To Die Twice

by Quite Quiet

15: Non-Equestrian Faces

A wind blew through the leaves above Trixie’s head, cooling the warm summer air around her. In the distance the sun slowly made its way towards the horizon, giving way for the night. She sat closely leaned to the tree next to her, basking in the warmth from the waning sun. Mystery sat just next her, positioned in a similar fashion with the same genuine smile upon her face.

Trixie’s smile faltered slightly when the subject of her question came to the front of her mind, not giving up its struggle to get heard. Sighing she gave in to the demands of her curiosity, knowing the question had to be asked sooner or later. Taking a deep breath she took a moment to think of how she was going to ask.

“Hey Mystery, is there any unbreakable deals you can make?” She tried to hide some of her curiosity, but didn’t succeed. Mystrey turned her head to regard the small filly next to her before she answered.

“I will assume it’s not a deal with the devil you mean?” to which Trixie gave a nod, before motioning for her to continue. “Then do you search for a deal between two under consent? Or a more forced deal only you have the ability to set up?”

Trixie had given a small, almost unnoticeable nod as the first suggestion came up, but decided to voice her answer too. “The first one, where you need two to come to an agreement. I don’t like the second one. Not one bit.”

Mystery just smiled at her answer. “Do you know how happy that answer makes me? I wouldn’t have giving you the second deal even if you asked, but since you only asked for the first how can I say no?”

---

The hive around her ceased their actions immediately. An eerie silence filled the air as neither the ones on the wall or Trixie dared to move. Trixie stared out into the green-tinted tunnels ahead of her, anticipating the answer that would come to her.

As one the creatures on the walls started moving their wings, creating a deafening buzzing noise that overpowered all Trixie’s attempts at silencing it. Slowly the dark creatures moved off away from the walls and landed in union onto the ground, creating a narrow path through the chamber that lead down the middle tunnel. Without further prompting Trixie set off down the path created for her by the changelings, keeping a brisk pace in worry of angering the one who most likely waited for her.

The tunnel looked much like the previous one, albeit with a fair bit more lighting to keep her eyes happy. Rocky formations stuck from some places but the walls remained mostly flat and devoid of decorations. The lights never stuck to the same places in a row, hanging both from the walls, ceiling and laying on the floor, some so in the way she had to navigate around them.

During her relatively short walk through the path the changelings followed closely behind her, leaving no possible escape route open. Both in the air and on the ground they followed, guided and in a way herded her towards her goal.

A moment later the tunnel opened up in a large chamber in much the same fashion as everything else, with no decorations and only the green orbs of light anywhere in sight. In the ground there had been cut a small path, almost like a road that Trixie now walked upon. She soon came to her destination, a large stone slab placed directly on the ground. Unbroken the flat stone surface looked remotely similar to an old table, without legs and with many more imperfections.

Trixie stopped at the table and waited. Alone she stood among the hundreds of changelings who had followed her into the chamber as well as those that had come from other areas. As the sound of hooves on the ground reached her ears the quiet buzzing died down entirely, giving way for a silence only shattered by the echoes from the hooves. Trixie patiently stood in place as the sound came closer and closer from somewhere in the crowd.

Then, seemingly appearing out of nowhere Queen Chrysalis stepped up to the table, wearing an annoyed frown. The Queen stood far higher than Trixie, both in figure and presence. Not a single bone in her body betrayed any sign of worry for the meeting ahead of them.

The queen looked down on Trixie as she spoke. “What do we have here? The little pony far from Equestria again?”

“Again?” Trixie tried to hide her surprise. She hadn’t expected that to be the first thing to come out of Chrysalis mouth.

“Hmm? Oh you’re not. All you ponies look so similar, you two even have the same colour. So if you’re not him, what do you want?” Chrysalis looked a bit more interested after the first few sentences, almost curious. “It’s not every day a pony like you barge into my hive with an offer.”

With the most confident expression she could manage, Trixie replied. “All the love you could ever need, if you let me use and train a changeling for a mission.”

“And how can you offer all the love we could ever use? Do not take me for a fool, pony, I have lived long enough to know that the only place to find that much love is Equestria. You do not expect me to believe you betray your country and princess to borrow a changeling?” The insulted tone of her voice told Trixie exactly how Chrysalis felt about her offer.

Trixie sighed. “Do you know who Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is?” after a confirmation from the Changeling Queen she continued. “She’s not an important princess at the moment. The general public barely sees her at all, but that going to change. In a few months’ time she’ll be getting married to…” She didn’t get any further before Chrysalis cut her off.

“Pony, don’t think that you will get away with things we already know. I already know of this wedding you speak of. I told you to make it worth it, and so far you have disappointed me,” Chrysalis spoke in a low, threatening tone as she studied the unicorn in front of her with a critical glare.

“So are you going to attack during it?”

Chrysalis scoffed. “Of course. Hide in the crowds admitted into the wedding, strike at the right time to take them down. For a pony who knows so much about us, you seem oblivious to our methods.”

Finally seeing her chance to get through to the queen Trixie pushes forward. “But why? Shouldn’t you focus on the princess instead? Nopony knows about her, so she should be easy to get rid of and impersonate.” Trixie could see the thought process going on in Chrysalis head after she put forth her suggestion,

“Pony, your kind always brings me the most interesting of suggestions. First him and now you? Very well, I can agree to this deal. You always want the same thing in return too, but why you would need one of my drones is of no concern to me,” Chrysalis replied after several minutes of silent thinking, during which the entire room was dead quiet.

Trixie wasn’t entirely convinced. “How can I trust you? You could be perfectly fine with locking me up somewhere as soon as I turn my back to you and nopony would know.” And Chrysalis laughed. Not a mocking or hurtful laugh but an entirely sincere laugh from hearing something amusing or funny.

“Whatever happened to the trusting ponies in Equestria, pony? I agree with you, but how can a pony such as yourself be so untrusting?”

“Bad experiences in the past.” It wasn’t an answer and they both knew it. Trixie hoped the partial explanation would be enough for the queen, without revealing anything more. Knowing her moment could be short-lived if she didn’t on with it, the question formed in her head. “So how about it, will you agree to do a deal and bind it with blood?”

The queen looked a bit hesitant for a moment but before Trixie had time to confirm what she saw it was gone. “Pony you are just as amusing as he was. Very well I will agree, but only on the condition that you tell me why you need a changeling.”

Trixie smirked. “Impersonate me of course.”

“Yourself?”

“Of course. I cannot be in several locations at once.” She could see how the queen tried to come up with a way for a changeling to help in any way, but soon the expression on Chrysalis told her she’d given up for the moment.

“None of my business I hear. Not that it matters much, the drone is yours to use after you complete your end of the deal.” Chrysalis was visibly impatient, a hint of annoyance creeping into her voice.

Trixie gave her another smile, this less taunting than the last. “Fine. Just repeat after me, but your own half of the deal.”

Before Trixie began the ritual her horn lit up in a pale blue light, giving every changeling in the room a warning she was about to cast magic. Half the changelings tensed as they waited for a result. From Trixie’s horn a short blue shard of magic came forth, no thicker than a piece of paper. Holding onto the shard with her magic she lifted a foreleg up from the ground and showed the underside to the queen.

Then, in a single fluid motion she slashed the shard straight across the bottom of her hoof. Blood came through the gash in droplets, as tiny as the smallest drop of water. Expectantly Trixie looked up at Chrysalis and motioned with her head towards the shard still floating in her magic. The queen gave her agreement after a moment and soon an equally deep gash showed itself on the bottom of a black hoof too.

Dismissing the shard with her magic again she returned her focus to Chrysalis. “I, Trixie Lulamoon, promise to supply Queen Chrysalis with all the information she asks for regarding the wedding with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.” She had practiced the words several times so there wouldn’t be any falter or hesitation in the words as she spoke.

“I, Chrysalis, promise to provide one drone to Lulamoon in return for the information she provides.” Chrysalis finished her part and Trixie motioned with her bloodied hoof for her to put up her own.

With both hooves up in the air Trixie wasted no time bumping them together, mixing the red and green blood with each other. “This deal will not be broken before both of us have completed our deal. If either of us deliberately hinders the other the deal is nulled and we both lose our lives,” Trixie explained as she quickly sealed both their wounds.

The face of Chrysalis became just a little bit paler after hearing that. “Are you insane pony? We could both die here.”

“Consider it incentive to follow the deal then. You can’t void it.” She had to stop herself from shaking. The calm exterior she showed to the queen betrayed none of the worry she felt for this agreement. “Your part of the deal comes first either way. I don’t need the changeling until afterwards.”

Chrysalis left her side of the table and instead moved to stand in front of Trixie as she spoke. “It does. So pony, explain to me everything I would ever want to know about the wedding.”

---

Trixie and Chrysalis spoke for many hours, Trixie giving the queen all the information she asked for. Dates, names, important moments and the likes. A detailed introduction to the princess came somewhere towards the end, when Chrysalis became interested in exactly how the pony in front of her expected her to defeat a princess and take her place. As the hours passed less and less information revealed the Chrysalis had any importance to her.

When the final such time came and she barely had more to give, Trixie asked Chrysalis if that would be enough. Confirming it would Chrysalis called on a random drone. Coming from seemingly nowhere the drone was then tasked to lead Trixie out of the hive entirely.

“Come back in five months pony, directly after the wedding. You will receive your end of the deal then.” Without giving Trixie a chance to respond Chrysalis was gone, seemingly swallowed by the darkness behind her.

The tunnels twisted around her and slowly the crossed familiar paths she had taken to get down. She recognized several passages lined with glowing green orbs as they passed and eventually they came upon the original chamber where she had spoken her first words in the hive. Lining the chamber walls were still countless changelings, all stopping to stare for a moment as she passed before continuing with their designated task. Through the first sloped tunnel she passed under total silence, her guide mute and she lost in thought.

Perhaps twenty minutes later she once more came upon the wall that had first led her into the chamber, looking exactly the same as last time she saw it. Her guide chirped one time and pointed towards the hole she had previously found before turning around and returning to the depths.

Sighing Trixie lit her horn up brighter than before and moved towards the hole and then gently inserting it. A similar clicking noise could be heard and soon the wall again fell down and revealed the desert hidden behind it.

A rush of fresh air reached her lungs and she realized just how damp the air had been around her until that moment. Quickly stepping out into the darkness of the desert before the wall could return and block the hole, she was greeted by the sight of a brightly lit moon.

Illuminating her surrounding enough that her horn wasn’t required the moon hung in the sky and displayed the world in its midnight glory to Trixie. Her eyes adjusting to the half-darkness after a moment a thought sprung to her mind that she decided to voice.

“Now, if I were a rare powerful artifact of doom, where would I be?”

Author's Note:

This guy >>2697579 guessed right on one point, but he guessed so many things it doesn't count. Also I hope you're reasonably happy with what I did for the Magic Duel. It's been the plan all along, since the amulet is dangerous why risk it?

Bonus points if you know who dies in five chapters and who the murderer is.