Heart of Magic
Chapter Four: Secreted Secrets
Trixie had to admit that she really didn't like traveling out at night like this. The last time she'd had to use her sneaking cloak was a few years ago, and even then it was only for a small meet up with Twilight. Tonight was different, there were going to be huge concerns brought up, and the situation was looking dire. A dead alicorn, an attack on the border, and one committed by the Alicorn Empire at that. The one thing Trixie always knew would come back to bite her in the flank, but that she desperately hoped never would, bringing the Alicorn Empire back.
Winding through buildings in the dead of night in the silence of this town was surprisingly second nature to Trixie at this point. Few dark memories were left to bother her out here, instead she was less afraid for her own safety, and more afraid for that of the ponies of Equestria. If the Alicorn Empire was declaring war, then it would take more power than Equestria had to actually save them this time. This was all her fault, she caused this when she helped Red Velvet free the Alicorn Empire. She thought she was doing the greater good, and sticking it to the man, or well to the princess and fighting the system. Instead she was being manipulated by a pony who was extremely skilled in using others emotions against them. Red must have made a great politician.
The lights of the giant Tree Castle were on in a few windows. Night lights were still sparse in Ponyville. The sound of something metal hitting the ground ahead of her made Trixie stop dead in her tracks. From around the side of a house a tin can rolled out in front of her. The sound of hoofsteps grew closer. Trixie hid behind the wall and using a bit of magic enveloped herself in an invisibility spell. It was still a hard spell to use, but if she stayed perfectly still the spell worked like a charm.
Around the corner appeared Applebloom and Scootaloo. From the rosy color of their cheeks it was clear the two had been drinking. Scootaloo was the worst of the two as she was practically falling on Applebloom who was trying to walk the two of them home. Applebloom sounded mildly upset. "Scoots, first ya kiss me, now ya fall on me."
Scootaloo laughed. "I'm falling all over you, baby."
Applebloom rolled her eyes and continued past Trixie's hiding spot. "Ah have an important meeting tomorrow over mah latest invention. Ah can't afford to get drunk like this all the time."
Scootaloo laughed some more. "And here I thought you were mad at me over the kiss."
Applebloom let out a sigh. "Ah'm not mad, it was obvious you were trying to kiss my cheek... and missed."
Scootaloo laughed. "Hey, you have another cheek I'd kiss."
Applebloom and Scootaloo were quickly walking out of hearing distance as Trixie watched. "We both have boyfriends, neither of whom I want to give any 'creative' ideas to."
Scootaloo nearly shouted. "Whooo, foursome!"
Applebloom's voice came out sharp like a knife. "Who do you think Ah am? Trixie?"
Ouch, that hurt. Trixie only had a foursome... a few times. Really it was part of a healing process... probably. Still she wasn't that much of kinkster, it was Maud's fault. Either way Trixie ignored the comment from her cousin and decided she might very well have a conversation with her later. For now she was going to complete her mission.
Once she finally reached the castle she actually saw a familiar face waiting for her just inside. Luna stood there with a friendly smile upon her lips. Nopony else was here yet, but once the doors closed behind her Trixie threw back her hood. Hiding her identity wasn't needed inside the castle. "Luna, how are you doing?"
Luna grumbled. "Between taking care of Twilight, and working with my sister... I'm quite stressed to be honest."
Trixie nodded. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Luna's eyebrow raised and a sly smile grew on her lips. "If Twilight makes a mess of things, you can clean it up."
"Just because I'm not a princess anymore doesn't mean that I'm going to be your servant you know."
Luna nodded. "Of course not. You're free to do whatever you want." The way she said it almost came off condescending.
As the two walked down the halls Trixie was reminded of the first princess meeting she'd attended. It was there that she learned one of the most important, and painful lessons about royalty. Everything is a power game. Even friendship is used to manipulate each other. Luna just so happened to be the best at this game, and thus she was forever marked as the least trustworthy of the ponies meeting tonight.
Luna's smile faded the further they walked. They went right past the map room and continued down the halls toward a bookcase sitting in the middle of the hall. To be fair there were quite a few bookcases lining the halls, this one just so happened to be a little bit different. They paused in front of it and with a pull of a few different books, the bookcase slid to the side revealing the secret door. Luna didn't descend right away.
"Trixie," Luna said carefully, and quietly.
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to be honest with you before we go down there. Twilight's taking this hard, and obviously so. But, and I do stress the but, she's not the only one. Each of us are struggling with this. An enemy has appeared that can so easily slay one of us, and with that knowledge comes too the knowledge of how vulnerable even me and my sister really are. There is every possibility that we may not be here at the end of this engagement."
Trixie's eyes widened as she stared at Luna. "It's not like their using Balefire, right?"
Luna offered s small smile. "Wouldn't matter if they were, they still have the ability to do great harm to us. Even the windigo were not so much a threat as this. A lot of secrets will be revealed in coming months, and I fear that twilight will not be able to handle all of them. You on the other hoof... You have earned the temperament needed to handle some of this knowledge. Even though my sister does not wish to have you become so important to these meetings, I do want you to. We'll need a sound head to join us."
Trixie could feel her sense of peace and quiet already slipping away. The life she'd worked so hard for was trying to leave her. She did not spend the last eighteen years fighting for peace and quiet, just to have it taken away at the slightest hint of danger. "I'm sorry, Luna. But I'm retired from all of this. The only reason I'm here tonight is so that I can offer any information that I can to help. I may have some unique insight about Red that can help the rest of you fight this battle, but that's the extent of what I'm willing to offer."
Luna stared at her for a long moment. Finally she looked back down the stairs and started down them. "That is fine as well."
Trixie looked around the hall for a quick moment. For some reason she couldn't get rid of this feeling of being watched. Her instincts may be telling her something, but then again with such high levels of secrecy, there was no way in Tartarus that she wasn't being watched by one spy or another. Trixie let out a sigh and started down the steps toward her meeting.
The staircase went down for ages. The polished oak walls quickly melted into blue crystal walls revealing the original skin of the Crystal Tree Castle from so long ago. The steps became crystal as well creating an eerie echo as their hooves clopped along them. After what felt like a few minutes, and with Trixie's legs burning from the effort they finally exited the staircase and entered a long rectangular room with a table in the middle. A few doors led to other small rooms, one of which was a bathroom, which was currently closed. Celestia stood at the far end of the table looking down at it. A holographic map of southern Equestria stood against it. Trixie followed Luna up to the table but stopped to stare at it.
Red markers along the line of where Southern Equestria met Northern Equestria stood out to Trixie. There were half a dozen of them, and somehow Trixie couldn't believe they were all alicorn attacks. Some of them were in the deep jungle area asking some more serious questions. What was really going on here?
Celestia's voice came out full of warmth and sounding just as youthful as the day Trixie first heard her lectures in the school. "I see you've noticed the map already."
Trixie nodded. "So what's going on here?"
Celestia answered. "These are known Changeling camps. Chrysalis's changelings that is."
Trixie stared at them. "How many babies does she pop out a year if she can make this many camps in all of what, twenty years?"
Celestia laughed. "She doesn't 'pop babies' out."
"Oh?"
"No, she lays eggs."
Trixie rolled her eyes. "Of course she does, because why wouldn't she. Creepy alien pony thing."
Luna interrupted. "I think that would be offensive to Thorax's changelings as they do much the same."
Trixie gave her a level stare. "The fact that she lays eggs, and the fact that Chrysalis is a creepazoid are not necessarily the same thing."
The bathroom door swung open with a hideous bang and Twilight stumbled out. Twilight was drenched in sweat, and held aloft in a pink aura next to her was a bottle of Celestia Hellfire Whiskey. Twilight drank greedily from the bottle and pulled away with a look of disgust that was only matched by the hiss she made to accompany it. "How, do ya sthand the falvor?"
Trixie blinked. "Oh my god, Twilight... You're drunk. I'd tell you to go home, but I think you're already here."
Twilight looked, mostly at her, and dropped a few swears that Trixie did not feel like acknowledging. "You, you're the drunk. Not, not... um... not me. There, I told you."
Trixie looked at Celestia. "How long has she been like this?"
Celestia shook her head. "About five minutes after she heard that Lemon Heart died."
Trixie looked once more at the map. So, the Alicorn Empire came in, ruined one of our towns, killed Lemon Heart, and that's horrible, but why are we staring at these locations where Changelings are."
Luna explained. "Because we don't know where the Alicorn Empire has been hiding all this time. Maybe if-"
"Because-" Twilight butted in as she walked into the table and fell over it. "-Changelings are WEIRD! I mean, they like... change."
Luna glared at her. "Twilight, if you're not going to help us in the meeting, you should go lie down."
"No! You're not my mom." Twilight said. She then pointed at Celestia. "I think she is though."
Celestia's face turned pink. "Twilight, please refrain from making comments right now."
Twilight looked over at Celestia. "No! I won't. You know, if I'm really your kid, what you made me and Trixie do was even worse. We were kids, not soldiers. You know I hate you for that."
Celestia lowered her head and looked at the map again. "I... know."
Twilight's voice grew in volume. "BUT! Even if I hate you for that. And I do. I can't help but love you too. You're a total train wreck of a queen, but you're still my mom and I love you for that."
Celestia's eyes widened. "You... you still love me? Even after the archive?"
Twilight gave her a tomboyish grin if Trixie ever saw one. Stood up on her hind legs. "Everypony listen, Celestia's my mom and I lo-" Her eyes rolled back and Twilight fell backwards.
Everypony seemed to reach out at once to try and catch her but it was a gentle pink aura that managed to wrap around Twilight and gently lower her onto the floor. For a moment Trixie stared at Twilight's unconscious form. She didn't grab Twilight, and nopony here had a pink aura save for the sleeping drunk herself. Trixie looked once more at the table, and realized it was a very familiar table.
Trixie cleared her throat. "Luna, is this the very same table you and Twilight like to have your secret sex sessions on?"
Luna's eyes widened. "How did you-"
Trixie's horn lit up and she glanced upward toward the roof. It was a crystal roof and clear enough to see through. A small chamber stood up there for repairing the lighting system. A pink face with a mane of lavender with a red stripe was staring down at her. Next to Amber was Hush Puppy's yellow face staring down. Trixie smiled up at them as she used a bit of telekinesis to grab them both by their ears. "You two are not just grounded, you're both super grounded."
***
Amber found herself sitting on the wooden floor next to Hush Puppy. Her entire body was stiff from a mix of fear and anger. They got caught, and now they were both going to be in a lot of trouble.
Hush Puppy groaned. "They called my mom! Why did you have to do that? Twilight was drunk, she would have been just fine."
Amber glared at him. "Well excuse me, but I couldn't just let Twilight accidently smash her head into the floor or the side of the table now."
"Well at the very least we completed our mission," Hush Puppy said.
Amber nodded. "Yeah, and I can't believe it... You know my big sis met some of the alicorns from the Alicorn Empire before. She even met Red Velvet herself."
Hush Puppy stared at her. "What? Really?"
"Yeah, she said it was the scariest thing she'd ever encountered. But also that Red didn't seem... evil to her."
Hush Puppy put a hoof to his chin. "That's... weird. Your sister has like crazy powers to see evil right? So... she would know if the Red was actually evil or not."
Amber nodded. "Yeah... she would."
"Are we going to have another war?"
Amber shook her head. "I don't know. All I know is that if things are getting as dangerous as they might be, they'll need our help."
A new female voice entered the room. "Who will need your help now?"
Amber and Hush Puppy looked up to see Fluttershy glaring at them. There was an instant pressure in Amber's heart, like something that said she should stay very, very still because an extremely dangerous predator was out stalking for prey. Once Fluttershy closed her eyes the feeling lightened and Amber made sure to look squarely at the floor again. Fluttershy couldn't help it, sometimes she just had this... this look in her eyes that would cut through all of Amber's bullcrap like a hot knife through butter. The only defense that Amber had found was to avoid direct eye contact all together.
Fluttershy's voice came out sharp. "I can't believe you two! Amber, you know that you're supposed to stay inside after dark. It's scary, and it's dangerous out there you know! And, Hushy. You know how scared I get when you sneak out. I was having an anxiety attack until Trixie called me."
Hush Puppy sat up straight. "I didn't mean-"
"No," Fluttershy shook her head. "Not this time you two. You don't get to get out of this. I don't know what they were talking about, or what you two even did, but I heard Luna mention state secrets, and treason!"
Amber's heart skipped a beat. "Treason?"
Fluttershy nodded. "That's right. You two crossed a big line here. And if it wasn't for the fact that your parents are friends with Luna and Celestia, both of you could have gone to jail!" Fluttershy let out a sigh and her voice softened a little bit. "As it was though, I was able to talk them into letting me handle this. So, you two get to do charity work for me, for the next two months."
Amber groaned. "NO! I don't want to clean up dog pee!"
Hush Puppy pushed her shoulder. "Shhh, don't say anything."
Fluttershy smiled. "Too late, Hushy, you get to clean up the 'dog pee' as Amber so tactfully put it. As for you Amber, you get something much worse."
Amber stared at her Fluttershy, forgetting to not make eye contact. "W-what's that?"
Fluttershy's eyes almost sparkled with sadistic delight as she said, "You get to help me with the monsters."