14: Faces in the desert
”So I guess this is it then? This is where we go our separate ways?” Trixie turned to look back at Soarin’ as the two of them stood at the very edge of Equestria’s border. A border only marked by a danger sign advising ponies to keep away.
Soarin’ takes a moment to read the sign next to him before responding. “Are you sure you’ll be fine? You said you had a friend waiting for you, but I can’t see her anywhere.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll meet my friend if I just walk in that direction.” Trixie pointed a hoof out in some arbitrary direction, not really looking but making sure it wasn’t towards Equestria.
He still looked unsure and at one point it seemed as he would say something, but in the end didn’t. Instead he turned around and opened his wings. “Okay then, I’m not to question a lady and you seem to know what you’re doing. You know where you can find me, so don’t be a stranger anymore.”
After saying their respective farewells Soarin’ did one large flap with his wings that sent him flying into the air. Trixie only stood and watched as the pegasus slowly made his way back towards Equestria, the lingering feeling she had forgotten something pressing on her mind. A moment later, before he could move ot of earshot it hit her.
“Soarin’ wait!” The shout stops him dead in his tracks and he turns around midair to face her.
“What?”
“You forgot to take off the inhibitor ring.” From the distance Trixie couldn’t see his face, but the body spoke of his embarrassment. She watched as he flew back to her in much the same speed as he left, though wing beats becoming louder and louder now. He landed safely just a little bit ahead of her, wearing a sheepish grin.
On his prompting she lowered her head to a more comfortable height for him to pluck the ring off her horn. As the ring came off he gave her another smile.
“Should’ve though about that one myself, huh?”
“Yes, you should. Now get going or you’ll be late.” He needed no more encouraging and swiftly took flight again. Before she knew it he had moved out of her sight and she was alone again.
She stood alone among the gravels and stones representing the southern border of Equestria, not a pony or otherwise in sight in any direction. She glanced out towards the rocky desert where her eventual destination lay and sighed.
“First things first, now where did I put that bag?” She began walking away from the sign, occasionally lighting her horn up and sending out a blue pulse before scanning the area for hits. She came upon a large rock formation stretching up over her head more than twice her height.
She sent out another pulse, this time more focused towards the formation. Faintly but unmistakably a signal returned to her and her face lit up with a smile. Pushing away the rocks in front of her she revealed a small hidden groove in the cliff, large enough to hold a decently sized bag. Which in this case it did.
Without hesitation she picked up the pouch from the hole and replaced the discarded rocks with different ones. Giving all her attention towards the pouch she shook it firmly in her grasp and heard the distinctive sound of coins hitting each other. Smiling she placed the sack on her back and happily trotted away from Equestria’s border towards the mountain in the horizon.
A much younger Trixie skipped out from the wagon that she now called her home. On the ground outside sat Mystery wrapped in a thick felt to repel some of the cold. Trixie walked up to the mare and placed herself directly in front of her before speaking.
“Hey Mystery, do you mind if we stop by the south Equestrian border sometime?” She had practiced her begging tone, which she used now in the hopes it would work.
“Why do you need to go to that border, child? And why just there?” Trixie had expected this question, Mystery always questioned when she asked to go somewhere. It became a game of sorts for them. This time she couldn’t play, she needed to go there.
“I need to hide something and that’s the best place to do it. I’ll pass by later to pick it up.”
Mystery sighed, giving in to the filly’s demands. “Fine little filly, we can go.”
“You’re hiding all the bits you saved up over the years?” Mystery asked, wearing a very confused expression.
“Six hundred and twelve bits to be exact. I counted. Besides I might need them later and not now, so why not.”
The only reply Trixie got from that was another sigh.
The wind tore into her sides, relentlessly pummeling Trixie from the side as she walked. With the pouch in a firm magical grip she pressed on through the raging sandstorm. Pressing her eyes shut against the strongest currents she held her head low as yet another gust of wind threatened to blow her away.
The storm came in yesterday evening, one week after her separation with Soarin’ and Equsestria in general. With no shelter in sight all she could do was press on, hoping and praying that her destination was near. Through sleepy eyes she squinted in hopes of seeing anything that could be used as a shelter, but no such luck. The rocks that covered the land around Equestria had grown fewer and fewer as she came further south. She hadn’t seen a single rock for the past two days, and hoping to find one now was wishful thinking.
Lighting up her horn for the sixth time that morning she scanned the surrounding area for any sign of life. The spell was a modified version of the spell she used to find her money, but targeted heart beats instead. Getting no response from the spell she discarded her current count and once more began counting a thousand steps before the next time.
A particularly strong gust pushed her to her knees as it passed, nearly knocking her pouch away from her in her surprise. She took a firmer grasp on the pouch as she laid there and waited for the wind to die down a little so she could continue.
As the wind died down again she got up on her hooves and quickly resumed her trek, hoping to put as much distance behind her as possible before the next time. Diligently counting every single step she took she moved forward through the desert, shaking away the sand as it built up on her back.
Reaching another thousand steps she lit up her horn once again, sending out a blue pulse of magic into the storm and waited. As the return feed from the spell came she studied the response with a hopeful mind.
“Found you.”
Almost straight in front of her, slightly to the left came her first response. The spell stretched over a distance, so she slightly altered her course and set off.
Using the spell much more frequently now, she used it to navigate with. If she moved off course she turned back and as she grew nearer and nearer the scan picked up more and more signals, all from the same general area. Pushing through the storm she squinted as the first sign of a mountain came up in her eyes, barely visible through the sand.
Forcing her way towards the mountain she only once or twice used her spell as a mean to confirm her directing, but gave up on it as a navigating tool. She watched as the mountain grew larger and larger as she got nearer, blocking out more and more of the horizon in front of her but at the same time shielding her from the wind.
As Trixie reached the foot of the mountain she realized just how small it actually was. Barely reaching three times her height it could barely be classed as one, more likely called a large rock formation. In the barren desert even this rock became a mountain to Trixie, and all it stood for.
In the cover of the rock and out of the wind she studied the formation, searching for any kind of abnormality. Beginning in the bottom she worked her way towards the middle when she found it.
Sitting just in the center of the rock was a small hole, barely larger than a unicorn’s horn at the base. Frowning she stepped towards the hole, still too short to reach it in her current position. Standing up on her hind legs she reached just far enough to reach it, and without further reason pushed her horn into the hole.
From somewhere within the stone came a click and the portion of the wall she had leaned against fell away. Stumbling and falling to the ground she fell through the hole opened by the click, forcing her body onto cold hard stone.
Pushing herself up again Trixie studied her surroundings. The hole she came through went straight out into the desert again while the other end led straight into the cold darkness. Checking the exit a short time she found another hole, much like the one on the outside but this time further into the tunnel. “For opening the door from this side I hope.”
As she finished her thought she heard another click and an instant later the door stood firmly in place once more, dumping her into pitch black darkness on all sides. Gathering some magic in her horn she lit up the immediate surroundings she took two moments before moving deeper into the tunnel.
The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever, only slowly declining as it went further and further into the desert ground. The cold hard stone replaced by dirt in places but more often than not she had all four hooves firmly moving on stone. The echoing of her steps could be heard from both directions and Trixie silently wished she could remove it, in fear of an ambush.
Deeper and deeper the tunnel went and she followed it effortlessly compared to the thundering storm outside. Occasionally a buzzing sound made itself known to Trixie but it never stayed long enough for her to find the source, let alone capture whatever made it. Suddenly the first turn came, abruptly stopping her in her tracks as she expected the path to continue longer.
With no other direction she turned and continued on. The side tunnel declined sharper and Trixie could feel a slight turn throughout the decline, as if the entire tunnel was a large spiral downwards. As the time passed and she got further and further down the tunnel a slight green tint started showing up in her light.
The tint grew more defined as time passed and minutes after she first noticed it her blue light had become a sickly mix between the two. Pressing on further she reached the bottom of the spiral as it flattened out underneath her and transformed into a straight tunnel that ended in a hole.
Seeing the end of the tunnel she quickened her pace a little, passing outcrops and side tunnels as she went. The opening grew brighter and brighter until she found her horn useless and provided no extra light, at which point she killed the energy transfer to it. Trixie slowed down as the exit came just a short few paces in front of her and took a careful quiet approach to the hole.
As silently as she could she crossed the threshold from the tunnel out into the dimly lit room. At once a thundering buzzing noise could be heard from all over the walls, the tunnel she came from and even the ceiling. Black forms moved in the shadows behind her and where the light failed to reach and the sickly green light wasn’t functional.
Pressed along the walls sat green orbs of varying sizes, providing ample light to travel in but not enough to see details with. The black forms moved across these from time to time and darkened the immediate area for a moment before they moved away and let the light shine forth once more.
Taking a deep breath she let out a deafening shout that echoed throughout the entire cavern, almost reaching up to the surface but fell short.
“Queen Chrysalis, I’m here with an offer.”
I'm spoiling you guys, but I don't care. I know where the story is going entirely now so all I have to do is write it out. Plus I got a lot of free time at the moment to write during (as long as no stories update then I'm distracted 
).
Wonder how weird this is for Soarin'. I mean he find a random filly on the street, then find out she's orphaned. Then she runs away from the orphanage and disappear for a decade. But she send him creepy letters with things she did, but then he gets a letter that looks like a suicide note. Just to track her down at the time she have an audience with Celestia, then get forced to escort her out of Equestria.
Don't expect an update in the next few days,but I'll try to quicken the pace a little bit at least.
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Hmm a year and a half before canterlot wedding. Time line in danger much?
2693758 I am going by the assumptions that every event didn't happen at the exact dates listed in the episodes. Why would Twilight take a 5-6 month break for no apparent reason? Also the wedding isn't next week, even changeling's need to plan ahead.
2693806
Was mostly commenting that she is taking a much greater risk than we have seen. I mean she didn't even talk to Celestia with whom she could have. If anypony could be told without messing up the timeline it would be Celly.
Messing with the events of Canterlot Wedding or even seeing Chrysalis at all after that just seems very risky to me. Only one other event between Boast Busters and Canterlot Wedding would be more dangerous to mess with and that is Discord.
2693821 There are reasons why she is going to Chrysalis at this point. One that was briefly hinted at this chapter (it's an obscure hint, don't worry I think only I would get it anyway) and a lot more that will come next chapter.
I understand the concern, but there's still no answer if she's tampering with or creating events. On a more spoilery note she only mix with four events throughout the story, not counting the rainboom at first.
2693878
My theory?
She's trying to "blunt the blade" by offering inteligence to Crysalis, who is planning a much more bloody "gate crash the wedding" attack...
"Sparkle and her friends? Just ignore them, Celestia's the one you have to worry about... just stick her in a pod and the rest will be easy!...."
Or... she wants to be turned into a changling to aid her hideing skills....
(I still think she should form some kind of confession document as a safety net... But then I am still hoping for a happy ending)
(If "Trixie" saves "Twilight"s body after Twilight has left it, would "Trixie" get her old body back?... if that happened, what would happen to Trixie's empty body?, disapear? revert time to somthing different? Occupied by a future version of Twilight?)