Heart of Magic
Chapter Fourteen: Trixie Ascend
Twilight found herself standing in front of Trixie’s door. The letter floating by her side was drawn in her own writing, it was written word by word from the brave familiar who gave her the message. She just wasn’t sure if she was going to have the ability to tell Trixie what happened. What this meant for the country, or for her family. Was this going to be the darkest message she had to give out during this coming war? She prayed to every star in the sky that it was.
She knocked at the door, each rap feeling like an anchor dropping into the sea. This was it, she was going to do this.
The door opened and Trixie stood there smiling at her. “Twilight! I’m so glad you’re here. Amber’s had some questions for you, and I know you’ve been busy and all but my grounded daughter is still your student, I think you can take a minute or two to answer some questions for her.”
Twilight glanced at her letter and then back to Trixie. “Trixie… where… I mean. I have some heavy news. News that you’re going to have to be very careful about talking to Maud about when she gets home from her mining trip.”
Trixie’s smiled faded. “That… might take awhile. Why is Pinkie okay?”
Twilight nodded. “She’s fine. It’s… I don’t know how to say this. I’ve never had to say this before. In all my years as a princess you’d figure at least once I’d have to talk about something like this. Wait, why is it going to take awhile for Maud to get back?”
Trixie let out a sigh and slumped against the door. “She was supposed to come straight home after her mining trip but decided to take a trip to New Slate instead. So… it’s going to be a few more days before she comes home. Family stuff I guess.”
Twilight glanced at the note. Her heart was breaking all over again. She took a drink of her whiskey to steady her nerves. Somehow this became easier, if only by a small margin. “That’s… listen, Trixie. New Slate, New Slate is gone.”
Trixie stood up straight. “What do you mean, gone?”
“Everypony there, every home, every farm. Your cottage, the Pie Family Farm. All of it is… it’s gone.”
Trixie’s eyes widened, her pupils began to shrink. From the back room Twilight heard a door open and saw Amber’s head poke around the corner. “Twilight? Mom? What’s going on?”
Trixie’s head snapped back to look at her daughter in an almost impossible speed. “Go to your room.”
Amber raised an eyebrow. “But Twilight’s right th-“
“I SAID GO TO YOUR ROOM!” Trixie shouted. Her voice cracking with hysteria. “If you don’t go now, I swear to all the stars in the sky you’re going to regret it!”
Amber’s eyes widened and she slowly backed away. Trixie waited until she heard the door shut before looking back at Twilight. “Now what did you say about my wife and daughter?”
Twilight took a step back. “I didn’t say anything about them, yet.”
An invisible force wrapped around Twilight’s neck and pulled her forward to Trixie. Trixie’s muzzle pressed against Twilight’s and her beady eyes were so close they were almost touching Twilight’s. “I thought I heard you say that my wife and baby were gone.”
The force around Twilight’s neck tightened and her air was cut off. She struggled for breath, only managing to get a few scraps of air in her lungs. The look in Trixie’s eyes were something insane, like a mad mare standing before her unable to accept reality. This, this was going to be how she died. Delivering a message and being misunderstood. “Please don’t kill me.”
Trixie’s pupils started to expand again and the force left Twilight’s neck. Before she could respond she hit the floor. Her entire body was in pain but she was breathing again at least. Twilight could only watch as Trixie’s body was rigid. Her eyes still narrowed. “Who did this?”
“W-what?”
“Who took my family from me?”
Twilight blinked. “The… Alicorn Empire.”
Trixie’s words came out like hot fire as she spoke, “Red. That whore betrayed me, tortured me, and nearly ruined everything I had once before. Now she came back to finish the job.” A spark of electricity flew from Trixie’s mane. Twilight watched as Trixie walked past her and out onto the front yard. The sky was growing dark above them. “But I will not let her get away this time. Your right, you and Owlicious both. I’ve been denying it for years, hoping to live a normal peaceful life.”
Lightning crackled in the sky above. Twilight stared in fear. It wasn’t supposed to storm today. No pegasus was preparing a storm. This was some kind of freak accident happening, it had to be. It couldn’t be anything… or maybe.
An idea came to mind and without a second thought Twilight acted upon it. Twilight sat up and clutched the letter close to her chest. “They took them from you, Trixie. And they’ll keep taking from you and everyone else until there is nothing left to take.”
Trixie roared into the sky and the lightning followed as if under her command. “I will not rest until I have charred the bones of every, single, alicorn in that floating kingdom of fools gold!”
Twilight rose to her hooves. “How, how can you do that? Your just a unicorn.”
Trixie closed her eyes and screamed. Tears flowed down the sides of her cheeks. The sky began to cry drops of rain in response. It was as if the gods had heard her cries and responded. A bolt of lightning flew down from the heavens and hit Trixie dead on. The bright flash of light came with an explosive sound and a force of wind that nearly threw Twilight off of her hooves. When the wind and light calmed down Twilight opened her eyes to see something she never thought she’d see again.
Trixie stood there, looking ten years younger. Her fur was damp from the rain. Electricity was sparking off her coat. A pair of wings matching her fur sat on her back. She looked back at Twilight but the anger was gone from her voice, in its stead was just a sad, empty sound. “I never wanted to come back to this, Twilight.”
Twilight nodded. “I understand, but now that we have you back, we can use your help.”
Trixie stared up into the crying sky, letting the rain mix in with her tears and wash them away. It was heart wrenching to see Trixie this way. Twilight knew that she could fix this, she could help Trixie’s heart feel better. If she did she might risk losing the alicorn she needed to fight this evil. Would that be worth it? Losing a one of her most powerful allies? One that could cause a lot of harm to the enemy. Twilight took a long pull from her flask, in fact she didn’t stop to breathe until the entire thing was empty. Once it was drained, her mind and heart were steady once more. This was a decision she could die with.
She looked at the note one last time. It read as followed.
“Twilight, this is Valiant Heart, me and Maud just watched New Slate get completely destroyed. Nothing is left. Some… some evil, dark force was behind it. I don’t know if it was an alicorn, or a demon, or that thing mom met in the caves when she was young. The thing that possessed you. All I know is that me and Maud are okay and alive, but we have to return on hoof, all the way across the country. It will take a long time but we will come home, I will not let Trixie or my sister lose either of us.
Your faithful assistant, Valiant Heart”
With just a bit of magic the entire letter went up in flames. She watched as it turned into ash and vanished forever without a trace. She caught Trixie looking at her with sad eyes. Twilight nodded and smiled. “There’s no need to read the message to you now, you already know the truth. Now let’s avenge your family.”