Ranma was certain he was going to be deaf in his left ear. Or at least he expected it after the extended screaming his passenger was doing on the way down. Ranma was a martial artist, well his universes insane version of one anyway, and in this situation he would have usually just tried to angle to the wall and dig in with feet and hands to slow his fall. Being in pony form meant that any attempt to grab the wall was fated to fail and if he tried to drive a hoof into the thing the only result he was going to get was to send himself spinning and the screaming weight on his back wasn't helping as she was shifting around too much for him to be able to attempt anything reckless anyway. Even an attempt to use ki to anchor a hoof or two to the wall was likely to fail, and he wasn't good at doing it to moving objects anyway. Any other thought of trying something vanished when, in the dim and fading light from above, he noticed the sides of the cave closing in around the two of them right before flailing hooves hit rock and he tumbled into a slide down an angled rock tunnel that sent the two ponies tumbling.
The forward momentum lasted only a few moments before they were airborne again. Ranma managed to catch only a minor glimpse of a cavern illuminated by a dim glow coming from something on the floor before he had to worry about the fall to said floor. At the last second he managed to get all four hooves under him and impacted the rock floor, with luck on his side, so that he managed to skid to a stop while still standing. "YES!" Smirking he almost felt like dancing in place at his accomplishment when a heavy weight slammed into his back driving him to the ground. With a pained groan he turned his head to glare at Trixie who was scrambling back to her hooves and trying to look innocent.
"Geeze how much do you weigh?" He groaned as he pushed himself up trying to ignore the pain he was currently feeling in nearly every part of his abused body. The hoof that hit him a second later nearly knocked him back to the rock floor. "What was that for!"
"It needs an explanation?" The mare glared at him angrily before turning to look around at the cave around them. A luminescent plant, likely moss, gave off a dime blue glow from where it grew around the edge of a pool of water near the entrance of a large tunnel. Desiring more light Trixie conjured a simple light sphere and sent it flying upwards to illuminate the cavern she was now occupying. It was fairly large, with a ceiling a good fifteen feet above her, but it was also riddled with tunnels that seemed to come into it at random with some even going straight down. Turning she almost jerked backwards as she found the night pony less than a foot away staring at her horn with excitement.
"How did you do that?" Ranma had been shocked when Trixie's horn had glowed and released the light that now hung in the air above them. He hadn't even sensed anything when it had happened, well he had gotten a tingle up his spine but he was sure that had everything to do with the heavily abused state his body was in and nothing to do with Trixie. "How does it work? Can I get a horn like that?" It didn't take much to note the look he was receiving, as if he had asked her the dumbest question in the world. Trixie for her part was starting to wonder about the sanity of her current companion, after all he had been running through the Everfree and fighting Timber wolves so he couldn't exactly be completely right in the head. Of course what did that say about herself? And while she wasn't an expert on the royal guard she was starting to wonder if he was on a mission at all, or if he was simply an insane pony that she probably shouldn't have gotten close to, not that she'd had much choice in the matter. "Trixie is a unicorn." She put as much offended pride in that statement as she could, only to see him still looking confused. "Unicorn magic?" Still a mostly blank look with only minor comprehension. "How can you not know about unicorn magic?"
"I'm...not from around here?" It was practically as much a question as it was a statement. "I'm looking for someone. Someone who can help me fix a...problem." Trixie was focusing on the other ponies words while looking around the cave for anything that might be useful or dangerous and latched onto the statement of 'someone'. Ponies of course weren't the only sentient races in the world, they might have been the largest in population but they certainly weren't the only ones. Trixie had gone to enough school, or been forced to go actually, and was widely enough traveled to know that dragons especially used the different 'someone, anyone' instead of 'somepony, anypony' along with other language differences. It was interesting to hear it come from another pony though. "He's called the Doctor, and I think this hourglass is his."
Trixie froze for a moment before turning slowly to look at the pony "Did you say Doctor?"
"You know him?" Ranma couldn't keep excitement out of his voice.
"Trixie met a pony called the Doctor when she was a little filly." Trixie frowned as she started to think back on what she remembered.
"Then you can help me!" The desperation in Ranma's voice caught Trixie's attention "I don't even know what he looks like and I have to find him quickly. What does he look like? Where is he?" While he might not be in the same place anymore he could at least get a start on the search and know what the person, or pony, he was looking for looked like.
Trixie's face scrunched in concentration "Trixie...can't." She blinked in confusion "I can't remember." The words were spoken softly and in increasing confusion "Why can't I remember?" And yet she remembered everything else about that day, especially when she had met the one pony that inspired her to start really training in magic. It had happened in Hoofington, though she herself had been just passing through at the time on her way to wherever her wandering would take her. A small filly with a blank flank that had left home to travel, and had found inspiration in one of the truly legendary unicorn ponies in Equestria.
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Hoofington, 20 years ago.
Mud and water splashed up as the little blue filly tripped into the puddle left over from last night's heavy rain sending the dirty water into the walls of the alley as well as working a new layer of mud into her fur. Grumbling she pushed herself to her hooves and listened for a moment to make sure she wasn't being followed anymore by that annoying tailor and his friends. Why did adults always have to assume that she needed somepony to look after her? She was perfectly capable of doing so on her own and had been, and been doing so, for quite some time. Any other thought was stopped by the building shaking roar that was getting closer and coming from east of town. That was where the unicorn she had seen earlier was likely to be, the unicorn who had performed for the town and spoke of grand adventures, far travels, and horrible beasts defeated. The Amazing and Wonderful Lulamoon was what she had called herself, and Trixie had made the decision that she was going to become the unicorns apprentice and learn everything she knew.
Running from the alley she crossed through several streets and past now abandoned houses and buildings, making her way through the nearly evacuated town for where she was sure the unicorn would be. Nearing the edge of town she found the view to the east blocked by a truly titanic beast striding towards the town, each paw striking the ground with enough force to shake the buildings and rattle the windows. The creatures dark violet coat of fur seemed to shimmer and glow with stars shining within it and almost seemed to have a partially translucent look to it. In truth massive didn't even begin to describe the sheer size of the beast that was tromping towards town, it could easily have crushed entire city blocks under its paws and the roar it voiced nearly sent the filly tumbling backwards.
Trixie stumbled back in terror until she backed into something that stopped her rearward motion. Looking up she gasped in surprise and quickly spun around to stare in awe at the unicorn she had been looking for. Trixie had once seen Princess Celestia at a summer sun celebration in Canterlot, before she had left the place, and had been awed by how beautiful and powerful the solar princess had seemed. And the unicorn she stared at now made her think of the same thing. Her fur was a midnight black that seemed to shimmer in the light from the sun while her silver mane and tail blew gently in the breeze that still brushed through town. She was taller than many, with a lithe build and long legs that were a rare trait among pony kind. Her cutie mark, a star topped wand flanked by a small crescent moon on one side and a small full moon on the other, caught Trixie's attention as she was still holding out hope to get her cutie mark soon. The look Trixie received from the mare though caused the filly to shrink back.
"What are you doing out here!" The mare looked again at the massive beast her voice sharp with anger. "Facing an Ursa Major is not a place for little fillies. Or most full grown mares for that matter."
Trixie wasn't sure what to say but cowered as another thundering roar sounded from the creature as it reached the first houses and smashed several aside with contemptuous ease. Whimpering slightly the filly began to back away until, to her shock, Lulamoon strode forward to confront the beast. Taking a deep breath the unicorn spoke, in a voice that Trixie was sure would have deafened any pony standing in front of her.
"I give you a chance to stop this and allow us to help you. If you do not you shall face the wrath of the Amazing and Wonderful Lulamoon!" Her voice thundered loudly and she ended the statement with a flourish of explosive fireworks that boomed before the creatures face causing it to focus on the unicorn. And while Trixie was impressed she didn't think the giant celestial bear was. The creature gave another roar, close enough now that the air pressure actually knocked the filly over. When she was done tumbling backwards she looked up to see Lulamoon's horn glowing grey as she stepped forward to meet the beast.
The glow around the unicorns horn grew brighter and brighter until a it was hard to look at and with a loud grunt of surprise the Ursa Major's claws struggled for purchase as it was slowly lifted upwards until it was completely off the ground with limbs flailing. Trixie could only stare in shock at a feat of magic the filly doubted any but her new idol could do, she grudgingly added princess Celestia to that list as well though she assured herself that the princess wasn't as awesome. Squinting to see past the blazing light shining from Lulamoon's horn she could see by the strained expression on the unicorns face exactly how difficult it was to do what she was doing. Light flashed as large ghostly chains shimmered into existence and wrapped tightly around the Ursa's legs pinning them together before a third chain appeared to wrap tightly around the bears muzzle chaining it shut and muting its roars. The unicorn swayed slightly, her legs shaking with the drain on her magic reserves.
"N-now D-doctor! I c-can't hold it f-forever." Her voice still boomed from the enhancement spell placed on it earlier and Trixie saw a stallion dash from the cover of an alley with something held tightly in his mouth before flinging it forward where it skidded to a stop under the giant. Trixie heard a gasp from Lulamoon and watched as the black unicorn stumbled for a second before lifting a glowing right forehoof and then slamming it into the ground sending a jagged pulse of power lashing out to the object now under the bear. The small object began to glow brightly for a moment before it unleashed blinding wave after wave of multihued light shining across the bears form. The celestial bear gave one last muted roar before it faded away entirely and the glow from Lulamoon's horn winked out allowing the unicorn to nearly collapse to the muddy ground. Letting out a shuddering sigh she turned her head to look at the awed filly standing next to her and smiled. "And that is how you deal with an Ursa."
"You did it! You did it! You did it!" Trixie cheered as she literally bounced around the exhausted unicorn. She was still bouncing around the unicorn as the stallion walked up to her.
"Well that should do it, back to its proper place in time." He smiled "And nopony got hurt."
"Teach me!" Trixie skidded to a stop in front of Lulamoon recieving a surprised look from the stallion next to her and a weary smile from the unicorn. Seeing the looks she was recieving from the two of them Trixie looked up hopefully "I can go with you, really I can. There isn't anypony to say no."
"So you want to learn magic?" Lulamoon lowered to her head to look into Trixie's eyes. "Are you certain that is what you wish for?"
"YES!" Scrunching up her face in concentration Trixie's horn began to glow and ever so slowly a rock levitated off the ground to hover in front of the older unicorn. "See!"
"Well I must admit that for a unicorn of your age that is a feat." She smiled sadly at the youth "But I'm afraid that you can't come with us. I can't teach you." Seeing the downcast face she got in response she patted the small unicorn on the head and smiled. "Follow your goal, you will reach what you seek."
"There is a school in Canterlot that teaches young ponies to master their magic." The stallion, Trixie assumed him to be this Doctor that Lulamoon had called out to, spoke finally.
"NO!" Trixie released her magic, dropping the rock, and glared at the pony "I-I don't need them!" She drove the memories of her failed entrance exam to the back of her mind along with the laughter and the, barely bothered to be whispered, insults she had received for being a failure from the young ponies who had passed theirs. "I will be a powerful unicorn!" She almost shouted the words causing the stallion to take a step back in surprise at the angry glare he was receiving. "I'll be...I'll be The Great and Powerful Trixie! So powerful than I'll be able to defeat even you in a duel." She spoke the last while looking both hopefully and defiantly up at Lulamoon who smiled.
"Will you now?" The older unicorns smile widened "Well a great and powerful unicorn needs great and powerful magic. Will you keep practicing your magic till you have mastered it?" She watched the small filly nod vigorously.
"Yes! And I'll become so powerful that all the ponies of Equestria will know my name." Trixie reared up waving her hooves in the air for effect as the young pony imagined the cheering crowds that would great her. Surely that was the way they greeted Lulamoon, just like the night before when the town had cheered her performance. The young filly didn't notice the small flinch the older unicorn gave as well as the sadness in her eyes as she looked at the young filly. "You have great dreams Trixie. Are you sure you want to pursue such acclaim?"
"Yes." Smiling, Trixie waved a hoof at the Doctor "And someday I'll have a assistant with me as well."
"Assistant!" The indignant cry from the stallion went unheeded as Lulamoon laughed loudly before replying "I'm sure you will, and what a hoofful he's likely to be." Her mirth vanished quickly though as she watched the little filly for a moment. "Trixie" seeing she had the attention of the small unicorn she sighed "I want you know that I believe in you, that I believe you can become Great and Powerful. No matter how things might seem at times remember that the Amazing and Wonderful Lulamoon is waiting for that duel." She smiled at the filly "All you have to do is find me."
"I won't let you down." The filly spoke proudly while smiling happily "I'll become great and powerful and then find you." She again noticed with confusion the sadness the older unicorn seemed to be feeling.
The unicorn suddenly seemed to shake off her sadness and drew herself up taking on a haughty arrogant tone. "Now though Lulamoon needs a tailor. Do you know where she could find one?" Trixie could see the barely contained laughter in the older unicorn and quickly adopted the same stance and tone. "Trixie will show you to the shop Mr. Stitch runs."
Lulamoon smiled at the Doctor "Come along Doctor, I can't do this without my assistant." It was obvious to the young filly that she was barely containing mirth and the Doctor was looking irritated. "Assistant." He muttered, shaking his head as he followed.
Through the entire conversation the young filly didn't notice the minor fuzzy feeling she got in her mind whenever she looked at the stallion next to Lulamoon. And never questioned why he seemed so plain that while she remembered every little detail about that day she never could really picture him afterwards. His name though was one thing she did remember, and that Lulamoon seemed to treat him with at least some respect and listened to him when he insisted they get moving to handle 'things' that needed to be done.
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Present Day. In a cave.
Trixie came back to herself with a jolt feeling the poke in her side from the stallion standing next to her. "You okay?"
"Trixie is fine. She simply...can't remember what the Doctor looked like." She was still confused about that. She had always prided herself on having a fairly good memory, it was how she had remembered info about the Alicorn Amulet years after she had seen that book. But for some reason she was absolutely incapable of remembering the stallion that had been with Lulamoon that day. And thinking about the legendary unicorn nearly brought her depression crashing back full force. What would her idol think of her now? She'd probably laugh as much as any other pony and point out how pathetic Trixie had turned out, especially compared to how big her expectations had been back then. It probably wouldn't have been surprising to her considering she had been traveling a long time and had probably seen plenty of young fillies and colts stupid enough to make the same boasts Trixie had. And a duel? A duel against a pony that could defeat and Ursa Major, a true Ursa Major, was so far out of her league that the mere thought nearly caused her to shudder. Lulamoon wasn't just a unicorn, she was one of the few legendary unicorns for her abilities in magic. The only thing Trixie seemed to be legendary for was her failures.
Thinking about that time long ago made her mind shift back to the attack on Ponyville by the Ursa Minor. Not that Trixie had known it was an Ursa Minor, she hadn't even known there were Minor's and had assumed that it was merely a smaller and different colored Ursa Major. Why had she even bothered to cast spells she knew wouldn't work on the beast anyway? She knew the answer to that question and it was that as stupid as those two colts were she couldn't just leave them out there, or just let the creature tear into the town without doing something to it. The more she thought of it the more the two of them reminded her of herself and how she had looked up to Lulamoon when she met her, but the outcome was far different for her than for them. She stopped her, probably thousandth, rerun of what had happened at that time and focused on the here and now.
"Damnit!" Ranma turned to glare at the water for a moment before spinning back around "Where was he though?" At least he could get that much.
"Hoofington." Seeing the look on his face she sighed "It's on the edge of the Everfree forest" Blank look "The forest we were just in." Shaking her head she frowned "Why are you looking for him?"
"Gotta save the world." Well technically he was trying to save the multiverse but he wasn't sure how she'd react to that statement, hell he wasn't sure how he felt about it yet. By the look he was getting, and the fact she edged backwards slightly, she probably wasn't buying that either. "It's true! That's why I'm looking for the Doctor. He's supposed to be able to help." Ranma wouldn't be the type to normally admit needing help for anything but this was so far beyond him that he wouldn't have any idea of what to do without help.
Trixie had to admit that she knew the Doctor was real, even if she couldn't remember what he looked like for some reason, and he traveled with Lulamoon who she was sure could save the world if anypony could. Trixie tried to think herself out of helping what was probably a madpony but in the end forced herself to think of the fact that he had saved her from those Timber Wolves, not that she had really wanted saving. Forcing herself to come to a decision she tried to tell herself that she wasn't going to regret this and looked to the night pony. "Trixie will help you. But she demands to know who she's working with. You are a night guard obviously but what is your name?"
"My names Ranma." He was silent for a moment before latching onto something else "What the heck's a night guard?" Seeing the incredulous look he was getting he frowned "Seriously, what's a night guard? I'm a martial artist, though I really need to do some work on a new style now. Hooves, how do you grasp things with hooves? The entire wolf fist style goes right out the window, along with nearly a dozen others. Why turn me into a pony? What, human wasn't good enough for them? How am I supposed to help anyone like this." The frustration in the pony's voice was obvious.
For a moment Trixie very strongly thought of revisiting her decision to help the pony as he was obviously nuts. But some faint drive pushed her forward, the memory of Lulamoon's statement that she believed in her. As much as Trixie wanted to find a hole and pull it in after her instead of meeting the one who she had looked up to for so long she couldn't help but feel that of all the ponies in Equestria maybe Lulamoon could tell her where she had went wrong. And if this stallion was the only way she was going to get there then she was going to damn well take this one chance. "Trixie knows Lulamoon and the Doctor didn't stay in Hoofington, but there are some ponies there who might have remembered where they headed."
"Great!" His enthusiasm vanished as he looked around the large cavern and noted the multitude of tunnels. "Now all we have to do is find our way out."
"Leave this to Trixie." A new spell created a second sphere though this one was a muted blue color and began to float here and there throughout the cavern until it pulsed a soft light in front of one tunnel before moving on. In total it gave the same pulse in front of six different tunnels, all on the left side of the cavern, and Trixie soon walked to the largest, stopping at the entrance only to look back to Ranma. "Well, are you coming?" Seeing the confusion on his face she explained "The spell seeks out fresh air. These tunnels have drafts with cleaner air than the others." As the two walked into the tunnels with the light sphere floating ahead of them Trixie noted the light claw marks in the walls with a frown and wondered what they might be walking into. She noticed the earth pony was glancing at her horn every now and then. "Yes?"
"So...magic. I don't suppose you can teach me anything?" Ranma was already trying to decide what cool way he could incorporate magic into his martial arts. Seeing the unicorn shake her head with mild irritation he frowned "Why not?"
"You are an earth pony." Trixie was truly getting confused by the other pony continuing to ask questions that he should know the answers to, and it was only increasing her belief in the mental instability of her companion. Seeing that her statement wasn't effecting him at all she turned to him "Unicorn, magic" She pointed to herself before pointing to him "Earth pony, not magic." Well that was a simplification as she knew earth ponies had a type of magic but it wasn't like unicorn magic. "This is common knowledge."
"Hey I said I wasn't from around here. I'm from a really long way away, at least I think it's a long way away and I'm not even sure how I really got here." Well he had seen ponies before but not like her.
Trixie frowned as she glanced at the pony for a moment trying to decide where he could have come from and not run into other ponies before today. To land in the Everfree and not run into any pony towns or cities was nearly impossible unless one truly tried to stay away from civilization. Her horn glowed again and a light aura shimmered to life around Ranma causing the earth pony to shiver slightly. Her frown only deepened as she considered what the minor scanning spell had told her, that the earth pony was surrounded by an extremely powerful magical field, in fact it seemed to be woven throughout his entire body. She had seen something similar in Manehatten when the guards were transferring a unicorn prisoner through the city and had passed through the area she was performing in and wanted to make sure he couldn't use any magic. But this was completely different in purpose, in fact it almost seemed like some form of transmutation magic working to alter some fundamental aspect of the pony. This only increased her curiosity as to cast such a spell and not have to be in close proximity to maintain it would require power that likely only existed in ponies like the princesses and the few powerhouses like Lulamoon and the irritating Twilight Sparkle, she admitted the last only grudgingly but had found it was better to face facts than run from them. She also knew better than to tamper with such a spell either, while she was quite skilled in many areas this was a spell that was far beyond her abilities.
"What is it?" Ranma shook off the funny tingle he felt running down his spine again.
"Nothing." Had somepony taken his memories? The spell certainly had some mental sections to it but they seemed minor and token additions compared to the rest. Shaking her head she decided to simply file the information away for use at a later date.
"You did something so what was it?" Ranma frowned at the unicorn as she seemed about to ignore him again but she finally turned to shoot him an irritated glare.
"Trixie was simply checking for some mental damage since you appear to know nothing."
"Hey!" He trotted forward quickly to catch up as she started walking again. "I'm fine. I just...don't know a lot about things around here." He pointed to her horn. "Like magic, can every unicorn do the spells you do?" Ranma normally just took things as they happened, to the point that one old sensei to call it 'one of his faults'. He often simply reacted in situations he was unsure of instead of taking action first himself but in a world of magic using ponies, animals that seemed too damn smart for their own good, killer wolves made of plants and the fact he was a pony that seemed to have at least some catlike qualities he was really starting to re-evaluate his usual methods.
"Of course not! Trixie is the Great and Powerful Trixie, she is not a normal unicorn." Seeing at least minor interest she sighed "Most unicorns are only proficient at a small amount of magic based upon their special talent, unicorns whose special talent is magic itself are much more adept and powerful and capable of a much larger range of abilities though they are much rarer than other unicorns." That wasn't exactly true but it was the simplified version most ponies were told to make them understand. In truth ponies could expand on their spell knowledge but those whose special talents fell outside of magic would find it nearly impossible to truly master any spells of worth. A unicorn with a good grasp of ground magic, the locating of gems being only one such spell in that field, would find it not impossible to cast weather magic but would find that they were absolutely atrocious at it. Conversely a unicorn who had a very good grasp of weather magic, a true rarity in itself, would find it nearly impossible to cast a useful ground spell. This of course lead to interesting questions on why a pony whose talents led them to one field could not cast all spells in that field, there were theories and tons of tests had been done but no really understanding had ever been found.
"So how do ya know exactly what a ponies special talent is? I mean I'm awesome at martial arts but I can cook pretty good as well. And I know how to sew really good to." Ranma supposed that if he had to choose one thing that martial arts would obviously take top option in talents.
"Did you come from across the ocean?" It would certainly explain his misunderstanding of such common things, as well as explain his particular choice of words. If he had grown up near the dragon or griffon lands he would have met few ponies if any, though that would raise the question of where his parents were. And it made her wonder if the fabled night ponies home was across the ocean. She shook her head in resignation, every question she thought she answered only lead to three or four more. She decided to handle the pony as if he had never set foot in civilization before, as that seemed to be the best option for the moment.
"Not from around here remember?" He glanced at her expectantly.
"Most ponies are good at many things, but the one thing that they enjoy doing more than anything else as well as what they are truly best at is their special talent. When they find out what that is they gain their cutie mark." Blank look again, which received a sigh and a hoof pointing at the mark on the stallions flank. Was she going to have to explain everything as if he was a little colt in school, she had never had the patience for such things.
"Is that what that is?" Suddenly the name hit him "A cutie mark? You call these things cutie marks?" He was trying to decide whether that was hilarious enough to laugh at or if he should be angry that someone had stamped a mark on him that anyone would refer to as a cutie mark. Sure the bo staves were a depiction of his martial arts but why in the hell was there a paw print of one of those furry little demons stamped on him! He glanced again at hers "So what does yours signify?"
"Trixie is skilled in magic." She didn't even bother to keep the pride out of her voice when she said it.
"So you're one of those really rare unicorns?" Ranma glanced down a side tunnel as they passed and frowned as he thought he noticed something move deep within it.
"Yes." It was a simple answer to a not so simple question. Even among those who were skilled in magic there were levels of power that the unicorns found themselves placed into. The usual rankings for such were low, middle, and high. The true names were more fancy and official sounding but none of the young ponies Trixie had met ever used them. A low ranked magic user could cast spells across all fields but would be limited to lower ability casting, while this still made them impressive by unicorn standards they were vastly limited compared to the high power level unicorns. A mid level magic user could cast many more spells than the lower power level unicorns but were still heavily deficient compared to the high levels. And a high level, well for one such as that the there was little that was out of reach. Of course there were those who were higher than that, the princesses and the legendary unicorns were in that level and she had a suspicion that Twilight Sparkle was as well considering all she had heard and seen of the unicorn. She decided to explain a little more "Unicorns whose talents are magic range in ability from those who are low level spell casters, which still makes them much more powerful than normal unicorns, to high level which are vastly stronger than even the low levels."
Ranma kept his eyes on the adjoining tunnels but was also still listening and glanced to Trixie "Where do you rank?"
Trixie consoled herself that the pony likely didn't know how offensive it was to pry so much and decided to skirt around the question somewhat "Trixie has never formally been tested." A truth though not entirely. She might not have been tested by those stuffy judges and teachers at Celestia's school but she had been tested by her mentor and had fallen squarely in the middle. It had taken her mentor three days to convince her that there hadn't been a mistake and that she was simply going to have to realize that that was where her talents were and that wishing it to be different wouldn't change anything. She admitted that it was likely that which drove her to leave her mentor and start traveling on her own, the realization that any dream of dueling Lulamoon was a just that...a dream. She had failed before she had even began but had always consoled herself with the thought that maybe it was wrong, and that someday in her travels she would meet Lulamoon and the unicorn would acknowledge her abilities. But any hope and dreams she had had left were shattered that night in Ponyville and every day since with the ponies of Equestria pointing out to her all of her failings. She found herself wondering what Ranma, and what an odd name that was, would think once they reached civilization and he found out about her.
"We're being followed." The simple statement got Trixie's full attention.
"By who?" She strained to look down a tunnel but could only see darkness.
"By what is probably a better question. It's big whatever it is." Any other statement was cut off as they came to a stop at the end of the tunnel, which exited into another cavern. This one they couldn't see the bottom of, what with the tunnel being an unknown distance up the cavern wall and even across to the other side though it was easy to see the continuing multitude of tunnels connecting with the cavern. "Who dug all of these? Why dig them all?" He watched as Trixie's light sphere began to float out into the cavern to at least attempt to illuminate a way down. Something glistened in the darkness of the cavern as the light shone outwards. Leaning forward Ranma tried to get a better view but could only tell it was something white that stretched from wall to wall in one area. It was a tiny scratching sound, the smallest sound of rock scraping on rock that got his attention and made him turn slightly to look back...right into a now blocked tunnel as something massive reared up. "Down!" He tackled Trixie as two large legs lashed forward to strike the spot they had been standing.
It was a spider, if spiders were made of rock and were the size of a horse and one could only struggle to imagine how the damned thing had snuck up on them. Ranma darted towards the creature to try and attack only to have the creatures abdomen shift and a strand of thick white webbing shoot forward to hit his left foreleg jerking it to the side and pinning it to his right sending him tumbling to the ground. A scream from Trixie caught his attention and he turned his head to see another strand of webbing wrapped around her and dragging her towards the horror made of rock. Ranma managed to get upright and dig his back hooves into the tunnel floor and draw on his ki to try and anchor himself to the floor. It was a simple skill that while not truly securing you to the floor would at least make it much harder for an opponent to pull him in. "Trixie use the light!" The panicking unicorns horn flashed and the light sphere rushed back into the tunnel and right into their enemies face causing it to shriek in surprise and wrench at the webbing sending the unicorn into the wall with a loud thud. The instant after the thud the light flickered and began to dim as the glow around Trixie's horn winked out and the unicorn stopped her struggling entirely.
Snarling a curse Ranma wrenched backwards as hard as he could in an attempt to break free. A sickening crack came from somewhere in the spiders abdomen and the creature shreiked again as Ranma stumbled began to fall backwards as a inky black fluid gushed from the small hole in the rock that the webbing came out of. It was only when one back hoof slid off the edge that Ranma realized how close the edge he had been and by then it was too late. "No!" A desperate and futile reach in Trixie's direction and then he tumbled over the edge into blackness. "Trixie!" His last view as he fell into the darkness of the cavern was the spider, still leaking fluid from its body, dragging the unconscious unicorn closer.
Biting cold spiked through him as he slammed down into fast moving water which swept him away. Not sure which way was upright he was having trouble getting to the surface with the twisting and turning current being interrupted by rocks jutting up from the riverbed until he slammed into one with enough force to flash white across his vision and caused his struggles to weaken significantly, they hadn't been working to well with his front legs pinned together anyway but at least he had been trying. Blackness had begun to claw its way across his vision when something suddenly grabbed him and jerked him out of the water, tossing him through the air to land on solid ground. He would have thanked the Kami for his rescue if he wasn't blacking out.
"Is pony dead?"
"No. Bring it along, they're getting closer."
Ranma was almost sure that his failing vision was telling him that the one who talked was some kind of bipedal bulldog but his brain decided he needed to take a nap and he finally went dead to the world.
00000000
Canterlot. Royal Palace. Celestia's suite.
The set of rooms that were occupied by the solar princess would likely have surprised most of her subjects who would have expected them to be filled with the greatest luxuries that the country could afford for their ruler. Instead the first of the rooms, entered by passing through a set of pure white marble doors bearing a golden sun on each door, was sparsely furnished with a few lounges and a small handful of paintings depicting places like the mountain peaks that were the seat of the Griffon kingdoms power. Another showed the old castle in the Everfree forest when it had still been a beautiful and grand structure, looking closely at the picture one could swear the lights in the windows shimmered in the night around the castle and the trees swayed to an unfelt breeze. Near one corner was a display case featuring a set of armor, the crimson and gold metal was covered with barely visible runes that held power still within them even after the over five hundred years it had sat unused in the royal suite.
A plain brown unicorn with a deep red mane and tail bearing a magnifying glass cutie mark stopped for a moment to look at the armor and couldn't help but shiver slightly at the remnant of a more violent time. While pictures in the wider world were almost nonexistent the archives of the agency still had some hoof painted portraits of the princess when she had worn the armor during the Nightmare War. Quite frankly the pictures were hard to reconcile with the calm and often times motherly princess, but the reports painted the princess of the time in a much different light. A pony who had entered battle alongside her troops to the point of leading a charge of pegasai against the Shadowbolt air corps during the siege on the Griffon kingdom. It was likely the princess didn't even know that he or the agency still had documents and reports from that time, though in truth he wouldn't put it past her to know everything they knew.
The doors leading deeper into the suite of rooms opened giving him a short view of the private room of the princess before it swung closed again leaving him in the outer room with Celestia. The alicorn had removed her regalia and to the eyes of the unicorn pony she looked weary. He could understand why, she was up hours past when she normally would have been resting from her duties.
"Agent Glass. I heard you desired to see me privately? I assume this has to do with the investigations?"
"Yes your highness." The pony sent only a light pulse of magic to a small gold ring near the base of his left ear and a small stack of papers appeared and floated to the princess. "As we reported earlier Soft Step has made some inroads into the Changelings hives and has finally managed to make contact with the rebels, she hasn't been able to send back more than that before they had to evacuate for a safer area. She reports that Queen Chrysalis has managed to awaken two Behemoths to aid her."
"Behemoths? I had believed them all dead. Lost during the last queens short war with the dragon clans." Celestia didn't bother to hide the worry in her voice "With those on her side the rebel faction won't last long. You said they had to retreat, where did they go?"
"She's driving them deeper towards the edge of the areas claimed by the dragon clans. I believe she is hoping the dragons will deal with the problem for her." Looking Glass shook his head "I would suggest making an entreaty to the dragons to let the rebels pass out of the hives and have Soft Step lead them around to the frontier. The rebels seek only peace and a clean break with the other members of the hives, if we have the chance we should offer it to them."
"Getting the clan lords to let them through would be...difficult, but I could speak to them and call in a few old favors." Celestia could see that the agent had other things on his mind as well and gestured for him to continue.
"There is some...disturbing things that have begun to come up in a investigation I am doing in private on the alicorn amulet incident." Seeing interest on the princesses face he tried to decide exactly what to say "It's starting to look like there might have been some deliberate record altering within the archives about information pertaining the original investigation. I've seen some very confusing things regarding Trixie, some contradictory information regarding her birthplace and parents. As well as strange info about the aftermath of the Ursa Minor incident in Ponyville. I'm not completely sure but there appears to be some kind of shady actions being taken."
"In what way?"
"Did you ever give an order for her to be brought in for questioning pertaining to the amulet your highness?" The unicorn knew the answer already but it was best to ask everything.
"No. Twilight described the incident to me in plenty of detail. Trixie herself was not responsible for actions taken while wearing the cursed item." Celestia had nearly went to the zebra shaman and requested the amulet herself so it could be disposed of but in the end had trusted Twilight's decision and left it in the capable hooves of Zecora.
"And yet we currently have a standing order to capture and imprison her for questioning." The pony could practically feel the confusion radiating from the princess.
"Neither I nor Luna gave such an order." Frowning she turned to look upon one of the pictures on the wall. "You are saying that somepony has been looking for her?"
"More than a few your highness. If my investigation is correct there seems to be quite a bit of interest in her in certain quarters of the agency and a few places in the guard as well." He made a few mental notes to add to his investigation.
"I want this looked into, quietly." The steel in the alicorns voice caused the agent to stiffen slightly "No such orders were given and I want to know why some have such an interest in her."
"Yes your highness." He was about to turn and leave when she turned to face him again. "I want you to keep this within a small group, bring Lock and Key into it but nopony else." Celestia trusted Glass but he would need help and the twins were some of the best.
"Is there anything else your highness?" He watched as she summoned a map to her and levitated it to him. It was a map of the Everfree with a small area circled. "I need you to find out what is there, both Luna and I felt the arrival of something in that area and we would like to know what it was."
"Of course your highness. I'll look into it personally." He bowed and turned to head out. "Sleep well Princess."