//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four 
// Story: Champions vs Changelings 
// by WolfGoddess1990 
//------------------------------//

Bellatrix was giving her mother a run down of the couples she saw so far, "We haven't checked the giant tree yet but we will." Queen Chrysalis let out a pleased tone, "Excellent job! All those couples must be the reason why Ponyville shot up in love levels so quickly." She licked her lips, "Just thinking of the feast we are going to get is making my mouth water... by the way where is your brother?" 
"He's resting, we had a bit of a disagreement." 
"Ah I see..." Chrysalis said as Bellatrix nodded, "Anyway we will continue our mission once he's done resting." 
"Good we are all ready coming up with ideas to eliminate the obstacles you found, keep up the good work."

Her mother's image vanished in the green crystal Bellatrix used to contact her mother in the first place. It was completely undetectable to ponies, only changelings could feel it. She turned back into Trixie, looking at Jackpot who was sleeping and then she zapped him, "Wake up!" Jackpot stared at her hissing, he got up glaring. "I see you are back to normal." 
"How dare you drain love out of me! You had no idea if that was safe!" 
"Relax. Besides I had to, you were talking nonsense." They both left the wagon and saw Harmony standing there. "Harmony? What are you doing here?" Trixie asked looking at Jackpot quickly. "I just wanted to speak to your brother, do you mind?"

With one last look she gave them space, "Sure." Harmony smiled at Jackpot, "I've been thinking on what you said, would you join me for smoothies?" Jackpot nodded following her. The two sipped on smoothies as Trixie glared at them, what was he doing? It looked like they were talking. Finally Jackpot came back looking a bit better, "So what did she want?!" 
"Just to talk about normal stuff, like my hobbies." He said smiling, "But I think she really likes Jackpot. I managed to feed on her love, it was tiny but I tasted it." Trixie smiled rubbing her hooves, on one hoof this was a good thing, alicorn love was a delicacy after all, but on the other hoof this was a bad thing because Thorax might start feeling again.

Decisions were hers to make. Finally she chose to roll the dice, "Let's use this to our advantage. But any changes from you and I'll suck the love from you again." With that out of the way they continued to observe everything this town had to offer. Jackpot left with Harmony and Trixie wanted to follow but she had her mission to get back to. Hopefully her brother won't go back to before, she walked towards the giant tree. She nearly ran off when she spotted Tempest Shadow but she calmly walked inside even though Tempest was staring at her and whispered, "Always watching..." Creepy unicorn... then she felt it in the air, love, pure crystal pony love.

Trixie ran inside and she spotted a portal to the crystal empire, what luck! She ran towards the portal only to slam into what felt like glass. She managed to peel herself off then looked at the image again before trying to make her hoof go through, only to feel glass again, was this a mirror portal? She tapped the glass, how did this thing work? "Excuse me but I saw what happened." Trixie turned and saw Twilight Sparkle, oh sh... "I know you were probably excited to go to the empire but I'm afraid that portal works only for Dutchess Cadance." Trixie chuckled to hide the fact she wanted to hiss, if Twilight was smart she probably put other wards on this portal.

Well that was a big waste of time but at least she figured out why this giant tree was pouring with love. This mirror portal though not allowing anypony through, it let the love of the empire though she feed off the love before moving on. "Wait where are you going?" Trixie looked back at Twi, "Oh well I just wanted to check this place out, haven't seen a tree this big before." 
"That's because this tree was grown with chaos magic, normal magic wouldn't grow it so big." Trixie hummed, that made a bit of sense but still... "I thought ponies can't use chaos magic." 
"Oh we can't, Discord can, he promised not to do anything extreme other than make this giant tree."

Twi chuckled, "He did make an endless staircase... I told him he could keep it if he moved it to his room and replaced it with a normal staircase. He agreed saying spoilsport but friendship requires compromise." Trixie hummed looking at everything as they moved, "So you live here?" "Yes, with the rest of my friends and our husbands." Trixie licked her lips, more couples to replace. "Of course having Discord here is a bit... different, but Fluttershy loves him." Oh great another obstacle... "And of course Pinkie and Cheese find him a hoot so I can't complain." Right, the poofy ones. Almost forgot about them. "I heard about some kind of armor that was here in town..."

Twi nodded leading Trixie back to the entrance. She pointed towards the wall and there it was on a mannequin in a hole in the wall, "Wow that is very impressive." She looked at the helmet. "But something is missing..." Twi  turned her around using magic and in the wall right across from it was the crown, just in a display case. Trixie noticed a plate under the crown, "The gems of harmony." She read out. "That's right." "But aren't these supposed to be the elements of harmony?" Damn if these weren't the elements, then what were. "Oh that's a common mistake, me and my friends are the real elements we just use these gems to focus our virtues into."

Ah the old classic your friends is your power clichè. How idiotic but whatever they will need to take this crown so they can't use it, no crown no rainbow blast. Trixie tapped on the display case, "Why is it over here in this display case? Shouldn't it be with the rest of the set?" 
"Oh the armor is just a normal indestructible suit of armor that can only fit me now, the crown is the real power source." Interesting... "Why are you answering my questions?" 
"Your curious about my history right? That's why you came here isn't it?" Oh to be so smart but so naive it's ridiculous really. "You caught me I was just so interested, I mean the stories I heard as I traveled were too bizarre to be true."

Trixie laughed, "I mean come on would you believe normal looking gemstones made rainbow lasers." Twi snorted slightly, "No I wouldn't without proof." 
"Exactly! So when I heard about that bizarre tale I had to see them to believe." Twi smiled at her, "Finally a fellow knowledge seeker! Would you like to compare notes? I got this theory on who Lauren Faust is and I've been hoping to share it with somepony who would appreciate my enthusiasm for past history." Trixie hummed looking at Twi, she felt the love of knowledge coming off of her and Alicorn love was rare so... "Sure but first who is this Lauren Faust." "Well I believe her to be the creator of our universe!" Oh mother this pony will now rant... this love better be worth it.