//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty Six: Acceptance // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// HEART OF STONE Chapter Thirty Six: Acceptance Written by TheCrimsonDM Twilight and Trixie trotted through the forest for nearly a half hour without talking. Trixie was becoming increasingly concerned with what Twilight had said. Eventually Trixie was unable to stay her tongue any longer and she asked, “what happened with the Pinkie clones?” Twilight continued trotting in front of Trixie and said, “don’t ask.” “Twilight…what did you do to the Pinkie clones?” Trixie asked again, not willing to back down from this question. “I said don’t ask,” Twilight stated a little louder. Trixie had already had her fill of unanswered questions, this time she was going to get an answer. “What happened, Twilight?” Twilight stopped and Trixie bumped into her. Twilight then turned around and said, “I told you to stop bothering me about this. It wasn’t my fault okay, the town forced me to take care of them.” Trixie sat down and said, “Twilight, I know you. Whatever you did is bothering you deeply, and I want to help you. That’s all I ever wanted. Please let me…” Twilight turned her head and said, “I guess you would’ve read about it eventually anyway…I…I banished the Pinkie Pie clones.” “With magic?” Trixie asked. Twilight nodded and Trixie said, “okay, easy fix. All we have to do is use a counter spell to un-banish them and then we can deal with them the proper way. Oh we could build a town for them.” Twilight said, “no.” “Fine…you don’t have to help build the town. Me and Maud and Pinkie Pie will do it. Maybe Applejack can help,” Trixie said. “No,” Twilight said a little louder. “Okay, if we can’t build a town for them then what? We can’t very well have a bunch of Pinkie Pie’s stuck in Ponyville. It would be party day, every day…wait a minute…that could be fun,” Trixie said. Twilight grabbed Trixie by the shoulders, and their eyes met. Twilight then said, “we can’t do that because I turned them into energy before banishing them! They are essentially dead Trixie. I killed Pinkie Pie. I killed Pinkie Pie over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over-“ Trixie put a hoof over Twilight’s mouth silencing her. Trixie looked deeply into Twilight’s panicked eyes and said softly, “shhh. Calm down, and explain exactly what you did.” A few tears ran down Twilight’s face as she said, “the entire town was angry…with me. They didn’t even stop to wonder if I even knew how to handle so many Pinkie Pie’s. I had no idea what to do at all…I was stressed and nopony gave me any time to think. Even Fluttershy was angry with me…Trixie I didn’t have any help and they all expected so much from me. I did the only thing I could and I sent the Pinkie clones back to the mirror pool. “I had to use a spell that transformed them into magical energy, and then that energy would rejoin the mirror pool…we both know that pure energy doesn’t have a consciousness. I did some research after that and found out that mirror clones don’t have many, if any memories of the pony that made them. I also learned that after creation they can develop their own personality. They were clone’s but they were still living intelligent beings. “I have been trying to hide my guilt from my friends for a long time now. Nopony realizes that what we did was wrong, and that I could have easily killed the real Pinkie. I never want anypony to find out…it would break them. Please don’t ever tell anypony.” By the time Twilight finished explaining she had broken down into a sobbing mess. Trixie wrapped her hooves around Twilight and said, “I promise I won’t tell anypony. I Pinkie Pie-“ Twilight cut her off saying, “no. No Pinkie anything. She has weird powers and would learn of my secret if you did that.” Trixie remembered Pinkie Pie’s special ability involving the Pinkie Promise. Trixie nodded and said, “okay. Trixie normal promises not to tell.” Twilight smiled and said, “thank you. Now I only have one more clone to…banish. After that I might be able to sleep again…” Trixie couldn’t let Twilight continue to do this to herself. Trixie said, “no, Twilight. This is my burden. I will take care of this, and you won’t have to kill anymore.” Twilight smiled again and said, “thank you, Trixie.” *** The two of them continued walking after that, Trixie’s small cut from earlier had grown into something a worse, but Trixie was determined to ignore it. With the quiet between them Trixie was able to consider how blood magic might work. It seemed that the cut from last night had gotten worse when she used magic, but the strain on her horn had lessened. Blood magic was a forbidden school; basically that meant that she was not taught about it in school, but Trixie could still use it without getting in trouble. Blood magic wasn’t illegal to use; the only magic ever outlawed was Necromancy. “Hey Twilight, what do you know about blood magic?” Trixie asked. “Everything, why?” Twilight replied. Trixie opened her mouth to explain that she might be using it, but the two ponies finally exited the forest and found themselves looking at a sheer cliff wall and a vast gorge below. Twilight grinned and said, “were finally at Ghastly Gorge. And there are some hoof prints here.” Twilight pointed to a set of hoof prints going along the side of the ridge. A few splatters of blood were found alongside the hoof prints. Trixie knew that the Ghastly Gorge was home to some scary monsters. Specifically the Quarry Eel was a threat, so long as they stayed on the ridge; everything should be okay. Trixie and Twilight began following the hoof prints. Soon they saw some large boulders and heard some sobbing from behind them. The two snuck closer and listened. Trixie was surprised to hear Scath sobbing, and talking to herself. “This is not fair. Why does bad stuff only happen to us, we only wanted to be loved. We only wanted to be special. Why does everypony hate Scath, isn’t Scath good enough for somepony…anypony to care about,” Scath cried to herself. Trixie listened in and what she heard sounded very familiar. It hit Trixie, that Scath was Trixie’s dark heart. Scath was comprised of all of Trixie’s darkness; all the anger, all the arrogance, all the disappointment, self loathing, and pain. Unlike Trixie, Scath didn’t have any of the good things…like Maud. Trixie felt her heart breaking as she realized that Scath…Scath was as broken as she was, or more likely, Scath was broken because she was. Trixie stood up and walked around the boulder leaving Twilight to stay hidden. Trixie saw Scath looking over the gorge, her red eyes were blood shot. Scath was holding her shoulder where she was wounded, blood coated her leg; it looked painful. Scath looked at Trixie and her expression turned to fear. Scath looked around and asked, “where is she? Did you bring Twilight here to hurt me?” Trixie shook her head and said softly, “no, Trixie is…I am alone. How are you feeling?” Scath looked away and said sourly, “why should we tell you? You were helping the mean one. Why did she even attack Scath, did she hate Scath’s magic show so much that she wanted to hurt us?” Trixie walked up and sat next to Scath and looked out over the gorge with her. “You were going to hurt Fluttershy.” Scath quickly defended herself in an angry tone, “Scath would never hurt Fluttershy. We love Fluttershy…we…we really love Fluttershy.” Trixie closed her eyes and wanted to say that she didn’t feel that way about Fluttershy, but she couldn’t. Ever since her memories had began returning she realized that there had been a deep connection between Fluttershy and her. That being said, she was in love Maud, and no pony could ever take Maud’s place. “Don’t let Maud hear you say that, she might just try and talk Fluttershy into a threesome,” Trixie joked. Scath covered her face with her hooves, Scath’s face began turning a light shade of pink and she squeaked, “shut up.” Trixie laughed at the sight. Trixie found it highly amusing to see what other ponies saw when they would embarrass Trixie. “Wow, no wonder everypony likes to make sex jokes around me.” Scath squeaked again and her face became even redder. Trixie smiled and said, “okay, I’ll stop. But tell me something. Why have you been so rude and mean to everypony, especially to me?” Scath was quiet for a moment before saying in a small voice, “if Scath is angry…then we don’t hurt as bad. You’re lucky…you have friends, and a lover…Scath is alone, nopony would ever want to be friends with something as…horrible as us.” Trixie wrapped a leg around Scath and pulled her into an embrace saying, “You are not alone, you have friends. Scath, you’re a part of me, an important part.” Scath nuzzled into Trixie’s chest and whimpered, “but we are so broken, this was our last chance to be loved…we just wanted to be special, to somepony…to anypony.” “We are special. No pony is as good at illusion magic as us, and we have Maud. Our life is good. It’s been hard, it’s horrible, but despite all the bad things we have made it. We have made it to the good stuff,” Trixie said. Scath looked up at Trixie with a tear stricken face and said, “Scath is sorry about what she said about Maud. Scath shouldn’t have threatened you like that.” Trixie brushed some hair out of Scath’s mane and said, “shh, it’s okay. I remember when I used to say horrible things to ponies, because I was angry, scared, and alone. I’ve gotten much better about it now, but I still make mistakes.” A cold wind blew by and Scath shivered in Trixie’s legs. Scath then said, “Scath is all the broken pieces of you. The pain, the torment, the…the crazy. Scath is…Scath is.” Scath began crying into Trixie’s chest. It was a little surreal for Trixie to be sitting there, on that ledge, literally holding herself together. After a few minutes of crying Scath finally said in a tiny voice, “Scath just wants to be accepted, but even you couldn’t accept her…Scath is simply too broken.” Trixie held Scath a little tighter and said, “I accept you, you are the darkness inside of me, you are my broken pieces, and my insanity, and I still accept you.” Trixie’s heart began to feel warmer and Scath said, “Thank you, we promise that we will not hinder your magic, or your memories any longer.” Trixie opened her eyes and Scath was gone. There was nothing in her legs, and no sign of Scath around her anymore. All Trixie could see was a pool of glowing silver liquid where Scath had been sitting just a moment ago. Trixie couldn’t figure out what just happened, but she somehow felt complete. Twilight stepped out from around the corner and looked at the confused Trixie and then the puddle. Twilight looked intrigued as she said, “that looks like the mirror pool liquid, when it’s not in the mirror pool it changes color.” Trixie looked back at Twilight and said, “Scath is…gone…just gone. Where did she go?” Twilight smiled and explained, “I saw it. Scath seemed to…merge with you. Trixie you saved…yourself. I don’t know what you did, but whatever it was, well you saved the day again.” Trixie let out a sigh and said, “Scath wasn’t doing anything bad…I thought for sure that my dark side would be going out and attacking ponies and being evil…I’m not sure what to think about this.” Twilight looked away and said, “well I’m glad she wasn’t a big threat. We will have much to discuss later but for now let’s just go back and meet up with the others. I’m sure Pinkie is dying to finally get her party started. She has had to postpone it every single day that you’ve been in town.” Trixie stood up and said, “I like that idea. Besides I feel like I have earned some private time with Maud.” Twilight began walking off as she said, “just don’t be too loud. No pony wants to hear you squealing all night again.” Trixie’s face felt like it was going to catch fire again; she walked alongside Twilight trying her best to not to show just how embarrassed she really was.