//------------------------------// // Chapter sixteen: dark waters // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// HEART OF STONE Chapter sixteen: dark waters Written by TheCrimsonDM It felt as though Trixie was in a deep sleep surrounded by blackness. She tried to wake up but she felt like all of her strength had left her. Weakened, defenseless, and alone there was nothing she could do except give up. It wasn’t blackness all the time however, the blackness was continuously interrupted by flashes of images. Trixie could see glimpses of things, things she was doing, things she didn’t understand. It was like watching a movie, only she was both the star and the audience. There was nothing she could do but watch fearfully. In one moment Trixie could see herself gathering the purple crystals in Twilight’s basement, she was gathering all of them. Thankfully there weren’t very many but she felt as though they would be more than enough for whatever dark purpose they were about to serve. Darkness came again for a while before being interrupted by another flash. In this flash Trixie watched as she walked down a long cave tunnel, the tunnel opened up into a large cavernous area with a pool of luminescent water in the center of it. Trixie began setting the stones around the pool and watched as she began effortlessly using magic to surround the stones with green energy. Trixie continued to watch in terror as the stones turned gray and all the energy from inside them flowed into the pool of water. Trixie then took a few steps forward and went for a swim. Blackness became her world again and she simply lay there feeling alone and scared. It felt like an eternity but Trixie finally began to see light, it was faint at first and then it was brighter. The light got continuously brighter until it blinded her eyes. *** Trixie opened her eyes and gasped for air as she awoke with a jump start. She was cold and wet, and the hard rocky floor she lay on was far from comfortable. She looked around and realized that she was inside a cave, the very same cave from her dream. The pool of glowing water rest behind her along with the ring of gray stones around its edges. She wasn’t sure what had happened but she knew that whatever had occurred here, it was going to spell trouble for her in the future. She stood up slowly, she was still very tired but after waking up in strange unfamiliar place, the last thing she wanted to do was sleep. Trixie examined the area she was in and saw a tunnel leading out of the room. A shadowy figure was watching her from the tunnel. It quickly turned away and ran from her. Trixie couldn’t explain why, but she knew that she had to chase after that shadow. She ran up the slope that lead to the tunnel and raced inside the tunnel. It was getting progressively dark, and Trixie couldn’t use her magic for fear of hurting herself again. The shadow was just ahead of her, it belonged to a pony and Trixie needed to stop that pony. Trixie heard a familiar voice calling back to her, it was a little deeper then hers and sounded almost sensual. “I must thank you for sheltering me while I regained my strength. You were a much more…pleasurable host then Twilight was,” the mare said to her. Trixie didn’t like what the voice was saying, and she really didn’t want to meet the mare this voice belonged to. But she had to stop them, she could feel it in her bones that this thing was going to be bad. Trixie called out to the mare. “Why, what did you do? What are you?” “Oh, I just borrowed your…body for a few weeks. If not for you going into Twilight’s mind and rescuing me…I never would have been free,” the voice explained back to Trixie. Trixie could feel the exhaustion slowing her down. She wanted to stop and rest, but this was one race she couldn’t afford to lose. Finally the shadow stopped moving and Trixie caught up to it. There was nothing but a dead end waiting for this pony, as the tunnel had long ago collapsed. Trixie couldn’t make out any obvious details on the pony in question but that didn’t stop her from being afraid it. The pony stood and faced her, and Trixie caught a glimpse at its red glowing eyes. The eyes cast only the faintest of light upon this mares light blue face and her blue and silver striped mane. Trixie stood frozen as she realized that this pony looked very much like her. Trixie took a step back and fearfully asked, “What are you?” The pony in front of her adopted a small grin and said, “Why I’m nothing more than a shadow my dear. At least that’s what I am anymore, but thanks to you…well let’s just say that I can fix all that now.” Trixie took another step back as the pony stood there staring at her. Trixie began to shake as she asked, “What did you make me do?” The doppelganger closed its glowing eyes casting the tunnel into an impenetrable darkness. The voice explained. “Oh I didn’t do anything naughty, you have earned some small favors from me. I am the element of domination, although I suppose I could use a new name now that my form has been changed yet again. How about you call me Scath.” Trixie took yet another step backwards and her rump touched the cavern wall, causing her to let out a scream of terror. Scath began laughing as a dull green light from her horn illuminated the entire tunnel. Scath looked very much like Trixie, only Scath’s fur was a little paler and her cutie mark was missing. Scath then surrounded herself with the dark green energy and melted into the shadows, the shadows then pulled themselves underneath the collapsed tunnel exit. Forever escaping Trixie’s grasp. Trixie was then left alone in the darkness with nowhere to go, and nothing to do. More than the darkness surrounded Trixie now, a sinking feeling deep inside her heart brought her down and into a inescapable numbness. Trixie turned away from the tunnel knowing that she could not escape this way. She backtracked to the glowing pool of water and waited next to it. Somepony would eventually notice she was gone and come looking for her right? *** Trixie laid on the hard stone spending most of her time sleeping down there. She couldn’t tell how long it had been since she first arrived inside this strange cave, but she had gone through two sleep cycles since. Unfortunately that didn’t tell her anything about the passing of time. She suspected that these sleep cycles were actually caused by her instincts kicking in. She could’ve been here for an hour, or for two days, she couldn’t tell. Her previous attempts to find another exit all failed. This cavern only had one tunnel leading out, and that tunnel was blocked. The pool of water gave her light to see by, but it also gave her a chilling feeling. Something was very wrong with this place. Eventually Trixie couldn’t sleep anymore her restless mind was bothering her with troubling thoughts. Trixie wanted to see Maud and tell her she was safe, she wanted to know if Twilight was doing okay after that attack, and she wanted to visit her mom. After having been stuck here for so long she finally realized that avoiding her mom had been the worst thing she could have ever done. So what if her mom was insane, Trixie was insane as well. Tears ran down Trixie’s face and she knew that this was going to be her end. There was no way out of this cave, the only tunnel there was lead to a dead end. Trixie couldn’t’ even fathom how Scath had gotten into here. She must have used that shadowy spell of hers. A strange presence filled the cave and Trixie could feel something new in here with her. Its thoughts were completely distorted and confused, unreadable. Trixie looked around but didn’t see anything around her. “Are you having fun in here,” a male voice began saying, “all by yourself?” “Who is that?” Trixie asked the voice. “Why it’s just me, a little mischievous and handsome spirit,” Explained the voice. Trixie shook her head feeling confused and fearful. Was she finally going insane again? Had it really been this long since she had last taken her medication? Trixie laid her head down and said lamely, “Whatever, you’re just a figment of my crazy anyways…” The voice then offered playfully, “Oh well if I am simply a part of your crazy maybe I should help you out.” Trixie didn’t feel much like entertaining a hallucination but she had nothing better to do. “How?” she asked. The voice gave a small chuckle before saying, “why with your intellect I would have thought it obvious. Try using those mind powers of yours. If you can read minds, could you not implant ideas into them?” Trixie would have argued about this plan if it didn’t make sense, but it did. Trixie concentrated on trying to find any minds around her, it took awhile but she began feeling a familiar mind close to her current location. Twilight Sparkle was somewhere near her and she was thinking about how to prevent some disaster or something. Twilights own thoughts were a little muddled to Trixie at the moment but she could connect to it, and that meant she had a chance. Trixie began pressing an idea into Twilight’s mind. Trixie focused on showing Twilight the location she was standing in currently. The glowing pool of magic water was the best location marker she could find near her. It took her a few minutes of concentrating but finally Trixie could feel Twilight’s thoughts shift from potential future doom. Twilight was now thinking about Trixie’s location, and Trixie being there. For some reason Twilight became fearful about an army of Trixie clones, but Trixie could feel Twilight as she began planning on checking out the location. Trixie waited patiently for a few minutes while staying connected to Twilight’s mind. A bright flash of pink light shocked Trixie out of her concentration. Twilight was now standing only a few feet away from Trixie and was giving her an odd look. Trixie didn’t care though because she finally had a way out of here. Even with tears streaming down her face, Trixie managed to smile and say, “I can’t believe you came to rescue me.” Twilight looked cautiously around the room as if trying to find something important. After a moment Twilight asked, “Why are you down here?” Trixie wasn’t sure why she was down here, Scath hadn’t given her a proper answer. Trixie simple shook her head saying, “I don’t know how I got down here. I think my magic went crazy again.” Twilight didn’t seem to accept the answer at first but after a moment she relaxed and said, “Alright let’s get you home Trixie. It doesn’t look like any harm’s been done so we should be safe.” Twilight walked over and gave Trixie an embrace. After a second Trixie’s world was washed in a soft pink light as she was teleported out of the cave.