//------------------------------// // Book One: Dark Rising. Chapter One: True Love // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// [centerHeart of Stone Book One: Dark Rising Chapter One: True Love Written by TheCrimsonDM The alarm clock rang loudly like a sledge hammer being swung down upon Trixie’s skull. She rolled over in her twin sized bed, and slammed a hoof down on top of the alarm clock. The infernal ringing finally stopped. She was not ready to wake up yet, and if not for the promise made to her roommate, she would have loved to sleep in on what was supposed to be her day off. The nightstand next to her bed held her alarm clock and several books, most of which were either light hearted fantasy adventure novels or self help books, designed to cheer one up on a sad day. The floor was covered in various types of clothing, and shoes obscuring most of the carpet. The floor itself was covered in a deep blue carpet visible between the clothing, and books, and pages of crumpled paper. All of Trixie’s shelves, and even her closet were nice, neat, and organized. It was too depressing to think about the mess on the floor too much, so she did like usual and ignored it. A couple bottles of pills sat on the nightstand next to a bottle half full of water. She made sure that the first thing she did was find her pills for her schizophrenia and take one of the pills. Since she wasn’t struggling with anxiety yet she ignored the other bottles. Taking medicine in order to prevent your own craziness was not the most entertaining thing to do; in fact it only made the hollow feeling inside her heart grow. Letting out a deep sigh, Trixie could feel the numbness setting in. The numb feeling didn't come from the medication itself, but rather it came from her battle with depression. Maybe one day she would wake up, and not feel bad for all the things she did to hurt ponies, or for the things that she never got around to doing for herself. At least that’s what she hoped. It was a hard won battle but eventually she managed to get up enough energy to get out of bed and walk out of her room. The depression was not going to leave her alone any time soon, but the smell of coffee emanating from the kitchen helped perk her up a little. Following the lovingly crafted aroma that was freshly brewed coffee, Trixie found herself inside the kitchen staring at a half full pot of coffee. After pouring herself a cup half full of coffee, she poured sugar into it until the liquid filled up to the brim. She preferred to think that she didn’t drink coffee in the morning, but rather she drank a cup of sugar with coffee added to it for flavor. Relaxing at the table she used her hoof and a spoon to stir the coffee. The first sip of coffee in the morning was a sacred moment, one that was to be savored, loved, and treated with the highest of priority. The hot liquid burned her tongue, but the sweet flavor coaxed her into whispered moan of pure pleasure. After a moment a gray earth pony with a pale purple mane walked in and sat across from her. The earth pony looked blankly at Trixie with a pair of dull blue eyes. Trixie continued sipping her coffee in silence. This was Maud Pie; Trixie’s dull roommate, boss, and caretaker. Trixie didn’t mind Maud’s personality, or lack thereof. Truth was that it was probably the best thing for her anymore. It was only fitting that Trixie’s only and best friend would be a pony with all the emotional range of a rock. There was one good thing about rocks however, and that was rocks never complained when Trixie would start telling one of her stories. In fact they would listen quite attentively. Maud sat across from Trixie quietly while continuing to stare at her flatly. After a few long seconds, Trixie’s checks began reddening a little as she wondered why Maud would be staring silently at her, maybe there was something stuck to her muzzle. That would be the absolute worst. As if reading her roommates mind, Maud began speaking in a monotonous voice, one that carried with it an aura of safety, “We will be hiking to the caves today. You should eat before we head up.” Trixie took the advice to heart, the last time she went hiking without eating it was terrible. She went to the fridge to get some breakfast. All she could find was some milk, and round oat cereal, but that would hopefully suffice. Pouring milk by holding the handle with her mouth had proven to be complicated at first; Trixie like most unicorns had become too reliant on her magic. It had taken awhile for her to relearn how to do everything with her hooves and her muzzle, and it had become a small point of pride that she become pretty good at it. Sitting down again across from Maud, Trixie began to eat while her roommate stared blankly at her. From her experience with the slate colored pony, Maud only stared blankly at ponies she wanted to talk to, or to be talked to by said ponies, honestly it was hard to read Maud. Trixie looked away from her roommate shyly before asking as casual of a voice as she could muster, “was there something you wanted to talk about?” Maud continued her blank stare for almost a full minute before Trixie began flushing red again. Again Trixie tried to get information about the stare from her roommate sounding a little more sheepish this time she said, “Um, if there is anything you need from me. You can ask.” Maud continued her vacant stare in silence. Trixie was now feeling a little scared and frustrated. Hopefully this was not Maud being angry at her. Staying calm was the most important thing she could do right now, or paranoia would set in. So Trixie tried asking again this time her voice came out more of a hiss, “Why, why are you staring at me?” Maud blinked for what felt like the first time in centuries before saying in solid flat tone, “Sorry, I was thinking.” The rest of the morning went by with a little bit of awkward silence. Eventually the pair had saddle bags packed with food, water, and whatever things that Maud needed for the trip. While walking towards the nearby mountain named Absolution, Maud took the liberty to explain why they were heading up. Maud explained, “I found evidence of a unique crystal formation higher up in the mountain. It may be what I am looking for. We are heading up the mountain today to verify my theory. I need a unicorn to help me test for magical properties.” An old feeling began stirring inside of Trixie, something great, something powerful. Of course Trixie is the only pony who can help with this task. Trixie stopped walking and clenched her eyes shut. Standing very still she realized what the old feeling was. Mentally Trixie shoved that old persona of hers deep into a little box, locked it with a key, buried the key, built a house on top of the ground where she buried the key, and moved into the house that was built on top of the key. Trying to ignore her crazy for the moment, Trixie found that there were still a few problems with Maud’s plan. The biggest problem was also one of Trixie’s greatest shames. Clearing her throat, she began speaking in as calm of a voice as she could, though even she couldn’t hide the regret hidden in it, “Maud, I don’t think I can help you with your work”. Maud’s voice was a lot closer then what she had expected making her jump back a little in shock. “Why?” Maud asked blatantly. Trixie opened her eyes trying her hardest to fight the tears and the feeling of pain rising deep inside her heart. Looking at Maud who was standing only a foot away. Saying it outloud was like trying to drink battery acid. This shouldn’t have happened to her, even if she did deserve it, all of it, she still couldn’t believe that it was true. “I can’t use magic anymore.” Maud placed a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder and said in a softer but still bland voice, “That’s okay. I don’t need you to use any magic. I only require your presence for the tests.” Wiping away the tears which had collected at the edge of her vision Trixie smiled at Maud, and together they continued onward up the mountain. “Stand around being useless,” Trixie mumbled mostly to herself. I can do that. As they continued their hike up the mountains, Trixie began to think about her magic. There were several theories as to why she could no longer use magic. One theory suggested that the Alicorn amulet had caused some sort of damage to her mana lobe which only got worse after time, as well as driving her increasingly insane. Another theory was that she was simply too afraid of her own powers. To the stable Trixie, magic was something that she had used solely to hurt ponies, no matter her intentions. She could only manage to destroy everything her magic touched. Her fear caused a mental block so large that she could not even lift a spoon with her magic anymore. Most of the time Trixie was left feeling a lot like an earth pony, only with no special skills. Her magic was virtually gone. She had to take medication to keep from being insane. And to top it all off she was in a losing battle with the hungry void in her soul. Trixie really hoped that they would be at the mountain top soon, though that was still several hours away. *** The majority of the trip was silent, save for the exceptions where a beautiful bird would be spotted by Trixie, or when Maud would find a unique rock. Maud had even found, and collected a few fossils on this trip in the past. Even Trixie had to admit that some of Maud’s discovery’s were pretty neat… for rocks. At the top of the mountain were a series of caves though they were dark prompting Maud to bring out her Lantern, and Trixie her headlight. The caves were just larger than the two ponies in height, the hard gray stone echoed underneath their hooves. Going inside always left Trixie with a feeling that she might never escape, but she pushed that feeling aside. She was stronger than some silly old caves. After a series of intersections, twists and turns they opened up into a large cavern. The cavernous area was a large open room, with a high ceiling riddled with stalagmites. There was a pool of dark water in the corner of the room, and a single pillar of obsidian that rose into the ceiling. A raised platform stood in front of the obsidian tower, almost like a naturally grown table. Trixie found it odd that there was a pillar of obsidian sticking out almost randomly in a cave made out of granite. The Pillar aside, Trixie found herself in awe of the huge open space, and the further in they walked the more she could see. Various crystal formations had grown in patches on the floor of this room, when close Trixie could see that they all had unique colors. Some were clear blue, others dark green and even a few pink ones had been growing inside of here. Even though her muscles ached, and she had worked up a sweat hiking up this mountain, Trixie had to admit that the hike was well worth it just to see this place. Near the base of the pillar was a strange collection of dark purple crystals growing out of the ground, Maud had decided to study these while Trixie explored the room. She did not want to stay near the dark purple crystals for too long, they had strange swirling patterns inside them, with letters that resembled some kind of language that she was had never seen before, yet they felt eerily familiar. They bothered her for those reasons, along with something else that she simply couldn’t explain. Maud had no such problems with them though, and went to work collecting them. The room was vast with several smaller pools of water scattered about. Various tunnels connected to this chamber, coercing Trixie to consider just how deep these caves actually were, and how easily one pony could get lost in here. This place was beautiful though, and if there were more places like this in these tunnles it would be a treat to go hiking here with Maud again in the future. Maud might be boring, but she takes me to the most amazing places. Trixie mentally thanked Maud for bringing her along for this hike. As Trixie continued to explore she noticed that there had been some black vines growing out of the ground near the pools of water. These plants must be pretty tough to grow inside of a cave with no sun light. That was when Trixie saw something huge creeping about in the distance, just out of her headlamp’s light. She could only make out the vague outline of it, but what little she could see bothered her. It was large, and stood on four legs; ridged spikes grew along its spine. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't friendly. Returning as quickly and as quietly as she dared, Trixie made her way back to Maud. The gray earth pony was still collecting samples of the strange purple crystals into a container. Trixie decided it was best to whisper her concerns right away, “Maud, I think we should leave now. I just saw a huge monster.” Maud looked at Trixie with an un-phased expression saying, “I know about the diamond dogs. I’m friends with them.” Monsters and diamond dogs, that’s it, I am not coming back up here. Maud went back to collecting samples for a few moments before a horrible roar echoed across the room. The sound of the roar had caused a slight frown to appear on Maud’s face along with her eyes being ever so slightly raised, and the fact that she was showing expression over this, scared the living tar out of Trixie. Maud looked Trixie in the eyes and said in a slightly worried tone, “That was not a diamond dog." Lead by Maud, the duo sneaked behind her towards the entrance. They had gotten near the entrance before something whipped out of the darkness. Maud hissed and Trixie looked over at Maud’s leg. One of the black vine had struck out and wrapped around Maud’s leg! Maud wasted no time in smashing it with one of her hooves. Although the ground underneath the vine cracked, the vine itself simply squished flat before re-inflating itself before the Trixie’s eyes. Maud attempted this act a few more times before the roar sounded again making both ponies stop, and look in the direction of the pillar. Dozens of yellow glowing eyes hung in the darkness. One single pair of eyes took a step forward its body became vaguely visible. The monster standing before them was a pony like creature that stood at least seven feet tall, with a large bulky and scaly body. Its mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth, and its eyes looked similarly to that of a piranha. Gils could be seen along the monster pony’s neck. Maud stood to face them saying a serious tone, “Lulamoon, you need to go. Follow the chalk marks on the walls back to the entrance.” Trixie took one look at the monsters before looking back at Maud. “Are you crazy?” Maud looked away from the monsters for an instant to stare into Trixie’s eyes. Maud was not looking blankly this time instead she wore a stern expression. She was serious about staying here while Trixie escaped. I could run away, get to town, and gather a group of ponies to come back and rescue Maud. It would only take a few hours, and that would…give the monsters more than enough time to eat her. Trixie couldn’t just leave Maud, nor could she fight the monsters off herself. And judging by how many there were a diversion was probably not going to work very well. Why did that squishy marshmallow vine have to grab Maud? It’s too bad it wasn’t really made out of marshmallow because then she could toast it. An idea came to Trixie. Moving to Maud’s side, Trixie knelt down and focused her attention on the vine. Trixie had received the award for most magic tricks learned while in school, even if she wasn’t able to master most of them, she still knew a lot of different spells, and was surprisingly good at evocations, and illusions. Maud shuffled in place as the monsters continued their slow advance. Maud looked at Trixie and said in an agitated tone, “Why aren’t you running?” Trixie focused all of her energy into the only spell she could think of. She continued her focus, and her head began pounding. “I will not leave you here by yourself.” Maud spoke again this time her voice was approaching a tone of anger, “You need to run now. Only one of us will leave, and it’s going to be you.” Nothing, her magic was still doing nothing. It was not this hard to make fire, it never was before. The firework spells had once been her pride and joy. Trixie had done it so many times before in the past. Why couldn’t she just make fire? A little bit of fire so that she could save the only pony in all of Equestria who actually cared about her. “ARGH, stupid horn, make fire now,” Trixie verbally assaulted to herself. Maud was now speaking in full blown anger, even though she didn’t yell at Trixie, her voice still carried enough weight to knock any normal pony over, “leave now. You can’t die here.” Trixie was not a normal pony though, she was in fact one of the most stubborn ponies in Equestria. She would not be dissuaded by Maud, or fear of death, or even her own horn. Even if it killed her she would do at least one good thing in this life. The sounds of hooves crunching crystals grew louder, and faster. Even if she died here, Trixie was not going to let another pony be hurt because of her weakness, especially not Maud. It hurt to focus this much energy onto her horn, but a little bit of pain never stopped her before. Trixie began speaking to herself now, tears filling the corners of her vision. “Darn it. All Trixie needs to do is make fire. Trixie won’t allow her best friend to be killed like this, not like this.” She took a deep breath with the tears now streaming down her face. The nearest monster took off in a full gallop. Trixie cried at the top of her lungs, “The Great and Powerful Trixie demands FIRE!” A sudden burst of flame surged out from her horn engulfing the vines, and incinerating them in an instant. A giant scaly four legged monster was now made frighteningly visible by the fire. The creature’s giant mouth opened wide over Trixie. She was about to be torn to pieces, but that didn’t matter because she had done the impossible, she had used magic. A blinding gray-blue blur slammed into the monster’s side sending the creature flying off into the darkness. The gray blue blur quickly grabbed Trixie, and ran away at an incredible pace. Trixie’s vision became nothing but a blur making it hard for her to figure out what was happening, but she knew one thing for sure. She had used magic, and she had done so to save her friend. Closing her eyes from the pain that was now racking her brain, she felt herself fade out of conciseness. *** Just outside the cave in the warmth of the sunlight Trixie awoke as she was set down on the hard earth. Maud stood just in front of her looking a little tired, but wearing a tiny smile. Rubbing her aching forehead Trixie asked, “Are you okay?” Maud nodded before embracing Trixie in a tight hug. “You should have run." Feeling embarrassed Trixie attempted to explain, “I couldn’t leave you behind like that. Even I am not that bad of a pony." Slowly Maud pulled away frowning a little bit. “You are not a bad pony. You’re my best friend, and… I don’t want to lose you.” Trixie checks turned bright red. “I’m your best friend?” Maud simply nodded, making Trixie’s blush even worse.”That doesn’t make sense? Why me?” Maud than explained, “Not many ponies try as hard as you do to listen to me. Most ponies think I’m weird and avoid me. But you listen to me, even when I’m boring you. You care, Trixie." Trixie couldn’t believe that Maud actually liked her, and no matter how she tried she could not wrap her mind around the concept that anypony could like her. Trixie attempted to analyze the reasons why Maud liked her, but her mind stopped working when a hoof slid up to the back of her head. Trixie was quickly pulled into a tight embrace. This time however Maud placed her soft lips against Trixie’s. Fire raced to claim territory across Trixie’s face from her lips to her cheeks. Her heart was galloping like crazy. Trixie suddenly wanted this to last forever, but Maud pulled away far too quickly, though Trixie would never forget that moment of beauty and wonder. Maud pulled away and let go of Trixie who sat there dumbfounded and shocked. She found herself wondering about what exactly had just happened. They kissed, but Trixie simply couldn’t believe that it actually happened. Maud turned to face the sun before saying, “Let’s go home, Lulu, it’s getting late." Trixie had much better concerns at the moment then to wonder about why she was just referred to as Lulu. Staying very quiet, but very close to Maud she followed her down the mountain. A goofy smile was now permanently stuck on Trixie’s face, and Maud would occasionally look over at her with a small smile. The two of them headed home together, and Trixie had never felt so happy in her life, even if she was still very confused about the whole thing.