Oddly, Trixie didn’t feel nervous about the fact that, with the sun directly overhead, it was essentially midday. Perhaps that superstition was keyed more to the time of day than the position of the sun; either that or she was so terrified right now that mere nervousness over the unnatural midday wasn’t capable of registering beyond abstractly noting its absence.
Trixie opened the door to her house, closed it, and let the invisibility spell she had wrapped around her and Ditzy Doo, whom she was carrying on her back, slide off of them. On seeing Ditzy Doo, she almost wished she hadn’t. The pegasus mare’s eyes were wide with panic, and she was holding onto Trixie tightly, sobbing without shame into the unicorn’s mane.
“Dinky!” Ditzy cried out as Trixie made her way into her living room, suddenly finding life in her limbs as her wings began beating frantically, lifting herself off of Trixie’s back and straight up. She was stopped only by the room’s ceiling, and came crashing down to the floor again. Trixie leapt on top of her before the mare could get her hooves under her and go racing outside.
“Ditzy!” Trixie cried as she held the pegasus down. “Ditzy! Stop! You can’t – ”
“Get off!” Ditzy Doo interrupted, foreleg lashing out and hitting Trixie squarely in her jaw. The unicorn stumbled backwards, and Ditzy began running, but Trixie was faster and was once again atop her. “Get off of me! I have to save her!” Ditzy cried out.
“You can’t!”
“Yes I can!” Ditzy shouted, rolling over onto her back in order to buck Trixie. The unicorn’s horn pulsed with magic and stopped the blow, then Trixie once again threw herself atop Ditzy Doo, holding her down. She did not stop struggling in the slightest. “She’s my daughter! I have to save her! I have – ”
“You can’t!” Trixie repeated. She stopped holding Ditzy Doo down, and instead switched to embracing the pegasus. Unsurprisingly, Ditzy latched onto Trixie, once again crying her eyes out – she wasn’t going to run out of tears any time soon, it seemed.
Trixie felt her own eyes watering as well. “I’m sorry…” Trixie begged. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know Corona would do that. I didn’t know, I was just trying to save the mayor, I thought I was going to die but then I thought I found a way to make it out and then nopony would be hurt and I didn’t know…”
The two ponies remained on the floor of Trixie’s living room for several minutes, just holding each other, one wracked with feelings of failure and the other with guilt. At length, Trixie forced herself to pull away from Ditzy Doo, and got onto her shaking hooves, her expression dark.
“She’ll be fine if – ” Trixie began, when the window to her living room exploded inwards in a shower of wood and glass. Trixie’s horn flared, but she didn’t have time to react as a jasmine-and-blue blur slammed into her and forcing her back against her wall. Trixie’s eyes widened as they locked onto Raindrops’ own. “W-wait, I – ” the unicorn started.
“There’s maybe fifteen seconds before half of Ponyville arrives here,” Raindrops interrupted as she pulled away from Trixie. Trixie began to speak, but the weather pony’s hoof was near-instantly in her mouth, shutting her up. “You. Carrot Top’s. Run.”
Trixie blinked once in shock, before survival instinct kicked in. She cast her familiar invisibility-and-silence-spell combo – eliciting a slightly raised eyebrow from Raindrops at the sight of her being erased from the visible spectrum – before dashing off as fast as her hooves could take her. On her way out of her home, through the same hole that Raindrops had made while entering, she saw the mob of ponies approaching her house, cries of traitor and monster on their lips. The mob was surprisingly small; then again, she supposed that a large number of ponies would still be paralyzed with fear and terror over what had just happened.
Despite nopony being able to see her, and so being supposedly perfectly safe, Trixie ran for her life from Ponyville.
---
Carrot Top jumped as her door opened and closed of its own accord not long after she had arrived home herself with Lyra and Cheerilee, and was startled again when a blue-coated, white-maned, purple-clad unicorn appeared from nowhere only a few feet away from her, barrel heaving. She looked to Carrot Top. “Hi – ” Trixie began, when she found herself seized in a golden magical aura and hurled upwards, into the ceiling of Carrot Top’s living room.
“You!” Lyra – still wearing her white-and-gold dress – exclaimed, charging forward despite a magenta earth pony’s attempts to stop her. “It’s your fault! BonBon’s been kidnapped, I’ll never see her again, and it’s your fault!”
Trixie grunted, her own horn flashing and shoving Lyra’s telekinesis off of her. She managed to fall from the ceiling and land on her hooves without problem, and both Carrot Top and Cheerilee managed to stop Lyra’s attempts to abandon telekinesis and use her bare hooves on Trixie. The blue unicorn nevertheless began backing away, but then the door opened again, and Raindrops entered, half-carrying a still-distraught Ditzy Doo with her. The jasmine-coated pegasi glared at Trixie as she did, closing the door behind her firmly before taking in a few deep breaths and letting them out slowly.
Trixie looked around at the situation. Lyra had stopped trying to cause grievous harm to Trixie, instead falling to her knees and crying, with Cheerilee beside her and holding her. Ditzy Doo was at least as distraught; Trixie made her way over to the gray pegasus took up a similar role as Cheerilee’s for Lyra, before looking to Raindrops and Carrot Top. “Okay,” she said, “why are you helping me?”
“You were trying to save the mayor,” Raindrops observed. “Just about everypony in Ponyville’s too angry and too scared to see that right now, but I know that’s what you were trying to do.” Her eyes narrowed, then, and she leaned in close to Trixie. “Right? Because if Corona was right – if you really were just kissing her flank to save your behind – ”
“No!” Trixie interrupted, though she paused. “Not – I was trying to save the mayor. I was ready to die. But then Corona asked me about my noble title and I realized that she wanted me alive because she’s going to need to keep the government intact in order to actually run Equestria, and I thought I saw a way out, a way for me to survive and the mayor to survive and everypony to just make it out okay! I didn’t know she’d kidnap ponies!” Trixie hugged Ditzy Doo tighter at that, as the mare’s tears resumed with even greater vigor. She glared at Raindrops. “But why are you helping me? You and Carrot Top? You two hate me! Princess Luna told me so!”
Raindrops jabbed a hoof at Cheerilee. The magenta earth pony blinked a few times, looking between the five other ponies. “I saw what you were doing,” she said. “With the mayor, trying to save her. I heard what you were saying, and I know you were just trying to make it out okay, but everypony was getting so mad. I’d heard from Princess Luna that you and Raindrops knew each other, so I got her, and got Lyra, and Lyra suggested Carrot Top’s, and we were going to help you hide since the residency wouldn’t be safe for you, but then Corona took the foals…”
“But I thought you hated me. I thought you all hated me.”
“That doesn’t mean we want to see you mobbed.”
“Not even Raindrops?”
The jasmine pegasus whickered. “No. You’re mine.”
“Besides,” Cheerilee said, “I know you were just trying your best to make the festival a good – ”
“What do we do?” Carrot Top interrupted suddenly, as the situation became too much for her. She began to pace in place. “Corona’s free and Princess Luna is gone and I’m harboring a traitor to Equestria – ”
“I’m not a traitor!” Trixie shouted.
“You look like one!” Carrot Top countered. “Even though you’re not you look like one and they’re going to search all the houses in Ponyville and they’ll find you and lynch you and lynch me for harboring you and then Corona is going to get mad and kill all the – ”
Carrot Top’s ranting was stopped by Raindrops shoving a hoof in her mouth. A long silence began, interrupted only by the gasping sobs of Ditzy Doo and Lyra. “That’s not going to happen,” Trixie intoned after awhile. “Corona won’t kill anypony. I’ll…I’ll just hide for as long as it takes for Ponyville to calm down. Corona said she’d return everypony she took as long as Ponyville obeyed all her commands. All that needs to happen is that and for me to not be stupid and run into the Everfree.”
“Why would you go there?” Cheerilee asked.
Trixie grimaced, looking down. “I thought I could get the…nevermind. Nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“No,” Raindrops said, stomping forward. “Get what? What are you talking about?”
Trixie looked up. Raindrops’ eyes were narrow as she regarded Trixie. The unicorn stared for a long moment before letting out a sigh. “Okay,” she said. “Technically this is a state secret. But it’s not in any law books or official orders or anything, it’s just something that only me and Princess Luna and maybe a few others know. Okay?”
Raindrops nodded. Trixie looked to each of the remaining four ponies; Lyra and Ditzy Doo were still mostly lost in their sadness, while Carrot Top and Cheerilee also nodded in understanding. Sighing, Trixie pressed on. “While I was talking to Corona, but before she took the foals, I thought I knew some way to get rid of her. I thought I’d go get the Elements of Harmony.”
Carrot Top blinked a few times. “You wanted to go to Canterlot?” she exclaimed. “Where there’s a good chance Corona is going to be setting everything on fire?”
Trixie shook her head. “The Elements aren’t in Canterlot.”
“Yes they are,” Cheerilee objected, standing, though she remained close to Lyra. “They’re on display in the palace. I’ve seen them, we went there on a field trip when I was a filly, Lyra and all the other unicorns kept going on about how much magic was coming off of them – ”
“Those aren’t the Elements,” Trixie explained. “They’re fakes. Just six random gemstones that Princess Luna pours tons of magic into every year to make them seem like they’re the Elements. I only know because my special talent is magic, and I’ve got a really good feel for magic too, and after I started my apprenticeship with Luna and she taught me the detect magic spell I used to cast it on everything. I cast it on Luna once when she raised the moon and I went blind for three days from how much magic she lets out while doing that. But when I cast it on the Elements, I didn’t even get a headache. I thought that was weird – y’know, they’re the Elements and all – and I asked Princess Luna about it, so she showed me the real Elements.”
Cheerilee blinked. “Why would Princess Luna lie about that?”
“Because the real Elements are petrified rocks,” Trixie said. “They’re in the Everfree Forest, in the ruins of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. After Luna banished Corona to the sun, they just went inert and kind of froze in place. No force – not even Luna herself – could move them. Luna didn’t want everypony to know that, though. So she made the fakes.”
“And she just left the real ones unguarded?” Carrot Top asked. “Why?”
Trixie grimaced. “Not exactly ungaurded. There’s traps, and of course they’re in the middle of the Everfree and all its monsters. As for why, Princess Luna didn’t say, but at a guess I’d say she just didn’t want to ever have to go back to where she’d fought the Tyrant Sun.” Trixie shook her mane. “I thought that if I could get to the Elements of Harmony, I might find some way of getting them free and using them on Corona. But not now, not while she has those hostages…”
“No,” Raindrops said. She wasn’t looking at Trixie, but rather down at the ground, eyes moving a little as though reading. “No, we have to go now. Now’s the perfect time.”
“What?” the five other ponies in the room demanded, with Trixie appending a “and where’s this we coming from?” to her objection.
Raindrops looked between them. “Corona has her hooves full right now,” she pointed out. “That’s why she took all those mares and stallions with her, remember? To keep an eye on the foals. She has a government to overthrow and bring over to her side, and she’ll probably have to do a repeat of what she did with Trixie in most other towns and cities in Equestria, at least until she forces everypony else to bow to her. Plus, there’s the Royal Guard.”
“They can’t win,” Carrot Top objected, shaking her head morosely at the thought.
“But they’ll fight anyway,” Raindrops pointed out. “They’ll be buying us time without even knowing. If the Elements can work at all, then now is our best chance to get them.”
“But Corona…” Lyra objected, as she and Ditzy stood. “Corona will kill BonBon and all those foals if she finds out what we’re doing!”
Raindrops fixed Lyra with a sad look, then turned to Ditzy as well. “If we wait,” she said, “then we’ll never get this opportunity again. One of the first things Corona is going to do, when she gets a chance, is check out where everypony thinks the Elements are. If she realizes they’re fakes, she’ll start hunting for the real ones. And the first place you look for something is the last place you saw it.”
She looked between the five other ponies. “Come on,” she said. “We all know the stories about Corona. The legends. What she’s like. We’ve seen what she’s capable of. We saw what she did to Princess Luna. Those ponies she kidnapped won’t be safe until Corona is back in the sun where she belongs.”
“But where’s this we coming from?” Trixie repeated, stepping forward. “It’s too dangerous. I wasn’t even thinking of asking anypony to come with me – ”
Raindrops snorted. “Like you’d last five minutes in the Everfree by yourself.”
“Not the point.”
“I know. I also know that now that I know there’s a chance of stopping Corona, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try.”
Trixie searched the pegasus’ face. Despite her words and tone, her expression remained surprisingly neutral. “Fine,” she said. “I guess I could use a set of wings, anyway. The rest of you – ”
“I’m coming too,” Cheerilee said, stepping forward. “Those foals are my students, or a lot of them are, anyway. I have to try and save them.”
Trixie began to object, when Carrot Top stepped forwards. “Me too,” she said. “I know a lot about the flora of the Everfree Forest. I might be able to help you.”
Trixie looked between the three ponies. “Okay…” she acquiesced. “Okay. So the four of us – ”
“I’m coming too,” Lyra interrupted, wiping her tears from her eyes. “Raindrops…Raindrops is right. BonBon won’t be safe unless Corona is sealed away again. Plus, Trixie, your special talent might be magic, but I actually went to the magic academy. I might be able to help with freeing the Elements.”
“Fine,” Trixie said, shaking her head. “Fine. Ditzy Doo, I guess you should go home and – ”
“I’m already at the door,” Ditzy Doo’s voice said. Everypony turned to look at her. Her wings were no longer sagging with sorrow, but instead were held at the ready, and her face, though her eyes were still red from tears and walled, was set with a look of determination. “I’m coming too. Dinky Doo would want me to try and save her.”
Trixie blinked, looking between the five ponies. “No,” she said in a small voice, though it was louder for her next proclamation. For some reason, she felt she had to try and stop them, stop this madness. “No! This is stupid! We’re going to get everypony killed!”
“Fine,” Raindrops said. “We’ve still got Lyra for unicorn magic. The five of us will go into the Everfree. You can stay behind.”
Trixie blinked. “Are you trying reverse psychology on me?”
Raindrops’ expression clearly asked do I look like the kind of pony who’d try that, even though she herself remained silent. Instead, Cheerilee stepped up to Trixie. “Nopony will blame you,” she said. “You must have been close to Princess Luna…if you don’t think you can handle this right now, we’ll understand.”
Trixie recoiled a little. She’d managed to not think about seeing Princess Luna so soundly thrashed by Corona…not think about the fact that Luna was gone, sealed away for a millennium…for several minutes now. The image of Corona’s magic sending Luna away in a white comet, straight into the sky, came rushing back to her.
Even if they won…even if they somehow, against all odds, got the Elements, figured out how to make them work, and then used them on Corona…would that bring Luna back?
Trixie looked to Lyra and Ditzy Doo. The former had lost the love of her life. The latter had lost her daughter. Both were willing to put everything on the line nevertheless. Luna would never forgive her if she didn’t act – and just as importantly, Trixie would never be able to forgive herself. Trixie didn’t consider herself a principled mare, but whatever principles she did have, now was the time to be honest with herself about them.
Trixie also grimaced as she looked each of the ponies in the eye. She had been horrible to them over the past few days – well, not Ditzy Doo so much, but certainly Lyra, Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Carrot Top. But these ponies were still willing to go on what she said to try and save Equestria from the mad alicorn queen now trying to take it over – and had been willing to try and help her from everypony in Ponyville landing on her like a ton of bricks.
“I’m going too,” she said. “And…and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the last two days. I’m sorry for the way I treated you all. I’m sorry for the weather-for-hire ponies, for the blackmail, for calling you useless, for butting in where I wasn’t wanted, for manipulating you to do what I wanted to try and get back at Luna over something stupid that was all in my head…” Trixie looked down. “I’m sorry. If this all goes to the sun, I just want you to know that.”
The other ponies looked between each other. After a moment, Cheerilee, Ditzy Doo, Carrot Top, and Lyra all nodded. “Just don’t do it again,” Cheerilee said. “Provided there is an again for us.”
Trixie nodded once, before looking hopefully at Raindrops. The pegasus considered Trixie for a long moment, analyzing her. For once in her life – or at least for the first time in a long time – Trixie willingly let the emotions she was feeling just display themselves on her face. “Alright,” the pegasus declared at length, waving a hoof as though casting off the murderous intent she’d possessed earlier in the day. “But if you ever do anything like this again, I’m going to hit you. Hard.”
“Fine by me,” Trixie said. “As hard as you want.”
Raindrops nodded as she headed towards the door to Carrot Top’s house. “I’m holding you to that,” she promised.