//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: The King of Angels // by Wheenesss //------------------------------// (Ponyville Market, 2:30 PM) "You're insufferable, has anypony ever told you that?" Trixie rolled her eyes as she Blue Lily walked through town. After the altered version of the movie had finished, she had put two and two together. Needless to say, she was not amused. They also probably got that teenage colt working the projector fired somehow. "Multiple times, but you can't say my new ending wasn't interesting." the disguised angel replied, grinning. "That isn't the point! The original ending was fine!" the showmare retorted. "Oh sure, an ending where all is forgiven, the mistress gets kicked to the curve, and everypony lives happily ever after. That's totally not boring at all." Blue Lily said sarcastically. "What's wrong with a happy ending?" "Nothing really, except when they're unrealistic." Trixie scoffed, "Trixie never thought that you were one of those types of ponies." "What do you mean by that?" "The type who get so obsessed with making sense out of a story that they forget its fiction." The man in a mare's body looked annoyed by that comment, "So you would forgive a stallion who cheated on you? Not just once and then never again because he felt guilty, but repeatedly?" "Well, no but-" "Exactly!" "Fiction is Escapism! They're fantasies to make us forget about reality, so we have hope for the future." Lily smirked, "Now who's trying to make sense out of a story that doesn't?" Her partner huffed, "Only because Trixie is trying to get you to stop doing stuff like that! You just can't use chaos magic whenever you're bored with something to make it more interesting, it's counterproductive! Especially, when you're in disguise." The blue unicorn cringed, but then smiled, "Why Trixie, we haven't even known each other for a week and you already care about me?" "Please! Trixie is just keeping her meal-ticket safe from being imprisoned again!" "Oh my gosh it is her!" An annoying, nasally voice broke their conversation. Both mares looked to see two colts running up to them. The first was rather short and fat, with a dull teal coat and a spiky orange-brown mane. His cutie mark was of a pair of scissors. The other was the exact opposite in terms of build. He was tall, thin, and lanky. His coat was a dull orange and his mane was green. He had a rather dopey look on his face. Trixie's expression immediately turned sour upon looking at them. "Oh joy." She grumbled. "Its the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Snips exclaimed in awe. "No duh, kid." Lily commented. He continued on, "Where have you been all this time? Are you unable to get any jobs because you're a lying fraud?" "Poor choice of words." the disguised angel thought. The showmare was already angry just at the sight of them, and that comment just caused her face to turn red. "Are you two still bumbli-" she began. She was cut off by her partner putting a hoof on her mouth. "Calm down and don't make a scene. They're just kids, that excuses some of their stupidity. He obviously didn't mean it that way." Blue Lily whispered. That seemed to placate her. "So when are you gonna do another show in Ponyville?" Snips asked, excitedly "Uh.... Yeah! We want to see you do more magic." Snails added on. "I thought I was a lying fraud?" Trixie asked sarcastically. "Well yeah, you are." steam started coming out of the showmare's ears, "But that doesn't mean you don't look cool being a lying fraud!" The stage magician sneered, "I'm sorry, but thanks to you, Trixie has been laughed out of every town she has tried to perform in. I'm also homeless." The fat colt frowned, "What did we have to do with that?" "Oh, Trixie doesn't know. Maybe it was the fact that you brought an Ursa Major-" "Minor." the others corrected. "Whatever. The point is you brought a giant monster into this hick town of yours, expecting me to defeat it! When Trixie failed, nopony else would ever take her seriously! It also destroyed my cart, which also doubled as my home!" Ponies started turning to watch the spectacle in the making. "Trixie, you're causing a scene like I told you not to." Blue Lily said, but she was ignored. "We wanted to see you beat it up like you said you could." Snails said. "Even if Trixie could have defeated it, do you think it would have been without property damage?! Ponies could have died or been seriously injured in the crossfire!" "Miss Twilight beat it without any of that happening." Snips pointed out. "She didn't beat it! She just put it to sleep and levitated it away!" "There you are!" The crowd all turned to see a rather... large unicorn mare who was obviously Snips' mother. She had buck teeth, a blue mane, yellow coat, and pink eyes. Her cutie mark was of three hair-rollers. "Snips! What have I told you about wandering off?" "But Mom," the colt whined, "It's The Great and Powerful Trixie!" he pointed to the mare in question. Misses Snips turned to glare at her, and Trixie glared right back. "You! How dare you show your face around here again!" the angry mother shouted. The showmare scoffed, "It's a free country, Trixie can go wherever she wants!" "My family is a laughing stock because of the nonsense you put in my son's head!" "Welcome to the club! If anything, your family is a laughing stock because your son and his friend were stupid enough to go into the Everfree Forest and bring an Ursa back here!" "What did you say about my boy?!" the mare snarled. "You heard me tubby!" A collective "Ooooh" went through the crowd at that comment. "Snips wouldn't have gone in there if you hadn't filled his head with your lies!" "So it would have been okay if Trixie could actually beat an Ursa Minor?!" "That's not what I meant and you know it!" Misses Snips. "So what, you expect Trixie to be boring in her performances? That's not how one draws a crowd! Embellishing one's abilities is all apart of being a stage magician! But I guess nopony in this dirty old town would know anything about showmareship!" More than a few indignant cries went out. The angry mother looked like she was ready to blow, but then she suddenly calmed down. She had a positively evil look on her face. She smirked, "You wouldn't have to 'embellish' anything if you were actually good at doing something. But I guess that's why you became a stage magician isn't it? You're not good enough to get a real job." There was silence at that comment. The crowed started backing away in fear as Trixie's mane caught aflame in her mounting rage. Blue Lily bravely, or rather stupidly, tried to talk her out of it. "Let it go Trixie. She's not worth it." Her partner's head snapped towards her, teeth gritted, "If you try to talk me out of this again I will personally find a way to end you!" The disguised angel's eyes widened, then she quickly backed away with a squeak, joining the crowed in their fright. Trixie started breathing deeply, eventually putting out her mane. In a few seconds, she mas much calmer. Her glare was just as intense though. The showmare turned back towards Misses Snips, an evil grin on her face. "If Trixie is as bad at everything as you say, then what does that say about your fat cretin of a son and mostly everypony else in this town? Logically, they all would have never come to see her show if she wasn't absolutely perfect at what she does? Did you see the size of the crowd I gathered? Doesn't that make you all a bunch of complete idiots if Trixie really is that bad?" Snips started crying at the insult, his mother holding him and glaring at her. That glare was joined by the glares of many other Ponyville citizens. "No, maybe it is just your son and his friend. After all, they were the only ones dumb enough to actually believe Trixie and go into the Everfree after her show regardless of whether or not she was lying. Nopony else went in did they? Huh, isn't that strange?" "At least ponies actually like them." Snips' mother replied. Trixie's grin turned into a scowl at that, "Ponies like me!" "NO THEY DON'T!" many members of the crowd shouted. The showmare's scowl deepened, "Please! You're only saying that because you don't like what I'm saying. Then again, Trixie guesses it's only expected of a town full of ponies who run from stampeding bunnies, heckle performers unnecessarily, and were too stupid to remember Nightmare Moon on that Summer Sun Celebration a year ago, despite the fact that they have a statue of her that foals put candy in front of every Nightmare Night right on the edge of the Everfree." "I suddenly regret telling her the reason I thought the courts would declare Nightmare Moon and Luna the same pony." Blue Lily thought. "No, we don't like you because you're mean!" a crowd member shouted. "Don't I have a right to be after I was made homeless because of the monster those little morons brought here?!" "They're just kids, you jerk!" another crowd member called. "Does that excuse them of the consequences of their actions?!" "They got punished already!" Misses Snips replied "Oh yeah, how?" she knew already, she just wanted to hear her say it. The obese unicorn looked uncomfortable at that, "Um.. Twilight Sparkle performed mustache spells on them." Trixie stared at the mare, then just straight out guffawed. She fell to the ground in her laughter. "HAHAHAHAHA! You're so incompetent that you let somepony else punish your foal? That's not even a real punishment! So you're a bad parent, in addition to being fat and ugly!" "Well, Ithinkthat'senoughit'stimeforustogoseeyouponieslaterBYE!" Blue Lily quickly said, grabbing her partner and running away as fast as she could. "HAHAHA!" The showmare laughed as she was dragged. (Canterlot, Throne Room, 2: 37 PM) Princess Celestia and the Element Bearers finally had made it back to the room, the guards closing the large doors behind him. They had walked without speaking, think over the current turn of events. "Princess Celestia, are you really not going to pardon Princess Luna if she's declared guilty?" Twilight asked, breaking the silence. The white alicorn sighed, "I.. don't know, Twilight. I just got her back after not seeing her for 1000 years, and for her to spend time in the dungeons little over a year after that is... not something I want to happen." "At least you'll be able to visit her, right? It's not like she's stuck on the moon like last time." Pinkie Pie said, trying to cheer her up. "I appreciate the sentiment, but it doesn't make me feel any better." the Sun Princess replied with a frown, sitting back down on her throne. "Sorry..." the pink pony looked down. Celestia sighed again, "No, I'm sorry. This is just a stressful time for me, and for you as well I imagine." "So what can we going to do now?" Rainbow Dash asked. The solar diarch's face became deathly serious. "Now, we're going to set a trap." "What do you mean?" her pupil questioned "In my letter, I told you the changelings were planning an invasion on the day your brother and Cadence's wedding. Isaac is going to be there, if what you told me about him doing community service is true. He'll likely be helping us fight them off if we don't manage to prevent it beforehand, in an effort to garner good publicity. We're going to capture him by temporarily turning him back to stone with the Elements. After that, I'm going to personally make him regret doing this to my sister." They all flinched at the venom in their ruler's tone, but nodded. "I'll go and look up as much information on changelings as possible." Twilight declared. "That would be very appreciated, but first I need to give you six the Elements to hold onto for safekeeping. Even if Isaac wasn't involved, we would need them to deal with the changelings." (Everfree Forest, 2:43 PM) Blue Lily and Trixie panted heavily as they ran into the most dangerous place in Equestria. They came to a stop in the middle of a clearing. "Are you happy now? They'll be looking for you later!" the disguised angel demanded, glaring at her partner. She would also have to explain this to her 'cousin' when she inevitably heard and asked what she was doing with the stage magician. The two of them were out of breath, gasping in air. "Oh please, like what you did in the movie theater was so much better." the showmare rolled her eyes. "Nobody knew it was me except you! You caused a spectacle in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses!" Trixie groaned, but then noticed her location, "Why did you drag us in here of all places?" she started looking around nervously. "Before you decided to throw a bitch-fit in public, I was going to tell you this is where we need to go next!" "What could you possibly want that's in this Celestia-forsaken place?!" "A magical pond that clones whoever looks into it when they speak the required incantation." she replied, completely straight faced. Her partner looked at her, before busting out into laughter again. "HAHAHAHAHA! You almost had Trixie for a moment there!" "I'm serious." She grew silent then, staring at her fellow blue unicorn with her mouth agape. "Yep, and I don't think Celestia knows about it." "H-How do you even?" Trixie sputtered Blue Lily smirked, and walked right past the showmare, "I'm just that awesome, that's how." "Wait up! Do you even know where it is?!" the Scared and Confused Trixie shrieked, running after her. "Nope, so we're just going to have to look around until we find it. It kind of makes me regret never reading Pinkie Pie's mind, but the past is the past." the ancient evil shrugged. "What do you even plan on doing once we find it? Building a clone army of yourself ? Because there will only be one of Trixie!" "Nah, I'm just gonna mess with it a little." The stage magician sighed, walking right beside the being she had decided to work with. "This all better be worth it once you're in power." "Trixie, when have I ever lied to you?" "She doesn't know, and that's what scares her." The disguised angel chuckled, but then her eyes widened. "I forgot something." "What?! Did you forget to make sure the Princess was securely trapped?!" "No, I forgot to check on the polar griffons. Hopefully, they haven't gotten into too much trouble wherever they are." In a flash of golden flames she quickly split herself into two once again, the second body taking on the form of a generic looking pegasus and flying away. (Canterlot Castle, Hallways, 2:55 PM) "Your Highness!" 'Cadence' turned to see a guard, running up to her, his eyes flashing green as a signal to his identity. After getting out of bed, she and Shining had went their separate ways. He had gone to finally punish the guards who had left their post at the guards, and she continued to plot her takeover of Equestria. "What is it?" she ordered, mentally swearing. What could it possibly be now? "Celestia knows about us, and has given the Elements of Harmony to their Bearers to hold onto." he answered, bowing as he approached her. He was in the room when Twilight Sparkle and her friends were told. The fake princess paled, then growled in annoyance. "Does she know who I really am?" The guard impersonator shook his head. "Good. Get a few of ours on the train the they will take back to their homes. Tell them to either steal an Element and/or replace one of the wielders. Whichever is less likely to get them caught. Just one of them missing or a Bearer out of place, and the Elements of Harmony are nothing more than a bunch of pretty jewelry." She hoped at least. "Yes, my Queen. Is there anything else?" the changeling drone in disguise asked. "Teach everyone who is getting on that train the memory-reading spell. The scroll for it is in 'my' room in the bottom drawer by the window. We have no time to carefully observe the habits of these ponies." The fake stallion nodded, and ran off to complete his mission. Chrysalis sighed and started walking again, heading towards the ballroom to finish the preparations for 'her' wedding. (Canterlot, The Streets, 3:13 PM) Twilight Sparkle sighed, feeling overwhelmed by everything that was happening. She and her friends had their Elements concealed in their saddlebags. Princess Celestia had told them to leave immediately after handing over the magical artifacts. The six of them wanted to stay and help, but she had told them if the changelings saw them walking around every day they would know something was up. Too bad they didn't know about the one on the room. "Feeling sad you never got to talk to your brother about you not getting an invitation?" Fluttershy asked in her usual quiet tone. "Yeah, I had hoped after we got through with whatever Princess Celestia wanted us to do I could find him, but then she told us we had to go quickly and..." "Twilight, it'll be alright darling. I'm sure your brother was just overwhelmed with the wedding preparations and the threat to the city just as the Princess is." Rarity said, patting her friend's shoulder. "I know that, but then I remember that Minuette got invited before me. No offense to her, but why wasn't I invited before she was? Did I make him mad at me or something?" "Did you? I wouldn't really know." the fashionista replied. "Maybe it's because you probably haven't written to him ever since you moved to Ponyville almost two years ago?" Pinkie guessed. The purple alicorn's eyes widened, then she facehoofed, "Ugh... That's it! I was so caught up with my friendship reports that I must have never sent him a letter! That's why he's mad at me! I didn't even tell him and the rest of my family that I was moving! Everything just happened so fast after we beat Nightmare Moon and..." she sighed again. "I must be the worst sister ever." she finished, looking down. "Hey! No more depressing stuff there sugarcube, we've all had enough of that for one day. What matters is that you know what you did wrong and accept that. Once you do get your invitation, you can come back here and sort all this out. Besides, ah don't think you're the only one to blame for this." Applejack began. "What do you mean?" "Princess Celestia had to have told your family you moved to Ponyville, and they haven't sent a letter or visited either." she pointed out. Twilight froze upon realizing that. Pinkie Pie blinked, "Wow. That's really screwed up." "Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash hissed. "Ur.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" The former unicorn shook her head, "No... its fine. This is something me and my family have to fix with each other. But what if I don't get invited to the wedding?" None of them had an answer to that. (Everfree Forest, 3:26 PM) "Here it is, my partner in crime!" Blue Lily grinned. They were in the section of the forest where the brambles and vines were at their thickest. She was pointing to the hole in the middle of all those pointy things. "Are you serious?" Trixie grumbled, not looking forward to the prospect. "Are you being a wimp?" the ancient evil countered. "Those vines could be poisonous!" "Trust me, they're not." "Explain for once how you know these things!" the showmare demanded The disguised angel rolled her eyes, "I know the general future of this world as it would have been if I had never come to it." "How?!" "Here's a hint: Daring Do is both real and fiction." With that, the blue unicorn walked into the vines and brambles. She of course got poked numerous times, but it didn't matter. When it was all over, Lily stood right next to the hole leading to the Mirror Pool. There were thorns in her coat and mane of course, but a quick application of magic got rid of them. "So are you coming or what?" she asked. Trixie sighed, and went in next. She let out multiple "Ouch!"s as she worked her way through, coming out on the other side with thorns in her coat and mane. "Now what?" the stage magician groaned, removing the painful pokers with her own magic. Blue Lily grinned, and hopped into the hole. "WHEE!" she shouted, putting her forelegs up like it was a roller coaster. "Of course." Trixie rolled her eyes and jumped in after her employer. Her ride was much less smooth. "Ouch!" "Oomph!" "WHY?!" She kept hitting the top and bottom of the tunnel leading to their prize, eventually sliding out face first into the chamber where it was held. Her fellow blue unicorn was admiring the scenery. The water was a glowing blue, and there was exotic flora coming out of the cracks in the rocks. "No please, don't help a mare up." she groaned sarcastically, righting herself. "If you had actually asked me, I would have helped you." the man in a mare's body replied. "You're supposed to do it, regardless." Trixie muttered, walking up to Blue Lily. "So what do you plan on doing to it?" she asked. Her employer conjured up a pair of saddlebags, and pulled a jar out them. "First I'm taking a sample for later experimentation." the unicorn began, unscrewing the cover. She scooped water into the jar, filling it up as much as possible before putting the cover back on. She carefully placed the jar back into her saddlebags. "Next, I'm going to try and modify the pool!" she finished with a crazy grin, her horn glowing with chaos magic. She shot a beam into the pool, causing it to slowly turn red from the point of impact outwards. Within a few minutes, the unicorn had finished her work. She cut the flow of power, and the Mirror Pool returned to it's original color in a few seconds. "Did it work?" Trixie asked. "Oh yeah it did!" the disguised angel answered, her grin widening. "What exactly did you do to it?" "Guaranteed minions the next time a pony tries to use this." "So you are building a clone army?" Blue Lily's grin widened even more, looking positively monstrous. "Sort of, they just won't be ordinary clones when I get through with them."