• Published 1st Jul 2012
  • 7,902 Views, 255 Comments

The Stars Will Aid Their Escape - Drhoz



The Great and Powerful Trixie meets a certain Messenger. MLP / Cthulhu Mythos crossover

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Familial Bonds

"But... we told them to go back to your farmhouse, Applejack. We told them!" Rarity's voice was rising to a shriek.

Applejack was just as worried, her hooves dancing on the floorboards of the library "Hold on to your britches, Rarity - I know we did, but we don't know if anything happened to them yet." her expression darkened "But if anything has I'll kick that showmare from here to Manehattan."

Luna looked down at the two ponies. "Applejack? Rarity? Hast something happened to your sisters and their pegasus friend?" She remembered the three filly flowerbearers from the royal wedding - the inseparable trio who had asked her how she'd got her cutie mark, before Applejack and Rarity had lured them back to the party.

Dash was already heading for the door. "It better not have!"

Luna shouted after her. "Hold! I can see clearly in the dark! I will assist you! Twilight, thou art exhausted. Wait here - if you have word from our Nightguard or sister, have it sent after us. Spike, write to Celestia - tell her somepony may have found Ivory Tower's book. Applejack, Rarity, please do not panic. Trixie did not order her creatures to attack anypony when she was in Ponyville. The foals may be safe, but elsewhere."

"I sure hope so, Princess. If those three are out trying to get a Monster-Hunting Cutie Mark again I'm gonna hang them by the ankles from the highest tree in Sweet Apple Acres."

Fluttershy bit her lip. "Is there anything you want the rest of us to do, Princess Luna?" she squeaked. "I could help you look, maybe..."

Luna looked down at her compassionately. "Thank-you, but you can help us here, Bearer."

Spike dispatched the parchment in a blaze of fire. "We can ask everypony if they've seen them, can't we, Princess? Maybe you could raise the moon, and give us some light so we could help with the search?" he pleaded, as fearful for Sweetie Belle's safety as he would be for her older sister.

Luna smiled. "Yes. To both, little dragon. Your concern does you great credit."

"These ponies are family, Princess Luna." a little spark of protective fury gleaming in his young eyes. On his fireproof perch in the kitchen, his pet phoenix nestling stirred, and blinked at the crowd.

Twilight hugged him. "Thank-you, Spike. I'm very proud of you. Fluttershy, Pinkie, could you help him ask everypony if they've seen the fillies anywhere tonight? They might have followed Rarity and the others into town. If any of the other pegasi come back, ask them to help search around the Apple farm.”

***

Big Macintosh and the Apple family's farmdog Winona were traversing the orchards again, calling and barking respectively. Overhead, pegasi were zig-zagging back and forth with lanterns, peering down between the trees and shouting to each other. Back at the farmhouse, Granny Smith waited by the bell, to draw everypony's attention if the fillies came back by themselves. They was a moment of surprise when the crescent moon suddenly rose, and lurched to a halt high above the horizon, but the extra light helped, and Princess Luna herself arrived moments later.

"This is where we saw them, Princess." said Rainbow Dash. "If they went back to the farmhouse like A.J. said then they should have gone that way. You checked their clubhouse, Mac? Any sign of them there?"

"Eyup. 'n Nope."

Luna nodded. The road stank, the gravel churned up by the hooves of the tree-things as they had passed by towards Ponyville. Any possible smaller hoofprints were lost in the mess. "Then we must try and follow them from here. Can your canine assist us, stallion Macintosh?"

Macintosh and the collie exchanged a glance. "Eyup. Reckon so, Princess." Winona sniffed at the ground, well away from the stench clinging to the road. She yipped, and zig-zagged back and forth between the trees, until she was sure she'd found the fillies' trail. There was only the one, which implied the Cutie Mark Crusaders were retracing their own steps, and Luna illuminated the shadows with a softly silver glow from her horn.

The search party followed close behind the dog, peering at the ground for fresh footprints. At least the nauseating odour left by the tree-creatures didn't permeate this deep into the orchard, and there was only the sweet smell of the apples, and the crispness of gathering dew. Winona suddenly yelped and jumped back, hackles raised. "What's the matter, girl?" asked Macintosh, already raising his lantern and peering suspiciously between the trees. Luna and the ponies cast their own gaze about, as the collie hid behind Macintosh, and whined.

Luna's gaze fell upon the grass at their feet. "Here. Thou see? The fillies paused here, then left ... towards the road again."

Dash ground her teeth "What were they thinking! A.J. is going to be so cross with them when we find them. I'd have thought Scoots'd be more responsible than this anyway. She's got me as an example, after all." she finished, proudly. Macintosh raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

The alicorn studied the hoofprints in the soft earth. "There was another pony here. Smaller than you, Macintosh. They went in the same direction as Apple Bloom and her friends. Towards Ponyville."

"I knew it! When I catch that showmare I'm so gonna buck her into next week!"

Winona whined, as she watched the princess prod at the earth. Luna's brow furrowed. "There is something... eldritch here. Uncanny. It feels as though something has ... cloaked itself in my night. Can you feel it?"

Macintosh and Rainbow Dash looked blank. "We see. Perhaps thou are not as sensitive to magic as ourself. We shall fetch -" Luna's head shot up, and she looked towards Canterlot.

"Princess?" inquired Macintosh.

"My sister. She is in distress."

Rainbow Dash's own head reared up to look. From this distance the city lights on the Canterhorn were tiny glimmers, barely brighter than the stars. "You can tell that from here?"

Luna's nodded, curtly, and looked torn "She is our sister... I must... I must go to her aid."

Dash and Macintosh exchanged a glance. Both of them fully understood the bonds of loyalty and family. "You better go, Princess. We'll hold the fort here." Dash snapped off a salute.

Luna smiled gratefully, concentrated, and vanished in a flash of midnight blue magic. Dash turned in mid-air, and turned to Macintosh and the other pegasi. "You heard the Princess! Trixie was here with the girls! So we gotta find her, and when we do I bags first kick!"

***

The alicorn of Night reappeared in the Celestial tower of Canterlot, the city below sleeping peacefully, oblivious so far of the horror visited upon Ponyville. Perhaps some wondered at the exodus of troops towards the town, but most were fast asleep, resting peacefully in the cradle of her Night, gentle dreams quieting their daylight worries. Luna hoped that she was wrong, and that nothing need disturb those dreams – but who there that a god can pray to?

“Sister? ‘Tia?” She could feel her sister’s presence, nearby, but felt no answer. Somewhere below in the archives, she could hear unicorns shout at each other as they unlocked the oldest cabinets, and coughed in the dust they disturbed. “Sister? Where art thou?”

She nosed open Celestia’s door. Celestia’s chambers were already half-filled with the ancient records she had demanded. The fireplace still burned warmly, the Day Princess’ phoenix dozing in the flames, but the alicorn herself...

“Oh, sister...” Luna rushed forward, horseshoes ringing in the marble. Celestia was crumpled on the floor, the latest missive from Ponyville forgotten on the rug. Her gaze was fixed at the wall, her pupils shrunken, and she was shaking. Luna threw her forelegs and wings around her elder sister, cradled her, supported her, and comforted her. “Please. Please ‘Tia. We may be mistaken. It may not be Ivory Tower’s work. He may have had nothing to do with the creature. How could his work have survived? You will not have to act as you once did, we swear it....”