The door unlocked with a click, and I slipped the lock picks back into one of my pouches. I slipped through the door, and glanced around the room. With no one inside, I beckoned Trixie over from across the street.
I cast a quick glance at the gryphon on watch, who was snoring deeply thanks to the sleeping powders I’d used. He’d think he just fell asleep, it was well past midnight after all. Trixie seemed pretty tired, but I was feeling great. Alert and ready for anything. I touched my magic, and the room seemed so much clearer. Without much work I could see the faint outline of the magic traps and defenses someone, probably Grace, had laid out.
“Hurry up, Trix.” I hissed at her as I poked my head out the door again.
I felt something brush past me before the door clicked shut. A couple seconds later, the air shimmered as Trixie dropped her invisibility spell. “What are you looking for?”
I didn’t answer her, because I had no fucking clue. The Wide Eyes had already ransacked the place and been over it with a fine comb, so I had no idea what I’d find that they couldn’t. Hell, I didn’t know what I was looking for other than something that told me where Grace was when he disappeared.
I silently padded forward and gave the traps a wide birth. I noticed most of them had been set off already, but even then I made certain me and Trixie weren’t anywhere near them. I paused for a second and looked around.
“You know, Grace has a really nice place, doesn’t he?” I couldn’t help but gaze at some of the stuff he had set up in display stands. I smirked when I saw a few first additions of several different comic book series. “Hah. Trix, check it out.” I pointed. “First edition Red Claw issue one. I never knew my brother was a nerd.”
“Keep your eye on the prize,” she snapped as she began combing through his bookshelf. “Do you know if he had any secret compartments or whatever?”
“No. I’ve never been to his house before,” I muttered as I paused at a display case. “Hey, check this out.” I smiled at its contents. “The Legend of the Last Shadow in the Day. Printed on cloth and in a dead language. This thing has to be like... freaking centuries old.” I glanced around. “Grace has an awesome house.”
“And here Trixie thought you were actually concerned with finding out where your brother is.” Her magic enclosed the entire bookshelf as she hummed a tune to herself before she moved onto the next one. “No secret passages behind there.”
I padded past her and pushed open the door to Grace’s bedroom. I noticed the messed up sheets and his pillows scattered over the floor.
“Either Grace had company, or someone came at Grace while he was sleeping.” I told her with a frown. “No blood or lost feathers...”
“Trixie wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she called from the living room. There was a pop and a blue feather appeared before me. “Trixie found that stuck between two pages of a book.”
I picked up the feather and my beak curled in disgust. “Luna...” I muttered in disgust. “That fucking whore.”
“Apparently so,” a click echoed through the room, “Ah ha! Found it.”
“A secret compartment?” I asked as I padded past her into the office. The documents on the desk could be important so I flipped through them and found a bunch of reports. Sitting down at his desk, I leafed through them. “Why would he be looking at these...?” I mumbled as I read through them.
“Was he tracking something?” asked Trixie. “It’s color coded and there’s a clear pattern of movement from- Wait, is that White Peak?”
“It is.” I answered and took the map she’d found from her hooves. “Those reports on the desk where about hallucinations and stuff...” Trailing off, I processed this. “Could... he have gone to White Peak to deal with the changelings?” I frowned. “No, he’d have the king’s backing if he did that. They wouldn’t send a letter to his mother saying he’d gone MIA.”
“They said he might be a traitor right? Perhaps they saw him with Luna and considering what Nightmare Moon did...” Trixie frowned as she began scanning over the reports.
“Do you think... she possessed him or something?” I swallowed. Please tell me Nightmare didn’t do to him what she did to me.
“You mean the ritual?” I watched silently as her magic began crawling along the ground, brushing everything aside and pushing the furniture up against the wall. Once everything was cleared away, we looked at the empty floor and saw no trace of blood or creepy runes.
I leaned down and smelled it. “Nup. No vinegar or cleaner, and I can’t smell blood or moonflower either.” My eyes settled back on the map. “It doesn’t look like the ritual.”
She gave me a reassuring squeeze before turning back to the reports. “You said hallucinations right? Mutant changeling’s perhaps? Considering that’s what Luna was chasing after...”
“This map has Ashguard circled in a different color.” I tapped a claw against the map and checked through the notes that were attached to it. “This is a bunch of statistics and stuff about how many gryphons live there, how close it is to the water supply and... how many are on the water table?” A frown touched the corners of my mouth. “What is this?”
“What is what?”
“This map... It’s like a spread map... I... think it’s tracking changelings moving out of White Peak.”
“Oh. Shit.” We both looked back at the map. “If this is accurate then does that mean the changeling’s are right outside the capital?”
“It looks like it...” I swallowed. “But they’re not coming in yet for some reason. Grace seemed to think that... they were gonna take Ashguard first and then spike the city’s water supply.”
“What!?” Trixie began poring over the documents I read. “This... is not good. If they manage to spike the water supply, that’d compromise the entire region.”
“Why isn’t the king doing something about this? Shouldn’t Grace have taken this straight to him? There should be Wide Eyes and soldiers crawling all over the city looking out for changelings.”
“Does Grace even have that much power?” asked Trixie. “And what is Grace going to say? Mutant changelings with the power to mind control gryphons have escaped and will be spiking the water?”
“He’s the king’s hand,” I muttered. “He’s as close to the king as any Wide Eyes can be. I know he has some guys under him, and if he doesn’t, then he’s supposed to be able to go the king and get support there. Or even just higher ranked Wide Eyes if this needs to stay secret.”
“Perhaps he already has. It has been a couple of days and maybe whatever happened at that... er... Ashguard place has already happened and he went missing in the fighting or something?”
“That would make sense... but...” I trailed off. “If he’s gone missing in Ashguard then I need to go after him...” I left out the fact that I wasn’t happy with taking Trixie to another hive.
There was a second of silence as she stared at the pages before us. “Do you still remember the ritual?”
I shivered as I remembered my dream from just last night. “Yeah... I do.”
“Is it possible to use it to, um, destroy the hive or something? Like, reverse engineer it or something?”
“How would I kno-” I froze as I realized something. I... did know. In her frantic rush to get me out of there before Nightmare came back, Luna practically threw everything she knew about that ritual at me. “I... think I might know how to do... something like that.” My brow creased as I tried to sort the jumbled mess of images and archaic names into a usable process.
“Well if you figure out how, tell Trixie. Also, if you’ve got anything about avoiding the whole fake reality thing, that’d be great as well.”
I frowned. “Uh... Well... maybe? I’d need some time to figure it all out. And... I’m not sure if I could do it. Nightmare mentioned it took a lot of her power and it was really damn hard, and she’s like a goddess and I’m just a gryphon...” After a moment I muttered. “Or at least I used to be.”
“You’re still a gryphon,” replied Trixie without missing a beat or even looking up. “Trixie doesn’t care what you are as you are hers, that’s all that matters.”
I smiled at that. “Thanks, Trix. I really like the part where ‘all that matters is you’re mine,’ never mind anything else as long as there’s that one thing.”
“It’s the truth.” From her tone of voice, it was clear she wasn’t even really concentrating on what I was saying. “If we take Ashguard as the central location then that’s probably where they went. We’ll need to set up some sort of mind shield and then infiltrate the area.”
“You have any clue how to make a mind shield?” I asked. “‘Cause I sure as Tartarus don’t.”
“Have some faith. Illusion magic is Trixie’s specialty and mind magic is just a very small, very illegal subset of that. Trixie will be able to figure something out.” She looked up at me with a reassuring smile. “But, we need a plan and equipment.”
“Okay, what sort of equipment?” I asked. “Because I can tell you now, it ain’t easy finding magical aids in Aviana. Especially on short notice.”
“Weapons, some of that powder everyone seems to use, fire. Lots and lots of fire.” Trixie looked a tad too happy as she said that last one.
I stared at her with my eyebrow raised. “It’s like I’m the last sane one alive,” I muttered. “Well I could get us a cart, and I know where we could steal some barrels of oil.”
“Perfect!” When she began humming a happy little tune, I just buried my face in my claw. “Now we need a way to get in without being seen.”
I shrugged. “Well, stealth is a specialty.” I caught her flat look. “Okay, not a specialty, but I can do it.” I thought about it for a second. “And if that doesn’t float your boat, I can probably hit up a few smugglers for ways in and out.”
“Let’s stick to the smugglers.” She leaned back in her seat. “Are you confident in your magic at all?”
“Uh... no. I don’t even know what the ritual Luna showed me did.” I frowned. “I mean, I know it... helped... at least I think it did, but I’ll need some time to sort out all this shit she dumped in here out.” I tapped a claw to my head. “I could probably put... something together. There is a pattern to all of it.”
“Trixie meant your new magic. The whole shadow thing, but the ritual will more than likely help,” said Trixie as she rubbed her temples. “We’ll probably need to hit up the local library as well to see if we can make sense of those symbols.”
“Alright,” I paused for thought. “I suppose that’s easy enough. But my magic? Uh... I haven’t really had the time to even figure out what it does.” I tapped into it, and felt the deep shadows of the night all slip under my influence. With a little bit of effort, I snuffed out the flickering light from Trixie’s horn. “I can do that, and uh...”
A moment later I dragged the desk towards me, though I felt the shadows slipping out of my control under the weight. It wasn’t long before the magic in the shadows coiled back into me without having shifted the table very much at all.
“I really don’t know the limits of this stuff. It’s like... I’m just moving the energy around that’s already there. Not like flying or weather work when I’m using my own energy.” I frowned. “It’s weird.”
“Not bad. Remind Trixie to continue your magical tuition at a later date. In that case, we should also read the old stories about Slight in order to figure out what else you can do.” Her hoof suddenly slammed onto the table, causing everything to jump. “Damn it! Why can’t life ever be simple?”
“Why, what’s wrong?” I asked concerned. “Did we forget something?”
“No, nothing. Trixie’s just tired and sore and filthy.” A sigh escaped. “Trixie needs a nice long bath to soak in followed by a massage.”
I sighed. “I used to hate baths. I’d kill for one now,” I muttered, “and I know shit all about massages. Fuck, I thought this was over, you know?”
“Trixie thought so too.” She rubbed her eyes before returning to the reports. “But it will be over soon enough.”
“I hope so.” I muttered and pulled up a chair. “It was supposed to be over after the temple. Heck, it wasn’t even supposed to start in the first place. If I’d known that it was gonna land me here, I’d never have gone to Ponyville in the first place.” My shoulders cracked as I stretched them before falling into the seat.
“That sounded... bad...” said Trixie. “Do you need a massage?”
I snorted. “And I’ll get a pedicure and tea oil preening while I’m at it.” I rolled my eyes and glanced over at Trixie. “No thanks, Trix.” Though my shoulders were feeling a bit twinged lately. I think it might have been from getting bound with magic and struggling so much.
“Very well.” The sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. “Perhaps it would be best for us to relocate ourselves?”
I nodded and slipped out my knife as I doused all the lights with shadow magic. Trixie might have squeaked in surprise at that, but I shushed her with a talon to my beak. Peeking under the door crack, I couldn’t see anything so I opened it slowly and beckoned for Trixie to follow me. I lead us across the room and to the bannister. Down stairs I could make out the glint of moonlight on guard armor so I stepped back and led Trixie to the balcony.
With my lock picks, it took me a second to get the door locked again from the outside. “Come on, jump down.” I jerked my head at the balcony before I lightly hopped over the railing to the ground. Didn’t want to risk too much noise with a flap. I glanced back up at Trixie and saw her hesitating at the edge, looking down. “Now’s not the time to be afraid of heights,” I hissed.
After a bit more hesitating she jumped off and I caught her without a hitch. After gently setting her on the ground, I led us through Grace’s garden and back to the city streets. Once we were a few streets away I slowed our pace and started walking casually.
I turned to Trixie. “Disguises.”
They were immediately back on and I found a very attractive gryphoness walking beside me. Trixie simply winked at me, and for once, did not start trying to seduce everything in a ten mile radius around her, and instead, kept to my side.
“Where to?” I asked her. “An inn, or are we gonna get all our things ready tonight? If we need to stop by a library that’ll have to wait till morning.”
“We need that ritual and a mind shield,” replied Trixie. “Unless you think you can figure it out in a night, we’ll have to visit the library.”
“Alright. Well, we’ll get you some rest now and make a start tomorrow. I can hit up the bars for some information about smugglers working in Ashguard, and I’ll come find you in the morning.”
“Don’t do anything too stupid,” said Trixie. “Trixie will be waiting for her warm, feather blanket to return home.”
“Me, stupid?” I smirked at her. “Never. You’ll just have to deal with a normal blanket till I get back.”
“The horror! The horror!” With enough drama to power Canterlot for a decade, Trixie mock fainted in the middle of the street. “You sir, are a brute of the highest order.”
“Oh, yes,” I replied with an evil chuckle. “I have made you grow accustomed to sleeping with gryphon down, and now I shall make you go several minutes without it.” I reared up on my hind legs and laughed with my claws to the sky. “You will be inconvenienced for almost a full hour! Mwah hah hah!”
Trixie just gave me this flat, unamused look. “Your acting skills need work. A lot of work.”
“Sorry guvnah,” I replied in a Trottingham accent as I fell to the ground. “Just making a joke sir, honest.”
This time she didn’t even bother replying or talking to me as she stood up and began walking to the inn.
“May we meet in good light.” I called after her, giving my Zebrican accent a try. “With luck we shan’t fight!”
The glare that was shot over her shoulder would have killed a lesser being.
I just grinned at her till she faded from sight. Then I noticed the homeless guy giving me a weird look. “The fuck is your problem?” I glared at him.
After another moment he shrugged and turned away.
“Damn, right,” I muttered and walked away.
It wasn’t long till I spread my wings and made my way across town. It was less than twenty minutes’ flight till I was back at the entrance to that less-than-charming little shit hole pub I’d started the fight in last time I was in Aviana. Mind you, calling that a fight was pretty generous to that fat prick.
“Fixed the window,” I noted as I stepped inside. The only gryphons still here at this time of the night were the real bad crowd. The guys that were there for business, not pleasure. Well, except maybe for that one male quietly dry humping a hooker in the corner. My beak curled in disgust as I sat at the bar.
The bartender came over, and froze when he saw me.
I smirked. “Hi.”
He pointed a talon at the door. “Get out,” he ordered flatly.
I just put a few bits on the table. “Whiskey.”
“I said, get out.”
I snorted. “Are you gonna throw me out?” I asked. “Just get me a whiskey, and I promise this time I won’t break anything.”
He hesitated, not liking taking orders from a female. “I said get-”
I took off my shades and stared at him with my brand new freaky cat eyes. “I heard you.” I matched his gaze. “And I said whiskey.”
The bartender stared at me for a moment before he walked away muttering about demons in his bar. In a minute he came back with a shot glass and a bottle.
“Thanks,” I told him with a grin as I poured myself a glass. “Notice anything weird in town over the past few weeks?”
He just raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down.
I rolled my eyes. “Other than me. Did you get anyone through here that was acting... strange. Like, distant and retardedly happy about nothing?”
After a moment he shook his head.
I smiled. “Glad to hear it. What about smugglers? Can you tell me anything about them?”
His eyes flickered past me for a second, but returned to my face quickly. “Why?”
“I just need some advice,” I replied. “Either you help me, or I find someone in here that will, and I break things doing that.”
He crossed his arms unimpressed. “Chairs I can replace. Patrons I can’t.”
I drew my knife and dug it into the table. “How about talons? Can you replace those?” I tapped a claw beneath my eyes. “Or your eyes? Will you get new ones of those?”
He hesitated, obviously not liking being threatened by a female. “No. I said get-”
The bartender stopped speaking as the lanterns around us snuffed out, and the shadows visibly crawled onto the countertop from under the bench. He backed away as they started to move towards him. I just smiled.
“Smugglers.” I repeated.
He nodded and said. “Back table, left side. The northerner named Pierre.”
I followed his directions to the prick that was sitting in the corner. “Thanks,” I told him as I downed the shot of whiskey and stepped away.
“What are you?” He asked my back.
I smirked over my shoulder at him. “I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know if I figure it out.” I slid my shades back on and walked to the gryphon. I thought about how to approach this for a second, but ruled out just waiting because I knew Trixie was waiting for me.
After a moment I coughed to get his attention.
He ignored me.
Rolling my eyes, I poked him in the back. “Hey buddy.”
All I got was a grunt as he glanced over his shoulder at me.
I grit my beak. “I need to talk to you.”
“Yeah, you and half this joint. Beat it cub, I don’t have time to play games with bitches like you and I ain’t gonna fuck you even if you pay me.” With both feet on the table, he downed a shot of whisky.
I seethed. “Listen, buddy, I wouldn’t touch you with anything but the sharp end of a spear-”
“That’s if you can tell which end of the spear goes into the enemy?”
I cracked my neck. “Don’t test me.” I replied. “Seriously, I’d really fucking love to hurt you right now.”
“Please, drop the tough girl act will you? It’s so tiring and boring and clichéd and overdone.” Pierre gestured at the seat opposite. “So let me guess, you want to run away and seek your fortune somewhere else. You’re gonna tell me some sob story of how your father beats you at night, or how your husband whores you out for some stupid reason and blah, blah, blah. Look kid, I don’t give a shit as long as you’ve got the money.”
I paused, taking a second to consider how long I should let him get away with this before I mutilate him horribly. “I’m not here for you to take me out of Aviana. I’m here because I need a way into Ashguard.” I could’ve mentioned I don’t have any bits, but if he knew that then he’d be more of a pain to get any information from. “I don’t even need you to take me there, just tell me a way in.”
He stared at me as though I was an idiot before slamming the shot glass onto the table. “Look, I have one rule and one rule only when it comes to smuggling. Never, ever, get involved in affairs. If you want to fuck some guy in Ashguard, find your own way in, but I’m not getting involved in that shit.”
“Fuck, I thought I was dense.” I took his shot glass away from him. “There’s no fucking affair, no family matter, no shitty sob story, and no one involved is having any fucking sex! Shit dude, is this just how you do business?”
“When it comes to bloody females? There’s only one way to do business, and I’m already being polite. Half the scum in my line of work would kill you. The other half would rape you. But all of them would hold you for ransom... if they were smart of course.” He peered at me. “Though considering it’s you we’re talking about, I doubt any of them would even be able to get it up. So here’s the deal bitch, show me the money and I’ll show you the way in. Deal?”
“No deal.” I said flatly. “Here’s the better deal, you help me get in, and I don’t cut your balls off and make you eat them.”
We stared at each other, neither of us blinking. Then, he put both feet on the ground and leaned back in his chair with a whistle. “Well color me pink and call me a whore, you’re serious aren’t you? Well now, that’s the first time I’ve seen a gal with the look of a killer, though with some of the lady friends I’ve met over the years, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.”
I blinked at him in surprise. “Whatever. You’re helping me one way or another. There’s not a lot of bits in it if you do, but there’s a fuck ton of hurt if you say no.”
“Why me?” he finally sighed. “First it was a crazy filly that talked to herself and put all my crew in hospital, and now it’s a crazy bitch. Fuck my life. Fine. Whatever. Not like I haven’t lost enough crowns already.”
“A filly? She came through here?” I leaned forward. “What did she want? Did she have someone with her? What was she calling herself?” After a second I added, “And what color was her coat?”
“Light blue? Dark blue? Some shade of blue, I dunno. Jumped me in some back alley, shoved her horn in my face and next thing I knew she thanked me for the information. There was a gryphon with her though.” He rubbed his temples and took a another shot. “Fuck, is this some sort of revenge quest? Those things suck. I suggest you give up on it now, but it does explain the whole crazy vibe you’ve got going.”
“How did she talk?” I asked him. “Was it with thees and thous and sounded like she was from a shitty old play?” I paused. “And do I really have a crazy vibe?”
“Yeah. Thought she was joking around and was hired by a friend as a prank or something. But nope, bat shit insane.” With a sigh he just looked at me flatly before his gaze trailed across the scar on my chest then down to my daggers. Finally, he tapped the corner of his eye and I touched my sunglasses lightly. Right. Who the fuck wears sunglasses at night?
After a moment I took my glasses off. “Yeah, this is some pretty crazy shit you just got dragged into.”
“Don’t know, don’t care. If I tell you the passage in, can you please leave and let me drown in my drink?”
“That’s the idea. You mentioned she had a gryphon with her? What did he look like?”
“Dunno. Kept to the shadows. I’m just glad he managed to convince the crazed bitch to not wipe my memories.” He held up the bottle to me. “Drink?”
I took it from his hands and gave it a sniff. I couldn’t smell any poison in it, but I didn’t take any chances and pushed it back to him. After a moment I pulled out my own bottle of whiskey and took a swig of that.
“Tell me about this passage.” I told him.
“Can you put your glasses back on first?” A shudder passed through him. “Your eyes remind me of that insane filly.”
With a shrug and a smirk I covered my eyes again. I was starting to get used to these things. “Feel better now?” I asked him a bit condescendingly.
“Hey, when you see some little girl slaughter half your crew, you’d be put out as well. Why else do you think I’m in here drinking?” A small sigh escaped his beaks. “Okay, so there’s one entrance into Ashguard, but it’s not pretty.”
I sighed. “It’s a sewer isn’t it?” I took a swig of whiskey. “Fucking typical.”
“It’s worse than that,” he replied with a chuckle. “The sewer is only part of the issue. You see, before they dammed up downstream, the river level was a lot lower than it is now. So you have to go through a submerged tunnel without drowning, come up into the sewer system, and then crawl through shit to get in.”
I frowned at him. “And this is the only way in? You’re not holding out on me, are you?” For added effect, and because I could, I made the shadows from under my sunglasses crawl down my face ever so slightly. “Doesn’t sound like a very good route to me. I don’t imagine a smuggler would make much money moving product through a mess like that.”
“You don’t, that’s why most stay clear of Ashguard whenever possible. Doesn’t help that place is crawling with guards even on the best day,” he replied. “If there is a better route, I don’t know it, and I don’t want to know it.”
I leaned back and let go of the shadows. “Anything else you can tell me about it? No mutant piranha’s or death traps that I need to watch out for?”
“If they exist, I don’t know about them.”
I sighed. “I fucking hate having low intel,” I muttered and stood up. “You said the filly had eyes like mine, but spoke in the plural, right? Saying ‘we’ instead of I, and stuff like that.”
“Yeah...” He looked at me as though I was stupid. “Why? That important?”
I frowned. “It means they’re working together.” I turned to leave, but after a moment I left the bottle of whiskey I’d brought on the table. “For your trouble.”
“Sure it’s not because your husband will kill you?” Fucking morons, always needing to get the last word in.
I turned around, my claw going to my knife. “No, it’s because my marefriend will, shithead.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Come on, take a joke will you?” The way he scooted back in panic was so worth it. After a second of silence, he hesitantly spoke up, “You’re dating a mare? Damn, I hear they’re damn tight, if you know what I mean. Always wanted to hit one up, think you can get me a name?”
I stared at him in disbelief. “You fucking disgust me.”
“Oh well, it was worth a shot.” He went back to his drink. “Don’t ever find me again.”
“I’ll try not to,” I muttered dryly and walked away.
I left the bar and flew back to the inn Trixie was at. Another ten minutes’ flight, and I had to admit, I was feeling pretty good about the fact that apparently I was pretty scary. The way we were gonna have to get into Ashguard was shit, but... I really doubt my chances of finding a better smuggler, especially on short notice.
I wasn’t feeling sleepy, but I wanted to get back and check up on Trixie. Aviana could be a pretty rough town, even in some of the better districts, and given Trixie’s hot-as-fuck female disguise, I’d rather not leave her alone for too long.
I stepped in the inn and found the guy at the counter. “Hey, I’m looking for a female that came through here. Probably really loud and obnoxious, but rocking hot. What room’s she staying in?”
“Oh, her.” The way he grinned made me want to smash his face in. “She mentioned you’d be coming through. Top floor, third door on the right.”
Why did that sound so... ominous? “Thanks,” I told him with a scowl as I made my way upstairs to the room he mentioned. I briefly wondered if I should knock before I shrugged and just knocked anyway. “Trix, I’m back.”
The door opened by itself with a soft creak and I stepped inside. There, on the bed with her rump facing me, was Trixie. She was busy humming a tune as her flank waved in time with the beat. It was a good thing that it wasn’t some random guy who had stumbled in on her. That would not have ended well for her.
“Welcome back,” she smiled over her shoulder at me. “And some gryphon seems to be enjoying the view. At least close the door.”
I closed it behind me and smirked at her. “What are you doing? Other than begging for a screw?”
“Trixie is not begging!” she snapped. “Trixie is reading.”
I walked over and sat on the bed next to her. “What are you reading?” I asked curiously. “And is there any reason you’re reading in that pose?” I waved a claw at her flank waving in the air.
The waving immediately stopped and she glared at me. “Trixie enjoys humming as she reads. As for what she was reading, she was reading the reports.”
“Notice anything I should know about?” I asked her, and started taking off my stuff. All the pouches and knives I had as well as the cloak and sunglasses were now on the floor. Except for my one good knife, which I slipped under my pillow still sheathed. Then I noticed I probably smelled like whiskey. Shit, I hope Trixie doesn’t notice.
To my surprise, she leaned over and kissed me firmly on the beak, slipping her tongue into my mouth as she did so before pulling back. “You’ve been drinking,” she said as she licked her lips. “Did you at least bring back a bottle?”
I blinked in surprise. “No, sorry.” I was expecting her to be more annoyed than that. “I hit up a smuggler, and we have a way into Ashguard but...” I trailed off. “It involves sewers and swimming. And holding your breath.”
“Great.” Trixie threw herself back onto the bed with her limbs spread out in all directions. “Why is Trixie not surprised?”
“I know, right?” I shook my head and sighed. “Why the fuck can’t this shit ever end?”
“Because that’d be too easy.” With a startled meep, I found myself being shoved through one of the doors. “And take a bath. You reek of alcohol.” Pause. “And keep the door open while you do so.”
Standing up, I complained, “I only had one shot...” I trailed off. “And a bit from the bottle, but still. I can’t smell that bad.”
“You were in a bar. You stink.” Another shove. “Now clean yourself up already!”
With a roll of my eyes, I started the hot water and let the tub fill up. After closing the door, despite Trixie asking me to leave it open, I settled into the tub and breathed out a sigh of relief. My shoulder muscles were as cramped as fuck, and the hot water helped me ease the knots of tension in them. After soaking for a bit I started to preen myself, and froze in surprise when I noticed the door was open again.
Trixie leaned against the door with her disguise nowhere in sight. “You forgot this.” A towel hovered in the air beside her and sure, she could have immediately handed it over, but this was Trixie. So she stood there, letting her gaze run over my very wet body. Thanks to the water, my fur and feathers clung to my body revealing the muscles underneath that were very rarely seen. No doubt she was drinking in the sight and- Was she drooling?
“Thank you very much Trixie.” I told her so very dryly. “It’s so damn nice of you to bring me my towel. I really doubt you took it out of the room in the first place just so you could watch me getting wet.” My voice was so flat and dead it made the Changeling Wastes look like a tropical jungle.
“There was only one towel,” she replied happily. “So Trixie had already used it.”
“Well isn’t that nice.” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not quite done yet, so if you could leave it on the rack that would be great.”
“Alright.” She put it exactly where I wanted before walking out without closing the door.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re a bloody peeping tom, Trix,” I called out to her as I set about preening again.
“Trixie is your marefriend, and with that comes some privileges,” she replied. “And you do realize Trixie can help you with that.”
“I’m fine, thanks,” I said as I kept on preening by myself. “I’ve been cleaning myself for years now, I’m pretty sure I don’t need help.”
“Fine,” she replied with an eye roll. “Trixie will just watch from here then.”
I paused, and glanced over my shoulder. “Trix, do you want to help?”
“Well Trixie has read how it is relaxing and rather pleasurable, but that was in reference to pegasi rather than gryphons.” The smile she gave me was rather sheepish. “Trixie felt it would be a good way for you to relax. You have been rather tense these last couple of days.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh. Good. I was worried that you’d taken tips from my mum or something. That would be weird.”
“Please don’t remind Trixie.” A shudder went through her body. “Your mother...”
“Has no idea where the line is, and no idea how many times she’s crossed it?” I rolled my eyes. “The amount of dates she tried to set me up on was fucking buts. I wasn’t even at breeding age, and she was trying to teach me how to get my husband up.”
At that, Trixie actually gagged. “That is wrong. On so many levels.”
With a shrug of my shoulders, I sighed. “It’s not quite as bad as that. In the Great Scars, females marry after they get their first period. Mum married dad when she was fifteen, so yeah she was starting a bit early with me, but it wasn’t... you know, retardedly early.” After a second I added. “Oh, my dad was thirty by the way.”
“A bit?” Trixie shook her head at that, though her eyes stayed trained on my body. “Way too early.”
A sigh escaped my beak and I leaned back into the water. “Sorry I’ve been so tense lately, it’s just... with Grace and this nightkin thing and... Fuck, you don’t need me to tell you how hard all this shit has been.”
“No, you don’t.” She sighed. “Which is why Trixie offered to help you preen.”
After a moment I shrugged. “Alright, we’ll give it a shot. Not like it can hurt.”
“Really?” She actually sounded surprised and a bit nervous. “A-Are you sure?”
“If you want to do it, I can’t think of a reason to fight it. I mean, who knows? It could be nice. We need things we can do together other than cooking and getting wrapped up in insane shit.”
Laughing, she walked over and knelt down by the tub. “Um... So what does Trixie do?”
I spread a dripping wet wing out in front of her. “Just, straighten the feathers out. Don’t be too rough and wrench any of them, just flatten them out and move them to the right place. I usually use my beak, and I remember Dash used her mouth, but if you want to use your magic then I don’t see why not.”
“Alright...”
Looking far more nervous than she should, I felt her magic run over my wings, sending a shiver through my body. It was like a cool shower or a nice patch of cold air on a hot day. I leaned back into it, letting her handle it for me. It was nice alright. Maybe me and Trixie could do this more-
“Ah, shit!” I cursed and jerked away from her. “Don’t yank them,” I muttered as I looked at her over my shoulder.
“Sorry...” she mumbled as she went back to the light touches from before. I had to admit, this was beyond nice.
The rest of it went off without a hitch, and I stepped out of the tub feeling pretty relaxed. With Trixie watching, I slowly dried off and examined how well she’d preened me. It wasn’t the best work, but... it was nice enough I guess. Maybe if she got better she could do this more often.
“Thanks, Trix,” I told her. “That was great.” I cracked my shoulders again, rising onto my hind legs for a leisurely stretch. Trixie’s eyes immediately ran down my front that was still slightly damp and still clinging to my body. “Maybe we can do that more often.”
“Maybe Trixie will get better at it?” she said, only half paying attention.
I landed back on all fours. “So, you ready for bed?” The bags under her eyes said yes. “You need to sleep while you can. I know the new sleeping cycle’s tearing you a new one.”
“Mmmmhm.” As she climbed into bed, a yawn escaped before she opened her arms at me. “Come on.”
Sitting down next to her, I lay my wing over her and rested my head on the pillow. After a second I sat up again. “Oh, I forgot to mention, but the smuggler I talked to said that he’d seen Luna. She wanted to get into Ashguard and mind raped him for the info. After killing all his gryphons.”
There was no reply. Well, other than a soft snore.
I rolled my eyes. “Good night, Trix.”
The book I was reading fell to the table, and the loud smack it made echoed through the empty halls making Trixie jump and glare at me.
“Sorry,” I mumbled to Trixie as I rubbed the bags under my eyes. “Reading sucks.”
“Why don’t you read up on Slight then?” replied Trixie. “That should be more interesting.”
The book I’d just dropped was ‘Advanced Rune Theory for Dummies’. I hated that name. “Who the fuck writes a book where the title’s giving the reader shit? I might was well write a book called ‘Hey Shit Head, You Suck,’ and fill it with nothing but pictures of a pony sucking dick with the words ‘your face here’ where their head should be.”
Trixie’s face decided to greet her book. Hard. “Just... go read about Slight or something.”
“What?” I frowned at her, feeling annoyed and tired. “The book started it.”
“Of course it did.”
“I’ve got a point, don’t I?” I crossed my arms. “It’s a shit name for a book.”
“Don’t care.” She didn’t even bother glancing in my direction.
“The book’s not even for dummies. That shit makes no sense, I mean, what the fuck is leyline enrichment, and what in Tartarus does that have to do with drawing a symbol in some dead language?”
“Give it here.” The book was ripped from my grasp. “Go find a picture book or something.”
I snorted. “Yeah, well fuck you too. I’m not a unicorn, this shit makes no sense to me.”
“So find a picture book or something on Slight and nightkin,” she growled.
“Fucking Luna. What the hell is this crap she threw in here anyway?” I grabbed a sheet of paper and began scribbling the ritual onto it. “For the life of me I have no goddess damn clue what it did when I used it.”
“Who knows?” said Trixie.
I threw the pencil at the table in disgust and held up the sheet for her to look at it. “I can draw this in my fucking sleep, but I have no clue what it is.” I turned it around and glared at the mess of runes and lines and little annotations mentioning what components went where. “I fucking hate magic. Zebra powders are easy. They at least make sense. Mix this with that, throw it. Done. If you want to get really technical you have to memorize a few words.” I threw the sheet of paper at the table. “But this unicorn shit is so freaking... Argh!” I shouted and it echoed through the library. “Who the fuck is better off with it anyway? Earth ponies get along fine and they can’t even fly.”
“You done?” asked Trixie with a glare.
After returning it to her, I sighed and fell back into the chair. “Yeah. What are you reading anyway?”
“Advanced Ancient Runes for Dummies,” she muttered as she peered at the runes I had drawn. “Some of these look familiar, but they’re odd.”
“A few of them were on the walls of the temple.” I pointed a claw at one that looked a bit like a Y with a vertical and horizontal line through it. “I think it means light.” After pointing at another one, I drew a circle around it. “But when these two are together it has to mean ‘shadow’, or maybe ‘no light’. And when that ‘light’ rune is mixed with this one here, it means life, but then add that not-shadow rune with life and thirty others and I have no fucking clue what you get. And I have no bloody idea what all the lines and circles have to do with anything. I mean, maybe it’s like a sentence or something. Like those lines are little words like ‘and’ or ‘the’ or you know, things like that. ”
“Those lines and circles are directing the flow of magic,” replied Trixie. “It is creating a vortex and channeling the magic inward while these ones are creating a counter current in order to disperse the extra the energy.”
I frowned at it. “Then why do I feel like this whole thing is like... some kind of statement or whatever? I don’t think this is just a math question... I feel like there’s actual meaning here. Like a sentence or something.”
“Perhaps a symbol acting as a channel? It is theoretically possible, but never done before...”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Half the time I talk out my ass anyway, what the fuck do I know about this unicorn crap?”
“You just said a bunch of crap that was accurate, despite not knowing any of it,” countered Trixie.
“I hate that Luna got in my head. I hate that I ever fucking trusted Nightmare, and I really fucking hate this constant feeling I have of... being completely out of my depth, but the air’s always just a few inches over my head. Like I’m just a stroke away from breaking the surface and everything making sense, but there’s a chain around my leg holding me down. I’ve been feeling like that ever since I got that glimpse at Nightmare’s head, and it’s even worse now.”
“Gilda...” Trixie placed her hoof on my claw. It was clear she wanted to say something, but it was just as clear that she had no idea what she wanted to say.
After a while of just sitting there I stood up. “Whatever. I’m gonna go and read about nightkin. And by that I mean check out cub’s stories.” Walking away, I swished my tail angrily. “If that doesn’t tell you I’m an idiot, I don’t know what does.”
“Wait, Gilda!” I felt her magic wrap around my tail. “Please come back.”
After a moment I turned around and walked back over to her. “What’s up?” I asked.
She immediately pulled me into a hug and after a second of confusion, I returned it. We stayed like that for a moment, until I said in her ear, “Thanks, Trix,” and pulled away.
“I’m sorry I snapped like that...” I looked at Trixie. “I’m just tired and frustrated and...” The sentence trailed off as I ran out of things to say.
So, she decided to give a full blown kiss. I felt myself melting into her arms and lips as it dragged on. Even when it finished, we stood there with her lips touching my beak. It must have been years before we pulled apart.
“Thanks, Trix,” I told her. “I’ll try to tone back the whining.”
Instead of replying, she gave me another kiss, though this time it was a short, sweet one. “Well Trixie is sorry for being so bitchy.”
“We’re both just tired from this new sleep cycle, and frustrated with this goddess damn mess. I mean, we’re both pretty bitchy, so of course we’re gonna fight I guess. It’s no big deal, right?”
“True.” Another kiss. “And Trixie never fulfilled her promise. Remember? From when Trixie wanted to go to White Peak? Perhaps once this is all over, Trixie can finally get around to fulfilling that little wish.”
I smirked at her, before my eyes widened. “Ah shit. My birthday was the day before yesterday. After we left mum’s house. I forgot about it completely.”
“Such a shame.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t matter. We’ve been too busy to really do anything about it.”
“Mmhm,” said Trixie as she went back to her notes. “Do you know what this symbol is?”
I glanced over her shoulder. “Which symbol?”
“This one.” She tapped the drawing of three circles overlapping over a rune that looked like two half circles that were back to back with a line through it.
I frowned. “That rune means... ‘mind’ I think, or maybe ‘memories’ or ‘thoughts’. These circles are... I’m not sure. I think they’re saying ‘more’ or... maybe changing the context of the rune. ‘More memories’ maybe?”
“And these?” More circles, but this times with lines through them or alongside them at odd angles.
“Uh...” Crap. Have you ever had that feeling that you should remember something, but it’s just out of your reach? “Shit... I think the rune’s for ‘bond’... or maybe ‘emotional attachment’. The lines and circles make it a specific kind of bond... uh... shit maybe, like sisterhood? Or... family? Adopted family? Shit, I dunno.”
“Could it be romantic?” asked Trixie. “Like lover or something?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “No... this part of the rune’s about... I dunno. I’m thinking it’s the part about being adopted into the night and stuff. See? It’s connected to this part about shadow and daylight... this part over here is about passion and devotion I think.” My claw tapped another piece of the paper.
“Well, the bright side is, it looks like you were right.” She pulled out the sheet with the entire ritual on it. “Those segments were the large bits here and here. I’m still trying to break down the central circles, but it seems like the entire thing is laid out as a massive energy conductor of some kind as well as being symbols.”
After looking at the central circles for a moment I said, “Sorry, I got nothing.” A frown creased my beak. “I get the impression that it’s about... change? Or difference or... I dunno. Just this really vague idea of something being different somehow. I couldn’t say any more than that.”
“Alright. Trixie will continue searching through these books then. Perhaps you should look into mythologies and see what you can dig up about nightkin powers? Slight may be a good starting point.” Trixie sighed as stared at the book before her. “Though you know a lot more about these runes than Trixie.”
“Really?” I asked surprised. “I thought you were like prodigy or something?”
“Was being the key word,” replied Trixie, “And at practical magic, not this theory crap.”
“Oh...” I shuffled awkwardly. “Sorry...”
“It’s fine.” A light peck on the cheek for my worries as well as a small smile. “Don’t worry about it, Trixie got over it a long time ago.”
After a moment I nodded. “Alright then... if you’re sure you’re okay here.” I stood up and walked away.
“Just come back soon,” she called after me.
The library was pretty big. Well... big for a gryphon library. This was the Kingdom we’re talking about. This place had nothing on the one in Canterlot. I poked my head in there once out of curiosity, and the sight of so many freaking books bored me so much that I just walked out.
As I walked through the building, I realized that I had no clue how to navigate this place. Where would I find books about Slight? After a moment I shrugged and made my way to the front desk and asked the librarian.
“Slight?” She asked over her nerdy glasses. “Aren’t you a bit old for-”
“Just tell me where the books are.” I growled and leaned in towards her.
She swallowed and backed away. “In the nonfiction section. Under tribal lore. We have the complete Great Scar’s Last Shadow in the Day, and the Equestrian Curse of the Everfree.”
“Thanks.” And with that, I made my way to the area she recommended. Even with her directions, it took me ages to find the books. I’m not an egghead. What do you want from me? I picked up both versions and made my way back to Trixie.
When I found her she was poring over the books and scribbles I’d left her with. I sat down and flipped through The Last Shadow.
“Heh.” I smirked. “I love these old tribal legends. I mean, listen to this shit: ‘From the death of her goddess, she was forged. A final tribulation for all of equinity as punishment for defying their god. Song of Night, blessed of the dark and chosen vassal of Nightmare Moon. Slight.’” I smiled at Trixie for a moment before I frowned as I noticed something. “Oh, wait... that’s just the inside blurb.”
“Yes, well, perhaps you should start reading the actual thing?”
“Whatever, I’ve read the whole thing before anyway. Or... you know, skimmed it at least.” I flipped the book open till I came to a pretty cool picture of Slight standing on a pile of corpses. “Hey, this one has pictures done by some comic book artist.” I smiled over at Trixie.
“That’s great,” replied Trixie. “See if you can find the sections where she did magic and see if you can replicate it.”
I rolled my eyes. Stupid Trixie, getting between me and my nostalgia. We settled into silence for a while as I flipped through, trying to find the sections where Slight used magic, but there weren’t many. There was one pretty cool one about her melting into shadow and forging blades of darkness with her mind.
I shrugged before I put the book down and tried to make a sword of shadows. Or a knife or whatever. It took me a few tries before I realized the room was too bright for me to really make the shadows crawl out of their hiding places. So I stood up and drew the curtains shut, casting our table in deeper darkness.
Trixie glanced up at me, then around before she summoned a light and plopped it onto the table and kept on reading.
With more shadows to work with, I pulled them towards me and shaped them into something. After a moment I had a vaguely knife shaped spike, and I ran it over my claw. It didn’t draw blood at all, just mushed itself against my talons. I tried sharpening it and hardening it, but the blade wasn’t solid enough to cut anything.
I sighed and let it dissolve again. I’d made those manacles for Trixie, right? How did I do that? Those had to be solid, or they wouldn’t have shattered. I glanced over at Trixie, before I willed the shadows into wrapping themselves around her hooves, but I knew they weren’t solid enough to bind her. Just sticky and cold feeling.
“Trixie hopes that’s you, otherwise Trixie is about to blast the offender into the moon.” Was it just me, or did she sound bored?
“Sorry,” I muttered and let the shadows go again. “This magic sucks. There’s this energy in the shade, but it’s all... soft? I mean, if I could like, concentrate it or maybe purify it... Get the energy away from the shadows or something...”
“Hm... concentration you say?” The book slammed shut. “Trixie doubts meditation would work for you, so let’s try anger.”
I stared at her for a moment. “What? Are you just gonna try to get me pissed off then?” My mind went back to White Peak. Back to how I’d killed so damn many brain deads, how I’d gotten obsessed with punishing them and determined to find the thing that would kill me. “Maybe that’s not the best idea.” I tapped a claw against the table. “I can do some pretty stupid shit when I’m angry.”
“Well you need to focus in some manner or form. Fear?” She shook her head. “Anger is still the easiest so-”
Trixie vanished with a dark blue pop and I was immediately on my feet. I’d know that aura color anywhere. Where in the fucking world was that bitch! Spinning around, my eyes narrowed at Nightmare Moon as she stood there with that cocky grin as a bound Trixie lay at her feet. With a snarl, I dived for her and she disappeared with a pop.
“Get the fuck out here Nightmare!” I shouted as I flapped my wings to get a view over the bookcases.
“Why? Did you miss me?” A voice purred in my ear.
I spun around and slashed at air, then I noticed her grinning at me from the top of a book case. I snarled, and I felt the shadow magic wrap around her neck in a thick chain and yank her towards me.
Or it would’ve if it didn’t pass right through her.
I stared at that in surprise, before my mind ticked it over. “An illusion,” I snarled as I turned around looking for the real Nightmare. With my new magic, I looked over the library and spotted the little shimmer of magical invisibility, and the real shadow of a pony.
Shackles wrapped around her hooves and I dived for her with my knives drawn. I tackled Nightmare to the ground, but passed straight through her again. Snarling, I climbed to my feet just as a book hit my shoulder.
I swirled around, and spotted her watching me, that goddess damned smirk still on her face. I wasn’t diving for another illusion, so without thinking, I made a solid chunk of shadow in my claw and threw that at her. When it passed through her face I didn’t waste any more time before I looked around for the real Nightmare.
“See? Anger.” I spun around and came face to face with Trixie. “And you dared to doubt the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
I stared at her in surprise for a moment, before I tackled her to the ground and came up sheltering her protectively. I glared around the room, looking for Nightmare with my body between Trixie and any potential attacks.
“Gilda! Calm down, it was an illusion I made. Nightmare Moon is not actually here.”
I stared down at her in surprise, before I hopped off of her. “Fuck you, Trix.” I muttered angrily. “I thought she was gonna kill you.”
“Sorry...” She dusted off her cloak and hat. “But it proved a point. Anger.”
“I can’t just get pissed off every time I want to use this shit!” I snapped at her. “You could get hurt.”
“You’d never hurt me,” she replied. “But it will have to do until we can find time to work on your concentration.”
I glared at her. “I’m not okay with that. I really fucking thought Nightmare was here.”
“Sorry, but it was the only thing Trixie could think of that’d make you angry enough.”
I frowned at her, before I held out my palm and tried to make that sword again. There wasn’t enough energy left in the shadows for that, but I did pull together a knife. I think I figured it out. I had to draw the shadows into me, and filter the energy out of it, before I directed the energy into the shape I wanted.
I squeezed the handle in annoyance, and the knife shattered in my grip. The fragments of it crumbled to the ground like chunks of charcoal, and dissolved in a black haze after another moment.
“Well that was a whole lot of work for fucking nothing. That thing’s as brittle as glass.” I muttered in disgust. “Who could fight with a sword made of that?”
“We’ll figure something else. See what else is in there.”
I was still pissed off with her as we made our way back to our desks. I sat and started flipping through the book before I got annoyed with the lack of magic.
“This is crap.” I threw it to the table. “It barely talks about her magic. Most of it’s about her skill and defiance and determination and shit like that. Gryphons don’t give a fuck about magic. Even if she could move the fucking moon, they’d only care about how she could handle herself with just her hooves.”
“Typical,” sighed Trixie. “Anything you remember from memory then? Maybe look in some book o mythical creatures and see if nightkin comes up?”
After a second I shrugged. “I still haven’t read ‘Curse of the Everfree’. Maybe that one will be better.” I frowned. “Goddesses know that I couldn’t sit through some mythology book about cub’s shit like, draconequus and crystal ponies.”
“Alright.” She wasn’t even listening anymore.
After frowning at her, I sighed and picked up the piddly little pony fairy tale. No way in Tartarus was a pony legend gonna be anything other than some thinly disguised message about friendship and being nice.
I flipped open the cover, and skipped the blurb. On the table of contents, rather than finding a list of chapters and sections, there was a selection of different stories.
“Hey, Trix. What’s with this story? There aren’t any chapter numbers.”
Without looking up she said, “‘The Curse of the Everfree’ isn’t just one story. It’s a variety of different tales ranging from horror to tragedy, even to a black comedy about the ponies that dealt with Slight.” She glanced over at me. “The main tale in Curse of the Everfree is just the three largest stories that occur in chronological order about her conception, her attack on Celestia, and her eventual death. They make up about two fifths of the whole collection.”
“Oh...” I replied and blinked in surprise. “How do you know that?”
“Everypony who paid attention in history class knows that,” replied Trixie as she continued writing.
“Oh...” I looked at the book in my hand. “This was junior school, right? I don’t remember that from high school.”
“No, that was from kindergarten.”
I nodded, glad I had an excuse not to know that. “Well I didn’t go to Equestrian kindergarten.”
With a groan, she slammed her face against the book multiple times. “That was sarcasm.”
“...Oh.” After a moment I sighed. “Yeah, well my job was never to be smart, it was just cut shit. It’s not my fault I got straight D’s.”
“Well at least you went to high school,” replied Trixie. “Everything Trixie knows is self-taught.”
“Really?” I asked her in shock. “But... don’t you know a ton of stuff about magic? You never had anyone show you how to do it?”
“Ha! Beyond the basics, Trixie is running blind. Apart from illusions of course, considering that’s her specialty.”
“Oh... right.” The conversation died as she went back to reading, and I flipped through the pages of the book.
I eventually settled on a chapter called, ‘The End of Iron’. It was... not what I was expecting. The whole thing was about a brave and noble warrior of Celestia. his wife was killed by Curse, and so he set out to avenge her. Over the course of the story, he became increasingly obsessed with finding Curse and killing her, and she continually mocked him, staying just out of his reach. By the end, he’d given up everything he had and forsaken all his vows to find her. He wasn’t there for his son’s first birthday and his colt was forced into an orphanage. His friends had all turned their back on him because of how much he’d made them sacrifice in the name of a dead mare, and he’d abandoned his soldiers to the battlefield. The last scene was the final fight between him and Slight as she told him he should have just gone home. That by chasing after her for so long, he’d lost more than just his wife, but everything he ever held dear too. Then she killed him. Suddenly and violently, with a sadistic grin.
“Well that was dark,” I muttered as I dropped the book on the table. “Shit, is that how you ponies really look at Slight?”
“Pretty much.”
I frowned at the book on the table. “In this she’s like the Boogie Mare or Slender Mane or something.” Slowly I picked it up again. “This makes her out to be nothing but a sadistic monster, pretty much just Nightmare Moon at a smaller scale.”
“Pretty much. Nightmare Moon is scary and evil, you realize.”
“Yeah, but Slight wasn’t evil,” I muttered. “She was the chosen of Nightmare. The last believer in a dead cause, fighting to the last breath against the empire that had destroyed everything she believed in.” The book cracked open again and I found a different page. “She wasn’t some creepy monster that made a guy lose everything before killing him.”
“And yet that’s exactly what happened. Secondly, she was chosen by Nightmare Moon. Thirdly, Nightmare Moon would have killed everypony. Fourthly... actually, I can’t think of anything, but I’m sure there’s something there.”
“He hunted her. He had every chance to back out, and she didn’t lure him across the face of Equestria just to fuck with him. Not her fault he couldn’t forget a grudge.” I settled on a new story called ‘the Protectors of Corn’. “You ponies are looking at her all wrong.”
“Perhaps you’re looking at her wrong,” snapped Trixie.
I glanced at her before I started reading again. This one was... different. It was an odd comedy about some Celestian royal guards, who were ordered to escort a corn shipment from the farmlands to New Canterlot. On the way, they continually saw Curse, and made delays to track and kill her every time they did, inevitably resulting in the death of a guard. The Captain of the Guard, a pony who had ‘paint for blood’, whatever that meant, never learned from his mistakes and kept sending more guards to their death trying to kill Curse. He wasn’t afraid of her, and he refused to let her escape him.
After months of delays and redirections, only two guards were left: the captain, and a cloaked mare. The captain finally decided to give up on killing Curse and just delivered the corn to Canterlot. They arrived, but discovered the corn had rotten because of their delays, and the Captain was executed for letting so many ponies starve just so he could chase a fairy tale. By trying to kill her to prevent her from killing others, he’d ensured the deaths of countless innocents by starvation. His blind nobility was what killed him in the end, and the punchline was that the hooded mare had been Curse in disguise the entire time.
‘I thank you for your stupidity.’ She grinned as she danced on his gallows. ‘For without your strong heart and weak mind, I would never have ended so many.’
“Okay, this shit is retarded,” I muttered and slammed the book shut. “You ponies have it all wrong. This is all a load of crap. It doesn’t even mention her companions like Annibal or The Twins.”
“Whatever,” replied Trixie.
“This isn’t even the same character.” I growled angrily. “This is supposed to be the classic hero's journey, you know? She leads a fairly normal life, then some shit goes wrong and she gets the tools she needs to go and avenge her god. It’s the exact same formula of any gryphon legend but about a female instead of a guy for once.”
Trixie’s face decided to greet the table this time. “That is real life, not a work of fiction.”
“This is fucking fiction!” I snapped. “The ‘pony with paint for blood’? The fuck is that, his anatomy?! She danced on his gallows?! How would she even do that?! This is a bloody poetic piece of shit horror story bundle, not what actually happened.”
“You mean, it does not match up to the story you were told. Both were probably works of fiction.”
“Nightkin are supposed to be fucking fiction!” I snatched off my sunglasses and glared at her. “The bloody runes were less frustrating than this!”
“Trixie knows this.” She levitated my glasses back into place. “Just keep an open mind, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered at her and opened it again. “At least this one actually talks about her magic.”
“That’s good.” A frown appeared and she shoved a drawing of some overlapping triangles at me. “What does this say?”
I gave it a glance. “Blood of the Moon,” before I turned back to the book.
“Overdramatic as per usual,” sighed Trixie. “Do you know if we read it left to right?”
After a second look I shrugged. “No clue... Uh... I think it’s center outwards... maybe?”
“Ah, that would explain it.” Mad scribbling followed.
I started to read again, but I couldn’t even finish the story about the lord who was driven insane by Curse killing one of his servants every night for a month. Still, at least it mentioned her using brittle shadows to make a man choke to death, or how she stepped through one shadow and into another. Apparently, direct sunlight made her powers weakest.
Another story talked about a pony on the run from her, as she hunted him all the way from New Canterlot to the Everfree. That one was alright. He’d stolen something of hers, and it painted her more as an unstoppable badass than some unspeakable horror. I still didn’t like it, but it mentioned that as Curse got more tired from using shadow magic, black smoke leaked from her eyes and with her breath. Guess that means overusing shadow magic can be dangerous.
Another mentioned when wearing a cloak, she could use the shadows in it even when in direct sunlight. Kind of like a little battery of magic she walked around with.
I plucked at my cloak. “Well that gives me ideas,” I said aloud. After a moment I felt into the shadows of my cloak and realized yeah, I could use them. In fact, they felt a little more potent than the other shadows in the room. Maybe it’s because it was my shadow or something.
With a frown of effort, I used magic to slide the blades from my sheaths, up through my sleeves and into my claw. It was slow though, so I might as well just draw them normally.
I glanced at the book before I closed it and put it on the table. “Maybe we should take this with us. I can’t read it all in one day, and it has been kinda helpful.”
“That would be for the best.” Trixie leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes. “So far Trixie has some information, but it keeps using stupid, melodramatic terms for everything so it’s hard to figure out what it’s saying specifically.”
“Maybe I can help?” I offered.
“Sure.” She tossed her stack of notes at me. “From what Trixie can gather, the shapes are channeling magic inwards. It keeps referring to the ‘Moon’ and a ‘Mistress’, which Trixie assumes is Luna or Nightmare Moon. ‘Blood of the Moon’ is more than likely the use of Luna’s blood in the ritual. The rest though, is gibberish. Like ‘Tears of the Moon’ for example.”
After looking at it I said, “I think Blood of the Moon has a double meaning. Not just Luna’s blood, but also like a family. Like... bloodline of the moon or something like that. ‘Tears of the Moon’?” I frowned at the sheets as I leafed through them. “Could that be moonflower nectar? And... someone she lost maybe?” There was an itch in my brain, just like there always was when I was thinking about this stuff. Like... there was just this little piece of the puzzle I needed and couldn’t ever have.
“Hm... well Nightmare called them nightkin did she not? So perhaps family does make sense. There’s a line here about hearing the ‘Voice of the Night’ which is different from this version of the ritual you drew. In this one, it talks about the ‘Eternal Silence’ instead. Perhaps that’s the total obedience line?”
A shiver rolled down my spine. “Fucking Nightmare.”
“If you want, Trixie can figure this out on her own...” She nuzzled my neck tenderly. “Trixie doesn’t want to bring up bad memories for you...”
“It’s fine.” I told her and patted her back. “I need to get over this some time, right?”
“But Trixie doesn’t want to force you into something you’re not ready for.”
“Ah, you know me. I’m never ready for anything. Don’t worry about it.” The smile I gave her was pretty desperate and felt dead on my face.
“Gilda...” I pressed my cheek into her caress. “You’re not fooling anypony. You don’t have to put on a tough act for Trixie.”
A sigh escaped my beak. “Yeah, I know, but... shit, it’s automatic, you know? And I have to save Grace, so whether I’m okay with this or not means shit all.”
“Listen, I can finish up in an hour or so without your help. Why don’t you go fetch some lunch for us and if you’re still feeling up to it, you can help out once you get back?”
“Thanks Trix,” I leaned back over to look at the drawings. “But let’s just get this done.”
“Very well.” Three pages worth of scribbles were passed over to me. “See if any of those are actually symbols that mean anything. Trixie’s been trying to pull apart the large magic channels to see if they are runes or not.”
I leafed through the sheets and wrote down the three that were. “Shadow.” I put one down. “Change.” Another went on the table. “And... I think this one means magic... but in this context it means a particular kind of magic. Maybe this is the part of it where normal magic gets changed into shadow magic?”
“Of course! Yes, that makes total sense, she’s channeling her magic into you. Though how that works or what it does is something Trixie has no idea about.”
“See,” I nudged her. “With my help we can get it done quicker.”
“Trixie never said we couldn’t.” She gave a playful nudge back. “Well, that seems to be it. The rest Trixie can do back at the inn.”
“Alright, let’s grab these books and go.”
We grabbed our notes and scribbles and bundled them up. Trixie slid those under her cloak while I stacked the books we’d been reading from. I thought about putting them back, but screw it, that’s the librarian’s problem. On the way out, the librarian looked at us like we were crazy, but whatever. I noticed that she noticed the book I was taking with me, but after a look at my knives, she left it alone.
Smart girl.
When we were back on the street outside I nudged Trixie. “Shit, we forgot your disguise. You’re still a unicorn.”
“Great,” muttered Trixie. “I need somewhere private to change so they don’t know it’s me.”
With a glance around, I spotted an alley that I knew would lead onto the street the inn was on. After checking around, I led Trixie down it and kept an eye out for trouble as she worked her magic.
“Done?” I asked her as the tell-tale sound of magic died.
“Yep.” Once more with that super-hot disguise. I swear she uses that one on purpose.
After a moment I realized that it had changed since I last saw it. “Trixie, did you make your crown feathers a little bigger?”
“Nope. Why?” she batted her eyelashes innocently.
I frowned at her. “You did, didn’t you?” I groaned in exasperation. “Come on Trixie! It’s a disguise, damn it. The idea is to not stand out.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just... Ah, fucking forget it. Let’s go already.” I muttered as we walked to the other end of the alley.
“O...kay...?” was Trixie’s uncertain reply, and that just annoyed me more.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what you’re doing,” I muttered as I glared murder at the bouncer who watched Trixie with a smirk. Not that he noticed, because I was wearing sunglasses, and next to Trixie, I was practically invisible.
“Trixie doesn’t know though! Your mother just told Trixie to have larger crown feathers!”
I sighed as another male practically tripped over himself staring at her flank. Fuck, she wasn’t even doing anything and he was bloody drooling. I fucking dare the asshole to try something.
“Well, big crown feathers are... just tone them down a bit next time? Please. My mum was... wrong when she told you to have them.”
“Alright...” Though she looked at me quizzically, she didn’t push the subject any further.
“Fuck me dead...” I muttered as we walked by a guard. “That guy practically has rape written on his face.” I pointed him out to Trixie. “Bloody Celestia, could they at least try to be subtle about it?”
“Oh...” Her eyes widened and she shrunk back to stand behind me. “Next time Trixie sees your mother, you cannot hold Trixie responsible for any bodily harm she inflicts.”
“My point exactly,” I growled. “She has no fucking idea when it’s too far. It’s bloody retarded how hyper sexual she is. It’s a bloody miracle that Grace looked like her, and I looked like dad.” I shuddered. “Ugh, imagine what I’d be like if I was even a little pretty, let alone looking like her. I’d be even more... ‘feminine’ than she is.”
“Trixie doubts that.”
“Why?” I asked her as the inn finally came into sight.
“You? Feminine? Don’t make Trixie laugh.”
I snorted. “Fair enough. And she wonders why we never got along very well.” We passed through the door, and the bouncer eyed Trixie up. I fought the urge to punch him as we walked up the stairs.
“And you are certain it had nothing to do with your loud mouth, rude language and lack of tact?” she asked as we walked into our room.
“Well... those might not have helped, but it wasn’t just my fault,” I said defensively. “I wasn’t always a bitch.”
“Trixie never said it was a bad thing.” She flopped onto the bed and looked up at me with half-lidded eyes. “So... on a scale of one to ten, just how hot is Trixie in her disguise?”
I rolled my eyes. “With one being me, and ten being Grace, twelve.”
The disguise flickered away, leaving behind the blue unicorn I was so familiar with. “And now?”
“Need a new scale.” I smirked at her. “The old one’s broken.”
Trixie laughed at that and patted the spot next to her on the bed. “Good reply.”
“No, I was talking about the scale in the bathroom.” I grinned at her viciously even as I ducked under the flying book. “Seriously, lay off the cake a bit, Trix.”
Like a drop of a hat, a sly grin appeared as she slipped off the bed. “So does this mean Trixie has to exercise more?” On all fours, she began doing pushups with her flank towards me and her tail raised ever so slightly.
“You’re a bloody cheat.” That was the default response, but my heart wasn’t in it as I watched.
Her rump wiggled at me even as she grinned back at me. With a bit of magic, her cape drifted off her body and I swallowed air as I watched it trail along her back and slowly over her head. Once more with that wiggle and tail sway.
“Enjoying the show?” she asked with a smirk.
“Uh...” Gotta be smooth me. Real smooth. “...Yeah.” That’s it Gilda, play it like a pro. “Awesome.” Nailed it!
Trixie laughed, but kept on doing pushups, though after a couple of minutes, the teasing stopped as she concentrated on the actual exercise. Her breathing came in short gasps, her limbs trembled, and I wish her lack of teasing actually made it easier for me, but that’d be a lie. That hot body with sweat? Damn, I really hope I wasn’t drooling.
“Maybe we should exercise together more often...” I stared at her some more. “You know, because it’d help balance out the cooking.” Yeah, cause that’s the reason I was thinking of.
“Of course.” The knowing look she gave me made me flush bright red, like a filly with a crush or something. Before I could think of reply, she stood back up and made her way to the bathroom. “Regardless, Trixie is in need of a shower.” Not bothering to close the door, she leaned over the bathtub and began filling it with hot water.
I stared. Yeah, what of it? That flank was staring at me first. And then she began humming and with the humming came that bouncing. Was she doing it on purpose, like, to punish me or something?
“Need... help...? In there?” I swallowed and avoided her gaze as she looked back at me. Fucking damn it, what’s wrong with me? “I mean... if you need it.”
Instead of replying, she slipped into the bath with a happy sigh. She vanished from sight as she slipped under the water, and when she came up, she was wet from head to tail. I stared open beaked, and it took all my willpower not to rush in there and dive in with her.
“Good goddess, Trix! Close the door or call me in already!” I shouted after she did a wet mane flick in my direction.
She looked back at me with a smile. “Fine. Get in here and help wash Trixie’s back. Oh, and a massage would be wonderful.” She paused for a second before adding, “And if you can have lunch ready for when Trixie comes out, that’d be even better.”
I froze. “You’re mean.” I said flatly.
“Well?” she asked flatly. “You going to wash Trixie’s back or not?”
I walked in and sat down behind her. I took up the brush and began to work at her back. It wasn’t exactly exciting, but it was enjoyable. And as aroused and frustrated as I was, massaging her back was... kinda really fucking awesome.
Without thinking about it I said, “You’re in damn good shape.” My fingers were starting to feel the effort of kneading her muscles like that. “I mean... uh...” I swallowed.
She tilted her head back and looked at me upside down. With both hooves wrapped around my neck she drew me down for a sloppy, messy kiss that I was all too happy to return. “You don’t look half bad either handsome.”
We kissed again. All I could think was:
Fuck... Yes...
When we broke it off, she smirked at me evilly. “So... want to get Trixie that lunch?”
I blinked at her in surprise. “But... massage and... stuff...” After a second I added, “Sex!”
For the first time in my life, I felt an icy glare directed at me. “Trixie thought you said sex wasn’t an integral part of the relationship.”
“... No it’s not, but... I thought that...” Abort! Abort! Get out of there! “Uh... want a sandwich?”
She grabbed me and pulled down into the bath with her. Water splashed everywhere, I swallowed some, but I didn’t care because her lips were wrapped around mine and her tongue was in my mouth. A small groan escaped as I returned it hungrily and after a minute or an hour, we pulled apart.
I stared at her panting, till I said the first thing I could think of. “No sandwich?”
She stared at me. I stared at her. Then she groaned and bashed her head against the wall.
“I mean uh... awesome? Wanna keep going?” I grinned eagerly.
A death glare was directed at me. “Out. Now.”
I slunk out of the room ashamedly, the mood ruined.
“Stupid fucking moron!” I cursed myself as the door slammed shut behind me. “Why the fuck would you mention a sandwich?! ARGH!” I cursed and smashed my head against a desk. “Fuck! Ow!” Rubbing my head, I glared at the newly cracked desk. “STUPID! Come on Gilda! Words are not that fucking hard!”
With a sigh I made my way downstairs to get Trixie her bloody lunch.
Well, not ‘bloody’ lunch because she was a pony. Oh... yeah, that made me realize ponies don’t like to eat meat, so if I got Trixie lunch from here, she wouldn’t thank me.
“Fucking damn it!” I cursed again and one of the bars patrons blanched away from me in surprise. “‘No sandwich’? GAH!”
I sat at a table and glared at the meals coming in and out of the kitchen. Rabbit, venison, pork, nothing good for a pony. If I wanted to get a nice meal for Trixie, I’d have to make it myself.
I stepped past a pretty waitress who seemed surprised that I was going in the kitchen. Inside, I found a fat chef and a ton of kitchen hands. I got a few glares, but I ignored those as I walked up to the fridge and opened it.
I was surprised to see that there were actually a few vegetables in there, but nothing substantial enough to make a meal with.
“You cannot be back here!” The chef shouted behind me. “Get out of my kitchen!”
I ignored him as I stepped out of the kitchen. I checked my pockets and found a couple of bits. Good. Enough to buy something.
A quick flight to the markets later, fast enough to make Dash jealous, and I was on my way back to the inn with a few heads of lettuce and other pony foods for Trixie. The stallion at the stall had given me strange looks, but he seemed honest to me as he recommended different products.
When I got back I walked into the kitchen and laid out the various foods and ingredients I had. With a cutting board and a knife, I set about slicing it all up carefully. A few of the maids gave me funny looks, but no one really bothered me. When it was all ready, I set it in the bowl for a nice salad, and started to make a nice tangy dressing for Trixie. Something with a slightly sour bite. I know that’s how she likes to make it for herself.
“Get out!” The chef shouted at me, and I ignored him as I rubbed my talons clean on his apron. With a snarl, he poked me between the shoulder blades. “You hear me, female?! Out!”
I ignored him and grabbed some of the fruits I’d bought. Those I squeezed and juiced for a smoothie. I grabbed some of the kitchen’s sugar to mix in for sweetness, and the chef practically exploded with rage.
He swung his spoon at me like a sword- Actually no, that gave too much credit to his stance- Whatever, he tried to hit me with a spoon. A moment later, I was using that spoon to stir while he was lying on the ground and groaning. Pussy. He was just winded.
I took one of their serving trays, and left with Trixie’s lunch, while all the maids all crowded around the chef. I made my way back up the stairs just as the guy that owned the place poked a concerned head through the kitchen door.
In our room, I found Trixie on the bed poring over her notes once more. She didn’t even look up at me when I entered the room.
I sat the tray on the end of her bed, and quietly sat down in the corner, watching for her reaction. She’d like a salad and a smoothie right? I mean, I guess it’s more of a summer meal, but... shit I made her a summer meal in autumn. How fucking dumb am I?
With a small push, I nudged it just a bit closer, and with an innocent opening of my wings, I fanned the scent of the meal over to her. Her nose gave a little twitch as her head began moving to the right only for it to snap back to the notes. I stretched my wings again and once more her head turned towards her lunch. After another minute, she grasped the smoothie in her magic and began sipping from it, though she still didn’t pay any attention to me.
I only watched as the cup slowly drained. One small sip after another, barely a conscious decision made, the line of juice gently receded, and she went for a final sip, only to frown when there was none to be had. It was only then that she realized what she had done and with a huff, she returned to her notes as though nothing had happened.
I frowned at her. Damn it, why’d she have to be so stubborn? I’m just an idiot; I wasn’t actually trying to tick her off. I lightly shifted and with my wing pulled the salad closer to me. Using the chef’s spoon I tossed it again, and mixed the dressing in. The sweet, slightly sour lemon lime scent filled the air, and I placed the tray in front of her again. Come on... eat it. You know you want to.
All it took was a second’s hesitation for her will to crumble. Whether she knew it or not, she began eating the salad, humming a happy tune as she went while she made notes on her paper. Within the minute, it was completely gone and she still hadn’t said a word, but she looked happier at least. I glanced over at her, then at the empty tray of food, and made my decision. Shuffling closer, I gently laid a wing over her torso. Trixie tensed up, but considering I didn’t find myself thrown into a wall, I’d say I was safe. After a couple more seconds, she finally relaxed, but the usual snuggling didn’t happen.
“Made any more progress?” I asked after the silence got unbearable. There was no fucking way I was gonna bring up what happened.
“Enough,” came the terse reply.
Fuck, what’s with this silence? “...Anything I can help with?”
“Nope.”
“...Want me to go?” I offered after a moment.
That caused her to pause. As the silence stretched on, I decided to just get out of there and give her some room alone. But as soon as I moved, she grabbed my claw, looking up at me with those big eyes of her. “No.”
“Alright,” I lay back down next to her confused. After another moment of silence I added, “Sorry.”
“You’re forgiven.” Well it didn’t sound like it.
“Okay?” She wasn’t making any sense. Mares are crazy. “Want me to shut up?”
“Nope.”
“...” I fucking hate awkward silence. “So... what do you want then?”
“A date.”
It took me a few moment to get that stupid look off my face. “Huh?” Greeeaaaaat! There I go with the smooth talking again. “I mean... what?” Just... damnit, me.
“You heard me, a date.”
“...A date?” I repeated dumbly.
“Yes. You have heard of a date before right?” That glare of hers was becoming too familiar for my liking.
“But... where? When?” I asked in complete befuddlement. Wait... that’s a word right?. Whatever! My head was tripping!
“Tomorrow night,” she replied. “Trixie expects it to be romantic, and suitably awesome for a mare with the title ‘The Great and Powerful’, got that?”
I nodded. “Yes Ma’am.” After a second I blinked. “But... what about Grace and Ashguard?” The moment I said that, I wanted to punch me.
“That’s tonight.” She grinned impishly up at me. “We need something to fight for don’t we?”
Again I looked completely fucking stupid for a moment. “We’re going to Ashguard tonight?”
“The longer we wait, the worse the situation becomes,” she replied. “So yes, we’re going tonight.”
“Makes sense...” I frowned. “But what if one of us dies tonight?” I winced the moment I was finished. “Sorry, shit, sorry. Forget that I said that.”
“Well if one of us dies, you’ll never get to tap this.” She gestured at herself. “Plus, you’re talking to the Great and Powerful Trixie! She’ll just drag your sorry ass back from Tartarus itself if that happens.”
A dumb blink later. “Where do you want to go then?” I paused and added. “You know, for the date.”
“That’s not how it works.” She licked my cheek playfully. “You decide. Just make sure it’s suitable for a mare of my status.”
“But we have like...forty bits to our name at best.” After a moment’s thought I said. “I suppose I could do a drug run for quick cash.”
“Gilda...” she warned.
For some reason Celestia only knows, I didn’t listen. “Or a hit job.”
Trixie’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Or I could rob a store.”
The temperature in the room began dropping.
I could never explain to anyone why I didn’t shut the fuck up right then. “Or I could just break us into someplace nice.”
There was a flash of blue and I suddenly found myself outside the room with the door slamming shut in my face. I went to open it, but a weird glow appeared over the entire thing and before my claw even got within an inch of the door handle, electricity zapped me, knocking me backwards.
After patting down my smoking feathers, I sighed and made my way downstairs. “Damn it, me. Just... fucking damn it. Heck, you don’t even have a couch to sleep on, you dumb bitch.” I glared outside at the sun. “What the fuck is wrong with me?”
I found my way to a corner booth and bought a mug of beer so they’d leave me alone. Then, with my head resting against the table, I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep.
“Fucking moron,” was the last thing I said to myself.