna pull a Discord at the last minute and help stop the invasion.

[Misplaced Modifier]

I love Trixie's reactions in this chapter. good on ya' author man.

-Mis

[Berry Punch]

5493836 Late reply is late... and anyways, I've been here for two years, so I'm not very surprised.

[Booster Spice]

Alpha better be setting up a double cross, otherwise he is going to find out what a rainboom enema feels like.

Magic barriers? Do tehy mean like the shield, cant cast any magic On it, or a region, volume of effect, so you cant to things like illuminate, or mass effect a rock into the wall?

[SageBrony07]

True. I guess we now who Alpha sided with. Alright Tirek. I command you to kill that betraying son of a witch. Witch intended (Since Chrysalis is a witch in my opinion.)

[BBkat]

5496093
If he doesn't he's going to be a very dead changeling when Twilight gets her hooves on him.

[whizzball1]

inb4 Trixie uses chaotic magic to--Wait, the changelings know how to make a chaotic magic barrier, darn it.

[xluferx]

Alpha im still waiting for your super awesome and genius plan to save everything

[Chromio]

Alpha is gonna get rekt is he doesn't stop this invasion. Maybe it'll even score him some extra points with Twilight as well :P.

[pahnazd]

Come on Alpha, it's not too late to turn this around!

[kofiddleboy]

Twilight uses magic down there in the actual episode. There isn't supposed to be a barrier. Explanation, or...?

[JXWheeler]

5505957 Have you not been reading the entire story? Due to Alex entering the timeline, the episodes changed. If it was going fully according to episode canon, Trixie would not even be down there.

[Samellan]

So, she resorted to 20 second Search instead of using Spot check?

[tsaukpaetra]

it's too bad Alex never got to mention chaos magic was normally not targeted by the suppression field. She could have started practicing down here!